| ‘We’re losing, dude, and we’re going to get really hurt’: Trump Jr believes father will be defeated by Biden, report says Posted: 25 Aug 2020 03:40 PM PDT  Donald Trump Jr is reportedly concerned that his father may not win re-election come November.The New York Times reported the claim on Tuesday.
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| 2 New Jersey cops admitted they dressed in disguises and vandalized the cars of a man who filed complaints against them Posted: 26 Aug 2020 10:55 AM PDT  The two Asbury Park cops, who smashed car windows, pleaded guilty to criminal fourth-degree criminal mischief. They can't work as officers anymore.
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| Three workers trapped 20 feet underground die in sewer manhole, Indiana officials say Posted: 25 Aug 2020 12:50 PM PDT  The men were working at a school facility, officials say.
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| ‘Putin’s Chef’ Threatens to Destroy Alexei Navalny in the Courts if He Survives Poisoning Posted: 26 Aug 2020 06:31 AM PDT  A notorious ally of Vladimir Putin says he will use Russia's corrupt courts to destroy Alexei Navalny financially if the stricken opposition leader ever recovers from a chemical agent believed to have been slipped into his tea.Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was sanctioned by the U.S. for financing online efforts to distort the 2016 presidential election, used a company to buy out debts owed by Navalny so that he could increase the financial pressure on the anti-corruption campaigner.He chose the moment that Navalny was at his weakest—unconscious in a hospital bed—to make the announcement. "I intend to strip this group of unscrupulous people of their clothes and shoes," Prigozhin said.Navalny, the leading opponent of President Putin's government, is in a coma in a Berlin hospital, where German doctors say they found evidence of cholinesterase inhibitors in his body, which could indicate the use of weapons-grade nerve agents.Prigozhin got the nickname "Putin's chef" because of the success of his catering company, but his empire, which includes billions of dollars in Russian government contracts, stretches well beyond food preparation. The U.S. government accuses him of funding the Internet Research Agency, an online troll farm that helped to get Donald Trump elected president. Prigozhin is also accused of financing Wagner, a private army used by the Kremlin for some of its most nefarious overseas missions, but he denies any involvement.On Tuesday night, his company Concord announced that it would do everything it could to collect a court-ordered fine of 88 million rubles (around $1.2 million) that he bought from Moskovsky Shkolnik (Moscow Schoolboy), a company Navalny was found guilty of defaming in a video report, according to the Moscow Times. Prigozhin was quoted as saying on Concord's social-media accounts Wednesday, "If comrade Navalny kicks the bucket, I personally don't intend to persecute him in this world. I'll put this off for an indefinite time and then I'll compensate myself to my pleasure." He added that if Navalny survives, he would be liable "according to the full severity of Russian law" to pay off his court-ordered debt.Navalny was rushed to a hospital in Omsk last week after losing consciousness on a flight back to Moscow, after campaigning against Putin in local elections.Ivan Zhdanov, a key ally of Navalny and director of his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), has claimed that Putin must have authorized the suspected poisoning. "He hates what the FBK does too much, exposing him and his entourage."The Kremlin brushed off the accusation as "hot air" and stood by earlier reports from a Siberian hospital where Navalny was first treated that said no evidence of poisoning had been found. 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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| Vehicle collision with Russians injures 4 U.S. troops in eastern Syria Posted: 26 Aug 2020 02:57 PM PDT  In the most violent skirmish in months between U.S. and Russian forces in Syria, a vehicle collision in the eastern part of the war-torn country left American troops with concussions, two U.S. officials said Wednesday.
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| Viral videos show Black Lives Matter protesters confronting diners in Washington, D.C. Posted: 26 Aug 2020 02:16 PM PDT  Black Lives Matter protesters faced online backlash after video captured a group confronting diners at a restaurant in Washington, D.C.
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| McConnell, McGrath jockey over debates in Senate race Posted: 26 Aug 2020 12:53 PM PDT  Jockeying over a debate schedule continues in the hard-hitting Kentucky Senate race pitting Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell against Democratic challenger Amy McGrath. McConnell accepted an offer to participate in a forum next Monday hosted by the Kentucky Farm Bureau, but McGrath turned down the invitation. McGrath says she wants three debates with McConnell that also would include the Libertarian candidate, Brad Barron.
