In response to a motion filed by NPR and other media organizations, the Justice Department released new videos which prosecutors say show the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6.
The Justice Department has released a trove of videos, including police body-worn camera footage, allegedly showing assaults against police officers defending the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
The videos, made available after NPR and other media organizations filed a legal motion for their release, are cited as evidence in the assault cases against Thomas Webster and Scott Fairlamb.
A group of senior American politicians have warned that UFOs pose “national security concerns” after getting a confidential briefing on a highly anticipated report on unidentified aerial phenomena that is set to be released later this month.
Some members of Congress were given advanced details about the contents of the Pentagon report, which is scheduled to be released before 25 June, and several said they are deeply worried about the findings.
“Clearly, something’s going on that we can’t handle,” Tim Burchett, a Republican congressman from Tennessee, told TMZ.
Wilkinsburg officials say a merger would be a win-win situation, with borough residents seeing a steep cut in their property tax bills and Pittsburgh benefiting from a gain in population.
Officials said Wilkinsburg residents would see a steep cut in their property tax bill, and Pittsburgh would benefit from a 15,000-person gain in population.
Property taxes in Wilkinsburg are among the highest in Allegheny County. Wilkinsburg officials said that hurts homeowners and hinders redevelopment.
“If you’re a homeowner who makes $20,000 per year and your house is worth $45,000, you pay 35 percent more in Wilkinsburg than you do in the city so it’s really difficult for people in Wilkinsburg to absorb those costs,” said Tracey Evans, of Wilkinsburg Community Development Corp.
“There are a lot of people who want to stay here, and people who want to move into Wilkinsburg, but the taxes are too much of a burden to promote homeownership or to promote entrepreneurship,” said Wilkinsburg Mayor Marita Garrett.
Garrett said Pittsburgh already provides fire service and trash pickup for the borough.
Garrett said she supports a merger even though it would eliminate her job.
“As a public servant, it’s not about us, it’s about the public if you’re getting into it for the right reasons,” Garrett said.
The petition needs about 340 signatures of Wilkinsburg residents in order to go on the November general election ballot. Pittsburgh City Council must also approve the proposal.
The referendum would not affect Wilkinsburg School District, but officials said it may prompt a school merger with Pittsburgh. Wilkinsburg students from grades 7 through 12 currently attend Pittsburgh Public Schools.
Police said detectives from the Violent Crime Unit took Chayla Robinson into custody at her home in Brentwood Borough. She was charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution following the shooting death of 18-year-old Ahmir Tuli.
Part of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in western Pennsylvania will close for five hours this weekend.
The westbound turnpike will be closed between Pittsburgh (Exit 57) and Allegheny Valley (Exit 48), starting at 11:59 p.m. Saturday through 5 a.m. on Sunday, weather permitting.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission said beams will be put in place for the new bridge that carries traffic on Center Road over the turnpike in Monroeville.
Drivers are being asked to use the following recommended detour:
WESTBOUND TRAFFIC Exiting at Pittsburgh Interchange:
I-376 west (16 miles) to
I-279 north/Ft. Duquesne Bridge (1 mile) to
PA State Route 28 north (23 miles) to
PA State Route 910 east (Exit 11, Harmarville) (.2 mile)
Left onto Freeport Road (.7 mile)
Reenter I-76 at the Allegheny Valley Interchange.
During the closure, drivers should expect higher traffic volumes on detour roads.
(CNN)About 50 officers assigned to the Portland police department’s crowd control team resigned one day after one of the team’s officers was indicted for allegedly using his department-issued baton to assault a protester last summer.
