Anytime Fitness says "We're Open Baltimore!" [Video]

Yahoo News

Trump identifies another hoax: The coronavirus

President Trump has called many things hoaxes over the years — the investigation into his 2016 campaign's dealings with Russia, his impeachment, global warming — but on Monday he called into question the existence of an epidemic that has killed more than 135,000 Americans. During a flurry of activity on his Twitter account, Trump retweeted a message from game show host Chuck Woolery that claimed “everyone is lying” about the coronavirus as part of a plot to sabotage the economy and hurt Trump's reelection campaign. “The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19,” wrote Woolery in the message promoted by Trump.

Business Insider

US Postmaster General tells postal workers to leave mail behind if it slows down their route

Mario Tama/Getty Images The US Postal Service's new Postmaster General has established new cost-saving policies that could slow down mail service. Mail carriers are being told to leave mail behind at distribution centers rather than taking late trips, taking extra trips, or logging overtime, according to memos first reported on by The Washington Post and subsequently reviewed by Business Insider. The Postal Service is on financially shaky ground due to the coronavirus pandemic, with Business Insider previously reporting that it may run out of cash by the end of September.

INSIDER

The St. Louis couple that aimed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters received dozens of offers to replace a firearm that was seized by police, their attorney says

A lawyer representing Mark and Patricia McCloskey told Forbes that the St. Louis couple has received more than 50 offers to replace a rifle that was taken by local authorities under a search warrant. The McCloskeys went viral last month after they were caught on video pointing what appeared to be a semiautomatic rifle with an extended magazine at Black Lives Matter protestors who were marching to a demonstration outside the St. Louis mayor's house. The married St. Louis couple, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who went viral for pointing guns at protesters marching past their home, have received 50 or more offers to replace their AR-15 rifle which local authorities seized, Forbes reported.

Storyful

Portland Protesters Set Fire to Base of Elk Statue During 46th Consecutive Night of Demonstrations

During a night of unrest in Portland, Oregon, on Sunday, July 12, protesters set fire to an empty fountain and the base of an elk statue that was recently removed during protests in the area. During clashes on July 11, one protester, named as Donavan La Bella, was hospitalized after he was shot in the head with an impact munition, the Portland Tribune reported. Mayor Ted Wheeler has announced that US Marshals will investigate the incident.

The Daily Beast

Ousted U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman: Deal Barr Offered ‘Could Be Seen as a Quid Pro Quo’

Geoffrey Berman, formerly the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, was brought in for a closed-door session of the Judiciary Committee on July 9 to talk about the events surrounding Barr's public announcement on June 19 that Berman had “stepped down” from his post, even though the U.S. attorney made clear to Barr multiple times that he was not stepping down. The next day, Berman said he would leave the job when Barr agreed to let his deputy take over as acting U.S. attorney, as opposed to Craig Carpenito, the U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey, whom Barr wanted to install in the position until the Trump administration's pick, Securities and Exchange Commission chief Jay Clayton, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Associated Press

Iran executes defense ministry staffer as alleged CIA spy

Iran has executed a former employee of the defense ministry who was convicted of spying on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency, the country's judiciary said Tuesday. The report said Reza Asgari was executed last week. Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said Asgari had worked in the airspace department of the ministry and retired in 2016.

National Review

Black Leaders Call on NYPD to Bring Back Anti-Crime Unit as Shootings Spike

Leaders in the black community are calling on the New York Police Department to bring back the plainclothes Anti-Crime Unit that was eliminated last month as shootings and murders spike across the city. About 600 undercover officers from the unit were set to be transferred to other assignments including detective work and policing neighborhoods, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said a month ago. The anti-crime unit, which was responsible for getting guns off the streets, had been criticized as stoking distrust in law enforcement in minority communities.

The Independent

Javonni Carson: Nine-year-old shot four times while filming TikTok videos

A fourth-grade boy shot four times in Atlanta was filming TikTok videos with his two siblings when an unknown gunman fired into a crowd during a drive-by shooting, his mother said. Javonni Carson, 9, who was one of three people injured in the attack, has undergone surgery and is expected to recover, mother Keyona Carson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "My other two kids were there, too, and they saw everything," Ms Carson, 35, told the outlet.

Business Insider

US Navy warship challenges China in South China Sea as US blasts Beijing's 'unlawful' claims and 'gangster tactics'

US Navy A US Navy destroyer challenged China in the South China Sea with a freedom-of-navigation operation on Tuesday. The USS Ralph Johnson sailed near the disputed Spratly Islands, the Navy said, adding in a statement that "unlawful and sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea pose a serious threat to the freedom of the seas." The operation, one of at least six such operations this year, comes after the US State Department officially rejected most of China's sea claims, declaring its maritime efforts to assert sovereignty unlawful.

