Afternoon Briefs: Pelosi prepares impeachment articles for Senate; lawyer faces charges over deceased father's pension
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Pelosi plans to send impeachment articles to Senate next week
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to House Democrats on Friday that she is preparing to send the impeachment articles to the Senate to start the trial of President Donald Trump. “I have asked Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler to be prepared to bring to the floor next week a resolution to appoint managers and transmit articles of impeachment to the Senate,” Pelosi wrote in the letter. “I will be consulting with you at our Tuesday House Democratic Caucus meeting on how we proceed further.” After the weekslong standoff between the House of Representatives and the Senate over the articles, the Senate impeachment trial could begin as soon as next week. (Politico, CNN, Pelosi’s letter)
Lawyer faces felony charges after collecting deceased father’s pension
Lawyer Raymond Haskell Jr., the son of a former Central Falls, Rhode Island, police officer, has been accused of fraudulently collecting his father’s pension after his parents died. According to Central Falls police, Haskell collected $63,479.28 between June 2014 and when the deception was discovered last year. Haskell turned himself in to police Thursday and faces felony charges of obtaining money under false pretenses, identity fraud and forgery. (Providence Journal, WJAR)
Federal judge rules Wisconsin tribe has authority over reservation lands
District Judge William Conley of the Western District of Wisconsin ruled Thursday that attempts by Bayfield County in northern Wisconsin to enforce its zoning ordinances on land held by the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians violated federal law. Conley said in his opinion that the case turns on “a general principle, which remains in place today, that a state may not regulate activities on tribal reservations and of tribal members on reservations absent express congressional authority.” (Courthouse News Service, Jan. 9 opinion)
