Summary List PlacementMarc Short, who served as chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, said on Saturday that "despite their differences" the former vice president and former President Donald Trump "departed amicably" from the White House last month and have since spoken with each other. While Trump is slated to speak at the high-profile Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) being held in Florida this week, Pence reportedly declined to participate this year, according to Politico. According to a CNN report, organizers are hoping that Pence will change his mind and attend the conference, while a source told the network that the former vice president is aiming to keep a low profile over the next 6 months. While Pence attended President Joe Biden's inauguration last m...

By Haleluya Hadero | Associated Press More than two dozen philanthropic organizations and corporations on Thursday launched the California Black Freedom Fund, a $100 million, five-year initiative that they say will provide resources to Black-led organizations in the state that are seeking to eradicate systemic racism. The 25 funders include the philanthropic groups of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs as well as JPMorgan Chase. The bank’s involvement in the initiative follows its prior commitment to provide $30 billion to combat what it called systemic racism against Black and Latino people. That announcement had followed a wave of donations to racial equity groups after global protests against racism and police brutality in the a

OCEAN ISLE BEACH, N.C. — A winter storm that left millions without power in record-breaking cold weather claimed more lives Tuesday, including three people found dead after a tornado hit a seaside town in North Carolina and four family members who perished in a Houston-area house fire while using a fireplace to stay warm. The storm that overwhelmed power grids and immobilized the Southern Plains carried heavy snow and freezing rain into New England and the Deep South and left behind painfully low temperatures. Wind-chill warnings extended from Canada into Mexico. In all, at least 20 deaths were reported. Other causes included car crashes and carbon monoxide poisoning. The weather also threatened to affect the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination effort. President Joe Biden’s administration said d

By Alan Fram, Steve Peoples and Brian Slodysko | Associated Press WASHINGTON — A top Democrat said the House will vote Thursday on removing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committees, intensifying the stakes over the Georgia Republican’s online embrace of conspiracy theories and violent racist views. The announcement by No. 2 House Democrat Steny Hoyer of Maryland came Wednesday as showdowns approached over Greene and Rep. Liz Cheney, who’ve antagonized opposing wings of a Republican Party struggling to define itself without Donald Trump in the White House. House Republicans, under bipartisan pressure to punish Greene, have been hoping to take action on their own — such as removing her from one committee — and avoid a difficult political vote for many in the GOP. But Hoyer released

The UK has gone on to be one of the worst hit countries, exceeding 100,000 deaths. (Picture: Tolga Akmen / AFP)At this time last year, coronavirus was a far-off problem, with the world astutely aware that a virus was running rampant through Wuhan, China. Perhaps hard to comprehend back then, coronavirus has since gone on to disrupt the world as we know it – plunging countries across the globe (including all those in the UK) into national lockdowns, closing international borders, cancelling and postponing global events including the Tokyo Olympics and claiming millions of lives. The virus may have started in Wuhan, but has since mutated, with variants deriving from the UK, Brazil and South Africa. How and when did the virus first come to the UK? When did coronavirus first c...

A person was found dead Jan. 30, 2021, in Gary, Indiana. | Gary police Facebook photo“The nature of her injuries is yet to be determined due to the weather conditions,” police said. Police in northwest Indiana are conducting a homicide investigation after a person was found dead Saturday in Gary. Officers responded to a call of a person down about 3:12 p.m. in the 300 block of West 30th Avenue and found a female on the ground, Gary police said. She was unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene by the Lake County coroner’s office, police said. “The nature of her injuries is yet to be determined due to the weather conditions,” police said. The Homicide Unit is leading the investigation, police said. ...read more Source:: Chicago Sun Times...

Stevenson’s Jalen Brunson (15) lays in a reverse shot against Riverside-Brookfield. | Sun-Times file photoThe Sun-Times is counting down the 50 high school basketball programs with the most wins during the decade. When high school basketball fans think back to the 1980s, programs like Quincy, Providence St. Mel, East St. Louis Lincoln and the arrival of city powers King and Simeon are easy to think back on. The 1990s brought us memorable basketball giants in Peoria Manual and Thornton, a few steamrolling Proviso East teams and the continued dominance of King. The first 10 years of the 2000s included Glenbrook North, Peoria High and the beginning of a Simeon juggernaut. Earlier this year we broke down the decade’s best teams and best players. Now, with every season of the past decade comple

A campaign group called HS2 Rebellion says it dug the tunnels ‘in secret’ over the last few monthsProtesters aiming to stop HS2 claim they have built a secret network of tunnels under a London park – which they will stay in until the development is stopped. An alliance of groups and individuals, called HS2 Rebellion, are campaigning against the planned high-speed railway and say they dug the 100ft tunnels ‘in secret’ over the last few months. The ‘tree protectors’ claim Euston Square Gardens, a green space outside Euston station, will be built over with a temporary taxi rank before being sold to developers. The protest group claims protesters are now prepared to occupy the tunnels and stay underground ‘for as long as it takes to stop HS2’. But how did they manage to do this? ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump and impeachment (all times local): 4 p.m. Citigroup is pausing all federal political donations for the first three months of the year in light of Wednesday’s deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump. In a memo to employees Friday, Citi’s head of global government affairs Candi Wolff said, “We want you to be assured that we will not support candidates who do not respect the rule of law.” “We support engaging with our political leaders even when we disagree, and our PAC is an important tool for that engagement,” Wolff wrote, adding that the company previously donated $1,000 to the campaign of Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri in 2019, who represents a state in which Citi has a lot of employees. Unlik

By Mike Stone and Diane Bartz | Reuters WASHINGTON – Some of the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol were fired from their jobs on Thursday after internet sleuths publicized their identities. The District of Columbia police department released photos of people in Wednesday’s melee and potential charges against them. Some 68 people were arrested after angry protesters stormed the building, breaking windows, damaging fixtures and stealing furnishings. The FBI also asked the public to help it identify rioters, a call that drew ribbing on social media in light of the prolific coverage of the event. This included selfies posted by participants and videos of President Donald Trump’s supporters at area hotels before the attack. Some individuals who had previously been photographed at Trump ralli

Summary List PlacementAt a press conference on Monday, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts signaled that undocumented workers in Nebraska's meatpacking facilities would not be eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines. While holding the conference, Ricketts responded to a question about whether undocumented people could be vaccinated when the vaccine is made available to meatpacking workers, who are among Nebraska's initial priority groups. Referring to undocumented workers as "illegal immigrants," Ricketts said, "You're supposed to be a legal resident of this country to be working in the plants," adding, "So I do not expect that illegal immigrants will be part of that vaccine program." Gov. Ricketts (R-NE) says undocumented workers at meatpacking plants will not be eligible to receive the...

By Bill Barrow, Will Weissert and Jeff Amy | Associated Press ATLANTA, Ga. — President-elect Joe Biden on Monday told Georgia Democrats they had the power to “chart the course” for a generation and Vice President Mike Pence urged Republicans to vote for “the last line of defense” in Washington in a series of final pleas ahead of runoff elections that will determine control of the U.S. Senate. The men spoke hours before President Donald Trump was due to make his case to voters at a nighttime rally in north Georgia, where Republicans were banking on strong voter turnout on Tuesday to reelect Sen. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue and hold control of the chamber. Biden campaigned with Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in Atlanta, hoping he could recreate the coalition that secured him