BROWN COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a woman on drug charges after the search of her residence.

On July 17 while on official duty, a sheriff's deputy identified the odor of&nbsp; burnt marijuana coming from inside a residence in Horton, according to Brown County Sheriff John Merchant.

The resident granted a consent search which resulted in the arrest of Anna Kaler, 35 Horton on requested charges of Possession of Meth, Possession of Marijuana and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658349196221.png" alt="Kaler-photo Brown Co." />
 <figcaption>Kaler-photo Brown Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>BROWN COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a woman on drug charges after the search of her residence.On July 17 while on official duty, a sheriff's deputy identified the odor of&nbsp; burnt marijuana coming from inside a residence in Horton, according to Brown County Sheriff John Merchant.The resident granted a consent search which resulted in the arrest of Anna Kaler, 35 Horton on requested charges of Possession of Meth, Possession of Marijuana and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. .

Kan. woman jailed after deputy smells marijuana coming from home

MOSCOW (AP) — The spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry lashed out Thursday at the United States characterizing basketball star Brittney Griner’s jailing on drug charges as “wrongful detention,” saying it shows disrespect for Russian law.

Griner has been jailed since she was arrested in mid-February at a Moscow airport after vape canisters containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage. The Phoenix Mercury standout and two-time Olympic gold medalist acknowledged in court this month that she had the canisters, but said she had&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/brittney-griner-russia-trial-live-updates-bc4c1d9efd490eed0eb522c8c59e9197">no intent to break the law</a>.

She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/brittney-griner-russian-trial-1db9fad8b028b0158e46625b1a4af1bd">Her trial</a>&nbsp;is scheduled to resume Tuesday.

The State Department in May designated Griner as wrongfully detained, moving her case under the supervision of its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs - effectively, the government’s chief hostage negotiator.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/brittney-griner-trial-updates-142a994fb4067c2b48029e4566169f04">legalization of cannabis</a>&nbsp;for medical and recreational use in parts of the U.S. has no bearing on what happens in Russia.

“If a U.S. citizen was taken in connection with the fact that she was smuggling drugs, and she does not deny this, then this should be commensurate with our Russian, local laws, and not with those adopted in San Francisco, New York and Washington,” Zakharova said.

“You understand, if drugs are legalized in the United States, in a number of states, and this is done for a long time, and now the whole country will become drug-addicted, this does not mean that all other countries are following the same path,” she added.

Russian media have persistently speculated that Griner could be exchanged for prominent Russian arms trader Viktor Bout, who is imprisoned in the United States, and that Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia for espionage, may also figure in an exchange.

U.S. officials have not commented on the prospects for such a trade. Russian officials have said no exchange could be discussed until the conclusion of the legal proceedings against Griner. It is unclear how long the trial will last, but a court has authorized Griner’s detention until Dec. 20.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/3/1646510097872.png" alt="The 31-year-old Griner, one of the most recognizable players in women’s basketball, has won two Olympic gold medals with the U.S., a WNBA championship with the Phoenix Mercury and a national championship at Baylor. She is a seven-time All-Star and three-time Big 12 Player of the year at Baylor-photo courtesy Phoenix Mercury" />
 <figcaption>The 31-year-old Griner, one of the most recognizable players in women’s basketball, has won two Olympic gold medals with the U.S., a WNBA championship with the Phoenix Mercury and a national championship at Baylor. She is a seven-time All-Star and three-time Big 12 Player of the year at Baylor-photo courtesy Phoenix Mercury</figcaption>
 </figure>MOSCOW (AP) — The spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry lashed out Thursday at the United States characterizing basketball star Brittney Griner’s jailing on drug charges as “wrongful detention,” saying it shows disrespect for Russian law.Griner has been jailed since she was arrested in mid-February at a Moscow airport after vape canisters containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage. The Phoenix Mercury standout and two-time Olympic gold medalist acknowledged in court this month that she had the canisters, but said she had&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/brittney-griner-russia-trial-live-updates-bc4c1d9efd490eed0eb522c8c59e9197">no intent to break the law</a>.She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/brittney-griner-russian-trial-1db9fad8b028b0158e46625b1a4af1bd">Her trial</a>&nbsp;is scheduled to resume Tuesday.The State Department in May designated Griner as wrongfully detained, moving her case under the supervision of its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs - effectively, the government’s chief hostage negotiator.Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/brittney-griner-trial-updates-142a994fb4067c2b48029e4566169f04">legalization of cannabis</a>&nbsp;for medical and recreational use in parts of the U.S. has no bearing on what happens in Russia.“If a U.S. citizen was taken in connection with the fact that she was smuggling drugs, and she does not deny this, then this should be commensurate with our Russian, local laws, and not with those adopted in San Francisco, New York and Washington,” Zakharova said.“You understand, if drugs are legalized in the United States, in a number of states, and this is done for a long time, and now the whole country will become drug-addicted, this does not mean that all other countries are following the same path,” she added.Russian media have persistently speculated that Griner could be exchanged for prominent Russian arms trader Viktor Bout, who is imprisoned in the United States, and that Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia for espionage, may also figure in an exchange.U.S. officials have not commented on the prospects for such a trade. Russian officials have said no exchange could be discussed until the conclusion of the legal proceedings against Griner. It is unclear how long the trial will last, but a court has authorized Griner’s detention until Dec. 20.

Moscow: US must respect Russian law in Griner case

SHAWNEE COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities investigating a fatal July 16 shooting are asking the public to help locate Kansas felon.

Just after 9:30 p.m. Saturday, police were dispatched to report of a shooting in the 900 Block of SW 8th Street in Topeka, according to Police LT Ronnie Connell.

First responders found 34-year-old&nbsp; Kirk Sexton suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced deceased at the scene.

The Topeka Police Department is looking to speak with Emmanuel Rashad Walker, 35, of Topeka in reference to this homicide investigation.

 Walker has previous convictions for aggravated assault in 2009 and for, obstruction and drug possession in 2019, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections

Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Emmanuel Rashad Walker should call police or 911.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658512386623.png" alt="&nbsp;Emmanuel Rashad Walker has previous convictions for aggravated assault, obstruction and for drugs, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections -photo Topeka Police" />
 <figcaption>&nbsp;Emmanuel Rashad Walker has previous convictions for aggravated assault, obstruction and for drugs, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections -photo Topeka Police</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities investigating a fatal July 16 shooting are asking the public to help locate Kansas felon.Just after 9:30 p.m. Saturday, police were dispatched to report of a shooting in the 900 Block of SW 8th Street in Topeka, according to Police LT Ronnie Connell.First responders found 34-year-old&nbsp; Kirk Sexton suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced deceased at the scene.The Topeka Police Department is looking to speak with Emmanuel Rashad Walker, 35, of Topeka in reference to this homicide investigation. Walker has previous convictions for aggravated assault in 2009 and for, obstruction and drug possession in 2019, according to the Kansas Department of CorrectionsAnyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Emmanuel Rashad Walker should call police or 911.

Police: Kansas felon wanted for man's murder

&nbsp;By ASHRAF KHALIL Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President 
Donald Trump was convicted on Friday of contempt charges for defying a 
congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6
 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Bannon, 68, was convicted after
 a four-day trial in federal court in Washington on two counts: one for 
refusing to appear for a deposition and the other for refusing to 
provide documents in response to the committee’s subpoena. The jury of 8
 men and 4 women deliberated just under three hours.

He faces up 
to two years in federal prison when he’s sentenced on Oct. 21. Each 
count carries a minimum sentence of 30 days in jail.

The committee
 sought Bannon’s testimony over his involvement in Trump’s efforts to 
overturn the 2020 presidential election. Bannon had initially argued 
that his testimony was protected by Trump’s claim of executive 
privilege. But the House panel and the Justice Department contend such a
 claim is dubious because Trump had fired Bannon from the White House in
 2017 and Bannon was thus a private citizen when he was consulting with 
the then-president in the run-up to the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

Bannon’s
 lawyers tried to argue during the trial that he didn’t refuse to 
cooperate and that the dates “were in flux.” They pointed to the fact 
that Bannon had reversed course shortly before the trial kicked off — 
after Trump waived his objection — and had offered to testify before the
 committee.

In closing arguments Friday morning, both sides 
re-emphasized their primary positions from the trial. The prosecution 
maintained that Bannon willfully ignored clear and explicit deadlines, 
and the defense claimed Bannon believed those deadlines were flexible 
and subject to negotiation.

Bannon was served with a subpoena on 
Sept. 23 last year ordering him to provide requested documents to the 
committee by Oct. 7 and appear in person by Oct. 14. Bannon was indicted
 in November on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress, a month 
after the Justice Department received the House panel’s referral.

Bannon’s
 attorney Evan Corcoran told jurors Friday in his closing arguments that
 those deadlines were mere “placeholders” while lawyers on each side 
negotiated terms.

Corcoran said the committee “rushed to judgment” because it “wanted to make an example of Steve Bannon.”

Corcoran
 also hinted that the government’s main witness, Jan. 6 committee chief 
counsel Kristin Amerling, was personally biased. Amerling admitted on 
the stand that she is a lifelong Democrat and has been friends with one 
of the prosecutors for years. Corcoran also vaguely hinted that the 
signature of Jan. 6 committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss) 
looked different on the subpoena than on other letters but dropped that 
topic when the prosecution objected.

Prosecutors focused on the 
series of letters exchanged between the Jan. 6 committee and Bannon’s 
lawyers. The correspondence shows Thompson immediately dismissing 
Bannon’s claim that he was exempted by Trump’s claim of executive 
privilege and explicitly threatening Bannon with criminal prosecution.

“The
 defense wants to make this hard, difficult and confusing,” said 
Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Vaughn in her closing statement. “This is
 not difficult. This is not hard. There were only two witnesses because 
it’s as simple as it seems.”

