ABORTION LOOPHOLE CLOSED
WASHINGTON – Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to authorize subpoenas to compel the testimony of the CEOS of Twitter and Facebook amid controversy over the social media companies’ handling of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden.
The Post published alleged contents of a computer hard drive purporting to document the Ukrainian and Chinese business activities of Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. The two CEOS have taken heat from conservatives over their companies’ flagging of the story as spreading disinformation and their attempts to clamp down on the distribution of the story.
All 12 Republican senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to authorize the subpoenas for Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey. The 10 Democrats on the panel boycotted Thursday’s meeting over its consideration of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination, which the panel approved.
Kansas coronavirus positivity rate climbs above 20%
MISSION, Kan. – Kansas’ coronavirus positivity rate has climbed above 20%, even as one top GOP lawmaker pushed back against Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s call for a statewide mask mandate to curb the spread of COVID-19.
“I’ve stated all along, and still believe, a one-size-fits-all COVID solution doesn’t work for our diverse state,” Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican, said Thursday in a written statement.
More than 90 of the state’s 105 counties have opted out of the current mask order. That’s why Kelly said Wednesday that she plans to speak with House and Senate leadership to work toward a bipartisan mask requirement with more teeth.
Her announcement came as the seven-day rolling average of the positivity rate in Kansas rose from 15.04% on Oct. 7 to 20.64% on Wednesday, according to data from The COVID Tracking Project. Only three states fared worse. The seven-day average for new cases also set another record of 757 on Wednesday, with many of the new cases coming from rural parts of the state.
Second group of judges blocks Trump order on House seats count
For the second time in two months, a panel of federal judges on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s effort to exclude people in the U.S. illegally from being counted during the process of divvying up congressional seats by state.
The decision from a panel of three district judges in California went further than last month’s ruling by a panel of three federal judges in New York by saying that Trump’s order in July not only was unlawful but also violated the constitution. The New York judges ignored the question of the order’s constitutionality and just said it was unlawful.
“The policy which the Presidential Memorandum attempts to enact has already been rejected by the Constitution, the applicable statutes, and 230 years of history,” the judges in California wrote.
The Trump administration has appealed the New York decision to the Supreme Court, and the nation’s high court agreed to hear the case next month.
Trucker who drove through Floyd protesters is charged
MINNEAPOLIS – A truck driver who drove into a large crowd of protesters on a bridge in Minneapolis following the killing of George Floyd was charged Thursday with two criminal counts.
Hennepin County prosecutors charged Bogdan Vechirko, of Otsego, with making threats of violence, a felony, and criminal vehicular operation, a gross misdemeanor, the Star Tribune reported. Prosecutors allege that he sought to “scare” protesters out of his path and could have seen them with plenty of time to stop before his truck reached them.
Vechirko, 35, drove onto the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River as thousands of people protested the death of Floyd, who died six days earlier in the custody of Minneapolis police. Nobody was seriously hurt, though criminal complaint says at least one protester suffered abrasions as she jumped to get out of the truck’s path.
Vechirko told investigators he didn’t mean to drive into the protest or hurt anyone.
Gov. Tim Walz and Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said at the time that it appeared that the trucker was confused about the freeway closures and didn’t intend any harm.
Relative: Black couple didn’t provoke shooting by Illinois police
WAUKEGAN, Ill. – The mother of a Black woman who was injured in a police shooting in suburban Chicago that left a Black man dead said the couple did nothing to provoke the officer.
Marcellis Stinnette, 19, was killed and his girlfriend and the mother of his child, Tafara Williams, was wounded when a police officer in Waukegan opened fire Tuesday night after police said Williams’ vehicle started rolling toward the officer following a traffic stop.
Police have said that the pair were in a vehicle that fled a traffic stop late Tuesday. That vehicle was spotted a little later by another officer on patrol. While that officer was approaching the vehicle, it began moving in reverse, police said, and the officer opened fire. No weapon was found in the vehicle, police said.
Cooper said Stinnette’s death remains under investigation by Cooper’s office and Illinois State Police.
Warsaw on Thursday. Poland’s top court has ruled that a law allowing abortion of fetuses with congenital defects is unconstitutional, closing a major loophole in the country’s abortion laws.
Oxford vaccine trial continues amid death report
LONDON – The University of Oxford said the late-stage trial of its COVID-19 vaccine in Brazil will continue following reports of a participant’s death.
The university said it can’t comment on specific incidents but an independent review found no reason to be concerned about the safety of the Brazilian trial.
It said an “independent review, in addition to the Brazilian regulator, have recommended that the trial should continue.”