The wholesale resignation of the police department’s Rapid Response Team (RRT) took place after a Multnomah County grand jury handed down an indictment Wednesday charging Officer Corey Budworth with fourth-degree battery. All the officers who resigned their positions on the team returned to their regular assignments
Alex Harvill was at the Moses Lake Airshow in Washington, where spectators were recording his practice jumps ahead of the world record attempt
In the video, which was shot from a distance away, Harvill can be seen riding his bike through a field before launching off a ramp
Harvill came up short of his destination and crashed into a dirt mound
The Grant County Coroner said that Harvill, 28, was attempting a practice jump when the crash occurred, with the injuries ultimately resulting in his death
Harvill was reportedly taken to Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake after first responders tried to treat him at the scene
An autopsy is scheduled to be performed on Friday to determine cause of death
Harvill is the Guinness World Record holder for dirt-to-dirt distance jump
He also set a world record for ramp-to-dirt distance jump in 2012
Just a month ago, Harvill took to Instagram to share the birth of his second baby
Former White House physician explains why the president needs a cognitive test on ‘Hannity’
Dr. Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician, called on President Biden to immediately undergo a cognitive test so the commander-in-chief can prove to the American public sound mental capabilities.
“We can’t sit on this any longer,” Jackson told “Hannity” Thursday night, citing Biden’s “embarrassing” performance overseas this week with world leaders.
“He’s not physically or cognitively fit to be our president right now,” Jackson added.
The freshman Texas congressman and 13 of his GOP colleagues sent a letter to Biden Thursday expressing “concern” with his cognitive state and cited several examples of potential memory lapses, including apparently forgetting the name of his Defense Secretary, telling an Amtrak story with a timeline that didn’t add up and seemingly blanking on the often-quoted first line of the Declaration of Independence.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency on Thursday ahead of a potential tropical cyclone that will likely hit his state and parts of Mississippi and Alabama on Friday.
The storm was about 450 miles south of Louisiana as of Thursday evening, with maximum sustained winds of 30 mph. A tropical storm warning is in effect, ranging from Intracoastal City, Louisiana, to the Alabama-Florida border, according to the National Weather Service.
A flash flood watch will also be in effect starting Friday afternoon. Rainfall totals of 4-10 inches are expected in New Orleans, with higher amounts in isolated areas.
More than 460 companies are observing Juneteenth at this point, with many offering a paid day off or holiday pay. Here are some companies continuing PTO this year.
Amid the wave of discussions about racial injustice that began to gain momentum last summer, companies such as Allstate, Google and Nike have announced over the past year that they will recognize Juneteenth as a paid holiday for their employees.
The day celebrates the delayed news that President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, freeing “all persons held as slaves” in the United States. However, it wasn’t until June 19, 1865 – referred to more informally as Juneteenth – that enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom when Union soldiers arrived.
Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed last year that Juneteenth would be an official holiday. City workers learned this week they would not be getting a paid day off after all.
The fire at Specialty Seal Group at 1001 Lloyd Ave., off of Route 981 and near Saint Vincent College, was reported around 4:40 a.m. and was quickly doused, according to Lloydsville Volunteer Fire Department Chief Brian Schultheis.
Westmoreland County dispatchers reported the fire was out just after 5 a.m.
Although an exact cause is still under investigation, Schultheis said it was not suspicious.
“We believe it was electrical. The company is investigating the cause,” he said.
A fire was confirmed on the second floor of the building.
The Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to the Affordable Care Act on Thursday in a decision that will leave the law intact and save health care coverage for millions of Americans. The justices turned away a challenge from Republican-led states and the former Trump administration, which urged the justices to block the entire law.
Juneteenth celebrates June 19, 1865, when a Union Army general arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed enslaved African Americans that the Civil War had ended and they were free.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law Thursday, officially making June 19 a federal holiday and giving national recognition to a day commemorating emancipation.
“Juneteenth marks both a long, hard night of slavery and subjugation and the promise of a brighter morning to come,” Biden said during a signing ceremony at the White House. “This is a day, in my view, of profound weight and profound power. A day in which we remember the moral stain, terrible toll that slavery took on the country and continues to take.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman and Black vice president, said that designating a federal holiday “makes an important statement.”
“These are days when we as a nation have decided to stop and take stock. And often to acknowledge our history,” Harris said, urging people to be clear-eyed about the realities of slavery and the long fight for freedom.
President Joe Biden hands a pen to Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., after signing the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, in the East Room of the White House on June 17, 2021.Evan Vucci / AP
Since June 19 falls on a Saturday this year, most federal employees will observe the holiday on Friday, June 18, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management tweeted.
