Midday Roundup: Debris, bodies found at site of AirAsia crash

Search over. Search teams have located the AirAsia 8501 crash site and have begun recovering debris and bodies from the water. The plane, en route from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore, lost contact with air traffic control on Sunday amid stormy weather. Searchers spotted the wreckage about 6 miles from the plane’s last known location, just off the coast of Indonesia’s Central Kalimantan province on Borneo. Many family members of the 162 people on board the plane gathered at the Surabaya airport to wait for news. During a news conference, they watched video footage of the debris field discovery, including images of the first body being recovered. Several people fainted while others burst into tears. “My heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in QZ 8501,” AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes tweeted. “On behalf of AirAsia my condolences to all. Words cannot express how sorry I am.”

Moving on. Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., will resign after all, one week after he pleaded guilty to tax evasion. After his court appearance on Dec. 22, Grimm said he intended to hold his seat as long as he could. But on Monday he said it was time to move on: “The events which led to this day did not break my spirit, nor the will of the voters. However, I do not believe that I can continue to be 100 percent effective in the next Congress, and therefore, out of respect for the office and the people I so proudly represent, it is time for me to start the next chapter of my life.” Grimm ran for reelection in November, despite the charges pending against him, and won by a large margin. He maintained his innocence until his plea deal was announced. He faces up to three years in federal prison and will be sentenced June 8.

‘Insulting and ludicrous.’ In more bad news for congressional Republicans, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., admitted yesterday he spoke at a white nationalist event 12 years ago but said he didn’t know what the group was about when he made a campaign stop at its meeting. “I didn’t know who all of these groups were, and I detest any kind of hate group,” Scalise said in an interview with The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. “For anyone to suggest that I was involved with a group like that is insulting and ludicrous.” Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke founded the European-American Unity and Rights Organization and spoke via video conference during the 2002 meeting. At the time, Scalise was a state representative campaigning against a plan to cut the state sales tax and raise its income tax. His spokeswoman said his staffers didn’t properly vet every organization he spoke to.

Ebola patient. A Scottish nurse just back from Sierra Leone, where she was treating Ebola patients, has become the first person diagnosed with the deadly virus in England. Pauline Cafferkey is being treated in a London hospital after falling ill when she returned home. Colleagues speculate she might have contracted the disease when she attended a Christmas morning church service. Cafferkey normally works with England’s National Health System and was one of 30 healthcare workers who volunteered to go to West Africa to work with Ebola patients. Her diagnosis has renewed fears about the effectiveness of airport screening procedures—Cafferkey passed through a screening at Heathrow Airport and boarded a flight to Glasgow just hours before starting to show symptoms.

What wedding? President Barack Obama’s golf game interrupted one couple’s dream wedding on Sunday. Natalie Heimel and Ed Mallue Jr., both captains in the U.S. Army stationed in Hawaii, had planned to hold their ceremony above the 16th hole of the Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. But after their rehearsal on Saturday, the wedding planner told them they would have to move the nuptials because the president and his friends had a golf game scheduled for the next day. Although the last-minute change caused no small amount of stress for the couple, friends say it wasn’t that big a deal. And the president called after the ceremony to apologize. He said he didn’t know about the wedding. He must not have gotten the invitation the couple sent weeks before, when they realized the first family would be on the island for their big day. The couple said they never expected Obama to show up, or ruin all their plans.