The defense Thursday motioned for an 
acquittal, saying the prosecution had not proved it’s case. In making 
his motion for acquittal before U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, Bannon
 attorney Evan Corcoran said that “no reasonable juror could conclude 
that Mr. Bannon refused to comply.”

Once the motion was made the 
defense rested its case without putting on any witnesses, telling 
Nichols that Bannon saw no point in testifying since the judge’s 
previous rulings had gutted his planned avenues of defense. Among other 
things, Bannon’s team was barred from calling as witnesses House Speaker
 Nancy Pelosi or members of the House panel. David Schoen said Bannon 
“understands that he would be barred from telling the true facts.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658518117885.jpeg" alt="Former White House strategist Steve Bannon arrives at the federal court in Washington on Friday (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)" />
 <figcaption>Former White House strategist Steve Bannon arrives at the federal court in Washington on Friday (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)</figcaption>
 </figure>&nbsp;By ASHRAF KHALIL Associated Press WASHINGTON — Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President 
Donald Trump was convicted on Friday of contempt charges for defying a 
congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6
 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.Bannon, 68, was convicted after
 a four-day trial in federal court in Washington on two counts: one for 
refusing to appear for a deposition and the other for refusing to 
provide documents in response to the committee’s subpoena. The jury of 8
 men and 4 women deliberated just under three hours.He faces up 
to two years in federal prison when he’s sentenced on Oct. 21. Each 
count carries a minimum sentence of 30 days in jail.The committee
 sought Bannon’s testimony over his involvement in Trump’s efforts to 
overturn the 2020 presidential election. Bannon had initially argued 
that his testimony was protected by Trump’s claim of executive 
privilege. But the House panel and the Justice Department contend such a
 claim is dubious because Trump had fired Bannon from the White House in
 2017 and Bannon was thus a private citizen when he was consulting with 
the then-president in the run-up to the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.Bannon’s
 lawyers tried to argue during the trial that he didn’t refuse to 
cooperate and that the dates “were in flux.” They pointed to the fact 
that Bannon had reversed course shortly before the trial kicked off — 
after Trump waived his objection — and had offered to testify before the
 committee.In closing arguments Friday morning, both sides 
re-emphasized their primary positions from the trial. The prosecution 
maintained that Bannon willfully ignored clear and explicit deadlines, 
and the defense claimed Bannon believed those deadlines were flexible 
and subject to negotiation.Bannon was served with a subpoena on 
Sept. 23 last year ordering him to provide requested documents to the 
committee by Oct. 7 and appear in person by Oct. 14. Bannon was indicted
 in November on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress, a month 
after the Justice Department received the House panel’s referral.Bannon’s
 attorney Evan Corcoran told jurors Friday in his closing arguments that
 those deadlines were mere “placeholders” while lawyers on each side 
negotiated terms.Corcoran said the committee “rushed to judgment” because it “wanted to make an example of Steve Bannon.”Corcoran
 also hinted that the government’s main witness, Jan. 6 committee chief 
counsel Kristin Amerling, was personally biased. Amerling admitted on 
the stand that she is a lifelong Democrat and has been friends with one 
of the prosecutors for years. Corcoran also vaguely hinted that the 
signature of Jan. 6 committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss) 
looked different on the subpoena than on other letters but dropped that 
topic when the prosecution objected.Prosecutors focused on the 
series of letters exchanged between the Jan. 6 committee and Bannon’s 
lawyers. The correspondence shows Thompson immediately dismissing 
Bannon’s claim that he was exempted by Trump’s claim of executive 
privilege and explicitly threatening Bannon with criminal prosecution.“The
 defense wants to make this hard, difficult and confusing,” said 
Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Vaughn in her closing statement. “This is
 not difficult. This is not hard. There were only two witnesses because 
it’s as simple as it seems.”The defense Thursday motioned for an 
acquittal, saying the prosecution had not proved it’s case. In making 
his motion for acquittal before U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, Bannon
 attorney Evan Corcoran said that “no reasonable juror could conclude 
that Mr. Bannon refused to comply.”Once the motion was made the 
defense rested its case without putting on any witnesses, telling 
Nichols that Bannon saw no point in testifying since the judge’s 
previous rulings had gutted his planned avenues of defense. Among other 
things, Bannon’s team was barred from calling as witnesses House Speaker
 Nancy Pelosi or members of the House panel. David Schoen said Bannon 
“understands that he would be barred from telling the true facts.”

Steve Bannon convicted of contempt for defying 1/6 subpoena

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's COVID symptoms improved Friday and he responded well to treatment, his doctor said, as the White House worked to portray the image of a president still on the job despite his illness.

Biden had an elevated temperature of 99.4 F on Thursday, but that went down with Tylenol, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22111883-biden-paxlovid">new note from Dr. Kevin O'Connor,</a>&nbsp;the president's personal physician. Other metrics, such as pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation were normal, O'Connor said, although the White House did not release specific figures.

The president completed his first full day of Paxlovid, the antiviral therapy treatment meant to reduce the severity of COVID, and Biden's primary symptoms were a runny noise, fatigue and a loose cough, O'Connor said. Biden's voice was also deeper Friday morning.

But O'Connor emphasized that the president — who is fully vaccinated and twice boosted — continued to have a good prognosis.

“There has been nothing in the course of his illness thus far which gives me cause to alter that initial expectation," he wrote.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boris-johnson-biden-covid-health-government-and-politics-fec6b4a56384b1f2bf7582aecb46aa36">Once Biden tested positive Thursday</a>&nbsp;— after more than two years of successfully dodging the virus — the White House sprung into action, aiming to turn his diagnosis into a “teachable moment” and dispel any notion of a crisis.

Those efforts continued Friday, when the White House released a photo of Biden, masked and tieless, in the Treaty Room of the president's residence, on the phone with his national security advisers. He was also scheduled to meet remotely with his economic team in a meeting focused on gas prices and then, separately, senior White House advisers to discuss legislative priorities.

It was part of an administration effort to shift the narrative from a health scare to a display of Biden as the personification of the idea that most Americans can get COVID and recover without too much suffering and disruption if they’ve gotten their shots and taken other important steps to protect themselves.

The message was crafted to alleviate voters’ concerns about Biden’s health — at 79,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-health-ronald-reagan-coronavirus-pandemic-b43ea0d0049ae2cd72aead6e1816f6d5">he’s the oldest person ever to be president</a>. And it was aimed at demonstrating to the country that the pandemic is far less of a threat than it was before Biden took office, thanks to widespread vaccines and new therapeutic drugs.

Conveying that sentiment on Day 1 of Biden’s coronavirus experience virus wasn’t always easy, though.

In a lengthy briefing with reporters, White House press secretary&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-karine-jean-pierre-donald-trump-government-and-politics-14ee65c1a268db4a7faa452eeac600e6">Karine Jean-Pierre</a>&nbsp;said repeatedly that the White House had been as transparent as possible about the president’s health. But she parried with reporters over specifics. And when pressed about where Biden might have contracted the virus, she responded, “I don’t think that that matters, right? I think what matters is we prepared for this moment.”

Jean-Pierre and White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-covid-health-congress-a05afb7ebfa102992c354c99619fa944">Dr. Ashish Jha</a>&nbsp;didn’t fully answer questions about whether Biden began isolating as soon as he started experiencing symptoms on Wednesday night, as federal guidelines suggest, or did so following his positive test the next day. Jha declined to speculate on some aspects of the president’s prognosis, characterizing the questions as hypotheticals.

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said it’s important for Americans to know they must remain careful about the virus, which continues to kill hundreds of people daily.

“That’s the balance that we have to strike,” Osterholm said. “The president of the United States will do very well. But that may not be true for everyone.”

Jha said Biden’s case was being prioritized, meaning it will likely take less than a week for sequencing to determine which variant of the virus Biden contracted. Omicron’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-rochelle-walensky-centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention-government-politics-0bd2ccf19f1c27379f312b9edf5f3634">highly contagious BA.5 substrain</a>&nbsp;is responsible for 78% of new COVID-19 infections reported in the U.S. last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest data released Tuesday.

Jean-Pierre said first lady Jill Biden was in close contact with the president, but she declined to discuss others who also might have been exposed, citing privacy reasons. Biden had&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-middle-east-emergency-management-climate-and-environment-febdf09a5251f6b4fea9c4e7d9cdf006">traveled to Massachusetts</a>&nbsp;a day earlier to promote efforts to combat climate change and flew on Air Force One with several Democratic leaders, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

A White House official confirmed that Vice President Kamala Harris was also in close contact with Biden, and chief of staff Ron Klain said he was too. Klain said the White House wasn’t aware of any positive COVID results linked to the president’s case.

During her briefing, Jean-Pierre bristled at suggestions the Biden administration wasn’t being much more forthcoming with information about the president’s illness than that of his predecessor, Donald Trump. The former president&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-donald-trump-ap-top-news-elections-virus-outbreak-7fece2838ff7a9bd91ccf5ac287348b3">contracted COVID-19 in the fall of 2020</a>, before vaccines were available, and was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-donald-trump-elections-melania-trump-michael-pence-f6ba3a16ab9b74b161a3a7211248e97e">hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center</a>&nbsp;for three nights.

“I wholeheartedly disagree,” Jean-Pierre said of comparison. “We are doing this very differently — very differently — than the last administration.”

Dr. Leana Wen, a public health professor at George Washington University, said it was good for the White House to send the message that Biden can keep working even after testing positive.

“That shows that it’s business as usual,” Wen said.

Jean-Pierre’s predecessor, Jen Psaki, noted that White House officials have “been preparing for this probably for several months now, given the percentage of people in the country who have tested positive.”

“What they need to do over the next couple of days is show him working and show him still active and serving as president and I’m certain they’ll likely do that,” Psaki, who left her post as White House press secretary in May, said on MSNBC,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jen-psaki-msnbc-46ef9b47120f971de7a48fb93c8c9412">where she’s becoming a commentator</a>.

