| Bush's 2004 strategist says 'people's hair would be on fire' if Bush, Obama had used the White House as a re-election prop Posted: 27 Aug 2020 10:00 PM PDT  President Trump walked from the White House to a stage on the South Lawn to give his Republican National Convention acceptance speech Thursday night, turning "the People's House" into "a partisan prop like no politician has ever done before," Michael D. Shear writes at The New York Times.> This is the image people have in their heads when they write government ethics laws. pic.twitter.com/8ljWmw7pCK> > -- Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) August 27, 2020"Previous presidents have sought to carefully navigate the propriety of mixing campaigning with governing," Shear noted, and while a few have announced their re-election campaigns from inside the White House, none has used it for such an "overtly political event," with "live crowds flanked by giant Jumbotrons on either side of the White House, serving as immense campaign billboards." If Barack Obama or George W. Bush had tried such a stunt during their re-election campaigns, "people's hair would be on fire," Bush's 2004 campaign chief strategist, Matthew Dowd, said on ABC News.> .@matthewjdowd: "I never thought I would see what I'm seeing tonight on the South Lawn. > > I can't imagine what would have happened if we had done that in 2004 or if Barack Obama had done that in 2012...people's hair would be on fire." https://t.co/AL3W4wottM RNC2020 pic.twitter.com/qy1yItFEzi> > -- ABC News (@ABC) August 28, 2020"It's not only, I believe, unethical, misuse of government power," Dowd added. "It may be illegal, what's happening on the South Lawn, and a bad modeling of behavior in the midst of a COVID crisis."None of the Bushes participated in this year's RNC, nor did any Cheneys, Reagans, or McCains. Also, "several dozen former staffers from Sen. Mitt Romney's (R-Utah) presidential campaign, the George W. Bush administration, and the campaign and Senate staff of former Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have signed on to an effort to elect Joe Biden," Politico reported Thursday. "For the Romney and McCain staffers, they're working to elect the same man they tried to defeat in 2012 and 2008, respectively." (Dowd was not among the Bush alumni who signed a pro-Biden letter.)But perhaps Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) had the most succinct, on-brand response to Trump's use of the White House as a campaign prop. > Get off our lawn.> > -- Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) August 28, 2020More stories from theweek.com McConnell inexplicably claims that Democrats want to tell Americans 'how many hamburgers you can eat' 5 more scathingly funny cartoons about the Republican National Convention The X-Files is getting an animated comedy spinoff
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| Kenosha police union gives its version of Blake shooting Posted: 28 Aug 2020 03:33 PM PDT  The Kenosha police union on Friday offered the most detailed accounting to date on officers' perspective of the moments leading up to police shooting Jacob Blake seven times in the back, saying he had a knife and fought with officers, putting one of them in a headlock and shrugging off two attempts to stun him. The statement from Brendan Matthews, attorney for the Kenosha Professional Police Association, goes into more detail than anything that has been released by the Wisconsin Department of Justice, which is investigating. The Sunday shooting of Blake, a Black man, put the nation's spotlight on Wisconsin and triggered a series of peaceful protests and violence, including the killing of two people by an armed civilian on Tuesday.
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| China arrests 12 fleeing Hong Kong by speedboat: city police Posted: 28 Aug 2020 05:33 AM PDT  A dozen people fleeing Hong Kong on a speedboat, including an activist arrested under the draconian new national security law, have been captured by China, police in the city said Friday.
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| TikTok stars charged over partying in LA during pandemic Posted: 28 Aug 2020 02:05 PM PDT  Bryce Hall and Blake Gray held parties that breached Covid-19 restrictions, Los Angeles officials say.
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| Elon Musk confirmed a Russian national tried to bribe a Tesla employee with $1 million in a bungled ransomware attack Posted: 28 Aug 2020 04:46 AM PDT  The DOJ accused a Russian national of offering $1 million to an employee to install malware. Elon Musk confirmed the employee worked for Tesla.
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| Teacher reinstated after parents complained about Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ posters Posted: 27 Aug 2020 12:13 PM PDT  A Texas school district backtracked after placing English teacher Taylor Lifka on leave over the posters in her virtual classroom.
