Michael Cohen sentencing hearing, SAG Award nominations: 5 things to know Wednesday
Moment of reckoning looms for Michael Cohen
Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, will be sentenced Wednesday in New York after pleading guilty to tax charges, campaign-finance violations and lying to Congress. Federal prosecutors have suggested a sentence of roughly 42 months, even after Cohen asked last week to be spared prison time for his cooperation in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Prosecutors said he should serve a "substantial prison term" after trying to buy the silence of two women who said they had sexual affairs with Trump, for evading federal income taxes and for lying to banks. Mueller took a softer approach in a separate sentencing memo,k crediting Cohen for correcting his lies to Congress about plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow — and for going to "significant lengths" to assist Mueller's investigation of Russia-related matters that touched on Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
• Did Michael Cohen disclose every crime he knows about?
• How Trump's explanation of his role with Cohen, hush money payments changed
• Five bombshells from the Cohen memos, including information he's given Mueller
• Feds: Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen should get 'substantial prison term'
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Manhunt for shooter in deadly French Christmas market attack
Hundreds of security forces have been deployed in the manhunt Wednesday for the gunman who killed three people and wounded more than a dozen at a Christmas market in eastern France the previous day. France, where most of Europe’s worst terror attacks of recent years took place, raised its terror alert level to "emergency attack" with reinforced border controls and heightened security at all Christmas markets in France to "avoid the risk of a copycat attack," French news agency AFP reported. The assault came as France has been beset by four weeks of protests against President Emmanuel Macron, and police forces have been stretched by fighting, rioting and other protest-related unrest. Stephane Morisse, an official from the FGP Police union, said the suspect was shot and wounded by soldiers standing guard over the Christmas market, but he was still able to escape.
Chicago mayor wants helps in addressing the city's pension crisis
Chicago's outgoing mayor wants to legalize recreational marijuana and open a casino to help address a growing pension crisis in the nation’s third largest city. Rahm Emanuel, who is set to leave office in May, plans to propose both measures in a major address Wednesday that could go a long way in bolstering the city's finances. Chicago's four public worker pension funds have more than $27 billion in unfunded liabilities. "These contributions must be made,” Emanuel says in excerpts of his speech released by his office, adding: "I believe those steps must be based on progressive principles."
South to battle bitter cold for another day
Temperatures will dip into the teens and 20s across most of the Southeast on Wednesday and could complicate the morning commute after a deadly, record-breaking storm dumped as much as 1-2 feet of snow across the southern and central Appalachians. The storm, which killed at least three people in hardest-hit North Carolina, also led to widespread power outages, car accidents and travel headaches. While another sprawling storm is forecast to hit most of the southern and eastern U.S. later in the week and into the weekend, almost all of the precipitation that falls should be rain, not snow or ice, according to AccuWeather.
SAG Award nominations recognize the industry's finest
Wednesday's announcement of SAG Award nominations is all about the acting. The Screen Actors Guild Awards is the "only televised awards ceremony to exclusively honor performers," as the organization says. Awkwafina and Laverne Cox will announce the nominees at 10 a.m. ET from Los Angeles. A live-stream starting 10 minutes earlier is available at outlets including sagawards.org and TNT and TBS' YouTube channels. Those two networks will air the Jan. 27 awards ceremony. Last year's lead actor winners were Frances McDormand for "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" and Gary Oldman for "Darkest Hour."
Contributing: Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Michael Cohen sentencing hearing, SAG Award nominations: 5 things to know Wednesday
