| Yahoo News/YouGov poll: With one week left, Biden's lead over Trump grows to 12 points — his biggest yet Posted: 26 Oct 2020 12:27 PM PDT  Biden's lead is four times the size of Hillary Clinton's national advantage over Trump at this point in 2016, underscoring how hard it will be for the president to pull off another upset on Election Day.
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| Pennsylvania teen fatally shot while watching sunset in park with girlfriend, authorities say Posted: 27 Oct 2020 04:52 AM PDT  Jason Kutt, the 18-year-old shot at Nockamixon State Park Saturday died from injuries, according to his family.
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| White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany Is Now Formally Moonlighting as a Trump Campaign Aide Posted: 27 Oct 2020 10:56 AM PDT  White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany appears to have taken on a new gig. In addition to her role as a government employee, she's now serving as a senior aide on her boss's reelection campaign.In an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday morning, McEnany was introduced as "Trump 2020 senior adviser and White House press secretary." A few hours later, Fox Business Network host Stuart Varney introduced McEnany by saying she is "serving now as adviser for the Trump campaign."McEnany's dual roles for the White House and the Trump reelection campaign immediately set off alarm bells among good-government advocates, who said they represent yet another instance of the often blurry lines between the Trump administration and the president's political operation."This looks like the latest example of Trump administration officials bending and breaking ethics laws and norms," said Paul Seamus Ryan, the vice president of litigation for the group Common Cause. "This is unfortunately par for the course for this administration."Now Kayleigh McEnany Has COVID, Making a Dozen From Rose Garden CeremonyA White House spokesperson said McEnany was not representing the White House during her Fox appearances on Tuesday."Kayleigh was appearing in her personal capacity as a private citizen," the spokesperson said.A spokesperson for the Trump campaign confirmed that McEnany is an unpaid adviser and also said she was appearing on Fox on Tuesday in a personal capacity. The spokesperson said that cable news shows on which she appears "have been instructed not to refer to her with her White House title," notwithstanding the America's Newsroom introduction on Tuesday that included both her campaign and White House titles.While most of McEnany's two Fox hits on Tuesday concerned the status of the Trump campaign and the 2020 race, she also weighed in on official administration policy on issues such as COVID relief negotiations with congressional Democrats."The chances [for a deal] are slim when you have someone like Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House," McEnany told Varney. "If we're providing stimulus relief for the American people, it should be just that, for American people, for United States citizens, not a wish-list from the liberal left," McEnany told Varney.Speaking in front of a backdrop that featured both the White House and the Trump campaign logo, McEnany also rattled off a series of policy proposals that "we offered" in those negotiations.Fox News Reporter Explodes Over Kayleigh McEnany: 'Stop Blaming the Media, I'm Tired of It!'It's that sort of blurry line between White House and campaign messaging, and the prospect that taxpayer resources could continue bolstering the president's reelection effort, that concern Ryan."This excerpt is McEnany commenting on federal government policy currently being negotiated by the Trump administration with Congress. This is McEnany doing the work of a [White House] press secretary," he said. "It's permissible for someone who works in the White House to also do campaign work. They just can't mix the two. They can't try to do the two things simultaneously."Ryan compared the situation to controversy over illicit politicking by former senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, who used her official Twitter account to share political messages, leading the Office of Special Counsel to recommend her removal over violations of the Hatch Act, which bars the use of taxpayer resources for partisan purposes.Conway brushed off the recriminations with a simple statement: "Blah blah blah."The Trump White House, and the president himself, have reveled in the frequent criticism they get over their unprecedented uses of taxpayer resources in the service of the president's reelection. After coming under fire for putting on a political nominating convention on the White House grounds in August, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh tweeted, "Liberals are more upset about the use of government buildings than they ever were about the use of the FBI to target political opponents."McEnany's Fox appearances on Tuesday came about two months after White House attorneys waived ethics rules so that she could meet in her capacity as a government official with employees of the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, both of which previously employed her.The waiver memo is undated, but metadata in the file posted to the White House website indicates it was created on August 26. That was the day of McEnany's speech at the Republican National Convention. She also spoke at a Trump campaign rally this month.The White House has also waived ethics rules for another staffer, director of advance Bobby Peede, to permit communications with the Trump campaign. According to Federal Election Commission records, the Trump re-elect has made regular payments from December 2019 through early this month to the firm Event Strategies, where Peede served as a partner prior to joining the White House.The largest of those payments, for nearly $100,000, came on August 24, two days before Peede's waiver memo was created.\-- With reporting by Justin BaragonaKayleigh McEnany Grilled on Trump's Sudden Embrace of Mail-In VotingRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Our Favorite Home Decor Pieces From the Second Annual Etsy Design Awards Posted: 27 Oct 2020 02:41 PM PDT |
| Senate confirms Barrett to the Supreme Court Posted: 26 Oct 2020 05:33 PM PDT  The Senate voted on Monday evening to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, just eight days before the election which solidifies a conservative majority on the high court for a generation.
