| 'A global conspiracy against God and humanity': Controversial Catholic archbishop pushes QAnon themes in letter to Trump Posted: 31 Oct 2020 06:40 AM PDT  The letter by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a former Vatican ambassador to the U.S. and outspoken adversary of Pope Francis, hit many of the favorite themes of the pro-Trump conspiracy theory.
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| Tucker Carlson celebrated getting his vanished documents back, but gave no details of how or why they are 'damning' for the Biden campaign Posted: 30 Oct 2020 06:03 AM PDT  Carlson told viewers on Thursday that much-hyped documents he claimed would damage the Biden campaign are still being assessed.
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| Florida parents sue school board over mandate that requires students to wear masks Posted: 30 Oct 2020 11:35 AM PDT  The parents argue that forcing children to wear masks at school denies them their right to an equal education.
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| Vancouver Braces for Protests After Police Kill 21-Year-Old Black Man in Bank Parking Lot Posted: 30 Oct 2020 05:25 PM PDT  Police in Vancouver, Washington, are bracing for a second night of protests after officers fatally shot a 21-year-old Black man in a bank parking lot Thursday night.Clark County sheriff's deputies shot and killed Kevin Peterson, Jr., 21, near a U.S. Bank just prior to 6 p.m. Thursday. The officers involved have not been named. Protesters gathered near the site of the shooting Thursday night, and mourners planned to gather at the site Friday night for a vigil.Police didn't offer any details about the shooting until Friday afternoon, when Sheriff Chuck Atkins said the deputies had been conducting a narcotics investigation when they began their pursuit of Peterson on foot. "A foot pursuit ensued where deputies from the Clark County sheriff's office were chasing a man with a firearm. The information I have, is that upon entering the parking lot of the bank, the man repeatedly, reportedly fired his weapon at the deputies. The deputies returned fire and the subject was tragically killed. It is my understanding that the man's firearm was observed as the scene," Atkins said at a brief press conference. Peterson had called his girlfriend Olivia Selto just before the incident, and she was still on the phone with him when he was shot, according to The Oregonian. She said she heard the gunshots. The couple had a child together, Kailiah Peterson."I told him I loved him as many times as I could and he said it back," she told the paper, adding that the last thing she heard from him was "a few heartbreaking sounds." Kevin Peterson, Sr. said of his son, who had five siblings, "He wasn't a problem child at all. He was a good kid. He didn't have a record, nothing. It's sad this happened to him." He said he was not allowed to identify his son until early the following morning.The Southwest Washington Independent Investigation Team has taken over the investigation into the shooting, which Atkins said he "fully supported." At a press conference Friday, Atkins said, "Since it's not my investigation, I'm waiting along with you for some of the information I need."Atkins said he supported demonstrators who planned to gather."It is right and correct that the community should grieve alongside his family," he said. "I have a team working to ensure that people can come on over and hold a peaceful whatever-you-want-to-call-it, obviously they're going to be allowed to do that. It's something we expect, and they have a right to come over and pay their respects."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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| Conservative group criticizes ads with Jonathan Van Ness Posted: 30 Oct 2020 09:36 AM PDT  One Million Moms started a petition against the ads, which feature Van Ness and Simone Biles doing gymnastics together.
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| Armenian separatists say Azerbaijan closing in on key town Posted: 29 Oct 2020 10:44 AM PDT  The leader of Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh said on Thursday Azerbaijani forces were closing in on the town of Shusha, whose capture would mark a turning point after a month of fighting.
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| Typhoon Goni: Philippines braced for year's most powerful storm Posted: 31 Oct 2020 07:59 AM PDT  Torrential rain and 215kph winds are expected to hit the main island of Luzon on Sunday.
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| 'Duck Dynasty' star Sadie Robertson calls COVID a 'really dark sickness' Posted: 30 Oct 2020 06:36 PM PDT  "I'm not going to lie, I cried a lot," said the pregnant "Duck Dynasty" alum.
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| Illinois judge allows extradition of Kyle Rittenhouse to Wisconsin Posted: 30 Oct 2020 04:26 PM PDT  An Illinois judge on Friday ordered a 17-year-old accused of killing two demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to be extradited across the border to stand trial on homicide charges, saying it wasn't his role to vet a case brought by Wisconsin protestors and approved by a Wisconsin judge.
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| Death of Nebraska man whose body was mistaken for Halloween prank in 2016 still unsolved Posted: 30 Oct 2020 06:37 PM PDT  Cornelius Hodges, 30, was found dead behind a house at 3009 Hamilton Street in Omaha, Nebraska, on Sunday, October 30, 2016. He had been missing since he left his mother's home at 41st and Ohio Streets around 1 a.m. on October 24 to walk to his apartment in downtown Omaha. His death was ruled a homicide but has never been solved. The Omaha Police Department is investigating.
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| Mystery surrounds former Marine's imprisonment in Venezuela Posted: 31 Oct 2020 06:54 AM PDT  MEDELLIN, Colombia (AP) — "Don't WORRY!," reads the cryptic note scribbled on a scrap of perforated paper smuggled out of a dank, basement cellblock. The weeks-old message is all the family of Matthew Heath has to pin its hopes on since the former U.S. Marine corporal was arrested at a roadblock in Venezuela almost two months ago and accused by President Nicolás Maduro of being a terrorist and spying for Donald Trump. Nobody in the family or Trump administration has spoken to Heath.
