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US Monthly Headline News October 2020 Page 4
If you are a person of color or call yourself an American, supporting the Republican Party is doing so against your own self-interest and against the best interest of our country.
A. B. Man III

As a person of color, why would you support a party that is actively using alternative facts, voter suppression, voter intimidation, gerrymandering, hate, fear and racism against of people of color? As a person of color, why would you support a party of racist and white supremacist, some of which want to kill you? Racist and white supremacist want to kill people of color, law enforcement offers and those who disagree with them, as an American why would you support that. Black people have died for the right to vote, supporting a party that is using voter suppression, voter intimidation, hate, fear and racism against black people and people of color is disrespecting all the people of color who gave up their lives so you could vote. As a person of color, why would you support a party that uses people of color as the boogieman to scare white people into voting for them? As an American why would support that?

Make no mistake about it this not the age of Lincoln it is the age of Trump and in the age of Trump the Republican Party has become the party of corruption, alternative facts, voter suppression, voter intimidation, gerrymandering, hypocrites, hate, fear, racism and white supremacist. The Democratic Party is no longer the Party of racist and white supremacist, the Republican Party is. The Democratic Party is not using alternative facts, voter suppression and voter intimidation, hate, fear, racism against of people of color, the Republican Party is. The programs that democrats try to protect and enhance are programs that help people of color, the middle class and the poor while the Republicans are actively trying to destroy any programs that help people of color, the middle class and the poor. The system crashes from time to and we all need help when it does if Republicans have their way there will be no help for people of color, the middle class and the poor the next time the system crashes. more...
By Celine Castronuovo

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) on Friday reacted to reports of a previously removed state police training slideshow that appeared to quote Adolf Hitler three times and urged officers to be “ruthless.” According to the Louisville Courier Journal, Beshear said in an emailed statement that the inclusion of the quotes was “absolutely unacceptable.” “It is further unacceptable that I just learned about this through social media,” the governor added. “We will collect all the facts and take immediate corrective action.”

Student journalists at Louisville's duPont Manual High School first reported on the slideshow Friday. The high school’s newspaper, the Manual Redeye, later added a statement it received from Morgan Hall, the communications director for the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, saying that the slideshow was removed in 2013 and “is not currently a part of any training materials.”

“It is unacceptable that this material was ever included in the training of law enforcement,” Hall added. The Manual Redeye obtained the slideshow through an open records request by local attorney David Ward during the discovery phase of a lawsuit. Ward requested Kentucky State Police (KSP) materials used to train a detective who shot and killed a man in Harlan County in May 2018. According to the student news outlet, one slide, titled “Violence of Action,” instructed officers to be “ruthless killer[s],” to have a “a mindset void of emotion” and to “meet violence with greater violence.” more...
By Marina Pitofsky

Former President Barack Obama went viral on Saturday after shooting a three-pointer while on the campaign trail for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Obama made the shot just before leaving a gymnasium in Flint, Mich. While he walks out the door, he appears to tell campaign staff “That’s what I do!” more...
‘well beyond safe limits’ - Dozens of pickup trucks, many with Trump flags, surrounded a Biden campaign bus as it traveled from San Antonio to Austin.
Kelly Weill

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign canceled a Friday event in Austin, Texas, after harassment from a pro-Trump contingent. Texas has emerged as a battleground state in Tuesday’s presidential election, with polls showing the typically Republican stronghold now only marginally favoring President Donald Trump. The Biden campaign scheduled a Friday event in the state, in a bid to drum up last-minute support.

But when the Biden campaign bus drove to Austin, it was greeted by a blockade of pro-Trump demonstrators, leading to what one Texas House representative described as an escalation “well beyond safe limits.” The cancelation comes amid national anxiety about voter intimidation, a tactic the Trump campaign has implicitly endorsed.

Historian Dr. Eric Cervini was driving to help with the Biden campaign stop when he filmed a line of pickup trucks along the highway, many of them flying Trump flags. The drivers were “waiting to ambush the Biden/Harris campaign bus as it traveled from San Antonio to Austin,” Cervini tweeted. “These Trump supporters, many of whom were armed, surrounded the bus on the interstate and attempted to drive it off the road,” he alleged. “They outnumbered police 50-1, and they ended up hitting a staffer’s car.” more...
By MATT DIXON and JOSH GERSTEIN

TALLAHASSEE — State and federal authorities are investigating a video posted by Florida House Minority Leader Kionne McGhee allegedly showing a pile up of mail “sitting for over a week” at a Miami post office that included a handful of completed ballots. McGhee tweeted the video around 12:30 p.m. Friday afternoon indicating it came from a “source” he did not identify. He tweeted a separate video roughly four hours later showing what he said were postal service investigators on the scene.

"I call on the Postal Service to correct this and promise the citizens of Miami-Dade that these ballots will be delivered in time," McGhee said in a statement. "I call on Laurel Lee, Florida’s Secretary of State, and Governor Ron DeSantis to use their power and influence to guarantee every valid vote in Florida is counted.” The USPS confirmed Saturday morning six completed ballots and 42 blank ones were found after investigators were sent to the Miami location Friday afternoon.

“The Office of Inspector General special agents confirmed the presence of delayed mail and subsequently located approximately 48 pieces of election mail,” Special Agent in Charge Scott Pierce in a statement. “The U.S. Postal Service immediately arranged for the deliver of the election mail.” He said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Ariana Fajardo Orshan has also been briefed. more...
CNN

Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) is the latest in Republican senators skipping out on debates against their challengers, joining the likes of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS). CNN's S.E. Cupp calls the pattern a "middle finger to voters." video...
By Daniel Villarreal

In the final stretch leading up to the November 3 elections, at least six congressional candidates have refused publicly televised debates. Several of the candidates are in tight races that will determine party control of the Senate. Incumbent Republican Senator David Perdue of Georgia refused to debate his Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff on TV this Sunday, stating instead that he will attend an event with President Donald Trump. As of October 30, polls show Ossoff leading Perdue by a slim margin of just 0.7 percentage points, according to the poll aggregation site RealClearPolitics.

Both incumbent Georgia Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler and her Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock declined to participate in a televised interview this Sunday hosted by the Atlanta TV station WSB-TV. Neither candidate explained why, according to the Savannah Morning News. Polls from the last two months have shown Warnock leading Loeffler by anywhere from 6 to 26 percentage points, according to the poll aggregation site FiveThirtyEight. Kansas Republican Representative Roger Marshall failed to show up to an October 29 debate with Democratic nominee Barbara Bollier. more...
Cornyn attacked an opponent a few years later for "padding his resume," referencing a lie about a college degree
Roger Sollenberger

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Tx., who currently finds himself in an unusually competitive race against Democratic opponent MJ Hegar, previously falsely represented himself as a graduate of Oxford University in England in the run-up to his successful election to the Texas Supreme Court, press and public records show. In the eight months before Cornyn's 1990 election to the state's highest court, seven Texas publications, including regional standard-bearers such as the Austin-American Statesman and the Houston Chronicle, published 10 profiles claiming that Cornyn had "graduated" from "the Judicial Studies Program" at Oxford.

The profiles, archived versions of which were reviewed by Salon, ran from February until days before the election in November, with headlines like "Judge Promises 'Restoration of Integrity'" and "Cornyn's Record Makes Him Choice for Supreme Court." The latter article concluded by mentioning the Oxford program. However, during his campaign for attorney general of Texas eight years later, Cornyn repeatedly attacked Republican rival Barry Williamson for padding his resume "just like Lena Guerrero did" — a reference to a Texas Democrat who two years prior lost a race for state office to Williamson after it was revealed that she had lied about having a college diploma. "It's a question of inflating his resume to give the false impression that he has more judicial experience than he actually has," Cornyn told the Austin-American Statesman at the time. more...
Lawyers for the Illinois teen have said he was acting in self-defense during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
By Phil Helsel

An Illinois teen charged with fatally shooting two protesters during demonstrations and unrest in Wisconsin was extradited to that state Friday. A judge granted an extradition request to send Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, of Antioch in northern Illinois, to Wisconsin, and he arrived at the Kenosha County Jail later that day, according to officials and court documents.

The judge rejected arguments by Rittenhouse's attorney that the documents did not conform to statutory requirements and that extraditing the teenager to Wisconsin would violate his Constitutional rights. Rittenhouse is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide and other charges in the shooting deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and the wounding of a third man on Aug. 25.

