January 13, 2021 4:11 am
HONG KONG (AP) – YouTube has suspended U.S. President Donald Trump’s channel for at least a week amid concerns around “ongoing potential for violence,” making it the latest platform to limit the president’s online activities. The Google-owned platform removed content that was uploaded on January 12 from the Donald J. Trump channel for inciting violence, although it was not immediately clear which videos in question were in violation. The move to curtail Trump comes after a mob of his supporters, urged on by his rhetoric, stormed the Capitol last week trying to stop Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s win. YouTube said that the channel had its “1st strike”, adding it indefinitely disabled comments on the channel.
January 13, 2021 4:09 am
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) – The U.S. government has carried out its first execution of a female inmate in nearly seven decades. Authorities executed a Kansas woman who strangled an expectant mother in Missouri and cut the baby from her womb. Lisa Montgomery was pronounced dead at 1:31 a.m. Wednesday after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Montgomery killed 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in Skidmore, Missouri. She was the 11th prisoner executed since July, when President Donald Trump resumed federal executions following 17 years without one. President-elect Joe Biden, a death penalty opponent, will be sworn-in next week. áA federal judge on Tuesday halted two other executions scheduled for this week after the inmates tested positive for COVID-19.
January 13, 2021 4:06 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. officials say the FBI warned law enforcement agencies ahead of last week’s breach of the U.S. Capitol about the potential for extremist-driven violence. That contradicts earlier statements that law enforcement agencies were caught off guard by the assault by supporters of President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, prosecutors are weighing sedition charges against at least some of the Trump loyalists who stormed the U.S. Capitol last week. The acting U.S. attorney in Washington, Michael Sherwin, says trespassing and other misdemeanor counts against some of the dozens arrested so far may still be upgraded to sedition. Sedition is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
January 13, 2021 4:05 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has been impeached for a second time. He faces a single charge, “incitement of insurrection,” after telling a mob of loyalists to, as he put it, “fight like hell” against election results. The subsequent attack on the U.S. Capitol turned deadly and delayed finalizing Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory. While the first impeachment of Trump in 2019 brought no Republican votes in the House, a small but significant number of lawmakers broke with the GOP on Wednesday to join Democrats. Ten Republicans voted in favor of the impeachment. The vote was 232-197 in favor of the impeachment. Trump said Tuesday that the impeachment effort itself is causing “tremendous anger” in the country. (Photo: AP)
January 13, 2021 2:22 am
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – Five miners died in U.S. coal mines in 2020. It’s an all-time low mark for the industry as coal production continued to drop. The Mine Safety and Health Administration, which tracks the deaths, reported 29 total deaths in all the nation’s mines. The previous low in annual coal deaths was eight in 2016. Kentucky and West Virginia each had two coal mining deaths in 2020, and there was one in Pennsylvania.
January 13, 2021 2:00 am
Judge Valarie Costanzo heard plea cases for two women accused of accounting discrepancies at their places of work. The outcomes for both are still not clear. Jessica Bradshaw, 36 of Canonsburg was charged with 177 counts of tampering with records for her role in the inaccurate ledger keeping for Dr. Michael Crabtree. Bradshaw was the business manager for Washington Psychological Services and several real estate ventures for Crabtree. The discrepancies were found when a tenant of Crabtree’s wanted to discuss their delinquent rent and Crabtree found that according to Bradshaw everything was in order. An audit revealed the issues. Bradshaw entered an open plea of guilty to 5 of the 177 misdemeanor counts. Costanzo scheduled a pre-sentencing investigation and a restitution hearing for April. In a second case Rana Ranalli requested another continuance to obtain legal counsel. The District Attorney’s office objected to the request and Costanzo denied the continuance. The 50 year old Ranalli is accused of 156 counts of forgery for her role in taking more than $163,000 from attorney Timothy Berggren. Costanzo scheduled a May 10 jury selection.
January 12, 2021 12:27 pm
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A judge has denied bail for a man who police say was handcuffed when he allegedly shot a western Pennsylvania police officer three times with a gun police didn’t know he had before fleeing to West Virginia. The Tribune-Review reports that Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward Borkowski said Tuesday there were no conditions that could guarantee that 22-year-old Koby Lee Francis would appear in court. The McKeesport resident was returned Friday to Pennsylvania from Clarksburg, West Virginia. He was arraigned on charges including aggravated assault, criminal attempt homicide, person not to possess a firearm, and flight to avoid apprehension trial or punishment as well as an escape charge.
January 12, 2021 12:24 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is taking no responsibility for his part in fomenting a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week, despite his comments encouraging supporters to march on the Capitol and praise for them while they were still carrying out the assault. Trump says, “People thought that what I said was totally appropriate.” He made the comments Tuesday during his first appearance in public since the Capitol siege, which came as lawmakers were tallying Electoral College votes affirming President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. He was heading to Texas to trumpet his campaign against illegal immigration in an attempt to burnish his legacy with eight days remaining in his term. (Photo: CNN)
January 12, 2021 9:29 am
LONDON (AP) – Twitter says it has suspended more than 70,000 accounts associated with the far right QAnon conspiracy theory following last week’s U.S. Capitol riot. The social media company said Tuesday that given the events last week in Washington, D.C., it was taking action against online behavior “that has the potential to lead to offline harm.” The company says in a blog post that in many cases, a single individual operated numerous accounts, driving up the total number of affected accounts. It says the accounts were engaged in sharing harmful QAnon-associated content at scale.
January 12, 2021 7:45 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration is asking states to speed delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to people older than 65 and others at high risk by no longer holding back the second dose of the two-dose shots, The Associated Press has learned. The Trump administration is expected to recommend opening up vaccines to everyone older than 65 and to get the vaccines to more people by not holding back the second vaccine dose. That’s according to a Trump administration official familiar with the decision, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of an announcement. States determine who should get the vaccine based on CDC guidelines.
