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In the news, Thursday, January 6, 2022
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The U.S. trade deficit surged to a near-record high of $80.2 billion in November as exports slowed at the same time that imports jumped sharply. The November deficit was 19.3% higher than the October deficit of $67.2 billion and was just below the all-time monthly record of $81.4 billion set in September, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
French regulators on Thursday fined Google and Facebook a total of more than $226 million for not making it as easy for people to opt out of online tracking as it is for them to accept it. The CNIL data privacy watchdog said its investigations found that while the U.S. online giants gave French users a single button to immediately accept cookies, there wasn’t an equally simple way for them to decline because “several clicks are required to refuse all cookies.” Cookies are snippets of code used to target internet users for digital ads and other purposes. European governments have stricter regulations than the U.S. that require websites to ask for permission before tracking a user’s activity.
It’s the anniversary of … something, but we can’t agree on its name. There is no common narrative yet for the events of Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington D.C. If your political bias leans left, it’s labeled an insurrection and the worst attack on our democracy in history. If your political bias leans right, it was a nasty riot capping off a summer of riots. Regardless of your political lens, it was a horrible thing to watch. And President Trump missed an opportunity to be presidential when he ignored repeated pleas from family, friends and political allies to call on the mob to stand down.
U.S. Marshals are offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the capture of a man who allegedly participated in a multimillion-dollar fraud. William Oldham Mize, 60, ... has been a fugitive from justice since July 2019 when he violated his pretrial release conditions by failing to make himself available for pretrial supervision to the U.S. Probation Office and failing to contact his attorney. A federal grand jury found probable cause in 2018 to indict Mize and others on charges including mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The alleged criminal activity took place from 2013 to 2018. The plot included several accomplices, according to an indictment handed down in December 2018. One of those accomplices included Spokane developer Ron Wells, who pleaded guilty to charges and was sentenced to three years’ probation as well as more than $240,000 in fines and restitution in February 2020.
Spokane Superior Court Judge Michael Price will have several big decisions before him later this month when Caleb Sharpe is sentenced for the fatal shooting at Freeman High School in 2017. Those decisions could set off a series of appeals, even though Sharpe has admitted guilt in the shooting death of Sam Strahan and attempted murder of other students. The parties did not agree to a term of imprisonment, which means Price could hand down a sentence that could be challenged by Sharpe or prosecutors.
North Idaho College and its former president Rick MacLennan have reached a settlement agreement concerning MacLennan’s lawsuit against the institution, the college announced Thursday. MacLennan, who was fired without cause in September by the college Board of Trustees, filed the lawsuit in October alleging his termination was retaliation for complaints he made against Board Chair Todd Banducci. MacLennan has accused Banducci of aggressive, unprofessional and threatening behavior.
“We’re at our breaking point now unlike we’ve ever been,” said Dr. Nathan Schlicher, director of quality assurance at Franciscan Health System and immediate past president of the Washington State Medical Association. Schlicher said hospitals are running out of staff and space to adequately provide care to everyone. The association, along with a statewide chapter of emergency physicians, sent the governor and Department of Health a letter requesting immediate assistance to address the crisis. They asked for more incentives to long-term care facilities to take these patients.
Cannabis use appears to have an effect on how certain prescription drugs metabolize in the body – perhaps negatively – leading to toxicity or accidental overdose, local research indicates. Washington State University researchers looked at cannabinoids – tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabinol (CBN) – along with the cannabinoids’ major metabolites in users’ blood and found that they interfered with two families of enzymes in the body that help metabolize a wide range of prescribed medications. The findings indicate that using cannabis alongside other drugs is a concern for people who regularly take prescriptions, while a majority of healthy people are likely fine, said Dr. Philip Lazarus, a WSU Spokane senior author.
A year after supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol and clashed with police in a deadly attempt to overturn an election, Northwest lawmakers reflect a deep national rift over the events of Jan. 6, 2021. Democrats describe the events as an attack not only on Congress, but on the very foundations of American democracy, the culmination of weeks of false claims by Trump and his allies that the vote had been rigged. ... While many Republicans have decried the violence of Jan. 6, they have largely kept quiet as Congress marks the somber anniversary, and have continued to raise doubts about U.S. election systems.
related article:
President Joe Biden forcefully blamed Donald Trump and his supporters Thursday for holding a “dagger at the throat of democracy” with election lies that sparked last year’s deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, using the anniversary of the attack to warn that America’s system of government remains under urgent threat.
