Democratic Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu defeated by GOP’s Bill Cassidy in last midterm race
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy has defeated Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, denying her a fourth term and extending the GOP’s domination of the 2014 midterm elections that put Republicans in charge of Capitol Hill for the final two years of President Barack Obama’s tenure.
With Cassidy’s victory, the GOP will hold 54 seats when the Senate convenes in January, nine more than they have now. Republican victories in two Louisiana House districts Saturday — including the seat Cassidy now holds — ensure at least 246 seats, compared to 188 for Democrats, the largest GOP advantage since the Truman administration after World War II. An Arizona recount leaves one race still outstanding.
In Louisiana, early returns showed Cassidy with a wide lead.
Landrieu had narrowly led a Nov. 4 primary ballot that included eight candidates from all parties. But at 42 percent, she fell well below her marks in previous races, leaving the incumbent scrambling in a one-month runoff campaign that Republicans dominated via the air waves while national Democrats financially abandoned her effort.
Landrieu’s defeat is a blow for one of Louisiana’s most famous political families, leaving her brother, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, to carry the banner. The GOP sweep also denied former Gov. Edwin Edwards a political comeback; the colorful 87-year-old politician, who had served four terms as governor, sought to regain public office after serving eight years in federal prison on corruption charges.
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American, South African held by al-Qaida in Yemen killed during US-led rescue operation
SANAA, Yemen (AP) — An American photojournalist and a South African teacher were killed Saturday during a high-risk, U.S.-led raid to free them from al-Qaida-affiliated militants in Yemen, a turbulent Arab country that is a centerpiece of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in the region.
The predawn raid was the second rescue attempt in as many weeks to free Luke Somers, a 33-year-old freelance photographer and editor kidnapped just over a year ago in Yemen’s capital.
South African Pierre Korkie, abducted 18 months ago with his wife in the city of Tazi, also was killed by militants as U.S. forces descended upon the militants’ compound in southern Yemen. A South African aid group trying to negotiate Korkie’s release said he was a day from freedom after a deal late last month that included a “facilitation fee” to the kidnappers. The relief organization had told Korkie’s wife that “the wait is almost over.”
President Barack Obama said he ordered the raid because Somers was believed to be in “imminent danger.” The president, in a statement, condemned Somers’ killing as a “barbaric murder,” but did not mention the 56-year-old Korkie by name, offering condolences to the family of “a non-U.S. citizen hostage.” The South African government said it was informed that Korkie died during the mission by American special forces.
“It is my highest responsibility to do everything possible to protect American citizens,” Obama said. “As this and previous hostage rescue operations demonstrate, the United States will spare no effort to use all of its military, intelligence and diplomatic capabilities to bring Americans home safely, wherever they are located.”
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American killed in Yemen had ‘wanderlust,’ curiosity about world
Luke Somers, an American who was killed during a rescue attempt against his al-Qaida captors in Yemen, had been working as a freelance photographer and editor in that country, and those who knew him say he had “wanderlust” and was drawn to new experiences.
Lucy Somers told The Associated Press on Saturday that that she learned of her 33-year-old brother’s death from FBI agents. He had been kidnapped in September 2013 in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.
President Barack Obama said Saturday that he authorized the rescue attempt because the U.S. had information that Somers’ life was in “imminent danger.”
U.S. special forces had tried to rescue Somers last month.
“My life is in danger,” Somers said in video footage, which appeared to mimic hostage videos released by the Islamic State group.
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Powerful typhoon slams into eastern Philippines, where 650,000 have fled to safety
LEGAZPI, Philippines (AP) — Typhoon Hagupit slammed into the central Philippines’ east coast late Saturday, knocking out power and toppling trees in a region where 650,000 people have fled to safety, still haunted by the massive death and destruction wrought by a monster storm last year.
Packing maximum sustained winds of 175 kilometers (109 miles) per hour and gusts of 210 kph (130 mph), Hagupit made landfall in Dolores, a coastal town facing the Pacific in Eastern Samar province, according to the Philippines’ weather agency. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Although it was unlikely to reach the unprecedented strength of Typhoon Haiyan, Hagupit’s strong winds and heavy rain were enough to possibly cause major damage to an impoverished region still reeling from the devastating November 2013 storm, which left more than 7,300 people dead or missing.
“There are many trees that have toppled, some of them on the highway,” police Senior Inspector Alex Robin said by phone late Saturday from Dolores, hours before Hagupit made landfall. “We are totally in the dark here. The only light comes from flashlights.”
From Eastern Samar, Hagupit — Filipino for “smash” or “lash” — was expected to hammer parts of a string of island provinces that were devastated by Haiyan’s tsunami-like storm surges and ferocious winds. Hagupit weakened slightly on Saturday, but remained dangerously powerful and erratic.
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Indictments rare, but police do get charged over use of deadly force
NEW YORK (AP) — At least 400 people are killed by police officers in the United States every year, and while the circumstances of each case are different, one thing remains constant: In only a handful of instances do grand juries issue an indictment, concluding that the officer should face criminal charges.
Successful prosecutions generally involve officers who have lied about what they’ve done, tried to cover up their actions, or used excessive force to inflict punishment.