Biden will isolate until he tests negative, the White House said.

Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute, said that could mean he’s “out of commission from interacting with people for at least eight to 10 days.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658515578163.png" alt="President Biden continued working from the White House this morning, including speaking by phone with his national security team-White House photo" />
 <figcaption>President Biden continued working from the White House this morning, including speaking by phone with his national security team-White House photo</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's COVID symptoms improved Friday and he responded well to treatment, his doctor said, as the White House worked to portray the image of a president still on the job despite his illness.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658515456047.png" alt="Letter from Dr. Kevin O'Connor: President Biden COVID update" />
 <figcaption>Letter from Dr. Kevin O'Connor: President Biden COVID update</figcaption>
 </figure>Biden had an elevated temperature of 99.4 F on Thursday, but that went down with Tylenol, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22111883-biden-paxlovid">new note from Dr. Kevin O'Connor,</a>&nbsp;the president's personal physician. Other metrics, such as pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation were normal, O'Connor said, although the White House did not release specific figures.The president completed his first full day of Paxlovid, the antiviral therapy treatment meant to reduce the severity of COVID, and Biden's primary symptoms were a runny noise, fatigue and a loose cough, O'Connor said. Biden's voice was also deeper Friday morning.But O'Connor emphasized that the president — who is fully vaccinated and twice boosted — continued to have a good prognosis.“There has been nothing in the course of his illness thus far which gives me cause to alter that initial expectation," he wrote.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boris-johnson-biden-covid-health-government-and-politics-fec6b4a56384b1f2bf7582aecb46aa36">Once Biden tested positive Thursday</a>&nbsp;— after more than two years of successfully dodging the virus — the White House sprung into action, aiming to turn his diagnosis into a “teachable moment” and dispel any notion of a crisis.Those efforts continued Friday, when the White House released a photo of Biden, masked and tieless, in the Treaty Room of the president's residence, on the phone with his national security advisers. He was also scheduled to meet remotely with his economic team in a meeting focused on gas prices and then, separately, senior White House advisers to discuss legislative priorities.It was part of an administration effort to shift the narrative from a health scare to a display of Biden as the personification of the idea that most Americans can get COVID and recover without too much suffering and disruption if they’ve gotten their shots and taken other important steps to protect themselves.The message was crafted to alleviate voters’ concerns about Biden’s health — at 79,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-health-ronald-reagan-coronavirus-pandemic-b43ea0d0049ae2cd72aead6e1816f6d5">he’s the oldest person ever to be president</a>. And it was aimed at demonstrating to the country that the pandemic is far less of a threat than it was before Biden took office, thanks to widespread vaccines and new therapeutic drugs.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">An update from me: <a href="https://t.co/L2oCR0uUTu">pic.twitter.com/L2oCR0uUTu</a>&mdash; President Biden (@POTUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1550179049598861314?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 21, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Conveying that sentiment on Day 1 of Biden’s coronavirus experience virus wasn’t always easy, though.In a lengthy briefing with reporters, White House press secretary&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-karine-jean-pierre-donald-trump-government-and-politics-14ee65c1a268db4a7faa452eeac600e6">Karine Jean-Pierre</a>&nbsp;said repeatedly that the White House had been as transparent as possible about the president’s health. But she parried with reporters over specifics. And when pressed about where Biden might have contracted the virus, she responded, “I don’t think that that matters, right? I think what matters is we prepared for this moment.”Jean-Pierre and White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-covid-health-congress-a05afb7ebfa102992c354c99619fa944">Dr. Ashish Jha</a>&nbsp;didn’t fully answer questions about whether Biden began isolating as soon as he started experiencing symptoms on Wednesday night, as federal guidelines suggest, or did so following his positive test the next day. Jha declined to speculate on some aspects of the president’s prognosis, characterizing the questions as hypotheticals.Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said it’s important for Americans to know they must remain careful about the virus, which continues to kill hundreds of people daily.“That’s the balance that we have to strike,” Osterholm said. “The president of the United States will do very well. But that may not be true for everyone.”Jha said Biden’s case was being prioritized, meaning it will likely take less than a week for sequencing to determine which variant of the virus Biden contracted. Omicron’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-rochelle-walensky-centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention-government-politics-0bd2ccf19f1c27379f312b9edf5f3634">highly contagious BA.5 substrain</a>&nbsp;is responsible for 78% of new COVID-19 infections reported in the U.S. last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest data released Tuesday.Jean-Pierre said first lady Jill Biden was in close contact with the president, but she declined to discuss others who also might have been exposed, citing privacy reasons. Biden had&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-middle-east-emergency-management-climate-and-environment-febdf09a5251f6b4fea9c4e7d9cdf006">traveled to Massachusetts</a>&nbsp;a day earlier to promote efforts to combat climate change and flew on Air Force One with several Democratic leaders, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.A White House official confirmed that Vice President Kamala Harris was also in close contact with Biden, and chief of staff Ron Klain said he was too. Klain said the White House wasn’t aware of any positive COVID results linked to the president’s case.During her briefing, Jean-Pierre bristled at suggestions the Biden administration wasn’t being much more forthcoming with information about the president’s illness than that of his predecessor, Donald Trump. The former president&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-donald-trump-ap-top-news-elections-virus-outbreak-7fece2838ff7a9bd91ccf5ac287348b3">contracted COVID-19 in the fall of 2020</a>, before vaccines were available, and was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-donald-trump-elections-melania-trump-michael-pence-f6ba3a16ab9b74b161a3a7211248e97e">hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center</a>&nbsp;for three nights.“I wholeheartedly disagree,” Jean-Pierre said of comparison. “We are doing this very differently — very differently — than the last administration.”Dr. Leana Wen, a public health professor at George Washington University, said it was good for the White House to send the message that Biden can keep working even after testing positive.“That shows that it’s business as usual,” Wen said.Jean-Pierre’s predecessor, Jen Psaki, noted that White House officials have “been preparing for this probably for several months now, given the percentage of people in the country who have tested positive.”“What they need to do over the next couple of days is show him working and show him still active and serving as president and I’m certain they’ll likely do that,” Psaki, who left her post as White House press secretary in May, said on MSNBC,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jen-psaki-msnbc-46ef9b47120f971de7a48fb93c8c9412">where she’s becoming a commentator</a>.Biden will isolate until he tests negative, the White House said.Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute, said that could mean he’s “out of commission from interacting with people for at least eight to 10 days.”

Biden's doctor: President's COVID symptoms 'have improved'

SEDGWICK COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a major security breach at the Sedgwick County Jail.

On July 17, authorities learned that inmates had removed a pipe from a&nbsp; sink&nbsp; in a day room. They used the pipe to pound on a window in a cell to create a fist sized hole in the window, according to Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter.

The inmates later lowered a sheet through the hole to a person outside the jail who was contacted through the facility's phone system. That person delivered&nbsp; cell phones and marijuana to the inmates.

&nbsp;Through additional investigation, the sheriff's office learned the inmates expected three more deliveries that day. The deliveries included the introduction of a handgun into the jail, according to Easter.

Investigators also learned that almost twenty shanks, or improvised weapons, had been created inside the jail this month. Much of the activity was in conjunction with violence that prompted the lockdown of the Lansing Correctional Facility on July 15, according to Easter. The incident sent one prisoner to the hospital and left at least three corrections employees injured. Two leaders of a gang at&nbsp;Lansing, the state's largest and oldest prison for adult men, used to be in the Sedgwick County Jail.

Several inmates, affiliated with the same gang and still housed in Sedgwick County were planning similar violence, according to Easter.

While investigating the incident in Sedgwick County, the on-duty deputy in that area of the jail observed inmates break the window, bring the contraband into the facility and didn't stop it or inform anyone it occurred. He also did not give investigators the full story about the incident when confronted about it, according to Easter.&nbsp;

After further investigation of the jail deputy identified as 22-year-old Dustin Burnett, he was arrested on requested charges of official misconduct and conspiracy to traffic contraband into a penal institution. Burnett had been employed by the jail since January and was terminated upon his arrest.

On Wednesday, the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office conducted a mass search of the entire 1,226 bed Adult Detention Facility after receiving creditable information about the contraband being introduced to the facility.​ A team comprised of 169 members of the Sheriff’s Office took over six hours to complete the search.

During the search deputies found fentanyl pills, shanks or items that could be made into dangerous weapons, a handcuff key, possible K2 and a butane lighter.

