| Top Trump aide says president is 'eager to return to the campaign trail' amid reports a planned rally was scrapped Posted: 30 Jun 2020 01:59 PM PDT  Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh held a press conference call with reporters on Tuesday where he said the president is "eager to return to the campaign trail and to keep campaigning and keep connecting with Americans."
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| CDC map: More than 30 states are open despite having 'zero' days of decreasing coronavirus cases Posted: 30 Jun 2020 10:46 AM PDT  An internal map from the CDC shows that as many as 32 states are not seeing any decreases in coronavirus cases, and positive lab test results have jumped to nearly 8 percent nationwide.
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| Police Investigating Protesters after Confrontation with Armed St. Louis Homeowners Posted: 29 Jun 2020 02:36 PM PDT  A couple pointed guns at protesters who were on private property outside their home Sunday night, as the demonstrators marched past on their way to St. Louis mayor Lyda Krewson's residence to demand her resignation. Police are now investigating the incident to determine whether the protesters committed trespassing and fourth-degree assault by intimidation.Mark and Patricia McCloskey stood outside their home on Portland Place, a private street, as hundreds of protesters, some of them armed, marched by and chanted. The McCloskeys had been inside their home when they heard loud activity outside and saw "a large group of subjects forcefully break an iron gate marked with 'No Trespassing' and 'Private Street' signs," St. Louis police said."The group began yelling obscenities and threats of harm to both victims," the police said. "When the victims observed multiple subjects who were armed, they then armed themselves and contacted police."Law experts have noted that Missouri's Castle Doctrine allows homeowners to use deadly force to defend their private property from intruders.In an interview with KSDK, the local NBC affiliate, Mark McCloskey said that he called to the protesters that they were on private property and told them to leave when they first broke through the gate. When they did not, he got his rifle and stood outside, continuing to tell the crowd that they were on private property."At that point, everybody got enraged," McCloskey said. "There were people wearing body armor. One person pulled out some loaded pistol magazines and clicked them together and said that you were next. We were threatened with our lives, threatened with the house being burned down, my office building being burned down, even our dog's life being threatened. It was about as bad as it can get.""I really thought it was storming the Bastille, that we would be dead and the house would be burned and there was nothing we could do about it. It was a huge and frightening crowd," he added.Albert Watkins, an attorney for the McCloskeys, said that the couple felt threatened after "two individuals exhibited such force and violence destroying a century-plus-old wrought iron gate, ripping and twisting the wrought iron that was connected to a rock foundation, and then proceeded to charge at and toward and speak threateningly to Mr. and Mrs. McCloskey."The McCloskeys' Renaissance palazzo mansion is valued at $1.15 million, according to city records. The couple are attorneys who work together in a law office that has now been boarded up due to threats they've received since the incident.
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| Ex-Atlanta policeman charged in Brooks' death freed from jail, official says Posted: 01 Jul 2020 04:04 AM PDT  The former Atlanta police officer charged in last month's death of Rayshard Brooks, which touched off days of anti-racism protests, has been released from jail on bail, an official said on Wednesday. A Georgia County judge on Tuesday set bond for Garrett Rolfe, 27, at $500,000, and added numerous conditions, including that he wears an ankle monitor and obeys a curfew. Rolfe left Gwinnett County Jail at 12:27 a.m. EDT (0337 GMT) on Wednesday, according to county Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Shannon Volkodav.
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| Officials: Russian bounty reports follow years of Kremlin support to Taliban Posted: 30 Jun 2020 10:10 AM PDT  As early as 2016, U.S. intelligence officials were receiving credible reports that the Russian government was funding the Taliban. Now those reports have taken on new relevance.
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| Martin Gugino, the Buffalo protester pushed to the ground and injured by police, released after nearly a month in hospital Posted: 30 Jun 2020 05:38 PM PDT  The 75-year-old man who fell to the ground after being pushed by Buffalo police officers in a viral video was released from the hospital Tuesday.
