Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas cleared the way for the Senate to vote on the confirmation of President Joe Biden’s director of national intelligence nominee Avril Haines on Wednesday after initially holding up her nomination, making Haines likely to be the first confirmed member of Biden’s Cabinet. Cotton placed a hold on Haines’ nomination
Continue Reading
Vice President Kamala Harris formally swore in three new, barrier-breaking Democratic senators on Wednesday afternoon following her own inauguration, officially giving Democrats control of the Senate for the first time since they lost the chamber in the 2014 elections. Earlier this month, Georgia elected two Democrats — the Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff —
Continue Reading
Contact tracing issues for the Memphis Grizzlies meant they would not have enough players eligible to play in Portland on Wednesday night, leading to the 16th game postponement for coronavirus-related reasons by the NBA this season.
Continue ReadingClick here for updates on this story BAY MINETTE, Alabama (WALA) — Authorities have arrested the second woman connected to a case earlier this month when two women were accused of allegedly leaving drugs for an inmate outside of the courthouse in Bay Minette. On the day of the incident, officials obtained a video showing
Continue Reading
Barack Obama greeted Kamala Harris with a fist bump at the inauguration on Wednesday, a gesture that carried symbolic weight as the history-making former president prepared to watch Harris make some of her own. The moment came as Harris walked to her seat on the inaugural stage Wednesday morning shortly before being sworn in as
Continue Reading
Researchers say the population of gray whales off the West Coast of the United States has fallen by nearly one-quarter since 2016, resembling a similar die-off two decades ago.
Continue ReadingRepublican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas is waiting for an answer from President Joe Biden’s director of national intelligence nominee Avril Haines before he agrees to a speedy Senate confirmation vote, a sign of the challenges that the new President faces getting his Cabinet nominees installed in the evenly divided Senate. Many of Biden’s Cabinet
Continue Reading
Oregon’s governor, secretary of state and two U.S. senators — all Democrats — applauded Wednesday’s inauguration of Joe Biden as the nation’s 46th president.
Continue ReadingPresident Joe Biden is directing the Department of Education Wednesday to extend the suspension of federal student loan payments and interest. Borrowers will not have to make payments until October 1 at the earliest, extending the already unprecedented pause on payments by eight months. When the economy began to shut down in response to the
Continue Reading Hours after he was sworn in, President Joe Biden announced the US plans to reenter the Paris climate accord, the landmark international agreement signed in 2015 to limit global warming, in a sign of Biden’s urgency to address the climate crisis. The US abandoned the agreement late last year on former President Donald Trump’s orders.
Continue ReadingJoe Biden was sworn in Wednesday as the 46th United States President, taking the reins of a country in crisis. But his task on the global stage will be daunting, too. World leaders reacted to Biden’s inauguration by offering congratulations, jockeying for position at the forefront of his foreign policy agenda, and in some cases
Continue ReadingClick here for updates on this story RALEIGH, North Carolina (WLOS) — The former North Carolina state record for a channel catfish held steady for 50 years, but the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission reported Jan. 20 that a Pinehurst man broke that record last September. John Stone, of Pinehurst, now holds the new record after
Continue ReadingPresident Donald Trump made false claims from the first hours of his term to the last. Trump repeated some of his favorite falsehoods in both his farewell video address, which was released on Tuesday, and in his final speech on Wednesday morning at Joint Base Andrews. One more time, here is a fact check roundup.
Continue Reading
Joe Biden took a brief walk along the inaugural parade route Wednesday before entering the White House for the first time as the 46th President of the United States, jogging to the sidelines to greet reporters and the few guests in attendance in a city that is locked down following the security breach at the
Continue Reading
President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday looked a bit different from past ceremonies ushering in a new administration. There is, after all, immensely heightened security in Washington, DC, and a swirling pandemic, not to mention the absence of the outgoing president, the first time that’s happened in more than a century and a half. It’s
Continue Reading
In a sharp break with his predecessor, President Joe Biden vowed during his inaugural address Wednesday to tackle the information crisis plaguing American politics and society. “We must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured,” Biden said shortly after taking the oath as the 46th President. “There is truth,” Biden
Continue ReadingPresident Joe Biden on Wednesday announced a slate of acting agency heads after taking office without a single one of his Cabinet nominees in place and confirmed by the US Senate. “These individuals, nearly all of whom are career civil servants, will temporarily lead federal agencies while Cabinet nominees continue moving through the confirmation process,”
Continue ReadingHoward University’s marching band has taken part in presidential inaugurations before. But during Wednesday’s inaugural parade, they escorted one of their own. The renowned Showtime Marching Band accompanied Vice President Kamala Harris — an alumna of Howard University — to the White House shortly after she took her oath of office, along with President Joe
Continue ReadingClick here for updates on this story OMAHA, Nebraska (WOWT) — The City of Omaha unveiled a pilot program Tuesday designed to give second chances to those arrested on certain minor offenses. The city prosecutor, Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer, and the city’s Human Rights and Relations Department joined Mayor Jean Stothert in a news
Continue ReadingClick here for updates on this story MINNEAPOLIS, MN (WCCO) — A group of parents, student-athletes and coaches in Minnesota filed a motion in federal court Tuesday seeking a preliminary injunction to block Gov. Tim Walz’s mask requirement for youth sports. The group, Let Them Play MN, says the motion argues that the governor and
Continue Reading