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| NASA used a Boeing 747 rigged with a massive telescope to discover water on the moon — take a look at SOFIA Posted: 26 Oct 2020 09:00 AM PDT  The former Pan Am Boeing 747SP that took NASA over 10 years to retrofit for space exploration made the finding that will aid humanity's lunar return.
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| As Trump says news about COVID should be illegal, WH chief of staff says goal is to 'defeat' virus, not 'control' it Posted: 26 Oct 2020 07:42 AM PDT  While President Trump's chief of staff on Monday attempted to clarify the assertion that the United States is "not going to control" the coronavirus crisis, the president himself complained that the media is too focused on the pandemic.
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| Kamala Harris fever is gripping India – but not everyone is convinced Posted: 27 Oct 2020 12:01 PM PDT  Her comments on Kashmir and her own mixed heritage might be controversial in India, but seeing a first Indian-American in the White House would still be a source of pride pride for many, Stuti Mishra reports from Delhi
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| Venezuela's Guaido denounces forced disappearance of party coordinator Posted: 27 Oct 2020 10:33 AM PDT  Venezuela's Juan Guaido on Tuesday accused the government of illegally detaining an opposition activist, blaming it for what he called the forced disappearance of Roland Carreno of the Popular Will party. Carreno was approached on Monday afternoon by unidentified people in vehicles without license plates, Popular Will said on Twitter. "We alert the world about his forced disappearance and we hold the dictatorship responsible for his physical and mental integrity."
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| Turkey calls for France boycott as Islamic world backlash grows Posted: 26 Oct 2020 06:35 PM PDT  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday joined calls for a boycott of French goods, ramping up a standoff between France and Muslim countries over Islam and freedom of speech.
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| Justice Kavanaugh seems to argue no votes should be counted after Election Day. He may get his wish in key states. Posted: 26 Oct 2020 10:39 PM PDT  The Supreme Court sided with Republicans in Wisconsin on Monday, ruling 5-3 along ideological lines that Wisconsin can count only those absentee ballots that arrive by Election Day — even if they were mailed days earlier. Since first-class mail has been taking an average of 10 days to be delivered in the state, Wisconsin's Democratic Party urged mail-in Democrats to hand-deliver their absentee ballots or vote in person.The practical issue involves what happens with Wisconsin's 700,000 outstanding absentee ballots. "But the deeper issue is about the extent to which a ballot should be considered as valid," Phillip Bump writes in The Washington Post. In a factually sloppy concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh evidently embraced President Trump's baseless conspiracies about voter fraud and bizarre demand that the winner be announced election night.Many states require absentee ballots to arrive by Election Day because they "want to avoid the chaos and suspicions of impropriety that can ensue if thousands of absentee ballots flow in after election day and potentially flip the results of an election," Kavanaugh wrote. "And those states also want to be able to definitively announce the results of the election on election night, or as soon as possible thereafter."Justice Elena Kagan, in her dissent, noted that "there are no results to 'flip' until all valid votes are counted. And nothing could be more 'suspicio[us]' or 'improp[er]' than refusing to tally votes once the clock strikes 12 on election night."More broadly, Kavanaugh — and Justice Neil Gorsuch — embraced late Chief Justice William Rehnquist's concurring opinion in 2000's Bush v. Gore, which invented a legal theory "so radical, so contrary to basic principles of democracy and federalism, that two conservative justices" rejected it, even as they agreed to hand the White House to George W. Bush in what was supposed to be a one-off decision, Mark Joseph Stern writes at Slate.> Kavanaugh favorably cites Bush v. Gore two pages later. So much for "limited to the present circumstances." (Kavanaugh worked on Bush's legal team in that case.) pic.twitter.com/3Q7E9Y6Kiy> > — Matt Ford (@fordm) October 26, 2020Rehnquist argued that state courts cannot interpret state election laws in federal elections, Stern writes, "a breathtaking assault on state sovereignty" that would transform the Supreme Court "into a national board of elections with veto power over each state's election rules." With Judge Amy Coney Barrett put on the court, the conservatives likely have five votes enact Rehnquist's theory, throwing out ballots in Pennsylvania and North Carolina as well as Wisconsin, he added. "In other words, Barrett's first decisions as a justice may determine the outcome of the election."More stories from theweek.com Republicans are on the verge of a spectacular upside-down achievement The very different emotional lives of Trump and Biden voters Middle-finger voting is driving the entire country mad