Also during the search,&nbsp;a medical emergency occurred in one of the housing units where an inmate was found unresponsive in the housing unit gymnasium.​ Medical staff responded quickly and was able to revive the inmate after administering four doses of Narcan.​ As a precaution the inmate was transported to a local area hospital for treatment, but has since been returned to the Detention Facility.​

While the inmate was being treated in the housing unit he was found in possession of the six pills believed to be fentanyl. ​ The 26-year-old white male is being held on Aggravated Assault, Criminal Poss of a Firearm, Flee and Elude Law Enforcement and Drug Charges​

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658430090733.png" alt="Suspected Fentanyl Laced Pills found during a search -photo Sedgwick Co. Sheriff" />
 <figcaption>Suspected Fentanyl Laced Pills found during a search -photo Sedgwick Co. Sheriff</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a major security breach at the Sedgwick County Jail.On July 17, authorities learned that inmates had removed a pipe from a&nbsp; sink&nbsp; in a day room. They used the pipe to pound on a window in a cell to create a fist sized hole in the window, according to Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter.The inmates later lowered a sheet through the hole to a person outside the jail who was contacted through the facility's phone system. That person delivered&nbsp; cell phones and marijuana to the inmates.&nbsp;Through additional investigation, the sheriff's office learned the inmates expected three more deliveries that day. The deliveries included the introduction of a handgun into the jail, according to Easter.Investigators also learned that almost twenty shanks, or improvised weapons, had been created inside the jail this month. Much of the activity was in conjunction with violence that prompted the lockdown of the Lansing Correctional Facility on July 15, according to Easter. The incident sent one prisoner to the hospital and left at least three corrections employees injured. Two leaders of a gang at&nbsp;Lansing, the state's largest and oldest prison for adult men, used to be in the Sedgwick County Jail.Several inmates, affiliated with the same gang and still housed in Sedgwick County were planning similar violence, according to Easter.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658430002977.png" alt="Outlet cover sharpened into a shank​" />
 <figcaption>Outlet cover sharpened into a shank​</figcaption>
 </figure>While investigating the incident in Sedgwick County, the on-duty deputy in that area of the jail observed inmates break the window, bring the contraband into the facility and didn't stop it or inform anyone it occurred. He also did not give investigators the full story about the incident when confronted about it, according to Easter.&nbsp;<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658429257903.png" alt="Burnett-photo Sedgwick County" />
 <figcaption>Burnett-photo Sedgwick County</figcaption>
 </figure>After further investigation of the jail deputy identified as 22-year-old Dustin Burnett, he was arrested on requested charges of official misconduct and conspiracy to traffic contraband into a penal institution. Burnett had been employed by the jail since January and was terminated upon his arrest.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658429970384.png" alt="Pen sharpened down into a shank" />
 <figcaption>Pen sharpened down into a shank</figcaption>
 </figure>On Wednesday, the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office conducted a mass search of the entire 1,226 bed Adult Detention Facility after receiving creditable information about the contraband being introduced to the facility.​ A team comprised of 169 members of the Sheriff’s Office took over six hours to complete the search.During the search deputies found fentanyl pills, shanks or items that could be made into dangerous weapons, a handcuff key, possible K2 and a butane lighter.Also during the search,&nbsp;a medical emergency occurred in one of the housing units where an inmate was found unresponsive in the housing unit gymnasium.​ Medical staff responded quickly and was able to revive the inmate after administering four doses of Narcan.​ As a precaution the inmate was transported to a local area hospital for treatment, but has since been returned to the Detention Facility.​While the inmate was being treated in the housing unit he was found in possession of the six pills believed to be fentanyl. ​ The 26-year-old white male is being held on Aggravated Assault, Criminal Poss of a Firearm, Flee and Elude Law Enforcement and Drug Charges​

Security breach: Weapons, drugs found at Kansas jail

By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY Salina Post

A 26-year-old Salina woman was stopped before she lost money to a scammer.

The woman was notified via text that her Amazon account had been hacked, according to Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester.

When she called the phone number in the text, she was told that Amazon was working with law enforcement in Texas, and that there was a warrant out for her arrest for identity theft.

The woman was told to put $10,000 into the crypto coin machine in the mall, which she started to do before her father stopped her. Forrester said she was able to cancel the transaction before losing any money.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1610470843065.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY Salina PostA 26-year-old Salina woman was stopped before she lost money to a scammer.The woman was notified via text that her Amazon account had been hacked, according to Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester.When she called the phone number in the text, she was told that Amazon was working with law enforcement in Texas, and that there was a warrant out for her arrest for identity theft.The woman was told to put $10,000 into the crypto coin machine in the mall, which she started to do before her father stopped her. Forrester said she was able to cancel the transaction before losing any money.

Police: Dad saves Kan. woman from text scam involving crypto

TOPEKA —Former Secretary of State and Congressman from Kansas Mike Pompeo&nbsp;has announced his support for  state Senator Kellie Warren in the GOP primary for Kansas Attorney General.

Warren is running against Kris Kobach and Tony Mattivi in the Republican primary.

On social media Pompeo wrote, "Warren is an experienced attorney and proven conservative policy leader who knows how to fight the tough battles and win. I'm excited to endorse her for Kansas Attorney General."

&nbsp;On Tuesday, Senator Roger Marshall announced his support for Warren.

TOPEKA —Former Secretary of State and Congressman from Kansas Mike Pompeo&nbsp;has announced his support for state Senator Kellie Warren in the GOP primary for Kansas Attorney General.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658496723962.png" alt="Warren, Kobach and Mattivi during the Sedgwick County GOP Attorney General Debate Thursday-photo courtesy KWCH" />
 <figcaption>Warren, Kobach and Mattivi during the Sedgwick County GOP Attorney General Debate Thursday-photo courtesy KWCH</figcaption>
 </figure>Warren is running against Kris Kobach and Tony Mattivi in the Republican primary.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><a href="https://twitter.com/KellieWarren4AG?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KellieWarren4AG</a> is an experienced attorney and proven conservative policy leader who knows how to fight the tough battles and win. I&#39;m excited to endorse her for Kansas Attorney General! <a href="https://t.co/HP2DYoT785">pic.twitter.com/HP2DYoT785</a>&mdash; Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) <a href="https://twitter.com/mikepompeo/status/1550208832411951104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 21, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>On social media Pompeo wrote, "Warren is an experienced attorney and proven conservative policy leader who knows how to fight the tough battles and win. I'm excited to endorse her for Kansas Attorney General."&nbsp;On Tuesday, Senator Roger Marshall announced his support for Warren.

Pompeo endorses Warren in primary for Kan. attorney general

JOHNSON COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting and continue to search for suspects.

Just after 5:30p.m. Thursday police responded to the 8400 block of Carter in Overland Park reference two victims struck by gunfire, according to a media release.

 The two victims, a boy and girl in their late teens, were transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries. 

 The two suspects were last seen running eastbound toward Grant Street.  The two teen suspects were African American males wearing red/black hoodie and a dark color hoodie. 

If you have any information regarding this incident please call 913-890-1362 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;

JOHNSON COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting and continue to search for suspects.Just after 5:30p.m. Thursday police responded to the 8400 block of Carter in Overland Park reference two victims struck by gunfire, according to a media release. The two victims, a boy and girl in their late teens, were transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The two suspects were last seen running eastbound toward Grant Street. The two teen suspects were African American males wearing red/black hoodie and a dark color hoodie. If you have any information regarding this incident please call 913-890-1362 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;

Police: Two Kansas teens injured in shooting

WASHINGTON (AP) — The right to use contraceptives would be enshrined in law under a measure that Democrats pushed through the House on Thursday, their latest campaign-season response to concerns&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-supreme-court-decision-854f60302f21c2c35129e58cf8d8a7b0">a conservative Supreme Court that already erased federal abortion rights</a>&nbsp;could go further.

The House's 228-195 roll call was largely along party lines and sent the measure to the Senate, where it seemed doomed. The bill is the latest example of Democrats latching onto&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-gavin-newsom-marriage-cultures-d82094c4d869a7b084b5ccccd5b47271">their own version of culture war battles</a>&nbsp;to appeal to female, progressive and minority voters by casting the court and Republicans as extremists intent on obliterating rights taken for granted for years.

Democrats said that with the high court recently overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision from 1973, the justices and GOP lawmakers are on track to go even further than&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-health-congress-government-and-politics-fc8c68d1c4dd29ef0a364050013b8cf4">banning abortions</a>.

“This extremism is about one thing: control of women. We will not let this happen,” said Rep. Kathy Manning, D-N.C., who sponsored the legislation. All of the bill's nearly 150 co-sponsors are Democrats. Addressing fellow lawmakers, she added, “Women and girls across this country are watching you, and they want to know: Are you willing to stand up for them?”

In his opinion overturning Roe last month, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court should now review other precedents. He mentioned rulings that affirmed the rights of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/roe-wade-supreme-court-f6b899076faba20517b9ac1e82438c16">same-sex marriage</a>&nbsp;in 2015, same-sex intimate relationships in 2003 and married couples' use of contraceptives in 1965.

Thomas did not specify a 1972 decision that legalized the use of contraceptives by unmarried people as well, but Democrats say they consider that at risk as well.

Republicans said the bill went too far. They said it would lead to more abortions, which supporters deny, allow the use of drugs not yet fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration and force health care providers to offer contraceptives, even if that contradicted their religious beliefs.

“Women deserve the truth, not more fear and misinformation that forces an extreme agenda on the American people," said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.

Every Democrat supported the legislation, while Republicans overwhelmingly opposed it by 195-8. The House Democrats' campaign committee quickly jumped on that disparity, with spokesperson Helen Kalla saying her party will "fight to protect women’s freedoms from the GOP’s sinister agenda.”

The measure seemed destined to become a campaign issue and not law. Minutes after House passage, Republicans blocked quick Senate approval of a similar bill. Support by at least 10 GOP senators would be needed to reach 60 votes, the threshold required for most legislation to pass in that chamber, which is divided 50-50.

The contraception bill explicitly allows the use of contraceptives and gives the medical community the right to provide them, covering “any device or medication used to prevent pregnancy.” Listed examples include oral contraceptives, injections, implants like intrauterine devices and emergency contraceptives, which prevent pregnancy several days after unprotected sex.

The bill lets the federal and state government, patients and health care providers bring civil suits against states or state officials that violate its provisions.

House Democrats have begun forcing votes on several&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-technology-politics-health-e5b6e90807a5a2b5e437cfc9bbe0f1f6">issues related to privacy rights</a>, hoping for long-shot victories or to at least energize sympathetic voters and donors and force Republicans from competitive districts into difficult spots.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-bills-house-vote-fc24d99f184d7aeec4926a6520311da5">The House voted last week to revive a nationwide right to abortion,</a>&nbsp;with every Republican voting no, and voted largely along party lines to bar prosecuting women traveling to states where abortion remains legal. Neither is expected to survive in the Senate.

Yet the House voted Tuesday to keep same-sex marriage legal, with 47 Republicans joining all Democrats in backing the measure. Though 157 Republicans voted no, that tally raised expectations that the bill could win enough support for GOP senators to pass,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/roe-wade-supreme-court-f6b899076faba20517b9ac1e82438c16">sending it to President Joe Biden for his signature</a>.