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| Kim Jong-un inspects the damage as North Korea reels from floods and Typhoon Bavi Posted: 27 Aug 2020 09:49 PM PDT  North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has visited a rice-growing area devastated by a typhoon on Thursday, as the reclusive country reels from back-to-back natural and manmade catastrophes. Photos released by state media of the authoritarian leader inspecting fields alongside mask-wearing officials appeared to be framed to convey his benevolence as citizens struggle to cope with the impact of severe monsoon flooding, and the economic toll of the pandemic and ongoing global sanctions. Typhoon Bavi slammed into the country's southwestern province of Hwanghae, dealing a damaging blow to its corn stalks, rice paddies and other crops, and raising fears of increased hunger among an already malnourished population. Ten million people are reported by the United Nations to be suffering from food insecurity, living from harvest to harvest. The country also suffers from years of neglected infrastructure, which exacerbates the effects of natural disasters.
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| Trump’s Voter Fraud ‘Proof’ Turned Out to Be the Real Fraud Posted: 26 Aug 2020 07:24 PM PDT  Citizens throughout the nation are counting on using mail ballots to vote in November without placing their lives at risk. President Donald Trump is determined to prevent them from doing so, if they live in heavily Democratic metropolitan areas, that is. Trump claims that allowing widespread mail balloting is an invitation to massive and systematic fraud, saying: "What they're doing is using COVID to steal an election. They're using COVID to defraud the American people." But when a judge ordered Trump's campaign to come up with evidence for the president's fraud claims, the campaign produced absolutely nothing. Still, there's ample evidence that if Trump gets his way, hundreds of thousands of duly registered voters will not be able to vote, or will have their ballots go uncounted—more than enough to sway the outcome of a close election.On June 29, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit demanding the voiding of the efforts of Pennsylvania's state officials to facilitate mail voting during the pandemic, pursuant to a recently enacted law. Among other things, Pennsylvania is allowing the use of ballot drop boxes, so voters can avoid returning ballots through the mails. In light of revelations that Trump's recently installed Postmaster General (and fundraiser), Louis DeJoy, deliberately engineered new inefficiencies and delays at the Postal Service (particularly in Philadelphia), the need for drop boxes is even more clear. But that's only made the Trump campaign more determined to prevent their use. Al Gore: If Trump Refuses to Concede, the Military Would Run Him OutAccording to the Trump campaign's complaint, Pennsylvania voting officials "have sacrificed the sanctity of in-person voting at the altar of unmonitored and unsecured mail-in voting and have exponentially enhanced the threat that fraudulent or otherwise ineligible ballots will be cast and counted in the upcoming General Election." Trump's complaint uses the word "fraud" no fewer than 51 times. Given the centrality of Trump's fraud claims, on Aug. 13 the Pittsburgh federal judge hearing the case, Nicholas Ranjan (a Trump appointee), ordered the campaign to provide any and all evidence supporting its allegations "concerning potential or actual fraud or voter misconduct," including "from the use of drop boxes, absentee ballots, or vote-by-mail." When the Daily Beast asked the Trump campaign for a copy of the materials it produced, the campaign declined to share one. It later became clear why, when the campaign's interrogatory responses were disclosed. The filings contained virtually no evidence of mail-in or drop-box ballot fraud, let alone fraud of a nature and scale remotely sufficient to change the outcome of a statewide election. Instead, the document contained a grab bag of examples of campaign irregularities, errors and misconduct, many taken from newspaper articles, and none substantiating the massive mail voting fraud claims the campaign made in its complaint. Indeed, the campaign was reduced to making the absurd contention that it does "not need to demonstrate any evidence of fraud to prove" its case, even though the campaign's complaint was laced with, and grounded on, claims of a grave risk of fraud. Of course, it's nothing new for Trump and his associates to make claims without evidence. Apart from the president's now regular rants about "rigging" the upcoming election, Attorney General William Barr has repeatedly contended that "if you have wholesale mail-in voting, it substantially increases the risk of