June 11, 2020 10:27 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The nation’s top military officer says it was a mistake for him to have been in Lafayette Square with President Donald Trump last week. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says his presence “created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.” He called it “a mistake” that he has learned from. Milley and Defense Secretary Mark Esper walked from the White House to Lafayette Square with Trump and others on June 1 amid street protests, and the president posed for photographers holding up a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church. “I should not have been there,” Milley told a National Defense University commencement ceremony Thursday.
June 11, 2020 9:26 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – About 1.5 million laid-off workers applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week, evidence that many Americans are still losing their jobs even as the economy appears to be slowly recovering with more businesses partially reopening. The latest figure from the Labor Department marked the 10th straight weekly decline in applications for jobless aid since they peaked in mid-March when the coronavirus hit hard. Still, the pace of layoffs remains historically high. The total number of people who are receiving unemployment aid fell slightly, a sign that some people who were laid off when restaurants, retail chains and small businesses suddenly shut down have been recalled to work.
June 11, 2020 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says he’s planning to hold his first rally of the coronavirus era on June 19 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And he says he’s planning more events in Florida, Texas and Arizona as well. Trump made the announcement during a roundtable with African American supporters Wednesday afternoon. His signature rallies often draw tens of thousands of people but have been on hiatus since March 2 because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has now killed more than 110,000 people in the U.S. The rally will take place on Juneteenth, the commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Tulsa has its own troubling history on race.
June 11, 2020 4:17 am
One of four police officers charged in the death of George Floyd has posted bail and is out of jail. Online records show that 37-year-old Thomas Lane posted bail of $750,000 and was released from Hennepin County Jail, with conditions, shortly after 4 p.m. Records show the other three officers remain in custody. Lane is charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and manslaughter for his role in the arrest of Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died on Memorial Day in Minneapolis while in police custody. Lane’s attorney did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
June 11, 2020 4:16 am
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – Buffalo’s mayor has announced several changes to police practices amid widespread calls for racial equality and police accountability. Mayor Byron Brown says the city will halt arrests for low-level, non-violent offenses like marijuana possession and make it easier for the public to view police body camera video under reforms announced Wednesday. The city also will replace its police Emergency Response Team with a new “Public Protection Unit” after two members of the former unit were videotaped shoving a 75-year-old protester, who fell and cracked his head. The protester remains hospitalized and the officers are facing felony charges.
June 11, 2020 4:15 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Amazon says it will ban police use of its facial recognition technology for a year in order to give Congress time to come up with ways to regulate the technology. The Seattle-based company did not say why it was doing so, but ongoing protests after the death of George Floyd have focused attention on racial injustice and how police use technology to track people. Amazon’s announcement comes a day after IBM said it would get out of the facial recognition business, concerned about how the technology can be used for mass surveillance and racial profiling.
June 11, 2020 4:14 am
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) – Arizona hospitals that are expected to be able to treat new cases of coronavirus without going into crisis mode were above 80% capacity as the state becomes a hotspot. The milestone should trigger an automatic end to elective surgeries at affected hospitals. Wednesday’s report from the Department of Health Services comes as the state deals with a surge in virus cases and hospitalizations that experts say is likely tied to Gov. Doug Ducey’s ending of statewide closure orders in mid-May. Ducey has been criticized for not adding requirements that could prevent a surge, and some say the time to put those measures in place has come.
June 11, 2020 4:13 am
HONOLULU (AP) – Hawaii Gov. David Ige extended the state’s mandatory 14-day quarantine for all arriving travelers on Wednesday in a bid to keep coronavirus cases in the islands low. Ige said the rule is being extended to the end of July as the state works to solidify a screening process that could soon allow travelers to return in some capacity. Officials said they are planning to install thermal screening stations with facial recognition in the airports by the end of the year. Hawaii has among the lowest COVID-19 infection and mortality rates in the nation. Ige enacted a mandatory self-quarantine for all arriving tourists and residents in March. Some violators of the quarantine rules have been charged.
June 11, 2020 4:12 am
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Protesters have torn down a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis along Richmond, Virginia’s famed Monument Avenue. News outlets report that the statue in the former capital of the Confederacy was toppled shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday. Richmond police were on the scene and videos on social media showed the monument being towed away as a crowd cheered.About 80 miles away, protesters in Portsmouth beheaded and then pulled down four statues that were part of a Confederate monument on Wednesday. The actions come amid national protests over the death of George Floyd who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck.
June 11, 2020 4:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence will make an appearance at a manufacturing plant near Pittsburgh on Friday as part of a new campaign effort showcasing the nation’s economy making a comeback. President Donald Trump had planned to run for reelection on the back of a strong economy, a hope dashed by the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing economic devastation, including a soaring unemployment rate. But he seized on a better-than-expected jobs report released last week, and his campaign quickly made an ad proclaiming “the great American comeback has begun.”