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| Miami police officer used excessive force arresting paraplegic man, civilian panel says Posted: 30 Oct 2020 08:48 AM PDT  Almost a year after an internal review cleared several officers of any wrongdoing during the arrest of a Black paraplegic man who was dragged out of a patrol car, a police civilian oversight board has condemned the actions of five Miami police officers who took Trayon Fussell-Dumas into custody during a traffic stop.
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| 2020 election results: Why Americans probably won’t find out who won on 3 November Posted: 30 Oct 2020 06:35 AM PDT  'There is no chance that we will know on election night the full vote total in Michigan'
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| Iran imposes new restrictions to stem coronavirus spread: Rouhani Posted: 31 Oct 2020 05:01 AM PDT  President Hassan Rouhani meanwhile announced new restrictions that will take effect on Wednesday in 25 of Iran's 31 provinces for 10 days. The official IRNA news agency said Tehran police had extended by one week the closure of businesses including beauty salons, teahouses, cinemas, libraries and fitness clubs. Police will make unannounced visits to other high-risk businesses, and those that violate health protocols will be shut down, IRNA quoted police official Nader Moradi as saying.
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| Walmart is removing guns and ammo from shelves and display cases in all stores as a precaution amid 'civil unrest' Posted: 29 Oct 2020 01:56 PM PDT  Guns and ammo will no longer be on display at Walmart but still be available for purchase upon request in stores where they are sold.
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| Indian doctor duped into buying 'Aladdin's lamp' for $41,600 Posted: 31 Oct 2020 08:59 AM PDT  The alleged con artists said the lamp would make him rich, and pretended to conjure spirits from the lamp.
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| Two same-sex couples in military marry in first for Taiwan Posted: 29 Oct 2020 09:24 PM PDT  Two lesbian couples tied the knot in a mass wedding held by Taiwan's military on Friday in a historic celebration with their peers. Taiwan is the only place in Asia to have legalized same-sex marriage, with more than 4,000 such couples marrying since the legislation passed in May 2019. The mass wedding with 188 couples was the first time same-sex couples have been wed and celebrated at a military ceremony.
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| Pro-Choicers, Not Christians, Are Today’s Abortion Fundamentalists Posted: 30 Oct 2020 12:01 PM PDT  The New York Times columnist Nick Kristof begs a number of questions in his new pro-abortion column, "Er, Can I Ask a Few Questions about Abortion?" I'll leave Christians to debunk his more tendentious theological assertions. It is quite odd, however, to read enlightened secular pundits attempting to appropriate biblical text to argue that Jesus would have been completely cool with ending life for the sake of convenience.What would Jesus do? Avoid injecting potassium chloride into the beating heart of the unborn child, I suspect.Again, I'm no theologian, but I also strongly suspect that the "Jesus says nothing about abortion!" argument isn't dispositive of anything. The Sermon on the Mount wasn't about nationalized health-insurance schemes, after all. Yet progressives demand that Christians adopt a narrow, hyperliteral interpretation of the Bible on abortion while also demanding that they take a broad, malleably metaphoric approach to the text when it comes to things like socializing medicine or open immigration.These are often the same people who sincerely believe that the Constitution was written to protect the deliberate termination of a pregnancy but not the principled right to self-defense or free expression — because, well, those old white guys and their parchment paper and muskets.Kristof points to the views of Baptists in the 1970s as proof of the Christian regression on abortion rights. Many secularists have convinced themselves that actual Christians are just as incurious and stultified as the Christians of their imagination. The Christians I know, and I happen to know many, often grapple with how scientific advances affect faith. When it comes to abortion, it's the progressives who act like fundamentalists.Just today, I ran across a story about a boy named Logan Ray — born at 23 weeks, weighing just 1.5 pounds and measuring twelve inches long — celebrating his first birthday. One day soon, there will be babies celebrating birthdays who were born at 21 weeks. And then 20. And those who treat abortion as both rite and right will continue to make arbitrary distinctions between "fetal life" and life itself, just as Kristof does. For those who believe in actual science, the concept of life isn't contingent on a mother's decision, the public's perception, or a pundit's policy arguments.On that note, Kristof makes this assertion:> Partly because Obamacare covers contraception, the number of abortions in the United States has plunged to its lowest level since Roe v. Wade, including in states that support a woman's right to an abortion. If you're troubled by abortions, shouldn't you thank President Barack Obama for reducing them?First of all, had it not been for a few now-extinct Blue Dog Democrats, Barack Obama's signature legislation would already be forcing taxpayers to fund not merely abortifacient drugs but in-person late-term abortions. More than any president in history, Obama helped radicalize Democrats on the issue. They've been transformed from the party that advocated for "safe, legal, and rare" to one that filibusters bills that would protect babies who survive abortion attempts from negligent homicide.Moreover, there is no evidence that Obamacare did anything to lower abortion rates, which, for a host of reasons, had been dropping steadily for decades before the ACA was passed. Contrary to Kristof's claim, the trajectory shows no perceptible impact from passage of the law. Why would it? The notion that birth control was unavailable to women before 2010 is simply a myth.One could just as easily argue, in fact, that restrictions pushed by state-level Republicans, many of whom came into office beginning in 2010, helped decrease overall abortions. After all, I am constantly told there is an unprecedented and dangerous attack on "reproductive rights" — for progressives, that euphemism never gets old — as we speak.What isn't mentioned in Kristof's column — or in most of the pieces attempting to convince social conservatives that abortion is a nonissue in 2020 — is that the Democratic Party nominee supports overturning the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of federal funds to pay for abortion except to save the life of the mother. Which is to say, Democrats want to compel taxpayers to participate in funding abortion up through the ninth month of pregnancy.Now, again, I don't claim to speak for Christians or anyone other than myself. But perhaps Kristof should ask one of the nuns Biden says he plans to sue if he wins the presidency about the theological implications of compelling the faithful (or anyone else) to support abortion — since he's curious.
