House to probe Capitol riot, over GOP opposition

WASHINGTON (AP) Sharply split along party lines, the House launched a new investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection on Wednesday, approving a special committee to probe the violent attack as police officers who were injured fighting Donald Trumps supporters watched from the gallery above.

The vote to form the panel was 222-190, with all but two Republicans objecting that majority Democrats would be in charge. The action came after Senate Republicans blocked creation of an independent commission that would have been evenly split between the two parties.

Ahead of the vote, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told lawmakers in the chamber: We will be judged by future generations as to how we value our democracy. She said she preferred that an independent panel lead the inquiry but Congress could wait no longer to begin a deeper look at the insurrection that was the worst attack on the Capitol in more than 200 years.

As the vote was called, Pelosi stood in the House gallery with several police officers who fought the rioters and with the family of an officer who died, hugging several of them. One of the officers, Michael Fanone of Washingtons Metropolitan Police, said he was angry at Republicans for voting against an investigation after he almost lost his life to protect them.

I try not to take these things personally, but its very personal for me, Fanone said.

PHARR, Texas (AP) Republican lawmakers traveled to Texas to cheer former President Donald Trump as he paid a visit to the southern border Wednesday and hammered the Biden administration for its immigration policies amid a decades-high spike in border crossings.

Trump, who was joined by more than two dozen House members, also continued to spread lies about the 2020 election as he participated in a border briefing and visited the wall he championed in a trip that was strikingly similar to the many hed taken here while president.

Biden is destroying our country. And it all started with a fake election, Trump railed as he stood at the border, an American flag hoisted by a crane waving above him. Trump has persisted in falsely claiming he won in November, even though state and federal election officials, his own attorney general and numerous judges have said there is no evidence of the mass voter fraud he alleges.

Coming fresh off his first rally since leaving the White House, the visit underscored the extent to which Republicans, both nationally and in the states, continue to embrace Trump as the leader of their party. And it demonstrated anew how much the GOP has taken up Trumps signature issue of immigration as the party looks to recapture control of Congress in next years midterm elections.

Trump was invited to South Texas by the states governor, Greg Abbott, who is up for reelection next year and is considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate. After facing criticism for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Abbott has taken up Trumps immigration mantle, vowing to continue building the southern border wall that the Biden administration has suspended.

SURFSIDE, Florida (AP) Crews searching for survivors in the ruins of a collapsed Florida condo tower have built a ramp that should allow the use of heavier equipment, potentially accelerating the removal of concrete that could lead to incredibly good news events, the state fire marshal said Wednesday.

Since the sudden collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South last week in Surfside, rescuers have been working to peel back layers of concrete on the pancaked building without disturbing the unstable pile of debris.

Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah told family members of those missing Wednesday that a ramp built onto the pile overnight allowed rescuers to use a crane on sections that were not previously accessible. He said that improves the chances of finding new pockets of space in the urgent search for survivors.

We hope to start seeing some significant improvement in regards to the possibility of (finding) any voids that we cannot see, Jadallah said.

In an interview with Miami television station WSVN, State Fire Marshal Jimmy Petronis described the ramp as a Herculean effort that would allow crews to leverage massive equipment to remove mass pieces of concrete, which could lead to good results.

NEW YORK (AP) TV actor Allison Mack, who played a key role in the scandal-ridden, cult-like group NXIVM, was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday on charges she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for the groups spiritual leader.

Mack best known for her role as a young Supermans close friend on the series Smallville had previously pleaded guilty to the charges and began cooperating against NXIVM leader Keith Raniere. Prosecutors credited her with helping them mount evidence showing how Raniere created a secret society of brainwashed women who were branded with his initials.

At her sentencing in Brooklyn federal court, Mack renounced the self-improvement guru.

I made choices I will forever regret, she said, also telling the judge she was filled with remorse and guilt.

I am sorry to those of you that I brought into NXIVM, she wrote in a letter filed with the court last week. I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man.

NEW YORK (AP) Revised vote counts in New York Citys Democratic mayoral primary show Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams maintaining a thin lead, a day after a first attempt to report results went disastrously wrong.

The mayors race, the first city election to use ranked choice voting, was thrown into disarray Tuesday after the citys Board of Elections posted incorrect preliminary vote counts and then withdrew them hours later.

Corrected numbers released Wednesday showed Adams, a former police captain and state senator, leading former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia by 14,755 votes. Civil rights lawyer Maya Wiley was practically tied with Garcia, falling just 347 votes behind in the ranked choice analysis.

The corrected results still dont paint a complete picture of the race. Nearly 125,000 absentee ballots have yet to be counted.

Adams thin lead means it is possible for Garcia or Wiley to catch up when absentee ballots are added to the mix starting on July 6.

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Nation - Daily Herald