Covington

Who will Trump nominate to succeed Ruth Bader Ginsburg? Some possible contenders.

Hours after the announcement that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died Friday evening, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared that if President Trump made a nomination, as he is expected to, McConnell would bring it up in the Senate, where Republicans have a 53-47 majority.

The CIA sent a team of 4 operators on a spy mission targeting China. None came back.

In 2008, CIA operative Stephen Stanek faced a decision: cancel the operation he was running or go forward with it — as a tropical storm barreled through the Philippines with a projection to veer north and miss his team's area of operation.

Mass suspension of German police officers who shared pictures of Hitler and doctored images of refugees in gas chambers

The officers allegedly shared extremist content in chatrooms and WhatsApp groups. Some face charges of spreading Nazi propaganda and hate speech.

White House announces nearly $13 billion in aid for Puerto Rico three years after Hurricane Maria

The U.S. emergency agency is sending almost $13 billion to Puerto Rico, directed at the territory's energy and education systems, to help it recover from 2017's devastating Hurricane Maria, the White House said on Friday. The "federal share" of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's grants to the territory totals $11.6 billion, with most money, $9.6 billion, going to the battered power authority, according to a White House announcement, which did not provide details on the remaining funds or explain why they were not part of the federal share. Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vazquez Garced said in a statement the full FEMA package is $12.8 billion, with $10.5 billion for power.

Sources: Russian aggression against U.S. intelligence satellites sparks congressional briefing

Over recent days, officials from the U.S. Space Force and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence briefed congressional committees on an “uptick” in Russian military activity in space targeting U.S. defense and intelligence satellites.

California and Oregon 2020 wildfires in maps, graphics and images

A visual guide to the wildfires ravaging California, Oregon and other western states.

DNC receives thousands of $19.08 donations in honor of AKA

The DNC has nabbed over 11,000 donations in the same amount of the founding year of Alpha Kappa Alpha. Kamala Harris is a sister. The campaign to elect former vice president Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, has attracted support from what Harris has called her “secret weapon:” the women of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Jerry Falwell Jr's wife called 911 saying there was 'lots of blood' after husband fell while drinking, report claims

Reports indicate Ms Falwell reluctant to comment on husband’s drinking to 911 dispatcher

Whose voters are 'hidden' in polling data? 'Shy' Biden voters may actually outnumber Trump’s

Just 20 percent of Trump voters with mostly Biden-backing neighbors say those neighbors would be surprised by their support for Trump. Among Biden voters in Trump country, however, that number is 10 points higher (30 percent).

Justice Ginsburg saw raw racism and sex discrimination long before she joined the court

Our Supreme Court reporter recalls the private side of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

A Florida bar owner is banning customers from wearing masks and asking them to leave if they do

Gary Kirby, owner of Westside Sports Bar and Lounge, said that anyone who refuses to take off their face covering will be asked to leave.

Taiwan scrambles fighters as Chinese jets again fly near island

Taiwan's air force scrambled jets for a second consecutive day on Saturday as multiple Chinese aircraft approached the island and crossed the sensitive midline of the Taiwan Strait, with the island's government urging Beijing to "pull back from the edge." Taiwan's Defence Ministry said 19 Chinese aircraft were involved, one more than in the previous day, with some crossing the Taiwan Strait midline and others flying into Taiwan's air defence identification zone off its southwest coast. It said China, which claims democratic Taiwan as its own territory, sent 12 J-16 fighters, two J-10 fighters, two J-11 fighters, two H-6 bombers and one Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft.

Pentagon sending troops to Syria after clashes between U.S., Russian military

The troops are meant to discourage Russians from crossing into the eastern area where U.S., coalition, and Syrian Democratic Forces operate, say officials.

Poll: Only 22 percent of Americans think the 2020 presidential election will be ‘free and fair’

Just 22% of Americans believe this year’s presidential election will be “free and fair,” according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll — a disturbing loss of confidence in the democratic process that could foreshadow a catastrophic post-election period with millions of partisans refusing to accept the legitimacy of the results.

