| Scrutiny of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy intensifies Posted: 14 Sep 2020 04:01 PM PDT  Scrutiny of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy intensified on Monday amid new reports alleging improper business dealings and persistent charges that the longtime Republican donor is subverting postal operations in order to make mail-in voting difficult in November's presidential election.
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| A 26-year-old American woman ignored quarantine instructions to go on a bar crawl in Germany, and caused a COVID-19 outbreak at the hotel she works in, officials say Posted: 15 Sep 2020 05:06 AM PDT  German media says the woman, who works in a Bavaria town, ignored instructions to quarantine until her COVID-19 test results were ready last week.
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| “How can he talk about trusting the system?”: Vanessa Bryant attacks LA sheriff over LeBron James challenge, recalling photos taken at husband’s crash site Posted: 15 Sep 2020 10:17 AM PDT  Vanessa Bryant is suing the LA Sheriff's Department over photos she claims they took at the site of her husband and daughter's fatal helicopter crash
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| In U.S. elections, it's winner take all — and Blacks are the losers Posted: 14 Sep 2020 12:47 PM PDT  Why not just let the American people choose our president directly, instead of relying on some clumsy work-around to the Constitution known as the Electoral College?
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| NC driver charged after video shows SUV run over BLM protester in Tennessee crosswalk Posted: 14 Sep 2020 02:48 PM PDT  A 37-year-old man from Bakersville, North Carolina, turned himself in Monday, police said.
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| 'Huge rainmaker': Hurricane Sally threatens historic floods Posted: 14 Sep 2020 10:40 PM PDT  Heavy rain and pounding surf driven by Hurricane Sally hit the Florida and Alabama coasts Tuesday as forecasters expected the slow-moving storm to dump continuous deluges before and after landfall, possibly triggering dangerous, historic flooding along the northern Gulf Coast. "It's going to be a huge rainmaker," said Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist and meteorologist at Colorado State University. The National Hurricane Center expected Sally to remain a Category 1 hurricane, with top sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph) at landfall late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
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| Summer parties, teacher shortages push suburban schools to scrap COVID-19 reopening plans Posted: 14 Sep 2020 10:17 AM PDT  After coronavirus cases rose in some areas, more than 60% of school districts planned to start the year with online class, up from early August.
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| US Space Force confirms Space Based Infrared System detected missile attack in January Posted: 15 Sep 2020 06:43 AM PDT  Chief of Space Operations Gen. John "Jay" Raymond has confirmed suspicions that the Space Based Infrared System was used to detect more than a dozen missiles launched at U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq back in January.
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| White House blocks Navarro from testifying to House panel about ventilator deal Posted: 14 Sep 2020 04:15 PM PDT  Michael Purpura, deputy counsel to President Donald Trump, wrote to Krishnamoorthi on Sept. 9 that the White House would not make Navarro available.
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| As fires ravage California, Trump gives his climate-change solution: 'It'll start getting cooler' Posted: 14 Sep 2020 01:31 PM PDT  California Gov. Gavin Newsom unsuccessfully pressed President Trump on Monday to acknowledge that climate change is making wildfires worse across much of the West Coast.