fraud." Barr has even joined Trump in asserting that foreign nations are poised to engage in massive counterfeiting of mail in ballots to sway the outcome of the election. But when asked if he had any evidence whatsoever to support his claims, Barr has repeatedly admitted, most recently before Congress, that he has none, and instead is relying entirely on what he calls "common sense." A senior official of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently contradicted Barr, stating that the intelligence community has no evidence that foreign powers intend to manipulate mail-in ballots. In fact, as election experts have demonstrated, Barr's claim that mail ballots are a likely source for massive, systematic fraud—let alone a foreign power's scheme to sway an election—is entirely contrary to common sense. A database maintained by the conservative Heritage Foundation indicates that, over a period of nine years, there were all of 15 cases of voter fraud in the five states that employ universal mail-in voting; furthermore, as election expert Rick Hasen has explained, it would likely require thousands of counterfeit or otherwise fraudulent ballots to sway the outcome of a state's election, something that would be virtually impossible to carry off. A senior FBI official similarly recently stated that "[i]t's extraordinarily difficult to change a federal election outcome through [coordinated] fraud alone."Trump lost a round when the Pennsylvania federal court case was temporarily stayed by the judge hearing it in favor of allowing the Pennsylvania law issues in the case to first be addressed by state courts; but it will likely be revised. In the meantime, the Trump campaign can be expected to continue to peddle its bogus fraud claims in every court in which it can be heard. But there is now no doubt that the Trump challenges to mail voting are grounded on phantom, and indeed, fantastically fraudulent, claims of fraud. But there's nothing speculative about the consequences of allowing Trump to get away with his scheme to suppress and limit mail voting. If Trump succeeds, thousands of eligible voters will be prevented from casting their votes, or will complete ballots that are not counted. The Washington Post reported that more than 534,000 mail ballots went uncounted during the recent primaries, many in battleground states, including because signatures were rejected or ballots were received past the deadlines. The vast majority of these ballots were cast by duly registered citizens who had every right to vote. At the end of the day, of course, the Trump campaign has no actual interest in preventing voter fraud; rather, the president wants to make it even more difficult for people who reasonably fear going to crowded polling places in heavily Democratic metropolitan areas from effectively voting by mail, and thereby from voting at all. That is a classic voter disenfranchisement scheme, and it is directly at odds with the principles of democracy.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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| Invisible workers: Prison fire crews save lives while incarcerated then left to fend for themselves once released Posted: 28 Aug 2020 08:04 AM PDT  There are currently more than 14,000 firefighters struggling to battle roughly 7,000 blazes in California, many working 24-hour shifts. Among those pushed to the limit, as this year's fire season in California burns an area now the size of the state of Delaware, are approximately 3,100 inmates trained as wildland firefighters.
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| Seventy-four face federal charges from Portland protests Posted: 27 Aug 2020 05:58 AM PDT  Seventy-four people are now facing federal charges related to protests that have rocked Portland, Oregon, for three months since George Floyd was killed, the local U.S. attorney announced Thursday. The misdemeanor and felony charges include assaults on federal officers, arson and damaging federal property. "Violent agitators have hijacked any semblance of First Amendment protected activity, engaging in violent criminal acts and destruction of public safety," Billy Williams, the U.S. attorney for Oregon, said in a statement.
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| West Mathewson: South African conservationist killed by white lions Posted: 27 Aug 2020 03:06 AM PDT  Police say two lions attacked the lodge owner as he was taking them for a walk, in front of his wife.
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| 'I didn’t know it was going to be this bad': Cameron Parish, Louisiana, bears brunt of Laura's wrath Posted: 27 Aug 2020 02:25 PM PDT  A tiny beach town in southwestern Louisiana bore the brunt of Hurricane Laura as winds estimated at 150 mph demolished nearly everything in its path.