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| Kamala Makes High Stakes Wager for Team Biden in Texas Posted: 30 Oct 2020 09:16 PM PDT  When Hillary Clinton made a last-minute visit to Arizona in the final week before the 2016 presidential election, fretful Democrats worried—justifiably, it turned out—that the nominee's political adventurism could come at a high cost.Four years later, the Biden campaign is meeting Clinton's high-stakes red-state wager and raising her by the second-biggest prize in the Electoral College.In the surest sign yet that Texas is in genuine play this election cycle, the Biden campaign dispatched Sen. Kamala Harris of California, the vice presidential nominee, to a three-city tour of the Lone Star State on Friday, the last day of early voting in the state."It's good to be in Texas," Harris told supporters in Houston, her third appearance in a trip that also included the suburb-rich Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and the border city of McAllen, where the rising Latino population has made Hidalgo County one of the fastest growing in the country. "They've done a great job in terms of early voting and so we just want to remind people what's at stake and that their votes really matter. Lots of important issues, and they have the power to determine the outcome of this race."For state Democrats who have been desperate for the national party to share in their enthusiasm that this year is finally the year that the "demographics is destiny" chant becomes reality, Harris' tour presages a future where the state is embraced as a potential swing state instead of dismissed as a Republican California. Or, as youth activist Clarissa Conde said before introducing Harris at an event near McAllen, "a more resilient and compassionate Texas, a more equal and equitable Texas."Even in a campaign as rich as former Vice President Joe Biden's, time is the most valuable commodity in the final week of a presidential campaign, particularly the hours devoted to in-person appearances across the nation's second-largest state by population. While the late-coming investment in Texas—once polls showed a neck-and-neck race, the Biden campaign started buying millions in airtime in major Texas media markets—does force the cash-strapped Trump campaign to allocate precious resources in a state that should be a fait accompli, Harris told reporters that the visits are, just as importantly, in recognition of the hard-working party members who have rarely gotten thanks from national Democrats."There are people here who matter, people here who are working hard, people who love their country and we need to be here and be responsive to them," Harris told reporters on the tarmac in McAllen after her first appearance in Forth Worth. "That's why we are here—because there are a lot of important people in South Texas."Harris' remarks in the state were not always particularly Texas-centric, unusual for get-out-the-vote events in a state with as pervasive a brand. Beyond speaking in front of a Lone Star Flag the size of a parking lot in each stop, Harris' comments in her trio of appearances were standard stump-speech material—more geared for general base-boosting than winning over Texans at the last minute—although she did nod to the state's unique demographic profile.Biden Campaign Can't Resist Making a Last-Minute Play for Texas, Georgia "When this administration has orphaned 545 children because of a policy that has been about separating children from their parents at the border, everything is at stake," Harris told voters in McAllen. "When we are looking at the fact that 200,000 of our front-line workers have been DREAMers who were promised DACA protection, everything is at stake. Everything is at stake when we need to create a pathway toward citizenship."Part of the campaign's strategy may be rooted in the fact that the Biden campaign is, by necessity, winging its Texas strategy to a certain degree—when no Democrat has won the state's electoral votes since Jimmy Carter, there's not exactly a playbook for turning out blue voters in Texas.The campaign's manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon—who herself waged one of the highest profile political battles in modern Texas history when she managed Beto O'Rourke's campaign for U.S. Senate two years ago—said as much in a call with high-dollar donors last week"Texas is a place that is a little bit harder for us to monitor because we've never actually had to before, in a presidential race," O'Malley Dillon said in a state-of-the-race call with top campaign donors last week, a recording of which was obtained by The Daily Beast. "We're still trying to work through that, but we are seeing massive turnout in Texas… and I would say, continuing to focus on the lower-propensity voters to make sure that they're trying to vote early to give us a more efficient bucket of people to go to for election day is job No. 1."If early voting numbers are any indication, the gambit has potential to pay off. With four days until Election Day, Texas already surpassed its 2016 turnout, reporting 9,009,850 votes already cast on Friday morning. Granted, some of that is rooted in expanded interest in mail-in voting due to the pandemic, as well as the state's explosive population growth—Texas' estimated population has grown by more than 7 percent in just four years—and the fact that the state has a famously low turnout rate.But that kind of growth has hidden benefits for Democrats. The state's decade-long pitch as a tax haven for corporate headquarters has brought in hundreds of thousands of people from more liberal, higher-tax states, and those voters don't check their politics at the state line.The excitement for those demographic changes to result in electoral changes is palpable."I can't wait for Texas to be the deciding state in this presidential election," said Tina Knowles—businesswoman, fashion designer and mother of Texas native Beyoncé—before introducing Harris in Houston. "Y'all know if we win Texas, it's game over."That dynamic has borne out in urban and suburban counties, particularly in Harris County, a.k.a. Houston, where the 1.4 million ballots cast this cycle have already broken historical turnout records. Considering that political scientists with an eye on Texas have said that turnout would need to exceed at least 1.5 million in Harris County for a statewide Biden victory to enter the realm of possibility, that's a very good sign for the former vice president's campaign—and makes his running mate's trip at least worth the price of jet fuel."We're putting a lot of resources into Texas," Harris told reporters upon landing in Houston. "Texas has so much at stake in this election and they deserve to be heard, they deserve to be engaged by us because we intend to earn every vote. We're not gonna tell anybody they're supposed to vote for us—we want to earn those votes."