(AP)  A section of Interstate 80 remains closed in central Pennsylvania hours after a multi-vehicle wreck in snow squalls left two people dead and dozens injured. Westbound traffic is being diverted Thursday while tow trucks remove 15 to 20 cars and trucks. State transportation officials say the crash was reported at about 1 p.m. Wednesday on I-80 in White Deer Township as blinding snow made the highway slick. Union County’s coroner confirmed a fatality and the Montour County coroner said a second person died at a hospital. The interstate was closed for 34 miles in both directions until eastbound lanes reopened five hours later.

WEATHER FORECAST FOR THURSDAY, DEC. 19TH, 2019

 

TODAY – SUNNY. HIGH NEAR 30.

TONIGHT – MOSTLY CLEAR. LOW – 19.

FRIDAY – MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGH – 38.

SATURDAY – PARTLY SUNNY. HIGH – 45.

SUNDAY – MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGH – 47.

The House of Representatives has passed legislation proposed by State Rep. Aaron Bernstine that would keep violent criminals off parole after serving just their minimum sentence. Beaver County radio news intern Alex D’Itri has more…

Trump impeached by US House on charge of abuse of power
By LISA MASCARO and MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press
The U.S. House has impeached President Donald Trump on a charge he abused the power of his office to investigate a political rival ahead of the 2020 election. Trump becomes the third president in U.S. history to be impeached. The House is also expected to approve the second charge, obstruction of Congress, as voting continues Wednesday evening. Democrats control the House, and the voting was mostly along party lines. The charges against Trump will next go to the Republican-controlled Senate for a trial in January. Trump, who says he’s done nothing wrong, would almost certainly be acquitted there.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House is marching toward a historic evening vote to impeach President Donald Trump. As debate proceeded on Wednesday, Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted Congress must “defend democracy” by evicting him from the White House. Trump would be just the third American president to be impeached, a distinctive dark mark on his tenure. From the White House, he tweeted that despite the Democrats’ patriotic talk, they were actually perpetrating “an assault on America.” He and his Republican supporters say the Democrats are just trying to remove a president they couldn’t beat at the ballot box.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Law groups representing immigrants say the immigration court system under the Trump administration has become a “deportation machine.” A lawsuit filed in federal court in Portland, Oregon, on Wednesday says that the immigration courts have the ultimate goal of deportation rather than fair adjudication. Melissa Crow of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, says this case has the potential to provide fairness to asylum seekers and others who have been the target the Trump administration’s rhetoric and policies.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is maintaining a schedule as active as any of her younger Supreme Court colleagues, despite being treated for cancer twice in the past year. Ginsburg said Tuesday that she is “feeling fine,” in one of three public appearances this week. The frail-looking liberal icon may be the only thing standing between President Donald Trump and his opportunity to name a third justice to the Supreme Court. But she appears to be making few concessions to her health. Still, it’s reasonable for her fans to wonder, shouldn’t Ginsburg be taking it easy if her goal is to outlast Trump’s presidency?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s six-page letter to her slamming the chamber’s articles of impeachment was “really sick.” Asked about her initial reaction to the letter by CNN, Pelosi said “no reaction” as she walked through a corridor at the Capitol with other Democrats. When asked “Why not?” Pelosi responded “I’ve seen the essence of it. It’s really sick”. Trump’s angry letter objected to the House of Representatives’ articles of impeachment and accused Democrats of “perversion of justice and abuse of power.” President Trump also maintained that he did nothing wrong in seeking foreign investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden, attacking Democrats for focusing on impeachment rather than other issues. He also claimed that “more due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials” versus his impeachment inquiry. The president said he did not believe his letter would change anything, but that he was registering his objections “for the purpose of history.”

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, reacting to a comment by President Donald Trump about whether the high court could stop impeachment proceedings against him, said the president “is not a lawyer.” Ginsburg’s remarks came during an interview with the BBC posted Tuesday. Trump had tweeted earlier this month: “Radical Left has NO CASE. Read the Transcripts. Shouldn’t even be allowed. Can we go to the Supreme Court to stop?” The BBC asked Ginsburg what her reading of the Constitution was in this context. She replied: “The president is not a lawyer. He’s not law trained.” She was also asked about senators making up their minds in advance of any impeachment trial. “Well if a judge said that, a judge would be disqualified from sitting on the case,” she said.