Pittsburgh Today Live Chat: Jan. 1, 2021

Pittsburgh Today Live's Heather Abraham and David Highfield catch up on all the latest happenings and preview what's coming up on the show.

Latest Stories

  • NBA player turned conspiracy theorist stages one-man pro-Trump protest amid inaugural security prepared for thousands

    The extra security measures appeared to have kept many protesters away from the Capitol and inaugural activities, but not one man.

  • Houston police veteran lied about entering Capitol, feds say

    Tam Dinh Pham of the Houston police department was part of the deadly mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. A veteran Houston police officer is in trouble after attending the U.S. Capitol riots in Washington, D.C., then lying about it. Officer Tam Dinh Pham joined the deadly mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

  • Michigan official shows gun after public meeting criticism

    A county official in northern Michigan displayed a rifle during an online meeting in response to a citizen's comments about a far-right extremist group, drawing outrage from some local residents. Ron Clous, an elected member of the Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners, was at home during the livestreamed meeting Wednesday, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported. During a public comment period, a local woman, Kelli MacIntash, criticized the board for allowing self-described members of the Proud Boys to speak at a commission meeting last year and urged commission Chairman Rob Hentschel to denounce them.

  • US, UK Sign Agreement to Merge Forces for Historic Joint Carrier Deployment

    Marine F-35B Joint Strike Fighter aircraft and the Navy destroyer The Sullivans will deploy as part of the strike group.

  • Biden signs executive orders reversing Trump decisions on COVID, climate change

    Fresh off his inauguration Wednesday, President Biden began his term with executive orders on measures ranging from curbing the coronavirus pandemic to addressing racial inequality, many of which roll back measures enacted by former President Donald Trump’s administration.

  • Pence moves out and Harris moves in: This is the official home of the Vice President

    Ms Harris is expected to move into the 128-year-old residence once a number of repairs have been made

  • Commanding Officer of Navy Reserve Center Fired After Investigation

    Capt. Scott Moss, who led the NOSC in Knoxville, was relieved of command by Capt. Dale Maxey.

  • AD100 Designer Monique Gibson Designs a Tribeca Aerie with High-Impact Views

    800 feet up in the sky, the Dreamy 6,000 square foot space offers panoramic views from the East River to the HudsonOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Graham Hopes Trump Stays ‘Leader’ of GOP, Says Enemies Will ‘Get Erased’ If They Try to Oust Him

    Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) on Wednesday warned fellow Republicans that if they try to “erase Donald Trump from the party, you’re going to get erased.” “I hope people in our party understand the party itself,” he told Fox News hours after President Joe Biden was sworn-in. “Most Republicans like his policies. A lot of Republicans like his style,” Graham said. “A lot of people are disappointed with him personally at times but appreciate the outcomes he’s achieved for our country.” Asked if he thinks Trump will try to start another political party — according to the Wall Street Journal, the former president is toying with the idea of forming a “Patriot Party” — Graham said he hoped Trump does not, adding that he would like to see him “stay the leader of the Republican Party.” He defended Trump’s presidency as “a good four years for judges, for rebuilding the military, for bringing order to the border, for historic peace agreements in the Mideast.” He also commended the former president’s appointment of three Supreme Court justices. “I hope President Trump understands that his legacy and his best future lies with the Republican Party,” he said. He added that removing Trump from the party “would be a disaster … The one way Democrats can survive is for the Republican Party to crack up. The best way for the Republican Party to crack up is try to move forward without Donald Trump.” A number of Republicans have disavowed Trump in recent weeks after a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, leaving five people dead. A handful of House Republicans joined Democrats in voting to impeach the president for “incitement of insurrection.”

  • Anti-fascist protesters vandalize buildings in Portland and Seattle

    People dressed in black and with their faces covered broke windows and the glass door at the Democratic Party of Oregon business office in Portland, spray-painting an anarchist symbol over the party sign, video posted on social media showed. The new Democratic president was sworn in on Wednesday, urging unity and restoration after Republican Donald Trump's divisive tenure.

  • Newsom promised 1 million COVID-19 vaccinations. California can't tell if he hit goal

    Gov. Gavin Newsom said 1 million additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine would be administered in California over the course of 10 days. But due to the state's data collection issues, it is unclear whether he met that goal.

  • Tennessee state senator charged in 2nd fraud case

    Already facing allegations of stealing more than $600,000 in federal funds from a health care school she directed, a Tennessee state senator has been charged in a new fraud case, the U.S. attorney’s office in Memphis said Tuesday.

  • Investigators probe whether automatic throttle malfunction caused Indonesian air crash

    Investigators in Indonesia are probing whether a malfunctioning automatic throttle could have brought down the Sriwijaya Airlines flight that nosedived into the Java Sea on January 9. A person familiar with the investigation told Bloomberg that the autothrottle was producing more thrust in one of the Boeing 737-500’s two engines than the other after the plane took off from Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta airport carrying 62 people. Unequal thrust can cause a plane to roll onto its side and descend abruptly and autothrottle malfunctions have previously caused incidents on the 737 and led to the Tarom airlines crash in Romania in 1995, which killed 60 people. The source said the device had been having problems on previous flights made by the aircraft. Nurcahyo Utomo, the lead investigator at Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee, confirmed that a malfunctioning throttle was “one of the factors that we are looking at, but I can’t say at this point that it’s a factor for the crash or there was a problem with it." Earlier this month, officials investigating the tragedy were reported to be looking at a possible link to the 27-year-old plane’s prolonged grounding because of travel restrictions and reduced timetables during the Covid-19 pandemic.