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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| She fell in the kitchen at her Florida home. Two weeks later, this beauty queen is gone Posted: 30 Oct 2020 11:56 AM PDT  The night of Oct. 12 was like any other for former beauty queen Leanza Cornett, according to her roommate, Sue Roberts.
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| US salutes Greece, Turkey earthquake diplomacy Posted: 30 Oct 2020 12:49 PM PDT  The United States on Friday hailed diplomacy between uneasy neighbors Greece and Turkey following a major earthquake and said it was ready to assist the NATO allies.
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| Texas GOP senator didn't "graduate" from Oxford University law program, as claimed in prior campaign Posted: 30 Oct 2020 07:38 PM PDT  Cornyn attacked an opponent a few years later for "padding his resume," referencing a lie about a college degree
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| How Kimberly Guilfoyle, the 'human Venus flytrap,' has groomed boyfriend Don Jr. into a political powerhouse and turned herself into a conservative star Posted: 31 Oct 2020 06:19 AM PDT  Former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle has transformed Donald Trump Jr. into a force, and made a name for herself among Trump lovers along the way.
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| A white supremacist gang has been charged with kidnapping and forcibly removing a tattoo of a former member before killing him Posted: 30 Oct 2020 02:29 PM PDT  The new indictment charges members of the group with kidnapping, forcibly removing a tattoo, and then killing one ex-gang member.
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| Lawyers say deportees to Cameroon would be flying on 'death planes' Posted: 31 Oct 2020 04:07 AM PDT  Members of Cameroon's English-speaking minority sought refuge from violence in the U.S. The Trump administration is sending many of them home.
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| ‘I thought I was the only one’: This carrot-chopping ‘hack’ is shockingly popular Posted: 30 Oct 2020 11:23 AM PDT  This is for anyone that despises — like, really despises — doing dishes.
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| 'They give me the willies': scientist who vacuumed murder hornets braces for fight Posted: 31 Oct 2020 12:00 AM PDT  Chris Looney helped dismantle the first nest of Asian giant hornets in the US. Now he's preparing for the next stepThe eradication of the first nest of Asian giant hornets on US soil somewhat resembled a science fiction depiction of an alien landing site. A crew of government specialists in white, astronaut-like protective suits descended upon the hornet nexus to vanquish it with a futuristic-looking vacuum cleaner, to the relief of onlookers.The nest of the fearsome invasive insects, notoriously known as "murder hornets", was found in a tree crevice near Blaine, in Washington state, via a tracking device attached to a previously captured worker hornet. The Washington state department of agriculture (WSDA) confirmed the nest had been successfully removed, with dozens of live captives taken back for inspection."It was cold so they were docile, so between their slowness and the protective gear no one was hurt," said Chris Looney, a WSDA entomologist who was tasked with vacuuming up the hornets.Wielding a lengthy, toxic stinger, the hornets can cause renal failure and death in people, as dozens of people in Japan have found out to their cost. One entomologist in Canada described the feeling of being stung as like "having hot tacks pushed into my flesh".They can also squirt venom, as Looney saw first-hand when his lab workbench was sprayed by hornets as they roused themselves following capture. "I was more worried about getting permanent nerve damage in the eye from the squirted venom than being stung," said Looney, who wore goggles for the capture. "They are pretty intimidating, even for an inch-and-a-half insect. They are big and loud and I know it would hurt very badly if I get stung. They give me the willies."Murder hornets do not earn their moniker from killing people, however, with honeybees far more likely to be targeted. A honeybee colony can be decimated within a few hours, with the hornets decapitating their victims and feeding severed body parts to their young. This poses a gnawing concern for hobbyist beekeepers and even farmers in the US north-west, where managed honeybees are crucial for the pollination of crops such as blueberries and raspberries.Asian giant hornets were first discovered in North America last year, popping up in British Columbia, Canada, before a handful of specimens made it south of the border to Washington state. The hornets, native to east Asia, most likely arrived on the continent clinging to imported goods sent via sea or air. A close relative of the hornet has already made separate inroads into France and the UK.A key, and unnerving, question is how far they will manage to spread across America. Looney said the removal of the first nest found in the US was just a "small victory" in a battle likely to rage