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| Having a few alcoholic drinks a week may be better for your brain than avoiding alcohol altogether, a study found Posted: 29 Jun 2020 12:18 PM PDT  A new JAMA study found that having a drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men can benefit people's brain health.
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| Navy SEAL who oversaw the bin Laden raid says he's the 'biggest fan of the millennials you'll ever meet' Posted: 30 Jun 2020 03:46 PM PDT  "You've never seen them in a firefight in Afghanistan," the former US Navy SEAL commander said about millennials.
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| `You broke my wrist!' Police sued for taking down wrong man Posted: 30 Jun 2020 10:12 PM PDT  Body camera video shows Antonio Arnelo Smith handing his driver's license to a Black police officer and answering questions cooperatively before a white officer walks up behind him, wraps him in a bear hug and slams him face-first to the ground. "Oh my God, you broke my wrist!" the 46-year-old Black man screams as two more white Valdosta officers arrive, holding him down and handcuffing him following the takedown. One eventually tells Smith he's being arrested on an outstanding warrant, and is immediately corrected by the first officer: They've got the wrong man.
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| McGrath defeats Booker in Kentucky Senate Democratic primary, NBC News projects Posted: 30 Jun 2020 03:06 PM PDT  She will go up against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in November.
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| Russian envoy says North Korea anger over leaflets was for depiction of Kim’s wife Posted: 30 Jun 2020 03:38 AM PDT  A series of condemnations over leaflets distributed in North Korea were driven by fury over "dirty, insulting" depictions of leader Kim Jong Un's spouse, Russia's top envoy in the reclusive country has said.
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| The 20 Best Deals from REI’s Fourth of July Sale Posted: 30 Jun 2020 11:09 AM PDT |
| Texas Lt. Gov. blasts Fauci as state coronavirus cases rise: ‘I don’t need his advice’ Posted: 01 Jul 2020 08:16 AM PDT  "No thank you, Dr. Fauci."
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| 'We are not ready for the 2nd wave,' warn national security Democrats Posted: 30 Jun 2020 07:17 AM PDT  Using their expertise in military or intelligence services to compensate for what they see as President Trump's deficient handling of the crisis, national security Democrats have enjoined their Republican counterparts to refocus on the pandemic.
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| Schools reopen across Thailand with temperature checks, masks Posted: 01 Jul 2020 02:07 AM PDT  Thai schools reopened on Wednesday for the first time since mid-March, with precautions in place to guard against the coronavirus, ranging from temperature checks to installing makeshift cubicles for social distancing in classrooms. At Sam Khok school, about 50 km (31 miles) north of Bangkok, nearly 5,000 students were told to self-quarantine at home for 15-days prior to the re-start as an extra precaution, Principal Chuchart Thiengtham said. "Once students arrive at school, teachers hand face masks to them because it's mandatory to wear them," said Chuchart, adding that face shields were also provided to pupils for additional safety during some activities.
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| As coronavirus spreads to people under 40, it's making them sicker — and for longer — than once thought Posted: 29 Jun 2020 04:50 PM PDT  Once assumed to be safe from the dangers of COVID-19, younger adults share their prolonged struggles with the disease.
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| Australia seeks long-range missiles in Indo-Pacific defence shift Posted: 30 Jun 2020 11:59 PM PDT  The country is to significantly lift military spending amid rising US-China instability, its PM says.
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| 'His sacrifice will not go unremembered': Oklahoma police sergeant fatally shot during traffic stop, suspect arrested Posted: 30 Jun 2020 04:36 PM PDT  Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin told reporters Sgt. Craig Johnson died Tuesday after being shot multiple times early Monday morning.
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| Netanyahu warns Assad against Iran entrenchment in Syria Posted: 30 Jun 2020 06:26 AM PDT  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday he would be "risking the future" of his regime if he allowed Iran to be entrenched militarily in his country. "We will not allow Iran to establish a military presence in Syria," he told reporters alongside visiting US pointman on Iran policy, Brian Hook. The two men called for an extension of an arms embargo on Iran, archfoe of both their countries, which expires in October.
