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Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul to head Homeland Security panel

WASHINGTON — Rand Paul has chosen to chair the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in the next Congress, asserting that the legislative body “must stand up once again for its constitutional role.”

A longtime critic of government overreach and a skeptic of certain national security measures, Paul’s chairmanship is likely to bring a distinct libertarian-leaning perspective to the committee’s work.

A key focus for Paul — investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and Dr. Anthony Fauci’s response to it — is certain to be central to the committee’s work in the new year.

Paul said Thursday his first committee hearing would examine reinstating the Remain in Mexico policy, a controversial measure by President-elect Donald Trump to require asylum seekers arriving at the southern border to wait in Mexico while their cases are processed by U.S. courts.

—McClatchy Washington Bureau

Nevada county says it found over 1,600 uncounted mail ballots

LAS VEGAS — Clark County elections officials discovered more than 1,600 mail ballots that hadn’t been tabulated for the Nov. 5 election, the county announced Friday.

The ballots were found Thursday during preparation for the legally required canvass of the elections taking place Friday. Registrar of Voters Lorena Portillo said 1,608 mail ballots were received on time, secured and processed but not tabulated, according to a letter the county wrote in a letter to the secretary of state’s office.

The ballots were in the duplication stage of the process, which is what happens when mail ballots cannot be read by the electronic readers because they are either torn or folded too much, Portillo previously told the Review-Journal when explaining the entire process.

The mail ballots have since been tabulated and counted, and the addition of votes did not change the outcome in any race, the county wrote.

—Las Vegas Review-Journal

Discarded cigarette leads to arrest in cold case killing in Indiana

A cigarette tossed out during a traffic stop held DNA that helped identify a man accused of killing a 51-year-old Indiana man over 40 years ago, police said.

 

John Blaylock was found beaten to death in Griffith, Indiana, in 1981, but his killer was not known, according to police.

Detectives resumed the investigation in 2018 and started to examine blood from an unknown man found at the scene of Blaylock’s killing, Griffith police said in a Nov. 12 Facebook post.

The blood was sent to a DNA identification company, police said. It determined two brothers were likely a match.

It was DNA found on a discarded cigarette by Burnham, Illinois, police that helped police determine which brother was the suspect, police and WGN reported.

Thurson was arrested in Oregon on Oct. 29 and extradited back to Indiana, police said. He was charged with murder.

—The Charlotte Observer

Ranchers ask Colorado officials to delay next release of wolves

DENVER — Colorado ranchers are renewing their demand for state wildlife officials to delay the release of more wolves until they finalize more programs to prevent attacks on livestock.

Ranchers on Thursday formally asked Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioners to delay the releases — expected in early January — to prevent communication issues and depredations similar to those that happened after the first wolves were reintroduced in December 2023 as part of the voter-mandated program.

The Middle Park Stockgrowers Association and 26 other livestock and agricultural producers first filed their petition to delay the next release on Sept. 27. The petition asks the CPW Commission to adopt a rule that would pause further wolf releases until CPW defines chronic depredation, fully funds range riders to haze wolves from livestock, conducts site assessments on ranches near the release site and creates a rapid response team to deploy to areas where wolves are preying on livestock.

Since the reintroduction last year, wolves have killed or injured at least 17 head of cattle, nine sheep and one llama, according to CPW’s list of confirmed depredations.

—The Denver Post

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