Nearly all adults, 92%, called birth control “morally acceptable” in a Gallup poll in May. A PRRI poll in June showed about 8 in 10 said they opposed laws that restrict what types of birth control can be used to prevent pregnancy.

Even so, anti-abortion groups and Republican leaders oppose the contraception legislation, and there was no immediate sign that significant numbers of GOP senators would be willing to defy them. In contrast, same-sex marriage has such firm public acceptance and is such a clear-cut issue that growing numbers of Republicans have been willing to vote for it.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America said the contraception legislation “seeks to bail out the abortion industry, trample conscience rights, and require uninhibited access to dangerous chemical abortion drugs.” The National Right to Life Committee said it “goes far beyond the scope of contraception” and would cover abortion pills like RU486, which supporters said was incorrect.

The measure drew a mixed reaction Wednesday from two of the Senate's more moderate Republicans.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was “most likely" to support the measure. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, demurred, saying she was working on bipartisan legislation that she said would codify the rights to abortion and perhaps for contraception.

There are few state restrictions on contraceptive use, said Elizabeth Nash, who studies state reproductive health policies for the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.

Nash said she was concerned that there will be efforts to curb emergency contraceptives and intrauterine devices and to help providers and institutions refuse to provide contraceptive services.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658492715480.png" alt=""Today, 197 GOP members of the House made clear that they don't believe women have a right to contraception," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>"Today, 197 GOP members of the House made clear that they don't believe women have a right to contraception," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — The right to use contraceptives would be enshrined in law under a measure that Democrats pushed through the House on Thursday, their latest campaign-season response to concerns&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-supreme-court-decision-854f60302f21c2c35129e58cf8d8a7b0">a conservative Supreme Court that already erased federal abortion rights</a>&nbsp;could go further.The House's 228-195 roll call was largely along party lines and sent the measure to the Senate, where it seemed doomed. The bill is the latest example of Democrats latching onto&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-gavin-newsom-marriage-cultures-d82094c4d869a7b084b5ccccd5b47271">their own version of culture war battles</a>&nbsp;to appeal to female, progressive and minority voters by casting the court and Republicans as extremists intent on obliterating rights taken for granted for years.Democrats said that with the high court recently overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision from 1973, the justices and GOP lawmakers are on track to go even further than&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-health-congress-government-and-politics-fc8c68d1c4dd29ef0a364050013b8cf4">banning abortions</a>.“This extremism is about one thing: control of women. We will not let this happen,” said Rep. Kathy Manning, D-N.C., who sponsored the legislation. All of the bill's nearly 150 co-sponsors are Democrats. Addressing fellow lawmakers, she added, “Women and girls across this country are watching you, and they want to know: Are you willing to stand up for them?”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658399340498.png" alt="House Democrats during a rally ahead of the vote -photo courtesy House Speaker's office." />
 <figcaption>House Democrats during a rally ahead of the vote -photo courtesy House Speaker's office.</figcaption>
 </figure>In his opinion overturning Roe last month, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court should now review other precedents. He mentioned rulings that affirmed the rights of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/roe-wade-supreme-court-f6b899076faba20517b9ac1e82438c16">same-sex marriage</a>&nbsp;in 2015, same-sex intimate relationships in 2003 and married couples' use of contraceptives in 1965.Thomas did not specify a 1972 decision that legalized the use of contraceptives by unmarried people as well, but Democrats say they consider that at risk as well.Republicans said the bill went too far. They said it would lead to more abortions, which supporters deny, allow the use of drugs not yet fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration and force health care providers to offer contraceptives, even if that contradicted their religious beliefs.“Women deserve the truth, not more fear and misinformation that forces an extreme agenda on the American people," said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.Every Democrat supported the legislation, while Republicans overwhelmingly opposed it by 195-8. The House Democrats' campaign committee quickly jumped on that disparity, with spokesperson Helen Kalla saying her party will "fight to protect women’s freedoms from the GOP’s sinister agenda.”The measure seemed destined to become a campaign issue and not law. Minutes after House passage, Republicans blocked quick Senate approval of a similar bill. Support by at least 10 GOP senators would be needed to reach 60 votes, the threshold required for most legislation to pass in that chamber, which is divided 50-50.The contraception bill explicitly allows the use of contraceptives and gives the medical community the right to provide them, covering “any device or medication used to prevent pregnancy.” Listed examples include oral contraceptives, injections, implants like intrauterine devices and emergency contraceptives, which prevent pregnancy several days after unprotected sex.The bill lets the federal and state government, patients and health care providers bring civil suits against states or state officials that violate its provisions.House Democrats have begun forcing votes on several&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-technology-politics-health-e5b6e90807a5a2b5e437cfc9bbe0f1f6">issues related to privacy rights</a>, hoping for long-shot victories or to at least energize sympathetic voters and donors and force Republicans from competitive districts into difficult spots.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-bills-house-vote-fc24d99f184d7aeec4926a6520311da5">The House voted last week to revive a nationwide right to abortion,</a>&nbsp;with every Republican voting no, and voted largely along party lines to bar prosecuting women traveling to states where abortion remains legal. Neither is expected to survive in the Senate.Yet the House voted Tuesday to keep same-sex marriage legal, with 47 Republicans joining all Democrats in backing the measure. Though 157 Republicans voted no, that tally raised expectations that the bill could win enough support for GOP senators to pass,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/roe-wade-supreme-court-f6b899076faba20517b9ac1e82438c16">sending it to President Joe Biden for his signature</a>.Nearly all adults, 92%, called birth control “morally acceptable” in a Gallup poll in May. A PRRI poll in June showed about 8 in 10 said they opposed laws that restrict what types of birth control can be used to prevent pregnancy.Even so, anti-abortion groups and Republican leaders oppose the contraception legislation, and there was no immediate sign that significant numbers of GOP senators would be willing to defy them. In contrast, same-sex marriage has such firm public acceptance and is such a clear-cut issue that growing numbers of Republicans have been willing to vote for it.Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America said the contraception legislation “seeks to bail out the abortion industry, trample conscience rights, and require uninhibited access to dangerous chemical abortion drugs.” The National Right to Life Committee said it “goes far beyond the scope of contraception” and would cover abortion pills like RU486, which supporters said was incorrect.The measure drew a mixed reaction Wednesday from two of the Senate's more moderate Republicans.Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was “most likely" to support the measure. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, demurred, saying she was working on bipartisan legislation that she said would codify the rights to abortion and perhaps for contraception.There are few state restrictions on contraceptive use, said Elizabeth Nash, who studies state reproductive health policies for the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.Nash said she was concerned that there will be efforts to curb emergency contraceptives and intrauterine devices and to help providers and institutions refuse to provide contraceptive services.

House OKs bill to protect contraception from Supreme Court

SHAWNEE COUNTY —Shortly before 1:30pm, the Kansas Highway Patrol located Mr. Rooks safe on Interstate 70&nbsp; in Shawnee County, according to the Deputy Abigail Christian.

SHAWNEE COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities have issued a Silver Alert for a 71-year-old man who was last seen in southeast Shawnee County, Kansas late Thursday, according to Deputy Abigail Christian.

Thomas E. Rooks of Topeka left his residence in southeast Shawnee County Thursday. He is described a 5-foot 9, 195 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing an unknown color t-shirt, K-State pajama pants and black Brooks tennis shoes. He was driving his gold 2018 Ford Escape with a Kansas license plate (703PGM).

Rooks suffers from several medical issues that require medications. Due to these conditions and the excessive heat, Rooks is considered an at-risk adult.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Mr. Rooks is asked to contact police or call 911.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658508812781.png" alt="Rooks-photo&nbsp; Shawnee County Sheriff" />
 <figcaption>Rooks-photo&nbsp; Shawnee County Sheriff</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE COUNTY —Shortly before 1:30pm, the Kansas Highway Patrol located Mr. Rooks safe on Interstate 70&nbsp; in Shawnee County, according to the Deputy Abigail Christian.----------SHAWNEE COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities have issued a Silver Alert for a 71-year-old man who was last seen in southeast Shawnee County, Kansas late Thursday, according to Deputy Abigail Christian.Thomas E. Rooks of Topeka left his residence in southeast Shawnee County Thursday. He is described a 5-foot 9, 195 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing an unknown color t-shirt, K-State pajama pants and black Brooks tennis shoes. He was driving his gold 2018 Ford Escape with a Kansas license plate (703PGM).Rooks suffers from several medical issues that require medications. Due to these conditions and the excessive heat, Rooks is considered an at-risk adult.Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Mr. Rooks is asked to contact police or call 911.

Sheriff: Silver Alert canceled missing Kansas man found safe

KANSAS CITY —The suspect accused in the death of a Kansas City police officer made his first court appearance on Thursday.

Officials in Clay County asked North Kansas officers if they would like to escort murder suspect Joshua Rocha from the Clay County jail to his arraignment.&nbsp; North Kansas City Police Sgt. J. Holm put fallen Officer Daniel Vasquez’s handcuffs on the man charged with killing him.&nbsp;

Joshua Rocha, 24, of Kansas City, was charged in the death of Officer&nbsp;Vasquez,&nbsp;32, who was killed Tuesday during a traffic stop. He is being held on a $2 million bond.

According to a probable cause statement, Rocha told police after his arrest that he shot the officer because he didn't want to go to jail or have his vehicle towed.

Rocha told police he was on his way to buy ammunition for a rifle he had in the vehicle when he was stopped.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Rocha could face the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Mike Wood, deputy chief of the Kansas City police department, which is conducting the investigation, said Rocha owned the vehicle he was driving. He was not aware of any previous contact between Vasquez and Rocha, who does not have an extensive criminal record. Rocha is scheduled to return to court on July 28, according to online jail records.

Funeral service information for Vasquez was announced Thursday. There will be a public visitation Tuesday, July 26, from 5-9 p.m. at the Vineyard Church at 12300 NW Arrowhead Trafficway in KCMO. The funeral services will be held on Wednesday, July 27, at 9 a.m. at Vineyard Church.

