One Killed, Three Dozen Injured in Illinois Megabus Crash

A double-decker Megabus riding from Chicago to Kansas City crashed into a concrete bridge pillar on an Illinois interstate Thursday night, killing a female passenger and injuring dozens others, reports the Associated Press. Police identified the victim as 25-year-old Aditi Avhad of India. Illinois State Police trooper Doug Francis said that 38 of the 82 passengers aboard were taken to hospitals for various injuries suffered in the accident. The bus came to a stop in an upright position with its front end crumpled against the pillar, throwing some people from their seats while others were trapped inside.

Police are still investigating the cause of the crash. "We don't know what happened," Francis said. "Somebody reported to us it was a blown tire, but we haven't confirmed that yet."

A similar wreck occurred near Syracuse, New York, in September 2010 when a double-decker Megabus crashed into an overpass in middle of the night, killing four of the 29 passengers aboard. In that case, the driver missed an exit and strayed from the plan route, which took the bus on a course toward the overpass.

Megabus issued a statement regarding the Illinois incident, saying, "The thoughts and prayers of our entire staff go out to everyone involved, particularly the family of the person who has died."

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Three High School Girls Amass Nearly 175,000 Signatures in Push for Female Presidential Debate Moderator

First and only woman to moderate a presidential debate.

It's now been 20 years since a woman, in this case ABC News' Carole Simpson, moderated a presidential debate — the 1992 three-way event pitting the incumbent, Bush Senior, against Bill "The Comeback Kid" Clinton and independent (chart-loving) candidate Ross Perot. For Montclair, New Jersey rising juniors Emma Axelrod, Sammi Siegel and Elena Tsemberis, 20 years is long enough. On Monday, the three students showed up in Washington D.C. intent on presenting the Commission on Presidential Debates with two Change.org petitions calling for a female moderator, and totaling nearly 175,000 signatures. But the commission's executive director, Janet Brown, refused to meet with the trio, Axelrod told NPR this afternoon. In fact, Axelrod said that, "we were turned away and we were not allowed to leave our packages there either, in case they contained dangerous material."

This setback came as a big disappointment to the girls, especially after they'd alerted the commission to their visit last Friday and after Brown told CBS News they were guaranteed a meeting with a staff member, at the very least. Also boding poorly for the girls' campaign are Brown's defensive comments that nine of the general election moderators-slash-panel members since 1988 have been women, to 12 men. But presidential debates expert and Northwestern professor Alan Schroeder tells McClatchy Newspapers he thinks the commission will ultimately choose a female moderator when it makes its announcement sometime in August, and in no small part thanks to Axelrod, Siegel, and Tsemberis' petitions.

So don't despair quite yet. We may still see a Rachel Maddow or Greta Van Susteren (or, more likely, PBS's Gwen Ifill) moderating the fall's Obama-versus-Romney showdown.

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