Bannon indicted on contempt charges over House’s
Capitol riot inquiry
Steve Bannon, a onetime senior aide to former President Donald Trump, was indicted by a federal grand jury Friday on two counts of contempt of Congress, after his refusal to provide information to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Bannon, 67, last month declined to comply with subpoenas from the committee seeking testimony and documents from him. The House voted to hold Bannon in criminal contempt. The House then referred the matter to the U.S. attorney’s office for a decision on whether to prosecute him. A Justice Department spokesperson said Bannon was expected to turn himself in to authorities Monday.
Judge terminates Britney Spears’ conservatorship
A Los Angeles judge on Friday ruled the conservatorship that has overseen Britney Spears’ life and finances for nearly 14 years should be terminated immediately. The ruling by Judge Brenda Penny of Los Angeles Superior Court ended an arrangement Spears had complained of bitterly and her fans had rallied against. In June, Spears, 39, told the court that the arrangement, which stripped her of control in nearly every aspect of her life, had traumatized and exploited her, and asked for it to end without her having to undergo additional mental evaluations.
Appeals court extends
block on Biden’s vaccine mandate for employers
A federal appeals court has kept its block in place against a federal mandate that all large employers require their workers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus or submit to weekly testing starting in January, declaring that the rule “grossly exceeds” the authority of the occupational safety agency that issued it. In a 22-page ruling, a three-judge panel on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that a group of challengers to the mandate issued by the Biden administration was likely to succeed in its claim that it was an unlawful overreach and barred the government from moving forward with it. The Biden administration is likely to appeal.
20 rescued from flooded
RV park in Oregon
Twenty people were rescued from a recreational vehicle park near the Oregon coast after rising creek waters flooded the area Friday, officials said. The only bridge accessing the Neskowin Creek RV park — which sits along Highway 101, the main north-south route along the Pacific Northwest coast — was flooded after the creek overflowed following record-breaking rain, said Gordon McCraw, emergency manager for Tillamook County. U.S. Coast Guard crews airlifted 12 people and three dogs from the RV park and local agencies evacuated eight other people. About 30 people decided to remain in the park, the Coast Guard said. All of those rescued were adults, and no medical help was needed.
Alzheimer’s drug cited
as Medicare premium jumps
Medicare’s “Part B” outpatient premium will jump by $21.60 a month in 2022, one of the largest increases ever. Officials said Friday a new Alzheimer’s drug is responsible for about half of that. The increase guarantees that health care will gobble up a big chunk of the recently announced Social Security cost-of-living allowance, a boost that had worked out to $92 a month for the average retired worker, intended to help cover rising prices for gas and food that are pinching seniors. Medicare officials told reporters about half the increase is due to contingency planning if the program ultimately has to cover Aduhelm, the new $56,000-a-year medication for Alzheimer’s disease from pharmaceutical company Biogen. The medication would add to the cost of outpatient coverage because it’s administered intravenously in a doctor’s office and paid for under Part B.
Officer: Ahmaud Arbery would have received trespass warning
A police officer testified Friday he planned to give Ahmaud Arbery a trespass warning for repeatedly entering a home under construction before the 25-year-old Black man was chased and shot dead by neighbors who spotted him running from the property. Glynn County police Officer Robert Rash said he spoke several times to the house’s owner, who sent him videos showing Arbery visiting the site several times between Oct. 25, 2019, and Feb. 23, 2020 — the day Arbery was killed at the end of a five-minute chase by white men in pickup trucks. Rash said he had been looking for Arbery, whose identity was unknown at the time, to tell him to keep away from the unfinished home. He said police had a standard protocol for handling people caught trespassing — a misdemeanor under Georgia law.
By wire sources
© 2021 The New York Times Company