for several years to contain the insects. Thousands of sightings have been reported in Washington, and while many are false or mistaken, Looney said it was likely the hornets had spread, potentially establishing dozens more nests."It's hard to say how they will behave here compared to their native range, but the fear is that there are large apiaries of bees that could be sitting ducks, while as the hornets move south to warmer weather their colonies could grow larger," he said. "The object of our work is to avoid finding this out."Scientists who have modeled the potential spread of the hornets predict they will be able to extend down the west coast into California. The Rocky Mountains and drier interior of the US pose major barriers to an eastward push but environs on the east coast such as New York would be ideal homes for the murder hornets should they inadvertently be transported there.Looney said he was "troubled" by evidence that overwintering hornet queens like to bury themselves in straw and hay, commodities that are regularly shifted around the US by train or truck. A hornet queen that hitched a ride would still face challenges establishing a nest even if moved to the east coast – it could immediately be crushed underfoot, after all – but the potential pathway is there."I'm more worried about human transportation of these hornets than I initially was," Looney conceded.The Asian giant hornet is just the latest invasive species to make its mark on North America. Burmese pythons are now legion in southern Florida, while Asian carp are common in the Mississippi river system. In the insect world, the spotted lanternfly is a growing agricultural pest and emerald ash borers have arrived to lay waste to stands of trees.These arrivals are symptoms of the growth in international trade and tourism, while climate change is making many parts of the US more hospitable for certain invasive species. The Asian giant hornet, for example, is thought to favor the sort of elevated temperatures that the US is experiencing as the planet heats up. This could help it spread at the rate of its cousin species in France, which has been able to advance up to 78km a year. If it is not controlled, the murder hornet could fundamentally change ecosystems across the US.Still, even in a fraught year racked by a pandemic, social unrest and economic disaster, Looney said any fears of being assailed by a murder hornet should be "low on the anxiety meter".He added: "We should be concerned about it but we will do our best until the money runs out or the battle is won or lost. If we fail, it will be unpleasant. But there are other things to be much more worried about right now."
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| FBI Investigating Hunter Biden for Money Laundering: Report Posted: 29 Oct 2020 03:23 PM PDT  The FBI opened an investigation into Hunter Biden and associates in 2019 on suspicion of money laundering, a Justice Department official told Sinclair Broadcasting.The criminal investigation is ongoing, the DOJ official said.The revelation comes after Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, came forward with a trove of documents regarding the Biden family's dealings with now-defunct Chinese energy firm CEFC. While Joe Biden has denied that he has ever spoken with Hunter regarding the latter's overseas business dealings, Bobulinski claims the former vice president is lying.> EXCLUSIVE: Tony Bobulinski tells @WeAreSinclair he was questioned by six @FBI agents, with counsel present, for five hours on October 23, listing him as a "material witness" in an ongoing investigation focused on Hunter Biden and his associates. His cell phones were examined. pic.twitter.com/5lPzRTREJN> > -- James Rosen (@JamesRosenTV) October 29, 2020Additionally, Bobulinski told Sinclair that he was interviewed by FBI agents for five hours last Friday and was listed as a "material witness" for the agency.The interview "was a very cooperative deep dive into all the facts across that time period" during which Bobulinski conducted business with members of the Biden family, Bobulinski said.The New York Post reported earlier this month that it was given materials purportedly from Hunter Biden's laptop. While a subsequent Fox News report revealed that Hunter Biden's laptop was subpoenaed by the FBI in connection with a money laundering investigation, the Thursday report by Sinclair marks the first confirmation that Hunter Biden himself is the subject of an ongoing criminal probe.The Biden campaign has not denied the veracity of any of the materials revealed by the Post or Bobulinski. However, the campaign has stated that "Joe Biden has never even considered being involved in business with his family, nor in any overseas business whatsoever."
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| ‘That’s incorrect!’ New US citizen corrects feds who told group they can’t vote yet Posted: 30 Oct 2020 11:23 AM PDT  Federal officials incorrectly told newly sworn-in U.S. citizens they couldn't vote this year in Massachusetts.
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| Thai protest leaders, in hospital, face possible new charges Posted: 31 Oct 2020 09:53 AM PDT  Three Thai pro-democracy protest leaders -- all in hospital after chaotic scenes that erupted when they were released from prison -- were facing possible new charges late Saturday.
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| Op-Ed: The immorality of sentencing a 15-year-old to prison forever Posted: 30 Oct 2020 04:00 AM PDT  The Supreme Court needs to state again that a child cannot be sentenced to life without parole unless a trial court determines that child is beyond rehabilitation.
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| A New Jersey cop sent sexually explicit texts to an 18-year-old woman hours after he arrested her, prosecutors say Posted: 31 Oct 2020 07:52 AM PDT  Damien Broschart is facing multiple charges, including cyber harassment, and might lose his job if convicted, according to New Jersey prosecutors.
