Michigan recount to start at noon today
DETROIT — A federal judge in Detroit ruled late Sunday that the recount of Michigan’s presidential results can begin at noon today, a decision that gives the state more time to complete the count ahead of the Dec. 13 deadline.
Judge Mark Goldsmith rejected an effort by state officials to wait two business days to get started hand-counting about 4.8 million ballots.
Michigan’s elections director, Chris Thomas, testified Sunday in U.S. District Court in Detroit about the difficulty of a recount if it were to start Wednesday, after the waiting period.
Thomas said his office “will certainly take a shot” at counting the ballots before Dec. 13.
Lawyers for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein argued for an immediate recount. Stein requested one, but Republican President-elect Donald Trump sued elections officials to stop it.
Roof tells judge he wants attorneys’ aid
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The white man charged in the shooting deaths of nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church asked a judge Sunday if he could have his defense team back, at least temporarily.
In a handwritten request, Dylann Roof asked U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel to bring his defense team back on board for the guilt phase of his federal death penalty trial, which begins this week in Charleston.
“I would like to ask if my lawyers can represent me for the guilt phase of the trial only,” Roof wrote. “Can you let me have them back for the guilt phase, and then let me represent myself for the sentencing phase of the trial? If you would allow that, then that is what I would like to do.”
Death penalty cases are split into two parts: the guilt phase, and then a separate portion that focuses on whether the defendant will be sentenced to death or life in prison.
Roof, 22, faces dozens of federal charges, including hate crimes and obstruction of the practice of religion, for the June 2015 slayings at the end of a Bible study at Emanuel AME Church.
The request comes a week after a federal judge allowed Roof to represent himself, a request that came as court convened last week to begin the process of qualifying a jury pool to hear Roof’s case. Gergel, who had found Roof competent to stand trial a week earlier, said Roof had the constitutional right to act as his own attorney, a decision the judge called “very unwise.”
Man arrested after D.C. pizzeria gunfire
WASHINGTON — A North Carolina man was arrested Sunday after he walked into a pizza restaurant in northwest Washington, D.C., with a rifle and fired one or more shots, police said.
The man told police he had gone to Comet Ping Pong to investigate “PizzaGate,” an online conspiracy theory involving the family restaurant, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her presidential campaign chief.
Police said 28-year-old Edgar Maddison Welch of Salisbury, N.C., walked in the front door of Comet Ping Pong and pointed a firearm in the direction of an employee. The employee fled and notified police. Police said Welch then discharged the rifle.
Police recovered the rifle and two other firearms inside the restaurant and another weapon in Welch’s car.
Dozens homeless after Boston-area fire
BOSTON — Fire investigators on Sunday were trying to determine what caused a blaze that ripped through a Boston-area neighborhood, displacing 60 to 80 people but “miraculously” resulting in no serious injuries or deaths.
While the fire Saturday afternoon in Cambridge destroyed or damaged 15 structures and several first responders suffered minor injuries, Cambridge Assistant Fire Chief Gerard Mahoney said it’s “nothing short of a miracle” that no one was killed.
“If this fire was in the middle of the night, there’s no doubt in my mind we would have had fatalities and serious injuries,” he said. The fire department received the first emergency calls shortly before 3 p.m.
Mahoney said fire crews spent Sunday morning hosing down hot spots and later assessing the structural integrity of the damaged buildings. He said some buildings are beyond repair. Mahoney said about 10 vehicles also were damaged or destroyed.
Both state and local fire investigators were on the scene trying to determine a cause for the fire, which jumped from one building to another and that witnesses said looked like a fireball.
A Section on 12/05/2016