Al Franken to officially leave US Senate seat Jan. 2

December 21, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

ST. PAUL, Minn.

Sen. Al Franken plans to officially leave the U.S. Senate on Jan. 2.

The announcement Wednesday from a Franken spokesman should put to rest questions surrounding the timing of the Minnesota Democrat’s departure and concern that he might reverse his planned resignation.

Franken announced earlier this month that he would leave “in the coming weeks” amid several sexual-misconduct allegations. His office later indicated it would come some time in early January.

Gov. Mark Dayton’s choice to replace Franken, Lt. Gov. Tina Smith, is set to be sworn in Jan. 3.

Smith will keep some of Franken’s top staff when she takes office. She plans to run for the seat in 2018.

8 Americans, 2 Swedes, 1 Canadian dead in bus crash

CANCUN, Mexico

Driver negligence and speed caused a bus crash in southern Mexico that killed eight Americans, two Swedes, one Canadian and a Mexican tour guide as they traveled from cruise ships to visit nearby Mayan ruins, officials said Wednesday.

Quintana Roo state prosecutors said a preliminary manslaughter investigation indicated the driver lost control of the bus, and when he tried to get back on the narrow highway, the bus flipped, struck a tree and landed in vegetation along the roadside.

The state government said that in addition to the 12 people killed, three Canadians, four Brazilians, four Americans and two Swedes had to be hospitalized for treatment of injuries. The two Swedes were transported to the United States for treatment. Seven other people were slightly injured in Tuesday’s accident and returned to their cruise ship.

By Wednesday afternoon, only four tourists remained in local hospitals, the state prosecutor’s office said.

Of 9,000 dead in Mosul, a third slain by US alliance, Iraqis

MOSUL, Iraq

The price Mosul’s residents paid in blood to see their city freed was 9,000 to 11,000 dead, a civilian casualty rate nearly 10 times higher than what has been previously reported. The number killed in the nine-month battle to liberate the city from the Islamic State group marauders has not been acknowledged by the U.S.-led coalition, the Iraqi government or the self-styled caliphate.

But Mosul’s gravediggers, its morgue workers and the volunteers who retrieve bodies from the city’s rubble are keeping count.

Iraqi or coalition forces are responsible for at least 3,200 civilian deaths from airstrikes, artillery fire or mortar rounds between October 2016 and the fall of the Islamic State group in July 2017, according to an Associated Press investigation.

Mich. man injured by sandbag thrown from Ohio overpass

TOLEDO

Toledo police say four teens have been charged after a Michigan man was critically injured by an item thrown from an I-75 overpass.

The Blade of Toledo reports Marquise Byrd of Warren, Mich., was a front seat passenger in a southbound vehicle struck by a sandbag near the Indiana Street overpass.

Authorities said the sandbag crashed through the vehicle’s windshield and entered the vehicle, striking Byrd.

The four juveniles arrested were a 13-year-old and three 14-year-olds. Each was charged with felonious assault and taken to the Lucas County Juvenile Detention Center.

Associated Press