Appeals court rejects Trump’s challenge of Pennsylvania race

PHILADELPHIA— President Donald Trump’s legal team suffered yet another defeat in court Friday as a federal appeals court in Philadelphia roundly rejected the campaign’s latest effort to challenge the state’s election results.

Trump’s lawyers vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court despite the judges’ assessment that the “campaign’s claims have no merit.”

“Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” 3rd Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee, wrote for the three-judge panel, all appointed by Republican presidents.

Milwaukee County vote recount gives President-elect Biden small boost

MADISON, Wis.— Milwaukee County completed its recount of presidential ballots Friday, finding only small changes in vote totals for one of the twoWisconsin counties recounting ballots, but President Donald Trump’s attorneys appear ready for a legal challenge seeking to toss tens of thousands of ballots.

President-elect Joe Biden’s lead increased by 132 votes after county election officials recounted over 450,000 votes. Biden, a Democrat, won the state by nearly 20,600 votes, and his margin in Milwaukee and Dane counties was about 2-to-1.

Trump paid to have a recount in both those counties, which have large numbers of Democratic voters. As of Friday morning, Trump had gained 68 votes over Biden in Dane County, but election officials there do not expect to finish until Sunday.

New rule could allow gas, firing squads for U.S. executions

WASHINGTON— The Justice Department is quietly amending its execution protocols, no longer requiring federal death sentences to be carried out by lethal injection and clearing the way to use other methods like firing squads and poison gas.

The amended rule, published Friday in the Federal Register, allows the U.S. government to conduct executions by lethal injection or use “any other manner prescribed by the law of the state in which the sentence was imposed.” A number of states allow other methods of execution, including electrocution, inhaling nitrogen gas or death by firing squad.