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| Pakistan: Exchange of fire with India kills boy in Kashmir Posted: 01 Jul 2020 05:22 AM PDT |
| Tucker Carlson’s Journey From Coronavirus Alarm-Puller to COVID Truther Posted: 30 Jun 2020 12:17 AM PDT  In early March, while President Donald Trump's loudest allies at Fox News downplayed the coronavirus pandemic, with some claiming it was nothing more than an "impeachment scam" to destroy the president, Tucker Carlson received widespread—and usual, considering his notoriously far-right rhetoric—praise for calling out his colleagues and Trump for "minimizing" the impending danger.The Fox News primetime star continues to receive plaudits for reportedly convincing the president to finally take the crisis seriously. Days after that March 9 monologue, which was delivered shortly after Carlson privately spoke with Trump about the virus, the president publicly addressed the nation and his administration began pushing social-distancing guidelines.While Carlson sounding the alarm much earlier than his Fox News peers may have a had a positive impact (on his viewers, especially, as studies show his audience took protective measures before Trump confidant Sean Hannity's), it didn't take long for the right-wing TV host to shift gears and rage against social distancing, lockdowns, and any other measure implemented to slow the spread of the virus.Over the past two months, Carlson has devoted much of his coronavirus coverage to discrediting public-health experts, specifically top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force. On top of telling his audience to stop listening to Fauci and other health officials, the Fox News star has repeatedly boosted a fellow contrarian, former New York Times reporter-turned-spy-novelist Alex Berenson, as an expert on the deadly virus.Less than a month after his much-lauded call to action on the virus, Carlson declared the crisis to be over—a claim that received far less attention from the mainstream press than his rogue stance against the president. Despite the United States having already experienced 13,000 deaths by that point, Carlson pointed to revised models showing lower expected deaths to call for the easing of stay-at-home orders, insisting that the "short-term crisis may have passed."Since the Fox star's assertion that the pandemic was essentially over and it was time to go back to business as usual, the nation has suffered roughly 115,000 more deaths and at least two million more confirmed cases.Carlson, in his quest to convince viewers that social distancing was futile and lockdowns were useless, began taking aim at Fauci almost immediately, framing the Medal of Freedom honoree as a power-hungry bureaucrat who had suddenly become the most powerful person in the world. Furthermore, the conservative talk-show host repeatedly portrayed the top doctor as incompetent and unknowledgeable about infectious diseases.One way Carlson often sharply criticized the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was by highlighting his shifting opinions on the virus as more information became known about the disease. In particular, he hit Fauci for initially saying mask-wearing was unnecessary—a position the renowned immunologist quickly reversed, as have other health officials who initially worried that masks might instill a false sense of security.Tucker Carlson Wants to Have It Both Ways on CoronavirusAt one point in mid-May, following Sen. Rand Paul dressing down Fauci in a Senate hearing, Carlson applauded the pro-Trump Republican before delivering his own lengthy takedown of Fauci, arguing that the top doctor's advice was "buffoon-level stuff," later describing him as "the chief buffoon of the professional class." Weeks prior, Carlson called it "national suicide" for Fauci to urge aggressive social-distancing restrictions."We should never let someone like that run this country," he fumed.Besides repeatedly dismissing social distancing, Carlson has also told his viewers that the virus is just not that deadly, even as the death toll continues to rise. In late April, for instance, Carlson pointed to some antibody studies—which have since largely been dismissed due to a large number of false-positive statistical errors—and the laughable claims made by a pair of California doctors who pushed for reopening by claiming the disease "just isn't nearly as deadly as we thought it was."The segment was steeped in so much disinformation on the disease that MSNBC host Chris Hayes, his direct 8 p.m. time slot competitor, directly called out Carlson for peddling "coronavirus trutherism" the next evening, picking apart the arguments put forth by the Fox star."There is a reason many of the employees of Fox News, which is based in New York, are working from home right now," Hayes pointedly stated. "At least someone there understands why it is important to continue to keep physical distance."Weeks later, Carlson again pointed to antibody tests and