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| A woman says that the 19-year-old Kansas House candidate who admitted to revenge porn choked and slapped her within the last year Posted: 26 Aug 2020 08:53 AM PDT  Kansas House candidate Aaron Coleman admitted to bullying and harassing girls in middle school. His ex says he assaulted her in the last year.
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| Biden seemingly didn't get a convention polling bump — and his lead is sliding in some swing states Posted: 26 Aug 2020 07:13 AM PDT  Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden shouldn't get too comfortable. It's been a few days since the end of the Democratic National Convention, and as FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver notes, Biden hasn't seen a typical post-DNC bump in his polling numbers. And while he was once handily leading in several states Hillary Clinton surprisingly lost in 2016, those advantages are starting to slip as well.Clinton lost Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in 2016 — three states that were usually seen as reliably Democratic before that election. Even as of late August 2016, Clinton had a clear lead over Trump in those states: 9 points in Michigan, 9.2 in Pennsylvania, and 11.5 in Wisconsin. But while Biden still has leads in those states, just as he did a month ago, those advantages have narrowed to below Clinton's margins.> Swing state polls on August 25th:> > Pennsylvania > • 2016: Hillary +9.2 > • 2020: Biden +5.7> > Michigan > • 2016: Hillary +9.0 > • 2020: Biden +6.7> > Wisconsin > • 2016: Hillary +11.5 > • 2020: Biden +6.5 > > Florida > • 2016: Hillary +2.9 > • 2020: Biden +4.8> > https://t.co/oJFSBQcvK3 https://t.co/7DibWSRCSb> > — Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) August 25, 2020Nationally, Biden still has a wide 8.8 point lead over Trump, according to FiveThirtyEight's polling average — even higher than the 5.7-point lead Clinton had at this point in 2016. But as Clinton herself has recognized, national popular votes don't matter when the Electoral College gets in the way.More stories from theweek.com Trump's RNC role is a much bigger mistake than Republicans realize Trump calls for drug tests before presidential debates Karen Pence is the RNC's most fascinating person
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| Jacob Blake’s mother says she has ‘utmost respect’ for Trump after revealing she missed his call Posted: 26 Aug 2020 05:20 AM PDT  Julia Jackson, the mother of Wisconsin man Jacob Blake, who was shot several times by police on Sunday, says she has the "utmost" respect for president Donald Trump as she apologised for missing his call."And then also, for president Trump, I'm sorry I missed your call!," Ms Jackson told CNN in a press conference on Tuesday. "Because, had I not missed your call maybe the comments you had made would have been different. I'm not mad at you at all. I have the utmost respect for you as the leader of our country."
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| Coast Guard Watch Opens Fire After 8-Foot Shark Crashes Swim Call Posted: 26 Aug 2020 10:49 AM PDT  There is a reason the Navy and Coast Guard post armed guards on shark watch during swim calls.
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| Hurricane Laura could undergo 'rapid intensification' before landfall. Here's why that could be so dangerous Posted: 25 Aug 2020 12:09 PM PDT  Rapid intensification is typically defined to be a tropical cyclone intensifying by at least 35 mph in a 24-hour period,
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| US crackdown on nonessential border travel causes long waits Posted: 25 Aug 2020 10:04 PM PDT  A Trump administration crackdown on nonessential travel coming from Mexico amid the coronavirus pandemic has created massive bottlenecks at the border, with drivers reporting waits of up to 10 hours to get into the U.S. An employee at a company that provides support for businesses with Mexican operations saw the huge lines Sunday night from his home in Tijuana, Mexico. A U.S. citizen, he lined up at midnight for his 8 a.m. shift Monday in San Diego and still arrived 90 minutes late.
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| New CDC study offers the strongest evidence yet that COVID-19 can spread in airplanes Posted: 26 Aug 2020 03:20 PM PDT  The South Korean researchers say hand washing, mask wearing, and physical distance at all times can mitigate the risk of transmission.
