Thursday morning news, February 6, 2020

Impeachment trial ends with Trump’s acquittal » President Trump’s fate is now in the hands of voters after the Senate voted Wednesday to acquit him of House impeachment charges. 

On one of the charges, obstruction of Congress, it was a straight party line vote—53-to-47. But on the other charge, abuse of power… 

ROBERTS: On this article of impeachment, 48 senators have pronounced Donald John Trump, President of the United States, guilty as charged. 52 senators have pronounced him not guilty as charged.

Chief Justice John Roberts heard there with the tally after Senator Mitt Romney broke with the GOP. He said on the abuse of power charge, he could not in good conscience vote to acquit. 

ROMNEY: My promise before God to apply impartial justice required that I put my personal feelings and political biases aside.  

Romney said “the president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.” 

All Democrats voted to convict on both charges. 

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says it’s now time for the Senate to get back to work. 

MCCONNELL: It’s time to move on. This decision has been made. As far as I’m concerned it’s in the rearview mirror. 

McConnell added that it’s not only President Trump who voters will judge this November. He said Democrats may come to regret voting to impeach the president.

Trump to speak at National Prayer Breakfast » Meantime, President Trump says he’s moving on. He’ll deliver his first post-acquittal address today at the 68th annual National Prayer Breakfast.

He’ll speak to an audience of 3,500 at the Hilton International Ballroom in Washington. That audience will include elected officials and guests from more than a hundred countries. 

The Prayer Breakfast dates back to 1953. President Dwight Eisenhower established the event at the urging of the late Reverend Billy Graham. 

With 86% of results in, Buttigieg’s lead holds in Iowa » Iowa’s Democratic Party has released more results from Monday’s caucuses. As of Wednesday night, the counts in 86 percent of the precincts were final.

Former South Bend Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg still holds a slight edge over Senator Bernie Sanders. 

Buttigieg’s lead is holding at about 27 percent and Sanders has about 25 percent of the delegates. 

Former Vice President Joe Biden is still in fourth place with 16 percent. 

BIDEN: I am not going to sugarcoat it. We took a gut punch in Iowa. That whole process took a gut punch, but look, this isn’t the first time in my life I’ve been knocked down. 

He trails Senator Elizabeth Warren by about two-and-a-half points. She is in third place with 18.3 percent.

Jets carrying American evacuees from China land in U.S. » Two jets carrying about 350 Americans fleeing the virus zone in China landed Wednesday at an Air Force base in California. 

Dr. Nancy Messonnier with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters… 

MESSONNIER: CDC staff are there meeting the planes and assessing the health of each passenger. The passengers will be screened, monitored, and evaluated and medical and public health personnel, including before takeoff and during the flight. 

Other planes carrying Americans from Wuhan will arrive today at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska. 

Officials will quarantine all passengers for 14 days. Messonnier said the CDC does expect some of the passengers will test positive for the coronavirus. And she said health workers are ready to provide care at the first sign of symptoms.

The coronavirus has now killed nearly 500 people with about 25,000 confirmed cases worldwide.

Macy’s closing underperforming stores, cutting 2,000 jobs » Macy’s has announced that it’s closing more than a hundred stores and cutting 2,000 corporate jobs. WORLD Radio’s Kristen Flavin has more. 

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The iconic department store chain is shutting down a total of 125 underperforming stores. That represents about one fifth of Macy’s current total. 

The company is also closing its corporate offices in Cincinnati and San Francisco, leaving New York as its sole corporate headquarters. The 2,000 jobs it’s eliminating account for about 9 percent of its corporate workforce.

Macy’s didn’t say how many employees will lose their jobs at the shuttered stores. 

Overall, Macy’s currently employs about 130,000 people.

Like many of its brick and mortar competitors, Macy’s is struggling to reinvent itself in the age of online shopping. 

The company is testing a new smaller-store format that’s located at a strip center, instead of a mall. The store will feature a mixture of Macy’s merchandise and local goods as well as food and beverage options. It’s opening its first so-called Market by Macy’s in Dallas today. 

Reporting for WORLD Radio, I’m Kristen Flavin. 

Hollywood icon Kirk Douglas dies at 103 » Hollywood icon Kirk Douglas died Wednesday at the age of 103. 

He appeared in more than 80 films, in roles ranging from Doc Holliday in “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” to Vincent van Gogh in “Lust for Life.”

In a 1992 interview with the Associated Press, Douglas said he never really aspired to be in the movie business. 

DOUGLAS: I never thought of myself as a movie star. [SIC] a failure because I did not succeed in what I set out to do. What I set out to do was to be a star on the Broadway stage.  

Douglas never received an Academy Award for an individual film, despite being nominated three times.

But in 1996, the Academy awarded him an honorary Oscar. And 15 years earlier, President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

(Senate Television via AP) In this image from video, the vote total, 53-47 for not guilty, on the second article of impeachment, obstruction of congress, is displayed on screen during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020. 

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