News Roundup 11/27/19
Democrats push impeachment to next phase with Dec. 4 hearing
The House Judiciary Committee is set to take over the Trump impeachment hearing. The meeting will feature legal experts who will examine questions of constitutional grounds as the panel decides whether to write articles of impeachment against Trump. If it does go through, they will also decide what those articles of impeachment will be. A hearing will be scheduled for next Wednesday as they push to a possible vote on actual charges. The Intelligence Committee is wrapping up the investigative phase of the probe and preparing its report. There have been multiple government witnesses who have testified in the impeachment hearings held by the Intelligence panel this month. Democrats are pushing for a final House vote by Christmas, and would set the stage for a likely Senate trial in January.
Source: Associated Press
One-two punch of storms threatens Thanksgiving travel in US
Heavy snow and winds on Tuesday forced schools in Nebraska, as well as highways in Colorado and Wyoming to be shut down. It also forced more than 1,000 travelers to sleep overnight in Denver’s airport after hundreds of flights were canceled just as Thanksgiving travel moved into high gear. Authorities on both sides of the California-Oregon border have reported numerous crashes and road closures. The National Weather Service has encouraged people to postpone traveling for the holidays until the weather improves. Later this week, forecasters have warned of difficult to impossible travel conditions across northern Arizona as the storm dumps about 2 feet of snow.
Source: Associated Press
Most people who fled California wildfire allowed to go home
On Tuesday, many of the thousands of people who left their homes due to the California wildfire in the mountains north of Santa Barbara were told they could now return home. An approaching storm has offered some hope that the flames will be extinguished. Around 4,000 of the nearly 5,500 evacuees were affected. The fire blackened more than 6.5 square miles of the rugged Santa Ynez Mountains, but most of it was burned in the first hours on Monday. The fire was contained to ten percent on Tuesday. The fire consumed chaparral in an area that hadn’t burned in 29 years.
Source: Associated Press
Report: Drugmakers, distributors under federal opioid probe
Around a half-dozen companies who make or distribute prescription opioid painkillers are facing federal criminal investigations for their roles in a nationwide addiction and overdose crisis. On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported the investigation, citing unnamed sources who are familiar with the investigation. Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, Mallinckrodt and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries have all received grand-jury subpoenas from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, along with drug distributors AmerisourceBergen and McKesson. There are many activists who have demanded drug companies to not only be sued but to also face criminal charges. Although there will be an investigation, it is not certain whether they will also face criminal challenges.
Source: Associated Press
No cash? Salvation Army now accepting mobile donations
Carolyn Harper stood outside a store encouraging people to donate to the Salvation Army, but half a dozen people explained to her they had no cash. Most of the people walked away before Harper could explain that there’s now a new way to give a donation, and it's a smartphone. Donors tap their phone to the tag, which opens a donation form that suggests giving $5, $10 or $25, or can type in a different amount. The charity’s leaders hope that by adding Apple and Google payment options, donations will increase. These donations make up ten percent of its annual fundraising, which are then used to fund programs providing housing, food and other support to people in poverty.
Source: Associated Press