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| U.S. military presence needed in Asia, Philippines' foreign minister says Posted: 26 Aug 2020 06:08 AM PDT |
| Republican convention draws 17 million TV viewers, down 26% from 2016 Posted: 25 Aug 2020 11:08 AM PDT  Viewing for the GOP's gathering on Monday also fell short of last week's opening night for the Democratic convention.
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| What Pam Bondi's attacks on Hunter Biden got right — and wrong Posted: 26 Aug 2020 09:15 AM PDT  Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, made assertions about Joe Biden's son Hunter, Ukraine and China at the Republican National Convention.
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| RNC speaker booted after sharing a blatantly anti-Semitic message hours before the event began Posted: 26 Aug 2020 02:42 AM PDT  Republicans have frequently attacked Democrats in recent years for supposed cases anti-Semitism
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| Only Native American on federal death row executed Posted: 26 Aug 2020 04:27 PM PDT  Lezmond Mitchell's execution for his part in a 2001 double murder has renewed a debate over tribal sovereignty.
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| Jerry Falwell Jr. reveals evangelicalism's authority problem Posted: 25 Aug 2020 02:52 PM PDT  American evangelicalism has a problem with authority, and the resignation of former Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. has forced it to the surface.Falwell's departure and the ignomious circumstances that prompted it were met by some evangelicals with protest: Why is the media saying he's our guy? What makes Jerry Falwell Jr. an "evangelical leader"? I don't follow him.For an outsider looking in on the movement, this may seem like a protest in bad faith. It's not. "I've been in evangelical circles for 30 years," says a representative tweet. "Falwell's dad certainly was someone who had a vision for Liberty and had a lot of influence, but I have never heard anyone EVER refer to Falwell Jr. as a leader in evangelicalism. I'm not trying to be combative, just honest."I could say exactly the same, and for most, I think this protest is sincere. But I also think it's entirely fair to call Falwell an "evangelical leader" because of how leadership is often developed and authority asserted within American evangelicalism. It's a problem that makes the movement prone to exactly the sort of scandal we see with Falwell this week.To understand this problem, you have to know a little bit about church governance. Some denominations, like the Catholic Church, have a strong system of top-down control. If Pope Francis were caught in an illicit liaison à la Falwell, no Catholic could respond by denying the pope is properly deemed a "Catholic leader."Evangelicalism has no comparable hierarchy, and many Christians within it worship in groups that are also light on top-down authority. There's no Baptist pope, and many evangelicals are in nondenominational congregations whose governance is entirely self-contained.Thus can anyone start their own church — and they do. Anyone can launch a blog or podcast or YouTube channel and build a digital congregation — and they do that, too. There's a real sense of spiritual entrepreneurship in evangelicalism, as indeed there always has been. There's also a real sense of unaccountability, now made riskier by the sheer reach the internet allows such leaders to garner.That isn't news to evangelicals. In 2017, Christianity Today (where I am also a columnist) published an article by Tish Harrison Warren, an Anglican priest, titled, "Who's in charge of the Christian blogosphere?" Warren focused on the blogger as a "new kind of Christian celebrity — and authority" who accrues a "huge [following] based on a cult of personality and hold[s] extensive power and influence, yet often lack[s] any accountability to formal structures of church governance."Parsing the raging controversy Warren's argument occasioned, historian Daniel Silliman, who is now a Christianity Today editor, explained "authority has always been contested and in crisis" in evangelicalism. "That's the history," he wrote. (Other scholars agree and link evangelical debate about theological and ecclesial authority to debates about political and scriptural authority, too.)Liberty sits squarely in this freewheeling milieu: The university has a relationship with the Southern Baptist Convention, but particularly in recent years, Falwell has taken a contentious attitude toward the denomination and insisted he should not be thought of as a pastoral figure. So what makes Falwell an "evangelical leader"? Simply the fact that he claims the evangelical label and is (or has been) a leader.For better or worse, there's no more rigorous test. Anyone who becomes famous in an evangelical capacity can be called an evangelical leader, even if the source of that fame is nothing more substantive than personality, wealth, or family connections. In Falwell's case, it was all three."There is a long history of evangelicalism conflating success, authority, and fandom," said a Liberty University faculty