Northeast

Democrats skip testimony from GOP lawmakers with sniper experience at Trump assassination attempt hearing

Published

1 year ago

September 28, 2024

Democrats skip testimony from GOP lawmakers with sniper experience at Trump assassination attempt hearing

Democratic lawmakers on the House task force investigating the attempted assassinations of former President Donald Trump skipped the final portion of the panel’s first hearing Thursday, which featured the two Republicans who have been conducting their own “parallel” investigation into the shooting.

Reps. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., and Cory Mills, R-Fla., two Republicans and both military veterans, took part in the second portion of the hearing, but the Democratic minority fumed behind the scenes that their leadership was not informed of their testimony until late Wednesday afternoon, Fox News sources said. Some Democratic lawmakers were not informed until Thursday morning, however.

The move was seen as the first bipartisan split in what has been a united effort to investigate the incident thus far.

The Trump assassination attempt task force, led by Reps. Mike Kelly, inset left, and Jason Crow, inset right, have formally launched a probe. (Getty Images)

SECRET SERVICE BOSS SAYS VITAL INFO NOT RELAYED OVER RADIO, DELAYING RESPONSE TO WOULD-BE RALLY ASSASSIN

“We did not receive notice of the second panel until late yesterday. We didn’t have an opportunity to present our own witnesses,” Crow said when asked about Mills and Crane. “[Task Force Chairman Mike Kelly, R-Pa.] and I are still very committed to having this be bipartisan, consensus-based, and it’s my hope that we can return to that … approach going forward.”

Kelly similarly told reporters that this would not impede the task force’s bipartisan mission and said that he invited Mills and Crane to testify because of their expertise, welcoming their assessment of the security perimeter for the rally.

He brushed off Democrats’ absence during their portion of the hearing, suggesting that some members may have had flights out of Washington, D.C., per KTLA.

“If you want to participate, you can participate. If you decide not to, you can make that decision too,” Kelly said of the members.

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., the ranking Democrat on the panel, said lawmakers were frustrated, but he made clear that it was not aimed at Thursday’s witnesses.

“We did not receive notice of the second panel until late yesterday,” Crow said. “It’s unclear to us what testimony will be provided by these witnesses that relates to today’s hearing.”

The first portion of the hearing, the panel heard from a former Secret Service agent, as well as local and state law enforcement officials who were present at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where one attendee was killed and Trump himself was shot in the ear.

Reps. Cory Mills, R-Fla., a military veteran, took part in the second portion of the hearing. (David Dee Delgado)

TRUMP SHOOTING: TIMELINE OF ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW GUNMAN EVADED SECURITY

Witnesses and lawmakers repeatedly signaled that a lack of clear communication of security plans from the Secret Service helped lead to a 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, being able to open fire on the rally from a rooftop just outside the security perimeter.

“In the days leading up to the rally, it was not a single mistake that allowed Crooks to outmaneuver one of our country’s most elite group of security professionals. There were security failures on multiple fronts,” Kelly said.

“The communication between the Secret Service and local and state partners was disjointed and unclear,” Crow said. “It was the fault of the Secret Service, because the Secret Service is ultimately responsible for the protection at events like that. They did not do their job. They did not provide the clarity and the guidance to local law enforcement. That was pretty clear to me,” Crow told reporters.

One bullet grazed Trump’s right ear, while firefighter Corey Comperatore was fatally struck. Rally-goers James Copenhaver and David Dutch were also shot and injured.

One key question has been why there were no law enforcement personnel on top of the AGR building where Crooks eventually climbed up and took his shots, considering that it was so close to the rally stage and afforded a clear line of sight to Trump.

“A 10-year-old looking at that satellite image could have seen that the greatest threat posed to the president that day” was the building near the stage, said Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas.

Former President Donald Trump just seconds after the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The panel — comprised of seven Republicans and six Democrats — has spent the last two months analyzing the security failures at the rally, conducting nearly two dozen interviews with law enforcement and receiving more than 2,800 pages of documents from the Secret Service.