Peter Bogdanovich, the ascot-wearing cinephile and director of 1970s black-and-white classics like “The Last Picture Show” and “Paper Moon,” has died. He was 82. Bogdanovich died early Thursday morning at his home in Los Angeles, said his daughter, Antonia Bogdanovich. She said he died of natural causes.
A team of scientists is sailing to “the place in the world that’s the hardest to get to” so they can better figure out how much and how fast seas will rise because of global warming eating away at Antarctica’s ice. Thirty-two scientists on Thursday are starting a more than two-month mission aboard an American research ship to investigate the crucial area where the massive but melting Thwaites glacier faces the Amundsen Sea and may eventually lose large amounts of ice because of warm water. The Florida-sized glacier has gotten the nickname the “doomsday glacier” because of how much ice it has and how much seas could rise if it all melts – more than two feet over hundreds of years.
Security forces in Kazakhstan killed dozens of protesters and 12 police officers died in an eruption of violence that saw demonstrators storm government buildings and set them on fire, authorities said Thursday. ... The demonstrations began over a near-doubling of prices for a type of vehicle fuel, but seemed to reflect wider discontent in the country, which has been under the rule of the same party since independence.
As a raging band of his supporters scaled walls, smashed windows, used flagpoles to beat police and breached the U.S. Capitol in a bid to overturn a free and fair election, Donald Trump’s excommunication from the Republican Party seemed a near certainty, his name tarnished beyond repair. ... But one year later, Trump is hardly a leader in exile. Instead, he is the undisputed leader of the Republican Party and a leading contender for the 2024 presidential nomination.
A deeply divided Congress is showing the world a very unsettled view from the U.S. Capitol: Rather than a national crisis that pulls the country together, the deadly riot on Jan. 6, 2021, only seems to have pushed lawmakers further apart. Some members are planning to mark the anniversary of the Capitol insurrection with a moment of silence. Others will spend the day educating Americans on the workings of democracy. And still others don’t think the deadliest domestic attack on Congress in the nation’s history needs to be remembered at all.
China has recommitted itself to completing its orbiting space station by the end of the year and says it is planning more than 40 launches for 2022, putting it roughly level with the United States. Launches would include those of two Shenzhou crewed missions, two Tianzhou cargo spacecraft and the station’s additional two modules, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday, citing a recent announcement by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation known as CASC.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Thursday that he wants lawmakers to pass legislation making it a gross misdemeanor for elected officials and candidates to spread lies about election results.
Flush with cash, Washington state lawmakers return to Olympia next week with Democrats and Republicans disagreeing over how to spend the unexpected windfall. A revenue forecast released in November showed projected revenue collections for the 2021-2023 budget cycle are $898 million above what had been originally predicted in September. And projections for the next two-year budget cycle that ends in mid-2025 increased by more than $965 million. When the Legislature convenes Monday for a 60-day session it will be tasked with adjusting the $59 billion budget passed last year.
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and Air Force Times, Army Times, Marine Corps Times, and Navy Times
US F-16s head to Poland to strengthen NATO air policing mission
from Military Times
and Air Force Times, Army Times, Marine Corps Times, and Navy Times
US F-16s head to Poland to strengthen NATO air policing mission
U.S. F-16 fighter jets from Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany made their way to Poland Jan. 4 to work with Polish and Belgian F-16s on air policing missions, a NATO press release shared. F-16 pilots from the three countries will practice advanced airborne maneuvers in Lask, Poland, while working closely with a Combined Air Operations Center in Uedem, Germany, to strengthen command and control procedures. ... President Joe Biden has previously said that no U.S. troops would be deployed to Ukraine should Russia invade. However, U.S. military forces would likely reinforce their presence in NATO countries in the region and provide additional defensive capabilities to Ukrainian military leaders. As for the Jan. 4 deployment of F-16s to Poland, “the supplemental U.S. fighters will provide improved capabilities in the region and demonstrate a seamless integration into the long standing Baltic and enhanced Air Policing missions,” Deputy Chief of Staff Operations at NATO Headquarters Allied Air Command Brig. Gen. Joel Carey, said in the press release.