If attending the public visitation on Tuesday, July 26, or funeral services Wednesday, July 27, you must enter from U.S. 169 South.

For community members who would like to show support to the Vasquez Family and North Kansas City Police Department but are unable to attend the service, there will be a procession immediately following the funeral services on Wednesday, July 27. The procession will leave from Vineyard Church at 12300 NW Arrowhead Trafficway in KCMO and proceed down U.S. 169 South to MO 9 South, to Armour Road, to I-29/35 North, to Antioch North, to 64th Street E., to White Chapel Memorial Gardens.

Parking will be restricted along Armour Road. However, parking on side streets will be permitted.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658447688980.png" alt="Photos courtesy Clay Co. Sheriff" />
 <figcaption>Photos courtesy Clay Co. Sheriff</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY —The suspect accused in the death of a Kansas City police officer made his first court appearance on Thursday.Officials in Clay County asked North Kansas officers if they would like to escort murder suspect Joshua Rocha from the Clay County jail to his arraignment.&nbsp; North Kansas City Police Sgt. J. Holm put fallen Officer Daniel Vasquez’s handcuffs on the man charged with killing him.&nbsp;<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658447665465.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Joshua Rocha, 24, of Kansas City, was charged in the death of Officer&nbsp;Vasquez,&nbsp;32, who was killed Tuesday during a traffic stop. He is being held on a $2 million bond.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658265015795.png" alt="Officer Daniel Vasquez-courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>Officer Daniel Vasquez-courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure>According to a probable cause statement, Rocha told police after his arrest that he shot the officer because he didn't want to go to jail or have his vehicle towed.Rocha told police he was on his way to buy ammunition for a rifle he had in the vehicle when he was stopped.If convicted of first-degree murder, Rocha could face the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.Mike Wood, deputy chief of the Kansas City police department, which is conducting the investigation, said Rocha owned the vehicle he was driving. He was not aware of any previous contact between Vasquez and Rocha, who does not have an extensive criminal record. Rocha is scheduled to return to court on July 28, according to online jail records.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658448105261.png" alt="Police escorted Officer Daniel Vasquez to the funeral home on Thursday" />
 <figcaption>Police escorted Officer Daniel Vasquez to the funeral home on Thursday</figcaption>
 </figure>Funeral service information for Vasquez was announced Thursday. There will be a public visitation Tuesday, July 26, from 5-9 p.m. at the Vineyard Church at 12300 NW Arrowhead Trafficway in KCMO. The funeral services will be held on Wednesday, July 27, at 9 a.m. at Vineyard Church.If attending the public visitation on Tuesday, July 26, or funeral services Wednesday, July 27, you must enter from U.S. 169 South.For community members who would like to show support to the Vasquez Family and North Kansas City Police Department but are unable to attend the service, there will be a procession immediately following the funeral services on Wednesday, July 27. The procession will leave from Vineyard Church at 12300 NW Arrowhead Trafficway in KCMO and proceed down U.S. 169 South to MO 9 South, to Armour Road, to I-29/35 North, to Antioch North, to 64th Street E., to White Chapel Memorial Gardens.Parking will be restricted along Armour Road. However, parking on side streets will be permitted.&nbsp;

Fallen KC officer's handcuffs used to escort his suspected killer to court

STONE COUNTY—Authorities are investigating after an employee at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri was injured on Wednesday and died, according to a media release from the amusement park.

&nbsp;The employee worked in maintenance and construction for the park since 2017. The park has not released the identity of the employee or details of how the employee died.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating.&nbsp; The park was open on Thursday.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658452685543.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>STONE COUNTY—Authorities are investigating after an employee at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri was injured on Wednesday and died, according to a media release from the amusement park.&nbsp;The employee worked in maintenance and construction for the park since 2017. The park has not released the identity of the employee or details of how the employee died.The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating.&nbsp; The park was open on Thursday.

Employee dies after incident at Silver Dollar City

LONDON (AP) — As the World Health Organization's emergency committee convened Thursday to consider for the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-politics-health-united-nations-world-organization-349b235908c13a166da97653b7f028fc">second time</a>&nbsp;within weeks whether to declare monkeypox a global crisis, some scientists said the striking differences between the outbreaks in Africa and in developed countries will complicate any coordinated response.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-africa-zimbabwe-10824530a2c021482dbebc08a9cd33ef">African officials</a>&nbsp;say they are already treating the continent's epidemic as an emergency. But experts elsewhere say the mild version of monkeypox in Europe, North America and beyond makes an emergency declaration unnecessary even if the virus can't be stopped. British officials recently downgraded their assessment of the disease, given its lack of severity.

“I remain concerned about the number of cases, in an increasing number of countries, that have been reported,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the emergency committee as its meeting got underway.

He said it was “pleasing” to note falling numbers of monkeypox cases in some countries but that the virus is still increasing elsewhere and that six countries reported their first infections last week.

Monkeypox has been entrenched for decades in parts of central and western&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/monkeypox-treatment-africa-inequities-004e53968120eaeda117b5b792d95807">Africa</a>, where diseased wild animals occasionally infect people in rural areas in relatively contained epidemics. The disease in Europe, North America and beyond has circulated since at least May among gay and bisexual men. The epidemic in rich countries was likely triggered by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/monkeypox-explained-health-72a9efaaf5b55ace396398b839847505">sex at two raves</a>&nbsp;in Spain and Belgium.

Some experts worry these and other differences could possibly deepen existing medical inequities between poor and wealthy nations.

There are now more than 15,000 monkeypox cases&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/response/2022/world-map.html">worldwide</a>. While the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries have bought millions of vaccines, none have gone to Africa, where a more severe version of monkeypox has already killed more than 70 people. Rich countries haven't yet reported any monkeypox deaths.

“What’s happening in Africa is almost entirely separate from the outbreak in Europe and North America,” said Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at Britain’s University of East Anglia who previously advised WHO on infectious diseases.

The U.N. health agency said this week that outside of Africa, 99% of all reported monkeypox cases are in men and of those, 98% are in men who have sex with other men. Still, the disease can infect anyone in close, physical contact with a monkeypox patient, regardless of their sexual orientation.

“In these very active gay sexual networks, you have men who really, really don’t want people to know what they’re doing and may not themselves always know who they are having sex with,” Hunter said.

Some of those men may be married to women or have families unaware of their sexual activity, which “makes contact tracing extremely difficult and even things like asking people to come forward for testing,” Hunter said, explaining why vaccination may be the most effective way to shut down the outbreak.

That’s probably not the case in Africa, where limited data suggests monkeypox is mainly jumping into people from infected animals. Although African experts acknowledge they could be missing cases among gay and bisexual men, given limited surveillance and stigmatization against LGBTQ people, authorities have relied on standard measures like isolation and education to control the disease.

Dr. Placide Mbala, a virologist who directs the global health department at Congo’s Institute of National Biomedical Research, said there are also noticeable differences between patients in Africa and the West.

“We see here (in Congo) very quickly, after three to four days, visible lesions in people exposed to monkeypox,” Mbala said, adding that someone with so many visible lesions is unlikely to go out in public, thus preventing further transmission.

But in countries including Britain and the U.S., doctors have observed some infected people with only one or two lesions, often in their genitals.

“You wouldn’t notice that if you’re just with that person in a taxi or a bar,” Mbala said. “So in the West, people without these visible lesions may be silently spreading the disease.”

He said different approaches in different countries will likely be needed to stop the global outbreak, making it challenging to adopt a single response strategy worldwide, like those for Ebola and COVID-19.

Dr. Dimie Ogoina, a professor of medicine at Nigeria's Niger Delta University, said he feared the world’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-pandemics-united-nations-world-organization-a4848839d86d2d08100000d918b6bd0d">limited vaccine supplies</a>&nbsp;would result in a repeat of the problems that arose in the coronavirus pandemic, when poorer countries were left empty-handed after rich countries hoarded most of the doses.

“It does not make sense to just control the outbreak in Europe and America, because you will then still have the (animal) source of the outbreak in Africa,” said Ogoina, who sits on WHO’s monkeypox emergency committee.

This week,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-health-public-rochelle-walensky-a7d197e26f4e650600c4b2cd13e0b436">U.S. officials</a>&nbsp;said more than 100,000 monkeypox vaccine doses were being sent to states in the next few days, with several million more on order for the months ahead. The U.S. has reported more than 2,000 cases so far, with hundreds more added every day.

Some U.S. public health experts have begun to wonder if the outbreak is becoming widespread enough that monkeypox will become a new sexually transmitted disease.

Declaring monkeypox to be a global emergency could also inadvertently worsen the rush for vaccines, despite the mildness of the disease being seen in most countries.

Dr. Hugh Adler, who treats monkeypox patients in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-epidemics-8a675e8b6e969a9fddbf86e568c3f809">Britain</a>, said there aren’t many serious cases or infections beyond gay and bisexual men. Still, he said it was frustrating that more vaccines weren’t available, since the outbreak was doubling about every two weeks in the U.K..