NBC News

'Difficult to attack vanilla': Trump's throwing everything at Biden, but nothing is sticking

President Donald Trump and his campaign have spent months deploying a series of attacks depicting Joe Biden as weak, unfit and a tool of leftists. On Tuesday, Trump stood in the Rose Garden and went on a non-stop nearly hour-long anti-Biden rant, spraying a variety of broadsides at the former vice president, on everything from China policy to immigration to policing and much more. In what may have been his wildest attack, Trump claimed Biden's housing policy would "abolish the suburbs."

USA TODAY

Former veteran hospital nursing assistant pleads guilty to murder charges in string of insulin deaths

WASHINGTON – A former nursing assistant pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal murder charges in connection with a string of insulin deaths at a veterans hospital in West Virginia. Federal prosecutors say Reta Mays injected lethal doses of insulin into eight veterans at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in rural Clarksburg, causing their blood sugar levels to drop to dangerously low levels. Seven died shortly after.

Architectural Digest

64 Stunning Kitchen Island Ideas

Bring on the prep space Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

Reuters

Philippines to use police in house-to-house searches for COVID-19 cases

Philippine authorities and police will carry out house-to-house searches for COVID-19 patients to prevent wider transmission, a minister said on Tuesday, amid soaring death and infection numbers and some areas returning to a stricter lockdown. Interior Minister Eduardo Año urged the public to report cases in their neighbourhoods, warning that anyone infected who refused to cooperate faced imprisonment. The tough approach comes during a week where the Philippines recorded Southeast Asia biggest daily jump in coronavirus deaths and saw hospital occupancy grow sharply, after a tripling of infections since a tough lockdown was eased on June 1 to allow more movement and commerce.

AFP

Philippine police deployed as virus cases forced into quarantine

Philippine police are being deployed to ensure people who test positive for the coronavirus and cannot self-isolate at home are taken to state-run quarantine centres, sparking warnings Wednesday of potential rights violations. The move comes as authorities step up efforts to slow the rapid spread of the disease by increasing testing, reimposing lockdowns, and building dozens of quarantine centres to isolate patients with mild symptoms. To clamp down on local transmission, police are accompanying health workers to the homes of people who have tested positive and taking them to government facilities if their homes are considered inadequate for self-isolation or if they live with "vulnerable" p...

Associated Press

Oregon, other states putting names of ousted police online

In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in police custody, Oregon has released the names of over 1,700 officers whose transgressions over the past 50 years were so serious that they were banned from working in law enforcement in the state. The online posting last week came after the state Legislature created a law requiring the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training to establish a statewide public database of officers whose certification has been revoked or suspended. “Those who are revoked have tarnished the badge and no longer have the trust of their community, their agency, or our agency as the certifying body,” department director Eriks Gabliks told The Associated Press.

INSIDER

A Black teen didn't do her online schoolwork during the pandemic. A judge sent her to juvenile detention.

Grace, 15, was sentenced to juvenile detention in May for not completing her school work, which was deemed a violation of her probation. The Michigan teenager was put on probation in November after stealing a cell phone and getting into an altercation with her mother. In March, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order discouraging the sentencing of young people unless they posed a "substantial and immediate safety risk."

National Review

U.S. Considers TikTok Ban as Chinese Threat to Global Internet Freedom Grows

The partnership between Chinese tech companies and the Chinese Communist Party is threatening global Internet freedom. But the U.S. has the chance to push back and safeguard online free speech and privacy worldwide. Last Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News's Laura Ingraham that the U.S. is “certainly looking at” banning TikTok, a video-sharing social-media platform owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, over its ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Business Insider

Earthquakes in Southern California last year increased the chances of 'the big one' on the San Andreas fault, research suggests

The Ridgecrest earthquakes that struck Southern California last July may have increased the chances of a large quake along the San Andreas fault, new research shows. This time last year, a series of powerful earthquakes struck Southern California, culminating in a magnitude 7.1 temblor and a set of aftershocks. Within a week, scientists recorded more than 3,000 quakes in the area around California's Searles Valley.

Yahoo News

Trump's attacks on mail-in voting could lead to nightmare scenario, election expert warns

Even before the pandemic made it likely that there will be a historic number of mail-in ballots in this fall's election, Hasen was worried that if the election were close, President Trump might declare victory before all the votes were counted. That concern is now much greater for Hasen. Since the emergence of the coronavirus, Trump has made numerous wild claims — without any evidence and in contradiction to known facts — that mail-in voting will lead to widespread fraud and cheating.

USA TODAY

Fact check: Rep. Ilhan Omar was not photographed at an al-Qaida training camp

When Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was sworn into office in January 2019, she became one of the first two Muslim women in Congress, alongside Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. Throughout her term, Omar has faced vitriolic, racist comments and threats from her political opponents and members of the American public. Omar's religion is often central to the attacks, with people accusing her of treason and association with al-Qaida.

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