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
Allegiant Air said Wednesday that it will buy 50 Boeing 737 Max jets and take options for 50 more, giving Chicago-based Boeing a major foothold in the discount airline’s all-Airbus fleet. ... Allegiant announced last year that it was adding the flights between Spokane International Airport and Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport beginning Nov. 22. Earlier in 2021, Allegiant Air launched two direct flights from Spokane to Las Vegas and Orange County. Allegiant said it will take delivery of the planes from 2023 through 2025.
Allegiant Air said Wednesday it will buy 50 Boeing 737 Max jets and take options for 50 more, giving Chicago-based Boeing a major foothold in the discount airline’s all-Airbus fleet. Financial terms were not released. The 737 Max 7 and Max 8 models selected by Allegiant list for $99.7 million and $121.6 million apiece, but airlines routinely receive deep discounts.
ExxonMobil said Wednesday that it made two additional oil discoveries off the coast of Guyana as the South American country prepares to become the world’s newest major oil producer. The discoveries occurred in an area where officials believe they can extract at least 10 billion oil-equivalent barrels. The company said a vessel that arrived in Guyana late last year is expected to start production in upcoming months with a target of up to 220,000 barrels of oil a day. Officials said another vessel will start production in 2024.
The U.S. is urging that everyone 12 and older get a COVID-19 booster as soon as they’re eligible, to help fight back the hugely contagious omicron variant that’s ripping through the country. Boosters already were encouraged for all Americans 16 and older, but Wednesday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed an extra Pfizer shot for younger teens – those 12 to 15 – and strengthened its recommendation that 16- and 17-year-olds get it, too.
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday vowed to hold accountable anyone who was responsible for last year’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, whether they were physically there or not. In a speech to Justice Department employees, Garland said prosecutors remained “committed to holding all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law.”
The United States and Germany said Wednesday that Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine’s border poses an “immediate and urgent challenge” to European security and that any intervention will draw severe consequences. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock presented a unified front on Russia after a meeting in Washington, but still would not detail what the consequences might be. The severity of any response to a Russian invasion of Ukraine hinges largely on Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and a diplomatic heavyweight within the 27-nation European Union.
Hospitals across the U.S. are feeling the wrath of the omicron variant and getting thrown into disarray that is different from earlier COVID-19 surges. This time, they are dealing with serious staff shortages because so many health care workers are getting sick with the fast-spreading variant. People are showing up at emergency rooms in large numbers in hopes of getting tested for COVID-19, putting more strain on the system. And a surprising share of patients — two-thirds in some places — are testing positive for the virus while in the hospital for other reasons. At the same time, hospitals say the patients aren’t as sick as those who came in during the last surge. Intensive care units aren’t as full, and ventilators aren’t needed as much as they were before. The pressures are neverthless prompting hospitals to scale back non-emergency surgeries and close wards, while National Guard troops have been sent in in several states to help out at medical centers and testing sites. Nearly two years into the pandemic, frustration and exhaustion are running high among health care workers.
Louisiana’s governor on Wednesday posthumously pardoned Homer Plessy, the Black man whose arrest for refusing to leave a whites-only railroad car in 1892 led to the Supreme Court ruling that cemented “separate but equal” into U.S. law for half a century. The state Board of Pardons in November recommended the pardon for Plessy, who boarded the rail car as a member of a small civil rights group hoping to overturn a state law segregating trains. Instead, the protest led to the 1896 ruling known as Plessy v. Ferguson, which solidified whites-only spaces in public accommodations such as transportation, hotels and schools for decades.
A year after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, the new chief of the U.S. Capitol Police said Wednesday he is making progress in resolving “critical deficiencies” despite major staffing shortages and thousands of new threats to members of Congress. “We’re going to get tested again” and will be prepared, declared Chief J. Thomas Manger. Changes include improving the agency’s ability to gather, analyze and share intelligence with other federal and state law enforcement forces, Manger said. That failing contributed to a lack of defensive forces at the violent Capitol insurrection as rioters fought past outmanned police, leaving more than 100 of them injured. Manger is dealing with recommendations from an internal watchdog to move the agency from a traditional police department to a protective force.
