Biden accuser’s credentials, expert testimony under scrutiny
PHILADELPHIA — State prosecutors in California are investigating the credentials that Tara Reade, the former Senate staffer who has accused Joe Biden of assaulting her in 1993, attested to in as many as 20 criminal trials, including an attempted murder case where her testimony was deemed “critical.”
The Monterey County District Attorney’s office said it never tried to verify the credentials on her resume before using her as a paid expert witness on domestic violence issues. Reade, who went by Alexandra Tara McCabe, made several claims on her resume and in court that have now come into question.
Reade said she had a bachelor’s degree from Antioch University, which the school denies. She said she worked in Biden’s office from 1991 to 1994, while Senate records show her there from December 1992 to August 1993. And she said she served as legislative aide for Biden while he worked on the Violence Against Women Act, while witnesses and records describe her holding a more junior role, sometimes supervising interns or handling mail.
“We are investigating whether Ms. McCabe gave false testimony under oath,” Chief Assistant District Attorney Berkley Brannon of Monterey County said Wednesday.
“At the time, we did not contact the schools she said she attended to see if they would disclose her records. We did not require that she provide proof of all the extensive professional training and experience listed on her CV (curriculum vitae),” Brannon told The Associated Press in an email.
Victim in police encounter had started new life in Minnesota
Before he died after being pinned for minutes beneath a Minneapolis police officer’s knee, George Floyd was suffering the same fate as millions of Americans during the coronavirus pandemic: out of work and looking for a new job.
Floyd moved to Minneapolis from his native Houston several years ago in hopes of finding work and starting a new life, said Christopher Harris, Floyd’s lifelong friend. But he lost his job as a bouncer at a restaurant when Minnesota’s governor issued a stay-at-home order.
On Monday night, an employee at a Minneapolis grocery store called police after Floyd allegedly tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.
In widely circulated cellphone video of the subsequent arrest, Floyd, who was black, can be seen on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back while Officer Derek Chauvin presses him to the pavement with his knee on Floyd’s neck. The video shows Chauvin, who is white, holding Floyd down for minutes as Floyd complains he can’t breathe. The video ends with paramedics lifting a limp Floyd onto a stretcher and placing him in an ambulance.
Four officers were fired Tuesday; on Wednesday, Mayor Jacob Frey called for Chauvin to be criminally charged. Frey made no mention of the other three officers, who were also at the scene.
‘Bummed out’: SpaceX launch scrubbed because of bad weather
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The launch of a SpaceX rocket ship with two NASA astronauts on a history-making flight into orbit was called off with less than 17 minutes to go in the countdown Wednesday because of thunderclouds and the risk of lightning.
Liftoff was rescheduled for Saturday afternoon.
The spacecraft — designed, built and owned by SpaceX — was set to blast off in the afternoon for the International Space Station, opening a new era in commercial spaceflight. It would have also marked the first time in nearly a decade that the U.S. launched astronauts into orbit from American soil.
But thunderstorms for much of the day threatened to force a postponement, and the word finally came down that the atmosphere was so electrically charged that the spacecraft was in danger of getting hit by lightning.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the agency and SpaceX worked together to “make the right decision” and put safety first at a time when some were wondering whether the public attention surrounding the flight would create undue pressure to launch.
College student wanted in 2 Connecticut slayings is captured
HARTFORD, Conn. — A college student sought by police as a suspect in a crime spree including two slayings in Connecticut has been captured in Maryland, police said Wednesday night.
Peter Manfredonia, 23, had been the subject of a six-day search involving several police agencies and the FBI.
He was found in the area of a truck stop in Hagerstown, Maryland. He was not injured and no officers were hurt during the arrest, Connecticut State Police said.
“The suspect will face justice and this will bring closure. This is what is important for the families of the victims,” said Trooper First Class Christine Jeltema, a spokeswoman for Connecticut State Police.
Manfredonia was wanted in the machete killing of 62-year-old Ted DeMers and the wounding of another man in Willington, Connecticut, on Friday. Cyndi DeMers, the victim’s wife, has said Manfredonia was looking for a female acquaintance when he came walking down the road in front of their home wearing a motorcycle helmet and her husband offered him a ride to his motorcycle.
Bertha forms, hits South Carolina coast, dissipates in a day
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Tropical Storm Bertha surprised the South Carolina coast Wednesday, forming, making landfall within two hours and was downgraded before sundown, bringing a poor beach day of rain and gusty winds, but no major problems.
Forecasters expected the bad weather, but didn’t predict it to organize so quickly and become the second named storm before the official start of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season.
Bertha was named around 8 a.m. Wednesday and was onshore east of Charleston by 9:30 a.m. The state Department of Natural Resources called it “a sunrise surprise.” Six hours after the tropical storm formed, the National Hurricane Center downgraded it to a depression well inland. They said Bertha was no longer a tropical depression at 5 p.m. and stopped issuing advisories.
From wire sources
Like almost all storms with heavy rain, several streets flooded in Charleston, leaving ankle- to calf-high brown water mixed with trash from knocked over cans Wednesday. Sea rise and an antiquated drainage system mean the city floods an average of more than once a week.
From wire sources
From Heavy rains from an unnamed storm last week caused more problems.
Less than 1,000 power outages and scattered downed trees were reported as Bertha and its 50 mph (80 kph) maximum sustained winds moved onshore and into eastern South Carolina.
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Will mail-in voting turn Election Day into Election Week?
A shift to mail voting is increasing the chances that Americans will not know the winner of November’s presidential race on election night, a scenario that is fueling worries about whether President Donald Trump will use the delay to sow doubts about the results.
State election officials in some key battleground states have recently warned that it may take days to count what they expect will be a surge of ballots sent by mail out of concern for safety amid the pandemic. In an election as close as 2016’s, a delayed tally in key states could keep news organizations from calling a winner.
“It may be several days before we know the outcome of the election,” Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state, said in an interview. “We have to prepare for that now and accept that reality.”
Ohio’s Republican secretary of state, Frank LaRose, pleaded for “patience” from the public. “We’ve gotten accustomed to this idea that by the middle of the evening of election night, we’re going to know all the results,” LaRose said Wednesday at a forum on voting hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center. “Election night reporting may take a little longer” this year, he warned.
Delayed results are common in a few states where elections are already conducted largely by mail. But a presidential election hasn’t been been left in limbo since 2000, when ballot irregularities in Florida led to weeks of chaos and court fights.