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| Michael Moore: ‘Don’t believe the polls, Trump vote is always undercounted’ Posted: 30 Oct 2020 03:47 AM PDT  Presidential election in swing states is probably closer than the polls indicate, says filmmaker
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| Air Force Moves Forward with Plan to Turn Giant Cargo Planes into Bomb Trucks Posted: 30 Oct 2020 11:34 AM PDT |
| With the election approaching and cases rising, here’s how Trump talks about the coronavirus Posted: 30 Oct 2020 09:31 AM PDT 
As cases in the U.S. surpass 9 million and with the election just days away, here is how President Trump talks about the coronavirus pandemic at his rallies.
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| Bulgaria says North Macedonia must address historical issues or face delay on EU path Posted: 30 Oct 2020 12:33 PM PDT |
| The New Yorker ’s Hit Piece on Scalia’s Labor Dept. Was Too Good to Fact-Check, Emails Show Posted: 30 Oct 2020 02:37 PM PDT  President Trump's election led to an explosion in fact-checking as a journalism genre unto itself, but The New Yorker has been at it for nearly 100 years as part of the normal course of its work. And it takes pride in that pedigree.A 2009 piece in the magazine laid out the process, in which writers submit their stories and the fact-checking department painstakingly vets every detail that can possibly be vetted."Each word in the piece that has even a shred of fact clinging to it is scrutinized, and, if passed, given the checker's imprimatur, which consists of a tiny pencil tick," longtime editor Sara Lippincott, who worked in The New Yorker's fact-checking department from 1966 until 1982, once said. The firewall is real, and writers enjoy it. "The process of independently verifying every assertion of fact in a story — every detail and hypothesis — is such a valuable and endangered art these days," staff writer Evan Osnos wrote in 2009.But it seems the supposedly airtight process broke down in the case of a 7,000-word article by contributor Eyal Press on Labor secretary Eugene Scalia's alleged mishandling of COVID-related regulations, which appeared in The New Yorker's October 26 issue.Last week, the Department of Labor published a blog post claiming The New Yorker profile is "error-ridden" and relies on a combination of omission, inaccuracy, and outright spin to cast Scalia as "a wrecking ball aimed at workers" amid the ongoing pandemic.The Scalia article centers around the DOL's current practices at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), its regulatory agency.Press uses a number of anecdotes to make the case that Scalia's Labor Department poses a unique threat to worker safety: a former OSHA official who detailed how the agency "pulled off" inspectors doing a COVID-19 fatality inspection at a Walmart; a Virginia woman fired for requesting to work remotely who was "pressured" by an OSHA representative to "withdraw her complaint"; a McDonald's employee in Chicago who wrote to OSHA multiple times to complain about his working conditions and accused the agency of "not doing the job they're supposed to be doing."The allegations are certainly serious. But, according to emails and documents obtained by National Review, The New Yorker did not ask the DOL — which asked for and was given questions in writing — about any of the cases during their storied fact-checking process.Instead, The New Yorker asked DOL to verify easily searchable or outright absurd claims, including that "Secretary Scalia has a modest temperament," "Secretary Scalia graduated from the University of Chicago Law School where he was editor of the Law Review," and "Mr. Scalia was nominated by President George W. Bush as solicitor of the DOL, but he was not confirmed and instead was given a one-year recess appointment."Fact-checker Natalie Meade did state in a follow-up email that she could "have other questions that might be OSHA specific," but the only question that came was whether OSHA had "hired 40-50 new field safety inspectors/investigators across the country in recent months." DOL told her it was actually 114, but the detail was not included in the final piece.The article also prominently features an April policy memo on how OSHA would lower the requirements for tracking work-related coronavirus cases — a development "so roundly criticized that Scalia scuttled it." One critique of the proposed plan came from Joseph Woodward, a former OSHA associate solicitor from 1992 to 2014, who wrote an April 25 letter to the Labor Department urging a change.According to the article, Woodward's request was granted but Scalia wasn't happy about it."Scalia has bristled at criticism of his handling of the pandemic, accusing Woodward and others of failing to show 'due respect for the steps the dedicated men and women at OSHA are taking,'" Press wrote.The New Yorker does not attribute the "due respect" quote to anyone in particular, but an Internet search revealed that it comes from an April 30 letter Scalia wrote to AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka in response to a letter in which Trumka laid out his concerns about the DOL's COVID regulations."President Trumka, thank you again for your letter," the closing paragraph reads. "To reiterate, you make points we will consider. The coronavirus presents grave and shifting challenges that require sustained attention; we evaluate daily what additional steps we can and should take. I certainly share your concern for the workers who have died from COVID-19. And I respect all that the AFL-CIO and other unions have done through the years to protect workers. I ask that you show due respect for the steps the dedicated men and women at OSHA are taking now."Based on the letter's text, Press's claim that Scalia bristled at the request and accused Trumka of failing to show OSHA respect is misleading at best. And the implication that the letter — which does not even mention Woodward — could be construed as Scalia's expressing his discontent with Woodward is laughable; Woodward has told The New Yorker as much and asked them to correct the record."This is incorrect as to me," Woodward wrote in a subsequent letter obtained by National Review, which he sent to The New Yorker after Press's profile was published. "I appreciated that the Department took the issues discussed in my letter seriously and reversed its position. Scalia did not criticize me for writing the letter."Whether The New Yorker will publish Woodward's follow-up remains to be seen — a magazine spokesperson told National Review that "we stand by the story."Editor's Note: This piece has been updated with a comment from The New Yorker.