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| Fox News' Chris Wallace calls out co-hosts for defending armed vigilantes Posted: 27 Aug 2020 02:28 PM PDT  Fox News' Chris Wallace has a brief legal reminder about vigilante justice.On Wednesday, a 17-year-old who appeared to be aligned with an armed vigilante group was arrested after allegedly shooting and killing two people during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Tuesday night. Several Fox News contributors and hosts discussed the situation in Kenosha on Thursday, with Katie Pavlich saying "on the topic of vigilante justice, when you have no police around ... then there is a void that is filled."Pavlich's comments spurred Wallace to "push back" against the "implication vigilante justice was understandable or justified by the lack of sufficient police action." But Pavlich and the other hosts tried to talk over Wallace and insist he hadn't heard what was just said. "Just as it's fair to say that rioting and looting is a completely inappropriate response to George Floyd or Jacob Blake, vigilante justice is a completely inappropriate response to the rioting on the street," Wallace eventually said, forcefully reminding them "vigilante justice is a crime."> Wallace pushes back in the next segment> > "I've got to push back ... there seemed to be the implication that somehow vigilante justice was understandable or justified by the lack of sufficient police action ... you were saying it filled a void, I don't think that's right" pic.twitter.com/MuWTi4Rio9> > — Lis Power (@LisPower1) August 27, 2020Protests have gone on for days in Kenosha since police shot Jacob Blake on Sunday, with peaceful daytime demonstrations turning violent at night. Fox News' Tucker Carlson is among conservatives defending the alleged killer.More stories from theweek.com McConnell inexplicably claims that Democrats want to tell Americans 'how many hamburgers you can eat' 7 scathingly funny cartoons about the Republican National Convention Biden's latest ad puts Trump's weirdest moments and empty rallies to a Bad Bunny song
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| Detained Colombia businessman was negotiating with Iran for Venezuela, lawyers say Posted: 28 Aug 2020 05:13 AM PDT |
| Mail ballots from nursing home residents, entire family didn’t count in Florida primary Posted: 28 Aug 2020 10:58 AM PDT  Wayne Tinker was among more than 262,000 Miami-Dade County voters who cast a mail ballot in last week's primary elections — and among the thousands of voters whose ballots didn't count.
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| Donald Trump's convention speech: Black Lives Matter protesters outside White House vow to 'drown out' president Posted: 27 Aug 2020 06:01 PM PDT  Hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters gathered in front of the White House on Thursday before Donald Trump's presidential nomination acceptance speech, shouting with anger and demanding his resignation. "We need to get Trump out, we need to destroy the whole system. We need a revolution," said Keheirra Wedderburn, 18, above the sound of banging drums and chants of "Trump/Pence out now!" "These presidents are not gonna do anything 'cause they are not the people of color in the streets being shot," the black student from Houston, Texas told AFP. "There are more people who are ready for Trump to leave office," said Washington native Michael Legend, a 33-year-old black man. Just a few yards away, shielded by large metal fences, the billionaire Republican was gearing up to accept his party's presidential nomination for re-election with a speech on the South Lawn of the White House.
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| Breonna Taylor’s ex-boyfriend says she had nothing to do with alleged drug crimes Posted: 28 Aug 2020 01:00 PM PDT  The ex-boyfriend of Breonna Taylor speaks out and claims she was not involved in illegal activities. Breonna Taylor's ex-boyfriend has come forward in an attempt to clear up her alleged involvement in any criminal activity. Jamarcus Glover, 30, was the target of the narcotics investigation leading to the execution of the no-knock warrant that resulted in the police shooting and killing Taylor, the Courier-Journal reports.
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| Teen who held BLM event gets $2500 bill for police overtime Posted: 28 Aug 2020 02:36 PM PDT |
| Hurricane Laura was the latest storm to strengthen fast, but is rapid intensification really becoming more common? Posted: 28 Aug 2020 05:25 AM PDT  Hurricane Laura blew up quickly as it headed for the Louisiana coast, intensifying from a tropical storm to a major hurricane in less than 24 hours. By the time it made it landfall, it was a powerful Category 4 hurricane with 150 mile-per-hour winds.The Atlantic has seen several hurricanes rapidly intensify like this in recent years. In 2018, Hurricane Michael unexpectedly jumped from Category 2 to Category 5 in the span of a day before hitting the Florida Panhandle. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in 2017 also met the definition of rapid intensification: an increase of at least 35 miles per hour in a 24-hour period. Based on preliminary reports from the National Hurricane Center, Laura gained 65 mph in one 24-hour period and, more impressively, added 80 mph from Aug. 25 to Aug. 27.But do all these fast-growing, powerful storms in recent years mean rapid intensification is becoming more common?With information about hurricanes coming through social media and phone apps, that's a question hurricane scientists like myself are hearing a lot. It's useful to consider a few things: the history of U.S. hurricanes, why the Atlantic is currently so active, and the ingredients that allow storms to strengthen so quickly. What makes storms blow up?Just as a pastry chef needs all the ingredients to successfully make a cake, storms like Laura need favorable conditions to be able to form and rapidly intensify. Three key ingredients help a hurricane rapidly intensify: * Warm ocean waters. Hurricanes draw energy from warm surface water, particularly when it's at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer. * Ample moisture, or water content in the atmosphere, to maintain clouds. * Low vertical wind shear. This is a measure of how the wind changes speed and direction with height in the atmosphere. High wind shear will disrupt the clouds, making it hard for the storm to stay together.When all of these ingredients are present, vigorous thunderstorms can form and organize, allowing a robust eyewall to develop. Large-scale changes in ocean temperature, like the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, can also have an impact on hurricane activity.Because these ingredients change, the Atlantic hurricane season varies year to year. This year, as the seasonal forecasts created by Colorado State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned, the ingredients are favorable for an active season with more major hurricanes. A review of storms from 1981 to 2012 found that 70% of major Atlantic hurricanes – those reaching Category 3 or higher – had gone through rapid intensification. Why don't all storms grow this quickly?Just having the right water temperature and moisture won't ensure that storms will undergo rapid intensification or become major hurricanes. We saw that with Hurricane Marco. It swept through the Gulf of Mexico just ahead of Hurricane Laura but weakened to a tropical storm before landfall.A big difference was the wind shear. The thunderstorms powering Marco's core struggled to stay connected to its circulation as high wind shear in the Gulf of Mexico stripped them away.When then-Tropical Storm Laura passed over Cuba into the Gulf, the high wind shear conditions had receded, leaving nothing but a favorable environment for Laura to develop catastrophic winds and a dangerous storm surge. As with ice skaters who pull their arms in during a spin to rotate faster, the thunderstorms of Laura's eyewall pulled in the atmosphere around the storm, causing the winds to accelerate into a high-end Category 4 storm. While there are additional complexities to this process, a theoretical framework for intensification that I further developed with colleauges highlights how the location of eyewall thunderstorms relative to the storm's maximum winds triggers rapid intensification. This theory has been supported by eyewall observations collected during "hurricane hunter" flights. So, are these events becoming more common?This is a challenging question and an active topic of research. Because rapidly intensifying hurricanes are fairly rare, there isn't enough information yet to say if rapid intensification is happening more often. The hurricane research community has consistent, reliable observations of storm intensity only since the start of the satellite era and routine storm-penetrating "hurricane hunter" flights since the 1970s.We have seen more rapid intensification events in recent years, and some scientists have concluded that the warming climate is likely playing a role. However, we've also had more active hurricane seasons in those years, and more work needs to be done in this area to understand global trends, such as why hurricanes are crossing ocean basins more slowly. To try to answer this puzzle, hurricane researchers are using historical records to help refine mathematical theories and computer simulations of storms to better understand rapid intensification. The new knowledge will continue to improve forecast guidance and lead to a better understanding of how hurricanes will change in an evolving climate system.[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation's newsletter.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * A burning chemical plant may be just the tip of Hurricane Laura's damage in this area of oil fields and industry * Hurricanes can cause enormous damage inland, but emergency plans focus on coastsChris Slocum receives funding from and is employed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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| Fact check: Jacob Blake did not 'brandish' knife, get gun before Kenosha police shooting Posted: 28 Aug 2020 08:33 AM PDT  There was no gun involved. Police did find a knife in the SUV, but authorities haven't said if Blake held it at some point.
