Congressman Roesays time to retire
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- Tennessee Republican U.S. Rep. Phil Roe announced Friday that he will retire at the end of the 116th Congress.
The 74-year-old called representing east Tennesseans in Congress for the past 11 years "the honor of my life" and said he always intended to serve five or six terms because he didn't want to make it a second career. He practiced medicine for more than 30 years before being elected.
Roe is among more than two dozen Republican House members who have decided not to seek reelection this year.
Roe, the top-ranking Republican on the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, said he's proud that the panel has achieved the goals he set for it, including increasing access to care and setting up true accountability at the department.
"I'll leave Congress at the end of the year knowing that our nation's heroes are better served today because of our work," he said. "I am still hopeful that, before the 116th Congress adjourns, we will pass important reforms that improve outreach to veterans in crisis to address the suicide epidemic."
Roe, who has opposed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed during the Obama administration, said he ran for Congress hoping that his experience as a practicing physician could have a positive impact on health care policy.
Roe's announcement makes him the first U.S. House member in Tennessee this election cycle to opt against seeking reelection. Tennessee has seven Republicans and two Democrats in the House.
2 people stabbedin Austin rampage
AUSTIN, Texas -- A man stabbed two people, one fatally, inside a restaurant during a violent string of attacks Friday at a shopping plaza in Texas' capital city. The attack began with an assault at a coffee shop and ended with the suspect leaping off a roof, police said.
The attacks on a busy downtown avenue of restaurants and apartments terrified customers stopping for their morning coffee on the way to work. It was Austin's first homicide of 2020.
Austin police Sgt. David Daniels said investigators don't know what provoked the suspect to strike a person in a coffee shop before fleeing and stabbing two people in Freebirds World Burrito a few doors down. The man, who was not identified, jumped off the roof of the restaurant but survived.
None of the victims were identified, but Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services said one man in his 20s was pronounced dead at the scene. Daniels said a knife was involved in the attack but did not say whether it came from the restaurant.
City booting upafter cyberattack
NEW ORLEANS -- About three weeks after a cyberattack on New Orleans city computers forced a shutdown, an official says some systems are ready to go back online.
Public safety tools including the court system are to be up and running by Monday, city chief information officer Kim Walker LaGrue said Thursday.
More than 3,400 city computers were online Dec. 13 when ransomware was detected. More than 2,600 of those computers have since been cleaned and are ready to go back on the city's network, LaGrue said.
"We can say that our data is recoverable because our backup systems were functioning, and we have been able to get to those backup systems and bring data back online," she said.
City officials haven't said who was behind the cyberattack. The city has submitted evidence to the FBI, which is investigating, LaGrue said.
Other systems are expected to be available again by the end of January. Those include an online network that residents can use to pay property taxes.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 01/04/2020