Rep. Alcee Hastings, the fiercely liberal longtime Florida congressman who was dogged throughout his tenure by an impeachment that ended his fast-rising judicial career, has died at 84.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of Calif., waves the gavel on the opening day of the 117th Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021. “She's had one finger in the dike and one finger in the eye of Donald Trump," said Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va. Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., voted for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who is seen as a strong contender to succeed Pelosi whenever she steps down. Democrats gave Pelosi a standing ovation as the final tally was announced, while the Republican side of the chamber was nearly empty. Ocasio-Cortez said she and other progressives “have been in conversations and negotiations” with Pelosi, but did not describe what they accomplished.

Southern California funeral homes are turning away bereaved families because they're running out of space for the bodies piling up during an unrelenting coronavirus surge. The head of the state funeral directors association says mortuaries are being inundated as the United States nears a grim tally of 350,000 COVID-19 deaths. “And the worst of the surge could still be ahead of us.”Los Angeles County, the epicenter of the crisis in California, has surpassed 10,000 COVID-19 deaths alone. The number of daily newly reported cases in that period has averaged close to 195,000, a decline from two weeks earlier. Arkansas officials reported a record of more than 4,300 new COVID-19 cases Friday.

FILE - In this July 22, 2020 file photo, Luke Letlow, R-Start, chief of staff to exiting U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham, speaks after signing up to run for Louisiana's 5th Congressional District in Baton Rouge, La. Letlow, who was elected to Congress in a December runoff, died Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020, of complications from COVID-19. – Louisiana Congressman-elect Luke Letlow, who recently died from COVID-19 complications, was remembered Saturday as a man who loved people and felt called to serve others. “Luke loved Louisiana. He made the most of every opportunity and wanted to make sure that you and I had the absolute best.”

Luke Letlow, who was only 41 and had no known underlying health conditions, died Tuesday night at Ochsner-LSU Health Shreveport — days before he was scheduled to be sworn into office, according to his spokesman Andrew Bautsch. Ghali, of LSU Health Shreveport, told The Advocate that Letlow didn't have any underlying health conditions that would have placed him at greater risk of developing complications from COVID-19. "There was no one like Luke Letlow, and there was no one who loved this state and its people more. Luke was a part of our family, and we are so incredibly proud of the man he was.”Before working for Abraham, Letlow had worked for former Gov. Letlow is one of more than 7,000 people in Louisiana who have died from COVID-19 since March, according to data from the state health department.

The others are the lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state treasurer, insurance commissioner and Kansas Supreme Court chief justice and four Republican leaders in the GOP-controlled Legislature. The legislative leaders and the state’s Republican attorney general passed, for now, because not all health care workers and nursing home residents have received theirs. The governor also said Wednesday that “hundreds” of other, non-elected state officials have been made eligible for early vaccines by their agencies. The others are the lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state treasurer, insurance commissioner and Kansas Supreme Court chief justice and four Republican leaders in the GOP-controlled Legislature. Most of those Republicans said they didn’t want to jump in line ahead of health care workers, nursing home residents or other vulnerable Kansans.

Luke Letlow, R-Start, chief of staff to exiting U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham, speaks after signing up to run for Louisiana's 5th Congressional District, on July 22, 2020, in Baton Rouge, La. – Luke Letlow, Louisiana's incoming Republican member of the U.S. House, died Tuesday night from complications related to COVID-19 only days before he would have been sworn into office. “COVID-19 has taken Congressman-elect Letlow from us far too soon,” the Democratic governor said in a statement. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said: “Our hearts break tonight as we process the news of Congressman-elect Luke Letlow’s passing." When he announced his positive test for COVID-19, Letlow joined a list of Louisiana officials who have contracted the coronavirus since the pandemic began, including U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, Lt. Gov.

State health officials said Tuesday that the variant was found in a man in his 20s who is in isolation southeast of Denver and has no travel history. Health officials have said the vaccines being given now are thought to be effective against the variant. — A former Louisiana state lawmaker and his wife died from COVID-19 on the same day. ___OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City fire department says a firefighter, whose nephew became the first department employee to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, died of the virus after being infected while responding to a call. In the Upstate area of the state, COVID-19 infection rates continue to outpace every other part of South Carolina.

All Australian states have imposed restrictions on travelers from Sydney and parts of New South Wales because the coronavirus risk. The state on Sunday reported 1,536 new COVID-19 cases and 46 more deaths. ___TOPEKA, Kan. — A FedEx executive says a higher-than-normal volume of Christmas-season package deliveries won’t interfere with the company’s effort to ship coronavirus vaccine doses. The first wave of coronavirus infections in New York “came from Europe and we did nothing,” the Democratic governor said. ___WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s surgeon general is defending Trump’s not getting a coronavirus vaccine, saying there are medical reasons for it.

State health officials reported 272 new deaths due to COVID-19, bringing Texas’ death toll to 25,226. On Saturday, the state reported 9,796 people hospitalized with the virus, an increase of nearly 23% over the last month. ___THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:The United States reached a record of nearly a quarter million coronavirus cases reported in 24 hours. ___BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The United States added a record of nearly a quarter million coronavirus cases in the past day. Almost 17,000 people are hospitalized in California and health officials are scrambling to find enough beds for patients.