member who spoke with me on condition of anonymity. (Liberty professors typically don't have tenure, and it's not uncommon for faculty and staff to request anonymity when speaking with the press.) "That element of 'fandom' is under-discussed," the faculty member continued, both in general and where the Falwell family specifically is concerned. Fixation on individual personalities like this happens, my source theorized, because "evangelicalism has always struggled with a clear identity," and people like Falwell combine visibility with a degree of success assumed to be "entwined with God's will."The trouble is that a movement which chooses its leaders this way — and "chooses" is maybe too strong a word for such a democratized, organic, and sometimes hereditary process — will end up with a decidedly mixed bag. Some are "good and faithful servants." Yet hucksters and shameless partisans take advantage, and the most well-intentioned leaders may become corrupt without institutional and spiritual safeguards.Falwell's is hardly the first scandal of evangelical celebrity. He's not even the first prominent evangelical to be involved in a financial and sexual scandal involving two men, one woman, and an accusation of blackmail. That dishonor, Silliman notes, goes to televangelist Jim Bakker, whose downfall coincided with Falwell's first year of work at Liberty.In a bizarre symmetry, Falwell has now left Liberty under allegations of remarkably similar circumstances. He seems to have learned no lessons from Bakker's disgrace, but the evangelical movement would do well to learn from his.More stories from theweek.com Trump's RNC role is a much bigger mistake than Republicans realize NHC warns of 'unsurvivable' storm surge from Hurricane Laura This terrifying animation shows how high Hurricane Laura's storm surge might get
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| Jurassic Park or Florida? Researchers just captured 3 huge ‘alligator snapping turtles’ Posted: 26 Aug 2020 10:42 AM PDT  Awww, how cute. Not really.
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| China firm over detention of 2 Canadians after FMs meet Posted: 26 Aug 2020 02:59 AM PDT  China said Wednesday it remains firm in its insistence that Canada make the first move to end the detention of two Canadians, following a meeting of the two countries' foreign ministers. Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor have been held in China on unspecified national security charges for more than 620 days in apparent retaliation for Canada's late 2018 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, an executive at tech giant Huawei and the daughter of the company's founder.
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| 'We appreciate you guys': Wisconsin police in armored vehicles thanked armed militia and gave them water bottles Posted: 26 Aug 2020 02:34 PM PDT  "We got to save a couple, but we'll give you a couple," a voice from the law enforcement speaker said. "We appreciate you guys, we really do."
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| Israel launches air strikes after gunfire on Lebanon border Posted: 25 Aug 2020 09:13 PM PDT  Israel said Wednesday it had conducted air strikes against Hezbollah observation posts in Lebanon after shots were fired from across the border towards its troops the previous evening.
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| Republican National Convention: Charlotte public health officials ‘concerned’ by lack of people wearing masks Posted: 25 Aug 2020 04:00 AM PDT  Public Health experts in North Carolina have raised concerns about officials at this year's Republican National Convention not enforcing Covid-19 regulations.Gibbie Harris, Mecklenburg public health director, said she was "concerned" about the lack of face mask-wearing at the event, which began on Monday at the Charlotte Convention Center.
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| Groups sue Trump administration over rule on hunting in Alaska preserves Posted: 26 Aug 2020 03:29 PM PDT  Thirteen environmental groups sued the Trump administration on Wednesday seeking to overturn a rule allowing hunters in Alaska national preserves to bait bears, kill wolf pups in dens and engage in other controversial practices. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, targets a National Park Service rule change made final in June, claiming it violates the agency's primary purpose. "The century-old governing mission of the National Park Service includes protecting America's ecosystems and wildlife, not turning lands into massive game farms," Jim Adams, Alaska regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, a plaintiff in the case, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
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| The Best Duvet Covers That Are Also Better for the Planet Posted: 26 Aug 2020 12:58 PM PDT |
| A Florida man who thought the coronavirus was 'blown out of proportion' lost his wife to it Posted: 25 Aug 2020 07:38 AM PDT  Brian Lee Hitchens said he and his wife, Erin, had believed false claims circulating on social media that downplayed the disease COVID-19.