Even as protesters took to the streets Wednesday to decry the failure of a grand jury to indict an officer who used a fatal chokehold on an unarmed man in New York City, a grand jury in South Carolina voted to bring murder charges against Richard Combs, a small town police chief who fatally shot an unarmed man who had come to Town Hall to contest a traffic ticket.
Earlier this year, a grand jury in North Carolina indicted a Charlotte-Mecklenburg officer for fatally shooting a former college football player who was knocking on doors looking for help after he drove his car off the road.
And a police officer in North Augusta, South Carolina, was indicted in August on a charge of misconduct in office after he shot a 68-year-old man who had failed to pull over for a traffic stop, and instead drove home.
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Amid layoffs and outmigration, the people of central Appalachia ponder a future without coal
HARLAN, Ky. (AP) — The rest of the house is just waking as Scottie Sizemore plops down in a rocking chair on his front porch with a cup of coffee. The sun has yet to crest the ridge above, where mist clings like clouds that couldn’t quite make it over.
Sizemore is the fourth generation of his family to mine coal in Harlan County. He knows he’ll probably be the last.
For over a century, life in Central Appalachia has been largely defined by the ups and downs of the coal industry. Through all the bust years, there was always the promise of another boom.
Until now.
There is a growing sense in these mountains that this downturn is different, deeper. That for a variety of reasons — economic, environmental, political — coal mining will not rebound this time.
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Pentagon chief Hagel: More US troops than originally planned will stay in Afghanistan in 2015
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The United States will keep about 1,000 more troops in Afghanistan than planned early next year to fill a temporary NATO troop gap in the new mission to train and advise Afghan security forces, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Saturday on his final visit to this war-weary country as Pentagon chief.
At a news conference with President Ashraf Ghani, Hagel said the original plan to cut U.S. troop levels to 9,800 by the end of 2014 had been abandoned, but not because of a recent surge in Taliban attacks.
Hagel said the U.S. will keep up to 10,800 troops for the first few months of 2015 and then restart the drawdown, which is scheduled to reach 5,500 troops by the end of next year.
The U.S. decided to keep additional forces in the country temporarily because planned troop commitments by U.S. allies for a NATO train-and-assist mission starting in January have been slow to materialize.
Gen. John Campbell, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told reporters in an interview later Saturday that he is confident NATO members will furnish the necessary number of troops for the new training mission, which begins Jan. 1. It’s just going to take a few extra weeks or months to get them in Afghanistan, he said.
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Witness: Police may have saved lives in Amtrak stabbings that wounded 4; suspect charged
NILES, Mich. (AP) — Police officers struggling to get through a chaotic scene aboard an Amtrak train in Michigan are being credited with preventing even more bloodshed after a man stabbed a conductor and three fellow passengers.
“It was pretty incredible that they may have saved some lives,” passenger Tyler Vandermolen said.
Michael Williams, 44, of Saginaw was charged Saturday with attempted murder. He’s accused of stabbing four people while the train was stopped Friday night at a depot in Niles in southwestern Michigan, about 10 miles north of South Bend, Indiana. The victims were reported to be in stable condition.
Officers rushed to the scene after Amtrak called police about a passenger acting suspiciously on the Chicago-to-Port Huron train, Niles Police Chief Jim Millin said.
“They saw commotion in the train car,” Millin said of his officers. “They had to forcefully work their way through the crowd. As soon as the first officer turned into the car, Mr. Williams was less than 10 feet away and he had the knife in his hand. The officer used his Taser and was able to subdue” him.
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Police: SUV that struck Somali teen displayed anti-Muslim message at time of crash
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An SUV involved in the death of a Missouri teenager outside a Somali community center had an anti-Muslim message displayed in the rear window at the time of the crash, Kansas City police confirmed Saturday.
Authorities say 34-year-old Ahmed H. Aden deliberately ran the boy over and have charged him with murder in a case that the FBI is investigating as a potential hate crime. Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein, 15, died at a hospital Thursday evening after his legs were nearly severed in the crash.
Kansas City police spokesman Darin Snapp told The Associated Press in an email that the SUV had been seen in the area by patrol officers in late October with a message that compared the Quran to the Ebola virus.
Hundreds of people came to Sheikh-Hussein’s funeral Saturday afternoon at the Islamic Society of Greater Kansas City, a day after dozens of friends and family members gathered for a prayer service where the teen was remembered as kind and faithful.
KMBC-TV reported many of the youth’s friends from Staley High School were among those attending the funeral.
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Alabama leaves no doubt while TCU hopes it has done enough to reach College Football Playoff
WACO, Texas (AP) — Alabama is in. So is Oregon. That we know for sure about the College Football Playoff after the top two teams in the selection committee rankings romped in their conference championship games.
TCU? Maybe. The Horned Frogs were third last week and certainly did nothing to hurt that on Championship Saturday. But it’s not just about the Frogs.
Florida State, Baylor and Ohio State still have to make final arguments. How that goes will determine how difficult it will be for the committee to come up with a final four and how much bickering there will be Sunday after the field for the first playoff is revealed.
The Crimson Tide followed the Ducks’ lead on Saturday in Atlanta, walloping Missouri 42-13 to win the Southeastern Conference championship. Oregon beat Arizona 51-13 to win the Pac-12 championship Friday night.
No need to worry SEC fans. The conference that dominated the BCS era will be represented in the playoff. Maybe underrepresented in the minds of many in the Deep South, but that’s another debate.
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