The shooting happened after Rittenhouse went to Kenosha during protests and unrest following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was shot in the back on Aug. 23. Blake survived, but his family has said he is paralyzed. Rittenhouse's lawyers have said Rittenhouse acted in self-defense and that he was there to try and protect businesses. more...
Christian De La Rosa

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – U.S. Post Office investigators are looking into allegations on Friday that there is a mail-in ballot backup at a facility in southern Miami-Dade County. House Democratic Leader Kionne McGhee said tweeted a video showing mail piled up in bins. “The person who sent me the video is an employee of the postal service," McGhee said, adding "Mail has been stacked up for almost a week.”

Rep. Mucarsel-Powell visited the facility in the Princeton neighborhood saying that she is aware of “the concerning situation” involving backed-up mail, including election mail. She wants the situation cleared by Election Day. “I inspected this facility and took immediate action to contact the US Postal Service and the USPS Office of the Inspector General,” Mucarsell-Powell said in a statement. "I have requested an immediate briefing from the Postmaster General. I am working to ensure that mail delays do not impact participation in this election.”

Suzy Trutie, the deputy supervisor of the Miami-Dade County Department of Elections, also released a statement. “We are aware of the footage and immediately reported this to our contact at the USPS," Trutie said. "They are looking into the matter and have assured us that all ballots will be delivered timely.” Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle said the news of a possible postal delay is troubling and she has requested that all postal distribution centers in Miami-Dade County be audited. more...
Analysis: Trump complains the media isn't reporting on Hunter Biden's emails. But NBC News met obstacles, including Rudy Giuliani, when it tried.
By Ken Dilanian and Tom Winter

The complaints from President Donald Trump and his allies have been growing louder as the election approaches: Why isn’t the mainstream media covering the Hunter Biden laptop story? Trump and his allies say there is evidence of corruption in emails and documents allegedly found on a laptop belonging to Democrat Joe Biden’s son. They say those and other documents show that Hunter Biden used his father’s influence to enrich himself through business deals in Ukraine and China, and that his father not only facilitated that, but may have benefited financially.

But the Wall Street Journal and Fox News — among the only news organizations that have been given access to key documents — found that the emails and other records don’t make that case. Leaving aside the many questions about their provenance, the materials offered no evidence that Joe Biden played any role in his son’s dealings in China, let alone profited from them, both news organizations concluded.

As to Ukraine, a single email published by the New York Post suggests Joe Biden may have had a meeting with a representative of a Ukrainian company that employed his son. Trump and his allies alleged that means Joe Biden has lied when he said he never discussed his son’s business roles. The Biden campaign denies the meeting happened. more...
By Em Steck, Nathan McDermott and Christopher Hickey, CNN Illustration by Alberto Mier Published October 30, 2020

Washington (CNN) – In November 2017, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a small business owner in the suburbs of Atlanta, uploaded a nearly half-hour long video to Facebook outlining the elements of a new conspiracy theory known as QAnon, which casts President Donald Trump in an imagined battle against a sinister cabal of Democrats and celebrities who abuse children. “Q is a patriot, we know that for sure,” Greene said in the video, which has since been deleted. “There’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out, and I think we have the President to do it,” she said, referring to Trump.

There is no factual evidence or foundation for the conspiracy theory. In the three years since the conspiracy was born, QAnon has grown from an American virtual cult to a global phenomenon. QAnon beliefs aren’t just divorced from reality but can instigate real-world violence; The FBI warned last year that QAnon posed a potential domestic terrorist threat. And now the people who have engaged with the QAnon conspiracy theory, including Greene, are running for Congress.

Nearly two dozen Republicans across the country who have engaged with the QAnon conspiracy will also appear on the ballot this November in their congressional districts — or in two cases, statewide as Senate candidates — as well as one unaffiliated independent candidate and one Independent Party candidate. Every candidate on this list has engaged with QAnon to some degree; some engaged with QAnon content online before they sought political office on their personal accounts and later on their official campaign accounts; others have appeared on QAnon-related shows and talked about the conspiracy theory.

There are also other candidates who have made allusions or coded references to QAnon before — by citing human and child trafficking as a top campaign priority, for instance — but CNN is only including candidates in this list who have explicitly engaged with the conspiracy theory. more...
Igor Derysh, Salon

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh corrected his controversial opinion in a Wisconsin mail-in voting case after Vermont's secretary of state sent the hight court a letter fact-checking his "erroneous claim" about the state's voting by mail rules. Kavanaugh issued a concurring opinion in the Supreme Court's 5-3 decision to ban Wisconsin from counting mail-in ballots if they are sent by Election Day but arrive after Nov. 3, citing Vermont as an example of a state which had not changed its "ordinary election rules" due to the coronavirus pandemic. Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos pointed out that was not true, noting that the state had sent mail-in ballots to every active registered voter for the first time and changed rules to allow those ballots to be counted earlier than in previous elections.

"These two actions factored significantly in our decision to hold to existing law requiring the election day receipt of mailed ballots rather than extending returns beyond election day based on postmark," Condos wrote in a letter to the court. "Since the state of Wisconsin neither changed its ordinary election rules this year to mail each of its active registered voters a ballot nor authorized its local election officials to process ballots early, Vermont is not an accurate comparison for the assertion Justice Kavanaugh has made. I respectfully ask that the record is corrected to reflect that." more...
MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The state’s top elections official said Thursday she wants federal postal authorities to help figure out why some ballots that were mailed out by a western Pennsylvania county have not been delivered to voters. Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said there are problems in Butler County and some other parts of the state, five days before the general election. “I actually just traded voicemails with somebody in the United States Postal Service up at the higher levels to make sure that they’re … paying attention to this and finding out what’s going on,” Boockvar said during an election preparedness news conference in Harrisburg.

Postal Service spokesman David Partenheimer said the agency was unaware of the problems in Butler County. “Regarding mail sorting and delivery in Butler County, the Postal Service is unaware of any significant delays or issues and is in regular contact with the Board of Election as we work to locate and deliver ballots as they are presented to us,” Partenheimer said. It’s unclear how many ballots have not arrived for the voters who requested them, although county officials said they believe the problem is confined to two separate days of outgoing mail. The county was sending out about a thousand ballots a day during that period, said Butler County Commissioner Kevin Boozel. more...
Tucker also said that while UPS found the flash drive containing his “damning” Hunter Biden documents, he still believes that someone purposely tried to steal the docs.
Justin Baragona

Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has obsessively covered Hunter Biden’s emails since the story exploded in conservative media earlier this month, suddenly said on Thursday night that he didn’t want to be involved with “piling on” Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son. In recent weeks, following the New York Post reporting on unverified material purportedly obtained from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, Carlson has been at the forefront of Fox News’ coverage of the story while accusing the Bidens of corruption. This includes an exclusive interview with Tony Bobulinski, a former associate of Hunter’s who claims Joe Biden is lying about having no involvement in his son’s Chinese business deals. Numerous outlets, including Fox News’ news division, have reported that a review of corporate records and documents provided by Bobulinski reveals “no role for Joe Biden.”

Carlson, meanwhile, dropped a curious story on Wednesday night apparently introducing a whole new twist in the saga. Hinting at a nefarious plot by Deep State actors, the Fox News star told viewers that “damning” Hunter Biden documents that were shipped to him had “vanished,” adding that it was deeply concerning that such a thing could happen to a “trove of materials that are directly relevant to the presidential campaign that’s six days away.” Later that evening, he told a reporter that “someone’s reading our texts,” implying that he was being spied upon. By Thursday morning, despite the missing documents being found by shipping company UPS, Carlson continued to hint at malfeasance on the part of unnamed operatives who didn’t want the Biden documents to come out. more...
The killing of a federal officer in Oakland, the shooting of a police station in Minneapolis, and a plot to supply Hamas with weapons weren’t isolated cases, according to a federal indictment.
Salvador Hernandez BuzzFeed News Reporter

The young man came to the protest over the police killing of George Floyd wearing a tactical vest on his chest and a skull mask over his face. In grainy video footage captured outside of Minneapolis’s 3rd Police Precinct on the night of May 28, the man can be seen pulling out an AK-47 style rifle and blasting 13 shots into the police building. The shooting happened shortly before the structure was set ablaze. On Friday, federal officials issued a complaint against a 26-year-old Texan, Ivan Harrison Hunter, they say they have identified as the man in the video. Hunter faces one count of participating in a riot, with a sentence of up to five years in prison.

