Josh Hawley became a symbol of the Jan. 6 insurrection. He hasn’t come up in the hearings
WASHINGTON — The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol has presented a lot of evidence about the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
They’ve presented evidence that extremist groups planned the attack on the Capitol, that those close to the former President Donald Trump knew about it, that Trump wanted to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6, that Trump was so angry about an interview saying his claims about the election being stolen were untrue and that Trump attempted to convince state officials to overturn the results of the election.
But there’s been little about members of Congress and nothing about U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, the Republican from Missouri who, last year, received blame for legitimizing and encouraging the mob that stormed the Capitol.
Over the course of six hearings, spanning more than 14 hours, Hawley’s name has not come up once. Two hearings that focused extensively on the theories Trump allies tossed out in their effort to overturn the results of the election didn’t even mention the Pennsylvania state constitutional question that Hawley hung his objection on.
—McClatchy Washington Bureau
Nation’s most sweeping law to phase out single-use plastics approved by California lawmakers
LOS ANGELES — Striking a blow against a pernicious form of pollution, California lawmakers on Thursday passed the nation’s most far-reaching restrictions on single-use plastics and packaging, with Gov. Gavin Newsom expected to sign the bill Thursday.
The legislation heads off a November ballot measure that many lawmakers and the plastics industry hoped to avoid, and it puts California at the forefront of national efforts to eliminate polystyrene and other plastics that litter the environment, degrade into toxic particles and increasingly inhabit human blood, tissue and organs.
Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, has tried for years to get state legislators to tackle the growing plastic pollution crisis but has faced opposition from the plastics industry and some food container manufacturers.
Late Wednesday night, the California Assembly passed the bill 67-2, with the Senate passing it Thursday morning with 29 "ayes" and no “nos.” Backers applauded.
—Los Angeles Times
Man who sold pistol used in Colleyville synagogue hostage crisis pleads guilty to crime
The Dallas man who sold Malik Faisal Akram the gun he used to kidnap hostages in a Colleyville synagogue pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal gun crime, according to a federal official in Dallas.
Henry “Michael” Dwight Williams, 32, who was charged via criminal complaint in January, pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm before U.S. Magistrate Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez. Williams now faces up to 10 years in federal prison.
“This defendant, a convicted felon, had no business carrying – much less buying and selling – firearms. Whether he suspected his buyer would use the gun to menace a community of faith is legally irrelevant: In the U.S., convicted felons cannot possess firearms,” said United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham in a Thursday news release.
“The Justice Department is committed to prosecuting those who violate our nation’s federal firearm laws, which are designed to keep guns from falling into the hands of dangerous offenders. Meacham praised the FBI for its work on the case against Williams.
—Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Israel dissolves parliament, faces fifth election in four years
Israel’s parliament voted on Thursday to dissolve itself and paved the way to the country’s fifth election in less than four years after a fragile governing coalition collapsed.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will become interim prime minister, replacing Naftali Bennett, until a new government is formed following elections on Nov. 1. Bennett does not intend to run in the next vote. Lapid and Bennett announced their plan to dissolve Israel’s parliament, known as the Knesset, on June 20.
Thursday’s vote throws Israel back into renewed political instability just weeks ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden’s first Middle East visit next month. The government’s collapse also comes at a sensitive time for Israel as it looks to expand regional security and defense partnerships with Arab countries while engaging in an increasingly overt shadow war with Iran.
Bennett’s year-old coalition had grouped together an uneasy alliance of secular and religious factions, hawks and doves, free marketeers and social democrats, as well as an Arab party for the first time in Israeli history. Internal divisions ultimately proved too much.
—Bloomberg News
