January 14, 2021 4:02 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Like they did in 2019, Pennsylvania’s members of the U.S. House again split down party lines on impeaching President Donald Trump. All nine Democrats voted a second time Wednesday to impeach Trump, while all nine Republicans voted against impeaching Trump. Eight of those Republicans fell in line with Trump in trying in Congress and in court to overturn Trump’s loss in Pennsylvania to President-elect Joe Biden. The ninth, Brian Fitzpatrick, of suburban Philadelphia, accused Trump of “unconscionable” efforts to overturn the election, and fomenting a false information campaign and inflammatory rhetoric that led to the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week. However, Fitzpatrick instead pushed for passage of a bicameral resolution to condemn Trump.
January 13, 2021 4:59 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is blocking a quick Senate trial of Donald Trump. But with the House voting on Wednesday to impeach Trump for a second time, McConnell isn’t ruling out he might eventually vote to convict him. A spokesman for McConnell says McConnell informed Democrats that he would block an effort by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to quickly call the chamber back into emergency session to put Trump on trial. That means Trump’s Senate trial, if he’s impeached by the House, is all but certain to be delayed until after Joe Biden’s inauguration as president on Jan. 20.
January 13, 2021 4:15 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Republicans who control Pennsylvania’s state Senate say they’ll stop blocking a Democrat from taking his seat in the chamber. The change of heart came Tuesday after Jim Brewster’s unsuccessful Republican challenger lost another bid in court Tuesday to overturn the results of the close race. U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan was under pressure to settle a fight that spilled onto the floor of the state Senate last week when majority Republicans refused to let Brewster, of Allegheny County, be sworn in. Ranjan on Tuesday rejected the argument by Republican challenger Nicole Ziccarelli that Allegheny County wasn’t justified in counting mail-in ballots that lacked a handwritten date. Those ballots helped deliver a 69-vote victory to Brewster.
January 13, 2021 4:12 am
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – Divers looking for a crashed plane’s cockpit voice recorder are searching in mud and plane debris on the seabed between Indonesian islands. They’re looking to retrieve information key to learning why the Sriwijaya Air jet nosedived into the water over the weekend. The divers earlier recovered the flight data recorder from the jet with 62 people aboard. The 26-year-old Boeing plane had resumed commercial flights last month after almost nine months out of service during the coronavirus pandemic. Indonesian transportation officials say an inspection for engine corrosion was done in December before it returned to service.
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.