Hunter could not be reached for comment, and it was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer. But along with the charge, federal officials unsealed an affidavit accusing Hunter of being part of a loose nationwide network of violent extremists, known as "boogaloo" boys (also spelled "bois"). The extremists connected and communicated through social media apps, including Facebook, to plot and glorify shocking violence, including killing a federal officer in Oakland and a scheme to supply Hamas with weapons to use against US soldiers. For example, just a few hours after allegedly shooting up the precinct, Hunter messaged an associate in California, Steven Carrillo. more...
Jonathan Mattingly alleges Kenneth Walker inflicted battery, assault, and emotional distress on him by opening fire and striking him in the thigh during the raid.
David Mack BuzzFeed News Reporter

A Louisville police officer involved in the raid that killed Breonna Taylor is countersuing her boyfriend for shooting him during the March 13 incident. Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly's lawsuit alleges Kenneth Walker inflicted battery, assault, and emotional distress on him by opening fire and striking him in the thigh during the raid. He is requesting a jury trial, damages, and attorney fees.

"Sgt. Mattingly was shot and nearly killed by Kenneth Walker," Mattingly's attorney Kent Wicker said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. "He's entitled to, and should, use the legal process to seek a remedy for the injury that Walker has caused him." The lawsuit was filed in response to one that Walker filed this summer against several Kentucky officials. He has said he opened fire in self-defense, believing the police officers raiding the apartment shortly before 1 a.m. were intruders.

Steve Romines, the attorney representing Walker, told BuzzFeed News his client was protected by Kentucky's self-defense laws. "This is the latest in a cycle of police aggression, deflection of responsibility, and obstruction of the facts in what is an obvious coverup," he said in a statement. "The counterclaim just brings it full circle." more...
Will Feuer

Donald Trump Jr. downplayed the coronavirus outbreak Thursday night, saying that the number of new Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. is “almost nothing,” even as about 800 people in the country continue to die from the disease everyday. The U.S. reported 971 new Covid-19 deaths on Thursday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Over the past seven days, more than 800 people have died from the disease, on average, every day, up 14% compared with two weeks ago, according to a CNBC analysis of Hopkins data.

That’s a much lower number of daily deaths than the country saw in the spring, when the U.S. reported more than 2,600 deaths in a single day. While daily new deaths have remained relatively flat in recent weeks, the number is trending upward. Average daily new deaths in the U.S. have not fallen consistently below 700 per day since July, Hopkins data shows.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its forecast of Covid-19 deaths earlier this week. It now projects “an uncertain trend in new COVID-19 deaths reported over the next four weeks and predicts that 3,900 to 10,000 new deaths will likely be reported during the week ending November 21, 2020.” “The reality is this: If you look, I put it up on my Instagram a couple days ago, because I went through the CDC data, because I kept hearing about new infections,” Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, said on Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s show.

“But I was like, ‘Well, why aren’t they talking about deaths?’ Oh, oh, because the number is almost nothing,” he said. “Because we’ve gotten control of this and we understand how it works. They have the therapeutics to be able to deal with this.” Scientists and doctors have made a number of clinical advances that have cut the likelihood of someone diagnosed with Covid-19 will die. The antiviral drug remdesivir from Gilead has been found to cut the time of hospitalization for severely sick Covid-19 patients and the steroid dexamethasone has been shown to reduce the risk of death. more...
By Caroline Linton

The FBI and Michigan state police have arrested a self-proclaimed leader of the white supremacy group The Base and an alleged associate, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said on Thursday. The suspects are linked to a December 2019 incident in which The Base allegedly targeted a Michigan family's home, mistakenly believing it belonged to a podcaster critical of the neo-Nazi movement.

Justen Watkins, 25, the man who allegedly claimed to be leader of the group, and Alfred Gorman, 35, both of Michigan, have been charged with felony counts of gang membership, unlawful posting of a message and using computers to commit a crime. If convicted, they could face more than 25 years in prison.

According to prosecutors, a man and a woman witnessed two men in dark clothing shining a light and taking pictures on the front porch of the family's home in Dexter, Michigan. The photos were then allegedly uploaded to The Base's channel on the secret chat app Telegram, and misidentified the house as belonging to the podcaster, who Nessel's office said had never lived in the home. more...
By Elizabeth Joseph, CNN

(CNN)Two grand jurors who heard the Kentucky Attorney General's Office presentation of the Breonna Taylor case say prosecutors were dismissive of their questions and that there was an "uproar" when jurors realized Louisville police officers wouldn't be charged with Taylor's death.
The grand jurors -- who are choosing to remain anonymous, citing security concerns -- spoke to journalists by phone Wednesday evening along with their attorney, Kevin Glogower, and community activist Christopher 2X. They spoke about how their service on the Taylor case was unlike dozens of other cases they heard throughout their month of service. "Was justice was done? No, I feel that there was there's quite a bit more that could have been done or should have been presented for us to deliberate on," Grand Juror 1, a White male, told reporters on the call.

Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Annie O'Connell earlier this month allowed grand jurors to speak about their service after Grand Juror 1 filed court documents suggesting public comments by Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron about the proceedings were misleading. Six possible homicide charges under Kentucky law weren't considered against the Louisville Metro Police Department officers who fired their weapons in Taylor's apartment because "they were justified in the return of deadly fire" after being shot at once by Tayor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, Cameron said in a news conference last month. The "grand jury agreed" with that decision, he said in his first public comments about the grand jury proceedings. Grand Juror 1 described Cameron's comments as "inaccurate" and said the first time he heard there were six possible homicide charges that the jurists could have reviewed was in Cameron's news conference. more...
Alana Wise

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has sided with Minnesota Republicans in a dispute on mail-in ballots, deeming that absentee votes received by mail after 8 p.m. and in person after 3 p.m. should be separated from other ballots. The move means that the fate of those later-received ballots will likely fall in the lap of another court, which could eventually declare the votes invalid. more...
Voter fraud in absentee voting, as with any type of voting, is rare. Many states, including many run by Republicans, have expanded mail-in voting options during the pandemic.
by Stacy Fernández

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick repeated unsubstantiated claims in a Thursday interview that the only way Republicans can lose on Election Day is if Democrats cheat. “The Democrats have just decided this election, Mark, we don't have to pay attention to any laws. We're gonna use COVID as an excuse to steal the election, and that's what they're trying to do everywhere,” Patrick, a Republican, said during a radio interview on “The Mark Davis Show.” “If the president loses Pennsylvania or North Carolina, Mark, or Florida, they'll lose it because they stole it.”

A spokesman for his office clarified after the interview that Patrick was referring to “reports of ballot irregularities” and “other potential fraud” being seen in Pennsylvania and other battleground states. There have been no credible reports of widespread fraud or irregularities in Pennsylvania. President Donald Trump’s campaign seized on an announcement by federal authorities that they were investigating why nine military ballots were found in a trash can there, but no arrests have been made and no evidence has been made public that any fraud was involved. more...
Arun Srinivasan Yahoo Sports Canada

The Arizona Coyotes renounced the rights to 2020 NHL Draft pick Mitchell Miller after it was revealed that he repeatedly used racial slurs and abused a Black, disabled classmate named Isaiah Meyer-Crothers.

Craig Harris and Jose M. Romero of the Arizona Republic reported Tuesday that Miller admitted four years ago to an Ohio juvenile court that he bullied Meyer-Crothers repeatedly, while also using the n-word against him. Among the most vicious acts, Miller and another unnamed student made Meyer-Crothers lick a lollipop that had been previously wiped against a bathroom urinal. As a result, Meyer-Crothers had to undergo tests for HIV, hepatitis, and various other sexually transmitted diseases. All of the tests came back negative.

The Coyotes knew of Miller’s past cycle of abuse prior to the draft. Miller wrote a letter to all 31 NHL teams acknowledging the lollipop incident with Meyer-Crothers, and apologized for his role. However, Meyer-Crothers and his family stated that they never received an apology from Miller, even after his admission of abuse to the court, and to the NHL’s 31 teams. more...
A 64-page document that was later disseminated by close associates of President Donald Trump appears to be the work of a fake "intelligence firm."
By Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny

One month before a purported leak of files from Hunter Biden's laptop, a fake "intelligence" document about him went viral on the right-wing internet, asserting an elaborate conspiracy theory involving former Vice President Joe Biden's son and business in China. The document, a 64-page composition that was later disseminated by close associates of President Donald Trump, appears to be the work of a fake "intelligence firm" called Typhoon Investigations, according to researchers and public documents.

The author of the document, a self-identified Swiss security analyst named Martin Aspen, is a fabricated identity, according to analysis by disinformation researchers, who also concluded that Aspen's profile picture was created with an artificial intelligence face generator. The intelligence firm that Aspen lists as his previous employer said that no one by that name had ever worked for the company and that no one by that name lives in Switzerland, according to public records and social media searches. One of the original posters of the document, a blogger and professor named Christopher Balding, took credit for writing parts of it when asked about it and said Aspen does not exist. more...
COREY WILLIAMS, Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — Two members of a white supremacist group were arrested Thursday and accused of intimidating a Michigan family, authorities said. Justen Watkins, 25, of Bad Axe, and Alfred Gorman, 35, of Taylor, were charged with gang membership, unlawful posting of a message and using computers to commit a crime, according to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office.