cherry-picked surveys to claim the deadly virus was relatively tame."We now know, thanks to widespread blood testing, that the virus isn't that deadly," he said on May 21. "An enormous percentage of coronavirus infections produce mild symptoms or no symptoms at all, they're asymptomatic. The death toll is a tiny fraction of what we were told it would be."Carlson, meanwhile, has also seemed more than willing to accept that the death toll—which is now approaching 130,000—is overinflated and possibly a hoax, despite overwhelming evidence showing it has likely been undercounted. Besides giving airtime to "COVID Contrarian" Berenson, who has repeatedly suggested the death toll is inflated or would remain low, he has also hosted Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume to make those same claims. "Dr. Birx said tonight during the briefing at the White House that all deaths from anyone who died with coronavirus is counted as if the person died from coronavirus. Now, we all know that isn't true," Hume said on April 7 before relaying anecdotal evidence: " I remember my own doctor telling me at one point when I was discussing prostate issues, he said about prostate cancer—I didn't have it, as it happened, but he said, 'You know, a lot more people die with it than die from it.'"In recent weeks, amid nationwide unrest following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, Carlson has spent far more time demonizing the Black Lives Matter movement than covering the outbreak of new coronavirus cases, many of which are occurring in the states that rushed to reopen. When the Fox host did shift from fear-mongering about a race war to cover the virus, however, he actively minimized the damage of the pandemic while once again claiming lockdowns do not work.Just as multiple states began seeing a massive uptick in confirmed cases following relaxed restrictions and Memorial Day weekend celebrations, Carlson definitively declared social-distancing rules to be useless."We do think it's worth, for a minute, taking a pause to assess whether or not they were in fact lying to us about the coronavirus and our response to it," he said on June 10, taking issue with media criticizing lockdown protests but praising police brutality demonstrations. "And the short answer to this is: Yes, they were definitely lying.""As a matter of public health, we can say conclusively the lockdowns were not necessary. In fact, we can prove that and here's the most powerful evidence: states that never locked down at all, states where people were allowed to live like Americans and not cower indoors alone, in the end turned out no worse than states that had mandatory quarantines, the state you probably live in," Carlson continued. "The states that did lock down at first but were quick to reopen have not seen explosions of coronavirus cases."Since making that proclamation, Florida, Texas and Arizona have all set single-day records for confirmed cases, and have reported newly overwhelmed hospitals and ICU capacity. Presented with Carlson's repeated claims that social distancing and stay-at-home orders have been unnecessary, Dr. Irwin Redlener, a Daily Beast contributor and director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University outright dismissed the TV host's analysis."Tucker Carson is one of the most fervent anti-science commentators on the airway," the public-health activist told The Daily Beast. "He, like Sean Hannity, seems to relish in unwavering support for Donald Trump, no matter how outlandish, dishonest or ignorant the president's statements or policies might be. I assume that Tucker is probably a bright guy, but his uncritical support of Trump is a dangerous disservice to his audience."While Carlson has privately advised the president on several issues and is regularly cited by the president's Twitter account, he has also stood out among his Fox primetime peers in offering up criticism of Trump. Besides subtly calling the president out over his COVID-19 response, Carlson has also knocked the president for not being tough enough in dealing with the protests, arguing that it is placing him on a trajectory to lose.An analysis from Columbia University, meanwhile, has found that if the United States had implemented physical-distancing guidelines just one week earlier in March, as many as 36,000 American lives could have been saved.I Spent a Week Down the Right-Wing Media Rabbit Hole—and Was Mesmerized by ItAs Carlson has dismissed the expertise of epidemiologists and scientists, while boosting spy novelists and talking heads, he has occasionally sought the advice of actual medical professionals to provide pandemic analysis. One of the most frequent voices on his show in this respect has been Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel.While the Fox News primetime star has blasted Fauci and others for their inaccurate predictions and so-called buffoonery, he doesn't seem to have an issue with Siegel's history of comically over-the-top