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| Bed Bath & Beyond is slashing the coupons that have long been synonymous with the brand after an internal study found they were partially 'ineffective' Posted: 30 Oct 2020 11:23 AM PDT  Bed Bath & Beyond's famous coupons will be more limited in the future, but won't completely disappear, executives told investors on Wednesday.
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| ‘I’m getting my money!’ Florida shopper denied refund returns with a crowbar, cops say Posted: 30 Oct 2020 12:49 PM PDT  A Florida shopper wouldn't take no for an answer, and things got a little out of hand.
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| 'Voters are fed up': will Arizona's suburbs abandon the party of Trump? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 11:15 PM PDT  The president won narrowly in Maricopa county in 2016. Polls show his support is draining – and fellow Republicans are at riskIn the agonizing days after the 2018 election, Christine Marsh, a Democratic candidate for state senate in a traditionally Republican suburban Phoenix district, watched her opponent's lead dwindle to a few hundred votes, with thousands of ballots left to be counted.In the end, just 267 votes separated them.Marsh lost. But the result was ominous for Republicans, in a corner of Phoenix's ever-expanding suburbs where Barry Goldwater, the long-serving Arizona senator and conservative icon, launched his presidential campaign in 1964 from the patio of his famed hilltop estate in Paradise Valley.series linker embedIn the decades since, population growth and shifting demographics have transformed the cultural, political and economic complexion of the region.And the election of Donald Trump has exacerbated these trends across the country, perhaps nowhere more dramatically than in diverse, fast-growing metropolitan areas like Phoenix, where the coalition of affluent, white suburban voters that once cemented Republican dominance is unraveling."We've seen a huge shift in my district, even in just the last two years," said Marsh, a high school English teacher who is challenging the Republican incumbent, Kate Brophy McGee, again this year. The district, which includes the prosperous Paradise Valley and parts of north central Phoenix, is now at the center of the political battle for Arizona's suburbs.Over the last four years, Republicans have watched their support collapse in suburbs across the country, as the president's divisive rhetoric and incendiary behavior alienates women, college graduates and independent voters. But as Trump continues to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic, even after more than 225,000 deaths nationwide and as cases continue to climb, his conduct is imperiling not only his own re-election campaign, but his entire party. 'Ground zero'The depth of Trump's problems with suburbanites is magnified in Maricopa county, one of the largest and most suburban counties in the nation, with a population of almost 4.5 million.In 2016, the suburbs helped deliver Trump's narrow victory here. But polling shows the president has lost significant ground with these voters, threatening his prospects in a state that has voted for a Democratic presidential candidate only once since 1952."If the president loses Arizona, it'll be largely because he lost Maricopa county – because he lost the suburbs," said Jeff Flake, the former Arizona senator and a conservative critic of the president who has endorsed his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.The political dividing line in America now runs directly through suburbs like the ones around Phoenix, rare ground where Trump inspires both fierce loyalty and deep revulsion.Here, across desert sprawl of stuccoed housing developments and saguaro-scattered foothills, is "ground zero", said Mike Noble, the chief pollster at OH Predictive Insights in Phoenix. Not only are these voters poised to deliver a referendum on Trump next week, they will also be decisive in determining control of the US Congress and the state legislature.In his analysis of precincts that voted for Trump in 2016 yet backed the Democratic Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema two years later, the vast majority were in suburban parts of Maricopa county. Sinema, who cast herself as an "independent voice" willing to break with her party, became the first Democrat in 30 years to win a US Senate seat in the state, beating the Republican Martha McSally, who had tied her fate to the president."The big story of the last four years is the shift of white, college-educated independents and self-identified moderates," he said.Independents, or unaffiliated voters, make up roughly a third of Arizona's electorate. In 2016, they broke narrowly for Trump, but this year, polling suggests these voters are swinging heavily away from the president.According to an October Monmouth poll, independent voters in Arizona favor Biden by 21 percentage points. The survey also found that most of the state's independent voters believe McSally, who was appointed to fill the unexpired term of the late Republican senator John McCain after losing to Sinema in 2018, is too supportive of the president. She now faces an uphill battle to keep the seat, after months spent trailing her Democratic challenger, Mark Kelly.Unlike McSally, McGee – the Republican state senator who is trying to hold on to her seat in Phoenix – has carefully cultivated a reputation as a moderate, breaking with her party on legislation related to Medicare expansion and school vouchers.Yet like many Republicans running in increasingly formidable terrain, McGee faces strong national headwinds after four years of anti-Trump activism and resistance in the suburbs. Arizona's Red for Ed movement, which led to a week-long teacher walkout in 2018, galvanized parents and students alike and helped build support for Marsh who was the 2016 state teacher of the year.This year, education, compounded by the coronavirus, is a top priority for Arizonans, and, on this issue, voters favor Democrats. A ballot measure imposing a surtax on the highest earners to increase public education funding is poised for approval, with polling showing support from a majority of Democrats and independent voters."I really do think it's frustration," Marsh said. "Voters are really fed up with the lack of leadership and they realize that the only way we're going to change anything in Arizona is by changing the balance of power." 