Fears of a brain drain in Belarus as IT workers prepare to flee brutal crackdown

On the night of the Belarusian presidential elections, Andrey Fedorovich, a 27-year-old web developer with an enviable job and a big flat in Minsk, found himself lying on the ground underneath an abandoned van, hiding from riot police rampaging across the city. “I first thought about leaving when I was lying underneath that van, when I saw what kind of people live in my country,” Mr Fedorovich says. He and his wife have now decided to flee for Kyiv in Ukraine. Belarus - perhaps better known for its tractor factories - has a booming tech industry. Minsk was the USSR's designated tech hub, and now over 10,000 tech workers are based there. These workers have long enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle and were once hailed as the sole hope for the country’s Soviet-style economy.

Rochester: Two killed and 14 wounded after mass shooting at party in New York state

Police say incident is ‘tragedy of epic proportions’

Homes destroyed after winds push California fire into desert

Homes were destroyed Friday by an unrelenting wildfire that reached a Mojave Desert community and was still growing on several fronts after burning for nearly two weeks in mountains northeast of Los Angeles. Officials were investigating the death of a firefighter on the lines of another Southern California wildfire that erupted earlier this month from a smoke-generating pyrotechnic device used by a couple to reveal their baby’s gender. The death occurred Thursday in San Bernardino National Forest as crews battled the El Dorado Fire about 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of LA, the U.S. Forest Service said in a statement.

The man behind Trump’s campaign against 'critical race theory'

The programs Rufo targeted are intended to improve communication, defuse tensions and promote equal opportunities among co-workers of different races and ethnicities, and are analogous, or identical to, similar programs that have been a staple of corporate human relations departments for decades.

Pakistan outcry over police victim-blaming of gang-raped mother

A police chief's comments spark an unprecedented backlash after a woman was raped in front of her children.

Planned Black community in Georgia draws interest for a reality TV show

Last week, nearly two dozen families in Georgia made headlines for pooling money to purchase land in a Georgia town with a vision to build a safe-haven community for Black people. The news garnered widespread attention, including interest from big wigs in the entertainment sphere hoping to develop a reality TV show about the forthcoming community dreamed to be Freedom, Georgia, per TMZ. The group of 19 families, led by Ashley Scott and Renee Walters, bought 97 acres of land in Toomsboro, Georgia, a rural town of about 500 people, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, about two hours south of Atlanta.

T cell shortage linked to severe COVID-19 in elderly; antiseptic spray may limit virus spread

A lower supply of a certain type of immune cell in older people that is critical to fighting foreign invaders may help explain their vulnerability to severe COVID-19, scientists say. When germs enter the body, the initial "innate" immune response generates inflammation not specifically targeted at the bacteria or virus. Within days, the more precise "adaptive" immune response starts generating antibodies against the invader along with T cells that either assist in antibody production or seek out and attack infected cells.

State Department, Officials Accidentally Feature Navy Planes in Air Force Birthday Messages

The State Department on Friday posted a tweet to honor the Air Force, but used a photo of the Blue Angels.

Tens of thousands attend Bangladesh Islamist leader's funeral

Tens of thousands of people gathered to mourn the controversial leader of Bangladesh's largest Islamist group as his funeral was held on Saturday in a rural southeastern town, police said.

NC woman still missing two years after she left baby with family reportedly to visit sick mother in Mexico

Nancy Troche Garcia, 28, was last seen in Asheboro, North Carolina on May 20, 2018, when she dropped her baby off with the baby’s father. She then reportedly went to the father’s sister’s house nearby and asked her if she would help care for the baby since she would be traveling to Mexico to care for her sick mother. But her mother told police that she was not sick and there were no plans for Nancy to come to Mexico. Nancy’s burgundy 2001 Chevy Impala is also missing. The Asheboro Police