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| Kyle Rittenhouse, 17-year-old charged in Kenosha protest shootings, considered himself militia, social media posts show Posted: 26 Aug 2020 02:01 PM PDT  Kyle Rittenhouse, charged with shooting three people during a Kenosha protest, thought of himself as a militia member, according to social media posts
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| With the Gulf as a runway, Hurricane Laura could hit Louisiana and Texas as Category 3 Posted: 25 Aug 2020 05:23 AM PDT  Hurricane Laura has formed and could strike the central Gulf Coast this week as a Category 3 hurricane, bringing 115 mph winds and up to 13 feet of storm surge in some places.
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| India indicts Pakistani militant in 2019 Kashmir bombing Posted: 26 Aug 2020 01:46 AM PDT  India's anti-terrorism agency named a Pakistan-based militant leader as the prime mastermind of a 2019 car bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 Indian soldiers and brought the nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of war. The National Investigation Agency filed a charge sheet on Tuesday that named Masood Azhar, chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed, and 19 others among the accused. "The investigation has revealed that the Pulwama attack was the result of a well-planned criminal conspiracy hatched by Pakistan-based leadership of terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammad," the document says.
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| Trump Isn’t Building a Case Against Biden. He’s Running a Convention to Troll the Press. Posted: 25 Aug 2020 09:04 PM PDT  On the second night of the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump resorted once again to the favorite trick in his bag: a televised surprise. An impromptu naturalization ceremony put on as part of the Tuesday night festivities was, as a political matter, an attempt to show a softer side of a president with one of the most anti-immigration records in recent memory. It also appeared to be a finely tuned bit of trolling; the act itself was likely a violation of federal law that prohibits government employees from using taxpayer resources for political purposes (though the White House insisted it wasn't). And it gave Trump and his legions of devoted fans a reason to tweet American flag emojis and make fun of political reporters who noted the flagrant misuse of taxpayer resources. In fact, Trump's aides and advisers revel in their increasingly frequent violations of the Hatch Act. Senior Trump administration officials widely view the law as a joke, and have often traded quips over how consequence-free their infractions have been and how much Democrats harp on the violations, two ex-officials said. Some Trump lieutenants have privately bragged about their alleged violations as a proud rite of passage.> Liberals are more upset about the use of government buildings than they ever were about the use of the FBI to target political opponents.> > — Tim Murtaugh - Download the Trump 2020 app today! (@TimMurtaugh) August 26, 2020Tuesday night's naturalization ceremony, which featured acting Department of Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf acting in an apparently official capacity, was the most egregious flouting of the law during the festivities. But it was just one of a handful of convention events that blurred the line between the Trump administration and its political machine. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's televised speech from a Jerusalem rooftop also drew allegations of Hatch Act violations, and early on in Tuesday evening's programming, Trump touted his pardon power and its beneficiaries as a political selling point while standing inside the White House.The flouting of the law fit neatly with the message of the night. Tuesday's programming wasn't so much about attacking Joe Biden or promoting Trump as it was to exhibit abhorrence of liberalism, defiance of elitist norms, and a big middle finger to media-driven conformity. If the press was triggered into a fit of hyperventilation in the process, all the better. The average American voter doesn't know or much care what the Hatch Act is anyway.GOP Says Vote Trump... or Get a Marxist HellscapeOver the course of the evening, speakers denounced tech giants and political correctness. They painted the press corps as corrupt and framed the president as a culture warrior whose appetite for fighting was a virtue not a detriment. "I'm proud to watch you give them hell," Eric Trump, the president's son, said at one point, directly addressing his father. But perhaps no speaker on Tuesday more clearly exemplified the goal of the night than Nicholas Sandmann. The recent Kentucky high school graduate recounted how he found himself a culture war lighting rod when he donned a "Make America Great Again" hat and stared down a Native American activist during a demonstration at the March for Life last year. After a day of denunciations from pundits and politicians who claimed he incited the confrontation, video emerged undercutting the story, and Sandmann sued a host of