| Video shows Black man pinned to tree in what he calls 'attempted lynching' at Indiana lake Posted: 06 Jul 2020 03:22 PM PDT  Indiana authorities are investigating a report by a Black man who said he was pinned to a tree by a group of white men, an attack he likened to an "attempted lynching."
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| White House defends Trump's claim that 99 percent of COVID-19 cases are 'harmless' with chart showing 5 percent are fatal Posted: 06 Jul 2020 12:17 PM PDT  Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany came to her press briefing on Monday prepared to defend President Trump's assertion that "99 percent" of U.S. coronavirus cases are "totally harmless" with two charts that inadvertently disproved his claim.
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| FBI chief says China threatens families to coerce overseas critics to return to China Posted: 07 Jul 2020 08:03 AM PDT  FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday urged China-born people in the United States to contact the FBI if Chinese officials try to force them to return to China under a program of coercion that he said is led by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Wray issued the unusual appeal in an address to the Hudson Institute think tank in which he reiterated U.S. charges that China is using espionage, cyber theft, blackmail and other means as part of a strategy to replace the United States as the world's dominant economic and technological power.
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| Black Lives Matter protesters face rare leak charge in Iowa Posted: 07 Jul 2020 01:00 PM PDT  Prosecutors in Iowa have filed a rarely used leak charge against Black Lives Matter protesters accused of stealing a confidential police document and displaying it during a television news broadcast. Two protesters are charged with unauthorized dissemination of intelligence data, a felony that carries up to five years in prison. The Iowa Judicial Branch says it's only the second time that the charge has been filed since 2010.
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| Michigan drivers met with startling billboard message: 'Driving while Black? Racial profiling just ahead' Posted: 07 Jul 2020 07:09 AM PDT  "Driving while Black? Racial profiling just ahead. Welcome to Livonia," the billboard reads. The town's mayor called the sign "counterproductive."
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| Some deaths caused by coronavirus would have happened later this year, says ONS Posted: 07 Jul 2020 05:26 AM PDT  Some people who died from Covid-19 were likely to die later in the year, the Government statistics body claimed as it predicted below that average death rates will continue. More than 55,000 deaths involving coronavirus have been recorded in the UK during the pandemic, with the virus the main reason for deaths increasing above what would normally be expected for the period. The elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions are the most vulnerable to Covid-19 and have been hardest hit by the outbreak. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the virus was likely to have brought forward the deaths of some older and vulnerable people, which could prompt a period of below-average deaths. Its researchers said: "The disease has had a larger impact on those most vulnerable – for example, those who already suffer from a medical condition – and those at older ages. "Some of these deaths would have likely occurred over the duration of the year, but have occurred earlier because of the coronavirus. These deaths occurring earlier than expected could mean we start to see a period of deaths below the five-year average."
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| Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Tests Positive for COVID-19 Posted: 06 Jul 2020 03:42 PM PDT  Bottoms said she's had no symptoms in a tweet on Monday
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| Exonerated Central Park Five members speak out: ‘Not too many things have changed since 30 years ago’ Posted: 06 Jul 2020 02:20 PM PDT  In 1989, five Black and Hispanic teens were falsely accused of raping and nearly killing Trisha Meili, a white woman jogging in Central Park. Known collectively as the Central Park Five, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise were convicted in two trials despite a lack of eyewitness testimony or DNA evidence and spent between six and 13 years in prison. Exonerated in 2002 after an investigation confirmed that a convicted murderer and rapist had committed the crime, the Central Park Five sued the city and state of New York, settling for millions.
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| New law would require NYPD police to take out individual insurance to cover misconduct claims Posted: 07 Jul 2020 10:55 AM PDT  A new bill introduced by a US lawmaker would require police officers to take out personal liability insurance to cover civil lawsuits filed against them for misconduct, reports have said.The new law, introduced by Senator Alessandra Biaggi, would mean that police are no longer represented by the city law department, according to a report by The New York Post.
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| Australia warns of 'arbitrary detention' in China Posted: 07 Jul 2020 03:15 AM PDT  Australia warned its citizens Tuesday they could face "arbitrary detention" if they travel to China, the latest sign of growing tensions between the two nations. The foreign ministry issued the warning in updated travel advice, which also noted that Chinese authorities had detained foreigners for allegedly "endangering national security". Australia has already told its citizens to avoid all international travel due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the updated advice did not raise the overall level of the warning against travel to China.
