New COVID-19 cases in US soar to highest levels on record
CHICAGO (AP) — More than a year after the vaccine was rolled out, new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to their highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average, a surge driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant.
New cases per day have more than doubled over the past two weeks, eclipsing the old mark of 250,000, set in mid-January, according to data kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The fast-spreading mutant version of the virus has cast a pall over Christmas and New Year's, forcing communities to scale back or call off their festivities just weeks after it seemed as if Americans were about to enjoy an almost normal holiday season. Thousands of flights have been canceled amid staffing shortages blamed on the virus.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious-disease expert, said Wednesday that there is no need to cancel small home gatherings among vaccinated and boosted family and friends.
But "if your plans are to go to a 40- to 50-person New Year’s Eve party with all the bells and whistles and everybody hugging and kissing and wishing each other a happy new year, I would strongly recommend that this year we not do that,” he said.
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'Slow-motion insurrection': How GOP seizes election power
In the weeks leading up to the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, a handful of Americans — well-known politicians, obscure local bureaucrats — stood up to block then-President Donald Trump’s unprecedented attempt to overturn a free and fair vote of the American people.
In the year since, Trump-aligned Republicans have worked to clear the path for next time.
In battleground states and beyond, Republicans are taking hold of the once-overlooked machinery of elections. While the effort is incomplete and uneven, outside experts on democracy and Democrats are sounding alarms, warning that the United States is witnessing a “slow-motion insurrection” with a better chance of success than Trump’s failed power grab last year.
They point to a mounting list of evidence: Several candidates who deny Trump’s loss are running for offices that could have a key role in the election of the next president in 2024. In Michigan, the Republican Party is restocking members of obscure local boards that could block approval of an election. In Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, the GOP-controlled legislatures are backing open-ended “reviews” of the 2020 election, modeled on a deeply flawed look-back in Arizona. The efforts are poised to fuel disinformation and anger about the 2020 results for years to come.
All this comes as the Republican Party has become more aligned behind Trump, who has made denial of the 2020 results a litmus test for his support. Trump has praised the Jan. 6 rioters and backed primaries aimed at purging lawmakers who have crossed him. Sixteen GOP governors have signed laws making it more difficult to vote. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll showed that two-thirds of Republicans do not believe Democrat Joe Biden was legitimately elected as president.
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Ghislaine Maxwell convicted in Epstein sex abuse case
NEW YORK (AP) — The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted Wednesday of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by the American millionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
The verdict capped a monthlong trial featuring sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described being abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein’s palatial homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico.
Jurors deliberated for five full days before finding Maxwell guilty of five of six counts. With the maximum prison terms for each charge ranging from five to 40 years in prison, Maxwell faces the likelihood of years behind bars — an outcome long sought by women who spent years fighting in civil courts to hold her accountable for her role in recruiting and grooming Epstein’s teenage victims and sometimes joining in the sexual abuse.
As the verdict was read, Maxwell was largely stoic behind a black mask. Afterward, she could be seen pouring herself water as one of her attorneys patted her back. She stood with her hands folded as the jury filed out, and glanced at her siblings — faithfully in attendance each day of the trial — as she herself was led from the courtroom. She did not hug her lawyers on the way out, a marked change from previous days during which Maxwell and her team were often physically affectionate with one another.
One of her victims, Annie Farmer, said she was grateful the jury recognized Maxwell's “pattern of predatory behavior.”
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How democracy was dismantled in Hong Kong in 2021
HONG KONG (AP) — As the days of 2021 dwindled, so did any remaining traces of democracy in Hong Kong.
On Wednesday, a vocal pro-democracy media outlet -- one of the last openly critical voices in the city -- closed after a police raid. Earlier in December, the opposition was shut out from elections under a new law that puts all candidates to a loyalty test. And monuments commemorating the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 were taken down.
Again and again throughout the year, the city’s authorities and the central government in Beijing stamped out nearly everything the pro-democracy movement had stood for. Activists fled abroad or were locked up under the draconian National Security Law imposed on the city 18 months ago. Unions and other independent organizations closed down.
Where once Hong Kong allowed "open opposition and questioning of the government’s core policies and legitimacy ... any meaningful policy debates will now take place among a small circle of government loyalists," said Kurt Tong, partner at The Asia Group and former U.S. consul general in Hong Kong and Macao.
The days when the former British colony was considered a bastion of freedom fade in memory. Returned to China in 1997, Hong Kong has endured an overhaul of its political system and a crackdown on political dissent. Authorities sought to suppress antigovernment sentiment that led to months of political strife in 2019.
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Late Senate leader Harry Reid remembered as `man of action'
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidents and former Senate colleagues are lauding longtime Majority Leader Harry Reid, who died Tuesday, for a political legacy that included an expansion of health insurance coverage for millions of Americans and helping secure an economic aid package and banking overhaul following the 2008 financial crisis.
They are also recalling a politician whose blunt and combative words often antagonized his political rivals, and sometimes his allies. The Nevada Democrat's abrupt style was typified by his habit of unceremoniously hanging up the phone without saying goodbye.