Fire tore through a duplex home early Wednesday in Philadelphia, killing 13 people, including seven children, fire officials said. At least two people were sent to hospitals, and officials warned the toll could grow as firefighters searched the rowhome, where 26 people had been staying. The four smoke alarms in the building, which was public housing, do not appear to have been working, fire officials said. The blaze’s cause was not determined, but officials shaken by the death toll – apparently the highest in a single fire in the city in at least a century – vowed to get to the bottom of it.
A late-season wildfire pushed by hurricane-force winds tore through two densely populated Denver suburbs and seemed destined to leave a trail of deaths. Yet, only two people were unaccounted for out of some 35,000 forced from their homes. It’s a remarkably low number of possible casualties, according to disaster experts and authorities, all the more so because a public alert system did not reach everyone and the wintertime blaze caught many people off-guard.
A Russia-led military alliance said Thursday it will dispatch peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan after the country’s president asked for help in controlling protests that escalated into violence, including the seizure and setting afire of government buildings. Protesters in Kazakhstan’s largest city stormed the presidential residence and the mayor’s office Wednesday and set both on fire, according to news reports, as demonstrations sparked by a rise in fuel prices escalated sharply in the Central Asian nation. ... Hours after thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the presidential residence in Almaty, Tass reported that it was on fire and that protesters, some wielding firearms, were trying to break in. Police fled from the residence after shooting at demonstrators, according to the report, which was filed from Kazakhstan.
Beneath a pale winter light and the glare of television cameras, it seemed hard not to see the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot for what it was. The violent storming of the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters bent on upending the election of Joe Biden was as clear as day: democracy under siege, live-streamed in real time. Yet a year later, when it comes to a where-were-you moment in U.S. history, there is far from national consensus.
Long after most other lawmakers had been rushed to safety, they were on the hard marble floor, ducking for cover. Trapped in the gallery of the House, occupying balcony seats off-limits to the public because of COVID-19, roughly three dozen House Democrats were the last ones to leave the chamber on Jan. 6, bearing witness as the certification of a presidential election gave way to a violent insurrection.
The suspect was covered from head to toe, skulking through the dark streets of the nation’s capital before methodically placing two explosives outside the offices of the Republican and Democratic national committees. Only 17 hours later — and just before the U.S. Capitol was stormed by a sea of pro-Trump rioters — were the pipe bombs discovered. It quickly became one of the highest-priority investigations for the FBI and the Justice Department.
Germany’s antitrust watchdog paved the way Wednesday for extra scrutiny of Google by designating it a company of “paramount significance,” the first to get that label since regulators got more power to curb abusive practices by big digital companies. The Bundeskartellamt said its decision comes after rules were introduced last year that allow it “to intervene earlier and more effectively” to ban companies from using anti-competitive practices. The regulator’s decision, which lasts five years, gives it extended powers to supervise Google for “abuse control.”
Hundreds of people have filled the homeless shelter the city hastily threw together at the convention center to prevent people from dying on the streets in the latest deep freeze. And, inside at City Hall, the mayor has budgeted money to build a new shelter. So how, one wonders, can the Woodward administration repeatedly assert there are sufficient beds available in the shelter system?
It’s been nearly 50 years since a group of researchers in Chicago reported an extraordinary finding: They’d created a vaccine against drug addiction, and an early test showed it might work. The scientists provided a rhesus monkey with heroin and cocaine; it became addicted. But when they injected the monkey with a compound they’d developed – one designed to coax the immune system into fighting addictive drugs as if they were pathogenic invaders – the animal stopped seeking drugs. Their finding, published in the top scientific journal Nature in 1974, heralded a new frontier in treating addiction. But despite millions of dollars in research – and decades’ worth of studies, including a high-profile but failed attempt at a nicotine vaccine – there’s still no Food and Drug Administration-approved shot against any addictive substance. Scientists at a new University of Washington research center hope that will soon change.
The Bureau of Reclamation and the Bonneville Power Administration recently announced a long-running overhaul of three generators at the Grand Coulee Dam was completed in September 2021, according to a news release from both agencies. “All of these facilities were built between the late 1930s and the 1970s, so being that the newest of them were built 50 or so years ago, the system is aging. We have to systematically, in accordance with our strategic asset management plan, work with – in this situation – the Bureau of Reclamation and in other situations, the Army Corps of Engineers to determine which of these units we need to work on, which need to be maintained and on what schedule. It’s all to ensure that we can provide quality, carbon-free energy to those public utilities in the Northwest that rely on us to do so,” said Doug Johnson, spokesman for the Bonneville Power Administration.