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| More than 50 prisoners starve to death in east Congo prison Posted: 15 Sep 2020 07:11 AM PDT |
| Theme park worker falls to death from world's tallest swing ride Posted: 15 Sep 2020 02:19 AM PDT  Incident took place at ICON Park, on Orlando's International Drive, amid routine checks
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| Catholic Group Launches $9.7 Million Anti-Biden Campaign in Battleground States Posted: 15 Sep 2020 11:39 AM PDT  A Catholic group is launching a multi-million dollar effort to educate Catholic voters in key battleground states about Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's "anti-Catholic record and policy agenda" ahead of the general election in November.CatholicVote, a national Catholic political advocacy group, on Tuesday announced the $9.7 million campaign to discourage Catholics from voting for Biden. The organization is producing an "in-depth report on Biden's record on issues Catholics care about," including a shortened "voter guide" version, that it plans to send to five million Catholic voters. The effort will also kick off with a $350,000 digital ad buy in the swing states of Pennsylvania and Michigan.The group's new effort, which involves full-time staff in six states and thousands of volunteers, will reach voters through digital advertising, parish-by-parish canvassing, direct mail, and "get out the vote" efforts in six states."Joe Biden's record makes clear he will not protect our Catholic values or defend our way of life. For Catholics who cherish the Faith and their freedom to live it, a Biden presidency represents an existential threat," said Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote."Catholics are less focused on Joe Biden's claims about his personal faith, and instead on what his policies would do to the culture, and their freedom to live out their own beliefs," Burch added.Biden, who frequently touts his Catholic faith on the campaign trail, invoked Pope St. John Paul II during a campaign speech in Pittsburgh late last month as he encouraged voters to remain hopeful about the country's future."The campaign for the presidency has come down to fear," Biden said. "But I believe Americans are stronger than that. I believe we'll be guided by the words of Pope John Paul II, words drawn from the scriptures: 'Be not afraid. Be not afraid.'""Fear never builds the future," the former vice president continued. "Hope does. And building the future is what America does."Despite Biden's willingness to talk about his Catholic faith as he campaigns for president, he remains staunchly in favor of legal abortion, in direct opposition to the teachings of the Catholic Church, which prohibits abortion.Biden's presidential platform includes working to codify Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized abortion nationwide, as well as making sure his Justice Department does "everything in its power to stop the rash of state laws that so blatantly violate" the case. Biden also supports repealing the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funds from paying for abortions.CatholicVote's first ad for its anti-Biden campaign emphasizes Biden's pro-abortion stance and invites Catholic voters to learn more about the Democratic presidential candidate's record on abortion and support for it.
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| A shocking image from space shows a record 5 tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin at the same time Posted: 15 Sep 2020 12:38 PM PDT  The satellite image also shows smoke swirling across the US from wildfires in California, Oregon, and Washington.
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| Federal authorities looking into Louisiana State Police after death of Black man in custody Posted: 14 Sep 2020 12:11 PM PDT  Federal authorities are investigating the death of a Black man during what Louisiana State Police described as a struggle to take him into custody following a rural police chase last year, officials told the Associated Press.
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| Rochester police chief out in fallout over Prude death Posted: 14 Sep 2020 02:11 PM PDT  Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren fired the police chief and suspended her top lawyer and communications director Monday in the continuing upheaval over the suffocation death of Daniel Prude. Chief Le'Ron Singletary announced his retirement last week as part of a major shakeup of the city's police leadership but said he would stay on through the end of the month. Instead, Warren said at a news conference that she had permanently relieved him while suspending Corporation Counsel Tim Curtin and Communications Director Justin Roj without pay for 30 days following a cursory management review of the city's role in Prude's death.
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| Hundreds turned out for anti-mask protest in Utah, which is being mocked as 'a straight parody' on social media Posted: 15 Sep 2020 11:05 AM PDT  The demonstration gained national attention after a news report from Salt Lake City TV station KTVX-TV was shared on Twitter and TikTok this week.
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| Poll: Number of Americans willing to get COVID-19 vaccine falls to new low amid fears Trump is putting politics before safety Posted: 14 Sep 2020 01:37 PM PDT  The latest Yahoo News/YouGov poll reveals that less than a third of Americans (32 percent) say they plan to get vaccinated, a stunning 23-point decline that reflects rising concern about the politicization of the vaccine process.
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| Armed gangs ‘protecting property’ in wildfire evacuation zones are confronting people at gunpoint, Oregon police say Posted: 15 Sep 2020 11:01 AM PDT  'The last thing I want to see is something tragically happen because somebody is overreacting'
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| Birds are dropping dead in New Mexico, potentially in the 'hundreds of thousands' Posted: 15 Sep 2020 07:37 AM PDT  Scientists are investigating why so many birds are dying and are asking the public for help.
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| Russian loan won't keep Lukashenko afloat for long Posted: 15 Sep 2020 08:46 AM PDT  A $1.5 billion loan from Russia will shore up Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for the time being as he tries to face down mass protests, but not for long. Lukashenko, whose security forces have arrested thousands of opposition supporters demanding his resignation, secured the financial lifeline from Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Black Sea summit on Monday. According to Artyom Shraibman, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, only a fraction of the funds will actually make it to Minsk, given it needs to refinance another $1 billion in loans, including from Russia, and pay $300 million of debt to Russian energy giant Gazprom by the end of the year.
