PoliticsBusiness Insider10 senators are at risk of losing reelection. It may be enough to give Democrats a majority in Congress.
A September Quinnipiac University survey showed that Gideon currently holds a 12 percentage point lead in the polls over Collins in a 54%-42% split among likely voters. Gideon's lead appears to be increasing as polling from August by Quinnipiac University had Gideon up by just 4 points. "The tide has turned on Senator Susan Collins, who was so popular in Maine that she won nearly 70 percent of the vote the last time she ran.
U.S.INSIDERJerry Falwell, Jr. was found intoxicated and bleeding at his home following a bombshell report alleging a years-long sexual affair between him, his wife, and another man
Emergency calls reveal that Jerry Falwell Jr. was found intoxicated and injured on August 30, a week after a news report alleging a years-long sexual affair between him, his wife, and another man, the Huffington Post reported on Thursday. Falwell's wife called 911 after she had to break into her own home to reach Falwell, who she said was intoxicated and bleeding. The incident came after Falwell resigned as president of Liberty University following several scandals.
U.S.Associated PressAP Exclusive: More migrant women say they didn’t OK surgery
An Associated Press review of medical records for four women and interviews with lawyers revealed growing allegations that Amin performed surgeries and other procedures on detained immigrants that they never sought or didn't fully understand. Although some procedures could be justified based on problems documented in the records, the women's lack of consent or knowledge raises serious legal and ethical issues, lawyers and medical experts said. Amin has performed surgery or other gynecological treatment on at least eight women detained at Irwin County Detention Center since 2017, including one hysterectomy, said Andrew Free, an immigration and civil rights lawyer working with other attorneys ...
U.S.Miami HeraldIntruder who stabbed man during break-in was just freed for similar crime, GA police say
A man accused of a violent home invasion at an Atlanta-area home on Thursday was freed from jail a few weeks earlier on a similar crime, Georgia authorities said. Brookhaven police arrested 56-year-old Jimmy David Mills after they said he broke into a home and stabbed the homeowner multiple times as the man rushed to his wife's defense, according to a Friday post on the department's Facebook page. Mills, whom police describe as a “repeat offender,” fled the scene but was caught, officials said.
PoliticsReutersIsrael returns to lockdown as COVID-19 cases mount
Israel entered a second nationwide lockdown on Friday at the onset of the Jewish high-holiday season, forcing residents to stay mostly at home amid a resurgence in new coronavirus cases. A lockdown was imposed in March and eased in May as new cases tapered off, reaching single-digit lows, but in the past week, new cases have reached daily highs of more than 5,000. Israeli leaders have acknowledge they lifted measures too soon, but the move to reimpose sweeping restrictions has angered residents struggling amid an economic downturn.
PoliticsThe Independent‘I can’t do it any more, I can’t watch me’: Trump says he is bored of seeing himself
During a freewheeling speech to a raucous crowd in Wisconsin, Donald Trump lamented the absence of sports from American TV screens for much of the summer – and complained that too much politics has been shown instead. Mr Trump is a famously voracious consumer of political TV shows, in particular on Fox News; at a recent White House press conference, he recalled watching a total nine hours of the network's opinion shows almost in one sitting. However, in the midst of a rambling monologue calling for NFL players to stand and sing the national anthem rather than “taking a knee” in protest at violent anti-Black racism, the president voiced regret that the absence of sports has inadvertently give...
PoliticsTimeDemocrats Just Won Several Major Lawsuits Over Mail Ballots—But Their Fight Continues
A "Vote By Mail" sign is displayed along a road in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 12, 2020. After securing a several major court victories on Thursday, Democrats who have been worried about whether the United States Postal Service (USPS) is capable of efficiently and securely delivering ballots before Election Day, breathed a—temporary—sigh of relief. “We are fortunate to have a system where an attorney general could walk into a courtroom and make that case to a federal judge and put a stop to this madness,” says Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who led the coalition of attorneys general in a federal lawsuit that successfully procured a national temporary injunction against changes at the Postal Service.
WorldAssociated PressUS carrier transits Strait of Hormuz amid tensions with Iran
The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier safely transited on Friday through the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important chokepoint for oil shipments, the U.S. Navy said, as tensions with Iran continue to simmer. In a “scheduled” maneuver, the U.S. sent the carrier and several other warships through the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, according to the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th fleet. The Nimitz, America's oldest carrier in active service, carries some 5,000 sailors and Marines.
