Porcelain’s Flying at Illinois Courthouse as 5 Toilets Explode
- Share via
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Be careful about where you sit in the Sangamon County Building, where the toilets have been exploding lately.
A water tank in the building’s basement filled with air Tuesday, and the excess pressure caused five toilets to be blown apart, sending the porcelain flying.
Court reporter Jerry Wedeking was a witness. He flushed a toilet in a fourth-floor jury room and saw dollar-size pieces of porcelain fly around him.
“The first thing I did was check to see if there were any pieces sticking in me,” said Wedeking, a 27-year courthouse veteran.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
The latest effort is coming from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. They just announced a $3 million program in conjunction with some nonprofits groups to test and clean the soil at homes still standing in the areas impacted by the Eaton Fire.
California once bet big on offshore wind to help power its clean-energy future, but the Trump administration is now paying developers billions to walk away from their projects. As California’s remaining offshore-wind leases hang in the balance, the state is fighting back in court.
The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched.