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| The Lincoln Project continues anti-Trump ad campaign Posted: 07 Jul 2020 09:04 AM PDT  On Tuesday, the Lincoln Project, a conservative political action committee formed in late 2019, released an ad titled "Whispers," which suggests those in President Trump's inner circle are secretly mocking him. This is the latest in a series of attack ads produced and distributed by the committee, whose members include George Conway, Steve Schmidt and other prominent Republicans who oppose Trump. Yahoo News has assembled a compilation of some of the Lincoln Project's most controversial advertisements.
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| Russia cracks down on marmot hunting after bubonic plague alert Posted: 06 Jul 2020 08:14 AM PDT  Russia said on Monday it had stepped up patrols to stop people hunting marmots near its border with China and Mongolia after the countries reported possible cases of bubonic plague, which can be carried by the animals. Authorities in Bayan Nur, a city in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, issued a warning on Sunday after a hospital reported a suspected case of the deadly disease. The Chinese region forbade the hunting and eating of the large rodents and asked the public to report any suspected cases, as well as any sick or dead marmots.
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| Gun violence kills 160 as holiday weekend exposes tale of 'two Americas' Posted: 07 Jul 2020 02:00 AM PDT  With more than 500 wounded across the US, local leaders see racism and under-investment at the root of the crisisA six-year-old in Philadelphia, a seven-year-old in Chicago, an eight-year-old in Atlanta, a 15-year-old in New York, all shot. Community cries of "enough is enough".Neighborhoods in some of the largest US cities erupted in gun violence over the Fourth of July weekend, killing an estimated 160 people and leaving more than 500 wounded from Friday night to Sunday.Georgia's governor, Brian Kemp, declared a state of emergency on Monday after 31 people were shot and five killed over the weekend in Atlanta. He authorized 1,000 national guard troops to "protect state property and patrol our streets".But Chicago saw the worst violence in one of the bloodiest holiday weekends in recent memory, ending with 17 people fatally shot including a seven-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy and 63 more wounded, an increase of five shootings on the high figures that had marred the holiday weekend the previous year.Despite an effort that included an additional 1,200 officers on the streets and pleas from the city's mayor, Lori Lightfoot, for residents not to reverse limited progress that had been made against the epidemic of gun violence, Lightfoot lamented the children whose "hopes and dreams were ended by the barrel of a gun".The city's south and west sides have seen worse weekends this year, however, and a one-year-old and a three-year-old were killed during recent shootings. The rising violence prompted Donald Trump to write to Lightfoot and the Illinois governor, JB Priztker, both Democrats, accusing them of receiving more than $1bn in special federal funding for anti-crime measures and coronavirus relief that was "not being turned into results"."Your lack of leadership … continues to fail the people you have sworn to protect," the letter said.Lightfoot dismissed Trump's letter as "all talk, little action".The shooting death of an eight-year-old girl, Secoriea Turner, in Atlanta, prompted the mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, to call for justice while noting the shadow such street violence casts over the huge and largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protests against racism and police brutality."Enough is enough," Bottoms said. "If you want people to take us seriously and you don't want us to lose this movement, we can't lose each other."The shooting happened near the Wendy's restaurant where a Black man, Rayshard Brooks, was killed by a white police officer in June."She was only eight years old," Charmaine Turner said of her daughter Secoriea. "Right now, she would have been on TikTok, dancing on her phone."Atlanta police said two other people were killed and more than 20 injured in gunfire during the holiday weekend.In New York, a series of shootings on Saturday and Sunday claimed at least nine lives and wounded 41 others in a rise in incidents in some neighborhoods. A 15-year-old boy was wounded in the Bronx.And in Philadelphia, a six-year-old boy died of a gunshot wound amid five fatal shootings in about five hours on Sunday afternoon, police said.The Trace, a non-profit news website covering gun violence in the US, which tallied the weekend toll of shootings in the US, reported that preliminary research from the University of California, Davis, has found a potential link between the rise in violence and a surge in gun-buying during the coronavirus pandemic, of more than 2.1 million more guns than usual between March and May.