February 19, 2022 12:29 pm
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) – U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has assured the three Baltic nations that they would not be on their own if faced with security threats from Russia. But he stopped short of promising a permanent deployment of American troops in the former Soviet republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Austin was in Lithuania on Saturday as a Russian troop buildup and other actions have Western officials saying that Moscow could invade Ukraine at any time. Austin said the Russians “are uncoiling and are now poised to strike.” Lithuanian officials voiced concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s alleged ambitions could expand to the entire region.
February 19, 2022 12:26 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Former President Donald Trump faced one legal setback after another this week. The National Archives and Records Administration confirmed Friday that classified information was found in 15 boxes of White House records that Trump had brought with him to Mar-a-Lago and that the matter had been sent to the Department of Justice. Also Friday, a federal judge rejected Trump’s efforts to dismiss conspiracy lawsuits filed by lawmakers and two Capitol police officers over the Jan. 6 insurrection. And on Thursday, a judge in New York ruled that he must answer questions under oath in the state’s civil investigation into his business practices.
February 19, 2022 12:24 pm
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) – Police aggressively pushed back protesters, took over trucks and advanced toward Parliament after arresting more than 100 and towing away vehicles in Canada’s besieged capital. Scores of the trucks left under the pressure, raising authorities’ hopes for an end to the three-week protest against the country’s COVID-19 restrictions. Police in tactical gear quickly gained ground Saturday against demonstrators who are facing of one of the biggest police enforcement actions in Canada’s history, with officers drawn from around the country. By Friday evening, at least 100 people had been arrested, mostly on mischief charges, and nearly two dozen vehicles had been towed, including all of those blocking one of the city’s major streets
February 19, 2022 12:20 pm
MOSCOW (AP) – Separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine have ordered a full military mobilization while Western leaders made increasingly dire warnings that a Russia invasion of its neighbor appeared imminent. In new signs of fears that a war could start within days, Germany and Austria told their citizens to leave Ukraine. NATO’s liaison office in Kyiv said it was relocating staff to a city in the country’s west and to Brussels. Meanwhile, top Ukrainian military officials came under a shelling attack during a tour of the front in eastern Ukraine. With an estimated 150,000 Russian troops posted around Ukraine’s borders, Western officials say the long-simmering separatist conflict could provide the spark for a broader attack.
February 19, 2022 3:53 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Work is finished on a multibillion-dollar pipeline system that connects the vast Marcellus Shale gas field in western Pennsylvania to an export terminal near Philadelphia. That’s according to its corporate owner, Energy Transfer. The Texas-based company says construction work on its Mariner East pipeline network was completed this month. The company faces criminal charges that it fouled waterways and residential water supplies during pipeline construction. The Mariner pipelines are designed to carry propane, ethane and butane from the Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale gas fields to a refinery processing center and export terminal in Marcus Hook.
February 19, 2022 3:46 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Justices on Pennsylvania’s state Supreme Court are weighing how to pick a map of new congressional districts. The justices listened to more than a dozen lawyers for five hours Friday each trying to persuade them that their proposed map is best. Meanwhile, justices did not necessarily embrace a Republican-backed map recommended by a lower court judge, but viewed by Democrats as blatantly partisan. Rather, justices seemed to search for a non-partisan and neutral basis on which to select a map. Pennsylvania’s Democratic-majority court must make the final decision on how to draw the state’s congressional districts after Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-controlled Legislature deadlocked.
February 19, 2022 3:44 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A statewide court that declared that Pennsylvania’s expansive 2-year-old mail-in voting law violates the state constitution is following that up by saying its ruling can take effect in mid-March. That’s a week after the state Supreme Court hears arguments on the appeal. Commonwealth Court Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt, in siding again with Republican officeholders who challenged the law, said Wednesday they are likely to prevail at the state Supreme Court. The case is throwing Pennsylvania’s voting laws into doubt as the presidential battleground state’s voters prepare to elect a new governor and a new U.S. senator in 2022. The state Supreme Court scheduled the case for oral arguments on March 8.
February 18, 2022 3:17 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – Major League Baseball has canceled the first week of spring training games through March 4 in the first public acknowledgement of the disruption caused by the lockout. The work stoppage was in its 79th day Friday, a day after economic talks between the management and the Major League Baseball Players Association lasted just 15 minutes. Negotiators are set to resume talks on core economics on Monday, and MLB said members of the owners’ negotiating committee will attend the session, just the seventh on the central issues of the dispute since the lockout began Dec. 2. Exhibition games had been set to start Feb. 26 in Florida and Arizona.
February 18, 2022 2:06 pm
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Daunte Wright’s parents have expressed anger after a judge sentenced the former police officer who killed their son to two years in prison, well below what prosecutors sought. Katie Wright said Friday that Kim Potter “murdered my son” adding, “today the justice system murdered him all over again.” Potter was convicted of manslaughter for fatally shooting Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, as he sought to drive away from police last April at a traffic stop. Potter, who is white, said she meant to grab her Taser. Prosecutors had sought about seven years. Judge Regina Chu said several factors warranted a lesser sentence for Potter. Wright’s father, Arbuey, called the sentence “a slap on the wrist.” (Photo: AP)
February 18, 2022 4:16 am
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – A Texas grand jury has indicted 19 Austin police officers on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for their actions during 2020 protests over racial injustice that spread nationwide after the killing of George Floyd, according to people familiar with the matter. Multiple people spoke to The Associated Press Thursday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly. It ranks among the most indictments on a single police department in the U.S. over tactics used by officers during the widespread protests. Word of the indictments came hours after Austin city leaders approved paying $10 million to two people injured by police in the protests.
