S. Dakotan slams new Georgia senators
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- A day after she called for peace and healing after the riots at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem called Georgia's two incoming Democratic senators communists.
Noem made her comments about incoming Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in an op-ed published Friday by the conservative online magazine The Federalist. In her piece, which focuses on her views about what the Republican Party must do going forward, Noem criticized the election of Ossoff and Warnock in Tuesday's runoff election.
"The idea that Georgia, of all places, could elect two communists to the United States Senate was ridiculous," wrote Noem, a staunch Trump supporter who campaigned for Georgia's Republican incumbents, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
Just a day earlier, Noem used her gubernatorial Twitter account to denounce Wednesday's storming of the U.S. Capitol, saying, "There are consequences for how we talk to each other in this country. Today, let's all pray for healing and peace for our nation."
South Dakota Democrats criticized Noem's op-ed, the Argus Leader reported.
"Gov. Noem claims that 'words have consequences,' and there is no better example of this than her emulating President Trump's rhetoric as she campaigned for him across the country," said Pam Cole, executive director of the state's Democratic Party. "Now she states we should all join together, but in the next breath berates her own Republican Party for allowing 'communists' to be elected in Georgia."
Filings say Honduran key in drug trade
NEW YORK -- U.S. federal prosecutors have filed motions saying that Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez took bribes from drug traffickers and had the country's armed forces protect a cocaine laboratory and shipments to the United States.
The documents quote Hernandez as saying he wanted to "'shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos' by flooding the United States with cocaine."
The motions filed Friday with the U.S. Southern District of New York do not specifically name the president, referring to him as "CC-4," or co-conspirator No. 4, but clearly identify him by naming his brother and his own post as president.
The president, who has not been charged, has repeatedly denied any connection to traffickers despite the 2019 conviction of one of his brothers, Juan Antonio Hernandez. During that trial, the president was accused of accepting more than $1 million from Mexican drug trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman -- an accusation repeated in the new motions.
He has said that traffickers are falsely accusing him to seek vengeance for clamping down on them. The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new filings.
Tax case stands for just-elected official
NEW ORLEANS -- A federal judge has refused to dismiss the tax-fraud charges pending against Orleans Parish District Attorney-elect Jason Williams.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman on Friday denied a motion by Williams and his law partner, Nicole Burdett, to throw out the 11-count indictment against them based on their allegations of "vindictive" and "selective" prosecution. In an 85-page order, Feldman found no evidence that federal prosecutors singled them out to keep Williams from holding public office, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported.
"Has clear evidence been presented to support the theory that the decision to prosecute Jason Williams was based on a desire to prevent him from exercising his right to hold and run for public office? No. Or that he is a black person? No,'" Feldman wrote.
The decision removes one of the last big hurdles for prosecutors from the Western District of Louisiana as they seek to try Williams, now a City Council member, and Burdett in federal court in New Orleans. The U.S. attorney's office in New Orleans recused itself from the case.
A trial had been scheduled to start Monday, but has been postponed for at least two months under a court order over the pandemic.
Stay on Oklahoma bar curfew extended
OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Oklahoma judge has extended a temporary restraining order allowing bars and restaurants across Oklahoma to stay open past an 11 p.m. curfew issued in November by Gov. Kevin Stitt in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
District Judge Susan Stallings heard arguments in the case Friday and extended the Dec. 29 order while she considers ruling in the lawsuit by bar owners who argue the governor doesn't have legal authority to impose the curfew, according to court records.
Attorneys for the governor say state law gives Stitt "broad and flexible authority needed" to combat the spread of the virus.
The state health department on Saturday reported 324,875 total cases and 2,738 deaths since the pandemic began and increases of 4,289 cases and 35 deaths from Friday.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports