The Full Belmonte, 7/7/2022
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during Prime Minister's Questions at the House of Commons in London on Wednesday.
“UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to resign today following a tenure defined by scandals and intense criticism. He will make a statement in the coming hours, a Downing Street spokesperson told CNN. It is possible that Johnson will remain in office until October when the Conservative party meets for its annual conference. More than 50 ministers have resigned from the government since Tuesday, with many lawmakers furious about the botched handling of the resignation of Johnson's former deputy chief whip, Chris Pincher, who was accused of groping two men last week. Keir Starmer, the opposition Labour Party leader, responded to reports that Johnson will resign, calling it ‘good news,’ adding ‘he was always unfit for office.’” Read more at CNN
“Pat A. Cipollone, the White House counsel to President Donald J. Trump who repeatedly fought Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, has reached a deal to be interviewed by Friday before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, according to people familiar with the inquiry.
The agreement was a breakthrough for the panel, which has pressed for weeks for Mr. Cipollone to cooperate — and issued a subpoena to him last week — believing he could provide crucial testimony.
Mr. Cipollone was a witness to pivotal moments in Mr. Trump’s push to invalidate the election results, including discussions about seizing voting machines and sending false letters to state officials about election fraud. He was also in the West Wing on Jan. 6, 2021, as Mr. Trump reacted to the violence at the Capitol, when his supporters attacked the building in his name.
People close to Mr. Cipollone have repeatedly cautioned that concerns about executive privilege and attorney-client privilege could limit his cooperation.
But committee negotiators have pressed to hear from Mr. Cipollone and Patrick F. Philbin, who was his deputy in the White House.
Mr. Cipollone will sit for a videotaped, transcribed interview, according to a person familiar with the discussions. He is not expected to testify publicly.
A committee spokesman declined to comment.
The panel’s push to hear from Mr. Cipollone intensified after the testimony last week of Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide to the chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Ms. Hutchinson described detailed conversations with Mr. Cipollone in which she said the counsel had expressed deep concerns about the actions of Mr. Trump and Mr. Meadows.
Some allies of Mr. Trump have privately tried to cast doubt on parts of Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony, which was the committee’s most explosive to date and was delivered under oath.” Read more at New York Times
“Among tax lawyers, the most invasive type of random audit carried out by the I.R.S. is known, only partly jokingly, as ‘an autopsy without the benefit of death.’
The odds of being selected for that audit in any given year are tiny — out of nearly 153 million individual returns filed for 2017, for example, the I.R.S. targeted about 5,000, or roughly one out of 30,600.
One of the few who received a bureaucratic letter with the news that his 2017 return would be under intensive scrutiny was James B. Comey, who had been fired as F.B.I. director that year by President Donald J. Trump. Furious over what he saw as Mr. Comey’s lack of loyalty and his pursuit of the Russia investigation, Mr. Trump had continued to rail against him even after his dismissal, accusing him of treason, calling for his prosecution and publicly complaining about the money Mr. Comey received for a book after his dismissal.
Mr. Comey was informed of the audit in 2019. Two years later, the I.R.S., still under the leadership of a Trump appointee after President Biden took office, picked about 8,000 returns for the same type of audit Mr. Comey had undergone from the 154 million individual returns filed in 2019, or about one in 19,250.
Among those who were chosen to have their 2019 returns scrutinized was the man who had been Mr. Comey’s deputy at the bureau: Andrew G. McCabe, who served several months as acting F.B.I. director after Mr. Comey’s firing.
Mr. McCabe was later dismissed by the Trump Justice Department after its watchdog accused him of misleading internal F.B.I. investigators. Like Mr. Comey, he had come to be perceived as an enemy by Mr. Trump, who assailed him, accused him of treason and raised questions about his finances long after pushing for his dismissal and prosecution, a pattern that continued even after Mr. Trump lost the 2020 election and began trying to overturn the results.
Mr. Comey and Mr. McCabe — whose spouses were also audited because both couples filed joint returns — provided the letters initiating their audits to The New York Times. Mr. Comey provided The Times with a privacy release allowing the I.R.S. to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request about his case. Neither man knew that the other had been audited until they were told by a reporter for The Times.” Read more at New York Times
“The gunman in Monday's massacre at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, admitted he carried out the attack, killing seven and wounding dozens of others, prosecutors said in court Wednesday. Authorities said the shooter also ‘seriously contemplated’ committing a second shooting in Madison, Wisconsin, where he drove to after fleeing the parade shooting. Officials revealed the gunman dressed in women's clothing to conceal his identity and used makeup to cover his tattoos, investigators believe. Separately, a tip from a ‘hero citizen’ thwarted a potential mass shooting planned for a July 4 celebration in Richmond, Virginia, police say. The tipster overheard a conversation that a mass shooting was set to occur at an amphitheater and called that information into police on July 1.” Read more at CNN
FILE - Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin addresses the court as Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill presides over Chauvin's sentencing at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis June 25, 2021. A federal judge will sentence former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on Thursday, July 7, 2022, for federal civil rights violations in the killing of George Floyd. U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson on Tuesday, July 5, set Chauvin's sentencing hearing for 2 p.m. Thursday in St. Paul. (Court TV via AP, Pool, File)
“MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Derek Chauvin will learn his sentence Thursday for violating George Floyd’s civil rights, with a deal in place that would extend the former Minneapolis police officer’s time behind bars while shifting him to possibly more favorable conditions in a federal prison.
Chauvin agreed to a sentence of 20 to 25 years in his December plea to a federal charge in Floyd’s killing. U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson will make the final decision, with prosecutors seeking the full 25 on the grounds that Chauvin’s actions were cold-blooded and needless.
The defense has asked for 20 years, saying Chauvin accepts responsibility for what he did, and has already gotten a 22 1/2-year prison sentence from a state court for murdering Floyd. Attorney Eric Nelson wrote that Chauvin’s ‘remorse will be made apparent to this Court,’ suggesting Chauvin is likely to speak at Thursday’s hearing.
Former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger said a judge could take such a statement into consideration during sentencing.” Read more at AP News
“A judge in Chicago sentenced Jerry Harris, the Navarro College cheerleader who became a breakout star of the Netflix documentary series ‘Cheer,’ to 12 years in prison on Wednesday on guilty pleas to two of seven federal charges related to sex crimes involving minors in February.
Mr. Harris, 22, had reached a plea deal in February in which prosecutors agreed that after sentencing on the two counts — the charges that he persuaded a 17-year-old to send him sexually explicit photos for money and traveled to Florida ‘for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct’ with a 15-year-old — they would ask that the remaining charges be dropped. He had initially pleaded not guilty to all seven charges in December 2020.
Mr. Harris’s plea agreement noted that sentencing guidelines ‘may recommend 50 years in prison’ for the offenses, though Judge Manish S. Shah had noted that he might decide differently. Judge Shah also ordered Mr. Harris to serve eight years of court-supervised release following his prison term.” Read more at New York Times
“More than three years after the fatal shooting of the Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle, whose 2019 killing in front of the local clothing store he owned scarred the South Los Angeles neighborhood he had devoted his adult life to championing, a jury on Wednesday found Eric R. Holder Jr. guilty of first-degree murder in the case, closing a painful chapter in recent hip-hop history.
At trial, prosecutors described the gunman as an embittered acquaintance who had belonged to the same street gang as Hussle but felt disrespected by him during a brief parking-lot run-in.
That Mr. Holder pulled the trigger was not in dispute in court, with his own public defender and multiple eyewitnesses identifying him in testimony and security footage as the assailant who fired toward Hussle with two handguns, hitting the rapper at least 10 times before kicking him in the head.
But Mr. Holder’s legal team had argued that the killing was not premeditated and instead occurred in the ‘heat of passion,’ about nine minutes after a conversation in which Hussle invoked neighborhood rumors that Mr. Holder had cooperated with law enforcement, or snitched, a serious offense in the gang world, and urged him to clear things up.
After meeting for less than an hour on a second day of deliberations, the decision by the jury to find Mr. Holder guilty of first-degree murder indicated that they agreed with the Los Angeles county prosecutors that Mr. Holder had made the decision to kill Hussle as he returned to a car after their initial talk, loaded a gun, took a few bites of fries and then marched back through the parking lot to confront the rapper.
Mr. Holder, 32, could face life in prison. He will be sentenced on Sept. 15.
He was also found guilty of two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter, stemming from the two bystanders who were wounded in the shooting, lesser charges than the attempted murder counts prosecutors had brought. A lawyer for Mr. Holder argued that the case was overcharged and that his client had no specific intention of harming either of the other two men, both of whom were strangers to him, when he attacked Hussle.
In addition, Mr. Holder was found guilty of possessing a firearm as a felon and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon.
In court, Mr. Holder stared forward, unflinching. He wore a dark navy suit and white sneakers. There was no sound in the courtroom as the verdict was announced — no reaction from the half-full gallery.” Read more at New York Times
Brittney Griner is escorted to a courtroom for a hearing in Khimki, outside Moscow, last week. Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP
“President Biden spoke with Brittney Griner's wife today and promised he is working to secure the WNBA star's release from Russia.
Griner previously wrote a letter to Biden, asking him to help her and other American detainees in Russia. Biden read Cherelle Griner the letter he plans to send to Brittney, the White House said.
Biden told Cherelle Griner he wants to free Brittney Griner, Paul Whelan and others detained in Russia ‘as soon as possible.’
Cherelle Griner has been openly critical of the Biden administration. She says the government needs to do more to help her wife.
Elizabeth Whelan, sister of Paul Whelan, criticized Biden for not speaking to her family about her brother, who has been detained in Russia for more than three years.
‘If he wants to talk about securing Paul's release, he needs to be talking to the Whelans!’ she tweeted.” Read more at Axios
“Russian forces are inching closer to the eastern Ukrainian territories and are likely to mount an offensive on the key city of Sloviansk, a regional military official said, urging civilians to evacuate. Thousands of people who are still in the eastern city of Severodonetsk will soon face ‘awful conditions’ with no water, gas or power, according to a local military official. Separately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Western artillery his country has received has ‘started working very powerfully.’ In his nightly address Wednesday, Zelensky confirmed his military was able to strike ‘depots and other spots that are important for the logistics of the occupiers,’ and the efforts are ‘significantly reducing’ the offensive potential of the Russian army.” Read more at CNN
“As monkeypox cases continue to rise globally, the World Health Organization is considering again whether to declare the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. In late June, WHO's Emergency Committee determined that the outbreak did not meet the criteria for such a declaration. But as the virus continues to spread, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wants the committee to take up the issue again, based on the latest data around the evolution of the outbreak. Across the world, there have been more than 6,000 cases recorded in 58 countries, Tedros said. Monkeypox is a viral disease similar to smallpox that most commonly spreads from person to person through direct contact with infectious body fluids.” Read more at CNN
“CANAZEI, Italy — Days before a glacier in the Italian Dolomites broke off with the force of a collapsing skyscraper, crushing at least nine hikers under an avalanche of ice, snow and rock, Carlo Budel heard water running under the ice.
‘I heard what sounded like a river’s torrent,’ said Mr. Budel, who lives in an isolated refuge next to the glacier on the 11,000-foot Marmolada mountain. At the mountain’s base, he watched a yellow helicopter fly overhead searching for signs of life, or remains.
Mr. Budel recalled that when he first scaled the glacier at the end of summer, not even a decade ago, he hardly needed ropes there was so much snow.
“The difference between now and then is scary,” he said. “At this point we are on another path.”
It is an increasingly common path for a world confronting the deadly consequences of extreme weather brought on by man-made, and irreversible, climate change.
A year after Greece lost lives, livestock and entire swaths of forest to wildfires, and deadly floods swept through Germany, the calamity in these mountains this week provided the latest evidence that almost no part of the continent can escape the effects of Europe’s new, intense and often unlivable summer heat. That includes the highest peak of the Dolomites.
Italy is suffering through another prolonged and scorching heat wave, which contributed to the disaster and has brought the worst drought in 70 years along the Po River, its longest waterway, cutting off fountains and parching parts of the country.” Read more at New York Times
“Foreign ministers from G-20 nations gather today on the Indonesian island of Bali for a two-day meeting in which the war in Ukraine is expected to dominate conversation.
The meeting is another chance for the world’s largest economies to take stock of the economic impacts of the war, and includes many major countries who have decided to stay neutral in the conflict, like India, Brazil, and host Indonesia.
It’s also a chance for the host nation to showcase its diplomatic strength ahead of a potentially fraught leaders meeting in October. As things stand, Indonesia has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend, despite pressure from Western nations to keep him away.
As one of the many non-aligned nations caught between the West and Russia over the war in Ukraine, Indonesia has been walking a diplomatic tightrope. Indonesia has a stake in both camps: As a customer for Russian military equipment and due to its reliance Ukrainian wheat.
In June, President Joko Widodo visited both Kyiv and Moscow in a bid to free up food and fertilizer supplies frozen by the war. Earlier at the G-7 summit, Widodo pressed the group to limit the impact of sanctions on global food supplies.
Indonesians are suspicious of the major powers. Trust in both China and the United States has plummeted in the last ten years, according to a recent poll taken by the Lowy Institute. Just 56 percent of those polled said they trusted the United States to act responsibly, down from 72 percent in 2011. China saw a similar drop, albeit from a lower position: 60 percent trusted China to act responsibly in 2011 versus 42 percent today.
When the poll asked about confidence in other world leaders, a surprising choice topped the list: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He was followed by UAE leader Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, while U.S. President Joe Biden placed fourth.
The cold shoulder. Although the question of whether Putin will attend October’s summit in person is still open, his chief diplomat Sergey Lavrov will be on the ground in Bali today. He’s expected to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi but not with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Olga Oliker, a Russia expert at the International Crisis Group, said the lack of contact between the top U.S. and Russian diplomats isn’t an accident.
‘I think it’s a pretty conscious position from both of them,’ Oliker told Foreign Policy. ‘What are they going to talk about, are they going to talk about Ukraine? Well, the United States isn’t going to do that—it’s not going to talk about Ukraine without Ukraine and certainly the Russians don’t see them as a credible interlocutor for shuttle diplomacy. So, I suspect that the attitude from both sides is very much: what would we be talking about?’
China talks. Blinken will meet with Yang to highlight the U.S. commitment to ‘intense diplomacy and maintaining open lines of communication’ with China, Dan Kritenbrink, the State Department’s senior Asia official, told reporters on Tuesday.
If comments from Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian are any indication, the Blinken-Wang meeting may not go smoothly. At a press conference on Wednesday, Zhao hit back at U.S. claims regarding China’s alleged disruption of world order. Zhao said Washington ‘observes international rules only as it sees fit,’ and that the ‘so-called rules-based international order is actually a family rule made by a handful of countries to serve the U.S. self-interest.’” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Burkina Faso’s future. Blaise Compaoré, the former Burkinabe president ousted in a 2014 uprising, will return from exile on Friday to participate in a meeting of former heads of state convened by the ruling military junta. Compaoré will join the meeting alongside Roch Kaboré, the president the military threw out in January. Compaoré’s presence is complicated by his sentencing in April to life in prison over the murder of former leader Thomas Sankara. Burkina Faso’s interim presidency said the presence of former leaders at the meeting ‘does not hinder judicial prosecutions engaged against some of them.’” Read more at Foreign Policy
“DRC-Rwanda tensions. Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo agreed to begin a ‘de-escalation process’ on Wednesday after talks between the leaders of the two countries over the activities of the M23 rebel group. The DRC’s presidency said the two countries will restart a joint commission next week and called for the return of normal diplomatic relations between the countries. Rwanda has yet to comment on the meeting.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“PAMPLONA, Spain (AP) — The first bull run in three years took place Thursday at the San Fermín festival in the Spanish city of Pamplona. No one was gored, but several runners took knocks and hard falls as tens of thousands people reveled in the return of one of Europe’s most famous traditional events.
Six bulls guided by six tame oxen charged through Pamplona’s streets for around two minutes and 35 seconds without provoking too much carnage among the thousands of observers and participants cramming the course.
Several runners were stomped, trampled or shoved to the cobblestone pavement. A animal’s horn smacked at least two men in the head, but neither suffered a skewering.
The Pamplona hospital said six people were brought in for treatment. They included a 30-year-old American man who fractured his left arm and a 16-year-old Spanish boy who lost part of a finger in the bullring, where a pile-up of runners occurred at the entrance. Four Spanish men between the ages of 19 and 45 also were injured.” Read more at AP News
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene with a ‘Stop the Steal’ face mask last year. Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times
Internal inconsistencies
“More than 100 Republican nominees for statewide office or Congress this year have falsely claimed that election fraud helped defeat Donald Trump in 2020. Almost 150 members of Congress — more than half of the Republicans serving there — went so far as to vote to overturn the 2020 election result.
These claims of election fraud have become the mainstream Republican position. In some places, winning a nomination virtually requires making such statements. In other places, the claims appear to carry little political cost, at least in the primaries. And very few elected Republicans have been willing to denounce the falsehoods.
Given the prominence of the issue, it’s jarring to see how little effort its proponents have put into making an argument on behalf of their claims. They have offered no good evidence, because there is not any. They have also failed to offer even a logically consistent argument. Consider:
If anything, the rare examples of cheating from 2020 tend to involve Trump supporters. Prosecutors charged three registered Republicans living at The Villages, a Florida retirement community, with voting more than once in the presidential election. One of them has since pleaded guilty: he both voted in Florida and cast an absentee ballot in Michigan.
Trump and his allies have never explained how other Republicans could have done so well if fraud were widespread. In the 2020 House elections, Republicans gained 14 seats. In the Senate, Democrats did win a 50-50 split, but the party lost races in Maine, Montana and North Carolina that it had hoped to win. In the 2021 elections, Republicans did well again, winning the governor’s race in Virginia. It’s hardly a picture consistent with Democratic election rigging.
During the 2022 primaries, most Republican candidates have accepted the results without claiming fraud. That’s been true even of candidates who lost their races, as my colleagues Reid Epstein and Nick Corasaniti have reported. Examples include Representative Madison Cawthorn in North Carolina; Representative Mo Brooks in the Senate primary in Alabama; and two Trump-backed candidates in Georgia. When Trump supporters lose to other Republicans, they generally accept defeat.
Loyalty, not logic
Of course, the claims of voter fraud are not going away. If Trump runs again, he will probably allege cheating in any election that he loses. At least some other Republicans now seem likely to do the same, perhaps in response to close or unexpected losses in 2022.
A ‘Stop the Steal’ protester in 2020.Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times
But the lack of any substantive argument to back up these claims suggests that even some of the people making them may not believe them. The claims have instead become a way for many Republicans to show loyalty to their party and to signal that they consider Democrats to be inherently illegitimate holders of power.
Sometimes, these signals are tinged with racism, as Brandon Tensley of CNN has noted: The fraud claims often involve cities with heavily Black or Latino populations, like Detroit, Philadelphia and Milwaukee. Rudy Giuliani, for example, alleged — without any evidence — that residents of Camden, N.J. (roughly 90 percent of whom are Black or Latino) illegally vote in Philadelphia (which, unlike Camden, is in a swing state). In Alabama, Brooks has said fraud occurs largely in Birmingham and other heavily Democratic cities.
The spread of such lies has left many historians and political scientists anxious about the future of American democracy. There is no shortage of subjects on which Democrats and Republicans can reasonably — even passionately or angrily — disagree: How much should the country restrict abortion? What about gun use? Or immigration? How high should taxes or government benefits be?
All those issues are valid matters of debate in a democracy. When one side loses a struggle, it can look for ways to regroup and win the next one.
But a concerted campaign to delegitimize political opponents — through falsehoods and without much of an attempt at logical argument — is something quite different. It’s an attempt not to win a democratic contest but to avoid one.
For more
The Washington Post has compiled a list of the current Republican nominees who support Trump’s false election claims, and The Times has listed the congressional Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election.
In coming primaries in Arizona and Michigan, candidates who have made false fraud claims are trying to win the Republican nomination to become secretary of state, overseeing elections.” Read more at New York Times
“President Joe Biden on Thursday will present the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to 17 people who have made ‘exemplary contributions’ to the nation. Among the honorees are Olympic champion gymnast Simone Biles, Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington, and the late John McCain, the Arizona Republican with whom Biden served in the U.S. Senate. Other winners include the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, soccer star and LGBTQ advocate Megan Rapinoe, and civil rights veterans Diane Nash and Fred Gray. Biden himself is a medal recipient: President Barack Obama honored Biden's service as a longtime U.S. senator and vice president before they left office in 2017.” Read more at USA Today
“Joe Rogan, whose contrarian views on vaccines and political conspiracy theories have made him popular with many supporters of former President Donald J. Trump, revealed that he had declined to host Mr. Trump on his influential podcast several times.