> Chicago is, woefully, a tale of two cities and across the country it's a tale of two Americas> > Rev Gregory LivingstonThe Rev Gregory Livingston, a pastor and civil rights leader who moved to New York last summer after many years running an anti-violence community organization in his native Chicago, spoke of Chicago "going through absolute madness".But he warned that nationwide systemic racism that is not being addressed, and the "violent history" of America that has not been reckoned with were dividing people and causing some communities to break down."Chicago is, woefully, a tale of two cities, and across the country it's a tale of two Americas. Chicago is a very segregated city, and that legacy is part of what's fueling this horrific violence," Livingston told the Guardian.He condemned "corruption and racism" and said the pandemic and economic fallout had exacerbated inequality. The pandemic has been disproportionately hard on Black Americans already suffering economic and healthcare deprivations.Livingston campaigned strongly to vote out the previous Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel. Lightfoot has been in the position since May 2019, and has just appointed a new police chief.Lightfoot agreed with Livingston's point that a long history of segregation in Chicago and under-investment were "at the root" of the "explosion" of violence."You have to give a sense of hope. You have to reach out to those young men on the corners who are the shooters, but it can't just be on the police and the city government. It's all hands on deck," Lightfoot said.She said of Trump: "We are leading. He needs to take our lead and follow it."Livingston called on Lightfoot to tackle racism and policing problems "head on"."There is an individual responsibility [among those shooting], but there are also conditions that create a climate of violence," he said.He accused the New York mayor, Bill de Blasio, of being "scared" of confronting racism in the New York police department. "There is no courage in city hall," he said.And he warned mayors across the US that Chicago was the "control" for what would happen elsewhere this summer if inequality and the demands of protesters coast to coast since George Floyd, an African American, was killed in Minneapolis by a white police officer did not spur change.The White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, declared herself dismayed that she was not asked about the weekend shootings at her briefing on Monday, despite citing "a doubling of shootings in New York City for the third straight week".> Multiple shootings in multiple Democrat-run cities such as New York and Chicago. Tragic loss of life. > > But not one question during the briefing... pic.twitter.com/krdPbmyr1w> > — Kayleigh McEnany (@PressSec) July 6, 2020Journalists at the briefing responded that she had ended the 22-minute briefing and departed while many were still waiting, hands raised, to ask questions.
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| A rare case of brain-eating amoeba has been confirmed in Florida. Officials are telling residents to avoid tap water, and to swim with nose clips. Posted: 06 Jul 2020 07:38 AM PDT  The Florida Department of Health had to issue a warning for residents to avoid nasal contact with tap water.
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| Prioritize COVID aid for child care and schools to help parents and the economy: GOP leader Posted: 07 Jul 2020 02:00 AM PDT  The economic crisis will get worse if we don't reopen schools and child care. We must educate our kids safely and help our communities return to work.
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| ‘I believe in white power.’ Home Depot face mask fight spurs arrest, Illinois cops say Posted: 07 Jul 2020 11:09 AM PDT  "The entitlement is disgusting."
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| Kremlin vows to retaliate against fresh UK sanctions against Russians Posted: 07 Jul 2020 04:08 AM PDT  The Kremlin spokesman says that Moscow will respond to new UK sanctions against Russian citizens including a senior investigator and prison officials. Britain on Monday used a new legislation drafted in the memory of a killed Russian tax adviser to sanction 25 Russian nationals linked to prosecution and mistreatment of tax adviser Sergei Magnitsky as well as 20 Saudis involved in the murder of a journalist in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday that Moscow "can only lament such hostile steps." "We will certainly rely on reciprocity and respond in the way that fits Russia's interests," he said. Alexander Bastrykin, Russia's top investigator and a university friend of Vladimir Putin, is arguably the most senior official to have been slapped by the new sanctions and his name is likely to anger the Kremlin. As the head of the Investigative Committee, Mr Bastrykin is accused of covering up the mistreatment of Mr Magnitsky who died in prison after a year in pre-trial detention in 2009. A tax lawyer, Mr Magnitsky discovered a massive tax scam involving Russian tax authorities and ended up jailed by the same officials he had exposed. A Russian presidential commission concluded that he was beaten to death in prison. Most of the people on the sanctions list are lower-level officials and prison staff including two prison doctors who faced charges of negligence but were never convicted. All of them will now be subject to travel bans and asset freezes but it is not immediately clear if they have any property in Britain. The United States adopted the Magnitsky Act in 2012, targeting money of senior Russian officials kept in Western banks. Russia then responded with travel bans as well as a ban on American adoptions of Russian children. The Kremlin has outlawed institutions such as the British Council during previous diplomatic spats between the two countries, which does not leave Moscow much British property to target this time.
