Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, July 27 (Reuters) - U.S. national security adviser Robert O'Brien has become the highest ranking official in President Donald Trump's inner circle to test positive for the coronavirus.

Announcing the infection on Monday, the White House said in a statement there was no risk of exposure to Trump or Vice President Mike Pence.

The announcement caught some White House staff off guard, as there had not been an internal memo about it, one source said. Because of the regular testing regimen, White House officials do not reliably wear masks while working in the West Wing.

An administration official said O'Brien had not had contact with the president in several days. The National Security Council did not immediately respond to questions about O'Brien, who was working from home.

Read more: https://news.trust.org/item/20200727140344-dkmrl

---

I guess that you-know-who is going to have to up his dosage of hydroxychloroquine.

Source: SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL

Palm Beach County’s mask rules are constitutional, a judge said Monday.

Circuit Judge John Kastrenakes said that requiring a mask in some places is within the county’s rights to protect the general public during a deadly pandemic and that those who challenged the mandate failed to show that any constitutional rights were violated.

“The right to be ‘free from governmental intrusion’ does not automatically or completely shield an individual’s conduct from regulation,” Kastrenakes wrote in his order.

Four county residents who filed a lawsuit on June 30 said that being forced to wear masks infringes on their constitutional rights to free speech and privacy, which lawyers and legal experts disputed.

Read more: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/coronavirus/fl-ne-palm-beach-county-court-denies-mask-lawsuit-20200727-vewnsi2p3rb35du55zrzjtklie-story.html

Source: The Hill

President Trump on Tuesday issued an executive order that blocks undocumented immigrants from being counted in the 2020 census for the purpose of allocating congressional representation.

The order, which immediately prompted legal challenges, amounts to something of a workaround for Trump after the Supreme Court last year blocked the administration from adding a citizenship question to the decennial survey.

The rationale for the memo rests on the argument that the president has final say over transmitting the final census report to Congress and that the constitution does not explicitly define which persons must be included in determining apportionment.

"The discretion delegated to the executive branch to determine who qualifies as an 'inhabitant' includes authority to exclude from the apportionment base aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status," the order states. "Excluding these illegal aliens from the apportionment base is more consonant with the principles of representative democracy underpinning our system of Government.

Read more: https://thehill.com/latino/508314-trump-aims-to-bar-undocumented-immigrants-from-counting-toward-house-representation

Source: The New York Times

Planned Parenthood of Greater New York will remove the name of Margaret Sanger, a founder of the national organization, from its Manhattan health clinic because of her “harmful connections to the eugenics movement,” the group said on Tuesday.

Ms. Sanger, a public health nurse who opened the first birth control clinic in the United States in Brooklyn in 1916, has long been lauded as a feminist icon and reproductive-rights pioneer.

But her legacy also includes supporting eugenics, a discredited belief in improving the human race through selective breeding, often targeted at poor people, those with disabilities, immigrants and people of color.

“The removal of Margaret Sanger’s name from our building is both a necessary and overdue step to reckon with our legacy and acknowledge Planned Parenthood’s contributions to historical reproductive harm within communities of color,” Karen Seltzer, the chair of the New York affiliate’s board, said in a statement.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/nyregion/planned-parenthood-margaret-sanger-eugenics.html

Source: Politico

TALLAHASSEE — A Democratic super-PAC and other left-leaning groups have agreed to drop their voting lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican Party on the eve of a federal trial that was scheduled to start Monday.

The groups pushed to change Florida voting laws due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but there were signs that the lawsuit was in trouble. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle in late June refused to order changes right away, including a request that taxpayers cover postage costs for mail-in ballots.

The decision to end most or all of the legal battle is yet another win for Republicans in a key battleground state that could make or break President Donald Trump’s reelection effort.

The two sides in the lawsuit negotiated an agreement that calls for Florida’s chief election official to educate local election supervisors on pre-paid postage and encourage them to use drop boxes and make vote-by-mail request forms available in Spanish. It also calls for Secretary of State Laurel Lee to undertake a public relations campaign to inform voters of different ways to cast a ballot. Lee also promises to do an outreach campaign to unregistered voters, which was something the state was already planning to do because it is joining a multi-state partnership to combat voter fraud.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/07/19/priorities-usa-and-others-agree-to-drop-voting-lawsuit-against-florida-1302173

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Veteran U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson was not able to secure the release of American citizens held as prisoners in Venezuela during his visit to the country, his foundation said in a statement late on Thursday.

