Jan. 6 hearings set to resume; bipartisan proposal to change election law; home sales slip; health insurance rates increasing | Hot off the Wire podcast

A former national security official in the Trump White House, Matthew Pottinger, and a former press aide, Sarah Matthews, will be the key witnesses at a prime-time hearing of the Jan. 6 committee.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Merrick Garland defended the Justice Department’s investigation into the events of the day.

President Joe Biden is proposing to spend roughly $37 billion for fighting and preventing crime. The Democratic president’s new proposal includes $13 billion to help communities hire and train 100,000 police officers over five years. Biden will outline his anti-crime program on Thursday during a visit to Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Democrats are pushing legislation through the House that would inscribe the right to use contraceptives into law. That vote is planned for Thursday.

Two men have been indicted in the case of a tractor-trailer rig found with 53 dead or dying migrants inside in San Antonio. A statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Antonio says 46-year-old Homero Zamorano Jr. and 28-year-old Christian Martinez, both of Pasadena, Texas, were indicted Wednesday.

The trial of R. Kelly’s manager has opened on charges that he forced the cancellation of a screening of a documentary about the singer’s sexual abuse of women and girls by calling in a threat to the crowded Manhattan theater. Prosecutor Lara Pomerantz told federal court jurors Tuesday that Donnell Russell claimed in his December 2018 phone call that someone with a gun was planning to fire on the crowd.

The pop culture extravaganza that is Comic-Con International is back to its old extravagance. Stars, cosplayers and fans are filling the San Diego Convention Center in full force after the pandemic forced it to go virtual for two years.

A bipartisan group of senators has reached agreement on proposed changes to the Electoral Count Act. That’s the post-Civil War-era law for certifying presidential elections. The law came under intense scrutiny after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The changes proposed Wednesday are twofold: One would update the law to clarify the way states submit electors and the vice president tallies the votes in Congress. The other would bolster security for state and local election officials who have endured harassment.

In sports, the All-Star break drew to a close, James Harden accepted a new contract, the Sky clinched a WNBA playoff berth, a big change on the European Ryder Cup team and NFL players got down to business. Correspondent Tom Mariam reports.

President Joe Biden has announced modest new steps to combat climate change and promised more robust action to come, saying, “This is an emergency and I will look at it that way.”

The president stopped short Wednesday of issuing a formal declaration of a climate emergency. Democrats and environmental groups have been seeking such a declaration after an influential Democratic senator quashed hopes for sweeping legislation to address global warming.

During a speech at a former coal-powered plan in Massachusetts, Biden said he would use his executive powers to turn concern about a climate emergency into “formal, official government actions.”

A ban on certain semi-automatic weapons is moving forward in the House. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee began considering legislation to ban some assault-type weapons on Wednesday.

Uvalde’s top school official has recommended the firing of the school district police chief who was central to the botched law enforcement response to the elementary school shooting nearly two months ago that killed two teachers and 19 students.

Leaders of Indiana’s Republican-dominated Senate have proposed banning abortion with limited exceptions — a move that comes amid a political firestorm over a 10-year-old rape victim who came to the state from neighboring Ohio to end her pregnancy.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has announced a new push to protect same-sex marriage in federal law. Schumer leaned into the bill Wednesday after a surprising number of House Republicans helped pass the landmark legislation in their chamber on Tuesday. Some GOP senators are signaling support.

An Indiana man who ran into a burning home and saved five people, including a 6-year-old girl he jumped out of a second-floor window with, says he’s no hero and the serious injuries he suffered in the dramatic rescue were “all worth it.”

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slowed for the fifth consecutive month in June as higher mortgage rates and rising prices kept many home hunters on the sidelines. The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that existing home sales fell 5.4% last month from May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.12 million.

Individual health insurance rates are going up across the country. The coronavirus pandemic caused lots of people to put off routine health care. But now many people are returning to doctor’s offices. Health insurers in individual marketplaces across 13 states and Washington D.C. will raise rates an average of 10% next year.

High diesel prices are driving up the cost of everything, from groceries to Amazon orders and furniture. That’s because nearly everything that’s delivered, whether by truck, rail or ship, uses diesel fuel.

Disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty to fatally shooting his wife and son. His defense lawyers agreed on Wednesday to ask the judge to deny him bond, saying he can’t afford to post it anyway.

The European Union’s head is proposed that member states cut their gas use by 15% over the coming months to make sure that any Russian cutoff of natural gas supplies to the bloc will not fundamentally disrupt industries and send an additional chill through homes next winter.

Britain’s Conservative Party has chosen Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss as the two finalists in an election to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The pair came first and second in a vote of Conservative lawmakers on Wednesday.

A Sesame Street-themed amusement park has apologized after a viral video appearing to show a costumed character waving off two 6-year-old Black girls at a parade outside Philadelphia. Sesame Place has issued two apologies since, saying the performer did not intentionally ignore the girls and promising to take action to do better.

Micronesia has likely become the final nation in the world with a population of more than 100,000 to experience an outbreak of COVID-19. For more than two-and-a-half years, the Pacific archipelago managed to avoid any outbreaks thanks to its geographic isolation and border controls.