Mayor Dana Ralph said Tuesday night that she has asked for the resignation of Assistant Police Chief Derek Kammerzell for posting Nazi insignia on his office door, embracing the rank of a high official in Adolf Hitler’s dreaded paramilitary Schutzstaffel, or SS, and joking about the Holocaust. Ralph made the announcement at a City Council meeting at which she was sworn in for a new term as mayor. She said the decision came after public outcry and her unhappiness with the punishment imposed on Kammerzell by Chief Rafael Padilla last summer – two weeks off without pay, with the option of taking vacation pay during that time, and sensitivity training.
At a crucial moment during the 2020 racial justice protests, Seattle police exchanged a detailed series of fake radio transmissions about a nonexistent group of menacing right-wing extremists. The radio chatter about members of the Proud Boys marching around downtown Seattle, some possibly carrying guns, and then heading to confront protesters on Capitol Hill was an improper “ruse,” or dishonest ploy, that exacerbated a volatile situation, according to findings released Wednesday by the city’s Office of Police Accountability.
A proposed Spokane city law aims to protect tenants who have at least applied for rental assistance. The law would prohibit landlords from ousting a tenant for unpaid rent – as long as that tenant has met a number of conditions. The goal of the ordinance, which is set for a vote on Monday, is to prevent the eviction of tenants who are waiting on a rental assistance check. The law would not protect tenants who face eviction for reasons other than unpaid rent, such as posing a health and safety risk or damaging property. The protections would expire at the end of 2022. Council President Breean Beggs introduced the bill last year and was met with swift resistance from landlords.
For the second year in a row, the Washington Legislature will be mostly virtual. As the number of COVID-19 cases spikes across the state, the state House and Senate have both modified their plans for the 60-day session set to start Monday. A Senate committee voted Tuesday to modify their session plan, suspending all in-person meetings and only allowing 15 members on the floor at once. It’s a change from the plan agreed upon in November that allowed all members on the floor, assuming they tested negative for COVID-19.
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A record 4.5 million American workers quit their jobs in November, a sign of confidence and more evidence that the U.S. job market is bouncing back strongly from last year’s coronavirus recession. The Labor Department also reported Tuesday that employers posted 10.6 million job openings in November, down from 11.1 million in October but still high by historical standards.
An aptitude test Earl Smith took during his time at North Central High School suggested he’d excel in two areas: mechanics and music. The Spokane native can recall how the two, from an occupational perspective, appeared like an odd pairing at first – at least until a test administrator offered an idea. “It was almost jokingly that the interviewer suggested, ‘Well, why not put them together and study up on music instrument repair?’ ” Smith said. That’s exactly what Smith’s done for more than seven decades at Hoffman Music in Spokane. Hoffman Music, located at 1430 N. Monroe St., sells, rents, consigns and repairs band instruments, including guitars and drums. The store also sells, repairs and consigns orchestral instruments. Smith – now president of Hoffman at 89 years old – serves as co-owner alongside his son, Allan, and Kevin McLeish. McLeish is the son of Ernie McLeish, who was president of Hoffman Music until his death in 2014.
Local hospitals are bracing for another surge of COVID-19 patients with Spokane on Tuesday nearly breaking its record for new daily cases. The new omicron variant, which is more transmissible than the delta variant, has been confirmed in Spokane and several other counties statewide. Hospital officials in Spokane County expect COVID hospitalizations to rise this month, following a rise in case counts locally. Spokane County saw its second-highest daily case count of 718 new cases reported on Tuesday. This spike is not due to a backlog, but likely reflects a large amount of people seeking tests on Monday and over the long weekend.
Doctor’s offices and urgent care centers are bracing for impact as they again face high patient demand and more staffers out sick from the super-contagious omicron variant. The number of new COVID-19 cases across the U.S. reached a record-shattering average of 480,000 this week, and some primary care providers fear they will soon be overwhelmed by the surge.
