AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EST
House moves toward OK of Dems' sweeping social, climate bill
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats brushed aside months-long divisions and approached House passage of their expansive social and environment bill late Thursday, as President Joe Biden and his party neared a defining win in their drive to use their control of government to funnel its resources toward their domestic priorities.
House approval, expected on a near party-line vote, would send the measure to a Senate where cost-cutting demands by moderate Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and that chamber´s strict rules seemed certain to force significant changes. That will prompt fresh disputes between party centrists and moderates that will likely take weeks to resolve.
Even so, House passage would mark a watershed for a measure remarkable for the breadth and depth of the changes it would make in federal policies. Wrapped into one bill were far-reaching changes in taxation, health care, energy, climate change, family services, education and housing. That underscored Democrats´ desire to achieve their goals while controlling the White House and Congress - a dominance that could well end after next year´s midterm elections.
"Too many Americans are just barely getting by in our economy," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. "And we simply can´t go back to the way things were before the pandemic."
House passage would also give Biden a momentary taste of victory, and probably relief, during perhaps the rockiest period of his presidency. He´s been battered by falling approval numbers in polls, reflecting voters´ concerns over inflation, gridlocked supply chains and the persistent coronavirus pandemic, leaving Democrats worried that their legislative efforts are not breaking through to voters.
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Oklahoma governor grants clemency, spares Julius Jones' life
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Oklahoma's governor spared the life of Julius Jones on Thursday, just hours before his scheduled execution that had drawn widespread outcry and protests over doubts about his guilt in the slaying of a businessman more than 20 years ago.
Gov. Kevin Stitt commuted the 41-year-old Jones´ death sentence to life imprisonment. He had been scheduled for execution at 4 p.m.
"After prayerful consideration and reviewing materials presented by all sides of this case, I have determined to commute Julius Jones´ sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole," Stitt said in a news release.
A crowd of Jones' supporters at the Oklahoma Capitol broke out into loud applause and cheers when the decision was announced shortly after noon Thursday, and more than 100 supporters who had gathered outside the prison in McAlester erupted in cheers.
"Today is a day of celebration. It´s a day to recognize all the people who have come together to be able to fight for Julius," said Rev. Keith Jossell, Jones' spiritual adviser.
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Defense attorneys rest their cases at Arbery death trial
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) - Defense attorneys rested their case in the Ahmaud Arbery trial Thursday after calling just seven witnesses, including the shooter, who testified that Arbery did not threaten him in any way before he pointed his shotgun at the 25-year-old Black man.
Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley scheduled closing arguments in the trial for Monday, setting up the possibility of verdicts before Thanksgiving for the three white men charged with murder in Arbery's death.
Under cross-examination by the prosecution on his second day of testimony, Travis McMichael said that Arbery hadn't shown a weapon or spoken to him at all before McMichael raised his shotgun. But, McMichael said, he was "under the impression" that Arbery could be a threat because he was running straight at him and he had seen Arbery trying to get into the truck of a neighbor who had joined in a pursuit of Arbery in their coastal Georgia neighborhood.
"All he´s done is run away from you," prosecutor Linda Dunikoski said. "And you pulled out a shotgun and pointed it at him."
Cellphone video from the Feb. 23, 2020, shooting - replayed in court Thursday - shows Arbery running around the back of McMichael's pickup truck after McMichael first points the shotgun while standing next to the open driver's side door. Arbery then runs around the passenger side as McMichael moves to the front and the two come face to face. After that, the truck blocks any view of them until the first gunshot sounds.
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'Fundamental justice:' Judge clears 2 in Malcolm X slaying
NEW YORK (AP) - More than half a century after the assassination of Malcolm X, two of his convicted killers were exonerated Thursday after decades of doubt about who was responsible for the civil rights icon´s death.
Manhattan judge Ellen Biben dismissed the convictions of Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam, after prosecutors and the men´s lawyers said a renewed investigation found new evidence that undermined the case against the men and determined that authorities withheld some of what they knew.
"The event that has brought us to court today should never have occurred," Aziz told the court. "I am an 83-year-old man who was victimized by the criminal justice system."
It pained Islam's sons, Ameen Johnson and Shahid Johnson, that their parents died before seeing the conviction reversed. Still, Ameen Johnson said his father would have been ecstatic to clear his name.
"His reputation meant a lot to him," the son said, and now "we don´t have to watch over our backs, worrying about any repercussions from anybody who thought that he might have been the one that killed Malcolm X."
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Virus surge worsens in Midwest as states expand boosters
A surge in cases in the Upper Midwest has some Michigan schools keeping students at home ahead of Thanksgiving and the military sending medical teams to Minnesota to relieve hospital staffs overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients.
The worsening outlook in the Midwest comes as booster shots are being made available to everyone in a growing number of locations. Massachusetts and Utah became the latest to say anyone 18 or older can roll up a sleeve for a booster shots, and an advisory committee for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is meeting Friday to discuss expanding boosters.
Cold weather states are dominating the fresh wave of cases over the last seven days, including New Hampshire, North Dakota and Wisconsin, according to federal data. But the Southwest had trouble spots, too, with more than 90% of inpatient hospital beds occupied in Arizona.
In Detroit, where only 35% of eligible residents were fully vaccinated, the school district said it would switch to online learning on Fridays in December because of rising COVID-19 cases, a need to clean buildings and a timeout for "mental health relief." One high school has changed to all online learning until Nov. 29.