The charges followed an investigation by Michigan State Police and the FBI into a group called The Base and a December 2019 incident in which a family in Dexter saw men in dark clothing shining a light and taking photos on the front porch of their home. The photos were uploaded onto The Base’s social media platform channel along with a caption that alluded to a person involved with an antifa podcast, according to authorities.

Nessel’s office said the group was targeting that person, but that he had never lived at the home, which is about 52 miles (83 kilometers) west of Detroit. Antifa is an umbrella description for far-left-leaning militant groups that resist white supremacists at demonstrations and other events. “Using tactics of intimidation to incite fear and violence constitutes criminal behavior,” Nessel said. “We cannot allow dangerous activities to reach their goal of inflicting violence and harm on the public." more...
Annie Palmer

Amazon warehouse workers have a long history of agitating for change. But the coronavirus crisis has generated new momentum for employees to speak candidly about workplace conditions. Since March, employees have held protests to demand safer working conditions, created online petitions to draw attention to their concerns and formed new worker groups. The surge of employee activism has raised the question of whether labor unions might try to seize the moment to organize Amazon workers.

Between March and September, the company employed more than 1.37 million front-line Amazon and Whole Foods workers in the U.S. That number doesn’t include the tens of thousands of contracted drivers who are responsible for Amazon’s last-mile deliveries. Unionizing Amazon’s workforce would be an uphill battle. The company has managed to head off major labor unions since its founding in 1994. Labor unions have organized some of Amazon’s European workforce, but no U.S. facility has successfully formed or joined a union. more...
By Joseph Choi

Two men were arrested in Michigan on Thursday as part of a continued crackdown on extremism, three weeks after a foiled attempt to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) by militia groups. One of the men arrested was 25-year-old Justen Watkins, the self-proclaimed leader of The Base, a white supremacist group. Fellow member Alfred Gorman, 35, was arrested with Watkins during a raid.

In a press release, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said the two suspects were connected to a December 2019 incident in which they “terrorized” a family at their home by using “intimidation tactics” and sending messages to other members of The Base to terrorize their home. The victims of the intimidation reported seeing Watkins and Gorman dressed in dark clothing, shining a light and taking pictures while on the family’s front porch. They were apparently attempting to intimidate Daniel Harper, a researcher and host of the podcast “I Don’t Speak German.”  In his self-described “anti-fascist podcast” he observes and dissects what members of alt-right and white supremacists groups are saying. However, Harper did not live at the home that Watkins and Gorman targeted. more...
N'dea Yancey-Bragg, Anthony V. Coppola - USA TODAY

PHILADELPHIA  — Philadelphia remains on high alert after police reportedly found explosives inside a van following multiple nights of protest over the shooting death of a Black man with a history of mental health problems. Police recovered propane tanks, torches and possible dynamite sticks from the van Wednesday and it is unclear if anyone has been arrested in connection with the vehicle, WPVI reported. The Philadelphia Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY.

The city fell mostly silent Wednesday after officials instituted a citywide curfew following several nights of unrest over the police killing of Walter Wallace Jr. While scattered reports of looting were still popping up throughout the city Wednesday night, the protests and confrontations that marred Philadelphia since Monday had all but dissipated. Police showed a heavy presence in the neighborhood near where Wallace died Wednesday in anticipation of a third night of discord, but that never materialized. more...
The intelligence chief went slightly further than the talking points shared with other agencies.
By NATASHA BERTRAND and DANIEL LIPPMAN

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe went off script when he alleged during a press conference last week that Iran was sending intimidating emails to Americans in order to “damage President Trump,” according to two senior administration officials with knowledge of the episode. The reference to Trump was not in Ratcliffe’s prepared remarks about the foreign election interference, as shown to and signed off by FBI Director Chris Wray and senior DHS official Chris Krebs, the director of the department’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency.

Wray and Krebs stood behind Ratcliffe as he addressed the public, supportive of the general intention to alert voters to a malicious influence operation. But they were surprised by Ractliffe’s political aside, which had not appeared in the prepared text, the officials said. The press conference centered around menacing emails that had been sent to Democratic voters warning them to vote for Trump “or we will come after you.”

Ratcliffe attributed the emails to Iran but said they were “designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest, and damage President Trump,” raising immediate questions about how threatening Democrats to vote for Trump could be aimed at damaging the president’s re-election bid — and how the intelligence community had made that determination within 24 hours of the messages. Ractliffe also contrasted Iran’s actions with those of Russia, adding, “although we have not seen the same actions from Russia, we are aware that they have obtained some voter information just as they did in 2016.” more...
CNN

Former Trump campaign official Jessica Denson is now backing former Vice President Joe Biden for president, calling the Trump campaign a "vile, self-serving branding exercise" for Trump and his family. video...
Heard on All Things Considered
Shannon Bond

The CEOs of some of the biggest tech platforms defended the way they handle online speech to an audience of skeptical senators, many of whom seemed more interested in scoring political points than engaging with thorny debate over content moderation policies and algorithms. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter's Jack Dorsey and Google's Sundar Pichai appeared virtually Wednesday at a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee that was supposed to focus on a decades-old legal shield insulating tech companies from liability over what users post.

But many Republicans on the committee used the opportunity to berate the executives over suspicions that their companies and employees are biased against conservatives — a frequent complaint on the right for which there is no systematic evidence. Several members pressed Dorsey about Twitter's decision — later reversed — to block links to a controversial New York Post story about Hunter Biden, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's son. "Mr. Dorsey, who the hell elected you and put you in charge of what the media are allowed to report and what the American people are allowed to hear?" Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas bellowed at Twitter's chief executive in one of the hearing's most theatrical moments. more...
By Samantha Lock

Backers of President Donald Trump were left stranded overnight, with several taken to hospital for hypothermia after an Omaha campaign rally ended in chaos. Hundreds were bussed in to the Eppley Airfield site, leaving their cars in parking lots, but were left wandering up to four miles in the cold after coaches failed to pick them up.

"President Trump took off in Air Force One 1 hr 20 minutes ago, but thousands of his supporters remain stranded on a dark road outside the rally," CNN reporter Jeff Zeleny tweeted at 10:21 p.m. CDT. Zeleny, who was at Tuesday night's event, described the scene as a "chaotic cluster" as Omaha police officers scrambled to provide transportation for those stranded.

"It's hundreds and hundreds of people who came on buses - forced to park miles away - who were stranded," he wrote. Parking at the Trump rally is full," Omaha Police Department tweeted just after 6 p.m. "Shuttles will no longer be transporting people to the event. You will not be able to access the rally by foot, Uber, or any other means of transportation. Parking is not allowed in surrounding neighborhoods, roadways or businesses." By 9 p.m. the event ended but many faced a 3.7-mile walk from TAC Air to the South Economy parking lot at Eppley. more...
The pro-Trump duo are in trouble with the law, yet again.
Will Sommer

Conservative operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman have been indicted in Ohio, once more over a racist robocall aimed at minority voters. Wohl and Burkman, who rose to some level of infamy online for blundering attempts to manufacture sexual assault allegations against Democratic politicians and other Trump foes, have each been charged in Ohio’s Cuyahoga County with eight counts of telecommunications fraud and seven counts of bribery, a charge that includes attempts to convince people not to cast ballots. The indictment only adds to the growing mountain of criminal and civil problems facing the notorious pro-Trump pair.

In late August, a robocall that claimed to come from Wohl and Burkman warned voters not to use mail-in ballots, falsely claiming that the ballot information would be used to enforce vaccine mandates and collect on credit card debts. In the call, which was sent to 67,000 voters in the Midwest, according to prosecutors, a Black woman warned potential voters not to send in mail-in ballots or risk being fooled by “the man.” “The right to vote is the most fundamental component of our nation’s democracy,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley said in a statement. “These individuals clearly infringed upon that right in a blatant attempt to suppress votes and undermine the integrity of this election These actions will not be tolerated.” more...
By CBS3 Staff

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Looting and demonstrations continued for a second consecutive night Tuesday in Philadelphia following the fatal police shooting of Walter Wallace Jr. in West Philadelphia.  Police say looting along Aramingo Avenue in Philadelphia’s Port Richmond neighborhood has “rapidly gone downhill” Tuesday night and is a “total loss.” Police are requesting residents in the following police districts remain inside, unless necessary — 12, 16, 18, 19, 24, 25, and 26. Chopper 3 was over looting on Aramingo Avenue in the city’s Port Richmond neighborhood around 8:30 p.m. Looters could be seen entering a Foot Locker store. more...
Heard on All Things Considered

During 26 years at the CIA, Marc Polymeropoulos spent a lot of time in rough places, like war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he never suffered any harm until December 2017, when he was sound asleep at a Marriott Hotel in Moscow near the U.S. Embassy. "I was awoken in the middle of the night," recalled Polymeropoulos, 51. "I just had incredible vertigo, dizziness. I wanted to throw up. The room was spinning. I couldn't even stand up without falling down. I had tinnitus ringing in my ears."