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| Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl Indicted AGAIN Over Voter Intimidation Posted: 27 Oct 2020 10:07 AM PDT  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."> Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl have been indicted in Ohio over an alleged robo-call operation targeting Black voters in Cleveland and East Cleveland, according to a news release from the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office. pic.twitter.com/OOnfJ9dbQ2> > — Nick Castele (@NickCastele) October 27, 2020Michigan's attorney general charged Wohl and Burkman in a separate case on Oct. 1 for the same robocall, which was also sent to voters in that state. They have also been sued in New York in a civil lawsuit by people who received the call.Wohl, 22, and Burkman, 54, didn't respond to an immediate request for comment.The pair have claimed they didn't arrange the robocall. In the Michigan case, however, prosecutors intend to call as a witness the owner of a robocall company who prosecutors say will testify that his company was used by Burkman and Wohl to send the robocalls. Michigan prosecutors have also claimed they have an email from Wohl arranging the robocall's scripts.Wohl is also facing felony charges in California over alleged violations of securities laws. And the FBI is investigating the pair over the leak of juror questionnaires in the trial of former Trump adviser Roger Stone, according to sealed court documents obtained by The Daily Beast.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Woman injured in police shooting says cops let boyfriend die Posted: 27 Oct 2020 10:02 AM PDT  A woman who was shot by police last week in suburban Chicago said Tuesday that officers did nothing more than cover her boyfriend with a blanket after he was shot and left him on the ground to die. Tafara Williams, 20, spoke to reporters during a Zoom call from her hospital bed as she described the Oct. 20 shooting in Waukegan that killed 19-year-old Marcellis Stinnette. "They allowed him to die," Williams said.
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| Seattle woman still missing three weeks after traveling to Dallas, Texas Posted: 26 Oct 2020 04:18 PM PDT  Marisela Botello, 23, was last seen leaving her ex-boyfriend's house in Dallas, Texas on October 4, 2020. She took a Lyft alone to the entertainment district Deep Ellum. Her family said security video reportedly shows her leaving the Select Start bar at 1 a.m. with an unknown man. Her cell phone and debit card haven't been used since that night and her other belongings were left behind at her ex-boyfriend's house where she had been visiting from Seattle for the weekend. She missed her flig
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| Jaime Harrison enlists Common in bid to defeat Lindsey Graham in South Carolina Posted: 27 Oct 2020 01:50 PM PDT  Democrat Jaime Harrison enlisted the help of Grammy Award-winning rapper Common at a Monday rally in Columbia, S.C., as polls continue to show a closer race between Harrison and Sen. Lindsey Graham than many had expected.
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| 84-year-old Ohio man assaulted for having Biden campaign sign in his yard Posted: 27 Oct 2020 10:53 AM PDT  A neighbor told a deputy that the 84-year-old man had been punched and kicked days after the suspect confronted the man for a Biden sign in his yard.
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| Trump supporter pulls gun on protesters after unknown liquid is dumped on him Posted: 26 Oct 2020 06:55 PM PDT  The man was not cited or arrested for pointing his gun at a group of young anti-Trump protestors
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| Judge rejects Trump request to be replaced in columnist's defamation lawsuit Posted: 27 Oct 2020 07:34 AM PDT  A federal judge on Tuesday denied President Trump's request that he be replaced as the defendant in a defamation lawsuit alleging he raped a woman in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s.