projections and medical punditry that seemingly bends over backwards to please the Fox audience.For example, Siegel, who infamously said in March that the "worst-case" for coronavirus is that it "will be the flu," told Carlson last month that "we're not going to have a big second wave," citing the low number of cases in Australia. "That's the southern hemisphere," he said. "That's essentially our November right now."He would eventually walk back that claim on Carlson's show days later, noting that Brazil—which is also in the southern hemisphere—was experiencing a huge surge in cases. And last week, Siegel lashed out at the European Union for possibly banning American visitors due to the latest rise in cases. "Could this be retaliatory? Possibly," he huffed. "Could it be public health? Whatever it is, it is not the tone they sounded back in March, when they were horrified at our travel ban, at a time when thousands and thousands of cases were coming here." And then the unmistakably Carlson-esque reactionary barb. "So I have a message for the European Union tonight: How about remembering what we did for you in the middle of the 20th century?"Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| U.S. Senator Grassley backs plan to block EPA nomination over biofuel waivers Posted: 30 Jun 2020 08:09 AM PDT  U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley said on Tuesday he supported a plan by one of his Senate colleagues to block the nomination of an Environmental Protection Agency official until the agency makes clear how it would handle requests from oil refiners for retroactive exemptions from their biofuel blending mandates. Grassley and Senator Joni Ernst, both from Iowa, spoke last week with EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to discuss the waivers, which biofuel advocates in their state claim hurt farmers by undermining demand for corn-based ethanol, Grassley said on a call with reporters.
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| Joe Biden hits President Trump over Russian bounty reports, coronavirus response Posted: 30 Jun 2020 04:32 PM PDT  Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden publicly takes questions for first time in months; Doug McKelway reports.
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| An Italian teenager is one miracle away from becoming the first millennial saint Posted: 30 Jun 2020 07:28 AM PDT  Carlo Acutis coined the phrase: "Everyone is born an original, but many die like photocopies," to warn people not to lose themselves on the internet.
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| Vice President Mike Pence discloses donors who helped pay nearly $500K in legal bills from Mueller investigation Posted: 30 Jun 2020 12:16 PM PDT  Vice President Mike Pence received nearly $500,000 from a dozen contributors to help him pay his legal bills from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
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| Huntsman at risk of shocking defeat in Utah Posted: 29 Jun 2020 04:19 PM PDT  After a decade away from Utah politics and a weeks-long fight with the coronavirus, the former governor is locked in a tight race for his old job.
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| See How One Modern Family Restored Its Ancestral Family Estate in England Posted: 30 Jun 2020 11:23 AM PDT |
| Iran police question four after deadly Tehran blast Posted: 01 Jul 2020 06:53 AM PDT  Iranian police on Wednesday questioned four people as part of investigations into a powerful explosion that killed 19 people at a Tehran clinic the night before, state media reported. The blast at the Sina At'har health centre in the upmarket northern neighbourhood of Tajrish caused damage to nearby buildings and sent a plume of thick black smoke into the sky. It was the second such incident to hit Tehran within days, after a gas tank explosion near a military complex east of the capital late last Thursday that authorities said caused no casualties.
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| Miami-Dade teachers union ratifies new contract. Starting teachers to get big raise Posted: 01 Jul 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Despite technological difficulties with electronic voting — and with the 2019-20 school year behind them — Miami-Dade teachers approved Monday a new labor contract that benefits new educators by increasing the minimum salary by $6,500 but shorts mid-career teachers, who will receive almost the same base pay as rookie teachers.
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| Italian police seize record amount of amphetamines shipped from Syria Posted: 01 Jul 2020 03:32 AM PDT  Italian police said on Wednesday they had seized about 14 tonnes of amphetamine pills worth around 1 billion euros ($1 billion) arriving from Syria, in what they described as the world's single largest operation of its kind. The shipment was hidden among counterfeit clothing items.