Noul turns deadly while making landfall in Vietnam

Noul made landfall as a tropical storm in central Vietnam on Friday leading to at least one death, as reported by the Bangkok Post.VnExpress stated that Noul prompted the closure of several airports in central Vietnam on Friday, including Da Nang's airport, which led to several dozen cancellations and delays.Noul produced 310 mm (12.20 inches) of rain in Da Nang from Thursday into Friday as the storm moved onshore.> ⛈️Tropical storm Noul has made landfall in Vietnam with strong winds and torrential rain. It's tracking west across Vietnam, Laos & northern Thailand. pic.twitter.com/70Oi8yHwlC> > -- BBC Weather (@bbcweather) September 18, 2020CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APPHeavy rainfall and flash flooding from Noul will now move inland across Indochina through the weekend.Noul (known as Leon in the Philippines) first became a tropical storm on Tuesday night as a broad area of low pressure strengthened across the South China Sea after crossing the Philippines. This satellite loop shows Noul strengthening across the South China Sea on Thursday evening, local time, before landfall in central Vietnam. (CIRA/RAMMB) Now that Noul is inland and losing wind intensity, AccuWeather meteorologists expect flooding rainfall to be the predominant concern through the weekend.AccuWeather Meteorologist Tony Zartman explains, "Even though Noul will lose wind intensity and fall below tropical storm status, it will still pose a significant flooding threat into Sunday." Widespread rainfall totals of 100-150 mm (4-6 inches) are expected from this storm with 200-250 mm (8-10 inches) of rain in the mountainous terrain across central Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and southern Myanmar. An AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 400 mm (16 inches) will be possible in the hardest-hit areas.The heaviest rain from Noul is expected to shift from Vietnam and Laos during the end of the week into Thailand and southern Myanmar through the weekend.This amount of rainfall as the storm tracks inland can lead to flooding and mudslides. Road closures are possible and some isolated communities could be inaccessible for several days.AccuWeather forecasters will continue to monitor Noul into the beginning of next week since what is left of the system after tracking over land is expected to emerge over the Bay of Bengal and can bring impacts to India next week.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.

It’s Time to Rein in the Fed

At the Kansas City Federal Reserve’s virtual Jackson Hole economic-policy symposium, Fed chairman Jerome Powell drove a final stake into the legendary inflation fighter Paul Volcker’s Fed. The new orthodoxy promises easy money as far as the eye can see and holds that inflation is good -- not Venezuelan and Zimbabwean hyperinflation of course, just a moderate dose -- thus ensuring that a dollar every year is worth less. Americans should be afraid.Powell announced the Fed’s new inflation-averaging strategy. The central bank is changing how it defines and attempts to achieve the 2 percent inflation target, which it adopted on its own authority in 2012. Henceforth, the Fed will attempt to catch up for past inflation shortfalls. Powell warned that inflation below “its desired level,” which our enlightened central bankers have decreed is 2 percent, can lead to an “unwelcome reduction” in inflation expectations, causing lower inflation. Joe and Sally Sixpack, however, would view gas, steak, and dental check-up prices not rising as welcome.Additionally, the Fed chairman declared the central bank would not, as it has in the past, preemptively raise interest rates to stave off higher inflation when unemployment falls below its natural rate.The new policy has an asymmetric pro-inflation bias. America’s central bankers are not contemplating deflationary policies to offset excessive past inflation. If inflation were 5 percent in period one, the Fed would try to bring it down to 2 percent in period two, not to negative 1 percent.The Fed is a masterful political actor. Powell touted “The Fed Listens” events as “connecting with the American people.” All well and good, but it is Congress, which represents the American people, that the Fed is supposed to heed.The Fed isn’t independent or the policymaker. It is an instrument of Congress, which by statute directs it to conduct monetary policy to achieve “stable prices,” maximum employment, and moderate low-term interest rates. Stable prices mean inflation hovering around zero, not prices doubling every 35 years. If a 200-pound MMA fighter’s weight increased 2 percent every year to 244 pounds after a decade, nobody would suggest his weight was stable.Shame on the Fed for “redefining” its role under the law. But shame on Congress for not insisting the central bank hew to statute.If Congress wants inflation, it should pass legislation changing the Fed’s mandate to that effect, which President Trump or Biden would likely sign. But while many congressional cravens may want inflation, few want to go on record voting for it.Powell allowed, “Many find it counterintuitive that the Fed would want to push up inflation.” No kidding. Money is a unit of account, a means of exchange, and a store of value. Stable money is a sine qua non of stable, prosperous, free societies. There’s enormous value in the dollar remaining constant for consumers and firms planning, transacting, and saving. Imagine a world where a yard continually changed.The received wisdom is that deflation is bad. Precipitous deflation is harmful. However, gentle deflation benefits many firms and individuals. During much of the 19th century the U.S. enjoyed mild deflation.To bolster inflation the Fed is keeping real wholesale interest rates negative.Interest rates are the price of present versus future investment and consumption. They are the economy’s most important price, dynamically signaling where and when capital should be allocated to maximize value.Keeping interest rates artificially low, as the Fed has done for nearly two decades, causes systemic malinvestment, incentivizes excessive risk-taking, and sustains zombie firms, making society poorer, and is sowing the seeds for the next crisis. It punishes savers and creditors.There are, however, powerful constituencies for easy money. America’s biggest borrower, the federal government, loves it. Real-estate developers and brokers and much of Wall Street also vigorously support cheap debt.With everyone focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and recession, inflation is low on people’s list of concerns, but it’s brewing. From December 2019 to August 24, 2020, the monetary base (M1) increased 35 percent. The Fed’s real benchmark interest rate is negative. The pandemic has crimped production. As America limps out of the crisis and the velocity of money -- the rate at which money turns over -- recovers, it’s a recipe for inflation.Since the Fed’s creation in 1913, its policies have massively debased the dollar and caused or contributed to multiple economic crises, including the Great Depression and the Great Recession, devastating job and wealth creation. While the central bank can affect price levels, easy money can’t increase sustainable long-term employment and wealth. Congress should, therefore, eliminate any doubt about what the Fed can and should do by doing away with its “dual” mandate, narrowly focusing it on maintaining stable prices, something that it is equipped to deliver.

