U.S.Associated PressHouse arrest plan for invader of Pelosi's office halted
A federal judge in Washington on Friday night halted a plan to release and put on house arrest the Arkansas man photographed sitting at a desk in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office during last week's riot at the U.S. Capitol. Richard Barnett will instead be brought to Washington, D.C., immediately for proceedings in his case, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ordered Friday night, staying a decision by another judge to confine Barnett to his home in Gravette, Arkansas, until his trial. Howell's ruling came hours after U.S. Magistrate Judge Erin Wiedemann in Arkansas set a $5,000 bond for Barnett and ordered that a GPS monitor track his location.
PoliticsNBC NewsTexas realtor who took private jet is charged in Capitol riot
A Texas realtor who took a private jet to the riot at the U.S. Capitol last week and called it the best day of her life is facing federal charges. Jennifer Ryan, who goes by Jenna Ryan on social media, is the latest person charged in connection to the Jan. 6 attack that left five people dead, including a Capitol police officer. Federal authorities said in court documents released Friday that Ryan traveled with a group to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5 and documented her two-day trip on social media.
WorldReutersItaly's Conte gets help from new Senate group in bid to keep power
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte worked the phones on Friday, trying to secure enough votes in parliament to allow him to stay in power after a junior ally quit the cabinet this week. There was growing confidence within the coalition that the government could stay afloat as a new, pro-government group formed in the Senate and the head of the country's influential bishops' association appealed for stability. Conte is due to address the lower house on Monday and the upper house Senate on Tuesday about the political chaos which was triggered by former premier Matteo Renzi in a row over the coalition's handling of the coronavirus and economic crises.
EntertainmentArchitectural DigestMore Inside Artist Jorge Pardo's Transformed Bushwick Carriage House
When it came to the lighting in his home, Pardo drew inspiration from the insides of fruits, nuts, and seeds, as well as sea creatures and machine parts. Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
U.S.The Telegraph‘I need to protect myself in case there is a civil war’: Why middle-class America is arming up
But for many of Jimmy Gong's customers in Mineola – a suburban village 20 miles east of the skyscrapers of Manhattan – the storming of the Capitol by pro-Trump demonstrators on January 6 was the inflection point. The following day is one of the busiest Gong, 46, can remember, even accounting for a 150 per cent rise in demand. And he expects business to keep booming.
U.S.Associated PressWaitress credited with helping boy after noticing bruises
A Florida waitress who noticed bruises on an 11-year-old boy flashed him a handwritten note asking him if he needed help, and when he nodded yes, she called the police, authorities said. Orlando police credited Flaviane Carvalho, a waitress at Mrs. Potato Restaurant, with coming to the boy's aid on New Year's Eve when the child's parents weren't looking. Police took the boy to a hospital where doctors found bruises on his face, earlobes and arms.
PoliticsThe IndependentMitch McConnell tells senators to ‘vote their conscience’ as impeachment trial looms
Following Donald Trump's second impeachment in the House of Representatives, Mitch McConnell has told his senate colleagues to “vote their conscience” as the Senate determines whether to convict the president for his role inciting a deadly insurrection at the Capitol, fulled by false claims of voter fraud and a pervasive lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from his supporters. The Senate Majority Leader, overseeing the remaining days of the GOP-controlled Senate as the balance of power shifts in a newly elected Congress, has not indicated how he expects his colleagues to vote, and an impeachment trial won't reach the Senate floor until Joe Biden is president.
U.S.The WeekSecret Service reportedly had to use Obama's bathroom after being barred from Ivanka Trump's
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have spent the past few years living in a six bedroom, 6.5 bathroom rented home in Washington, D.C.'s exclusive Kalorama neighborhood. The family could count high-profile officials and even one former president among their neighbors — as well as their own Secret Service detail, who had to rent a nearby apartment to use the bathroom because they weren't allowed inside the Kushner-Trump home, neighbors and law enforcement sources tell The Washington Post. It's not unusual for Secret Service agents to stay out of the typically expansive homes they're guarding, instead using a garage or auxiliary building as their home base, the Post notes.
HealthThe ConversationThe great polio vaccine mess and the lessons it holds about federal coordination for today's COVID-19 vaccination effort
The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis – with money raised through its annual March of Dimes campaign – had sponsored field tests for a vaccine developed by Jonas Salk. While not necessarily comforting, it is useful to recognize that the early days and weeks of mass distribution of a new medication, particularly one that is intended to address a fearful epidemic, are bound to be frustrating. Only after examining the complex polio vaccine distribution process as documented in papers collected in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library did I come to understand how partial my childhood memories actually were.