  • Photos: How newspapers around the world covered Biden's inauguration

    The inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris was splashed across the front pages of newspapers in the United States and around the world on Thursday, a day after they were sworn into office.

  • Trump pardons ex-boyfriend of deported Russian agent

    President Donald Trump renewed his grievance over the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election by pardoning Paul Erickson, a former conservative operative once romantically linked to Russian agent Maria Butina. Erickson received the pardon even though he had pleaded guilty to fraudulent investment schemes that had nothing to do with Russia or the agent. It was part of a flurry of clemency action by Trump just before his term ended, with the White House characterizing his conviction as “based off the Russian collusion hoax” and saying his pardon “helps right the wrongs of what has been revealed to be perhaps the greatest witch hunt in American History.”

  • Michael Flynn’s brother reveals he was involved in Capitol riot response after Army denied it, report says

    Apparent U-turn by Pentagon officials could pose questions about police response

  • Marine archeologists discover ancient shipwrecks off island in the Aegean

    Four shipwrecks, including one dating back to Roman times, have been discovered by marine archeologists off the Greek island of Kasos in the Aegean. Lying between Rhodes and Crete, the Dodecanese island was on a crucial trade route in antiquity. Inside the Roman-era shipwreck, divers found amphorae which originated from Spain and what is now Tunisia, the Greek culture ministry said. They would have been used to transport wine, olive oil and possibly garum – a pungent fish sauce that was much prized by the Romans. The ship has been lying on the seabed for nearly 2,000 years - it is believed to date back to the 2nd or 3rd century AD.

  • The 6 Biden-Harris Day One actions that mattered most

    The Axios experts help you sort significance from symbolism. Here are the six Day 1 actions by President Biden that matter most.Driving the news: Today, on his first full day, Biden translates his promise of a stronger federal response to the pandemic into action — starting with 10 executive orders and other directives, Caitlin Owens writes.Support safe, smart, sane journalism. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here. * Biden's executive actions direct federal agencies to boost supply chains — including by using the Defense Production Act. Go deeper.Biden's executive orders on climate change, including rejoining the Paris Agreement and reinstating a raft of environmental regulations, are forcing Washington's biggest business lobbying groups to the table in a new way, Amy Harder and Ben Geman tell me. * The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Petroleum Institute say they support Biden's plan to regulate methane emissions from oil and gas wells. Go deeper.Biden instructed the EPA and the Transportation Department to re-establish stricter fuel efficiency mandates, which President Trump had weakened. Joann Muller says this is part of a broader agenda that calls for widespread adoption of electric vehicles.Biden's move to freeze student loan repayments through September — and the suggestion he'll swiftly place consumer champion Rohit Chopra in charge of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — puts lenders on notice that their actions will be scrutinized.Big cities rejoice at Biden's actions on immigration, Jennifer A. Kingson tells me: Revoking Trump's executive order that excluded undocumented immigrants from the census and congressional apportionment has huge implications for the nation's big urban centers, which fear that a bungled and incomplete census could lead to a massive loss of federal representation.Tech companies applauded the president's action on DACA, as well as his rescission of an executive order that limited diversity training at companies that do business with the federal government, Ina Fried reports from S.F.Vice-President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff watch fireworks in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Photo: Joshua Roberts-Pool/Getty ImagesBe smart: sign up FREE for the most influential newsletter in America.

  • Trump reportedly extended 24-hour Secret Service protection to his 4 adult children

    One of former President Donald Trump's last acts in office was issuing a directive extending free Secret Service protection to his four adult children and two of their spouses for the next six months, three people with knowledge of the matter told The Washington Post.It's not just his adult children benefiting — Trump also directed that former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and former National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien continue to receive Secret Service protection for six months, two people familiar with the matter told the Post. This 24-hour security, funded by taxpayer money, is expected to cost millions.Under federal law, only Trump, former first lady Melania Trump, and their 14-year-old son, Barron, are entitled to Secret Service protection now that they have left the White House; while Donald and Melania can receive protection for the rest of their lives, Barron is only entitled to it up until his 16th birthday.The Post notes that presidents have the ability to order Secret Service protection for anyone they want, but it is extremely unusual for an outgoing president to order this type of security for their children who are well into adulthood. It is also unclear if there is precedent for ordering security for former aides. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush requested security extensions for their daughters, who were in college when their presidencies ended. Once former President Barack Obama was out of office, his daughters — one in high school, the other on a gap year from college — received a short extension of security.During Trump's presidency, his adult children took more than 4,500 trips, including vacations and business travel for the Trump Organization, the Post reports. Taxpayers paid millions of dollars for Secret Service agents to accompany them on those jaunts.More stories from theweek.com 7 brutally funny cartoons about Trump's White House exit Eli Lilly antibody drug 'significantly' reduces risk of COVID-19 in nursing homes, study shows Biden's team reportedly realized after inauguration that Trump really had no vaccine distribution plan

  • Debris and smoke from deadly Madrid blast

    At least two people died and eight were injured on Wednesday (January 20) when a building in central Madrid belonging to the Catholic Church was blown apart by an explosion, local authorities said. One of the injured was in serious condition and transferred to hospital. A Church official said one church volunteer was missing. Initial investigations suggested that the blast in Calle Toledo, a street leading out from the city center, had been caused by a gas leak, Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida said.