As Trump courts Black voters, critics see a 'depression strategy'

While the president’s team touts its efforts to court a community that Republicans have long ignored, critics describe them as part of a cynical “depression strategy” designed to minimize Black American turnout.

Suspects open fire on home of New Jersey police officers and newborn baby; reward offered

Assailants opened fire on the home of two New Jersey police officers Tuesday night, with two bullets piercing the front door.

Mexico's populist president left embarrassed by failed stunt to sell private jet

Mexico’s populist president Andrés Manuel López Obrador was voted in on a pledge to stamp out corruption and largess that went all the way to the country's highest office. So when he pledged to sell the presidential plane, with its marble bathrooms and king sized bed, it seemed like an easy win. But the $218 million, purchased under a predecessor in 2012, jet lies on the tarmac after the latest failed bid to find a buyer in a saga that has exposed the socialist leader to ridicule and embarassment. This week's attempt to raffle the plane during the country’s Independence holiday ended in predictable disaster. For López Obrador, also known by his initials as Amlo, the plane is a symbol of the opulence and waste of the country's political elite, and he vowed to sell it and return the money to Mexicans during his 2018 campaign. After his landslide victory, the President put it up for sale and has been flying on low-cost commercial flights. But it wasn’t that easy. The jet is a used and expensive luxury item with few potential buyers. After spending nearly two years parked for sale in California and spending almost the same amount of money for having it parked than he would have spent using it (about $1.5 million), Amlo decided in February he would just raffle it off during the September 15 Independence holiday. He even had to change the law in order to raffle an item instead of money through Mexico’s National Lottery. Only the plane wasn’t his to raffle. It turned out the Mexican government hasn’t finished paying for it. Amlo moved forward with the raffle but decided to give out the cash equivalent of the jet’s market value of about $95 million instead of the actual plane, split it into 100 winning tickets.

Tropical Storm Beta strengthens overnight

We'll enjoy some fantastic weather Saturday ahead of impacts from Tropical Storm Beta.

Ethiopia files terrorism charges against leading opposition activist

Ethiopia has filed terrorism charges against a prominent media mogul and opposition politician from the Oromo ethnic group, Jawar Mohammed, the attorney general's office said on Saturday. Jawar, founder of the Oromiya Media Network and a member of the Oromo Federalist Congress party, was arrested in June amid the widespread unrest that followed the assassination of popular Oromo musician Haacaaluu Hundeessaa.

China launches counter-mechanism to US sanctions list

China said Saturday it had launched a mechanism enabling it to restrict foreign entities, a much-anticipated move seen as retaliation to US penalties against Chinese companies such as telecom giant Huawei.

Mexico sees fentanyl seizures up 465%, denies making drug

Mexican authorities say seizures of the synthetic opioid fentanyl so far this year are 465% higher than in 2019, rising to almost 2,300 pounds (1,040 kilograms) from around 405 pounds ( 184 kilograms) last year, but progress against another big Mexican export to the U.S. market — methamphetamines — is slower. The Defense Department said seizures of meth in Mexico rose by only 32.8% between Jan. 1 and Sept. 16, but busts of meth labs dropped 51% compared to the same period of last year.