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| Photos of coronavirus attacking lung cells show how ‘intense’ infections can get Posted: 15 Sep 2020 12:23 PM PDT  "These images make a strong case for the use of masks by infected and uninfected individuals."
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| Dong Tam case: Two sentenced to death in Vietnam over police killings Posted: 14 Sep 2020 06:08 AM PDT  Three policemen and one resident died in clashes over a land dispute that caused a public outcry.
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| The US Air Force has built and flown a mysterious full-scale prototype of its future fighter jet Posted: 15 Sep 2020 08:39 AM PDT  Does this give the Next Generation Air Dominance program more momentum, or does it open it up to more scrutiny?
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| Joe Biden and President Trump debate worthiness for office Posted: 15 Sep 2020 03:38 PM PDT  Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden visits the crucial battleground state of Florida; Peter Doocy reports.
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| Iran warns US against 'strategic mistake' after Trump threat Posted: 15 Sep 2020 04:09 AM PDT  Iran warned the US on Tuesday against making a "strategic mistake" after President Donald Trump threatened Tehran over reports it planned to avenge the killing of top general Qasem Soleimani.
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| Sally's threat: 'Potentially historic' floods, fierce winds Posted: 13 Sep 2020 09:01 PM PDT  Hurricane Sally, one of four storms churning simultaneously in the Atlantic, moved closer to the Gulf Coast on Monday with winds of 100 mph (161 kph) and heavy rain as forecasters warned of "potentially historic" flooding and governors declared states of emergency. Sally once appeared to have New Orleans in its sights and it was still moving toward the tip of southeast Louisiana late Monday. Sally was expected to produce between 8-16 inches (20-41 centimeters) of rain from the Florida Panhandle to southeastern Mississippi through mid-week, with 2 feet (.61 meters) of rain possible in isolated spots.
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| Trump Could Use the Huge Number of Mailed and Absentee Votes to His Advantage. Here's Why Democrats Should Consider Voting Early in Person Posted: 15 Sep 2020 08:45 AM PDT  In 2020, it could be millions of mail-in and absentee ballots in every swing state, with signatures and deadlines that can be used for delay past the Electoral College deadlines. In 2000, the Supreme Court decided the election before all the ballots were counted. In 2020, there could be a different undemocratic twist overriding the voters: If recounts are delayed and the Electoral College does not produce a certified majority by early January, the 12th Amendment could allow House Republicans to put Trump back in the White House.
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| Carnival to ditch 18 ships in total as U.S. cruises remain banned amid COVID-19 pandemic Posted: 15 Sep 2020 11:37 AM PDT  Carnival Corporation will part with a total of 18 cruise ships in the next few months — 12% of its fleet — as it continues to cut costs while cruising in most of the world remains banned.
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| Oregon woman holds suspected arsonist at gunpoint as police warn residents against protecting properties Posted: 15 Sep 2020 02:56 PM PDT  Facebook is removing reports of far-left arson after a sheriff's officer was filmed saying Antifa were 'out causing hell'
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| Coronavirus: What are the numbers out of Latin America? Posted: 15 Sep 2020 08:59 AM PDT  Some countries are beginning to see a drop in new daily cases, but the numbers are rising in others.
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| Utah police must now try de-escalation first after officer shot 13-year-old with autism Posted: 15 Sep 2020 07:12 AM PDT  Policy that makes de-escalation tactics "mandatory" for Utah police went into effect hours after an officer shot a 13-year-old boy with autism.