He suspected a bad case of food poisoning and carried on with his 10-day trip. The visit included meetings with senior Russian intelligence officials, a common practice despite the long history of tense relations between the two countries and their spy agencies.
Brain Scans Find Differences But No Injury In U.S. Diplomats Who Fell Ill In Cuba

But a second bout hit a few days later. Polymeropoulos canceled his remaining meetings and felt fortunate to make it back onto a plane to the U.S. At the time, Polymeropoulos was settling into a new, senior position at CIA headquarters. After many years in the Middle East, he had become the agency's No. 2 official for clandestine operations in Europe, including Russia. more...
The fatal police shooting of Walter Wallace Jr., 27, who is Black, on Monday triggered protests that continued Tuesday.
By Phil Helsel

The city of Philadelphia saw a second night of protests Tuesday over the fatal police shooting of a Black man the day before. Some looting was again reported Tuesday, despite pleas from the man's family for an end to any violence or looting. Other demonstrations Tuesday were described as peaceful, including one drew as many as 500 people.

Philadelphia police tweeted Tuesday night that a large crowd was looting stores in the Port Richmond area of the city. Earlier in the evening, news helicopter footage showed people appearing to break in and loot a Foot Locker store and another business in that area. The city's office of emergency management tweeted that police were asking residents in some districts to stay inside.

Protests in the city erupted Monday after Philadelphia police shot Walter Wallace Jr., 27, after responding to a call about a man armed with a knife around 2:40 p.m. Police have said officers ordered Wallace to drop the knife several times, but he continued to advance on them while holding the knife. Both officers at the scene fired, striking Wallace in the shoulder and chest, officials said. more...
By Erica Orden, CNN

(CNN) A federal judge on Tuesday denied the Justice Department's effort to effectively end a defamation lawsuit against President Donald Trump brought by a longtime magazine columnist who has alleged he raped her in a luxury department store dressing room, paving the way for the case to proceed. The DOJ had sought to intervene in the case and substitute itself as defendant in the lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll, a move that likely would have curbed the proceedings, since the federal government can't be sued for defamation. Trump has denied Carroll's allegations, telling reporters, "She's not my type," and alleging Carroll lied to boost her book sales.

In a 61-page opinion, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that Trump "is not an 'employee of the Government,' as Congress defined that term," and therefore the lawsuit isn't, as the Justice Department argued, against the United States.  That conclusion allows for Trump to be sued personally for defamation in the matter. The Justice Department hasn't yet indicated whether it will appeal the ruling. Kaplan also rejected the Justice Department's argument that Trump's statements regarding Carroll were made within the scope of his employment, writing, "while commenting on the operation of government is part of the regular business of the United States, commenting on sexual assault allegations unrelated to the operation of government is not." more...
He faces five years in prison. Authorities said such incidents are "exceedingly rare."
By The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A former U.S. Postal Service worker was charged with tossing dozens of absentee ballots and other mail that was found in a dumpster in Kentucky, the U.S. attorney's office said. DeShawn Bojgere, 30, of Louisville, was charged with delay or destruction of mail, a news release from U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman's office said in a news release Monday. The mail included approximately 111 general election absentee ballots that were being mailed from the Jefferson County clerk’s office to voters, as well as 69 mixed class pieces of mail, 320 second-class pieces of mail and two national election campaign flyers from a political party in Florida, the release said. Bojgere told Postal Service special agents that he was responsible for discarding the mail, prosecutors said. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. more...
Briana Whitney

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS5) -- Controversial remarks from the White House's Jared Kushner have some people very upset. The comments were made on the White House grounds Monday morning to Fox News, and some took Kushner's words to mean many Black people complain and don't try to be successful.

This is what Kushner said: “…and again one thing we see in a lot of the Black community, which is mostly Democrat, is that President Trump's policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems they're complaining about but he can't want them to be successful more than they want to be successful.”

Arizona’s Family spoke to a Phoenix constitutional law attorney who is not only Black, but went to NYU law school with Jared Kushner and has known him for over a decade. He said it bothers him that Kushner felt comfortable enough to casually say those words, and called the comments "bigoted." more...
By Nicholas GoldbergColumnist

So now it is official: The same Republican senators who in 2016 refused to consider Merrick Garland’s appointment to the Supreme Court because, with eight months to go, it was supposedly too close to the presidential election, have now confirmed Amy Coney Barrett with just eight days left before the election. This is so unprincipled, so inconsistent and so cynical that it defies the imagination. It is the flip-flop of the century, undertaken by the Republicans for one reason: Barrett’s confirmation ensures a conservative majority on the high court for the foreseeable future.

But here is one good thing that could come of this shameful episode. With millions of people still casting their votes before Nov. 3, perhaps the Barrett confirmation will open Americans’ eyes, once and for all, and show them who they’re dealing with. Perhaps it will persuade them to reject the radical and hypocritical Senate Republicans at the polls.

Barrett’s confirmation, after all, is only one of many irresponsible moves by the Senate majority, led by the craven Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), who long ago threw his lot in with President Trump. In recent years, he and his caucus have grown not just more extreme in their ideology but more unscrupulous in their tactics.

Not only did they refuse a hearing to Garland (giving that seat instead to Trump appointee Neil M. Gorsuch), but not long after, McConnell and his colleagues rammed Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination through without a comprehensive investigation of the sexual assault allegations against him. The Senate majority also slow-walked the confirmation of lower court judges during the final years of the Obama administration — and then sped them up when Trump came into office. The Senate majority ignored evidence, disregarded facts and refused to hear additional witnesses before acquitting Trump in a half-baked impeachment trial in February, thereby giving the imprimatur of the upper house to the president’s high crimes and misdemeanors. more...
People of Praise hire lawyers to investigate historical sexual abuse allegations as former members speak of ‘emotional torment’
Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington

Amy Coney Barrett in Washington last month. Some ex-members who spoke to the Guardian said they were deeply concerned that too little was understood about of People of Praise. Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the supreme court has prompted former members of her secretive faith group, the People of Praise, to come forward and share stories about emotional trauma and – in at least one case – sexual abuse they claim to have suffered at the hands of members of the Christian group.

In the wake of the allegations, the Guardian has learned that the charismatic Christian organization, which is based in Indiana, has hired the law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to conduct an “independent investigation” into sexual abuse claims on behalf of People of Praise. The historic sexual abuse allegations and claims of emotional trauma do not pertain specifically to Barrett, who has been a lifelong member of the charismatic group, or her family. But some former members who spoke to the Guardian said they were deeply concerned that too little was understood about the “community” of People of Praise ahead of Barrett’s expected confirmation by the Senate next week, after which she will hold the seat formerly held by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. more...
Swedish university finds ‘dramatic shift’ in GOP under Trump, shunning democratic norms and encouraging violence
Julian Borger in Washington

The Republican party has become dramatically more illiberal in the past two decades and now more closely resembles ruling parties in autocratic societies than its former centre-right equivalents in Europe, according to a new international study. In a significant shift since 2000, the GOP has taken to demonising and encouraging violence against its opponents, adopting attitudes and tactics comparable to ruling nationalist parties in Hungary, India, Poland and Turkey. The shift has both led to and been driven by the rise of Donald Trump.

By contrast the Democratic party has changed little in its attachment to democratic norms, and in that regard has remained similar to centre-right and centre-left parties in western Europe. Their principal difference is the approach to the economy. The new study, the largest ever of its kind, was carried out by the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, using newly developed methods to measure and quantify the health of the world’s democracies at a time when authoritarianism is on the rise. Anna Lührmann, V-Dem’s deputy director, said the Republican transformation had been “certainly the most dramatic shift in an established democracy”. more...
The department said that the Brooklyn South Investigation Unit was looking into the matter after videos were posted to social media.
By Doha Madani

The New York City Police Department is investigating after videos shared over social media Saturday night appeared to show an officer using his patrol vehicle's speaker to say “Trump 2020.” The department’s official NYPD News Twitter account shared one video posted of the incident and said that the Brooklyn South Investigation Unit was looking into the matter. NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea also commented on the matter, calling the incident “one hundred percent unacceptable.”