There's a World War II-era blueprint for the looming eviction crisis

In what has been described as a "sweeping" protection for renters, this month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared a nationwide moratorium on evictions until the end of the year. Even so, experts and activists worry it is not enough to address the ongoing economic crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic. Non-profit Aspen Institute released new data in August that projected around 30 million Americans could be at risk for eviction by the end of 2020. The moratorium does not reduce these individuals' risk. It merely postpones it.Congress is focused on passing another relief bill, but members have seemingly placed little emphasis on how to address the predicted evictions other than moratoriums, despite record high unemployment. The United States has, however, dealt with an affordable housing crisis before. A government agency of the past kept tenants in their homes and may be a guide for today.In 1942, memories of the Great Depression, unemployment, and the post-World War I housing shortage remained fresh. In response, the Office of Price Administration (OPA), established by Executive Order 8875 in 1941 to ration goods and enact price and rent controls, declared 20 "defense rental areas" in 13 states. In these areas, not only could the OPA keep rents affordable, the office could also deny landlords' trying to evict tenants. Rents were rolled back to pre-inflation rates and offices were established within rental areas to investigate any attempted increases or abuses.The offices spread. Only five years after the first rental areas, there were more than 600 across the country.Marques Vestal, an incoming professor of Critical Black Urbanism at UCLA, researches the types of complaints the rent office in Los Angeles handled. Vestal points out the simplicity of a rent office where working-class people without legal backgrounds could check rent ceilings and file complaints against landlords. OPA investigators "were aggressive with defending tenants as consumers of housing. Tenants saw [the rental office] as a space that was safe for them," he told The Week.Vestal found one complaint filed by a Russian immigrant woman who complained about her landlord's whiskey consumption. Although the complaint was not strictly rent-related, Vestal said, "She believed in this new entity. She trusted them to intervene."After adopting new regulations in 1942, the Federal Price Administrator, Leon Henderson, justified the decision by saying, "someone had to come to the defense of tenants." Today, even the eviction moratorium is framed as a defense against the spread of the novel coronavirus, not the rights of tenants.In 1945, the OPA denied a landlord's request to raise the rent from $50 to $60 a month in a Flatbush, New York property. After the OPA advised the tenants to not pay a higher rent, the landlord cut the heat to the property, a move not dissimilar to tactics used by some of today's New York City landlords.A study of Chicago by St. Clair Drake and Horace Cayton from the same year describes tenants lining up to file complaints with the office. Historian Wendy Plotkin said attempted abuses were rampant in Chicago during that period, but the very existence of these offices, which required landlords to register their units, and their usage by tenants is an important reminder that evictions are not an inevitability.Joshua Freeman, a labor historian at the City University of New York and author of Working-Class New York: Life and Labor since World War II, described the rent regulations as effective because it was not only the OPA working to uphold tenants' rights. "Political parties set up rent clinics where you could go complain. There were volunteer lawyers," he said. Non-governmental groups were committed to increasing access to OPA's rental offices.The OPA's authorization ended in 1947, but state legislatures could adopt rental protections following the office's dissolution. Some areas, like New York, did incorporate rent control into their own laws, but with the passing of the OPA went much of tenants' recourse across the country. Even as an example of a city that adopted OPA protections, without the government agency and a strong network of unions, New York City eventually turned toward public-private partnerships and replaced rent control with rent stabilization laws.Today, the CDC order and some extended local moratoriums may give renters the ability to postpone eviction proceedings, but accruing six month's back rent is a far cry from the protection the OPA provided.Unexpectedly, many landlords and tenants have found themselves arguing for a similar solution: direct rental assistance. Back in August, Democratic nominee Joe Biden called on Trump to work with Congress to provide emergency housing support for Americans, but didn't elaborate on what the support should look like.Progressive housing activists and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar are pushing for more: Cancel rent entirely. Landlords could receive federal assistance to cover their mortgages. These plans may allow government money to flow to landlords and halt evictions, but none have the regulatory power found in the OPA. Nor do the plans seek to redress the growing cost of housing.In the past, the U.S. government used emergency powers to keep renters in their homes. Today, despite the very real emergency conditions, it seems the most the Trump administration will do is allow renters to become increasingly indebted.More stories from theweek.com How a productivity phenomenon explains the unraveling of America How the Trump-Russia story was buried The conservatives who want to undo the Enlightenment