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| The key winners and losers of Israel's peace agreements with the UAE and Bahrain Posted: 15 Sep 2020 03:31 AM PDT  Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates will today sign peace agreements in Washington, heralding a new era of friendship between wealthy Gulf nations and the Jewish state. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has flown to Washington to attend the ceremony in the White House, along with his Emirati and Bahraini counterparts. Donald Trump, the US president, who oversaw the negotiations, has hailed a "historic breakthrough" for his "great friends" in the region, which he hopes will enhance his foreign policy credentials ahead of elections in November. But other Middle Eastern countries, notably Iran and Turkey, have strongly condemned the agreement, which they believe spells disaster for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and could harm their own regional ambitions. Here we look at how the so-called Abraham Accord will change the Middle East, and who will emerge from the historic deal as the key winners and losers. Israel Israel is likely to emerge as the biggest winner of this deal, as it will help build a US-led alliance against Iran, strengthen security ties with wealthy new allies, and potentially save the career of the country's embattled prime minister. For starters, they unlock dozens of trade deals in aviation, tourism, and the country's advanced tech industry, with direct flights due to start running from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi. The Abraham Accords should also improve Mr Netanyahu's reputation at home, as he faces mass protests against his leadership, a lengthy corruption trial and a severe second wave of coronavirus. But more importantly, the prestige of securing peace with two Arab nations, following similar accords in the past with Egypt and Jordan, leaves Israel far less isolated in a hostile region.
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| 'Is that leg really broken?' Rights group documents detainee abuse in Belarus Posted: 15 Sep 2020 04:49 PM PDT  Detainees swept up in protest against Belarus president describe harrowing jailhouse abuse. Major rights group deems some of it torture.
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| California's fires are so intense, some make their own thunderstorms. NASA calls the formations the 'fire-breathing dragon of clouds.' Posted: 15 Sep 2020 11:49 AM PDT  The pyrocumulonimbus cloud can generate smoky rain, lightning, and in some cases, tornadoes (sometimes called firenadoes).
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| Legal advocates line up on both sides of Bill Cosby's appeal Posted: 14 Sep 2020 01:33 PM PDT  Legal advocates are lining up on both sides of actor Bill Cosby's appeal as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court prepares to review his 2018 sex assault conviction. Cosby was the first celebrity to go on trial in the #MeToo era, and his appeal could resolve lingering questions about how the cases should be tried. For starters, the high court will try to clarify when other accusers can testify against a defendant — and when the additional testimony amounts to character assassination.
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| Reporter Update: Protesters Charged In Clash With Diners Posted: 15 Sep 2020 07:57 AM PDT  KDKA's Chris Hoffman has more on the charges three protesters are facing following a clash with diners in downtown Pittsburgh.
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| Eli Lilly's drug cuts COVID-19 recovery time in remdesivir-combo study Posted: 14 Sep 2020 09:51 AM PDT  The drug baricitinib, branded as Olumiant, cut the median recovery time by about a day when added to remdesivir, compared to patients treated with the antiviral alone, Lilly said. Remdesivir was granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) in May after trial data showed it helped shorten hospital recovery time by 31%. Lilly said it plans to discuss the potential for an EAU for baricitinib with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, based on the results from the trial, which tested more than 1,000 patients.
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| Harris draws on her past as US faces reckoning on police Posted: 14 Sep 2020 09:15 PM PDT  When Kamala Harris won her first election for San Francisco district attorney in 2003, the office's relationship with the city police force was in tatters. Three months after Harris took office, a young city police officer was shot and killed. Harris quickly said she wouldn't seek the death penalty for his killer, instead opting for life without parole.
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| Panama governor stopped in car with 79 drug parcels Posted: 15 Sep 2020 04:15 PM PDT  Erick Martelo, one of two people held by police after a tip-off, has since been removed from office.
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| College Professors Made Models Showing How Bad COVID-19 Would Be on Campus. Some Administrators Ignored Them Posted: 15 Sep 2020 08:53 AM PDT  Actually, Nigel Goldenfeld and Sergei Maslov, two University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign physics researchers, thought they had it figured out. From Aug. 16, when campus reopened, to Sept. 13, more than 1,800 new cases of COVID-19 were detected, according to the university's COVID-19 dashboard. One thousand cases occurred in the first two weeks of the fall semester.
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| Trump fundraising group criticised for ‘support our troops’ ad featuring Russian planes Posted: 15 Sep 2020 02:42 AM PDT  Digital ad used stock image that shows MiG-29s in flight
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| Fact check: RNC's first night viewership not as high as posts boast Posted: 15 Sep 2020 03:27 PM PDT  A viral post on viewership during political conventions is false. Not only does it not cite the right data for Day One, the numbers are inflated.