The House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday, 415-14, to make Juneteenth a national federal holiday, a day after the Senate cleared the bill without debate. The only votes against the bill came from Republicans.
Juneteenth — also known as Emancipation Day, Black Independence Day and Jubilee Day — is the 11th federal holiday and the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created in 1983.
Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery and commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed enslaved African Americans that the Civil War had ended and they were free. Granger’s message came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Hundreds of Southwest Airlines flights were delayed or canceled again on Wednesday as the company sought to resolve disruptions from earlier in the week amid a pickup in summer travel.
The headaches for Southwest, which is widely credited for pioneering the low-fare airline business model, began on Monday night, when a problem with a weather data supplier prevented the airline from safely flying planes. The issue was resolved within hours, but on Tuesday the airline suffered its own technological problems, resulting in half of its flights that day being delayed and many being canceled, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking service.
Spillover from that episode caused Wednesday’s problems, the airline said. About 10 percent of Southwest’s flights were canceled and another 19 percent were delayed by midafternoon, according to FlightAware.
“While our technology issues from Tuesday have been resolved, we are still experiencing a small number of cancellations and delays across our network as we continue working to resume normal operations,” Dan Landson, a Southwest spokesman, said in a statement.
(CNN)The visuals, the body language and the setting all converged to help President Joe Biden achieve what he wanted — not only from his much-hyped summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin — but from a week of pivotal meetings with US allies.
Frida Ghitis
From the start of the Geneva summit, Biden looked confident and relaxed. In contrast, Putin, who has made an art of appearing smug and almost bored, looked tense and on his guard. Then Biden took the initiative, extending his hand first to Putin, who walked over to grasp it.
The summit mattered, of course, but it was in the dueling press conferences where Putin helped Biden achieve his objectives. That’s because Biden’s meeting with Putin had two goals. One was about managing US relations with Russia. The other was the overarching theme of his European trip and, in fact, of Biden’s presidency: strengthening democracy by drawing a sharp distinction between it and authoritarianism, all the while persuading the world that democracy is the superior model.
A tree that apparently came down during storms earlier this week was still blocking part of Wellesley Street in Pittsburgh’s Highland Park neighborhood on Wednesday morning.
There was no word on when that portion of the road might reopen.
PITTSBURGH — One person is dead and another was rushed to a hospital after a shooting early Wednesday morning outside a bar in the Corliss section of Pittsburgh’s Sheraden neighborhood, police said.
Calls to 911 reported a fight shortly before 2 a.m. outside Craig’s Bar on Chartiers Avenue. While officers were on their way to the scene, they learned that shots were fired.
Two men were found with gunshot wounds when officers arrived.
Jamorr Mathis, 42, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. The other man was taken to a hospital in serious condition.
Neighbors said the sound of gunfire is becoming too familiar.
“We heard gunshots, which is becoming real familiar,” Joe Sarubbi, who lives in Sheraden, said. “Every other week it seems like there’s gunshots going off in the neighborhood, and it’s getting crazy. I have bullets going through windows. You got kids around, too. So, it’s dangerous.”
Harvey Weinstein will be extradited to Los Angeles for sex-crime charges, a judge decided Tuesday afternoon. During the extradition hearing, prosecutors revealed that authorities in Los Angeles would likely try transferring him to California in the first half of July.
This development came after more than a year of delays; Weinstein’s transfer was postponed repeatedly for things ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to Weinstein’s declining health.
“I will respectfully deny your petition,” Judge Kenneth Case told Weinstein’s attorney, Norman Effman, of his latest request for a delay. Case also denied Effman’s request for a ten-day stay — basically, a hold on this ruling going into effect — telling him it’s “more appropriate” to petition an appeals court.
Weinstein, who appeared in court virtually via video from Wende Correctional Facility in upstate New York, put his head in his hands moments after Case’s ruling.
After bonding with his well-mannered counterparts at the G7 Summit, President Biden is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva, Switzerland, a man he called a “killer.” Biden’s aim at the G7 was to smooth over international relations that had become frosty under Donald Trump, a goal his European allies shared. They emerged chanting gauzy slogans, seeking to “Build Back Better” after the ruination wrought by the pandemic.