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WHO coronavirus investigators arrive in Wuhan
The group arrived late in the morning on a budget airline from Singapore and was expected to head into two weeks of quarantine. The team left the airport terminal through a plastic quarantine tunnel marked "epidemic prevention passage" for international arrivals and boarded a cordoned-off bus that was guarded by half a dozen security staff in full protective gear. Team members did not speak to reporters, although some waved and took pictures of the media from the bus as it departed.
PoliticsThe IndependentTrump news: McEnany departs White House as McConnell calls impeachment ‘vote of conscience’
President Donald Trump is said to be planning a final trip on Air Force One to Mar-a-Lago during the inauguration, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly discusses impeachment with colleagues as the administration ends in history-making ignominy. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who entered the role in April 2020, joined a growing list of administration officials who left the president before his term officially ended. The president's top economic adviser Larry Kudlow has criticised his boss in The Wall Street Journal over his response to the deadly insurrection at the Capitol.
U.S.TheGrioBiden nominates Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to DNC post
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has been nominated by President-elect Joe Biden as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. In the role, Bottoms would be in charge of civic engagement and voter protection. Mayor Bottoms is the only Mayor in Atlanta's history to have served in all three branches of government, serving as a judge and City Councilmember before being sworn in as Mayor,” the DNC said in press release Thursday night.
WorldAssociated PressUS blacklists Xiaomi, CNOOC, Skyrizon, raising heat on China
The U.S. government has blacklisted Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. and China's third-largest national oil company for alleged military links, heaping pressure on Beijing in President Donald Trump's last week in office. The Department of Defense added nine companies to its list of Chinese firms with military links, including Xiaomi and state-owned plane manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (Comac).
PoliticsThe Daily BeastPeyote-Loving ‘QAnon Shaman’ Vowed to Attend Inauguration, Left Chilling Note for Pence: Docs
The so-called QAnon Shaman who stormed the U.S. Capitol last week in Viking garb before sitting in Vice President Mike Pence's chair on the Senate dais admitted to federal agents he intended to return to D.C. to “protest” President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. “I'll still go, you better believe it,” Jacob Chansley bragged in an interview with FBI agents the day after the violent insurrection. The admission by Chansley, also known as Jake Angeli, is one of several that prosecutors detailed in an 18-page detention memo arguing for the 33-year-old Arizona man to be held before trial.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderThe US government will spend $500,000 deep-cleaning the White House before Biden's inauguration
The White House will get a $500,000 deep-clean before President-elect Joe Biden moves in, CNN reported. "There's always been a deep clean between administrations, but we've never seen anything like this," presidential historian Kate Brower Andersen told ABC. The US government will spend almost $500,000 on a deep clean of the White House before President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20, CNN reported, citing government contracts it had viewed.
PoliticsThe IndependentTrump is back in contact with Steve Bannon and ‘asking him how to overturn election’
Donald Trump is reportedly back in touch with his former chief strategist Steve Bannon who he has been speaking to several times over the phone in the recent weeks, seeking advice on how to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential elections. Mr Bannon is considered one of the main architects of Mr Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and had joined him as an adviser in the White House after the elections. Mr Bannon quit the position in August 2017 after he fell from the good books of the president due to a controversy related to his book.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderPelosi taps retired military commander, who oversaw the US response to Hurricane Katrina, to oversee probe into security failures during Capitol siege
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré will lead "an immediate review" of the security during the Capitol attack. On January 6, pro-Trump insurrectionists stormed the Capitol, which resulted in five deaths. Honoré is known for leading the task force that was in charge of the US military response to Hurricane Katrina.
PoliticsThe WeekTrump's team is reportedly trying to assemble a crowd for a 'major send-off' hours before Biden's inauguration
President Trump is planning to exit the White House on the morning of Jan. 20, a few hours before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in a short distance away, CNN reports. "Eager for a final taste of the pomp of being president, Trump has asked for a major send-off," and "as one of their final acts, Trump's team is working to organize a crowd to see him off on the morning of Biden's inauguration, when he plans to depart Washington while still president" for a flight to Palm Beach, Florida, where his term will officially end at noon. There are 20,000 National Guard troops currently deployed or en route to Washington, D.C., ahead of Biden's inauguration, because the last crowd Trump drew to the White House morphed into an insurrectionist mob that stormed the Capitol.