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| America's M2 Carbine: The Rifle That Made the U.S. Military Great on the Battlefield Posted: 30 Jun 2020 09:30 AM PDT  Small numbers of M2s made their way to the troops in the closing engagement of World War II in the Pacific, particularly in the brutal Battle for Okinawa. However, they saw wider-scale action five years later in the Korean War.
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| Woman shot in back while trying to steal man's Nazi flag, authorities say Posted: 30 Jun 2020 07:21 PM PDT  The victim had been with friends at a nearby party when she apparently snatched one of the swastika flags displayed outside the man's home.
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| Staying Apart, Together: A sore throat made me grateful for my health in the time of COVID Posted: 30 Jun 2020 01:00 PM PDT  Quarantine has been hard, don't get me wrong, but I've been fighting my bouts of depression, boredom, loneliness without the burden of being ill.
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| The New York City Council passed a budget to defund the NYPD by $1 billion — but nobody seems to like it Posted: 01 Jul 2020 02:16 AM PDT  The $1 billion cancels the incoming class of officers, and will be reallocated to services like summer youth programs and broadband in public housing.
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| After Flynn ruling, Democrats vow to get to bottom of alleged politicization of Justice Department Posted: 30 Jun 2020 07:23 AM PDT  Ian Prior, former Department of Justice deputy director of public affairs, says Attorney General Bill Barr is a threat to the deep state, not the rule of law.
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| Ex-Canada PM Mulroney calls for revised relations with China Posted: 01 Jul 2020 08:43 AM PDT  Canada must have an "urgent rethink" of its relationship with China, former prime minister Brian Mulroney said Wednesday as tensions build over the possible extradition to the United States of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. Conservative Mulroney backed his Liberal successor Justin Trudeau's rejection of any exchange of Meng, who was arrested in Vancouver in December 2018, for two Canadians who were detained in China in apparent retaliation. Mulroney said Canada's hope that China would emerge as a constructive partner in international relations had been proven wrong, referring in particular to Beijing's militarization of the South China Sea.
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| Republicans, with exception of Trump, now push mask-wearing Posted: 30 Jun 2020 02:24 PM PDT  In Republican circles -- with the notable exception of the man who leads the party -- the debate about masks is over: It's time to put one on. As a surge of infections hammers the South and West, GOP officials are pushing back against the notion that masks are about politics, as President Donald Trump suggests, and telling Americans they can help save lives. Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, on Tuesday bluntly called on Trump to start wearing a mask, at least some of the time, to set a good example.
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| Lawmakers urge ICE to release families together following court order Posted: 30 Jun 2020 08:12 AM PDT  A federal judge last week ordered ICE to release all minors the agency is detaining with their parents, citing new coronavirus cases.
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| Former Pope Benedict's brother Georg dies at 96 Posted: 01 Jul 2020 04:03 AM PDT  Georg Ratzinger, the brother of former Pope Benedict who nurtured a very close relationship over decades to his sibling, has died at the age of 96 in the German town of Regensburg on Wednesday, the local archdiocese said. In June, Benedict, aged 93, had spent five days in his native Germany to visit his ailing brother, who was also a priest. It was the first time that Benedict left Italy since 2013, when he became the first Pope to resign in six centuries.
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| The B-52 Bomber Once Had Fake Missiles To Fool Russia (Or Anyone) in a War Posted: 30 Jun 2020 01:00 PM PDT  This platform gave the B-52 one interesting way to trick its opponents.
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| Three men arrested for murder in case of missing California couple who vanished in 2017 Posted: 29 Jun 2020 11:23 AM PDT  Three men have been arrested for murder in the case of Audrey Moran and Jonathan Reynoso, who have been missing since 2017. Manuel Rios, of Coachella, Abraham Fregoso, of Indio, and Jesus Ruiz Jr., of Stockton, were taken into custody on Saturday, June 27, 2020, and booked in Riverside County Jail. The Riverside County Sheriff's Office is investigating.