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| A former SpaceX intern says she reported sexual harassment to HR — and it cost her the opportunity for a full-time job Posted: 28 Aug 2020 08:43 AM PDT  In a new lawsuit, the former SpaceX intern says her manager made inappropriate comments and wanted to take her to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
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| Saudi-led coalition says destroyed Houthi drone: Saudi Press Agency Posted: 28 Aug 2020 02:58 AM PDT |
| Virtually the Best: Kids’ Furniture for an A+ Home-Learning Setup Posted: 28 Aug 2020 08:00 AM PDT |
| Arizona GOP worried Trump and McSally will cost them the state: “Arizonans are fed up” Posted: 27 Aug 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Trump and McSally's sagging poll numbers now threaten to flip both chambers of the state legislature to Democrats
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| Iranian man sentenced to nine years in prison for beheading daughter while she slept in 'honour killing' Posted: 28 Aug 2020 06:25 AM PDT  An Iranian has been sentenced to nine years in jail for beheading his teenaged daughter in her sleep, local media reported Friday, adding that the mother wants him executed. The so-called "honour" killing of 14-year-old Romina Ashrafi on May 21 sparked widespread outrage, with media condemning "institutionalised violence" in the Islamic republic. Media said Romina was decapitated at the family home in the village of Talesh in the northern province of Gilan. "Despite the judicial authorities' insistence on a 'special handling' of the case, the verdict has terrified me and my family," Rana Dashti, the mother, told ILNA news agency. "I don't want my husband to return to our village ever again," she said, calling for the verdict to be reviewed and changed to "execution". Having lived with the man for 15 years, Dashti said she now fears for the life of the rest of her family. Ebtekar newspaper said at the time of Romina's killing that Iran's "eye for an eye" retributive justice does not apply to a father who kills his child, for which the customary sentence is jail time and fines. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has "expressed his regrets" following the girl's killing and called for the speedy passing of several anti-violence bills. Romina had reportedly run away after the father refused to give permission for her to marry a man 15 years her senior. But she was detained by authorities and taken home, despite having pleaded with a judge that she feared for her life if returned. The man she wanted to marry, Bahman Khavari, was sentenced to two years in prison, local media said, without specifying the charge. The legal age of marriage for women in Iran is 13.
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| Israel strikes Gaza after Palestinian militants fire rockets Posted: 27 Aug 2020 10:15 PM PDT |
| Letters to the Editor: Here's how police can end protests: Stop shooting unarmed Black people Posted: 28 Aug 2020 03:00 AM PDT  People who don't like sometimes nonpeaceful protests should put pressure on police to stop shooting unarmed Black people.
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| An ex-Cisco employee pleaded guilty to causing damage to the tech giant's network which shut down over 16,000 Webex Teams accounts Posted: 27 Aug 2020 01:57 PM PDT  An ex-Cisco employee pleaded guilty to breaking into into the tech giant's network and wiped out thousands of Webex Teams accounts.
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| U.S. seeks to seize 280 cryptocurrency accounts tied to North Korean hacks Posted: 27 Aug 2020 04:49 PM PDT  The U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil forfeiture complaint after having in March charged two Chinese nationals with laundering more than $100 million in cryptocurrency on behalf of North Korea. "Today's action publicly exposes the ongoing connections between North Korea's cyber-hacking program and a Chinese cryptocurrency money laundering network," Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian Rabbitt of the Justice Department's criminal division said in a statement.
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| Boeing grounds several 787 planes after manufacturing defect found Posted: 28 Aug 2020 09:50 AM PDT  Boeing has found manufacturing defects on some of its 787 long-range airliners in areas where parts of the fuselage are joined together, the latest setback for the aircraft maker whose 737 Max is still grounded after two deadly crashes.
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| CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta fears attendees of Trump's RNC speech will get COVID-19 and 'may even die' Posted: 28 Aug 2020 07:29 AM PDT  CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta couldn't be more exasperated by President Trump's decision to speak before a packed crowd at the Republican National Convention, fearing some attendees could die from COVID-19 as a result.Trump on Thursday delivered his acceptance speech at the RNC before a crowd of about 1,500 people who weren't practicing social distancing and few of whom were wearing masks, a fact Gupta sounded the alarm about on Friday morning, expressing deep frustration that such an event took place during the coronavirus pandemic."The history books will be written about this chapter in our lives at some point, and it will show events like that and say that in the middle of a pandemic ... at a time when there were more than 5 million infected, we started having events like that again," Gupta said. "It's really frustrating. It's mind-boggling."Gupta went on to say that this demonstrates that some people still haven't "learned" how dangerous COVID-19 is, and he raised concerns about the coronavirus spread the event may lead to."There will be people who became infected as a result of that event last night," Gupta said. "And there will be people who will spread it, and possibly require hospitalization, may even die as a result of that event last night."CNN's Jim Acosta reports that a senior White House official dismissed concerns about the crowd at the event by declaring, "Everybody is going to catch this thing eventually." But Gupta pushed back against that flippant comment, noting that what COVID-19 "does to the body" long term still isn't clear and warning, "You don't want this virus." > "There will be people who became infected as a result of that event last night, and there'll be people who will spread it and possibly require hospitalization, may even die," @drsanjaygupta says about the large crowd that wasn't socially distanced for Trump's RNC speech. pic.twitter.com/BIU3JBTV0W> > -- CNN (@CNN) August 28, 2020More stories from theweek.com McConnell inexplicably claims that Democrats want to tell Americans 'how many hamburgers you can eat' 5 more scathingly funny cartoons about the Republican National Convention The X-Files is getting an animated comedy spinoff
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| US Marshals found 39 missing children in a 2-week operation, 15 of whom they say were sex-trafficking victims Posted: 28 Aug 2020 10:23 AM PDT  The US Marshals located 39 missing children in Georgia, and arrested nine suspects on charges that ranged from sex trafficking to parental kidnapping.