Reid, 82, died at home in Henderson, Nevada, of complications from pancreatic cancer, according to Landra Reid, his wife of 62 years.
President Joe Biden said in a proclamation that the U.S. flag will be flown at half-staff at the White House and other federal buildings on the day of Reid's internment. Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak issued a similar order for his state. The flag at the U.S. Capitol has already been lowered. Reid's family has not yet announced memorial service plans.
Biden called Reid one of the great Senate majority leaders in the country's history.
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Holmes jury to take break after six days of deliberation
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The jury weighing fraud charges against former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes departed court Wednesday without reaching a verdict after six days of deliberations. It won't resume discussions until after the upcoming New Year's holiday weekend.
The eight men and four women on the jury had been expected to continue deliberations on Thursday morning, but a court filing after they left disclosed they will be taking a break until Monday. There was no explanation for the decision to pause deliberations. The jury had already been scheduled to be off Friday, a federal court holiday.
The latest round of discussions occurred against a backdrop of intrigue raised by a closed-door meeting early Wednesday involving Holmes’ attorneys, and the judge presiding over the case.
U.S. District Judge Edward Davila held the “in camera” hearing Tuesday morning with two of Holmes’ lawyers, Kevin Downey and Lance Wade, along with a two of the prosecutors, Jeffrey Schenk and Robert Leach, according to a court filing late Tuesday night. Holmes was not present at the 23-minute hearing.
The hearing transcript has been sealed, leaving the topics that were discussed a mystery. But it it’s not unusual for plea agreement discussions to take place while a jury deliberates over charges, especially the longer it takes to reach a verdict. The surprise decision to take Thursday off may also have been a focal point.
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Suspect in Denver shootings wrote books previewing attacks
DENVER (AP) — A man accused of killing five people in a rampage in Denver is believed to have written fictional books self-published online that named some of his real-life victims and described similar attacks.
The writings are part of the investigation into what led Lyndon James McLeod to carry out the shootings, which took place in less than an hour Monday at several locations around the metro area, Denver police spokesman Doug Schepman said Wednesday.
McLeod, 47, knew most of the people he shot through business or personal relationships, police have said. Four of the people who were shot were attacked at tattoo shops. In addition to those killed, two other people were wounded, including a police officer who shot and killed McLeod after being hit.
In the first novel, written under a pen name of Roman McClay, a character named Lyndon stalks a poker party held by a character named “Michael Swinyard” and gains access to a building near Cheesman Park by posing as a police officer. He then fatally shoots everyone at the party and robs them before fleeing with his dog in a van.
In Monday's attack, Michael Swinyard, 67, was fatally shot at a home near Denver’s Cheesman Park, police said.
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Another round of snow before thaw comes to frigid Northwest
SEATTLE (AP) — A thaw-out is coming for frozen Seattle and Portland, Oregon, but not before another round of snow that could compound problems for a region more accustomed to winter rain than arctic blasts.
More snow and rain fell on California on Wednesday, causing travel disruptions on mountain routes and raising the risk of debris flows from wildfire burn scars.
And in Nevada the governor plans to declare a state of emergency due to snow and storm conditions affecting travel in the Lake Tahoe area of northern Nevada.
Forecasters say parts of western Washington could see up to 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of snow Thursday and northwestern Oregon could see a similar amount.
The normally temperate part of the Pacific Northwest has shivered with temperatures hitting the single digits in some areas this week after extreme cold air from Canada’s Fraser River Valley blew in on Sunday.
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Schwarzenegger and Shriver divorce final after 10 years
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver’s marriage is officially over more than 10 years after the award-winning journalist petitioned to end her then-25-year marriage to the action star and former California governor.
A Los Angeles judge finalized the divorce on Tuesday, court records show.
The pair had been married since 1986 when Shriver filed for divorce in 2011 after Schwarzenegger disclosed he had fathered a child with a member of their household staff years earlier.
The revelation set off a tabloid frenzy, but Schwarzenegger and Shriver handled their divorce quietly and without lobbing accusations in court or in public.
It's not clear why the process took so long. There were virtually no public actions taken in the case between the initial flurry of filings in 2011 and a resumption of court moves in June.
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Candace Parker voted AP Female Athlete of Year for 2nd time
Candace Parker wrestled with the decision to make a huge change in her life and leave Los Angeles — where she had played her entire WNBA career — and head home to Chicago.
In the end, the appeal of a homecoming was too much for Parker to ignore, and it couldn't have worked out better.
The 35-year-old Parker staved off Father Time to help the Chicago Sky win the franchise's first WNBA championship and capped off 2021 by being named The Associated Press' Female Athlete of the Year for a second time.
“There was something about going to where you started playing the game,” Parker said in a phone interview. “It’s exciting to play in front of the people who first saw me pick up a basketball. To win at home, I'm just now recognizing it a little bit. How special that really is. Something that is top on my list.”
It's a list that keeps the working mom and basketball analyst for TNT pretty busy. Parker is finally beginning to appreciate bringing a title to her hometown in the twilight of her career.
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