Pennsylvania
Court asked to require lab be accredited in GOP ‘investigation’
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Dominion Voting Systems has asked a court to restrict any inspection of its voting machines as part of what Republican lawmakers call a “forensic investigation” of Pennsylvania’s 2020 election to a laboratory that has specific credentials.
The Denver-based voting-system manufacturer filed paperwork in court Monday evening as Republican lawmakers move to inspect Dominion’s machines and software in southern Pennsylvania’s sparsely populated Fulton County using an unaccredited contractor that has no election experience.
In its court papers, Dominion requested an order requiring that any inspection be conducted by a federally accredited voting system test lab or a national laboratory used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Fulton county heavily backed former President Donald Trump, whose baseless claims about election fraud in 2020’s presidential election have propelled various Republican endeavors to search for fraud in states Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
A Commonwealth Court judge has separately given state and county officials until Jan. 10 to work out an agreed-upon set of rules for an inspection.
A lawyer representing Fulton County has said the Republican senator in charge of the “ forensic investigation “ wants to determine if the county’s voting system was the same equipment as was certified by the state of Pennsylvania for use in 2020’s election.
Fulton County is cooperating.
Dominion’s voting equipment has been at the center of conspiracy theories about the presidential election and it has filed defamation lawsuits against right-wing broadcasters and Trump allies.
Ohio
Woman says police fatally shot her husband without warning
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — The wife of a man who was fatally shot by police just minutes into the new year says he had been firing a gun to celebrate the arrival of 2022 when an officer opened fire on him without warning.
Marquetta Williams told The Repository newspaper of Canton that her 46-year-old husband, James, had used an AR-15 rifle that belonged to her to fire some celebratory shots early Saturday outside their Canton home. She said the gunfire is an annual tradition in their neighborhood, with many neighbors also firing shots.
James Williams came back in the house but soon decided to go back outside and shoot some more. His wife said he fired four shots into the air and turned to follow her inside, but then told her, “I’ve been shot.”
In a statement issued Saturday, Canton Police Chief Jack Angelo said officers were investigating reports of gunfire when an officer who was outside his vehicle confronted someone who began shooting a firearm. Angelo said the officer feared for his safety and fired his duty weapon at the person, striking him.
The department has since declined further comment on the shooting.
Marquetta Williams said no officers identified themselves before the shooting occurred around 12:05 a.m. James Williams was taken to a hospital but was pronounced dead there a short time later. He was the father of four daughters and a step-father to two more.
“Out of the blue, he said he got shot, he got hit,” she said. “I don’t know where it came from. Nobody said anything. They didn’t say, ‘Police.’ They didn’t say, ‘Freeze.’ They didn’t say, ‘Drop your weapon.’ They just shot him.”
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is investigating and all evidence including body camera images and firearms has been turned over to the agency. The officer involved has been placed on administrative duty and his name has not been released.
No officers were injured.
Massachusetts
Panel to weigh in on lawsuit over inmates’ jobless benefits
BOSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court is considering a lawsuit brought by Maine prison inmates who were denied unemployment benefits for work-release jobs they lost during the pandemic.
The 53 prisoners sued after they lost nearly $200,000 in unemployment benefits when the governor ruled that they were not entitled to the money.
The governor contended the payments were “bad public policy” even though the attorney general found that they were legal.
The U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston heard arguments on Monday.
“The central argument that we’ve made all along is that these individuals should have had some sort of notice or hearing before their benefits were taken,” said Carol Garvan, who argued the case on Monday.
All told, the prisoners received $198,767 in unemployment benefits with an average amount of $3,750 before the governor intervened to stop the payments. The benefits included an extra $600 per week through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.
Garvan’s client worked as a restaurant cook in a work-release program while incarcerated at Bolduc Correctional Facility in Warren.
The prisoner received more than $10,000 in unemployment benefits. About $8,400 of that was in enhanced benefits provided by Congress. He has since been released from prison.
In putting a stop to the benefits, the governor found the payments to be “appalling and to be bad public policy” and said they should be reserved for Mainers “struggling to pay for basic necessities.”
A federal judge granted a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, but Garvan wants the lawsuit to be reinstated. The inmates’ unemployment benefits were placed in trusts pending the outcome of the litigation.
Iowa
Murder charge filed after victim of beating dies
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Charges against a man accused of pummeling another man on Christmas Eve in downtown Davenport have been upgraded after the man who was beaten later died.
Jaret Leonard Lee Peck, 31, of Davenport, is now charged with second-degree murder after 47-year-old Terrance Woodard died from his injuries on Sunday, the Quad-City Times reported.
Peck had been previously been charged with willful injury and interference with official acts in the case.
Officers were called the afternoon of Dec. 24 to an address in downtown Davenport for a report of an assault, police said. Arriving officers and medics found Woodard beaten and suffering from critical injuries.
Woodard was first taken to a Davenport hospital, then transferred to an Iowa City hospital, where he died Sunday. Investigators have said Peck punched Woodard in the head multiple times, including after Woodard already was on the ground.
