State Department seeks extension to release Clinton’s emails

Tribune News Service

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WASHINGTON — The State Department is asking a federal judge for a one-month extension to finish releasing Hillary Clinton’s emails, a State official said Friday.

State Department Deputy spokesman Mark Toner confirmed Friday that the State Department filed a motion asking for an extension until Feb. 29 in the Freedom of Information Act case, Leopold v. State, which has required it to release Clinton’s emails monthly. The department is supposed to release the emails by Jan. 31.

The Department will be releasing emails Jan. 29 but it will not meet the court’s goal of producing the remaining emails from Clinton, Toner said. If the request is granted, the remainder of the approximately 55,000 pages would be posted in February.

“State Department staff have been working extremely hard to process these emails and we are committed to getting them out,” Toner said. “The court’s goal for this month’s production represented the largest number of pages to date. The remaining emails are also the most complex to process as they contain a large amount of material that required interagency review. The cause of this delay is not due to any ongoing discussion about classification that has been in the news as of late.”

At least 1,340 emails that Clinton sent or received contained classified material, according to the State Department’s latest update from its ongoing review of more than 30,000 emails.

None of Clinton’s emails was marked as classified during her tenure, State Department officials say, but intelligence officials say some material was clearly classified at the time. Her aides also sent and received classified information.

Man who accidentally shot woman in movie theater had gun permit, police say

Tribune News Service

SEATTLE — An apparently intoxicated man who accidentally shot a woman in a Renton, Wash., movie theater Thursday night had a concealed-carry permit for the weapon, police said.

The 29-year-old man, who has not been formally identified by Renton police, has been booked into the King County Jail for investigation of assault, said police spokesman Cmdr. David Liebman.

The man will have his first appearance in court at the King County Jail in downtown Seattle on Saturday afternoon, according to Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the King County prosecutor’s office.

The 40-year-old woman, who suffered a wound to her shoulder, was upgraded Friday morning to serious condition at Harborview Medical Center. A hospital spokeswoman said she is improving and in intensive care.

The man entered a showing of the film “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” at Regal Cinemas The Landing 14 with a loaded gun before 8:15 p.m., said Liebman.

The man fumbled with the gun and it accidentally fired, hitting the woman, who does not know the man, Liebman said.

After the shooting, the man reportedly left the theater and briefly went into a nearby restaurant, where he dropped the gun and picked it back up, according to a witness and police.

After a search, authorities announced around 10:15 p.m. that the man’s father had called 911 to report his son had been involved in the shooting and was distraught. Police went to the father’s Newcastle home and arrested his son.

5 dead, 2 critically injured in school shooting in Canada

Tribune News Service

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MONTREAL — Five people are dead and two are in critical condition after a school shooting in a small Canadian community, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday.

One person has been arrested, Trudeau confirmed at an emergency news conference in Davos, Switzerland, where he is attending the World Economic Forum.

“This is every parent’s worst nightmare. The community is reeling,” Trudeau said.

“We all grieve with and stand with the community of La Loche and the province of Saskatchewan on this terrible and tragic day.”

La Loche is a community of about 3,000 people located about 535 miles (860 kilometers) northwest of provincial capital Regina. La Loche community school has approximately 900 students from pre-kindergarten to grade 12.

It’s unclear whether staff members or students are among the victims.

Haiti elections scheduled for Sunday have been canceled

Tribune News Service

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haitian elections officials Friday afternoon abruptly canceled Sunday’s planned elections amid escalating protests around the country.

Hours early, the officials had halted the distribution of voting materials and began recovery of those that had already gone out.

Elections officials said at a news conference that safety could not be guaranteed for voters or poll workers.

The cancellation is “a victory for all of the democratic sector,” said Jude Celestin, the main opposition candidate in Sunday’s election.

The electoral commission’s about-face came after the international community said it is leaving the door open for Haitians to find a political consensus that could lead to the postponement of Sunday’s partial legislative and presidential runoff.

Six foreign ambassadors along with the representative of the Organization of American States and the head of the U.N. peacekeeping stabilization mission said Friday that while they still want to see the conclusion of the electoral process, they support efforts “aimed at finding a way forward that ensures the democratic renewal of state institutions.”

The statement makes no mention of a Jan. 24 presidential runoff or a Feb. 7 constitutional end of President Michel Martelly’s term, two dates that the international community had been insistent on Haiti maintaining. But they softened their stance Thursday as Celestin continued to boycott the runoff and tires and cars burned in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. Also, reports trickled in that schools doubling as voting bureaus were being burned.