media outlets for defamation over the episode. He's won settlements from CNN and The Washington Post, with additional litigation ongoing. "I learned that what was happening to me had a name. It was called being canceled," Sandmann said on Tuesday. "Canceled is what's happening to people around this country who refuse to be silenced by the far left... I will not be cancelled."The denunciations of "cancel culture" were echoed in some form by other convention speakers. "If you care about living your life without restraints, about rebelling against those who would suppress your voice, and building YOUR American Dream," Tiffany Trump, the president's daughter, said at one point, "then the choice in this election is clear."It's a theme that's expected to continue through Thursday, when the convention wraps up, and its prominence is due largely to Trump's view—and that of his pollsters and political advisers—that it's an issue that could help get him over the electoral finish line.According to two people with knowledge of the situation, Team Trump had recently commissioned polling specifically on the topic of "cancel culture," and found numbers they saw as reassuring. Polling was conducted in July and August and focused on questions on political correctness and "cancel culture" in Big Tech, entertainment, and news media and on college campuses, one of the sources said. The data was presented directly to the president multiple times, including earlier this month. And he has privately delighted in the numbers, insisting that this could be an issue that speaks to voters beyond his standard GOP and conservative base voting blocs."President Trump made clear that he believes that we can win [in part based on the internal data] on this issue, law and order, tax cuts, and China and the virus," one of the knowledgeable sources said. "He thinks cancel culture is tearing communities apart and suppressing conservative voices."That anti-"cancel culture" theme, though, didn't save one of Tuesday evening's scheduled speakers from being canceled at the hands of the convention itself. Hours before the evening's festivities began, The Daily Beast reported that Mary Ann Mendoza, a Trump campaign advisory board member and scheduled convention speaker, had, on Tuesday morning, urged her Twitter followers to look into an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory involving Jewish world domination. The Republican National Committee subsequently pulled her video address from the event.In her prepared remarks, which were never actually delivered, Mendoza hailed the "brighter future that President Trump will continue fighting for when we re-elect him on November third."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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| Kenosha shooting: Video appears to show gunman approaching police Posted: 26 Aug 2020 09:22 AM PDT  At least two people were killed and one was injured by a gunman at a protest Tuesday night in Kenosha, Wis., over the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Video of the incident appears to show a man with a rifle falling to the ground as protesters ran toward him. He then fires multiple shots at several people nearby. The footage later shows the gunman approaching police on the scene with raised arms, though it does not show if he was detained by police.
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| ‘It’s literally a cage’: Florida police officer’s wife dies while trapped in rear of hot police SUV Posted: 25 Aug 2020 09:19 AM PDT  The wife of a veteran Miami police officer died after she became trapped in the rear of his patrol SUV, while he was asleep inside their home.On Friday, Clara Paulino died in the back seat of the police SUV in Miami Shores, Florida, as her husband, Aristides Paulino, slept inside their home after he had completed a night shift with the Miami-Dade Police Department.
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| China warns of 'shadow' over ties with Australia, tells it to stop whining Posted: 26 Aug 2020 12:06 AM PDT  A top Chinese diplomat in Australia warned against a "shadow" over the two nations' ties on Wednesday, saying that Beijing was disappointed by a Chinese firm's failure to win Australian regulatory approval for a takeover deal. Tension between Australia and its main export market of China has risen in recent months, particularly after Canberra called for an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus. Wang Xining, China's deputy head of mission in Canberra, dismissed concerns about China's attempts to influence Australian politics, saying its views were candidly presented and did not affect people's choice of a political system.
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| ‘Catch-up’ stimulus checks to be sent out soon, IRS says. Here’s who will get them Posted: 26 Aug 2020 09:23 AM PDT  About 50,000 people will receive the payments, the IRS says.
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| Hurricane Laura ‘will cause unsurvivable storm surge’ Posted: 26 Aug 2020 01:12 PM PDT  Hurricane Laura, heading for Texas and Louisiana, is now a Category 4 storm, weather officials say.