“Law Enforcement must remain apolitical, it is essential in our role to serve ALL New Yorkers regardless of any political beliefs,” Shea tweeted. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also commented on the incident through his Twitter account on Sunday. "Let me be clear: ANY NYPD Officer pushing ANY political agenda while on duty will face consequences," the mayor said. "We will act fast here, and this will not be tolerated."

Two different videos were shared online of what appeared to be the same incident from Saturday night. In the one retweeted by the NYPD, which contains profane language, a person is apparently confronting the officer and telling him to “do it again.” It is unclear what happened prior to the videos being recorded. more...
By Evan Simko-Bednarski, CNN

(CNN) Maj. Bridget Hallahan has been relieved of command of the Louisville Metro Police Department's Fifth Division two days after the Louisville Courier Journal reported that the major had insulted protesters in an August email to other officers. Interim Police Chief Robert Schroeder made the announcement Friday. Schroeder also said that Hallahan is expected to retire from the department on October 1.

According to Courier Journal, Hallahan's email read, in part, "These ANTIFA and BLM people, especially the ones who just jumped on the bandwagon 'yesterday' because they became 'woke' (insert eye roll here), do not deserve a second glance or thought from us." "Our little pinky toenails have more character, morals, and ethics, than these punks have in their entire body... Do not respond to them. If we do, we only validate what they did," the email continued, according to the newspaper. "Don't make them important, because they are not. They will be the ones washing our cars, cashing us out at the Walmart, or living in their parents' basement playing COD for their entire life." more...
From the memory supplement’s launch in 2007 through 2016, agency officials repeatedly raised concerns as the number of consumer complaints grew.
wired

Kimberly Beauregard was terrified of losing her memory as she entered her 60s. When she saw advertisements for Prevagen a few years ago, they impressed her. “Can a protein originally found in a jellyfish improve your memory?” asks the voice-over in one commercial that used to air on prime-time TV. “Our scientists say yes.” The ad cuts from a swarm of the glowing blue sea creatures to scenes of people in white lab coats, smiling senior citizens, and a final assurance that Prevagen has been clinically shown to improve memory.

“It was enough to make me say this is good, there’s going to be some benefit to it,” Beauregard said. “I thought it was more than just a supplement.” She wasn’t alone in that faith. Three million people are estimated to have purchased Prevagen since it was first launched by Quincy Bioscience, a Wisconsin-based manufacturer, in 2007. Sales reached $165 million by mid-2015, and the company claims Prevagen is now a “best-selling branded memory supplement in chain drug stores across the United States.” A month’s supply of the “extra strength” variety retails for about $60 at Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart. more...
Madison Cawthorn says the remark, which has been removed, was meant to "condemn left-wing identity politics" that are "dangerous and divisive."
By Dareh Gregorian

A House candidate considered a rising star in the GOP launched a campaign attack website accusing a critic of going "to work for non-white males, like Cory Booker, who aims to ruin white males running for office." The language on Madison Cawthorn's "Moe Taxes" website was changed Thursday night after it was first reported by the website The Bulwark. Cawthorn blamed poor "syntax" for the racist message, which he said didn't "convey my intended meaning."

“The syntax of our language was unclear and unfairly implied I was criticizing (New Jersey senator) Cory Booker,” he said in a statement he posted on Twitter. "My intended meaning was, and is, to condemn left-wing identity politics that is dangerous and divisive. I have condemned racism and identity politics throughout my campaign." The intended target of the attack was Tom Fiedler, a political journalist turned university dean who now works for a local news organization in North Carolina. Cawthorn argued Fiedler "advocates" for Moe Davis, the Democratic candidate in North Carolina's 11th congressional district. more...
By Ed Kilgore

A week ago I wrote about the big surge of early voting around the country, which had already reached an amazing 21 million! Now that number is up to an estimated 52.7 million and is continuing to climb.

In my earlier piece I echoed many political analysts in warning against too-hasty interpretations of the total numbers or the heavy Democratic tilt of early voting in places where that can be determined or at least estimated. Yes, the surge could mean massive overall turnout — or it could simply reflect fears of health risks for in-person voting on Election Day, or unusually early mail-in or in-person voting based on concerns about postal delivery or long lines. And the Democratic skew could mean a big sweep, or simply the partisanship in voting methods resulting from the president’s endless and false attacks on voting by mail.

But journalist Ari Berman has a different theory based on what he’s seen in Texas:

In the last week of September, Chris Rollins, the county clerk of Harris County, Texas, sent out mail ballots to voters in the Houston area who had requested them and set up 12 locations where voters concerned about delays with the US Postal Service could drop their ballots off. Then, on October 1, just as voters had started to return their mail ballots, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued an emergency declaration limiting mail ballot drop-off sites to one per county. The move appeared designed specifically to make voting harder in Harris County, the largest county in the state, which has 2.4 million registered voters and a larger landmass than Rhode Island …more...
He killed the Stormy Daniels story. Now he’s pushing materials he allegedly got via the Delaware computer repairman who claimed to have Hunter’s laptops.
Erin Banco, Justin Baragona, Adam Rawnsley, Jordan Howell

When John Paul Mac Isaac, a computer repairman from Delaware, first spoke to reporters about how he ended up in the middle of one of the most politically controversial sagas of 2020, he said he handed over what he believed to be Hunter Biden’s laptop to the FBI because he felt it was his civic duty to do so. Mac Isaac, in his telling, was overwhelmed and frightened, but also a whistleblower who wanted to help his country. “I saw stuff that made me uncomfortable. I felt afraid,” he told reporters. “And I just wanted it to go away.”

What Mac Isaac left out of his recounting is that he also actively tried to push the story of the Hunter Biden laptops into the press after contacting the FBI. The Daily Beast has learned that Mac Isaac sought out a family member to help put him in touch with a conservative media personality who could disseminate contents of the hard drive to the public.

Eventually, Mac Isaac connected with Ken LaCorte, a former Fox News executive who effectively killed a story about the hush money deal between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump in 2016. LaCorte told The Daily Beast this week that someone in Mac Isaac’s family reached out to a friend, a former News Corp employee, who then got in touch with him to make the connection with Mac Isaac.

LaCorte, who has written about his conversations with Mac Isaac, wouldn’t provide the names of either individual who helped make the connection but said that the Mac Isaac family member knew the News Corp employee socially. Two other individuals familiar with the situation said Mac Isaac communicated with his father, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, about the laptop, its contents, and going to the FBI.

“I trust them,” Mac Isaac said of the person he reached out to for help. “They are better at this political spy press thing than I am. I wanted to get it out of the store and I wanted to do it safely. So I wanted someone who could vet who they are talking to and get a good vibe about them before they pass them over to me.” Mac Isaac later said he felt as though the FBI was trying to cover up the story behind the laptops. more...
More rulings on election procedures with mail-in ballots in key battleground states are expected before Nov. 3
By Pete Williams

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has faced a stream of last-minute appeals over election procedures since the spring, and most of the time it has rejected calls to allow less restrictive voting measures despite the pandemic. That has generally meant that Republicans prevailed in seeking to block changes that would make it easier to vote, especially in casting mail-in ballots. Of 11 election-related cases filed as emergency appeals since April, Republican interests won in eight.

The court rejected Democratic efforts to lift an age eligibility requirement for mail ballots in Texas, or allow curbside voting and waive the witness requirement for mail ballots in Alabama, or suspend the witness requirement in South Carolina. And it put a hold on lower court orders that would have made it easier to get initiative measures on the ballot in Idaho and Oregon.

"I think a deference to the states is at work here," said Edward Foley, an expert on election law at Moritz College of law at The Ohio State University. That could explain why the court reached opposite conclusions on mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. On Oct. 20, the court rebuffed a Republican attempt to block a ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that allows mail ballots to be counted if they arrive up to three days after election day. By contrast, the court granted a GOP request to block an extension on the mail ballot deadline that was ordered by a federal court in Wisconsin during the primary. more...
Erin Burnett Out Front

The Trump campaign is under fire as accusations of illegal voter intimidation surface for videotaping Philadelphia voters placing their ballots in a drop box. CNN's Pamela Brown reports. video...
Marcellis Stinnette, 19, was killed when an officer opened fire on his car.
By Mark Osborne and Bill Hutchinson

The police officer who opened fire on an unarmed Black couple in Illinois, killing a 19-year-old and seriously injuring his girlfriend, has been fired. The Waukegan, Illinois, officer, who has still not been named, was fired late Friday, according to Waukegan Chief of Police Wayne Walles. "In the evening hours of October 23, 2020 the City of Waukegan terminated the officer that discharged his firearm during that incident, for multiple policy and procedure violations," Walles said in a statement.