U.S.Business InsiderA dentist who pulled someone's tooth while riding a hoverboard has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud and 'unlawful dental acts'
An Alaska dentist who pulled a woman's tooth while riding a hoverboard has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud, embezzlement, and "unlawful dental acts." The video was part of prosecutors' case against Seth Lookhart, who was found guilty of defrauding his customers by administering unnecessary procedures to rack up Medicare charges. Prosecutors are seeking $2.2 million in damanges, and Lookhart could also permanently lose his medical license in the state.
WorldReuters'They should have let us die in the water': desperate Lebanese migrants sent back by Cyprus
For years, small boats have left northern Lebanon's coast, packed with desperate migrants hoping to reach European shores. Mohammad Ghandour never thought he'd be one of them. "In Lebanon, we are being killed by poverty," Ghandour told Reuters this week, from his mother's cramped three-room apartment where he was staying with 12 other family members.
- PoliticsReuters Videos
Belarus may close Poland, Lithuania borders
Let's not allow another iron curtain to descend on the European continent. Border closure will stop international scrutiny. That was a U.N. investigator, Anais Marin, on the situation on Belarus -- after its President Alexander Lukashenko warned his country needs to close its borders with Poland and Lithuania.
U.S.The WeekTrump's club charged Secret Service agents $500 a night for rentals even when it was closed for the pandemic
Taxpayers' bills for Trump Organization properties have surpassed $1.1 million, The Washington Post reports. As the Post has consistently reported via Secret Service bills, President Trump and his administration have repeatedly funneled government money to the family's properties throughout his term. That has included above-market rates for rentals that ensured Secret Service agents stayed close to Trump and, most recently, payments to one club that was closed for the COVID-19 pandemic, the Post's David Fahrenthold reports via the latest round of receipts and invoices.
PoliticsThe Independent‘She is a good person’: Fauci backs Pence aide who says she’s voting for Biden
Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said Olivia Troye, the former lead aide on Vice President Mike Pence's coronavirus task force who said she'd be voting for Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the 2020 US election, was "important to the team" and a "good person." During an appearance on Chris Hayes' MSNBC program, Dr Fauci praised the former aide for her work on the coronavirus response team, but declined to further comment on her political stances. "I interacted with Olivia, I liked her, she was a good person.
WorldAssociated PressVirus clusters at French universities give Europe a lesson
The clutches of cases are a warning sign for countries elsewhere in Europe, where most universities are readying to resume teaching and research in coming weeks. “We go back to university in conditions that are a bit extreme, and we fear we might get COVID-19,” Elise Gilbert, 20, who is studying literature at the Sorbonne, said of the overcrowding students encountered. France's experience so far stands in contrast to what's happening in Britain, where virus-driven changes on campuses mean university life will look a lot different this term.
U.S.Miami HeraldFirefighter who hung brown doll from neck in Wisconsin station suspended, chief says
The brown, fetus-like figurine was hanging from a whiteboard in a break room at Fire Station 2 for three or four days before the station's only Black female firefighter found it and reported it to higher-ups, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. Officials determined it wasn't a “deliberate or intentional racist or sexist” act, however. Rohlfing said a review of the February incident, which wasn't made public until June, revealed that the white male firefighter had found the doll on the street and “brought it into the station out of curiosity,” WPR reported.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderJared Kushner reportedly said 'free markets will solve' the PPE shortage in March. Nurses are still paying for that approach.
New reporting on a March 21 meeting in the White House Situation Room quotes Jared Kushner as saying it was "not the role of government" to solve the PPE shortage and prevent states from outbidding each other, according to Vanity Fair. "The federal government is not going to lead this response," Kushner said, according to Vanity Fair. A PPE shortage persists today, with one survey finding 58% of nurses in Florida, Kansas, Missouri and Nevada saying they had to reuse N95 masks for five days or more by the beginning of September.
PoliticsReutersTrump campaign denies Guardian report the president assaulted a woman in 1997
U.S. President Donald Trump's re-election campaign on Thursday denied a Guardian newspaper report in which a former model accused the New York real estate developer of sexually assaulting and groping her at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in 1997. The Guardian reported that Amy Dorris told the paper in an interview that Trump assaulted her outside a bathroom in his VIP box at the tournament that year. She was 24 at the time, the newspaper said.