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| Court: School transgender bathroom policy unconstitutional Posted: 26 Aug 2020 10:34 AM PDT  A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that a Virginia school board's transgender bathroom ban is unconstitutional and discriminated against a transgender male student who was barred from using the boys bathrooms in his high school. The ruling is a victory for transgender rights advocates and Gavin Grimm, a former student at Gloucester High School who was required to use restrooms that corresponded with his biological sex — female — or private bathrooms. The Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Gloucester County School Board violated Grimm's constitutional rights when it banned him from using the boys bathrooms.
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| Scotland's 'Union dividend' rises to almost £2,000 per person in 'hammer blow' to Nicola Sturgeon Posted: 26 Aug 2020 02:17 AM PDT  Nicola Sturgeon's economic case for separation has received a "hammer blow" after her chief economist published figures showing Scotland's "dividend" from being part of the UK has surged to almost £2,000 per person. The General Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) figures for 2019/20 showed each Scot received £1,633 more than the UK average in public spending thanks to the Barnett Formula. This is the equivalent of 9.2 per cent of UK total spending. But tax revenue north of the Border was £308 less than the UK average, including a geographic share of North Sea oil, accounting for only 8 per cent of the UK total. The Scottish Tories said that together this meant the "Union dividend" per person has increased to £1,941, up from £1,805 the previous year, and separation would require spending cuts equivalent to the entire NHS budget. Scotland's notional deficit - the difference between spending and tax revenue - surged by £2 billion to £15.1 billion last year. This was the equivalent of 8.6 per cent of GDP - more than treble the UK figure of 2.5 per cent and nearly three times the 3 per cent required for EU membership.
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| 'Disaster inside a disaster': California wildfires and COVID-19 form twin crises Posted: 26 Aug 2020 08:30 AM PDT  "It is manifestly an unsafe situation," a veteran firefighter said.
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| Jacob Blake's father says police who 'shot my son like a dog' are 'responsible' for protests that followed Posted: 25 Aug 2020 07:13 AM PDT  Jacob Blake is paralyzed from the waist down after police officers shot him in the back eight times on Sunday night, his father tells the Chicago Sun-Times.Police shot Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, on a street in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as he was getting into his SUV, where his children were sitting inside. Video of the shooting quickly started circulating, and turned Kenosha into the latest center of protests against police brutality and racism.Blake's father, also named Jacob Blake, told the Sun-Times that when he talked to the younger Blake on Sunday morning, he was preparing to celebrate his son's eighth birthday. But now, there are "eight holes" in his Blake's body, and his lower body is paralyzed with no word on if his injury is permanent, the elder Blake said. Witnesses say Blake was trying to break up a verbal fight when two police officers arrived at the scene.Protests broke out Sunday night at the scene of the shooting and at the Kenosha County Public Safety Building and have continued since. The city instituted a curfew and Gov. Tony Evers (D) called in 125 members of the National Guard on Monday, but people stayed out anyway and set some buildings on fire later that night. Peaceful protests have continued throughout the day as well.To Blake's father, the police were "the flint as well as the gasoline" sparking those fires and protest, he told the Sun-Times. "Those police officers that shot my son like a dog in the street are responsible for everything that has happened in the city of Kenosha," he continued. Read more of what Jacob Blake's father had to say at the Chicago Sun-Times.More stories from theweek.com Trump's RNC role is a much bigger mistake than Republicans realize Hurricane Laura is now forecast to hit Texas and Louisiana as a 'catastrophic' Category 4 storm Pam Bondi blasts Joe Biden over nepotism just before Tiffany Trump speaks at RNC
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| U.S. Army Corps asks appeals court to reverse Dakota Access pipeline ruling Posted: 26 Aug 2020 05:21 PM PDT  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday asked an appeals court to reverse a ruling which scrapped an environmental permit that allows the Dakota Access crude oil pipeline to operate on U.S. land. Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) to detail options by the end of the month for resolving the loss of the permit. On Wednesday, ACE and Dakota Access, controlled by Energy Transfer LP , argued that the district court abused its discretion in vacating the permit and ordering a thorough environmental study to be conducted.
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