Marcellis Stinnette was killed Tuesday night when an officer opened fire on the vehicle he was a passenger in at about 11:55 p.m., according to police. Waukegan Police Department Cmdr. Edgar Navarro said earlier this week that Stinnette was sitting in the passenger seat of a "suspicious" car that was approached by an officer. The car fled and was later pulled over by a second officer. more...
By KEN RITTER

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Trump campaign and Nevada Republicans asked a state judge on Friday to stop the count of Las Vegas-area mail-in ballots, alleging that “meaningful observation” of signature-checking is impossible in the state’s biggest and most Democratic-leaning county. A lawsuit filed in state court less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 election complains that observers haven’t been allowed close enough to workers and machines at the busy vote-counting center to see whether ballots that get second- and third-step validation should be rejected.

Judge James Wilson in Carson City declined to issue an immediate order to stop the count, but scheduled a hearing next Wednesday on the request. The battle is the latest among court skirmishes across the U.S. amid President Donald Trump’s doubts about issues including voter registration, voter rolls and mail-in ballot deadlines prompted by the pandemic.

“There has been great concern whether the rolls are clean and properly registered voters are the ones receiving ballots, signing them and mailing them back,” Trump for President Nevada co-chairman Adam Laxalt said. “All we want is to be part of the signature verification process and the ability to challenge a mail-in signature.”

Laxalt invoked memories of the legal battle over the 2000 presidential election, which was ultimately decided in mid-December by the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore. But vote-by-mail “was not really an issue until someone started tweeting about it in a presidential year,” said Amber McReynolds, head of the nonprofit National Vote At Home Institute, which advocates expanded mail balloting. more...
Trump campaign videotapes voters at Pennsylvania drop boxes
CBS News

The Trump campaign has been videotaping people as they deposit ballots in drop boxes in Philadelphia in what it says is an attempt to catch violations – surveillance that the battleground state's Democratic attorney general suggested could amount to illegal intimidation. The campaign acknowledged the taping in a letter from a lawyer that complained it had caught voters on video illegally depositing multiple ballots. City elections officials responded they could not confirm the activity was inappropriate under Pennsylvania law.

Linda Kerns, the lawyer for the Trump campaign — which has already sued to ban the use of drop boxes — wrote to city election officials last week to request that they end the use of "unmanned drop boxes." The New York Times first reported the development Thursday.

Philadelphia and many other heavily populated counties in Pennsylvania are using drop boxes to help collect an avalanche of mail ballots under a year-old law greatly expanding such voting. Kerns wrote that video taken by a campaign representative shows three people dropping off as many as three ballots in a limited time period Oct. 14. Pennsylvania law, in most cases, requires voters to deliver their own mail-in ballots, Kerns wrote, although it makes an exception for voters with disabilities. more...
By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.s. Political Editor For Dailymail.com

A smear on Joe Biden's son Hunter with similarities to the 'pizzagate' has ties to some of the same characters who got the 2016 conspiracy theory going, including Alex Jones, who has peddled false theories that the Sandy Hook massacre never happened. Despite the lack of evidence, the claims have received wide distribution on the Internet, gaining millions of views and driving search terms, then reverberating on broadcast media. In the case of Hunter Biden – a top figure in President Trump's debate attacks on Joe Biden in Thursday night's debate against Joe Biden – Jones posted a video making wild claims about the former vice president's son in a headline and accompanying Oct. 17 video.

It had similarities to the debunked pizza-gate conspiracy from 2016, which accused powerful Democrats of running a pedophilia ring out of the basement of a Washington, D.C. pizza shop (the popular restaurant has no basement). It takes a vague quote from Donald Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani claiming to have pictures of Hunter Biden 'that I can’t describe, some of which are illegal' and takes off from there. According to FactCheck.org, Jones' InfoWars video has been viewed more than 2 million times. It continues to echo online, with 'human trafficking' now being the third most common term in connection with Hunter Biden, NBC News reported. more...
He allegedly fired 13 rounds from an AK-47 style gun and helped set it on fire.
ByAlexander Mallin

A self-described member of the 'Boogaloo Bois' has been charged with participating in a riot after he allegedly shot 13 rounds from an AK-47 style assault rifle into a Minneapolis Police Department building during the civil unrest following the death of George Floyd in late May. Ivan Hunter, 26, is accused of traveling from Texas to Minneapolis to meet up with other members of the 'Boogaloo Bois' with the goal of carrying out acts of violence during the riots.

The FBI describes the 'Boogaloo Bois' as a loosely-connected group driven by militant anti-government sentiments. Members of the group regularly refer to the 'Boogaloo' as an impending civil war they expect will be incited by accelerationist acts of terror. Federal investigators said they reviewed video of Hunter firing rounds with his AK-47 style assault rifle into the Third Precinct building while looters were still inside and that he also helped assist them in setting the building on fire.

According to an FBI affidavit, after shooting into the building Hunter hi-fived another individual and while walking towards the camera yelled, "Justice for Floyd!" The affidavit additionally states that Hunter was pinned as the shooter by an unidentified cooperating defendant. more...
By Ewan Palmer

A Republican candidate running for the Arkansas Senate was dismissed from a Mississippi high school 20 years ago after he dressed up in a Ku Klux Klan costume for Halloween. Charles Edward Beckham III, who is running in Arkansas' District 12, is alleged to have worn the KKK outfit during a Halloween event at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science in Columbus in 2000.

The claims were first reported by the Arkansas Times, who spoke to five of Beckham's former classmates who saw him and two other friends in a white hood and robes while trick-or-treating. "I just remember being petrified to the point of tears," Victoria Brown, a Black woman and former classmate of Beckham, told the Arkansas Times. Beckham dismissed the allegations against him as "baseless and false" while "unequivocally" denouncing the KKK and all other hate groups. "It is sad that the Democrats will do anything and say anything to try to win," he told the NorthWest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. more...
By Nick Ochsner | October 22, 2020 at 3:34 PM EDT - Updated October 23 at 8:34 AM

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. (WBTV) – A man was arrested in Kannapolis with a van full of guns and explosives with plans to carry out an act of terrorism, including trying to assassinate Joe Biden. An order filed in federal court earlier this month outlines the plans by a man identified as Alexander Hillel Treisman, who also used the alias Alexander S. Theiss. Treisman is originally from the state of Washington, Kannapolis Police have said.

In the order, a federal magistrate judge outlined the reasons why Treisman should continue to be held in jail on child pornography charges. Although, Treisman currently faces pornography charges, the order details a list of factors related to the defendant’s plans for a possible act of terror as grounds he should remain in custody.

According to the order, Treisman was arrested in late May, after employees at a bank in Kannapolis called police to investigate a white van that had been left in the parking lot. “Through the windows, KPD officers observed an AR-15 style rifle, a box for a Taurus .380 handgun, a cannister of the explosive material Tannerite, and a box of 5.56 caliber ammunition,” the order said, referencing testimony from a FBI agent who investigated the case as part of the Joint Terrorism Task Force. more...
Grace Hauck USA TODAY

CHICAGO — A Black teen was killed and a woman was injured Tuesday night after a Waukegan police officer shot into a car that allegedly reversed toward him. Marcellis Stinnette, 19, died from his injuries, according to a preliminary autopsy report released Thursday. "This is truly a tragedy," Lake County coroner Dr. Howard Cooper said in a press release. The incident happened just before midnight Tuesday, when an officer approached a "suspicious" vehicle, Waukegan Police Commander Edgar Navarro told reporters Wednesday. As the officer was conducting his investigation, the vehicle fled and was spotted moments later by another officer, who got out of his car to approach the vehicle, Navarro said.

"That officer exited his vehicle, and the vehicle that he was investigating began to reverse towards the officer. The officer then pulled out his duty weapon and fired into the vehicle," Navarro said. The officer, who is Hispanic and a 5-year veteran of the department, was "in fear for his safety," according to police. He struck both Stinnette, who was in the passenger seat, and Tafara Williams, who was in the driver's seat. They both were taken to the hospital, where Stinnette died. No firearms were found in the vehicle, Navarro said. He did not elaborate on why the vehicle was initially stopped. more...
CNN Tonight

With less than two weeks until Election Day, questions are being raised about how the Trump campaign spent hundreds of millions of dollars in funds. CNN's Ryan Nobles reports. video...
The president released his apparently unedited ‘60 Minutes’ chat on Thursday, thinking it was a dunk on Lesley Stahl—but it only made himself look worse.
Matt Wilstein

Over the past couple days, President Donald Trump has been repeatedly threatening to release his entire, unedited interview with 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl before an edited version airs on this coming Sunday’s episode. Well, he finally did it and it may have the exact opposite effect he was hoping for. “Look at the bias, hatred and rudeness on behalf of 60 Minutes and CBS,” Trump posted on Facebook the morning of his final debate with Joe Biden. He then added, for good measure, “Tonight’s anchor, Kristen Welker, is far worse!”