A federal judge in Texas has granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Navy from acting against 35 sailors for refusing on religious grounds to comply with an order to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The injunction is a new challenge to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s decision to make vaccinations mandatory for all members of the military. The vaccination requirement allows for exemptions on religious and other grounds, but none of the thousands of requests for religious waivers so far have been granted.
On any given day, the atmosphere at Idaho abortion clinics is tense. Whether it’s protesters yelling outside the building or clinic staff comforting patients through difficult procedures, the work is often accompanied by a layer of managed stress. But abortion advocates say one fear, in the past few months, has been more stressful than all those factors combined: the possibility of losing abortion access altogether.
The explosive increase in U.S. coronavirus case counts is raising alarm, but some experts believe the focus should instead be on COVID-19 hospital admissions. And those aren’t climbing as fast. Dr. Anthony Fauci, for one, said Sunday on ABC that with many infections causing few or no symptoms, “it is much more relevant to focus on the hospitalizations as opposed to the total number of cases.” Other experts argue that case counts still have value.
For the second time in a decade, Californians will face mandatory restrictions governing their outdoor water use as the state endures another drought and voluntary conservation efforts have fallen short. The rules adopted Tuesday by the State Water Resources Control Board are fairly mild – no watering lawns for 48 hours after a rainstorm or letting sprinklers run onto the sidewalk – and could take effect as soon as the end of the month. Scofflaws could face $500 daily fines, though regulators say they expect such fines will be rare, as they were in the last drought.
Former President Donald Trump has canceled a press conference he had planned to hold in Florida on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters. Trump said in a statement Tuesday evening that he would instead be discussing his grievances at a rally he has planned in Arizona later this month. Trump had been expected to use the press conference to rail against the congressional committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, when a mob of his supporters violently stormed the Capitol in an effort to halt the peaceful transfer of power, and to repeat his lies about the 2020 election.
The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection on Tuesday requested an interview with Fox News personality Sean Hannity, one of former President Donald Trump’s closest allies in the media, as the committee continues to widen its scope. In a letter to Hannity, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, said the panel wants to question him regarding his communications with former President Donald Trump, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and others in Trump’s orbit in the days surrounding the insurrection.
President Joe Biden urged concern but not alarm Tuesday as the United States set records for daily reported COVID-19 cases and his administration struggled to ease concerns about testing shortages, school closures and other disruptions caused by the omicron variant. In remarks before a meeting with his COVID-19 response team at the White House, Biden aimed to convey his administration’s urgency in addressing omicron and convince wary Americans that the current situation bears little resemblance to the onset of the pandemic or last year’s deadly winter. The president emphasized that vaccines, booster shots and therapeutic drugs have lessened the danger for the overwhelming majority of Americans who are fully vaccinated.
There was no food, water or sleep for Susan Phalen as she spent a frigid night inside her car stopped on Interstate 95 in Virginia. Meera Rao and her husband were only 100 feet past an exit but were unable to move for 16 hours. Sen. Tim Kaine was on his way to Washington when a seemingly simple commute stretched into a 21-hour ordeal that became “a kind of survival project.” They were among hundreds of people who got stranded on the East Coast’s main north-south highway in freezing temperatures after a winter storm snarled traffic and left some drivers stuck in place for as much as a full day. The problems began Monday morning when a truck jackknifed on I-95, triggering a chain reaction as other vehicles lost control, state police said. Eventually lanes in both directions became blocked across a 40-mile stretch of the highway between Richmond and the nation’s capital at a time when snow was falling around 2 inches an hour.
France reported a record-smashing 271,686 daily virus cases on Tuesday as omicron infections race across the country, burdening hospital staff and threatening to disrupt transport, schools and other services. The French government is straining to avoid a new economically damaging lockdown, and is instead trying to rush a vaccine pass bill through parliament in hopes that it is enough to protect hospitals. ... Britain, which is also seeing a big surge, reported a record 218,274 daily cases Tuesday. Germany reported 30,561 cases Tuesday. ... More than 123,000 people with the virus have died in France, among the world’s higher death tolls.