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| Virginia Senate Approves Bill to Downgrade Penalty for Assaulting a Police Officer Posted: 27 Aug 2020 11:22 AM PDT  The Virginia Senate approved legislation on Wednesday that would downgrade the legal penalty for a suspect found guilty of assaulting a police officer.Senate Bill 5032 would, if signed into law, eliminate the state's six-month mandatory minimum prison sentence for assaulting an officer, and also gives a local judge or jury the authority to downgrade the crime from a felony to a misdemeanor. The Virginia Senate voted 21-15 to approve the bill.Senator Scott Survell, a Democrat who proposed the legislation, said the bill was not meant to apply in cases of serious injury suffered by police officers."What we're talking about here are situations that involve much more insignificant minor touches," Survell said in comments reported by the Associated Press. However, state Republicans slammed the legislation in light of ongoing efforts nationwide to "defund" police departments."What in the world are we doing?" Senator John Cosgrove Jr. said. "Have you seen the attacks on police officers?"The bill will now move to the House, where Democrats hold a 55-45 majority.Democrats took control of the Virginia legislature in 2019 for the first time in decades, with Democrat Ralph Northam in the governor's office. That newfound power has led state Democrats to attempt to pass a flurry of liberal legislation, including stricter gun-control laws. The Washington Post noted in February of this year that Democrats were submitting so much legislation that lawmakers were working overtime trying to process the proposals.
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| California is about to send out $300 weekly unemployment bonus payments — and it'll include payments going back to August 1 Posted: 28 Aug 2020 09:14 AM PDT  California will begin issuing $300 a week in supplemental unemployment benefits on September 7, after the lapse in Federal benefits.
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| Bollywood star Aamir Khan under fire over China, Turkey links Posted: 27 Aug 2020 12:43 AM PDT  Muslim Bollywood star Aamir Khan has long been a hate figure for India's Hindu far-right, but now they have a new line of attack -- his massive popularity in China.
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| Democrats top Republicans in TV viewers for convention's third night Posted: 27 Aug 2020 11:48 AM PDT  The RNC number reflects the audience across 11 TV networks between 10 p.m and 11:15 p.m. EDT during which Vice President Mike Pence was the featured speaker. The virtual Democratic National Convention also experienced a drop in viewers from 2016. Ratings for the third night of the DNC, in which vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris spoke, captured viewers across 10 U.S. TV networks on Aug. 19.
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| Delhi 2020 religious riots: Amnesty International accuses police of rights abuses Posted: 28 Aug 2020 03:54 AM PDT  Amnesty International finds police beat protesters and rioted with Hindu mobs against Muslims.
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| Coronavirus updates: White House hints at new airline bailout; Pelosi, experts call new CDC guidelines 'scary and dangerous' Posted: 26 Aug 2020 06:34 PM PDT  The CDC updated its testing guidelines. More than 500 cases at University of Alabama. Oahu under stay-at-home orders. Latest COVID-19 news.
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| Airbus unveils B-model Lakota helos to enter US Army fleet next year Posted: 28 Aug 2020 01:31 PM PDT  A new Lakota will join the Army National Guard in 2021.
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| Injunction barring Richmond from removing monument tossed Posted: 27 Aug 2020 03:14 PM PDT  The Virginia Supreme Court has tossed out an injunction handed down by a Richmond judge that barred officials from removing the only remaining Confederate monument owned by the city. Richmond Circuit Judge Bradley Cavedo issued a 60-day injunction in July shortly after Mayor Levar Stoney ordered the removal of the city's Confederate monuments, using authority under a local emergency order, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Thursday.
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