‘I’ve had the opportunity to have him on my show more than once. I’ve said no every time,’ Mr. Rogan, the host of ‘The Joe Rogan Experience,’ said on Lex Fridman’s podcast on Monday. ‘I don’t want to help him.’
Mr. Rogan, a comedian and sports commentator in addition to a podcast host, is Spotify’s highest-paid podcaster, with a $200 million deal for exclusive rights to host his show, which attracts millions of listeners per episode.
On Monday, he described the former president as “a polarizing figure” and “an existential threat to democracy.” Mr. Rogan, who endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders, the progressive from Vermont, for president in 2020, recently voiced his support on his podcast for Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican, if he were to run for president.
The podcast host has been condemned for using a racial slur on his show, mocking the first openly transgender athlete in mixed martial arts and having a ‘love-hate relationship with conspiracies.’ He has been criticized for amplifying Covid-19 misinformation on his platform, prompting medical professionalsto call on Spotify to take action at the beginning of this year.
Daniel Ek, Spotify’s chief executive, refused to ‘cancel’ Mr. Rogan in a memo in February after artists such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell left the streaming service in protest.
Other major tech platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, have long struggled to determine their roles in moderating the speech of users, particularly prominent ones such as Mr. Trump.” Read more at New York Times
“Rising prices in the US have some cash-strapped shoppers reaching for alternative payment methods for everyday purchases such as gas station fill-ups or grocery runs. Increasingly, many people are turning to Buy Now, Pay Later installment plans, which have become popular among shoppers seeking to spread out the cost of big-ticket purchases. This trend has become a concern for economists and consumer advocates, who say the surge in the use of these services, coupled with a lack of transparency and little regulatory oversight, leaves them wondering just how much debt Americans are actually getting into. Experts say these transactions are common among young consumers -- primarily Gen Z ers and Millennials -- and are estimated to be at least $100 billion annually. The rise of these services comes just months after a key inflation index showed prices in the US hit a new 40-year high.” Read more at CNN
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
“Michigan is the second state, after Maine, where 17-year-olds can serve alcohol.
Why it matters: States are taking drastic measures to fill gaping holes in the labor market by turning to teenagers, boosting pay and creating incentives to lure employees, Axios' Erin Doherty reports.
A quick tour:
In New Jersey, a bill signed by Gov. Phil Murphy (D) this week allows 16- and 17-year-olds to work up to 50 hours a week during the summer months. 14- and 15-year-olds can work up to 40 hours a week.
In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed a bill last month allowing 17-year-olds to serve alcohol at bars and restaurants to ease shortages in the hospitality industry, MLive reports.
In Louisville, Kentucky, Norton Healthcare is boosting tuition assistance for students seeking degrees that help alleviate the health care shortage.
In D.C., new police officers are being given a $20,000 hiring bonus, Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) said.” Read more at Axios
“An explosive device that ‘unknown individuals’ detonated early Wednesday destroyed a granite monument in Georgia that was built under mysterious circumstances more than four decades ago and promoted by state officials as ‘America’s Stonehenge,’ the authorities said.
The monument, known as the Georgia Guidestones, which was built about nine miles north of Elberton, Ga., had four granite slabs connected to a center pillar, with a capstone on top.
But at around 4 a.m. on Wednesday, an explosive device was set off, destroying “a large portion of the structure,” the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. It is investigating the explosion together with the Elbert County Sheriff’s Office.” Read more at New York Times
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
“A new, nonpartisan group is organizing dinners around the country for friends and neighbors to gather around a pledge to protect American democracy, Axios managing editor Margaret Talev reports.
Why it matters: It's part of a growing movement to counter conspiracy theories, lies around voter fraud and efforts to make it more difficult to vote.
How it works: Democracy Dinners launched over the holiday weekend. Visitors to the site are asked to fill out a volunteer form asking whether they'd like to host a gathering in their homes or backyards or a restaurant.
The group provides formats, discussion guides and instructions for taking action on voter registration and other issues.” Read more at Axios
“Lives Lived: Willie Lee Morrow was a barber in San Diego when a friend brought him a gift from Nigeria: a wooden comb meant to tease out curly hair. Morrow created what came to be known as the Afro pick. Morrow died at 82.” Read more at New York Times