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| Pfizer says Covid-19 vaccine still possible in 2020 despite data lag Posted: 27 Oct 2020 05:07 PM PDT  Pfizer executives expressed measured optimism Tuesday over the prospect of providing a coronavirus vaccine in 2020 even as they signaled key data on the vaccine would not be released before the US election.
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| Police in Michigan, a hotbed for armed far-right groups, said they may be powerless to enforce a ban on guns at polling places Posted: 27 Oct 2020 03:51 AM PDT  Michigan authorities imposed the ban after a foiled plot to kidnap the state governor. But law enforcement officials say they can't act on it.
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| Skull on fireplace mantel identified as man missing since 2012, Tennessee officials say Posted: 27 Oct 2020 05:29 AM PDT |
| Rioters Injure Thirty Police Officers in Night of Violent Unrest in Philadelphia Posted: 27 Oct 2020 06:54 AM PDT  At least 30 police officers were hurt during rioting that broke out in West Philadelphia overnight after police fatally shot a man wielding a knife on Monday, authorities said.Rioters threw rocks and bricks at police and looted and vandalized businesses, NBC Washington reported. A 56-year-old sergeant was hospitalized after she was struck by a pickup truck, breaking her leg, among other injuries. The unrest broke out after police shot and killed 27-year-old Walter Wallace Jr., a black man, in Cobbs Creek. Wallace had a knife when he walked toward officers and ignored orders to drop his weapon, police said. Video of the incident appears to show Wallace approaching officers while his mother attempted to restrain him. The camera briefly points downward and the sounds of several gunshots ring out as police open fire. Wallace is then shown lying still on the ground while his mother, who is screaming hysterically, runs to him. Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw and District Attorney Larry Krasner said they would investigate the incident, while Fraternal Order of Police president John McNesby defended the officers in a statement. Looters took advantage of the unrest, breaking into a number of stores including several Rite Aid stores in West Philadelphia, clothing and shoe stores and at least one restaurant, NBC reported. At 57th and Vine streets, clothing and merchandise were thrown on the sidewalk. Two ATM machines were smashed as well.> A night of rioting and looting in West Philadelphia after police shot a man who they say was armed with a knife. Damage and looting reported at pharmacies, liquor stores, and shops along 52nd St @NBCPhiladelphia pic.twitter.com/x5ae6Dente> > -- Randy Gyllenhaal (@RandyGyllenhaal) October 27, 2020Rioters set fire to police cars and dumpsters. Police said five police vehicles and one fire department vehicle were vandalized.Police arrested more than 30 people for throwing rocks and bricks at police or looting, the department said.
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| Vietnam evacuating low-lying areas as strong typhoon nears Posted: 26 Oct 2020 09:39 PM PDT  Vietnam scrambled Tuesday to evacuate more than a million people in its central lowlands as a strong typhoon approached while some regions are still dealing with the aftermath of recent killer floods, state media said. Typhoon Molave is forecast to slam into Vietnam's south central coast with sustained winds of up to 135 kilometers (84 miles) per hour on Wednesday morning, according to the official Vietnam News Agency. The typhoon left at least 3 people dead and 13 missing and displaced more than 120,000 villagers in the Philippines before blowing toward Vietnam.
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| Dozens of ballots destroyed after fire set at Boston dropbox Posted: 26 Oct 2020 09:30 AM PDT  Officials called the alleged arson "a disgrace to democracy, a disrespect to the voters fulfilling their civic duty, and a crime."
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| 'Murder hornet': First nest found in US eradicated with vacuum hose Posted: 26 Oct 2020 12:59 AM PDT  The Asian giant hornets can wipe out a colony of honeybees in hours.