“If reclassifying monkeypox as a global emergency will make (vaccines available), then maybe that’s what needs to be done,” he said. “But in an ideal world, we should be able to make the necessary interventions without the emergency declaration.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658321685447.png" alt="Monkeypox map July 20, 2022- CDC&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>Monkeypox map July 20, 2022- CDC&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>LONDON (AP) — As the World Health Organization's emergency committee convened Thursday to consider for the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-politics-health-united-nations-world-organization-349b235908c13a166da97653b7f028fc">second time</a>&nbsp;within weeks whether to declare monkeypox a global crisis, some scientists said the striking differences between the outbreaks in Africa and in developed countries will complicate any coordinated response.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-africa-zimbabwe-10824530a2c021482dbebc08a9cd33ef">African officials</a>&nbsp;say they are already treating the continent's epidemic as an emergency. But experts elsewhere say the mild version of monkeypox in Europe, North America and beyond makes an emergency declaration unnecessary even if the virus can't be stopped. British officials recently downgraded their assessment of the disease, given its lack of severity.“I remain concerned about the number of cases, in an increasing number of countries, that have been reported,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the emergency committee as its meeting got underway.He said it was “pleasing” to note falling numbers of monkeypox cases in some countries but that the virus is still increasing elsewhere and that six countries reported their first infections last week.Monkeypox has been entrenched for decades in parts of central and western&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/monkeypox-treatment-africa-inequities-004e53968120eaeda117b5b792d95807">Africa</a>, where diseased wild animals occasionally infect people in rural areas in relatively contained epidemics. The disease in Europe, North America and beyond has circulated since at least May among gay and bisexual men. The epidemic in rich countries was likely triggered by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/monkeypox-explained-health-72a9efaaf5b55ace396398b839847505">sex at two raves</a>&nbsp;in Spain and Belgium.Some experts worry these and other differences could possibly deepen existing medical inequities between poor and wealthy nations.There are now more than 15,000 monkeypox cases&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/response/2022/world-map.html">worldwide</a>. While the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries have bought millions of vaccines, none have gone to Africa, where a more severe version of monkeypox has already killed more than 70 people. Rich countries haven't yet reported any monkeypox deaths.“What’s happening in Africa is almost entirely separate from the outbreak in Europe and North America,” said Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at Britain’s University of East Anglia who previously advised WHO on infectious diseases.The U.N. health agency said this week that outside of Africa, 99% of all reported monkeypox cases are in men and of those, 98% are in men who have sex with other men. Still, the disease can infect anyone in close, physical contact with a monkeypox patient, regardless of their sexual orientation.“In these very active gay sexual networks, you have men who really, really don’t want people to know what they’re doing and may not themselves always know who they are having sex with,” Hunter said.Some of those men may be married to women or have families unaware of their sexual activity, which “makes contact tracing extremely difficult and even things like asking people to come forward for testing,” Hunter said, explaining why vaccination may be the most effective way to shut down the outbreak.That’s probably not the case in Africa, where limited data suggests monkeypox is mainly jumping into people from infected animals. Although African experts acknowledge they could be missing cases among gay and bisexual men, given limited surveillance and stigmatization against LGBTQ people, authorities have relied on standard measures like isolation and education to control the disease.Dr. Placide Mbala, a virologist who directs the global health department at Congo’s Institute of National Biomedical Research, said there are also noticeable differences between patients in Africa and the West.“We see here (in Congo) very quickly, after three to four days, visible lesions in people exposed to monkeypox,” Mbala said, adding that someone with so many visible lesions is unlikely to go out in public, thus preventing further transmission.But in countries including Britain and the U.S., doctors have observed some infected people with only one or two lesions, often in their genitals.“You wouldn’t notice that if you’re just with that person in a taxi or a bar,” Mbala said. “So in the West, people without these visible lesions may be silently spreading the disease.”He said different approaches in different countries will likely be needed to stop the global outbreak, making it challenging to adopt a single response strategy worldwide, like those for Ebola and COVID-19.Dr. Dimie Ogoina, a professor of medicine at Nigeria's Niger Delta University, said he feared the world’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-pandemics-united-nations-world-organization-a4848839d86d2d08100000d918b6bd0d">limited vaccine supplies</a>&nbsp;would result in a repeat of the problems that arose in the coronavirus pandemic, when poorer countries were left empty-handed after rich countries hoarded most of the doses.“It does not make sense to just control the outbreak in Europe and America, because you will then still have the (animal) source of the outbreak in Africa,” said Ogoina, who sits on WHO’s monkeypox emergency committee.This week,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-health-public-rochelle-walensky-a7d197e26f4e650600c4b2cd13e0b436">U.S. officials</a>&nbsp;said more than 100,000 monkeypox vaccine doses were being sent to states in the next few days, with several million more on order for the months ahead. The U.S. has reported more than 2,000 cases so far, with hundreds more added every day.Some U.S. public health experts have begun to wonder if the outbreak is becoming widespread enough that monkeypox will become a new sexually transmitted disease.Declaring monkeypox to be a global emergency could also inadvertently worsen the rush for vaccines, despite the mildness of the disease being seen in most countries.Dr. Hugh Adler, who treats monkeypox patients in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-epidemics-8a675e8b6e969a9fddbf86e568c3f809">Britain</a>, said there aren’t many serious cases or infections beyond gay and bisexual men. Still, he said it was frustrating that more vaccines weren’t available, since the outbreak was doubling about every two weeks in the U.K..“If reclassifying monkeypox as a global emergency will make (vaccines available), then maybe that’s what needs to be done,” he said. “But in an ideal world, we should be able to make the necessary interventions without the emergency declaration.”

WHO again considers declaring monkeypox a global emergency

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite desperate pleas from aides, allies, a Republican congressional leader and even his family, Donald Trump&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jan-6-hearing-takeaways-da9e850c8744a3d4395928cf19eaf36f">refused to call off the Jan. 6 mob</a>&nbsp;attack on the Capitol, instead “pouring gasoline on the fire” by aggressively tweeting his false claims of a stolen election and celebrating his crowd of supporters as “very special," the House investigating committee showed Thursday night.

The next day, he declared anew, “I don't want to say the election is over." That was in a previously unaired&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/final-jan-6-hearing-live-updates-2532549688cac4580d0a2d174832faba">outtake of an address to the nation</a>&nbsp;he was to give, shown at the prime-time hearing of the committee.

The panel documented how for some 187 minutes, from the time Trump left a rally stage sending his supporters to the Capitol to the time he ultimately appeared in the Rose Garden video that day, nothing could compel the defeated president to act. Instead, he watched the violence unfold on TV.

“President Trump didn’t fail to act,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a fellow Republican but frequent Trump critic who flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. “He chose not to act.”

After months of work and weeks of hearings, the prime-time session started the way the committee began — laying blame for the deadly attack on Trump himself for summoning the mob to Washington and sending them to Capitol Hill.

The defeated president turned his supporters' “love of country into a weapon,” said the panel's Republican vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

Far from finishing its work after Thursday's hearing, probably the last of the summer, the panel will start up again in September as more witnesses and information emerge. Cheney said “the dam has begun to break” on revealing what happened that fateful day, at the White House as well as in the violence at the Capitol.

“Donald Trump made a purposeful choice to violate his oath of office,” Cheney declared.

“Every American must consider this: Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of Jan. 6 ever be trusted in any position of authority in our great nation?” she asked.

Trump, who is considering another White House run, dismissed the committee as a “Kangaroo court,” and name-called the panel and witnesses for “many lies and misrepresentations.”

Plunging into its second prime-time hearing on the Capitol attack, the committee aimed to show a “minute by minute” accounting of Trump’s actions with new testimony, including from two White House aides, never-before-heard security radio transmissions of Secret Service officers fearing for their lives and behind-the-scenes discussions at the White House.

With the Capitol siege raging, Trump was “giving the green light” to his supporters by tweeting condemnation of Vice President Mike Pence's refusal to go along with his plan to stop the certification of Joe Biden's victory, a former White House aide told the committee.

“I thought that Jan. 6 2021, was one of the darkest days in our nation’s history,” Sarah Matthews told the panel. “And President Trump was treating it as a celebratory occasion. So it just further cemented my decision to resign.”

The committee played audio of Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reacting with surprise to the president’s inaction during the attack.

“You’re the commander-in-chief. You’ve got an assault going on on the Capitol of the United States of America. And there’s Nothing? No call? Nothing, Zero?” he said.

On Jan. 6, an irate Trump demanded to be taken to the Capitol after his supporters had stormed the building, well aware of the deadly attack, but his security team refused.

“Within 15 minutes of leaving the stage, President Trump knew that the Capitol was besieged and under attack,” said Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va.

At the Capitol, the mob was chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” testified Matt Pottinger, the former deputy national security adviser, as Trump tweeted his condemnation of his vice president.

Pottinger, testifying Thursday, said that when he saw Trump's tweet he immediately decided to resign, as did Matthews, who said she was a lifelong Republican but could not go along with what was going on. She was the witness who called the tweet “a green light” and “pouring gasoline on the fire.”

Meanwhile, recordings of Secret Service radio transmissions revealed agents at the Capitol trying to whisk Pence to safety amid the mayhem and asking for messages to be relayed telling their own families goodbye.

The panel showed previously unseen testimony from the president's son, Donald Trump, Jr., with a text message to his father's chief of staff Mark Meadows urging the president to call off the mob.

Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner also testified in a recorded video of a “scared” GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy calling him for help.

And in a gripping moment, the panel showed Trump refusing to deliver a speech the next day declaring the election was over, despite his daughter, Ivanka Trump, heard off camera, encouraging him to read the script.

