Governor kept mum amid conflicting accounts of deadly arrest

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat in a deep-red state, was immersed in a difficult reelection campaign when he received a text message from the head of the state police: Troopers had engaged in “a violent, lengthy struggle” with a Black motorist, ending with the man’s death.

Edwards was notified of the circumstances of Ronald Greene’s death within hours of his May 2019 arrest, according to text messages The Associated Press obtained through a public records request. Yet the governor kept quiet as police told a much different story to the victim’s family and in official reports: that Greene died from a crash following a high-speed chase.

For two years, Edwards remained publicly tight-lipped about the contradictory accounts and possible cover-up until the AP obtained and published long-withheld body-camera footage showing what really happened: white troopers jolting Greene with stun guns, punching him in the face and dragging him by his ankle shackles as he pleaded for mercy and wailed, “I’m your brother! I’m scared! I’m scared!”

The governor has rebuffed repeated interview requests and his spokesperson would not say what steps, if any, Edwards took in the immediate aftermath of Greene’s death. “The governor does not direct disciplinary or criminal investigations,” said spokesperson Christina Stephens, “nor would it be appropriate for him to do so.”

What the governor knew, when he knew it and what he did have become questions in a federal civil rights investigation of the deadly encounter and whether police brass obstructed justice to protect the troopers who arrested Greene.

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Pittsburgh bridge collapses, drops city bus into ravine

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A 50-year-old bridge collapsed in Pittsburgh early Friday, requiring rescuers to rappel down a ravine and form a human chain to reach a few occupants of a municipal bus that plummeted along with the span. No deaths were reported.

The collapse came hours before President Joe Biden arrived in the city to promote his $1 trillion infrastructure law, which has earmarked about $1.6 billion for Pennsylvania bridge maintenance.

At least four people required hospital treatment. Five other vehicles were also on the bridge at the time. The cause was being investigated, and crews searched under the debris for additional victims.

A large crack showed on the end of the bridge where the segmented bus landed 150 feet (46 meters) down in the ravine, as if hit by an earthquake. A car landed upside down in front of the bus, which was operated by the Pittsburgh area's transit agency.

The Forbes Avenue bridge over Fern Hollow Creek in Frick Park came down at 6:39 a.m., city officials said. The loud noise from the collapse was followed by a hissing sound and the smell of natural gas, witnesses said.

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US tries to name and shame Russian disinformation on Ukraine

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a break from the past, the U.S. and its allies are increasingly revealing their intelligence findings as they confront Russian preparations for a possible invasion of Ukraine, looking to undercut Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans by exposing them and deflecting his efforts to shape world opinion.

The White House in recent weeks publicized what it said was a developing Russian “false-flag” operation to create pretext for an invasion. Britain named specific Ukrainians it accused of having ties to Russian intelligence officers plotting to overthrow President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The U.S. also released a map of Russian military positions and detailed how officials believe Russia will try to attack Ukraine with as many as 175,000 troops.

Experts credit the White House for declassifying intelligence and moving to rebut false claims before they’re made — a so-called “prebuttal” that undercuts their effectiveness better than an after-the-fact explanation.

But the release of information isn’t without risks. Intelligence assessments carry varying degrees of certainty, and beyond offering photos of troop movements, the U.S. and its allies have provided little other proof. Moscow has dismissed Washington's claims as hysteria and invoked past American intelligence failures, including false information put forward about Iraq's weapons programs.

There are no clear signs of change so far from Russia, which continues to move forces toward Ukraine and into Belarus, an ally to Ukraine’s north. There is growing pessimism in Washington and London about ongoing diplomatic efforts and a belief that Putin will likely mount some sort of invasion in the next several weeks.

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Kyle Rittenhouse gun from Kenosha shootings to be destroyed

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — A judge on Friday approved an agreement by lawyers to destroy the assault-style rifle that Kyle Rittenhouse used to kill two people and wound a third during a 2020 street protest in Wisconsin.

Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger said the state crime lab would destroy the gun, probably in April. Judge Bruce Schroeder, the Kenosha County judge who presided over Rittenhouse’s trial, approved the agreement. Rittenhouse was not in court for Friday's hearing.

The judge also ordered that Rittenhouse's $2 million bail be divided among his attorney, a foundation that solicited donations for his defense and actor Ricky Schroder, who donated to the defense fund.

Rittenhouse shot the men during the protest in Kenosha in 2020. He killed Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz in the arm. Rittenhouse argued he fired in self-defense after each of the men attacked him. A jury last year acquitted him of multiple charges, including homicide.

Rittenhouse's attorney, Mark Richards, filed a motion Jan. 19 asking prosecutors to return Rittenhouse's rifle, his ammunition, his face mask and other clothing he was wearing the night of the shooting to him. Richards and David Hancock, a spokesman for Rittenhouse, said last week that Rittenhouse, who is now 19, wanted to destroy the rifle and throw the rest of the items away so nothing can be used as a political symbol or trophy celebrating the shootings.

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Jan. 6 committee subpoenas fake Trump electors in 7 states

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection subpoenaed more than a dozen individuals Friday who it says falsely tried to declare Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 election in seven swing states.

The panel is demanding information and testimony from 14 people who it says allegedly met and submitted false Electoral College certificates declaring Trump the winner of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to a letter from Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee's Democratic chairman. President Joe Biden won all seven states.

“We believe the individuals we have subpoenaed today have information about how these so-called alternate electors met and who was behind that scheme,” Thompson said in the letter. "We encourage them to cooperate with the Select Committee’s investigation to get answers about January 6th for the American people and help ensure nothing like that day ever happens again.”

