A tour bus crashed into the back of a truck on a southern California highway before dawn on Sunday, killing 13 people and injuring 31, an NBC affiliate reported.
The bus was traveling west on Interstate 10 when the crash occurred near Palm Springs, a city about 100 miles (160 km) east of Los Angeles, the television station reported.
The Riverside County Coroner's Office confirmed 13 people aboard the bus were killed, the station said.
The bus had left the Red Earth Casino in Salton City, California, and was headed to Los Angeles when the crash was reported to the California Highway Patrol at 5:17 a.m., according to the report.
(Reporting by David Ingram; Editing by Bill Trott)
On Sunday, Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) dismissed out of-hand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's continued drive to impeach President Joe Biden and recalled for MSNBC host Jen Psaki that the Georgia Republican has been beating the drum to oust the duly elected president since before he took office.
Speaking with the host after she noted the lawmaker known as "MTG" seemed to be backing off a rush to begin impeachment hearings, the Colorado Republican bluntly stated it would be an uphill battle to make an impeachment trial of Biden a reality.
Along the way, he took a jab at Taylor Greene over her Biden obsession.
"Yesterday she posted this: 'Our country deserves for Congress to vote for an impeachment inquiry for very important reasons, not a rush impeachment vote,'' host Psaki prompted. That is a bit of a shift in the timeline; a little bit of a pumping of the brakes on it. What did you make of that? "
"Well Marjorie filed impeachment articles on President Biden before he was sworn into office more than two and a half years ago, so the idea that she is now the expert on impeachment, or that she is someone who can set the timing on impeachment is absurd," Buck replied.
"The time for impeachment is the time when there's evidence linking President Biden -- if there is evidence -- linking President Biden to a higher crime or misdemeanor. That doesn't exist right now," he continued.
He added, "And it is really not something that we can say, 'Well, in February we're going to do.' It's based on the facts and you go where facts take you."
Fox News host Arthel Neville put Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) on the spot after he vowed to fight "woke" policies in the government.
During a Sunday interview on Fox News, Arrington suggested a culture war was underway.
"We have got to rein in this woke weaponized bureaucracy," he said. "There is an overreach, there is a polarization, there is corruption, and we have got to hold this administration accountable through this power of the purse."
"So, I'm sorry, Congressman, what does woke mean?" Neville interrupted.
"Well, woke means, in this case in particular, politicizing sexuality, politicizing race, which is divisive for our country," Arrington replied. "It's dividing and detracting the interest of our military so that they are one big laboratory of social invention instead of focusing their efforts on being trying to fight and win wars."
The Fox News host cut the congressman off.
"Wait a minute. Excuse me," she remarked. "Do you think the military is simply concerned about their social agenda, if you will, as opposed to defending our country? Is that what you're saying about the military?"
"You better believe it," Arrington insisted. "They are absolutely distracted at best, if not divided within the Pentagon because of all these leftist ideological programs that have no business in our national defense and in our military."
Neville reminded the congressman that he had a responsibility to the American people.
"I'm not saying that, you know, the American people are not on your side in terms of getting some of these things ironed out," she noted. "I just think that American people are, you know, wanting Congress to get their jobs done and, again, separate some of the personal for the politics."
Surveying the current landscape where judges and prosecutors -- with the notable exception of Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida -- are being threatened with being investigated simply because they are overseeing a case involving Donald Trump, some legal experts are becoming increasingly alarmed that the U.S. system of justice is being turned upside down.
In interviews with the Washington Post's Jacqueline Alemany, law professors and legal experts who served in the DOJ are pushing back at threats made by high-profile Republicans like House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-OH), calling them out of line.
As Alemany wrote, "Investigate the investigator. That has been the operating thesis of the GOP’s playbook to counter the myriad criminal investigations into Donald Trump, the de facto leader of the Republican Party," adding, "The strategy has been effective in shaping public opinion of the investigationsafter years of sustained broadsides against the judicial system by Trump and his top allies."
That led former federal prosecutor Caren Morrison who teaches at Georgia State University College of Law to warn, "Big picture, this does seem incredibly troubling."
Morrison added, "For years I’ve told my students that one principle we can always rely on is the principle of prosecutorial discretion — it is unassailable and that is the essence of their power: They can choose which cases to pursue and which cases not to pursue. … We are kind of at a point where nobody agrees on what the rules are.”
"So far, congressional investigations have been launched against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, special counsel Jack Smith, and most recently, Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis — all of whom have charged Trump with crimes," the Post is reporting.
Former Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs Robert Raben also called out the unwarranted threats.
“There are important lines of division that should not be penetrated — and we can squabble about where those lines are — but hauling up an investigator while something is pending to influence something to which you are not a party is inappropriate,” he explained.
Stephen Boyd, the former assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs under Donald Trump also questioned the manner in which the congressional investigations are being initiated.
“A professional and correctly conducted Justice Department investigation starts with a fact, and then follows to another fact, and leads to some sort of conclusion," he elaborated. "A Capitol Hill political investigation often starts with a conclusion and then looks for facts to support it. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Congress is wrong, but it means they are most interested in the things that prove their point.”