An interim report released Wednesday from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is also conducting an investigation, said the Secret Service failed to give clear instructions on how state and local officials should cover the building where the gunman eventually took up position. The report also said the agency didn’t make sure it could share information with local partners in real-time.

Multiple lawmakers indicated that they are looking to hear from Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe again, particularly after Congress recently allocated $230 million in additional funding for the agency.

Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.

You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.

Read the full article from Here

New Hampshire

NH Republicans push to allow guns on college campuses

Published

35 minutes ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

NH Republicans push to allow guns on college campuses

Rick Green
| Keene Sentinel

CONCORD — The recent fatal shooting at Brown University shows that banning guns on campus makes students more vulnerable to violence, state Rep. Sam Farrington, a University of New Hampshire senior, told reporters Dec. 17 in promoting legislation to end such bans.

Farrington, R-Rochester, and other House Republicans, also said in the Statehouse news conference that the shooting that killed 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia on Sunday, illustrates that Australia’s restrictive gun laws don’t protect the public.

Rep. Joe Sweeney, R-Salem, the deputy House majority leader, said gun control restrictions leave people “unable to defend themselves, their families, their peers.”

Farrington said violence similar to what occurred at Brown University in Rhode Island, which left two dead and nine injured, could occur in New Hampshire, where universities also prohibit guns on campus.

“UNH, Plymouth State, Keene State, the list goes on, they all have one thing in common — these are public universities that are infringing on the Second Amendment rights of college students right here in New Hampshire,” said Farrington.

“They claim to be gun free zones. Well if we know anything about gun-free zones, looking at Australia and Brown, we know that they are not violence free zones. They are only defenseless zones where victims are left hopeless, without any hope of defending themselves.”

He is the prime sponsor of House Bill 1793, which the Legislature will consider next year. It would prohibit public colleges and universities from regulating the possession or carrying of firearms and non-lethal weapons on campus.

Under the bill, if a college or university that received federal funds instituted such a ban, they could be sued.

Democrat speaks against legislation

State Rep. Nicholas Germana, D-Keene, a history professor at Keene State College, said Thursday he wouldn’t feel any safer if people coming on campus were packing firearms.

Any police response to an active shooter on a college campus would be fraught if armed bystanders became involved and crossfire broke out, he said.

“All the sudden police come on that campus and it’s a shootout at the OK Corral,” Germana said. “How do police know who the good guy is and who the bad guy is?”

He said the tragedy in Australia last weekend is an anomaly that doesn’t alter the fact that gun violence rates in that country decreased after strict firearm regulations were passed almost 30 years ago and remain much lower than U.S. rates.

“We can look around the world to see examples of this where the number of guns in the population at large corresponds to gun violence,” Germana said. “It’s clear that when Republicans say in this country that gun control measures do not decrease gun violence, it is demonstrably false.”

The University System of New Hampshire said in the fiscal note of House Bill 1793 that the measure could cost it as much as $500,000 because insurance premiums and liability claims would increase, more security measures would be required, firearm storage systems would be needed, expected lawsuits would create attorney fees and the ability to attract students and faculty would decrease.

These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. Don’t just read this. Share it with one person who doesn’t usually follow local news — that’s how we make an impact. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

Source link

New Jersey

63 mph wind was clocked during Friday’s storms. See top gusts in each N.J. county.

Published

41 minutes ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

63 mph wind was clocked during Friday’s storms. See top gusts in each N.J. county.

Trees were blown down. Electrical poles were snapped. And Christmas decorations went flying off lawns.

All thanks to Friday’s intense storms, which generated wind gusts as strong as 63 mph at the High Point Monument in Sussex County, 60 mph at Teterboro Airport in Bergen County and 60 mph in Belleville in Essex County.

Those were among the highest gusts clocked across the Garden State, according to the National Weather Service and the Rutgers NJ Weather Network.

Fierce gusts also were whipping down in South Jersey and along the Jersey Shore, and triggered more than 40,000 power outages across the state Friday afternoon and Friday evening.