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| Bloomberg reportedly funding new ad campaign for Biden in Texas as NBC moves it to 'toss up' Posted: 27 Oct 2020 07:16 AM PDT  Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is reportedly funding last-minute ad campaigns in two states where Democrats see "opportunities to expand the map," including Texas.Through his Super PAC, Bloomberg is funding television ad campaigns in Texas and Ohio expected to cost about $15 million, The New York Times reports. Aide Howard Wolfson explained to the Times that the former mayor conducted polling to find President Trump's potential vulnerabilities and decided on Texas and Ohio for this last-minute push. Bloomberg has already said he will spend $100 million to support Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in Florida."We believe that Florida will go down to the wire, and we were looking for additional opportunities to expand the map," Wolfson told the Times. "Texas and Ohio present the best opportunities to do that, in our view."The Times notes that a poll it published this week showed Trump with a lead of only four percentage points over Biden in Texas, and Wolfson told the Times that Bloomberg's polling suggests the race is even closer.Meanwhile, NBC News on Tuesday morning released its latest battleground map, and Texas has been moved from "Lean Republican" to "Toss Up." Ohio is also still in the "Toss Up" category.> With one week to go, here's the NBC Political Unit's battleground map:> > Biden 279, Trump 125, Toss Up 134 https://t.co/WZdU7kRyRk pic.twitter.com/draICS3Vqb> > — Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) October 27, 2020The NBC map shows Biden with 279 electoral votes, and NBC News' Mark Murray writes that while that math is "not impossible" for Trump, it is "daunting."More stories from theweek.com Republicans are on the verge of a spectacular upside-down achievement The very different emotional lives of Trump and Biden voters Middle-finger voting is driving the entire country mad
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| COVID-19 prevented new parents from meeting their baby born via surrogate. Then, the birth mother stepped in to care for the child. Posted: 27 Oct 2020 07:37 AM PDT  The new parents named their baby girl Jennifer — in honor of the surrogate who went above and beyond for their family.
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| Hurricane Zeta hits Mexico's Caribbean coast Posted: 27 Oct 2020 12:21 AM PDT  Hurricane Zeta slammed into Mexico's Caribbean coast late Monday, bringing strong winds and heavy rains to the Yucatan Peninsula, where authorities warned residents and tourists to shelter indoors.
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| Hillary Clinton said it's 'pathetic' that Pompeo promised to release more of her emails ahead of the election Posted: 26 Oct 2020 11:44 PM PDT  Pompeo pledged to release more of Clinton's State Department emails in Fox News interview earlier this month.
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| Fort Sill Just Became the First Training Base to Get the New Army Greens Uniform Posted: 26 Oct 2020 04:26 PM PDT |
| NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere sentenced to 120 years in prison Posted: 27 Oct 2020 05:35 PM PDT  The shadowy group that operated near Albany, New York, has been the subject of the HBO docuseries "The Vow."
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| Turkey's Erdogan sues Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker for insults Posted: 27 Oct 2020 05:00 AM PDT  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is suing Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders after the anti-Islam politician posted a series of tweets against the Turkish leader, including one that described him as a "terrorist." The state-run Anadolu Agency said Erdogan's lawyer on Tuesday filed a criminal complaint against Wilders at the Ankara Chief Prosecutor's office for "insulting the president" -- a crime in Turkey punishable by up to four years in prison. Wilders posted a cartoon depicting Erdogan wearing a bomb-resembling hat on his head, with the comment: "terrorist."
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| Jaime Harrison runs out the clock on Amy Coney Barrett question as South Carolina chooses between him and Lindsey Graham Posted: 26 Oct 2020 11:20 AM PDT  While South Carolina Democrat has railed against his opponent for flip-flopping on SCOTUS nomination, he hasn't said how he would actually vote on Amy Coney Barrett
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| Lincoln Project to Break Into TV after Election Posted: 27 Oct 2020 08:14 AM PDT  The Lincoln Project is reportedly solidifying plans to ramp up its media arm after the general election next week and is considering offers from various television studios, podcast networks and book publishers.The political action committee, which was founded towards the end of last year and is run by prominent "Never-Trump" current and former Republicans, signed with United Talent Agency with an eye towards expanding Lincoln Media, Axios reported Tuesday.Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson, a longtime Republican strategist before he left the party following President Trump's election in 2016, outlined the group's outlook for its upcoming media ventures."We discovered in doing research that voters are getting lots of information from streaming and podcasts," Wilson said. "We decided to build those things as advocacy vectors. We didn't set out to become a media company, but we've inadvertently become a content creation machine."Other prominent anti-Trump Republicans fronting the group are George Conway, husband of former Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway, and Steve Schmidt, who was a senior strategist for John McCain's presidential campaign."As a media business, we're putting a pretty big bet on the idea that they know how to get audiences," Ra Kumar, a UTA agent who represents the Lincoln Project, said of the group's plans, adding that the Lincoln Project has received numerous inquiries from Hollywood firms wanting to work with the group.The Lincoln Project already launched a wildly successful podcast in June and has two shows that it streams on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. They have also seen high demand for its merchandise.The group raised over $58 million this year, including $39.4 million from July through September. The PAC's spending has come under scrutiny after they spent nearly $1.4 million through March with most of that money going towards the Lincoln Project's board members and firms run by them.The group raised over $58 million this year, including $39.4 million from July through September. The PAC's spending has come under scrutiny after they spent nearly $1.4 million through March, with most of that money going towards the Lincoln Project's board members and firms run by them.One of the projects reportedly in the works is a non-fiction film to be completed after the election. Several television studios are looking to team up to produce a series reminiscent of the hit show "House of Cards," and television networks that have expressed interest in hosting the Lincoln Project's two streaming shows.The group is currently in a kerfuffle with Ivanka and Jared Trump, who threatened to sue over the Lincoln Project's Times Square billboards depicting the pair displaying indifference to deaths caused by the coronavirus."Sue if you must," said Matthew Sanderson, an attorney for the Lincoln Project, saying the group "will not be intimidated by empty bluster."
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| Viral photo sparks concerns about Indonesia's 'Jurassic Park' Posted: 27 Oct 2020 08:52 AM PDT  The viral image has raised questions about the conservation impact on the animal native to Indonesia.
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| Chicago sisters accused of stabbing employee 27 times after being asked to wear a mask Posted: 27 Oct 2020 10:54 AM PDT  Two sisters entered a small shop in Chicago on Sunday when they were approached by a worker who asked them to wear a mask and to use hand sanitizer to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 according to Karie James who is a police spokesperson, the Chicago Sun Times reported. The argument escalated and the women Jessica Hill, 21, and Jayla Hill, 18, are accused of attacking the man. Jessica pulled a knife out of her back pocket and began stabbing the 32-year-old man.
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| Fox News staffers say the network is 'in a panic' about election-night coverage after top hosts were exposed to a COVID-19 patient and told to quarantine Posted: 27 Oct 2020 04:26 AM PDT  Hosts such as Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, and Dana Perino had flown on a private jet with someone who later tested positive for the coronavirus.
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| German embassy in Bangkok becomes flashpoint as demonstrators pressure Berlin on Thai king's legal status Posted: 26 Oct 2020 07:41 AM PDT  The German embassy in Bangkok became a new focal point of Thailand's months-long pro-democracy rallies on Monday as thousands marched on the building to petition Berlin to investigate the Thai king's use of his powers while residing in Bavaria. Since 2007, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who ascended to the throne in 2016, has spent long periods of time in southern Germany. But his extended presence on German soil has become a diplomatic headache for Berlin during Thailand's nationwide rallies, where some protest leaders have made bold demands for the monarchy to be reformed – long a taboo subject in the Southeast Asian nation because of strict lese majeste laws. In Germany, Heiko Maas, the foreign minister warned the king against using the country as a base to conduct Thai politics. "We are monitoring this long-term," Mr Maas said. "It will have immediate consequences if there are things that we assess to be illegal." His comments came as the embassy's premises in central Bangkok turned into a potential flashpoint between rival protest groups on Monday.
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| Young and progressive voters aren’t just ‘settling for Biden’ anymore; they’re going all in Posted: 26 Oct 2020 12:05 PM PDT  The general election is a week away, and groups like Settle for Biden hope to be the push that gets young voters and progressives to the polls.
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| Coronavirus in the U.S. is spreading like 'wildfire,' epidemiologist says Posted: 26 Oct 2020 04:56 PM PDT  "The U.S. is now seeing a pretty widespread transmission across the board," said William Hanage, an associate professor of epidemiology.
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| Armed villagers guard strategic gateway to Nagorno-Karabakh Posted: 26 Oct 2020 06:51 AM PDT  Wearing camouflage and holding Kalashnikov rifles, volunteer villagers patrol a winding river in a Nagorno-Karabakh valley, defending a strategic area between the disputed region's capital and Armenia.