On his trip to Venezuela, which he called a private humanitarian mission conducted at the request of “several American prisoners’ families,” Richardson met Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Venezuela’s vice president.

“I am glad we were able to meet with President Maduro to discuss the potential release of the American prisoners and other COVID-19 humanitarian issues,” Richardson said in the statement.

“We regret that we were not able to secure the release of the Americans. Our thoughts are with the families of the 6 Citgo executives - Tomeu Vadell, Alirio Zambrano, Jose Luis Zambrano, Gustavo Cardenas, Jorge Toledo, and Jose Angel Pereira - as well as with former Green Berets Luke Denman and Airan Berry,” he added.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-venezuela-richardson-idUSKCN24I1LP?taid=5f11e14b502a3e0001c8330c&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

Source: The Daily Beast

A top Trump campaign adviser recently appeared on the Russian-government funded TV network RT, which U.S. intelligence agencies have said plays a role in the Kremlin’s plans to undermine American democracy.

Trump campaign senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis’ appearance on RT’s The Alex Salmond Show aired on July 9. She appears to be the first Trump campaign official to go on the Russian-funded network since the 2016 election.

During her interview, Ellis defended Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and bashed the American media as “propagandist activist media.” Ellis also accused Fox News—the cable news network most friendly to the president—of having an anti-Trump bias.

“Even on Fox News, the president has been very outspoken on Twitter that there are some anchors there and there are some particular shows that aren’t really fair in terms of their editorializing some of those stories,” Ellis said. At one point, she told Salmond that he, a former First Minister of Scotland, knew “as a journalist” how proper reporting works and that American media wasn’t doing it.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-campaign-legal-adviser-jenna-ellis-appears-on-kremlin-backed-rt/?via=twitter_page

Source: CNN

(CNN) — Las Vegas police arrested a suspect they said goaded a homeless man into doing a backflip that led to a fatal injury.

Keonte Jones, 28, was arrested this week. The incident happened on June 20 after Larry Coner, 55, approached the suspect asking for money.

Jones told him he’d pay him $6 to perform a backflip and on Coner’s third attempt, he landed on his neck and was left to die while bystanders watched and laughed, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement.

Jones was livestreaming the entire incident on Facebook, police said. Medical personnel were called and the victim was transported to the hospital with a serious spinal injury. He died 10 days later, police said.

Read more: https://wsvn.com/news/us-world/las-vegas-police-arrest-suspect-who-allegedly-made-homeless-man-do-a-deadly-backflip-for-6/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_wsvn

Source: The Hill

Former game show host Chuck Woolery announced Wednesday his son has tested positive for COVID-19, just days after Woolery accused medical professionals and Democrats of lying about the virus in an effort to hurt the economy and President Trump's reelection chances.

Woolery, who hosted several popular game shows including "Love Connection" and “Wheel of Fortune” and who is a staunch supporter of the president's, has since deleted his Twitter account following the announcement about his son.

“To further clarify and add perspective, Covid-19 is real and it is here. My son tested positive for the virus, and I feel for of those suffering and especially for those who have lost loved ones," Woolery tweeted before his account disappeared.

The message comes after Woolery tweeted Monday denouncing "outrageous lies" being told about the coronavirus, comments that Trump retweeted to his more than 83 million followers.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/media/507663-chuck-woolery-deletes-twitter-account-after-announcing-his-son-has-coronavirus

Source: Politico

Kansas GOP Rep. Steve Watkins was charged Tuesday with three felony counts of voter fraud related to the 2019 municipal elections, according to court records.

But the freshman lawmaker dismissed the charges as politically motivated, claiming the prosecutor bringing the case has ties to a GOP primary opponent.

Watkins was charged by Shawnee County District Attorney Michael Kagay with “Interference with a law enforcement officer, falsely report a felony intending to obstruct; voting without being qualified; and knowingly mark/transmit more than one advance ballot,” according to Shawnee County court records.

Watkins also faces a misdemeanor charge of failing to tell the Department of Motor Vehicles of his address change.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/14/kansas-gop-rep-watkins-indicted-for-voter-fraud-362072