Biden will similarly try to improve the relationship with his Russian counterpart. But unlike the Europeans, Putin has something very different in mind. He, too, has goals for the meeting but they involve self-aggrandizement and using the masquerade of cooperation to allow him to continue to harm America, as the Soviets before him did under détente.
As usual, the Americans are offering Russia a reset button. And as usual, Russia will contemptuously cast it aside.
Both presidents have acknowledged that U.S.-Russia relations are at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War. Putin has threatened that the global security system is degrading and “the potential for conflict is growing.” TASS, the official Russian government “news” agency, compared the upcoming meeting between Biden and Putin to the June 4, 1961, meeting in Vienna between John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, who was known for banging shoes on desks at the United Nations. Putin has laid the groundwork for doing so, inflicting what were undoubtedly state-sponsored cyber attacks on the United States — the employment of criminal groups to achieve the Russian state’s strategic goals is a common Kremlin tactic — and seeking to unbalance Biden by praising Donald Trump as an “extraordinary” and “talented individual,” while insulting Biden as a lifelong politician and “career man.”
A video emerged on social media on Monday that showed a man on a bicycle fill up a garbage bag with items inside a San Francisco Walgreens and leave the store without being stopped.
Lyanne Melendez, a reporter for KGO-TV in the city, posted the video on Twitter.
“This just happened at the @Walgreens on Gough & Fell Streets in San Francisco. #NoConsequences.” She tagged Chesa Boudin, the city’s district attorney.
Commenters said the apparent theft is an example of the city’s lawlessness. Walgreens did not immediately respond to an email from Fox News.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Walgreens closed 17 stores in the city in the last five years.
The paper, citing a regional vice president from May, reported that Walgreens spends 35 times more on security guards at stores in the city than in other U.S. locations, and theft at these locations is four times higher than in other stores.
Four people were killed and at least four more were wounded Tuesday when an argument escalated into gunfire on Chicago’s Southside, police said.
The victims — three women and a man — were at a residence in the Englewood neighborhood when the bullets started flying around 5:45 a.m. CT, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said.
All four four were pronounced dead at the scene, a house in the 6200 block of South Morgan Street, Brown said.
Brown released no other details about the four victims or what sparked the latest outbreak of gun violence in the Windy City. He said no arrests have been made and there was no sign of forced entry, but police have found shell casings inside the house and a large-capacity “drum magazine.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot called the mass shooting “a tragedy that’s ripped apart families and inflicted intense trauma on several individuals.”
“It tells us that we still have much work to do in our mission to end gun violence here in Chicago and in particular, to limit the access of individuals to illegal guns,” Lightfoot said.
Meanwhile, three men and a woman were recuperating in nearby hospitals police said.
The legislation has gained momentum since the massive Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd last year and the Democrats’ takeover of the White House and Congress.
But Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson blocked the bill in 2020, saying that the day off for federal employees would cost US taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Johnson dropped his objection this week despite his concerns, paving the way for the bill’s passage in the Senate.
“Although I strongly support celebrating Emancipation, I objected to the cost and lack of debate,” said Johnson in a statement. “While it still seems strange that having taxpayers provide federal employees paid time off is now required to celebrate the end of slavery, it is clear that there is no appetite in Congress to further discuss the matter.”
The measure needs to pass the House and be signed by President Joe Biden to become law.
On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger announced in Galveston, Texas, the end of slavery in accordance with President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.
In 1980, Juneteenth became a Texas state holiday. In the decades since, every state but South Dakota came to officially commemorate Juneteenth, but only a handful of states observe it as a paid holiday.
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey, Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee are among the members of Congress who led the effort to to make Juneteenth the 12th federal holiday.
On this day in 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina V. Tereshkova became the first woman to travel in space, having been launched into orbit aboard the spacecraft Vostok 6, which completed 48 orbits in 71 hours.
After a day of rising tensions, which saw a far-right march in Jerusalem and incendiary balloons launched from Gaza, Israel’s new coalition government ordered airstrikes against Hamas.