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| Iraqi expert on armed groups shot dead in Baghdad Posted: 06 Jul 2020 11:58 AM PDT |
| Hong Kong Tiananmen museum turns to digitalisation after new law Posted: 06 Jul 2020 07:49 PM PDT |
| BMW wants customers to pay a subscription fee to use features the car already has installed, like a heated steering wheel or adaptive cruise control Posted: 07 Jul 2020 01:03 PM PDT  BMW's new setup is similar to Tesla's, which famously offers over-the-air updates for customers long after purchase.
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| WATCH: New York father walking with daughter is shot in broad daylight Posted: 07 Jul 2020 10:19 AM PDT  A surveillance camera was rolling as a father walking with his daughter across the street was gunned down in the Bronx section of New York City as they traveled home.
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| Did Doxxing of an Oklahoma Councilwoman Lead to a Neighbor Being Raped? Posted: 07 Jul 2020 01:36 AM PDT  A city council member in Norman, Oklahoma, proposed a police budget cut. Then officers for that department posted her address online. Days later, a woman who lived in the other half of her duplex was raped by an assailant who allegedly made a political threat.The attack was a case of retaliation and mistaken identity, the council member alleges.Alexandra Scott, a Norman council member who won the Democratic nomination for her state Senate seat last month, is an outspoken critic of her city's police force. When racial justice protests swept the nation in June, Scott proposed slashing the Norman Police budget by $4.5 million. During a city council meeting about defunding, she also discussed a stalking incident she experienced, which she said police handled improperly. Now a pair of Norman Police officers are under investigation for allegedly posting Scott's personal information online, which Scott says may have led to the sexual assault of her neighbor.These 911 Emergency Dispatchers Are Ready to Defund the PoliceDefunding the police is a fraught issue across the country, but especially in Norman, where police have made their disagreements with elected officials well known. Amid calls to slash the city's police budget by millions, council members voted to reallocate $865,000 from the department. The move didn't cut the police's overall budget (it mostly vetoes the department's requested raise, but keeps the department's coffers at slightly above last year's budget) but it was enough for the city's police union to file a lawsuit against city council this month. Scott's criticism of Norman Police has made her a favorite villain in some pro-police circles in the city. A recent Facebook post shared by a Norman Police officer called her "another AOC," in reference to the New York representative who has become a boogeyperson for conservatives. That same police officer, John Barbour, is one of two under investigation for sharing Scott's personal details shortly after her testimony on police defunding. In posts first reported by the Norman Transcript, Barbour made a Facebook post sharing an unredacted video of police responding to Scott's 911 call in May. (Although details of the video remain unconfirmed, they align with Scott's own testimony about calling 911 on a stalker that month.)Neither Scott nor Norman Police returned The Daily Beast's requests for comment. Barbour declined to comment, referring The Daily Beast to the Norman Police public information officer, as his case was under investigation. A spokesperson for the group Norman Citizens for Racial Justice said Scott's address was identifiable in the post. "After Alex shared her story of solidarity during that [city council] study session, an officer released an unredacted report and some footage of her making a police report fairly recently," the spokesperson told The Daily Beast. "Those items that the officer uploaded to Facebook had her home address on there."This Utah Police Chief Was Promoted Even After His Racist Posts Were Exposed. Now Residents Want Him Out.When Barbour was met with criticism online for the video, he responded sarcastically. "So what I am getting is that if the issue was the officer let everyone see, but when someone slanders the fine officers on open record meeting it's not ok to find out the proof," he posted, apparently accusing Scott of being dishonest in her testimony.Barbour removed the video but shared a recent police report (from when Scott was arrested at a recent protest) that contained her address. In comments viewed by The Daily Beast, Barbour accused Scott of participating in a riot. When commenters noted that "you can't just call protesters rioters … There was no riot," Barbour responded, "If you say so….but I bet state law says different."Another Norman Police officer, Michael Lauderback, appears to have also shared Scott's personal information using the Facebook handle "Tired Ofthehate," which was linked to his legal name. Lauderback posted a picture of a sexual assault report Scott made in 2015. Lauderback could not