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AFTER TRUMP’S 2ND IMPEACHMENT ACQUITTAL, COMMISSION MAY BE NEXT
WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after former President Donald Trump was acquitted in his second impeachment trial, bipartisan support appears to be growing for an independent Sept. 11-style commission into the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Investigations into the riot are already planned, with Senate hearings scheduled later this month. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has asked retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré to lead an immediate review of the Capitol’s security process.
Lawmakers from both parties, speaking on yesterday’s news shows, signal even more inquiries are likely.
“There should be a complete investigation about what happened,” says Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, one of seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump. Cassidy said he was “attempting to hold President Trump accountable,” and added that as Americans hear all the facts, “more folks will move to where I was.” Cassidy was censured by his state’s party after the vote.
An independent commission along the lines of the one that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks would probably require legislation to create. That would elevate the investigation a step higher, offering a definitive government-backed accounting of events.
WINTER WEATHER BLANKETS LARGE PARTS OF U.S.
DALLAS (AP) — Snow and ice blanketed large swaths of the U.S. yesterday, leading to canceled flights, hazardous driving — and promising even more nasty weather.
Along the Gulf Coast of Texas, snow and sleet were expected overnight.
Marc Chenard of the National Weather Service says, “typically, we just don’t have quite this much cold air in place that far south.”
The storm prompted officials in Houston, where temperatures were in the 70s earlier last week, to advise residents to prepare for power outages and hazardous roads. They say power interruptions could be similar to what might be encountered in the wake of a Category 5 hurricane.
Winter weather conditions are affecting large portions of the U.S., but Chenard says it is rare for them to extend so far south.
BIDEN JOINS FLA. COMMUNITY SHATTERED BY PARKLAND SHOOTING
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Sorrow reverberated across the country as Americans, including President Joe Biden, joined a Florida community in remembering the 17 lives lost three years ago in the Parkland school shooting massacre.
In a statement released yesterday, Biden said, “In seconds, the lives of dozens of families, and the life of an American community, were changed forever.”
Biden used the occasion to call on Congress to strengthen gun laws, including requiring background checks on all gun sales and banning assault weapons.
There is no time to wait, Biden said adding, “we owe it to all those we’ve lost and to all those left behind to grieve to make a change.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered flags lowered to half staff from sunrise to sunset across the state to honor those killed when a former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas opened fire on campus with an AR-15 rifle on Valentines Day in 2018.
When the gunfire ended, 14 students and three staff members were dead and 17 others were wounded. The suspect, Nikolas Cruz, still awaits trial.
VIRGINIA OFFICALS PUSH TO LEGALIZE RECREATIONAL POT
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Mike Thomas has a college degree in accounting, but never worked in his field. Three convictions for marijuana possession put an end to that.
Thomas said he’s tried repeatedly, but would-be job offers go nowhere when background checks reveal his misdemeanor convictions.
Thomas, who is Black, is an example of one of the main arguments made in the push to legalize recreational pot in Virginia. Democrats in the General Assembly frame this as a social equity issue, a necessary step to ending the disparate criminalization of people of color under the state’s current drug laws.
Separate bills approved by the Senate and House of Delegates this month would legalize possession of up to an ounce of pot for people 21 and over. Both bills also would begin a process of automatically wiping misdemeanor pot-related offenses from criminal records on July 1.
They also include broader proposals, reflecting the Democrats’ political strength in Virginia. Reparations to people of color and communities hurt by the disproportionate enforcement of marijuana laws would include a program that would give those who were harmed preference for licenses to get into the marijuana marketplace as cultivators, wholesalers, processors and retailers.