Pelosi demands halt to naming GOP operative as NSA top lawyer
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanded that the Defense Department halt plans to install a Republican operative as the top lawyer at the National Security Agency in the closing hours of President Donald Trump’s administration. The appointment of Michael Ellis as NSA general counsel is “highly suspect,” Pelosi told...
Trump leaves the White House as he came in: Isolated and unpredictableVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump exits the White House after four years of tumult much as he arrived, with only a handful of loyalists and family members at his side. In his final days in office, Trump found friends and political allies in short supply following the deadly Jan. 6...
Trump baby protest blimp enters Museum of London collection
The Trump Baby Blimp will live on long after its namesake has left the White House. The Museum of London said Monday that it had added the giant balloon, which depicts Donald Trump as a screaming orange baby, to its collection as an illustration of the protests that greeted the...
Garth Brooks joins lineup of entertainers at Biden inaugural
Add Garth Brooks to the lineup of entertainers at the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. “This is a great day in our household,” the country music superstar said during a virtual press conference Monday, two days before Biden is to be sworn in. “This is not a political statement. This...
‘Rooting hard for you’: Will departure notes end with Trump?
Presidential traditions are usually known for their solemnity and carry the weight of future historical significance. This one began with cartoon turkeys and a reference to lunch. As he was preparing to leave the White House in January 1989, President Ronald Reagan wanted to leave a note for his successor,...
Biden, Harris take break from inaugural prep to mark MLK day
Two days from the inauguration, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris pitched in on Martin Luther King Jr. Day service projects as a militarized and jittery Washington prepared for a swearing-in that will play out under extraordinary security. Biden and his wife, Jill, joined an assembly line in...
New covid-19 cases in Pennsylvania continue to slow
New cases of coronavirus appear to be on a downward trajectory in Pennsylvania, with hospitalization numbers following suit. Over the past two days, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported Monday, the state saw 10,068 new cases of the virus. When comparing it to last week’s numbers (12,844), that’s a 21.6%...
Coronavirus deaths rising in 30 U.S. states amid winter surge
Coronavirus deaths are rising in nearly two-thirds of American states as a winter surge pushes the overall toll toward 400,000 amid warnings that a new, highly contagious variant is taking hold. As Americans observed a national holiday Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pleaded with federal authorities to curtail travel...
Guatemala troops, police break up caravan of weary migrantsVideo
VADO HONDO, Guatemala — Guatemalan police and soldiers on Monday broke up a group of hundreds of migrants who had spent two nights stuck at a roadblock on a rural highway. Some migrants threw rocks while authorities launched tear gas and pushed the migrants with their riot shields back down...
Here are 5 things to know about Inauguration Day
Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday in an inauguration ceremony that, amid violent threats and a deadly pandemic, will look unlike any other. What’s the schedule of events? The ceremony begins at 11:30 a.m. with the playing of the national...
Woman ruled dead in 2017 fights to be declared alive
PARIS — Frenchwoman Jeanne Pouchain has an unusual problem. She’s officially dead. She has been trying for three years to prove that she is alive. The 58-year-old woman says she lives in constant fear, not daring to leave her house in the village of Saint Joseph, in the Loire region....
Harrisburg woman in custody, accused of stealing Pelosi’s laptop in riotVideo
WASHINGTON — Federal authorities arrested a Harrisburg woman who was wanted for her role in the Capitol uprising on Monday. Authorities say Riley June Williams allegedly stole a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and was said to have plans to turn it over to Russia. Williams, a 22-year-old...
Man allegedly hid 3 months at Chicago airport due to virus
A California man who told police that the coronavirus pandemic left him afraid to fly has been arrested on charges that he hid in a secured area at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport for three months. Aditya Singh, 36, is charged with felony criminal trespass to a restricted area of an...
Kremlin foe Navalny jailed for 30 days; allies plan protestsVideo
MOSCOW — A Russian judge on Monday ordered opposition leader Alexei Navalny jailed for 30 days, a ruling that comes after the leading Kremlin critic returned to Russia from Germany where he was recovering from nerve agent poisoning that he blames on President Vladimir Putin’s government. The ruling concluded an...
Hardest change to immigration policy post-Trump? Ending mindset that immigrants are criminals
Like heads of other Philadelphia-based agencies that support and defend immigrants, Cathryn Miller-Wilson has been staggered by the four-year onslaught of nationalist Trump administration directives, policies and rules. The incoming Biden administration has pledged to undo as much as it can as fast as it can. But the hardest single...
Ex-Florida employee in jail after arrest warrant issued
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A former Florida Department of Health employee, who was fired for insubordination after repeatedly violating the agency’s policy about communicating with the media, turned herself in to sheriff’s officials Sunday night on charges of accessing computer equipment without authority. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced...
School choice lawsuit surge pushes possible high court fight
Vermont is facing at least its second lawsuit in four months over a voucher program that allows students in communities that don’t have schools or are not part of supervisory unions to attend schools of their choice, including approved private institutions. The Vermont system in which certain towns pay tuition...
‘Dark weeks ahead’: Incoming CDC director expects 500,000 covid deaths by mid-February
The first month of Joe Biden’s administration could be the deadliest period in the nation’s covid-19 pandemic, one of his top officials warned Sunday. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who is nominated to lead the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, expects the country’s coronavirus death toll to reach 500,000 by...
California warns doctors to avoid batch of Moderna vaccines after allergic reactions
California’s top epidemiologist told healthcare providers on Sunday to stop using a batch of Moderna’s covid-19 vaccine after a “higher than usual” number of people had apparent allergic reactions at a San Diego vaccination clinic. Dr. Erica Pan, the state epidemiologist, said Sunday that “out of an extreme abundance of...
Russia ready for quick extension of last arms pact with U.S.
MOSCOW — Moscow is ready for a quick deal with the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to extend the last remaining arms control pact, which expires in just over two weeks, Russia’s top diplomat said Monday. Months of talks between Russia and President Donald Trump’s administration on the...
Navalny’s arrest adds to tension between Russia and the West
MOSCOW — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s arrest as he arrived in Moscow after recovering from his poisoning with a nerve agent drew criticism from Western nations and calls for his release, with Germany’s foreign minister on Monday calling it “incomprehensible.” Navalny was detained at passport control at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo...
Winter weather hits parts of Europe, from Poland to Turkey
WARSAW, Poland — Extreme cold has hit large parts of Europe, with freezing temperatures cracking railroad tracks in Poland, snow blanketing the Turkish city of Istanbul and smog spiking as coal was being burned to generate heat. Temperatures dropped to minus minus 18 Fahrenheit in some Polish areas overnight, the...
Dog and goat serving as mayor raise money for a playground
FAIR HAVEN, Vt. — A goat and a dog who were each elected mayor have helped raise money to renovate a Vermont community playground. The oddball idea of pet mayor elections to raise money to rehabilitate the playground and to help get local kids civically involved came from a local...
FBI vetting Guard troops in D.C. amid fears of insider attack
WASHINGTON — U.S. defense officials say they are worried about an insider attack or other threat from service members involved in securing President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, prompting the FBI to vet all of the 25,000 National Guard troops coming into Washington for the event. The massive undertaking reflects the extraordinary...
Twitter suspends Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene over election fraud claims
Twitter on Sunday temporarily suspended the account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican U.S. Congresswoman from Georgia who has expressed racist views and support for QAnon conspiracy theories online. Greene’s account was suspended “without explanation,” she said in a statement, while also condemning big tech companies for “silencing” conservative...
