San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Biden nominee may not be confirmed
The nomination of Neera Tanden to lead the White House Office of Management and Budget is now in peril after Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia became the first Democratic lawmaker to oppose her confirmation.
During her confirmation hearings, Tanden apologized for spending years attacking top Republicans on social media. She is a former adviser to Hillary Clinton and served as president of the liberalleaning Center for American Progress.
With the Senate evenly divided between 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats, she’ll probably need support from at least one Republican to win confirmation.
“I believe her overtly partisan statements will have a toxic and detrimental impact on the important working relationship between members of Congress and the next director of the Office of Management and Budget,” Manchin said in a statement.
Asked whether he would pull Tanden’s nomination, Biden said he wouldn’t. “I think we are going to find the votes and get her confirmed,” he said. Tanden would be the first woman of color to lead the OMB. The Senate Budget Committee is scheduled to vote on her nomination this week.
ALABAMA Military jet crash kills 2
A military plane flying from Columbus, Miss., to Tallahassee, Fla., crashed in a wooded area near the Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama on Friday evening, killing two people aboard, officials said.
It was not immediately clear what had caused the plane to crash. It was a T38 trainer aircraft assigned to the 14th Flying Training Wing, which is based at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi, the Wing said in a statement. The two people who were killed were not immediately identified.
“There are no words that can describe the sadness that accompanies the loss of our teammates,” Col. Seth Graham, 14th Flying Training Wing commander, said in a statement.
Marshall Taggart Jr., the executive director of the Montgomery airport, said the jet went down about 100 yards from the airport.
FLORIDA State tribute for Limbaugh
In honor of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would order flags in Florida to be flown at halfstaff when Limbaugh’s body is laid to rest.
Limbaugh, a Florida resident, died Wednesday after battling lung cancer. DeSantis called him a friend. The funeral plans for Limbaugh have not been announced yet.
Limbaugh’s death has been widely mourned by conservatives, although critics have highlighted past comments by him that they allege were bigoted and blatantly racist.
The governor has previously ordered flags to be at halfstaff to honor the deaths of law enforcement officers killed on duty, members of the Navy killed in a mass shooting in Pensacola and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, among others.
LOUISIANA 3 dead in gun store shooting
A person fatally shot two people at a gun store in a suburb of New Orleans on Saturday, and the shooter also died when others engaged the suspect, authorities said.
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto said a person he described as the initial shooter fired inside the Jefferson Gun Outlet in Metairie, killing two people.
Several other people — possibly employees or store customers — then opened fire on the shooter, both inside and outside of the building, killing the person, according to Lopinto.
Guns and ammunition are sold in the front of the outlet, which faces a main thoroughfare through Jefferson Parish.
Lopinto said two other people were also hit by gunfire and were hospitalized in stable condition. He said there were multiple shooters in all and investigators had just begun trying to piece together what happened.
“We’re trying to put it all together,” the sheriff said.
None of the dead or wounded was immediately identified. Lopinto said the investigation was continuing as authorities tried to determined the exact details of what transpired.
AFGHANISTAN 5 die in Kabul bomb attacks
Three bomb attacks in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Saturday killed at least five people and wounded two others, police said, amid a surge in violence in the wartorn country.
Police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz said two explosions caused by sticky bombs attached to vehicles took place 15 minutes apart and a third targeting a police vehicle exploded about two hours later. Two soldiers and two police officers were among the victims.
The majority of bomb attacks in Kabul in recent months have been sticky bombs — explosive devices with magnets that are attached to vehicles and detonated by remote control or timer.
No group immediately claimed responsibility. The Islamic State group’s local affiliate has asserted responsibility for previous attacks, but many go unclaimed, with the government putting the blame on the Taliban. The insurgents have denied responsibility for most of the attacks.