Month: January 2022

A Los Angeles area shooting at a house party early Sunday left four people dead and another injured.  According to local reports and city officials, the shooting took place in Inglewood — a city of about 100,000 people 10 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles — around 1:30 a.m.

Three people were pronounced dead at the scene, and paramedics rushed two others to the hospital. One of them died en route to the hospital, and the other is expected to survive. The victims who died were reportedly two females and two males.

Inglewood Mayor James Butts spoke to reporters on Sunday and described the shooting as an “ambush” involving multiple shooters firing multiple weapons including a rifle and a handgun. The mayor said it was the largest number of single shooting victims in Inglewood since the 1990s.  Said Butts of the shooters: “These are sociopathic killers that have to be sequestered from society. Turn yourselves in. We will find you, and we will prosecute you.”

Police haven’t released a potential motive or said if any of the victims were targeted. The man who survived allegedly admitted to being a member of a street gang in another city, and investigators are trying to determine if the shooting was gang-related.

Editorial credit: Albert Campbell / Shutterstock.com

The Chairman of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol said on Sunday that the panel has spoken with former U.S. Attorney General William Barr.

The Chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told CBS News’ Face the Nation that the committee had spoken to Barr and Department of Defense officials about reports that former President Donald Trump had been presented a draft of an executive order directing the defense secretary to seize voting machines in battleground states in December 2020. Said Thompson:  “To be honest with you, we’ve had conversations with the former attorney general already. We have talked to Department of Defense individuals. We are concerned that our military was part of this big lie on promoting that the election was false. So, if you are using the military to potentially seize voting machines, even though it’s a discussion, the public needs to know, we’ve never had that before.”

Thompson also said on Sunday that the committee was “in the process of reviewing” 700 pages of Trump administration documents that were handed to the panel after the Supreme Court ruled to deny Trump’s request to block their release.  He said:  “We’ll see if that information leads us to additional individuals to make requests. But it’s so significant to our investigation to have the documents and executive privilege and other things obviously had no bearing and we’re just happy for the Supreme Court decision. We’ll look forward to reviewing it and based on the review, we’ll take next steps.”   Thompson added the committee still expected to hold public hearings for its investigation in the spring: “We are reviewing thousands of pages of documents, hundreds of witnesses,” he said. “It’s taken a good bit of time for the committee to put together. And hearings at this point, we expect to be sometime in the spring.”

Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com

The chairman of the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol said the panel will ask Ivanka Trump, former President Donald Trump’s eldest daughter who served as a top White house adviser, to testify voluntarily.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. told reporters in the Capitol on Thursday: “You will anticipate the committee inviting some people to come talk to us. Not lawmakers right now — Ivanka Trump.”  The January 6th Committee said it has evidence that Ivanka Trump “was in direct contact with the former President on Jan 6th,” and she may have “direct knowledge of the former President’s attempt to persuade Vice President [Mike] Pence to take action to stop the counting of electoral votes.”

Thompson said in a letter to Ivanka Trump that rather than respecting court rulings or the outcome of the Electoral College vote, Trump planned to enlist Pence to “unilaterally reject certain states’ votes” to change the outcome of the 2020 election.

The panel was seeking her voluntary cooperation with the investigation in four specific areas, according to the letter. The letter proposed meeting with Ivanka Trump in early February to discuss these matters.

Editorial credit: a katz / Shutterstock.com

On Thursday, President Joe Biden attempted to clarify his stance on a potential Russian incursion into Ukraine, this after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took issue with comments Biden made during a U.S. presidential briefing. Biden said Thursday that Russia will “pay a heavy price” for any invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

Biden addressed the military buildup Wednesday during a news conference, drawing a distinction between a potential “minor incursion” and a stronger invasion, saying:  “I think what you’re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades and it depends on what it does. It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and then we end up having to fight about what to do and not do, etc., but if they actually do what they’re capable of doing with the forces they’ve amassed on the border it is going to be a disaster for Russia if they further invade Ukraine and our allies and partners are ready to impose severe cost and significant harm on Russia and the Russian economy.”

However Ukrainian President Zelensky said Thursday that no invasion into Ukraine would be considered minor, tweeting: “We want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and small nations. Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones. I say this as the President of a great power.”  In response, Biden attempted to clarify that no matter the size of a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine, the United States and its allies would stand against Moscow, explaining: “I’ve been absolutely clear with President [Vladimir] Putin. He has no misunderstanding. If any — any — assembled Russian units move across Ukrainian border, that is an invasion. But it will be met with severe and coordinated economic response that I’ve discussed in detail with our allies, as well as laid out very clearly for President Putin. Let there be no doubt at all: If Putin makes this choice, Russia will pay a heavy price.”

Editorial credit: BiksuTong / Shutterstock.com

Two Marines were killed Wednesday in an accident outside Camp LeJeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina, after a military vehicle rolled over.  The unit confirmed in a tweet that the seven-ton truck was carrying members of the 2nd Marine Logistics Group, which is headquartered at Camp LeJeune: “We are working closely with @camp_lejeune and Onslow County officials to gather details regarding this incident. We will release more information as it becomes available.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, wrote on social media that he and wife Susan “are praying for the families of the Marines who were tragically killed in an accident at Camp Lejeune, & we are praying for the full recovery of the Marines who were injured. God Bless our service members who put their lives at risk every day to protect our nation.”

Editorial credit: Fred Marie / Shutterstock.com

President Joe Biden held a formal news conference at the White House on Wednesday, the eve of the one-year anniversary of his inauguration.  Wednesday’s session marked just the second time Biden has held a solo formal press conference at the White House; the first such news conference was held March 25, 2021.

Biden took questions from reporters on his handling of the pandemic, the economy and legislative agenda, and characterizing the country as unified.  Before fielding questions from reporters, Biden said: “It’s been a year of challenges, but it’s also many years of enormous progress.” 

Biden touted wins over the year, including administering more than 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses and hitting record-low unemployment rates in many states — despite Biden’s approval rating in polls hitting an all-time low. In his opening remarks, Biden acknowledged: “Should we have done more testing earlier? Yes. But we’re doing more now. We’ve gone from zero at-home tests a year ago to 375 million tests on the market just this month.” On the subject of COVID-19, Biden said the country is “in a better place than we’ve been and have been thus far” and reiterated his position not to go back to lockdowns and school closures.

When Biden was questioned as to whether he overpromised to the American public what his administration could achieve in office one year in, the President replied:  “Look, I didn’t overpromise. I have probably outperformed what anybody thought would happen. The fact of the matter is that we’re in a situation where we have made enormous progress.”  He then acknowledged: “One thing I haven’t been able to do so far, is get my Republican friends to get in the game of making things better in this country. I did not anticipate that there’d be such a stalwart effort to make sure that the most important thing was that President Biden didn’t get anything done.”

Editorial credit: BiksuTong / Shutterstock.com