In the battle over the US supreme court, Democrats can still have the last laugh

If Biden wins, he could pack the courts. That would be a justified gesture of constitutional restoration, not usurpation“My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” Such was the dying hope of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a wish the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, is determined to deny the late, great justice.Recall: this is the same Mitch McConnell who, in the wake of Antonin Scalia’s death nine months before the 2016 election, solemnly announced: “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next supreme court justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”Never mind that the “McConnell rule” lacked grounding in constitutional materials and historical practice. The constitution empowers the president to nominate justices and tasks the US Senate with confirming or rejecting them. In a 150-year span – from 1866 to 2016 – the Senate never once prevented a president from filling a US supreme court vacancy. But armed with a rule of his own invention and a Republican majority in the Senate, McConnell brazenly refused to so much as grant a hearing to Merrick Garland, Barack Obama’s eminently qualified nominee to fill the supreme court vacancy left by Scalia.But no sooner had news of Ginsburg’s death broke than McConnell promised a Senate vote on Donald Trump’s replacement nominee – notwithstanding the fact that we are but six weeks removed from a presidential election and early voting has already started in some places. It turns out that the McConnell rule had a serious catch – it only applies when different parties control the Senate and the White House. And so the McConnell non-rule can be stated crisply: Republican incumbents in election years get to fill supreme court vacancies, but not Democrats.To accuse McConnell of breathtaking hypocrisy is to waste our breath. The charge sticks only if the hypocrite feels a tug of conscience for failing to follow their pronounced principles. In McConnell’s case, one senses nothing but a cynical, chuckling pride in applying and abandoning made-up rules to justify whatever result he wants.And chuckle he should. McConnell’s cynical distortion of the Senate’s role in judicial confirmations has served his party well. In 2017, McConnell used the so-called “nuclear option” to end debate on Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the supreme court. (Gorsuch was Trump’s pick to fill the vacancy that Obama had chosen Garland to fill.) McConnell insisted this was simply payback for Harry Reid’s use of the same option, in 2013, to remove obstacles to Obama’s lower federal court appointments.But McConnell’s tit-for-tat argument obscured how he and his fellow Senate Republicans had weaponized the use of the filibuster during Obama’s presidency. From the time that cloture rules were introduced into the Senate in 1917 until the end of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, the filibuster was deployed 385 times. During Obama’s presidency, Senate Republicans launched over 500 filibusters, many of them to block Obama’s appointments to the federal bench. Reid’s use of the nuclear option was something of a desperate response to Republican obstructionism – or, more precisely, nullification. When it came to shutting down a Democratic filibuster of Gorsuch’s confirmation, McConnell then used the very poisoned conditions that he had helped create to justify a yet more extreme act of partisanship.> Adding two additional justices to court’s ranks would simply counterbalance the abuse of constitutional rulesTrue, it isn’t a foregone conclusion that McConnell will be successful in his rush to replace Justice Ginsburg. The vetting and confirmation process can take weeks, even months. At present, McConnell presides over 53 Republican seats, and certain defections are possible, if not likely. Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican trailing in her re-election bid, has expressed reservations about a rushed, last-minute confirmation. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has already gone on record as opposing the confirmation of a new justice before the election.Yet the deeper question is not whether McConnell will be successful. It is how Democrats should respond if he is. The answer, of course, will turn on the results of the coming election. But should Democrats capture the White House and the Senate, they need to bear in mind that it is Congress and not the Constitution that sets the size of the supreme court. In 1937, Franklin Roosevelt, frustrated by a hidebound supreme court that had struck down New Deal laws, proposed expanding the number of justices to fifteen. That court-packing plan was rightly rejected by Congress as a heavy-handed attempt to manipulate the court’s composition to generate specific political outcomes.A new Democratic court-packing plan in 2021 would be prompted by a very different logic. Adding two additional justices to court’s ranks would simply counterbalance the abuse of constitutional rules that enabled the confirmation of Gorsuch and RBG’s replacement. Such an act would be a justified gesture of constitutional restoration, not usurpation. So much for Mitch McConnell’s chuckling. * Lawrence Douglas is the James J Grosfeld professor of law, jurisprudence and social thought at Amherst College, Massachusetts. He is the author of Will He Go? Trump and the Looming Election Meltdown in 2020. He is also a contributing opinion writer for the Guardian US

White House says they'd hope to avoid repeat of Kavanaugh confirmation process 'travesty'

Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany says White House will encourage Democrats not to treat potential Trump court nominee as they did Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

All the ex-Trump officials who have publicly vowed not to vote for him in November

Some former Trump employees have launched political initiative groups to sway independent, undecided, and moderate Republican voters.