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| It’s peak hurricane season and we’re about to run out of names. What happens then? Posted: 14 Sep 2020 11:44 AM PDT  About 96% of major hurricanes occur from mid-August to late October. But as of Monday, there's only one name left on the list for the 2020 hurricane season.
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| America Is on Fire, and It’s an Inequality Nightmare Posted: 15 Sep 2020 01:32 AM PDT  Asthma complications. No home insurance. Administrative nightmares. The wildfires raging along America's West Coast could prove especially catastrophic to families experiencing poverty. As entire towns evacuated from wildfires in southern Oregon this week, many families launched GoFundMe pages for their lost homes, with some explaining that they had no insurance, and had lost everything in the blaze. In a year that has already driven a coronavirus-shaped wedge between classes, the fire recovery efforts stand to widen the gap between the well-off—who still face the unenviable task of rebuilding—and everyone else."There are huge disparities in who has the wealth and the assets, not only to rebuild, but to evacuate in the first place," Audrey Mechling, a policy fellow at the Oregon Center for Public Policy, a think tank focused on low- and medium-income residents of the state, told The Daily Beast.Many of the online fundraisers in ravaged Oregon towns like Phoenix and Talent came from families with children, who said they'd escaped with little more than they could carry in their arms. More than half the families in the Phoenix-Talent school district have lost their homes or been temporarily displaced, the district's superintendent said this week.They Keep Moving. The Fire Keeps Finding Them.Some of Oregon's hardest-hit regions are rural or farming communities, where workers are often already cash-strapped, according to Leanne Giordono, a professor at Oregon State University who studies poverty and community responses to natural disasters. The fires hit doubly hard there."The fires are going on in rural areas that are losing the natural resources they've been dependent on," Giordono said.Phoenix and Talent boast large agricultural industries—jobs that can't go remote in a disaster, as this year's COVID-19 pandemic made clear."Those families who are not only having to evacuate right now, but are having to evacuate and lose their source of income, are at a huge disadvantage," Mechling said.The fires that hit those cities were particularly catastrophic to some trailer home communities, where many farm workers and their families live, as The Washington Post reported. In addition to being less likely to have insurance on their homes, low-income communities might be less able to claim government relief even when it's offered. Although it's unclear whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will tap relief funds for wildfire survivors, Giordono said higher-income communities have historically been better at securing those funds. There's also the matter of undocumented workers, like some who work on southern Oregon farms, being unable to claim assistance. Some of those workers have worked outside in respirator masks through the pandemic and severe heat waves because their legal status made it impossible for them to collect unemployment even before the fires, Mechling noted."That's the position that a lot of these families are in because they haven't been able to access the same safety net that other Oregonians can access, that folks who have legal status can access, they don't have the option of not working," she said. "That's the group that stands out to me as being incredibly hard-hit by these intersecting crises."Even low-income communities outside the fires' immediate reach might suffer their ill effects more than wealthier people. The fires have caused dangerously poor air quality, exacerbating asthma symptoms, which disproportionately affect low-income communities of color. The months after a series of disastrous California fires in 2018 saw a spike in hospitalizations for asthma-related issues, as Reveal reported that year. Giordono warned that homeless people and other vulnerable communities might see increased health problems from this year's smoke, even if they did not personally experience the fires up close.For the hardest-hit locales, the fires can be a self-fulfilling economic prophecy. A 2017 paper found that natural disasters upped the poverty rates in affected areas, in part because wealthier residents moved somewhere else.Phoenix Mayor Chris Luz nodded at the problem in an interview with the Post, in which he revealed that up to 50 local businesses and the city's only bank had burned down."Our tax base is going to be diminished," Luz told the paper. "We're not going to survive without help."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Hackers working for China have successfully compromised US government systems, according to a federal cybersecurity agency Posted: 15 Sep 2020 09:39 AM PDT  US agencies aren't patching publicly known exploits in time — and hackers are taking advantage of that to successfully breach government systems.
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