Pelosi slams Republicans for watering down Capitol probe
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed Republicans on Thursday for trying to distract attention from the role of right-wing radicals in the Capitol siege.
The California Democrat trashed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for insisting that the commission study not just include the violence at the Capitol but also last summer’s racial justice protests.
“We are talking about domestic terrorism,” Pelosi said. “That’s what we are trying to get to the bottom of. ... We’re not going to get into every case of mob violence.”
Pelosi accused McConnell of allowing Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., to dictate the GOP policy on the commission, which is supposed to focus on the Capitol attack.
Johnson has questioned the seriousness of the Jan. 6 attack and said it “didn’t look like an armed insurrection to me.” He also used his time at a Senate hearing on Capitol security this week to promote conspiracy theories that leftists were impersonating supporters of former President Donald Trump at the riot.
McConnell is taking “the Ron Johnson approach to investigating January 6 and that’s very disappointing,” Pelosi said.
At one point she mocked Johnson, whose name is similar to "Miami Vice" actor Don Johnson.
“Don Johnson, is his first name Don? What is it, Ron?” she asked a reporter. “Not 'Miami Vice' or anything like that,” she chuckled.
Despite the jibes, Pelosi insisted that she wants the 9/11-style commission to be a bipartisan effort.
Pelosi pushed back on questions about how deeply the commission should probe Trump’s role in inciting the rioters.
“He’s gone,” she said. “Now we need to find out the truth about what happened.”
— New York Daily News
Most 14- and 15-year-olds cannot be tried as adults, California high court rules
SAN FRANCISCO — A law that barred most offenders under 16 years old from being tried for crimes as adults does not violate the California Constitution, the state’s highest court decided Thursday.
In a unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court upheld a 2018 state law intended to end one of California’s tough-on-crime measures that helped lead to overcrowded prisons and defied scientific consensus on brain development of juvenile offenders.
Prosecutors challenged the law, arguing the Legislature usurped its authority in amending Proposition 57, approved by voters in 2016. The measure required prosecutors to start criminal proceedings against minors in juvenile court but allowed prosecutors to transfer some to adult criminal court.
Two years later, the Legislature amended the law to prohibit minors under 16 from being tried as adults.
Justice Joshua P. Groban, writing for the court, said the new law was a valid amendment of the ballot measure.
“The amendment is fully consistent with and furthers Proposition 57’s fundamental purposes of promoting rehabilitation of youthful offenders and reducing the prison population,” Groban wrote.
The court decision was a significant victory for advocates of criminal justice reform.
Sue Burrell, policy director of Pacific Juvenile Defender Center, which co-sponsored the 2018 law, praised the court’s ruling for restoring the law to where it was years before “draconian” measures passed to crack down on crime.
“It makes no sense for us to send young people to the adult system for something they did when they were in ninth or 10th grade,” Burrell said.
— Los Angeles Times
Former Illinois House speaker picks another successor for seat after forcing out his first choice
CHICAGO — Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar on Thursday became the second replacement in four days for the Illinois House seat held by former Speaker Michael Madigan following a meeting of local Southwest Side ward and township committeemen.
Guerrero-Cuellar succeeds Madigan’s original hand-picked successor, Edward Guerra Kodatt, who resigned Wednesday after the former speaker and 13th Ward Alderman Marty Quinn called on him to step down for unspecified “alleged questionable conduct.”
Kodatt, 26, named by Madigan to the 22nd House seat vacancy on Sunday, also resigned his city job as an assistant in Quinn’s ward office. On Thursday, Madigan said he believed Kodatt had been vetted, including during questioning before his nomination. Asked if Kodatt truthfully answered vetting questions, Madigan declined to answer.
The abrupt moves over the vacancy created by Madigan’s resignation last week was in sharp contrast to the hands-on, detail-oriented style the ex-speaker has displayed in running his ward and district office.
Madigan, who controls 56% of the weighted vote of the district’s ward and township committeemen as head of the 13th Ward Democratic organization, had said he would support Guerrero-Cuellar, the runner-up in Sunday’s voting.
— Chicago Tribune
Long Island cemetery worker buried alive, dies inside open grave
A Long Island cemetery worker died at the bottom of an empty grave Thursday in a freak accident, Suffolk County Police said.
Rodwin Allicock, 42, of Coram, was on the job around 8:30 a.m. when the seven-foot deep grave collapsed as he worked inside the excavation, according to police.
As the cascading dirt filled the grave, his co-workers at Washington Memorial Park in Mount Sinai tried frantically but unsuccessfully to dig Allicock out.
The fatal accident drew first responders from the county police Emergency Service Section and four local fire departments, with none able to rescue the doomed worker. Allicock died at the scene.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was investigating the bizarre death.
The cemetery opened more than a half-century ago, according to its website.
— New York Daily News