Communist Organizers Arrested after Allegedly Barricading Officers Inside Aurora Police Department

Six rioters were charged by Colorado district attorneys on Thursday with allegations stemming from anti-police demonstrations in June and July.The demonstrations occurred following the death of George Floyd, who was killed during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers. However, Colorado demonstrations also protested the August, 2019, death of Elijah McClain, an African American man who died after being put in a choke hold by officers in Aurora. Several officers in the Aurora Police Department were fired on July 3, 2020, after photos surfaced in which the officers reenacted the choke hold near the site of McClain's arrest.Riots over the summer in Aurora included a July 3 incident in which demonstrators barricaded police inside a precinct building for seven hours.Prosecutors charged Lillian House and Joel Northam, organizers for the Party for Socialism and Liberation, as well as Whitney Lucero with first-degree kidnapping in connection with the July 3 demonstration. The defendants "unlawfully and feloniously attempted to imprison or forcibly secrete 18 officers with the intent to force them or another person to make a concession to secure their release," prosecutors said in a press release. The charges were brought by the district attorneys for Colorado's 17th and 18th judicial districts, both of which are in the city of Aurora.The Party for Socialism and Liberation is a communist party that "believes that the only solution to the deepening crisis of capitalism is the socialist transformation of society," according to its website. House, Northam, and their party have led many of the demonstrations in Aurora and Denver over the summer, the Denver Post reported.Another demonstrator facing felony charges for engaging in and inciting a riot, Terrance Roberts, is a leader of a group called the Front Line Party for Revolutionary Action.Riots that began after the death of George Floyd have caused almost $2 billion in damages, according to a report from Axios, in the most expensive damage from civil unrest in U.S. history. U.S. Attorney General William Barr has called to prosecute rioters for sedition.

Michigan residents urged to stay indoors as scientists race to deal with threat of rare mosquito-borne disease

‘This is an ongoing threat to the health and safety of Michiganders,’ says Department of Health and Human Services chief medical executive Dr Joneigh Khaldun

U.S. reverses COVID-19 testing guidance again: exposed without symptoms need tests

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sparked widespread outcry among state public health officials and experts in late August when it said that people who do not have symptoms may not need to get tested. Before Aug. 24, the CDC had encouraged testing for all those who were exposed. Friday's guidance update effectively returns the CDC's testing guidance to what it said before it was altered in late August.

Canada abandons free trade talks with China: minister

Canada has walked away from free trade talks with China amid soured relations over a Huawei executive's arrest and the detention of two Canadians in apparent retaliation, foreign minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said in a newspaper interview Friday.

US borders with Canada, Mexico to remain closed through Oct. 21 to 'slow spread of COVID-19'

Neither border closure extension comes as much of a surprise: The U.S., Canada and Mexico have all seen a rise in cases since August.

American Airlines CEO says hundreds of thousands will lose their jobs without additional emergency aid

“It’s not fair to them, it’s not fair to our country," Doug Parker said about the upcoming mass layoffs in the airline sector.

Homes burned as winds push California fire into desert floor

Strong winds pushed a wildfire burning for nearly two weeks in mountains northeast of Los Angeles onto the desert floor and spread it rapidly in several directions, causing it to explode in size and destroy homes, officials said Saturday. Meanwhile, officials were investigating the death of a firefighter on the lines of another Southern California wildfire that erupted earlier this month from a smoke-generating pyrotechnic device used by a couple to reveal their baby’s gender. The death occurred Thursday in San Bernardino National Forest as crews battled the El Dorado Fire about 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, the U.S. Forest Service said in a statement.

Hong Kong Pro-democracy Activist Nathan Law Wins TIME’s 2020 TIME100 Reader Poll

TIME asked readers to vote for who they thought should make the 2020 TIME100 list, an annual compilation of the world’s most influential people. 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.

"Big mistake": Trump’s favorite pollster tells Fox why GOP shouldn’t push nomination before election

Conservative pollster Scott Rasmussen warned Republicans it would be a bad idea

Virtual class students overhear fatal shooting between siblings, Wisconsin cops say

A teacher called 911 after the shooting.

Tesla driver charged for appearing to be asleep with the seat fully reclined while traveling at over 86 mph

Canadian authorities said the man was going over 86 mph before being stopped, where police discovered fully reclined seats.