WorldTimeHong Kong Pro-democracy Activist Nathan Law Wins TIME’s 2020 TIME100 Reader Poll
Nathan Law, a leading pro-democracy activist and the youngest lawmaker in Hong Kong's history, took first place in TIME's poll with 3.8% of the 4.7 million votes cast by readers. Law made news in July when he revealed that he fled Hong Kong after China imposed a new, controversial national security law making separatism, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign countries criminal offenses—an attempt at cracking down on Hong Kong protests.
U.S.Associated PressCaptain says he knowingly risked career with virus warning
The dismissed captain of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier knew he was jeopardizing his military career when he broke protocol and sent a now-famous email warning of possible sailor deaths due to a coronavirus breakout on board, But Brett Crozier says in a witness statement obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle that he did so in an urgent effort to help avoid a “larger catastrophe." Crozier's witness statement, recorded in May during the Navy's investigation into the handling of the outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, provides a look at his thinking when he sent the March email that upended the military world and brought condemnation from the top Navy admiral overseeing the carrier.
U.S.USA TODAYLouisville federal courthouse to close next week in anticipation of Breonna Taylor decision
The downtown Louisville federal courthouse will be closed next week in anticipation of a potential decision in the investigation of Breonna Taylor's shooting death by Louisville police, The Courier Journal learned Friday. Chief Judge Greg Stivers signed an order Friday morning closing the Gene Snyder U.S. Courthouse and Custom House Sept. 21-25. A courthouse official confirmed to The Courier Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, the building is being closed to the public in anticipation of an announcement.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderFauci says he'll take responsibility if a coronavirus vaccine rolled out in the US is faulty
Dr. Anthony Fauci replied in the affirmative on Thursday when asked by MSNBC's Chris Hayes whether he would "take the heat" for any problems with a vaccine. Redfield projected that a vaccine wouldn't be widely available until the new year — a sentiment largely echoed by health experts — but Trump argued one could come sooner. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading US infectious-disease expert, has pledged to "take the heat" for any problems with a vaccine for COVID-19.
HealthReutersRussia approves first COVID-19 prescription drug for sale in pharmacies
Russia has approved R-Pharm's Coronavir treatment for outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19 infections and the antiviral drug could be rolled out to pharmacies in the country as soon as next week, the company said on Friday. Coronavir's approval as a prescription drug follows the green light for another Russian COVID-19 drug, Avifavir, in May. Both are based on favipiravir, which was developed in Japan and is widely used there as the basis for viral treatments. R-Pharm's announcement is another sign Russia is pushing hard to take a global lead in the race against the virus.
WorldThe TelegraphTensions build as 18 Chinese fighter jets buzz Taiwan during landmark US visit
Taiwan scrambled fighter jets on Friday after a fleet of Chinese military aircraft buzzed the island, stepping up tensions as a senior US official began holding meetings in Taipei. Beijing had earlier announced the start of combat drills in the Taiwan strait aimed at asserting its claim that the island remained "an inalienable part of China". The Chinese government has long considered Taiwan a renegade province, although the democratically-governed island has its own president, currency, foreign policy, passport and military.
- U.S.Associated Press
Texas ex-deputies: Leaders gave gift cards for using force
Two former employees of a Texas sheriff's office say leaders rewarded officers with steakhouse gift cards when they used force on the job. The Texas Rangers and the Williamson County prosecutor's office are investigating at least five use-of-force incidents involving the Williamson County sheriff's office in suburban Austin. A former deputy whose use of force is under investigation told investigators about the gift cards in a recorded interview obtained by the Austin American Statesman and KVUE-TV.
PoliticsThe Daily BeastTrump Finally Admits Many Americans Won’t Get Vaccine Until April
President Trump on Friday said that the U.S. expects to have enough coronavirus vaccines for every American by April. “We'll have manufactured at least 100 million vaccine doses before the end of the year and likely much more than that,” Trump said at an afternoon press conference. Despite Trump saying “three vaccines are already in the final stage,” there is still no certainty when a safe and effective vaccine will indeed be approved for the American public.
“The SAT is emblematic of higher education’s failure to keep up with the times...Just the stuff that systemic racism thrives on.”
“These tests create unnecessary stress for young people already dealing with mental health challenges.”
“Dropping the SAT requirement makes it harder for colleges to compare applicants against a common standard.”
“The best predictor of college success overall is a simple one: high school grades.”
“What matters more is a broader push to help minority students get better educations.”