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| YouTube suspends monetization on Shane Dawson's channels indefinitely after his apology for racist actions Posted: 30 Jun 2020 04:33 PM PDT  The video streaming site's action comes after Dawson, 31, posted a video on Friday apologizing for "all the racism that I put on the internet, as an adult."
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| Susan Collins Cast the Crucial Vote for Brett Kavanaugh. His Biggest Backers Returned the Favor. Posted: 01 Jul 2020 01:43 AM PDT  Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has been the object of liberal ire since her 2018 vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Now in a tight re-election fight, whatever hopes she might have had of putting that episode behind her were dashed this week, when now-Justice Kavanaugh cast a dissenting vote in the Supreme Court's latest decision to uphold the legal framework that grants access to women seeking abortions.But the legacy of Collins' vote on Kavanaugh hasn't been all bad for the longtime Maine senator. In fact, it's appeared to earn her some powerful and deep-pocketed new allies.Collins, who's staked out a brand as a pro-choice moderate Republican over her nearly 24 years in the Senate, has historically never been a favorite in the conservative legal circles embodied by the Federalist Society, a leading group of right-of-center attorneys and legal thinkers.But that, apparently, has changed dramatically since Collins' fateful vote. Since 2019, Collins' campaign and two associated political action committees have raked in nearly $200,000 from donors who are also high-dollar contributors to the Federalist Society. Many of those who gave to Collins had never cut a check for her before. New Kavanaugh Book: Sen. Feinstein Dithered on Ford LetterThe group of 39 donors includes Leonard Leo, the former executive vice president of the Federalist Society and a driving force behind President Trump and the Senate GOP's historically successful efforts to stock the federal bench with conservative judges. Leo and his wife, Sally—neither of whom had previously donated to Collins—each gave the maximum $5,600 to Collins' campaign committee last year. Half of Leo's support came by way of a joint fundraising committee supporting three other Senate Republicans. Last summer, Leo hosted a fundraiser for Collins at his newly bought Maine vacation home, an event that appeared to open up more Federalist Society funds for the senator.Leo was one of five Federalist Society-associated first-time donors to Collins, a group that also included Daniel Casey. Casey is the president of the Judicial Crisis Network, a group with ties to the Federalist Society that led the charge for Kavanaugh's confirmation. GOP mega-donors linked to the group also got on board with Collins after her vote. Philip Anschutz, the billionaire whose foundation supports the Federalist Society, gave $5,600, the per-cycle maximum, to Collins' campaign.Others were not first-time Collins donors but dramatically stepped up their giving this year. In 2019, Bernard Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot, and his wife Billi Wilma gave a total of $20,800 to Collins' campaign and to her leadership PAC. The couple's foundation is part of the Federalist Society's Madison Club, the honorific bestowed on its major donors. Marcus is in the Club's Platinum Level, reserved for those who give $100,000 or more. Previously, the couple had donated a total of $3,000 to Collins across her 2014 and 2008 re-election campaigns.Support for Collins from C. Boyden Gray, a former counsel to President George H.W. Bush and a Federalist Society board member, also illustrates the evolving relationship between the senator and the conservative legal group. In 2003, Gray's conservative advocacy group ran controversial ads in Maine pressuring the senator to vote in favor of a conservative Bush nominee, William Pryor, Jr., to the bench. Ultimately, Collins was one of just two Republican senators to vote against Pryor. After giving $3,600 to her 2014 effort, Gray has given nearly $8,000 to Collins' political outfit since her Kavanaugh vote.Susan Collins' Obama-Era Vote Against Pandemic Funding Comes Back to Haunt HerMost of the donations from Federalist Society backers went directly to Collins' campaign. Some also supported Collins' leadership PAC, which she can use to dole out funds to allies and help build political capital. Others financed the Collins Victory Committee, a joint fundraising account supporting both her campaign and her leadership PAC.The groundswell in financial support that Collins is receiving from conservative legal bigwigs comes at a time when the nation's courts have become increasingly politicized. Kavanaugh's nomination became a rallying point for many Democrats and Democratic-allied groups. And Collins' support for it—which culminated in a nationally watched Senate floor speech—put a target squarely on her back. While those