At another high school, some students and teachers briefly walked out Wednesday, saying classes still were too large for a pandemic and the school needed a scrubbing.
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India to repeal controversial farm laws that led to protests
NEW DELHI (AP) - India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday his government will withdraw the controversial farm laws that prompted year-long protests from tens of thousands of farmers who said the laws will shatter their livelihoods.
Modi made the surprise announcement during a televised speech that was broadcast live. He said the constitutional process to repeal the laws will begin in December when parliament sits for the winter session.
The announcement came on the day of the Guru Purab festival, when Sikhism founder Guru Nanak´s birthday is celebrated, and ahead of key elections in states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. Most of the protesters were Sikh farmers from Punjab.
The laws were passed in September last year and the government had defended them, saying they were necessary to modernize India's agricultural sector and will boost production through private investment. But the farmers protested, saying the laws will devastate their earnings by ending guaranteed pricing and force them to sell their crops to corporations at cheaper prices.
The government had so far yielded very little to the drawn-out demonstrations that posed one of the biggest political challenges to Modi, who swept polls for the second time in 2019.
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Biden praises Canada, Mexico as leaders discuss strains
WASHINGTON (AP) - Reviving three-way North American summitry after a five-year break, President Joe Biden on Thursday joined with the leaders of Canada and Mexico to declare their nations can work together and prove "democracies can deliver" even as they sort out differences on key issues.
But as Biden, along with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, spoke of their mutual respect, the three leaders also found themselves dealing with fresh strains on trade, immigration, climate change and other matters.
"We can meet all the challenges if we just take the time to speak to one another, by working together," said Biden, who hosted the North American neighbors for what had been a near-annual tradition in the decade before President Donald Trump came to office.
It was a day of full-on diplomacy that required careful choreography as Trudeau and Lopez Obrador each met separately with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris before gathering for a three-way conversation in the East Room that featured a language mix of English, French and Spanish.
The leaders issued a post-summit statement saying they had agreed to collaborate on addressing migration, climate change and the coronavirus pandemic - without specifying how they would resolve their differences.
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Rittenhouse jury deliberates for third day without a verdict
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) - The jury at Kyle Rittenhouse´s murder trial deliberated for a third full day without reaching a verdict Thursday, while the judge banned MSNBC from the courthouse after a freelancer for the network was accused of following the jurors in their bus.
The jury members will return on Friday morning to resume their work. Unlike on previous days, they had no questions and no requests to review any evidence Thursday in the politically and racially fraught case.
Rittenhouse, 18, is on trial for killing two men and wounding a third with a rifle during a turbulent night of protests that erupted in Kenosha in the summer of 2020 after a Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot by a white police officer.
Even as the jury weighed the evidence, two mistrial requests from the defense hung over the case, with the potential to upend the verdict if the panel were to convict Rittenhouse. One of those requests asks the judge to go even further and bar prosecutors from retrying him.
Also Thursday, Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder banned MSNBC after police said they briefly detained a man who had followed the jury bus and may have tried to photograph jurors.
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Slain rapper Young Dolph left a lasting legacy in Memphis
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Two days before he was gunned down while buying cookies at his favorite bakery in Memphis, Tennessee, rapper Young Dolph visited a cancer center where a relative had received treatment.
The 36-year-old who grew up on the Memphis streets was in town to hand out turkeys at a church and other locations ahead of Thanksgiving. He stopped by West Cancer Center in the Memphis suburb of Germantown on Monday, spending time with clinical staff and thanking them for compassionate care given to a relative, the center said in a statement.
Return trips like this one had become common in his life, which ended Wednesday when he was shot multiple times inside Makeda´s Cookies, a popular bakery owned by a Black family and known for tasty butter cookies and banana pudding. The gritty southern city where Young Dolph grew up helped him forge the material that fueled his influential career in the hip-hop world - and was ultimately where his life was taken from him.
"Our associates were deeply touched by his sincerity and effort to extend such gratitude," the cancer center's statement said. "During his visit, Dolph explained that he would soon venture to donate turkeys to the Memphis community at a variety of community centers across the city before Thanksgiving - which is yet another testament to his gracious heart."
Police continued to search for suspects in the killing, which shook Memphis and shocked the entertainment world as another senseless act of gun violence against an African American man. Police on Thursday released photos taken from surveillance video that shows two men exiting a white Mercedes-Benz and shooting Young Dolph before fleeing.
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Patriots stifle Falcons 25-0 for 5th straight victory
ATLANTA (AP) - Mac Jones threw a 19-yard scoring pass to Nelson Agholor for the game's only offensive touchdown and Kyle Van Noy and the New England defense took care of the rest, blanking the Atlanta Falcons 25-0 on Thursday night for the Patriots' fifth straight victory.
New England (7-4) wasn't nearly as dominating as four days earlier, when the Patriots blew out the Browns 45-7, but it was more than good enough against a feeble Falcons offense that hasn't scored a touchdown in nearly nine quarters.
Atlanta (4-6) was shut out for the first time since a 38-0 loss to Carolina on Dec. 13, 2015.
Matt Ryan was sacked four times and was intercepted twice, enduing another miserable performance - this one in prime time - after posting the lowest passer rating of his career in a 43-3 rout by the Dallas Cowboys last weekend.
Nick Folk booted field goals of 32, 44, 53 and 33 yards.
