June 26, 2021 9:14 am
WUERZBURG, Germany (AP) – Investigators are looking for a motive behind an attack in the German city of Wuerzburg in which a man armed with a long knife killed three people and wounded at least five others. Authorities are praising passers-by who tried to stop the assailant. The suspect, a 24-year-old Somali, was shot in the leg by police and arrested after the Friday afternoon attack in the southern city’s downtown area. Police said his life was not in danger. Bavaria’s top security official, Joachim Herrmann, said the suspect had been known to police and had been admitted to a psychiatric unit a few days earlier
June 26, 2021 9:12 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A lawyer for the family of George Floyd is calling for a federal conviction for former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, saying he hopes that would lead to a longer sentence. Chauvin was convicted of murder and sentenced Friday in state court to 22 1/2 years in prison. After his sentencing, some family members said they wanted to see something longer. Attorney Ben Crump said a conviction on federal civil rights charges would be “maximum accountability.” If Chauvin is convicted of federal counts, he would be subject to a new set of sentencing guidelines and the ultimate sentence would be up to a judge. Experts said it’s unlikely that a federal sentence would be longer than a state sentence, and it would more likely run at the same time as the state sentence.
June 26, 2021 9:09 am
SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) – A 2018 engineering report said that the oceanfront condominium building that collapsed this week near Miami had “major structural damage” to a concrete structural slab below its pool deck that needed extensive repairs. The report was released by the city of Surfside as rescuers continued to dig through the rubble Saturday. They were trying to find any of the 159 people who remain unaccounted. At least four people were killed. The engineering report did not warn of imminent danger from the damage. But it did note the need for costly repairs to fix the slab as well as damaged concrete columns beams and walls in the parking garage.
June 26, 2021 3:55 am
An FBI agent applied for a federal warrant in 2018 to seize a cache of gold that he said had been “stolen during the Civil War” while en route to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, and was “now concealed in an underground cave” in northwestern Pennsylvania. That’s according to court documents unsealed Thursday. The FBI had long refused to confirm why exactly it went digging on state-owned land in Elk County in March 2018. Federal authorities say the dig came up empty. The FBI said in the newly released court documents that it feared the state of Pennsylvania would claim the gold for itself, setting up a costly legal battle.
June 26, 2021 3:50 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Lawmakers are sending the governor a bill to let Pennsylvania parents decide whether to have their children repeat a year of school. It’s a measure designed to help children catch up after a year of schooling disrupted by the pandemic. The Senate voted 50 to 0 on Thursday for the proposal. It also would permit students in special education to return for another year, even if they have reached the maximum age of 21. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf hasn’t said if he’ll sign it. Under the bill, parents would have to decide by July 15 whether their child should repeat a grade.
June 26, 2021 3:47 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Common pleas and magisterial district judges would be allowed to hire private collection agencies to pursue overdue court fines and costs under a bill that’s been approved by the Legislature. The bill that passed the state House Friday by a vote of 109 to 92 would apply after a defendant fails to appear for a court hearing on the status of restitution and other court-related financial costs. A Senate analysis projects it could bring in a few million dollars in the short term and hundreds of millions a year after that. Backers say much of the unpaid costs are traffic fines from people who live in other counties.
June 26, 2021 3:41 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The Pennsylvania General Assembly is giving its approval to a $39.8 billion general fund budget that puts into savings about $5 billion in federal coronavirus relief money and boosts K-12 education funding by $300 million. The budget package that passed Friday pumps $279 million into transportation infrastructure and directs $280 million to nursing homes and similar facilities, both drawing from the federal pandemic money. It puts $2.5 billion into the rainy day fund and doesn’t spend much of the rest of the state’s share of federal pandemic money. Supporters say the reserves will help avoid future tax increases. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf plans to sign it next week.
June 25, 2021 12:26 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department is suing Georgia over the state’s new election law and alleging that Republican state lawmakers rushed through a sweeping overhaul with an intent to deny Black voters equal access to the ballot. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the lawsuit on Friday, two weeks after he said his department would scrutinize a wave of new laws in Republican-controlled states that tighten voting rules. Republican lawmakers in the state pushed back immediately, pledging a forceful defense of Georgia’s law. The federal government’s move also comes as pressure grows on the Biden administration to respond to a wave of GOP-backed laws being pushed in the states this year.
June 25, 2021 4:20 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has been sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison for the murder of George Floyd, whose dying gasps under Chauvin’s knee led to the biggest outcry against racial injustice in the U.S. in generations. The punishment handed out Friday fell short of the 30 years that prosecutors had requested. With good behavior, Chauvin, 45, could be paroled after serving two-thirds of his sentence, or about 15 years.
June 25, 2021 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden has announced a bipartisan agreement on a pared-down but still huge infrastructure plan. The agreement with a group of Republican and Democratic senators on Thursday would make a start on his top legislative priority and validate his efforts to reach across the political aisle. However, Biden acknowledged that Democrats will likely have to tackle much of his remaining agenda alone. The first package, with around a trillion dollars in new and existing spending, has rare bipartisan backing and could open the door to the president’s more sweeping $4 trillion proposals later on.
