LAWYER COHEN WILL TESTIFY BEFORE HOUSE
TON» President WASHI N G
Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen has agreed to testify in a public hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in early February.
Cohen agreed to the Feb. 7 hearing voluntarily, panel chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said.
“I want to make clear that we have no interest in inappropriately interfering with any ongoing criminal investigations, and to that end, we are in the process of consulting with special counsel Mueller’s office,” Cummings said, promising that the panel would announce more information about the hearing in the coming weeks. Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Jayme Closs found alive; suspect in custody.
» A 13-year
B ARRON, W I S. old girl who went missing in October after her parents were killed has been found alive, authorities said Thursday.
The Barron County Sheriff’s Department said on its Facebook page that Jayme Closs has been located and that a suspect was taken into custody. Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said Jayme was expected to be reunited with her family Thursday night.
Fitzgerald said authorities in Douglas County, about 70 miles north, located the girl. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office confirmed on its website that Jayme was found in the town of Gordon at 4:43 p.m. Thursday, and that a suspect was taken into custody 11 minutes later.
Neither statement gave any further information about the suspect.
The Barron County sheriff’s office plans to hold a news conference Friday morning to discuss the case. Gillian Drummond, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Department of Justice, and Leonard Peace, a spokesman for the FBI in Wisconsin, declined comment Thursday evening.
Both agencies have been involved in the search for Jayme.
Jayme Closs had been missing since her parents, James and Denise, were found shot to death Oct. 15 in the family’s home near Barron.
Detectives pursued thousands of tips, watched dozens of surveillance videos and conducted numerous searches in the effort to find Jayme.
Fitzgerald said in November that he kept similar cases in the back of his mind as he worked to find Jayme, including the abduction of Elizabeth Smart, who was taken from her Salt Lake City home in 2002, when she was 14 years old.
Isolation greets Maduro’s new term.
» President C ARA C AS, V E N E ZUEL A Nicolas Maduro celebrated the start to a second term as Venezuela’s leader Thursday, but his world got smaller as countries seized upon the inauguration to cut back diplomatic ties, reject his legitimacy and label him a dictator.
Once among Latin America’s wealthiest countries, Venezuela is enduring a historic crisis after two decades of socialist rule, with residents struggling to afford basic goods as inflation soars, driving mass migration.
Video shows Milwaukee bus driver rescuing young child.
Authorities say an alert bus driver rescued a young child found wandering barefoot on a freeway overpass in frigid temperatures.
The Milwaukee County Transit System says the boy was less than a year old and wearing only a diaper and a onesie when bus driver Irena Ivic spotted him Dec. 22.
Security video shows the boy toddling down the overpass.
The video later shows Ivic stopping her bus, running across the street, picking up the crying child and carrying him to the bus.
As Ivic called for help, a passenger gave up her coat to keep the boy warm before police and firefighters arrived. Authorities say the child was cold and frightened but otherwise OK.
Police say the child had been left outside by his mother, who may have been suffering from a mental health crisis.
Governor calls for greater educational spending.
New Mexico’s newly inaugurated Democratic governor is proposing a half billion-dollar increase in annual state spending on public education after years of austere budgeting by her Republican predecessor.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Thursday released a budget proposal that calls for a 13 percent increase in general fund spending to $7.1 billion for the fiscal year starting on July 1.
The proposal includes a 6 percent pay increase for teachers and education workers and higher minimum teacher salaries. The plan also seeks $110 million in new school spending directed at students from low-income and minority families.
A booming oil sector in the southeast of the state has provided a windfall in income for state government.
— Denver Post wire services