In the news
■ Andrew Bates, deputy White House press secretary, said recent comments from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., “goes against our fundamental values as a country for a member of Congress to wish that the carnage of Jan. 6 had been even worse, and to boast that she would have succeeded in an armed insurrection against the United States government … is a slap to the face.”
■ Zhong Nanshan, a top medical adviser in China, said the country’s death rate from covid-19’s omicron variant is around 0.1% and most people recover from the strain within seven to 10 days, Xinhua reported.
■ Wayan Koster, governor of Bali, Indonesia, denied that a rule in a recent overhaul of the penal code, which includes a ban on extramarital sex, would upend tourists’ vacations with marital status checks, noting that his state is “comfortable and safe to be visited.”
■ Bradley Weeks, 44, of Macclenny, Fla., faces up to 23 years in federal prison, after a he was found guilty of a felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding during the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, along with four misdemeanors, according to court records.
■ Lamont Bagby, a Virginia state delegate, and state Sen. Jennifer McClellan filed paperwork to run in a special election to fill a U.S. House seat previously occupied by Rep. A. Donald McEachin, who died in November.
■ Scott Ziegler, former Loudoun County, Va., Public Schools superintendent, was indicted on three misdemeanor counts by a special grand jury that investigated the response to two sexual assaults committed by a high school student.
■ Scott Stringer, former New York City comptroller, claimed in a defamation lawsuit that an ex-girlfriend’s accusations of sexual misconduct smeared his “integrity and reputation,” upending his 2021 mayoral bid.
■ Kenneth Walker, the boyfriend of Breonna Taylor who fired a shot at police during a botched drug raid, will be paid $2 million by the city of Louisville, Ky., to settle lawsuits filed by him in federal and state courts, attorney Steve Romines said in a statement.
■ Troy Sargent, 38, of Pittsfield, Mass., was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison on charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding police officers, civil disorder and four related misdemeanor offenses during the U.S. Capitol riot.