The nine-member panel said it has obtained information that groups of individuals met on Dec. 14, 2020 — more than a month after Election Day — in the seven states. The individuals, according to the congressional investigation, then submitted fake slates of Electoral College votes for Trump. Then “alternate electors” from those seven states sent those certificates to Congress, where several of Trump's advisers used them to justify delaying or blocking the certification of the election during the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

Lies about election fraud from the former president and his allies fueled the deadly insurrection on the Capitol building that day, as a violent mob interrupted the certification of the Electoral College results.

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Omicron drives US deaths higher than in fall's delta wave

Omicron, the highly contagious coronavirus variant sweeping across the country, is driving the daily American death toll higher than during last fall's delta wave, with deaths likely to keep rising for days or even weeks.

The seven-day rolling average for daily new COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. has been climbing since mid-November, reaching 2,267 on Thursday and surpassing a September peak of 2,100 when delta was the dominant variant.

Now omicron is estimated to account for nearly all the virus circulating in the nation. And even though it causes less severe disease for most people, the fact that it is more transmissible means more people are falling ill and dying.

“Omicron will push us over a million deaths,” said Andrew Noymer, a public health professor at the University of California, Irvine. “That will cause a lot of soul searching. There will be a lot of discussion about what we could have done differently, how many of the deaths were preventable.”

The average daily death toll is now at the same level as last February, when the country was slowly coming off its all-time high of 3,300 a day.

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East Coast buttons up ahead of snow; Boston could get 2 feet

BOSTON (AP) — Last-minute shoppers cleared grocery shelves and raided snowblower dealers Friday along the East Coast ahead of a storm that could drop 2 feet or more of fast-falling snow on some of the nation's biggest metro areas, including Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

Officials from Virginia to Massachusetts declared states of emergency, imposed parking bans and warned of hazardous travel in advance of wet, heavy snow that could fall as fast as 5 inches per hour. Parts of 10 states were under blizzard warnings.

The storm threatened whiteout conditions, high winds and coastal flooding, followed by intense cold that could leave many people shivering amid power outages. Airlines canceled thousands of flights in advance.

Merrick McCormack was among hundreds who packed a Shaw’s Supermarket in Warwick, Rhode Island, with the entire state under a blizzard warning and officials mobilizing more than 500 snowplows.

“I don’t fuss with storms. I know in a couple of days, we’re going to be free and clear. No need to panic,” the 51-year-old Cranston resident said, flashing some New England stoicism as he unloaded his groceries.

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Supreme Court pick holds import for Black women in the law

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — When Markicia Horton graduates this spring from the Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston and takes the bar, she'll be stepping into a world where a Black woman is set to be on the U.S. Supreme Court for the first time in its 232-year history.

With Stephen Breyer’s retirement from the court and President Joe Biden’s commitment to name a Black woman as his nominee, it is likely that, as the 25-year-old Horton moves into a profession, there will be a Black woman as a Supreme Court justice. What that means for her and thousands of other young women of color in law schools or serving as lawyers around the country is incalculable.

But it also comes with concerns. According to the National Association for Law Placement, Black women made up 3.17% of associates at America's law firms in 2021 but less than 1% of partners. Women of color overall made up nearly 16% of associates at America's law firms but only about 4% of the partners.

And across the federal bench, Black women hold 45 of the 850 lifetime appointments to district and appeals judgeships — or about 5%, according to government data.

“I feel like it’s really important to have African Americans in positions that really do affect us,” said Horton, who has a bachelor’s degree in geoscience, and plans to pursue work in energy and environmental law in hopes of representing Black communities that are affected by environmental issues.

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AP PHOTOS: A Ukrainian village awaits the next move

ZOLOTE, Ukraine (AP) — In the Ukrainian village of Zolote, Olga Berezhna cradles one of the rabbits she raises, feeds her chickens and gets an eager greeting from her shaggy dog when she walks into her yard. But this is not placid rural life — it’s a grinding wait to find out if there will be war.

At 59, Berezhna is the youngest of the 16 people left in the village. The others are mostly in their 80s; all the younger people long ago fled the village that’s near territory occupied by Russia-backed rebels.

Those who remain in the area look aged far beyond their years — soldiers on duty in snowy trenches and sandbag-lined positions.

Ukrainian forces and separatist rebels began fighting in 2014, a war that has killed more than 14,000 people. Although the fighting has diminished significantly in recent years, fears are strong that it could resume and become even bloodier since Russia began massing troops near Ukraine’s border.

Russia says it has no intent of invading, but many in the West believe that an offensive is imminent.

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Dissed: Olympic snowboarders still irked by secondary status

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — The wind-whipped ice pellets slammed against their faces and made their cheeks feel like frozen sandpaper. On another part of the mountain, the Alpine skiers had been sent back to their hotels, told the conditions were too dangerous for racing that day.

But for the snowboarders, the contest was on.

Four years later, that day at the Pyeongchang Olympics remains a source of bitter memories for the riders, including the gold medalist, Jamie Anderson.

It was, in their opinion, a loud and clear statement that, even 20 years after their sport was brought into the Olympics to give the Games a younger, more vibrant feel, they were still being treated like second-class citizens.

“Even if I was lucky to land a run, I think that was a really, really terrible call,” Anderson said in an Associated Press interview earlier this winter, reflecting on a winning trip down the course that included watered-down tricks that hadn't been part of winning slopestyle runs for a decade or more. “And they really didn’t give the riders any faith.”

News from © The Associated Press, 2022