be reached for comment and appears to have since deleted his Facebook account.Both officers are now under investigation for posting Scott's personal information, the Norman Record reported. The police department noted that since Barbour claimed to have obtained the video from a third party who obtained it through a public records request, the officers' posts appear to be legal.But Scott and Norman Citizens for Racial Justice said the posts play into a larger culture of harassment that has emerged on Norman-centric social media. "Most of the targeting happened after we started advocating for defunding the police," the Racial Justice spokesperson told The Daily Beast, noting that many people in her group were experiencing harassment from a "ReOpen Norman" Facebook page.In a since-deleted Facebook post, Scott said that social media activity had led to real-world horror for her and a neighbor."People were passing around my address on social media (and wherever else) for 2 weeks & making light of my experiences with assault and stalking," she wrote. "I've received threatening messages and voicemails from men stating they, 'hoped I didn't need the police' when something happened."Scott claims those threats came to a head late last month. Her address, which was shared publicly, is in a duplex building. On June 27, someone broke into the other half of the duplex and assaulted Scott's neighbor."She was raped by [a] stranger who broke into her side of our duplex last night. She had been out with her father, he dropped her off around Midnight and left. Then she was assaulted in her hallway," Scott wrote in the now-deleted post. "Her rapist dug his elbow into her neck, pushed her into the wall, and told her 'Maybe next time you'll learn your lesson.' He threw her on the ground and raped her."The attack, she said, was intended for her. "They got the wrong woman," she wrote. Norman Police released a statement acknowledging the incident and the prior publication of the address on social media although, in a heavily redacted police report obtained by the Transcript, the incident is described as a burglary.Since Norman Police officers posted Scott's address, it has circulated on right-wing Oklahoma pages, where it remains online. 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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| U.S. says foreign students may have to leave if their school goes online-only Posted: 06 Jul 2020 02:27 PM PDT  The news comes as some colleges and universities, including Harvard, have announced they will hold online-only courses this fall amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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| TikTok: Chinese app may be banned in US, says Pompeo Posted: 07 Jul 2020 06:33 AM PDT  US Secretary of State hints that Chinese apps - like TikTok - could be targeted.
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| Trump approval divides Democrats, Republicans like no president has before, poll finds Posted: 06 Jul 2020 09:13 AM PDT  The approval gap between voters of both parties is the biggest ever recorded by Gallup.
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| U.S. Sends Major Military Muscle to the South China Sea Posted: 06 Jul 2020 02:22 PM PDT  The joint exercise included a B-52 bomber that flew all the way from Louisiana on a 28-hour-long mission.
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| Democratic challengers in two tight U.S. Senate races step up fundraising Posted: 06 Jul 2020 03:48 PM PDT  Democratic contenders for two Republican-held U.S. Senate seats on Monday said they accelerated fundraising in the second quarter, pointing to their momentum in what were already seen as competitive races. To win the Senate, Democrats need to pick up three seats if the party wins the White House and four if not.
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| A white Florida man who was filmed yelling at a Black homeowner while waving a BB gun also faked being a Navy SEAL for years, report says Posted: 07 Jul 2020 03:12 AM PDT  Joseph Fucheck had claimed he was a Navy SEAL in his tirade in North Miami-Dade, Florida. He was arrested for the incident last month.
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| Former Nazi camp guard, 93, faces German court reckoning Posted: 05 Jul 2020 10:12 PM PDT  The prosecution's closing arguments will be heard on Monday in the trial of a 93-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard for complicity in the murder of more than 5,000 people during World War II. In what could be one of the last such cases of surviving Nazi guards, Bruno Dey stands accused of complicity in the murder of 5,230 people when he worked at the Stutthof camp near what was then Danzig, now Gdansk in Poland. Dey, who has appeared in court in a wheelchair, denies bearing any guilt for what happened at the camp.
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| North Korea Would Use Lethal 'Swarm' Attacks to Fight Posted: 06 Jul 2020 03:30 PM PDT  How is South Korea is preparing to defeat them?