But what anyone who watches all 38 minutes will see is that the president spent the bulk of his time openly whining about how “tough” the questions were while refusing to actually answer any of them in a coherent manner. In the first few seconds, Stahl, who has been with 60 Minutes for close to three decades, calmly asks Trump if he’s ready for some “tough questions.”

“No, I’m not,” he replies glumly. “You’re not OK with tough questions?” Stahl laughs in response, seeming to think at first that he might be joking Instead, the president immediately starts accusing her of bias, saying, “You don’t ask Biden tough questions. It’s terrible.” On multiple occasions, she has to remind him that she’s not the one interviewing Biden and Kamala Harris for the same episode. more...
CNBC Television

CNBC's Wilfred Frost reports on Goldman Sachs, which is set to pay nearly $3 billion in penalties related to 1MDB scandal. The bank will claw back tens of millions in executive bonuses, according to a source. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: more...
Hugh Son

Goldman Sachs agreed to pay more than $2.9 billion to regulators around the world, including a record penalty for violating a U.S. anti-corruption law, to resolve probes into its role in an international finance scandal, authorities announced Thursday. Under the deal, Goldman’s parent company avoided a guilty plea in the United States.

The sum includes about $600 million in fee disgorgement that was included in an earlier settlement with the Malaysian government. The $2.9 billion includes individual deals with regulators in the U.S., the U.K., Singapore and elsewhere, the U.S. Justice Department said. Separately, Hong Kong fined the bank a record $350 million for its part in the episode, and most of that figure is excluded from the $2.9 billion total.

The bank’s parent company entered a deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ that should allow it to avoid having to exit certain business operations. Earlier Thursday, the bank’s Malaysian subsidiary formally pleaded guilty for its role in the 1MDB debacle, admitting to one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

“Goldman Sachs today accepted responsibility for its role in a conspiracy to bribe high-ranking foreign officials to obtain lucrative underwriting and other business relating to 1MDB,” acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt said in a statement. The announcement “requires Goldman Sachs to admit wrongdoing and pay nearly three billion dollars in penalties, fines, and disgorgement, holds the bank accountable for this criminal scheme.” more...
*** Republicans quest to pack the court system continues. ***

Tucker Higgins

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously on Thursday to advance the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court over a boycott from the committee’s Democrats. The vote paves the way for the full Senate to confirm Barrett to the high court on Monday, ahead of the Nov. 3 election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Trump has repeatedly pressed for Barrett to be placed on the high court in time to resolve any election-related litigation, a request that Democrats see as a plain call for the court’s conservative majority to declare him the winner if the outcome is contested. The swift action by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R, S-C., to meet Trump’s deadline will make Barrett the first justice in history to be confirmed so close to Election Day.

Barrett, who was a professor at Notre Dame Law School until Trump nominated her to serve on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals approximately three years ago, will be the sixth Republican-appointee on the nine-judge Supreme Court, and Trump’s third nominee. Trump nominated her to the high court last month after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon who served on the bench for 27 years. Ginsburg expressed a dying wish not to be replaced until after the election.

As Ginsburg’s replacement, Barrett is expected to shift the court’s center of gravity decisively to the right, potentially imperiling the Democratic agenda items on health care, abortion access and the Second Amendment. In focus is a Nov. 10 case the court will hear over the constitutionality of Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act. more...
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell became a topic of speculation after photographs seemingly showed his hands looking bruised and discolored.
David Mikkelson

On Oct. 21, 2020, social media users began circulating an image said to show the hands of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, with those appendages looking unusually — and alarmingly — dark and mottled: more...
An excavation found 11 coffins in Oaklawn Cemetery, but painstaking work will be required to identify whether the remains are from Black victims of the 1921 race massacre.
By Ben Fenwick

OKLAHOMA CITY — A forensic team in Tulsa, Okla., said on Wednesday that it had unearthed 11 coffins while searching for victims from the 1921 massacre in which hundreds of Black residents were killed. The mass grave was discovered in an area of the city’s Oaklawn Cemetery where records and research suggested that as many as 18 victims would be found. Painstaking work will be required to identify whether the remains are from victims of the massacre.

The remains will not be moved until they can be exhumed properly to avoid deterioration, said Kary Stackelbeck, a state archaeologist. She said the discovery “constitutes a mass grave.” “We have a high degree of confidence that this is one of the locations we were looking for,” she said. “But we have to remain cautious because we have not done anything to expose the human remains beyond those that have been encountered.” more...
From the president on down, the closing pitch to voters is to signal acceptance of a conspiracy theory that the FBI considers dangerous.
Will Sommer

Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon had a message for his podcast listeners on Tuesday, and for adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory it wasn’t very subtle. “It’s gonna be a storm,” Bannon said. He was speaking of the closing weeks of the election but using the very same imagery QAnon believers use to describe their dream of Trump arresting and executing his political foes. “The storm clouds are around the Biden camp. The storm clouds are around the Biden camp. A gathering storm.”

For those who may have thought it was just a slip of the tongue, Bannon dispelled any doubt the next day. Speaking once more on his podcast, he claimed that at least parts of QAnon, which posits that Satanic cannibal-pedophile elites in the Democratic Party who drink children’s blood will soon be executed at Trump’s orders, are true.

“How are they not at least, at least an aspect of their argument, at least appears, directionally to be correct?” Bannon asked, while pushing unverified claims that a laptop that supposedly belonged to Hunter Biden was filled with illegal images. The tenets of QAnon, he posited, were “the elephant in the room.”

With less than two weeks before Election Day and Trump lagging in the polls, some of the president’s most prominent allies are going all in on QAnon, while Trump and other top supporters refuse to denounce the conspiracy theory. It is, at its most innocent, a crass political calculation designed to keep a relatively modest though loud and influential chunk of the party’s base engaged. At its worst, critics warn, it’s a green light of acceptance to dangerous conspiracy theorists and a normalization of their beliefs. more...
Tucker Higgins

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously on Thursday to advance the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court over a boycott from the committee’s Democrats. The vote paves the way for the full Senate to confirm Barrett to the high court on Monday, ahead of the Nov. 3 election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. Trump has repeatedly pressed for Barrett to be placed on the high court in time to resolve any election-related litigation, a request that Democrats see as a plain call for the court’s conservative majority to declare him the winner if the outcome is contested.

The swift action by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R, S-C., to meet Trump’s deadline will make Barrett the first justice in history to be confirmed so close to Election Day. Barrett, who was a professor at Notre Dame Law School until Trump nominated her to serve on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals approximately three years ago, will be the sixth Republican-appointee on the nine-judge Supreme Court, and Trump’s third nominee. Trump nominated her to the high court last month after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon who served on the bench for 27 years. Ginsburg expressed a dying wish not to be replaced until after the election. more...
President Donald Trump is preparing to level a fusillade of allegations against Joe Biden and his son during Thursday's debate. Here's what we know.
By KYLE CHENEY, NATASHA BERTRAND and ANDREW DESIDERIO

It’s 2016 all over again: Donald Trump and his allies are touting a set of purloined documents to accuse his Democratic opponent of corruption, and the specter of foreign interference hangs over the waning days of the race. This time, it’s Joe Biden in Trump’s sights. And it’s the president’s own allies controlling the timing and content of the releases, prompting accusations from Democrats of bad faith and dirty dealing.

Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has said he obtained the materials from the laptop of Hunter Biden, the Democratic nominee’s son. They have not been reviewed or verified by POLITICO — and there are questions about the New York Post’s reporting on the matter, as well as the tabloid and other Trump-friendly outlets’ interpretations of events. There are concerns, too, about the former New York mayor’s interactions with figures linked by Trump’s own administration to Russian intelligence.

For those not steeped in the byzantine maze of reporting on Hunter Biden, the story can be pretty hard to follow. No evidence has emerged, beyond the purported correspondence, that the former VP was involved in or profited from his son’s overseas work or abused his position to support it. That hasn’t stopped Trump from hyping the laptop leaks, saying they make “crooked Hillary Clinton look like an amateur,” and urging his attorney general to prosecute Biden, among other prominent Democrats. more...
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