“The president’s words matter,” said Luria, D-Va., a former Naval officer on the panel. “We know that many of the rioters were listening to President Trump.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite desperate pleas from aides, allies, a Republican congressional leader and even his family, Donald Trump&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jan-6-hearing-takeaways-da9e850c8744a3d4395928cf19eaf36f">refused to call off the Jan. 6 mob</a>&nbsp;attack on the Capitol, instead “pouring gasoline on the fire” by aggressively tweeting his false claims of a stolen election and celebrating his crowd of supporters as “very special," the House investigating committee showed Thursday night.<div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pbRVqWbHGuo?start=165" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>The next day, he declared anew, “I don't want to say the election is over." That was in a previously unaired&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/final-jan-6-hearing-live-updates-2532549688cac4580d0a2d174832faba">outtake of an address to the nation</a>&nbsp;he was to give, shown at the prime-time hearing of the committee.The panel documented how for some 187 minutes, from the time Trump left a rally stage sending his supporters to the Capitol to the time he ultimately appeared in the Rose Garden video that day, nothing could compel the defeated president to act. Instead, he watched the violence unfold on TV.“President Trump didn’t fail to act,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a fellow Republican but frequent Trump critic who flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. “He chose not to act.”After months of work and weeks of hearings, the prime-time session started the way the committee began — laying blame for the deadly attack on Trump himself for summoning the mob to Washington and sending them to Capitol Hill.The defeated president turned his supporters' “love of country into a weapon,” said the panel's Republican vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.Far from finishing its work after Thursday's hearing, probably the last of the summer, the panel will start up again in September as more witnesses and information emerge. Cheney said “the dam has begun to break” on revealing what happened that fateful day, at the White House as well as in the violence at the Capitol.“Donald Trump made a purposeful choice to violate his oath of office,” Cheney declared.“Every American must consider this: Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of Jan. 6 ever be trusted in any position of authority in our great nation?” she asked.Trump, who is considering another White House run, dismissed the committee as a “Kangaroo court,” and name-called the panel and witnesses for “many lies and misrepresentations.”Plunging into its second prime-time hearing on the Capitol attack, the committee aimed to show a “minute by minute” accounting of Trump’s actions with new testimony, including from two White House aides, never-before-heard security radio transmissions of Secret Service officers fearing for their lives and behind-the-scenes discussions at the White House.With the Capitol siege raging, Trump was “giving the green light” to his supporters by tweeting condemnation of Vice President Mike Pence's refusal to go along with his plan to stop the certification of Joe Biden's victory, a former White House aide told the committee.Two aides resigned on the spot.“I thought that Jan. 6 2021, was one of the darkest days in our nation’s history,” Sarah Matthews told the panel. “And President Trump was treating it as a celebratory occasion. So it just further cemented my decision to resign.”The committee played audio of Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reacting with surprise to the president’s inaction during the attack.“You’re the commander-in-chief. You’ve got an assault going on on the Capitol of the United States of America. And there’s Nothing? No call? Nothing, Zero?” he said.On Jan. 6, an irate Trump demanded to be taken to the Capitol after his supporters had stormed the building, well aware of the deadly attack, but his security team refused.“Within 15 minutes of leaving the stage, President Trump knew that the Capitol was besieged and under attack,” said Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va.At the Capitol, the mob was chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” testified Matt Pottinger, the former deputy national security adviser, as Trump tweeted his condemnation of his vice president.Pottinger, testifying Thursday, said that when he saw Trump's tweet he immediately decided to resign, as did Matthews, who said she was a lifelong Republican but could not go along with what was going on. She was the witness who called the tweet “a green light” and “pouring gasoline on the fire.”Meanwhile, recordings of Secret Service radio transmissions revealed agents at the Capitol trying to whisk Pence to safety amid the mayhem and asking for messages to be relayed telling their own families goodbye.The panel showed previously unseen testimony from the president's son, Donald Trump, Jr., with a text message to his father's chief of staff Mark Meadows urging the president to call off the mob.Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner also testified in a recorded video of a “scared” GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy calling him for help.And in a gripping moment, the panel showed Trump refusing to deliver a speech the next day declaring the election was over, despite his daughter, Ivanka Trump, heard off camera, encouraging him to read the script.“The president’s words matter,” said Luria, D-Va., a former Naval officer on the panel. “We know that many of the rioters were listening to President Trump.”Luria said the panel had received testimony confirming the powerful previous account of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson of an altercation involving Trump as he insisted the Secret Service drive him to the Capitol.Among the witnesses testifying Thursday in a recorded video was retired District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Mark Robinson who told the committee that Trump was well aware of the number of weapons in the crowd of his supporters but wanted to go regardless.“The only description that I received was that the president was upset, and that he was adamant about going to the Capitol and that there was a heated discussion about that,” Robinson said.Chairman Bennie Thompson, appearing virtually as he self-isolates with COVID-19, opened Thursday’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege">hearing</a>&nbsp;saying Trump as president did “everything in his power to overturn the election” he lost to Joe Biden, including before and during the deadly Capitol attack.“He lied, he bullied, he betrayed his oath,” charged Thompson, D-Miss.“Our investigation goes forward,” said Thompson. “There needs to be accountability.”The hearing room was packed, including with several police officers who fought off the mob that day, and the family of one officer who died the day after the attack.While the committee cannot make criminal charges, the Justice Department is monitoring its work.So far, more than 840 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 330 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. Of the more than 200 defendants to be sentenced, approximately 100 received terms of imprisonment.No former president has ever been federally prosecuted by the Justice Department.Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday that Jan. 6 is “the most wide-ranging investigation and the most important investigation that the Justice Department has ever entered into.”Five people died that day as Trump supporters battled the police in gory hand-to-hand combat to storm the Capitol. One officer has testified that she was “slipping in other people's blood” as they tried to hold back the mob. One Trump supporter was shot and killed by police.-----------WASHINGTON (AP) — The House&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege">Jan. 6 committee aims</a>&nbsp;to show in its final hearing Thursday that Donald Trump's lies about a stolen election fueled the grisly U.S. Capitol attack, which he did nothing to stop but instead “gleefully” watched on television at the White House.<div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pbRVqWbHGuo" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>The prime-time hearing will dive into&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-ivanka-trump-biden-presidential-elections-e8fc57e5de4fe00e848e63d923f7c758">the 187 minutes that Trump failed to act</a>&nbsp;on Jan. 6, 2021, despite pleas for help from aides, allies and even his family. The panel intends to show how the defeated president's attempt to overturn Joe Biden's election victory has left the United States facing enduring questions about the resiliency of its democracy.“A profound moment of reckoning for America,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a member of the committee.With&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-biden-donald-trump-government-and-politics-00896eaba6df614bf46fc6beebe63fce">live testimony from two former White House aides</a>, and excerpts from its trove of more than 1,000 interviews, the nearly two-hour session will add a closing chapter to the past six weeks of hearings that at times have captivated the nation.Returning to prime time for the first time since the series of hearings began, the panel aims to show just how close the United States came to what one retired federal judge testifying this summer called a constitutional crisis.The events of Jan. 6 will be outlined “minute by minute,” said the panel's vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.“You will hear that Donald Trump never picked up the phone that day to order his administration to help," Cheney said.“He did not call the military. His Secretary of Defense received no order. He did not call his Attorney General. He did not talk to the Department of Homeland Security," Cheney said. “Mike Pence did all of those things; Donald Trump did not.”The hearing will also show never-before-seen outtakes of a Jan. 7 video that White House aides pleaded for Trump to make as a message of national healing for the country. The footage will show how Trump struggled to condemn the mob of his supporters, who violently breached the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the matter and granted anonymity to discuss it ahead of its public release. Trump reluctantly condemned the riot in a three-minute speech that night.Testifying Thursday will be former White House aides who had close proximity to power.Matt Pottinger, who was deputy national security adviser, and Sarah Matthews, then press aide, both submitted their resignations on Jan. 6, 2021, after what they saw that day. Trump has dismissed the hearings on social media and regarded much of the testimony as fake.Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the committee, is isolating after testing positive for COVID-19 and will attend by video.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-veterans-virginia-adam-kinzinger-government-and-politics-d894f4671dcf21b5e2427c5d209f368c">Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., a former Naval officer who will lead the session with Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan,</a>&nbsp;said she expects the testimony from the White House aides will “just be really compelling.”"These are people who believed in the work they were doing, but didn’t believe in the stolen election,” Luria said.The White House aides were not alone in calling it quits that day. The panel is expected to provide a tally of the Trump administration aides and even Cabinet members who resigned after Trump failed to call off the attack. Some Cabinet members were so alarmed they discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.As the panel continues to collect evidence and prepares to issue a preliminary report of findings, it has amassed the most substantial public record to date of what led up to Americans attacking the seat of democracy.While the committee cannot make criminal charges, the Justice Department is monitoring its work.So far, more than 840 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 330 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. Of the more than 200 defendants to be sentenced, approximately 100 received terms of imprisonment.What remains uncertain is whether Trump or the former president's top allies will face serious charges. No former president has ever been federally prosecuted by the Justice Department.Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday that Jan. 6 is “the most wide-ranging investigation and the most important investigation that the Justice Department has ever entered into.”“We have to get this right,” Garland said. “For people who are concerned, as I think every American should be, we have to do two things: We have to hold accountable every person who is criminally responsible for trying to overturn a legitimate election, and we must do it in a way filled with integrity and professionalism.”In delving into the timeline, the panel aims to show what happened between the time Trump left the stage at his “Stop the Steal” rally shortly after 1:10 p.m., after telling supporters to march to the Capitol, and some three hours later, when he issued a video address from the Rose Garden in which he told the rioters to “go home” but also praised them as “very special.”It also expects to produce additional evidence about&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-united-states-government-and-politics-e5b67d9a848b76a3803e9f7e3546bb51">Trump's confrontation with Secret Service agents</a>&nbsp;who refused to drive him to the Capitol — a witness account that the security detail has disputed.Five people died that day as Trump supporters battled the police in gory hand-to-hand combat to storm the Capitol. One officer has testified about how she was “slipping in other people's blood” as they tried to hold back the mob. One Trump supporter was shot and killed by police.“The president didn’t do very much but gleefully watch television during this time frame,” Kinzinger said.Not only did Trump refuse to tell the mob to leave the Capitol, he did not call other parts of the government for backup and gave no order to deploy the National Guard, Cheney said.This despite countless pleas from Trump's aides and allies, including his daughter Ivanka Trump and Fox News host Sean Hannity, according to previous testimony and text messages the committee has obtained.“You will hear that leaders on Capitol Hill begged the president for help,” Cheney has said, including House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who she said indicated he was “'scared' and called multiple members of President Trump’s family after he could not persuade the President himself.”The panel has said its investigation is ongoing and other hearings are possible. It expects to compile a preliminary report this fall, and a final report by the end of this session of Congress.