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said Tuesday his opposition to President Joe Biden’s roughly $2 trillion package of social and environmental initiatives remains undimmed as party leaders said work on the stalled measure was on hold until at least later this month. Manchin, D-W.Va., told reporters that he’s not currently negotiating with the White House over the standoff but didn’t rule out continuing talks. Manchin, who was his party’s chief remaining holdout over months of talks, surprised and angered party leaders before Christmas by saying he could not support the legislation as written.
A judge was mostly dismissive Tuesday of oral arguments by a lawyer for Prince Andrew who wants to win fast dismissal of a lawsuit alleging that the prince two decades ago sexually assaulted a 17-year-old American who was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan did not immediately rule at the end of a video conference, but he made clear that he was not leaning Andrew’s way as he rejected much of the reasoning offered by the prince’s attorney, Andrew Brettler, who said the case “should absolutely be dismissed.”
Why are so many vaccinated people getting COVID-19 lately? A couple of factors are at play, starting with the emergence of the highly contagious omicron variant. Omicron is more likely to infect people, even if it doesn’t make them very sick, and its surge coincided with the holiday travel season in many places. People might mistakenly think the COVID-19 vaccines will completely block infection, but the shots are mainly designed to prevent severe illness, says Louis Mansky, a virus researcher at the University of Minnesota.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo won’t face criminal prosecution over an allegation that he fondled an aide, after a prosecutor said Tuesday he was dropping the case because he couldn’t prove it. Three days before the Democratic ex-governor was due to answer the misdemeanor charge in court, Albany County District Attorney David Soares said he was asking that a criminal complaint that the county sheriff filed in October be dismissed. “While we found the complainant in this case cooperative and credible, after review of all the available evidence, we have concluded that we cannot meet our burden at trial,” Soares said in a statement, adding that he was “deeply troubled” by the allegation.
At least 28,300 people packed into small boats crossed the Channel from France to England’s south coast in 2021, an annual record that was three times the number of crossings a year earlier. The leap in numbers, reported Tuesday by the Press Association news agency based on data from Britain’s Home Office, reflects the soaring number of migrants seeking to cross the world’s busiest shipping lane often in flimsy boats provided by people smugglers.
What students are learning about the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 may depend on where they live. ... With crowds shouting at school board meetings and political action committees investing millions of dollars in races to elect conservative candidates across the country, talking to students about what happened on Jan. 6 is increasingly fraught. Teachers now are left to decide how – or whether – to instruct their students about the events that sit at the heart of the country’s division. And the lessons sometimes vary based on whether they are in a red state or a blue state.
Idaho Power has submitted a 20-year plan to state regulators that phases out coal-fired power plants by 2028 as part of its effort to provide only clean energy by 2045, the company said Tuesday. Idaho Power in a news release said its 2021 Integrated Resource Plan submitted to the Idaho Public Utilities Commission moves the company away from coal and toward renewable energy, battery storage, energy efficiency and additional power that will come with the completion of a transmission line connecting to the Pacific Northwest. The 214-page document spells out how the company will meet energy demands in a 24,000-square-mile area in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon as its number of customers grows to nearly 850,000 from 600,000 by 2040.
The first portion of Spokane’s American Rescue Plan spending will be primarily dedicated to addressing the city’s housing crisis. The Spokane City Council approved the use of $13.7 million from its tranche of $81 million in federal American Rescue Plan funding on Monday, including $6 million to support affordable housing projects. Other targets for funding include child care providers, local artists and city parks.
In one of his first acts as Washington secretary of state, Democrat Steve Hobbs has told his some 300 staff to become vaccinated against COVID-19 by Feb. 25, or face losing their jobs. Under the previous secretary of state, Republican Kim Wyman, her office was the only statewide office that did not impose a vaccine requirement after Gov. Jay Inslee announced his mandate for state employees, health care workers and educators last summer. ... Inslee appointed former longtime lawmaker Hobbs as secretary of state in November after Wyman said she was resigning to take a top election security post with the Biden administration. ... The secretary of state’s office operates 27 locations and is responsible for elections, corporation and nonprofit registrations and operation of the state archives and library.
North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile into its eastern waters on Wednesday, the South Korean and Japanese militaries said, the first such launch in about two months amid long-dormant international diplomacy on the North’s nuclear program. The latest launch came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to further boost his military capability at a high-profile ruling party conference last week.
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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In the news, Thursday, December 30, 2021
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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In the news, Tuesday, December 28, 2021
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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