invested in the confirmation rushed to offer their appreciation, progressives began fundraising for her challenger immediately, raising more than four million dollars before Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon even became the Democratic frontrunner. The end result has been one of the more expensive and tightly fought Senate races of the cycle, with Collins facing a serious challenge for a seat she has held comfortably since 1996. The senator's campaign has raised over $10.3 million since January 2019; Gideon, meanwhile, has raised over $14.8 million in the same time period. Collins has $1 million more in the bank, however."Senator Collins has always received strong support from across the ideological spectrum," Kevin Kelley, a spokesman for Collins' campaign, told The Daily Beast. "Bribery doesn't work on Senator Collins," Kelley added, in reference to the money raised by liberal groups around her Kavanaugh vote. "She made up her mind based on the merits of the nomination. It's laughable that the same people who tried to buy Senator Collins' vote for more than $4 million now appear to be suggesting that she sold her vote for far less."The Federalist Society did not respond to a request for comment. But a source close to the Kavanaugh confirmation process described the donations as an organic show of support for a senator crucial to getting popular conservative judges confirmed. The source said there was no organized effort to back Collins financially after her confirmation vote, but that people active in the conservative legal community independently deemed her worthy of support."Countless Americans were inspired by Senator Collins' principled speech in support of Justice Kavanaugh," the source said, "so it should not be surprising to anyone that she raised more money after that, especially in light of the disgusting threats that were being made toward her and her staff at the time."As for the donations that liberals made to a prospective campaign account for Collins' eventual opponent, those too have been criticized as an attempt to financially incentivize the Senator's vote; and not just by Collins' aides. A conservative election attorney, Cleta Mitchell, told Newsmax at the time that the liberal groups may have run afoul of federal law by "trying to tie her official action to their threat that they're going to give $1 million to somebody to run against her, if she doesn't vote the way [they want her] to." Ady Barkan, the progressive activist who launched the campaign, insisted it was legal and had the blessing of the Federal Elections Commission. Mitchell, a financial supporter of the Federalist Society, later gave $1,000 to Collins' campaign, her first donation, after her vote to confirm Kavanaugh.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| The Marines' New CH-53K King Stallion Has Now Been to Sea. Here's What's Next Posted: 30 Jun 2020 07:34 AM PDT  The Marine Corps' new heavy-lift helicopter just wrapped up its sea trials and will tackle hot-weather training next.
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| Saudi triples VAT in unpopular virus-led austerity push Posted: 30 Jun 2020 08:42 PM PDT  Saudis braced Wednesday for a tripling in value added tax, another unpopular austerity measure after the twin shocks of coronavirus and an oil price slump triggered the kingdom's worst economic decline in decades. Retailers in the country reported a sharp uptick in sales this week of everything from gold and electronics to cars and building materials, as shoppers sought to stock up before VAT is raised to 15 percent. The hike could stir public resentment as it weighs on household incomes, pushing up inflation and depressing consumer spending as the kingdom emerges from a three-month coronavirus lockdown.
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| Florida’s coronavirus outbreak complicates Republican convention, Trump’s reelection bid Posted: 29 Jun 2020 01:56 PM PDT  When Vice President Mike Pence, the head of the White House coronavirus task force, returns to Florida Thursday, he'll find a much different situation than when he last visited in late May.
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| Iran journalist who fueled 2017 protests sentenced to death Posted: 30 Jun 2020 12:45 AM PDT  Iran sentenced a once-exiled journalist to death over his online work that helped inspire nationwide economic protests that began at the end of 2017, authorities said Tuesday. Ruhollah Zam's website and a channel he created on the popular messaging app Telegram had spread the timings of the protests and embarrassing information about officials that directly challenged Iran's Shiite theocracy. Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili announced Zam's death sentence on Tuesday, saying he had been convicted of "corruption on Earth," a charge often used in cases involving espionage or attempts to overthrow Iran's government.
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