July 27, 2021 1:45 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – Four officers who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection are giving emotional and angry accounts of the attack. They testified Tuesday that they were beaten as the mob of Donald Trump supporters overwhelmed them, broke through windows and doors and interrupted the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential win. A new House committee is launching its probe with a focus on the law enforcement officers who protected them. Officers testified with emotion that they felt they might well be killed. And they rebuked Republican lawmakers for resisting the investigation and playing down the violence of the mob.
July 27, 2021 12:32 pm
(AP) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reversing course on some masking guidelines. The agency announced new recommendations Tuesday that even vaccinated people should return to wearing masks indoors in parts of the U.S. where the coronavirus is surging. Scientists cited new information about the ability of the delta variant to spread among vaccinated people. The CDC also recommended indoor masks for all teachers, staff, students and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status. The new guidance follows recent decisions in Los Angeles and St. Louis to revert to indoor mask mandates amid a spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations that have been especially bad in the South.
July 27, 2021 7:44 am
TOKYO (AP) – Simone Biles says she will regroup Wednesday before deciding whether to defend her Olympic title in the all-around gymnastics final on Thursday. Biles withdrew from Tuesday’s team final, after deciding following a shaky vault that she wasn’t in the right headspace to compete. Biles said later that she didn’t want to go into any of the events second-guessing herself. With Biles looking on, her teammates took the silver medal, as the Russian Olympic Committee gymnasts won the gold. The gold came a day after the ROC men’s team edged Japan for the top spot in the men’s final. (Photo: AP)
July 27, 2021 5:47 am
TOKYO (AP) – Tokyo has reported its highest number of new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, days after the Olympics began. The Japanese capital reported 2,848 new COVID-19 cases, exceeding the earlier record of 2,520 cases on Jan. 7. It brings Tokyo’s total to more than 200,000 since the pandemic began last year. Tokyo is under its fourth state of emergency, which is to continue through the Olympics until just before the Paralympics start in late August. Experts have warned that the more contagious delta variant could cause a surge during the Olympics, which started Friday.
July 27, 2021 4:15 am
PHOENIX (AP) – Two top Republicans in the Arizona Senate have issued two new subpoenas for materials from the 2020 election. Senate President Karen Fann and Judiciary Committee Chairman Warren Petersen issued the subpoenas late Monday to Maricopa County and the maker of its voting machines, Dominion Voting Systems Inc. The new subpoenas are the latest front in the Senate’s unprecedented partisan audit of the 2020 election in Arizona’s largest county. The election has been thoroughly reviewed and no problems have been found, but many supporters of former President Donald Trump believe it will turn up evidence supporting Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen from him.
July 27, 2021 4:14 am
CANTON, Ga. (AP) – A man accused of killing eight people, most of them of Asian descent, at Atlanta-area massage businesses pleaded guilty to four of the murders. He was handed four sentences of life without parole. Robert Aaron Long still faces the death penalty in the four other deaths, which are being prosecuted in a different county. His shooting spree at three different businesses in March ignited outrage and fueled fear among Asian Americans, who were already facing increased hostility at the time. In comments sure to further frustrate those outraged over Long’s apparent targeting of Asian women, a prosecutor said Tuesday that Cherokee County investigators saw no evidence of racial bias. That’s at odds with the hate crime enhancement that Long faces in the four other deaths in Atlanta.
July 27, 2021 4:12 am
VATICAN CITY (AP) – A trial is slated to begin on Tuesday within the Vatican City’s imposing walls of 10 defendants, including a once-powerful cardinal, for roles in the allegedly criminal management of the Holy See’s portfolio of assets. That wealth included donations by rank-and-file Catholics from the pews. The trial is the largest in the modern history of the Vatican city-state and is being held in a hall converted into a courtroom in the Vatican Museums. The most prominent defendant is Cardinal Angelo Becciu, an Italian prelate who had headed the Holy See’s saint-making office until Pope Francis fired him. Becciu denies wrongdoing. Looming large in the investigation is the Vatican’s disastrous London real estate investment.
July 27, 2021 4:09 am
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – Closing arguments have been held in West Virginia in a civil lawsuit that accuses three large drug distributors of fueling a local opioid crisis. The federal bench trial in the lawsuit filed by Cabell County and the city of Huntington against distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson began in early May. Cabell County attorney Paul Farrell says the companies sent a tsunami of pills into the region. The lawsuit says 81 million pills were distributed in a community of 100,000 residents. AmerisourceBergen attorney Bob Nicholas argued that the plaintiffs failed to show that the companies committed unreasonable conduct. The plaintiffs are seeking more than $2.5 billion.
July 27, 2021 4:08 am
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – A pro-marijuana group is pushing to have the Ohio Legislature legalize recreational marijuana in the state. A spokesperson for the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol says 1,000 signatures will be submitted to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday to review the summary language for the proposed law. Supporters will then have to collect nearly 133,000 signatures to put the issue before the Republican-led Legislature. Supporters can collect an additional 133,000 signatures to get a measure on the ballot if the Legislature votes against legalization. It voted to make medical marijuana legal in 2016.
July 27, 2021 4:06 am
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – Hospitalizations in West Virginia due to COVID-19 have more than doubled since the Fourth of July and cases are up. The increases come during the spread of the more contagious delta variant of the coronavirus. State officials said they do not currently plan to bring back an indoor mask mandate, but they indicated they are open to shifts. There are 111 hospitalizations in the state, a steady uptick since early July. There were 121 new confirmed cases reported on Tuesday, up from 51 cases a week ago. Officials have repeatedly urged more residents to get vaccinated. Nearly 59% of all residents have received at least one dose, while 49% are fully vaccinated.