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| Supreme Court hands victory to school voucher lobby – will religious minorities, nonbelievers and state autonomy lose out? Posted: 07 Jul 2020 05:15 AM PDT  The Supreme Court's recent decision that Montana cannot exclude donations that go to religious schools from a small tax credit program could have consequences felt far beyond the state.The 5-4 ruling in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, which came down June 30, follows on from recent cases that have expanded what counts as discrimination against religion under the U.S. Constitution, making it harder for states to deny grants to faith-based institutions.From my perspective as a scholar of law and religion, this latest ruling could massively limit states' ability to exclude religious schools from all sorts of funding, including controversial voucher programs which allow state funds to be used by parents to send children to a private school. And rather than preventing religious discrimination, the court's decision may actually support a system that discriminates against religious minorities and those of no faith. A win for voucher advocatesThe Espinoza decision was quickly hailed as a major win by supporters of school vouchers, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. It isn't the first time they have cheered the court.In 2002, the Supreme Court, in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, ruled in favor of a voucher program in Ohio which overwhelmingly benefited religious schools. The court held that the program did not violate the U.S. Constitution's Establishment Clause which limits government support for, and promotion of, religion.That decision broke with a long line of previous cases, which held that government could not use taxpayer dollars to fund religious education. In the years following the Zelman decision, public support for school voucher programs has grown. The election of President Donald Trump and appointment of DeVos as education secretary gave the pro-voucher lobby powerful advocates in the administration. The White House has made vouchers a central plank of their schools policy, with Trump likening "school choice" – a term that includes the use of vouchers – as the "civil rights statement" of the decade.Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has paved the way for religious schools to benefit from vouchers through a series of rulings.In addition to Zelman, and as a precursor to Espinoza, the justices ruled in 2017 that a Missouri program that provided free playground chips for resurfacing, could not deny access to a religious school seeking to resurface its playground. In that case, Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, the justices held that refusing the grant contravened the Constitution's Free Exercise Clause, which prohibits discrimination against religion, among other things.Until then, the doctrine had been limited to situations in which a government discriminated against a religion through hostility toward that faith, such as when the City of Hialeah, Florida, created a series of ordinances to discriminate against the practice of Santeria. In a footnote in the Trinity Lutheran case, the justices specifically noted that the decision was limited and did "not address religious uses of funding" such as for attendance at religious schools. But in Espinoza, the Supreme Court has essentially ignored that narrower reading. Instead, the court held that exclusion of donations to religious schools from the state tax credit program discriminates against religion. Siphoning fundsThis has significant implications for school vouchers. It could force states to include religious schools in any program that is open to private nonreligious schools. So if a state allows for parents to use vouchers to take a child out of the public school system, then religious schools must be allowed to benefit from those funds.But rather than preventing religious discrimination, the expansion of voucher plans, in my view, may actually encourage it.The majority of private schools are religious – and in some areas with voucher programs, religious schools make up more than 90% of private schools.In most districts, religious schools that can afford to take voucher students represent only a few larger denominations that are able to highly subsidize religious education. For example, in the Cleveland School District involved in the Zelman case, 96% of voucher recipients went to religious schools representing just one or two denominations. But vouchers strip money from public education – every voucher going to a private school means a loss of per student funding for public schools.This would force the parents of religious minorities, agnostics and atheists to choose between sending their children to a school that may provide religious teaching that goes against their wishes or leave their children in public schools that will be further drained of funding and students.The Espinoza ruling did leave the door ajar a little when it comes to limiting vouchers to religious private schools. The court draws a tightrope-like line between discrimination based on religious status – the fact that a school is religious – and situations where the denial of funding is based on concerns the funds will support religious functions.But precedent suggests walking this tightrope might be difficult for states and school districts. The Supreme Court's decision in Zelman upheld vouchers for religious schools including those which proselytize. It is hard to imagine how a state might prevent funds from going to a faith-based school without it being seen as denying funding based on that school's religious status. Of course, states can simply not have voucher or tax credit programs for private schools – the Espinoza decision makes it clear that this is acceptable. And some states already do this. For example, Michigan explicitly prevents taxpayer money going to private schools regardless of whether those schools are religious or not.But even these bans on taxpayer funding for private education are increasingly being challenged by school voucher enthusiasts and religious groups. Put on noticeIn Espinoza, the Supreme Court has put states and school districts on notice that if they have voucher programs they can not prevent taxpayer money from being used at religious private schools. That could leave some parents with an uncomfortable choice between sending a child to a public school that is losing funding as a result of vouchers or a religious private school that may proselytize their children.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * An old debate over religion in school is opening up again * Are yoga and mindfulness in schools religious?Frank S. Ravitch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| Despite precautions, summer camps have failed to keep out the coronavirus Posted: 06 Jul 2020 01:09 PM PDT  Campers and staff members promise to isolate before they arrive at camp, but in several cases the pandemic has arrived with them.
