July 25, 2019 4:14 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department says it will carry out executions of federal death row inmates for the first time since 2003. The department says five inmates will be executed, starting in December. In 2014, President Barack Obama directed the department to conduct a review of capital punishment and issues surrounding lethal injection drugs. That review resulted in what effectively was a freeze on executions. The department says the Bureau of Prisons has completed the review and the executions can continue.
July 25, 2019 3:59 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is blocking election security bills in Congress, despite former special counsel Robert Mueller’s warning that Russian interference is going on right now. That’s according to Democrats, who are being rebuffed in attempts to advance the bills. The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, is pledging to keep putting forward requests to vote on legislation, including a House-passed bill. It would authorize $775 million in grants over the next two years to help states secure their voting systems. Schumer says Mueller’s testimony “should be a wake-up call.” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, has said federal officials are making strides at improving election security. Republicans are saying no new money is needed immediately. Mueller testified Wednesday that Russians were interfering “as we sit here.”
July 25, 2019 9:24 am
PARIS (AP) – Paris has beaten its all-time heat record, hitting 40.6 C (105.1 F) amid a heat wave breaking barriers across Europe. Authorities say the temperature is still rising. The national weather service Meteo France announced that the new record was reached Thursday afternoon, beating the previous record of 40.4 C (104.8 F) in 1947. It’s one of several records set in this week’s heat wave – the second wave baking the continent this summer. France saw its hottest-ever day on record last month, when a southern town reached 46 C (114.8 F).
July 25, 2019 5:27 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Japan’s Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya says North Korea’s missile test launches are probably a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. Iwaya told reporters Japan is still analyzing what type of missiles North Korea fired into the sea early Thursday. South Korea’s military says they were two short-range missiles, leading some observers to suggest they were not a major provocation but rather the North’s warning of what may happen if the nuclear negotiations with the U.S. fail. Iwaya says, “If they were ballistic missiles, they violate the U.N. sanctions, and I find it extremely regrettable.”
July 25, 2019 5:24 am
A police pursuit ended with a vehicle crashing into two homes in Canton Township early Thursday morning. State Police say troopers were on routine patrol on Fayette Street and Baird Avenue around 2 a.m. when they saw a white GMC Denali drive past without a license plate. A traffic stop was attempted but police say the vehicle began to flee. During the pursuit, the SUV struck multiple parked vehicles. After about a mile, the vehicle then crashed in the 400-block of Wayne Street. The operator was taken into custody. He is identified as Akili Sutton of Washington. He was transported to an area hospital for treatment of his injuries. Police say he faces numerous charges including; fleeing and eluding, DUI, and receiving stolen property. One of the homes damaged was vacant and the residents of the other were not injured. Crews from Columbia gas were on the scene making repairs.
July 25, 2019 4:25 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Dutch film actor Rutger Hauer, who specialized in menacing roles, including a memorable turn as a murderous android in “Blade Runner” opposite Harrison Ford, has died. He was 75. Hauer’s agent, Steve Kenis, says the actor died July 19 at his home in the Netherlands. Hauer’s roles included a terrorist in “Nighthawks” with Sylvester Stallone, a former CEO of Wayne Enterprises in “Batman Begins,” and he was in the big-budget 1985 fantasy “Ladyhawke.” He won a supporting-actor Golden Globe award in 1988 for “Escape from Sobibor.” In “Blade Runner,” he played the murderous replicant Roy Batty on a desperate quest to prolong his artificially shortened life in post-apocalyptic, 21st-century Los Angeles.
July 25, 2019 4:23 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing new asylum restrictions for people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Wednesday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco came hours after a judge in Washington decided to let the rules stand while lawsuits played out in court. The policy would prevent most migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they passed through another country first. It targets tens of thousands of Central Americans who cross Mexico every month to try to enter the U.S. It also would affect asylum seekers from Africa, Asia and South America who arrive regularly at the southern border. Legal groups argued the proposal was barred by federal law establishing how people can seek asylum.
July 25, 2019 4:19 am
TORONTO (AP) – Canadian police say the suspects in the murders of an American woman and her Australian boyfriend as well as the death of another man in northern British Columbia left a burnt-out vehicle two provinces over in Manitoba. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Julie Courchaine said Wednesday a burned vehicle they were travelling in was found in the remote northern town of Gillam. Police had said Monday they were searching for 19-year-old Kam McLeod and 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky, whose other burnt-out car had been discovered in northern British Columbia. During that investigation, they found the body of an unidentified man roughly a mile (about 2 kilometers) from the car. It’s about 300 miles (500 kilometers) from where 24-year-old American Chynna Deese and 23-year-old Australian Lucas Fowler were found shot dead.
July 25, 2019 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – In the wake of House hearings on the Mueller report, Democrats say they will continue to hold President Donald Trump to account. Democrats have multiple investigations of the president underway that don’t require cooperation from the White House or the Justice Department. In addition, the House Judiciary Committee says it’s filing lawsuit to obtain secret grand jury testimony and to challenge the White House claim of “absolute immunity” to block testimony from Trump’s aides. Apart from investigations, nearly 90 House Democrats have called for an impeachment inquiry, and more are certain to join the call after former special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony. Democrats in both the House and the Senate want to move forward with legislation to make elections more secure after Mueller extensively detailed Russian interference.
July 25, 2019 4:16 am
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló has announced he will resign Aug. 2, conceding power after nearly two weeks of furious protests and political upheaval touched off by a leak of crude and insulting chat messages between him and his top advisers. A crowd of thousands outside the governor’s mansion erupted into cheers and singing after Rosselló’s announcement on Facebook just before midnight. The 40-year-old son of a former governor, Rosselló became the first chief executive to resign in the modern history of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory of more than 3 million American citizens without full representation in Congress or the right to vote for president. Justice Secretary Wanda Vázquez will assume the post less than halfway through Rosselló’s four-year term, becoming Puerto Rico’s second female governor.