Here’s a look at the highest wind gusts reported in each of New Jersey’s 21 counties on Friday:

Atlantic County

52 mph at Atlantic City International Airport
51 mph in Forsythe
48 mph at Atlantic City Marina
47 mph in Brigantine
45 mph in Pleasantville
44 mph in Pleasantville Point

Bergen County

56 mph at Teterboro Airport
47 mph in Lyndhurst

Burlington County

52 mph at McGuire AFB
48 mph at Coyle Field
47 mph at South Jersey Regional Airport
46 mph in Moorestown
41 mph in Tabernacle
40 mph in Silas Little
40 mph in Medford Village

Camden County

52 mph in Pennsauken
41 mph in Blue Anchor

Cape May County

50 mph in Avalon
49 mph in Cape May
49 mph in Cape May Harbor
46 mph in Wildwood
46 mph in Ocean City
42 mph in Woodbine
41 mph at Woodbine Municipal Airport
40 mph in North Wildwood

Cumberland County

48 mph in Fortescue
47 mph in Upper Deerfield
45 mph in Millville
44 mph in Greenwich
39 mph in Vineland

Essex County

60 mph in Belleville
59 mph at Newark Liberty Airport
45 mph in Caldwell

Gloucester County

60 mph in Logan Twp.
45 mph at Kingsway Regional H.S.
42 mph in West Deptford
41 mph in South Harrison

Hudson County

41 mph in Bayonne
40 mph in Jersey City

Hunterdon County

47 mph in Pittstown
44 mph in Teetertown
40 mph in Milford

Mercer County

52 mph at Trenton Mercer Airport
48 mph in Hopewell Twp.
44 mph in Woodsville
43 mph in Ewing

Middlesex County

51 mph in Perth Amboy
47 mph in Carteret
47 mph in Deans (South Brunswick)
42 mph in East Brunswick
40 mph in New Brunswick

Monmouth County

56 mph in Sea Bright
56 mph in Keansburg
54 mph in Sea Girt
51 mph in Monmouth
46 mph in Cream Ridge
43 mph in Millstone Twp.
43 mph in Oceanport

Morris County

49 mph in Pompton Plains
46 mph in Morristown
41 mph at Pequannock Twp. High School
40 mph in Randolph

Ocean County

57 mph in Mantoloking
55 mph in Surf City
54 mph in Harvey Cedars
53 mph in Beach Haven
52 mph in Toms River
50 mph in North Beach Haven
49 mph in Berkeley Twp.
49 mph in Seaside Heights
49 mph at Rutgers
48 mph in Seaside Park
47 mph at Trixies Landing
46 mph in Tuckerton
46 mph in North Beach
43 mph in South Seaside Park

Passaic County

44 mph in Charlotteburg
30 mph in Little Falls

Salem County

52 mph in Lower Alloways Creek
44 mph in Mannington Twp.

Somerset County

47 mph in Franklin Twp.
44 mph in Somerville
41 mph in Hillsborough
41 mph in Manville

Sussex County

63 mph at High Point Monument
50 mph in Hardyston Twp.
41 mph in Sussex

Union County

59 mph at Newark Liberty Airport
49 mph in Linden

Warren County

47 mph in Stewartsville
40 mph in Blairstown
39 mph in Hackettstown

Current weather radar

Source link

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Powerball lottery ticket wins $1 million as jackpot grows to $1.5 billion

Published

1 hour ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

Pennsylvania Powerball lottery ticket wins million as jackpot grows to .5 billion

article

FILE – Powerball logo displayed on a phone screen and coins are seen in this illustration photo.

PHILADELPHIA – A Powerball ticket sold in Pennsylvania matched five numbers in Wednesday night’s drawing, winning $1 million, according to lottery officials.

What we know:

The Pennsylvania ticket was one of several nationwide that matched all five white balls. The ticket did not include the Power Play multiplier.

Because no one matched all six numbers, the Powerball jackpot continues to climb. The next drawing will feature an estimated $1.5 billion jackpot, with a cash option of $689.3 million.

Winning numbers (Dec. 17, 2025)