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| Portland Police See 240 Percent Yearly Increase in July Shootings Posted: 06 Jul 2020 02:46 PM PDT  Portland police have responded to 17 shootings so far this month, a 240 percent increase when the city saw five in the same timeframe last year, the department announced Monday.One shooting earlier this month injured a man, while another resulted in an infant child putting a spent bullet in her mouth, police revealed. In a statement, Portland police chief Chuck Lovell called the spike "alarming.""Gun violence negatively impacts everyone in our community and the increase we are seeing is alarming," he said. "As a community, we must come together to send a message that shootings in our City are unacceptable."Portland has faced weeks of unrest following the death of George Floyd in May. Over the weekend, police declared a riot after a bronze sculpture honoring Oregon's pioneers was set ablaze outside the city's justice center. The Fourth of July marked the city's 38th consecutive day of civil unrest.The head of Portland's police union released his own statement on Monday, calling on officials to take action."As riots continue, it is obvious to everyone that this is no longer about George Floyd, social justice, or police reform," Portland Police Association president Daryl Turner said. "This is about a group of individuals intent on causing injury, chaos, and destruction by rioting, looting, starting fires, throwing rocks, bottles, mortars, urine, and feces at peaceful protestors, as well as the police."Last month, protestors attempted to set up an "autonomous zone" in Portland's Pearl District, near an apartment building where Mayor Ted Wheeler reportedly lives, but were stymied by police.
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| Las Vegas' Nobu Hotel at Caesars Palace reopens amid COVID-19 pandemic Posted: 06 Jul 2020 10:24 AM PDT  The Caesars Entertainment property in Las Vegas is the seventh to open since Nevada lifted a COVID-19 shutdown that lasted almost three months.
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| Giffords group takes aim at key U.S. Senate races in new push for gun limits Posted: 07 Jul 2020 03:23 AM PDT  With Democrats' chances of flipping the Senate improving as Republican President Donald Trump's poll numbers slide ahead of the Nov. 3 election, the group said background checks were a wedge issue that could win support from critical voting blocs in close races and beyond. "This issue helps Democrats in every single state and every single congressional district," Senator Chris Murphy said in an interview, citing opinion polls that show background checks are popular even among Republican voters.
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| Biden campaign rolls out new fonts from typeface powerhouse Hoefler & Co. Posted: 06 Jul 2020 01:24 PM PDT  The fonts are from the same company behind typefaces for the Obamas, Rolling Stone, Twitter, Tiffany & Co., the Guggenheim, Condé Nast and Nike.
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| Brit Hume says criticism of Trump's Mount Rushmore speech 'could be a turning point' for the president Posted: 06 Jul 2020 08:50 PM PDT  I've rarely seen such biased and misleading coverage, says Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume on 'Fox News @ Night.'
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| US killing of Iran's top general 'unlawful': UN expert Posted: 07 Jul 2020 04:55 AM PDT  The US drone strike that killed Iran's top general Qasem Soleimani was "unlawful", the United Nations expert on extrajudicial killings concluded in a report released Tuesday. Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, concluded it was an "arbitrary killing" that violated the UN charter. The US had provided no evidence that an imminent attack against US interest was being planned, she wrote.
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| Man 'pulls gun' on Black Lives Matter protester after Trump supporters deface mural Posted: 06 Jul 2020 06:58 AM PDT  A man has been arrested in Martinez, California after reportedly pulling a gun on protesters protecting a Black Lives Matter mural that had previously been vandalised by Trump supporters.Speaking to local media, one protester described how he saw the man drive past the demonstration yelling "all lives matter" and "flipping us off"; he followed the man's car on his skateboard, at which point the man allegedly made a u-turn and and pointed a gun in the protester's face.
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| Retired Air National Guard colonel apologizes for comments about Vanessa Guillen Posted: 06 Jul 2020 10:07 AM PDT  Betsy Schoeller wrote: "Sexual harassment is the price of admission for women" in the military and "If you're gonna cry like a snowflake about it, you're gonna pay the price."
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| Is it safe for Disney World to reopen this weekend as coronavirus cases soar in Florida? Posted: 06 Jul 2020 03:54 PM PDT  As Walt Disney World prepares to reopen on Saturday, Florida has recorded the largest weekly increase in coronavirus cases in the country.
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