'Suburban women, will you please like me?'Trump has attempted to woo back suburban voters by casting himself as the protector of a certain "suburban lifestyle dream" who would forestall an "invasion" of low-income housing and keep their neighborhoods safe from the "crime and chaos" of America's "dysfunctional cities".His appeals, intended to stoke the racist fears of white voters, conjures a decades-old image of suburbia that is completely detached from the racially diverse and economically prosperous communities growing around America's biggest cities. Polling suggests the entreaties have not worked.Unlike four years ago, Trump is trailing by significant margins among white women, a group that includes independents and moderate Republicans likely to be turned off by Trump's inflammatory speech."Suburban women, will you please like me?" Trump pleaded at a recent rally in Pennsylvania. "Please? Please!" Lisa James, a veteran Republican strategist in Phoenix, said a public safety message had the potential to resonate with conservative suburban women, who were upset by scenes of rioting and violence that occurred alongside largely peaceful protests against racism and police brutality this summer."These voters are concerned about the safety and security of their families and their communities," James said. "Events like that will lead many of them right back to the Republican party."The October Monmouth poll found that nearly 60% of Arizona voters, including a majority of voters in Maricopa county, worried "a lot" about the potential breakdown of law and order. The issue was more of a concern for voters than the coronavirus pandemic and other financial matters.However, it hasn't reshaped their opinion of the president. The same survey found that Arizonans preferred Biden over Trump, even though they trusted Trump more to maintain law and order.Other national polls show Trump's standing on the issue even more diminished, with voters saying Biden was better suited to handle crime and public safety. In a national Fox News survey released earlier this month, 58% of voters agreed that the way Trump talks about racial inequality and policing had lead to "an increase in acts of violence".In 2016, Karie Barrera said, she was an independent who cast her ballot for Hillary Clinton. Four years later, the recently retired educator said she was still not enthralled by the president. But she became increasingly alarmed after the Black Lives Matter protests led to calls for making school curriculums more inclusive."I don't like that you're going to mess with our real history," Barrera said.The president has claimed that schoolchildren are being taught a "twisted web of lies" about systemic racism in America and called for a return to "patriotic education". Barrera agrees: "You don't rewrite our history."Yet the very rhetoric that reassures Barrera is jeopardizing a coalition that once cemented Republican dominance in states like Arizona."The more that Trump's rhetoric is designed to appeal to a white, male, working-class set of voters, the more alienated these college-educated, right-leaning independents and Republicans start to feel," said Sarah Longwell, a Republican consultant who has spent the last several years studying suburban voters. 'This was personal'In 2016, women in Arizona narrowly favored Clinton over Trump. In the latest New York Times/Siena College poll of Arizona voters, Biden held a daunting 18-point lead among women in the state.From the outset, it was clear that many of the women Longwell convened in her focus groups didn't like Trump: they didn't like his tweets, his treatment of women, his conduct or his leadership style. But they took a chance on him in 2016 because they believed the alternative wasn't any better. These were often the voters who bolted first, helping Democrats retake the House in the 2018 midterm elections.Among those who didn't, Longwell said many have grappled with their discomfort over Trump's behavior and their allegiance to the Republican party. She said that despite the tumult of the last four years, little moved these women – until the pandemic arrived."Suddenly there was a shift," she said. "Voters started talking about the stakes being too high. They were suffering personal consequences, which is very different from an abstract foreign policy issue. This was personal."Longwell, who founded Republican Voters Against Trump, said the suburban shift away from the Republican party could be the beginning of a "meaningful political realignment" that will outlast Trump's presidency."It will depend who the Democrats are in the future and it will depend who the Republicans are in the future," she said. "But these voters have no interest in a Trumpy Republican party." 'Adiós Trump'In 2008 and 2012, Yasser Sanchez worked to elect John McCain and Mitt Romney to the White House. But this year, for the first time in his life, the lifelong Republican is voting for a Democratic presidential nominee – and has no qualms about it.Sanchez, an immigration lawyer in Mesa, a conservative Phoenix suburb with more than half a million residents, said he was appalled by Trump's conduct, his vilification of immigrants and his disdain for American institutions. But equally disappointing, Sanchez said, was the near-unwavering loyalty he received from Republican leaders."The Republican party used to stand for certain principles," he said. "Now it stands for defending whatever the president tweets that morning."The Trump presidency has forced Sanchez to reconsider his political identity. He isn't a Democrat, but he also doesn't see a place for himself in the party he had supported all his life.This year, Sanchez is doing everything he can to ensure Arizona elects Biden. He hosted a voter registration drive in the parking lot of his law firm and placed an "Adiós Trump" billboard along the busy Interstate 10 in Phoenix."For now, I'm comfortable being an independent," he said. "Unless there's a reckoning within the Republican party, I will not be going back."
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