January 25, 2021 12:36 pm
NEW YORK (AP) – For the first time since 1983, when Anheuser-Busch used all of its ad time to introduce a beer called Bud Light, the beer giant isn’t advertising its iconic Budweiser brand during the Super Bowl. Instead, it’s donating the money it would have spent on the ad to coronavirus vaccination awareness efforts. The decision to not do an anthemic Budweiser ad – which over nearly four decades have made American icons of frogs chirping “Budweiser,” guys screaming “Whassup!”, and of course the Budweiser Clydesdales – showcases the caution with which some advertisers are approaching the Super Bowl with during the pandemic.
January 25, 2021 10:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Dominion Voting Systems has filed a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who led the former president’s efforts to spread baseless claims about the 2020 election. The lawsuit filed Monday seeks more than $1.3 billion in damages for the voting machine company, a target for conservatives who made up wild claims about the company, blaming it for Trump’s loss, alleging without evidence that its systems were easily manipulated. The suit is based on statements Giuliani made on Twitter, in conservative media and during legislative hearings where the former mayor of New York claimed the voting machine company conspired to flip votes to Democrat Joe Biden.
January 25, 2021 4:26 am
(AP) – Coronavirus deaths and cases in the U.S. have dropped markedly over the past couple of weeks but are still running at alarmingly high levels. And the effort to snuff out COVID-19 is becoming an ever more urgent race between the vaccine and the mutating virus. Deaths are running at an average of just under 3,100 a day, down from more than 3,350 less than two weeks ago. New cases are averaging about 170,000 a day, after peaking at around 250,000. The country’s top infectious-disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, says the improvements appear to be the result of a natural plateau after the holiday surge – not the effect of the vaccine. And he urges continued vigilance.
January 25, 2021 4:25 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The House impeachment case against Donald Trump is heading to the Senate for his upcoming trial. But as House Democratic prosecutors make the ceremonial walk across the Capitol late Monday to deliver the charge of incitement of insurrection, Republican senators are easing off their criticism of the former president. It’s an early sign of Trump’s enduring sway over the party, even out of office. Instead Democratic prosecutors are being confronted by a tangle of Republican legal arguments against the legitimacy of the trial and questions whether Trump’s repeated demands to overturn the Joe Biden’s election really amounted to incitement. The trial is to begin in two weeks.
January 25, 2021 4:23 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Top aides to President Joe Biden have begun talks with a group of moderate Senate Republicans and Democrats on Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. The talks come as Biden faces increasing headwinds in his effort to win bipartisan backing for the initial legislative effort of his presidency. Lawmakers on the right question the wisdom of racking up bigger deficits. Those on the left are urging Biden not to spend too much time on bipartisanship when the pandemic is killing thousands each day and costing more jobs. One key Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, said afterward she would reconvene a bipartisan group to focus on “a more targeted package.”
January 25, 2021 4:20 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The Republican-controlled Legislature is taking another step in the drive to strip future governors of some of their constitutional authority under emergency declarations, and give lawmakers more control over the declarations. The Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee approved it Friday on a party-line basis, 7-4. Passage by both the House and Senate before Feb. 18 can ensure that it gets on Pennsylvania’s May 18 primary ballot when it can go to voters for a final decision in a statewide referendum. The measure arises from Republican lawmakers’ strident disagreement with how Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, has handled the coronavirus pandemic in Pennsylvania.
January 25, 2021 4:17 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A Democratic state lawmaker is criticizing Pennsylvania’s vaccine rollout as muddled, saying other states are doing a much better job at distribution and communication. The scolding from Sen. Lindsey Williams of Allegheny County is a sign of mounting frustration over the stubbornly slow pace of vaccinations and shifting guidance about who is eligible to get them. Williams says Pennsylvania residents “deserve clearer communication and more concrete answers” from the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf, a fellow Democrat. The Wolf administration blames a lack of supply for slow vaccine rollout. Meanwhile, unions representing police and prison guards are expressing outrage at having been placed behind smokers in line for COVID-19 shots.
January 24, 2021 1:28 am
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — An 18-year-old Illinois teen charged with fatally shooting two people during a protest in southeastern Wisconsin last year is prohibited from associating with known white supremacists under a judge’s recently modified bail conditions. Kyle Rittenhouse was 17 during the Aug. 25 demonstration in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as hundreds were protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man. Rittenhouse has been charged with multiple counts, including reckless and intentional homicide, endangerment and being a minor in possession of a firearm. Prosecutors allege Rittenhouse, who is white, left his home in Antioch, Illinois, and traveled to Kenosha to answer a call for militia to protect businesses. Kenosha was in the throes of several nights of chaotic street demonstrations after a white officer shot Blake in the back during a domestic disturbance, leaving Blake paralyzed.
January 24, 2021 1:26 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The words of Donald Trump supporters who are accused of participating in the deadly U.S. Capitol riot may end up being used against him in his Senate impeachment trial as he faces the charge of inciting a violent insurrection. At least five supporters facing federal charges have suggested they were taking orders from the then-president when they marched on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 to challenge the certification of Joe Biden’s election win. But now those comments, captured in interviews with reporters and federal agents, are likely to take center stage as Democrats lay out their case. It’s the first time a former president will face such charges after leaving office.
January 24, 2021 1:25 am
WUHAN, China (AP) — A year ago, a notice sent to smartphones in Wuhan at 2 a.m. announced the world’s first coronavirus lockdown, bringing the bustling central Chinese industrial and transport center to a virtual standstill almost overnight. It would last 76 days. Early Saturday morning, however, residents of the city where the virus was first detected were jogging and practicing tai chi in a fog-shrouded park beside the mighty Yangtze River. Life has largely returned to normal in the city of 11 million, even as the rest of the world grapples with the spread of the virus’ more contagious variants. Efforts to vaccinate people for COVID-19 have been frustrated by disarray and limited supplies in some places. The scourge has killed more than 2 million people worldwide. Traffic was light in Wuhan but there was no sign of the barriers that a year ago isolated neighborhoods, prevented movement around the city and confined people to their housing compounds and even apartments. Wuhan accounted for the bulk of China’s 4,635 deaths from COVID-19, a number that has largely stayed static for months. The city has been largely free of further outbreaks since the lockdown was lifted on April 8, but questions persist as to where the virus originated and whether Wuhan and Chinese authorities acted fast enough and with sufficient transparency to allow the world to prepare for a pandemic that has sickened more than 98 million.