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| If America had any sense, we would be locking down again now Posted: 27 Oct 2020 02:50 AM PDT  Call it what you like — the third wave, the third crest of the first wave, or wave 1(c), but the coronavirus pandemic is once again completely out of control in the United States. Friday, October 23 set a new one-day record with over 85,000 confirmed COVID-19 infections, and the seven-day trend of new cases is accelerating upwards. Most of the Midwest and half of Appalachia are seeing explosive spread, while even formerly successful states like Massachusetts are losing their grip. Multiple states are being forced to open field hospitals or ration care.It is extremely aggravating to remember, but it remains the case that we could at least keep a lid on this thing, and save tens if not hundreds of thousands of lives, by following the same pandemic control strategies experts have been advocating since March. None of that will happen at the federal level until January at the earliest, but individuals, state, and local governments can at least take partial steps to limit the damage.All we need is the same four-part strategy that has been obvious since March. First, the places that are fully in the grips of exponential spread should reimpose a severe lockdown — and I mean the real thing, where people are prohibited from leaving their homes without a pass, which has never happened anywhere in the country. This is the only way to throttle a truly out-of-control outbreak. Second, we build up test-trace-isolate systems where they don't currently exist, or need work (which is most of the country). Third, everyone wears masks when in public and in close proximity to others at all times (ideally N95s or surgical style, but at least a cloth covering). These are probably not strictly necessary when running or biking outside, but they should be mandatory at any public space indoors like a grocery store — as new research demonstrates, they protect other people and the wearers. If you wear a (proper) mask you are less likely to get COVID, and more likely to have a mild case if you do.Finally, the government should keep everyone financially whole with an indefinite economic rescue package. Prevent bars, restaurants, nightclubs, airlines, and other businesses dependent on in-person activities from going bankrupt with subsidies, and protect individuals with super-unemployment, $1,200 checks, and so forth. Just put the in-person economy on ice until the virus is under control, or until there is an effective vaccine that has been delivered everywhere.It's unclear exactly why cases are accelerating now, but probably the weather has a lot to do with it. Contrary to my expectations (at least so far), several wealthy countries in Western Europe that had previously contained the pandemic, like France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, have since lost control. Some are already resorting to a second lockdown. It seems that even in generally well-governed European states, governments were too lax in reopening the economy (especially indoor dining) and reluctant to impose new controls when infections started to rise. As we have seen over and over again, the slightest hesitation can lead to disaster. The virus spreads extremely fast, and contact tracing systems can easily be swamped if there are too many cases to manage, leaving only brute force lockdowns as a last resort, with all their significant drawbacks.As China has demonstrated several times, a hair-trigger aggressive response is far more effective than half-hearted half measures. Every time it has seen a flare-up of the virus, the state has stepped in with gargantuan mass-testing and isolation efforts — testing entire provinces in a matter of days, and throwing any positive cases in mandatory quarantine, as well as strict lockdowns if community spread gets started — to root out and squash the virus. It's a coercive approach, but it gets the bad part over as quickly as possible. As a result, its economy is recovering relatively quickly — while the U.S. and European countries remain in the doldrums, with much of their citizenry still voluntarily avoiding human contact for eight months and counting.Several democratic countries, like Taiwan, New Zealand, and Korea, have also managed to keep the virus contained without such draconian measures. Other European countries that remained cautious, like Norway and Finland, have seen only fairly small spikes so far.Of course, there is no chance whatsoever that any of this will be done in the United States at a federal level, or in most of the states, in the immediate future. President Donald "Superspreader" Trump is outright denying there is any new spike, while Vice President Pence is refusing to isolate despite being exposed, again, to a known COVID-positive person. "We are not going to control the pandemic," admitted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows recently. It also appears there is little chance of getting another round of economic rescues through before the election, and none at all between then and January 20, if Biden wins.But we as American citizens can wear masks, and put on our coats to dine outside instead of risking indoor service. States and cities can, where possible, keep up their testing and tracing. Doing what we can to stop the pandemic around our deliberately broken government won't eradicate the virus, but it might still save many lives.More stories from theweek.com Republicans are on the verge of a spectacular upside-down achievement The very different emotional lives of Trump and Biden voters Middle-finger voting is driving the entire country mad
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