U.S.Business InsiderAn intelligence report by Capitol Police warned 'Congress itself' could be targeted, days before the deadly siege on the US Capitol, according to The Washington Post
In a report produced days before the deadly siege on the US Capitol, Capitol Police intelligence warned "Congress itself" could be the target of an attack by pro-Trump protesters. The January 3 report, obtained by The Washington Post, said Trump supporters saw January 6 "as the last opportunity to overturn the results of the presidential election" and that this "sense of desperation and disappointment may lead to more of an incentive to become violent." Following the attack, US Capitol Police has come under scrutiny for failing to prevent the breach of the Capitol building.
BusinessBusiness InsiderNearly 6,000 Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama will vote next month on forming the first union in the company's history
About 6,000 Amazon workers in Alabama will vote on forming a union, which would be the e-commerce giant's first union in its history, according to a petition filed. Workers will receive their ballots on February 8 to vote in the mail-in election over the wishes of Amazon, which was pushing for an in-person election. Amazon has been staunchly opposed to its workers organizing a union, with the company even hiring detectives with the Pinkerton spy agency to monitor efforts.
PoliticsThe IndependentMelania snubs meeting Jill Biden as First Lady-to-be unveils advisors
As Dr Jill Biden acknowledged the fast-approaching inauguration, tweeting: “One week”, and began announcing her plans for her time in the White House, the current first lady Melania Trump has reportedly still not made any contact with her. Dr Biden intends to continue her work on issues affecting military families. Ms Trump's plans for her post-White House life are unknown.
PoliticsThe Daily BeastBill Maher Delivers Final Insult to Kellyanne Conway on ‘Real Time’
On the evening of Jan. 7, a full day after an army of Trump fanatics—at the president's urging—stormed the U.S. Capitol on a mission to overthrow the government, menacing congresspeople and killing a police officer in the process, Kellyanne Conway issued a rambling statement on Twitter. In it, one of Trump's most loyal and semi-trusted advisers condemned the events as “outrageous and inexcusable,” followed by the comical lie that her former boss had “denounced the violence, acknowledged the certified election results and committed to a 'peaceful transfer of power' to the Biden-Harris Administration.” Well, Kellyanne—who once invented a terrorist attack in the “Bowling Green Massacre”—visited Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday night for its 19th season premiere.
EntertainmentLA TimesMAGA musician Ariel Pink, spurned by fans, complains to Tucker Carlson: 'People are so mean'
Days after attending a rally that led to a deadly right-wing insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the L.A. indie musician Ariel Pink tried to defend his actions on Fox News host Tucker Carlson's show on Thursday. “I had no choice, there's nothing else for me to do,” Pink said, looking shaken and nervous. Pink, an acclaimed but antagonizing fixture of L.A.'s experimental music scene, has become an unlikely far-right martyr-hero after photos of him attending the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally (with fellow local avant-garde artist John Maus) surfaced.
CelebrityMiami HeraldThis ‘Saved by the Bell’ star was just diagnosed with cancer. Here’s what we know
Fans now know why Dustin Diamond was hospitalized in Florida over the weekend. The “Saved by the Bell” star had entered the hospital with pain through his body, and cancer was suspected. Now the diagnosis is in: Diamond, 44, does indeed have Stage 4 cancer.
PoliticsThe WeekMelania Trump is reportedly more than ready to leave the White House
First lady Melania Trump is spending her final days in the White House packing, making photo albums, and counting down the minutes until she can move out, CNN reports. Since November, she has been overseeing the Trump family's move, deciding what will go to Mar-a-Lago in Florida and what will go into storage. With the help of White House staffers, she has been doing this stealthily, as to not upset President Trump — the official told CNN he really didn't think they would be moving, and it's a sensitive subject.
“If you’re looking to win elections, it is probably best not to urge your supporters not to vote.”
“Warnock’s portrayal of himself as a dog lover, a means of overcoming white suspicions of Black men, smacked of pure genius.”
“Trump has done damage to the Republican brand among suburban voters that goes well beyond just races where he is on the ballot.”
“Once more, Democrats must profusely thank activist Stacey Abrams.”
“Overall, demographic trends show that the state’s electorate is becoming younger and more diverse each year.”