Army investigating officer who led group to Washington rally
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Army is investigating a psychological operations officer who led a group of people from North Carolina to the rally in Washington that led up to the deadly riot in the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump. Commanders at Fort Bragg are reviewing Captain Emily...
Israel announces new settler homes, risking Biden’s anger
JERUSALEM — Israel on Monday advanced plans to build 800 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, a move that could strain ties with the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced the move, saying it would include 100 homes in a settlement where...
First lady ‘disappointed’ by Trump supporters’ Capitol riot
WILMINGTON, Del. — First lady Melania Trump said Monday that she is “disappointed and disheartened” by the deadly riot at the Capitol last week by supporters of her husband. But in breaking her silence, she also lashed out at people she said have used the tragic event to spread “salacious...
Winter storm coats Southern states with blanket of snow
A winter storm has brought snow to parts of the U.S. South, moving into Alabama and Tennessee on Monday after blowing across Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi the day before. The blanket of white falling across the region forced some school and government office closures, and fostered some play time for...
Biden chooses veteran diplomat Burns as CIA director
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden announced Monday he has chosen veteran diplomat William Burns to be his CIA director. A former ambassador to Russia and Jordan, Burns, 64, had a 33-year career at the State Department under both Republican and Democratic presidents. He rose through the ranks of the diplomatic...
Arizona GOP to vote on resolution to censure Cindy McCain
PHOENIX — The Arizona Republican Party will vote Jan. 23 on a resolution to censure Cindy McCain for publicly endorsing President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat. On Saturday afternoon, the party reported the Maricopa County GOP had voted and passed a resolution to censure McCain, the widow of former Arizona Sen....
Lawmakers who voted against Biden are denounced back home
Republican members of Congress who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory, even after a mob broke into the Capitol, are being denounced by critics in their home districts who demand that they resign or be ousted. Protesters, newspaper editorial boards and local-level Democrats have urged the lawmakers to step...
Pelosi: House ‘will proceed’ with impeachment of TrumpVideo
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday the House will proceed with legislation to impeach President Donald Trump, calling him a threat to democracy after the deadly assault on the Capitol. Pelosi made the announcement in a letter to colleagues. She said the House will act with solemnity but...
Trump remains defiant amid calls to resignVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump enters the last days of his presidency isolated and shunned by former allies and members of his own party as he faces a second impeachment and growing calls for his resignation after his supporters launched an assault on the nation’s Capitol in an effort to...
Capitol police were overrun, ‘left naked’ against rioters
WASHINGTON — Despite ample warnings about pro-Trump demonstrations in Washington, U.S. Capitol Police did not bolster staffing on Wednesday and made no preparations for the possibility that the planned protests could escalate into massive violent riots, according to several people briefed on law enforcement’s response. The revelations shed new light...
Virginia town places 2 officers on leave over D.C. rally
ROCKY MOUNT, Va. — A Virginia town put two officers on leave after they went off-duty to events in Washington that led to a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol. The town of Rocky Mount issued a statement Sunday saying that two off-duty officers from the Rocky Mount Police Department...
Coronavirus infections top 90 million confirmed cases
BALTIMORE — Coronavirus infections have now surpassed 90 million confirmed cases around the world, as more countries braced for wider spread of more virulent strains of a disease that has now killed nearly 2 million worldwide. The number of infections worldwide has doubled in just 10 weeks, according to a...
Schwarzenegger compares attack on Capitol to Nazi violenceVideo
Arnold Schwarzenegger likened this week’s siege of the U.S. Capitol to Nazi attacks on Jews in Europe ahead of World War II in a scathing video in which the former California governor also called President Trump “the worst president ever.” Schwarzenegger wasn’t yet alive when Nazis rampaged through Germany and...
Vaccine rollout confirms public health officials’ warnings
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Public health officials sounded the alarm for months, complaining that they did not have enough support or money to get covid-19 vaccines quickly into arms. Now the slower-than-expected start to the largest vaccination effort in U.S. history is proving them right. As they work to ramp up...
Sens. Toomey, Murkowski urge Trump to resign; impeachment gains support
WASHINGTON — Two Republican senators now say Donald Trump should resign and a third says the president should be “very careful” in his remaining days in office as the House prepares to impeach Trump in the wake of deadly riots at the Capitol. Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey on Sunday joined...
Indonesian divers find parts of plane wreckage in Java Sea
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Authorities said they determined the location of the crash site and black boxes of a Boeing 737-500 on Sunday, a day after the aircraft crashed into the Java Sea with 62 people on board shortly after taking off from Indonesia’s capital. The head of Indonesia’s National Search...
Oaths questioned as Trump’s backers fight against loss
Before they take office, elected officials swear to uphold the U.S. Constitution. But what happens when they are accused of doing the opposite? As some Republicans continued to back President Donald Trump’s doomed effort to overturn the election, critics — including President-elect Joe Biden — accused them of violating their...
In wake of Capitol riot, Americans struggle for answers
This past week, Americans watched as the hallowed chambers of the Capitol were overrun and defiled, not by some foreign enemy of democracy but a mob of their fellow citizens. And then they tried to make sense of it. In letters to the editor and posts on social media, they...
Police: Man shoots 7 in series of Chicago-area attacks
CHICAGO — A man killed three people and wounded four others in a series of shootings over roughly four hours that started on Chicago’s South Side and ended with his death in a shootout with police in a parking lot just north of the city. Investigators are trying to determine...
Parler squeezed as Trump seeks new online megaphone
President Donald Trump has been kicked off of most mainstream social media platforms following his supporters’ siege on the U.S. Capitol. But it remains to be seen how fast or where — if anywhere — on the internet he will be able to reach his followers. The far right-friendly Parler...
Trump legacy on race shadowed by divisive rhetoric, actions
CHICAGO — President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed in the final months of his presidency — and without a trace of irony — to have done more for Black Americans than anyone with the “possible exception” of Abraham Lincoln. He boasted that the African American unemployment rate dropped to record lows...
Squelched by Twitter, Trump seeks new online megaphone
BOSTON — One Twitter wag joked about lights flickering on and off at the White House being Donald Trump signaling to his followers in Morse code after Twitter and Facebook squelched the president for inciting rebellion. Though deprived of his big online megaphones, Trump does have alternative options of much...
Lawmakers complete work on bills to limit Kentucky governor’s power
FRANKFORT, Ky. — In a stinging rebuke of the Democratic governor’s response to COVID-19, Republican lawmakers on Saturday gave final passage to bills limiting his emergency powers to impose restrictions meant to contain the coronavirus. After months of fuming from the sidelines as Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear restricted some business...
Dems’ momentum builds to impeach Trump; Pelosi hits rioters
WASHINGTON — Momentum built among Democrats on Saturday for a fresh and fast push to impeach President Donald Trump, even as the House speaker accused his backers who violently invaded the Capitol of choosing “their whiteness over democracy.” Nancy Pelosi’s remark came as Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., one of the...
Toomey calls on Trump to resign, says it’s what’s best for countryVideo
Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania is calling on President Donald Trump to resign for what Toomey says would be the good of the country after the Capitol riot that was carried out by supporters of the president. Toomey says resignation is the “best path forward, the best way to get...