“U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday will unveil new rules governing federal monitors responsible for overseeing police reforms in local jurisdictions, including setting caps on the watchdogs’ tenure and budgets, and requiring them to undergo more training, people familiar with the plans said.
Garland plans to announce the changes during an online speech to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, culminating a four-month Justice Department review aimed at bolstering public confidence in federal efforts to rein in unconstitutional and abusive policing.
Since he was appointed to the nation’s top law enforcement job by President Biden earlier this year, Garland — a former federal appeals court judge and Supreme Court nominee — has launched sweeping ‘pattern or practice’ investigations of police departments in Minneapolis, Louisville and Phoenix.” Read more at Washington Post
“WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden will promote his administration’s use of the Defense Production Act to aid in wildfire preparedness during a western swing in which he’ll survey wildfire damage in Idaho and California.
The administration activated the wartime provision in early August to boost the supply of fire hoses for the U.S. Forest Service, by helping to ease supply chain issues affecting the agency’s primary firehose supplier. It marks the second use of the wartime law, after the president used it to boost vaccine supplies, and the administration had not previously announced it publicly.
The use of the Defense Production Act helped an Oklahoma City nonprofit called NewView Oklahoma, which provides the bulk of the U.S. Forest Service’s hoses, obtain needed supplies to produce and ship 415 miles of firehoses. Biden planned to showcase the move as part of broader remarks on the work his administration has done to address yet another devastating wildfire season across the western U.S.” Read more at AP News
“WASHINGTON—House Democrats expect to propose raising the corporate tax rate to 26.5% from 21% and imposing a 3-percentage-point surtax on individual income above $5 million, according to two House Democratic aides familiar with the plans.
The tax increases would be part of the House Ways and Means Committee’s plans to pay for the party’s priorities in a fast-moving budget bill. Those items include an expanded child tax credit, a national paid-leave program and renewable-energy tax breaks.
House Democrats also are considering raising the minimum tax on U.S. companies’ foreign income to 16.5% from 10.5% and increasing the top capital-gains tax rate to 28.8% from 23.8%. Lawmakers are also expected to raise money by expanding Internal Revenue Service enforcement and might include other tax increases on corporations and high-income individuals.
Until now, House Democrats have been coy about their tax-increase plans as they try to navigate between moderates worried about the economic impact of raising taxes and progressives eager to tax the rich and expand the social safety net. Rep. Richard Neal (D., Mass.), the committee chairman, has said that detailing tax-increase plans too soon can give too much time for opposition to build.
The plans, aimed for a Ways and Means Committee vote later this week, will face challenges as Democrats try to determine how far they are willing to go in reversing the 2017 tax cuts and imposing stiffer burdens on corporations and high-income households.
Some Senate Democrats, including Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Mark Warner of Virginia, have said they don’t want to raise the corporate tax rate above 25% from its current 21%. The Biden administration and Democrats such as Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden of Oregon have advocated for far more aggressive capital-gains tax increases than congressional Democrats are willing to support.
Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, praised the committee’s ideas and said the administration looks forward to working with lawmakers.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Iran reached an agreement Sunday with the United Nations atomic agency that will grant international inspectors access to some of the country’s nuclear-related sites, a step likely to avert a crisis in the negotiations on restoring the 2015 nuclear deal.
The agreement comes after International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi made a last-minute trip to Tehran this weekend in a bid to persuade Iran to step up its cooperation with the agency ahead of a meeting of the IAEA’s top member states starting Monday.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“SEOUL — North Korea said on Monday it had successfully launched newly developed long-range cruise missiles, its first missile test in six months and a new indication that an arms race between North and South Korea was heating up on the Korean Peninsula.
In the tests that took place on Saturday and Sunday, the North Korean missiles hit targets 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) away after flying more than two hours, said the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. The missiles changed their trajectories and made circles before hitting their targets, it said.
A series of resolutions from the United Nations Security Council banned North Korea from developing or testing ballistic missiles, but not cruise missiles. A cruise missile test by the North usually does not raise as much alarm as its ballistic missile tests. The country’s state-run media also indicated that the nation’s leader, Kim Jong-un, had not attended the weekend tests, though he has usually supervised all major weapons tests in recent years.
The latest tests showed that North Korea continued to improve its arsenal of missiles while nuclear disarmament talks with the United States remained stalled. North Korea said on Monday that the long-range cruise missile was ‘a strategic weapon of great significance’ and part of an arms development goal announced by Mr. Kim during the party congress in January.” Read more at New York Times
“LOS ANGELES (AP) — In a blitz of TV ads and a last-minute rally, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom urged voters Sunday to turn back a looming recall vote that could remove him from office, while leading Republican Larry Elder broadly criticized the media for what he described as double standards that insulated Newsom from criticism and scrutiny throughout the contest.
The sunny, late-summer weekend was a swirl of political activity, as candidates held rallies, continued bus tours and cluttered the TV airwaves with advertising offering their closing arguments in advance of the election that concludes Tuesday.
Newsom — who is expecting President Joe Biden on Monday for a capstone get-out-the-vote rally in Long Beach — was in a largely Hispanic area on the northern edge of Los Angeles, where he sought to drive up turnout with the key voting bloc.
Elder also was in Los Angeles, where he was joined by activist and former actress Rose McGowan, who repeated her claims from recent days that Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, attempted to persuade her in 2017 not to go public with her allegations of sexual misconduct against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.” Read more at AP News
“Gamal Abdelaziz, a former hotel and casino executive, is accused of paying $300,000 to get his daughter admitted to the University of Southern California as a basketball player based on false qualifications.
John Wilson, a private equity executive, is accused of paying $220,000 to get his son admitted to U.S.C. as a water polo player, then conspiring to pay another $1.5 million to secure admission for his daughters to Harvard and Stanford.
Opening statements begin on Monday for the first parents to face trial in a sweeping college admissions case that exposed the role that money, athletics and family privilege play in the competition for coveted seats at brand-name schools.
Over the coming weeks, the fairness of the admissions process may also be on trial.
The mastermind of this college admissions scheme, a college consultant named William Singer, and known as Rick, has already pleaded guilty to racketeering and other charges and cooperated with the government. He specialized in getting his clients’ children into schools through what he called the ‘side door’ — a process that involved making a donation to an athletic department (or simply a payment to a coach) in exchange for the student being designated as a recruited athlete, often in a sport that he or she didn’t play at all.” Read more at New York Times
“WASHINGTON — Like other Republican governors around the country, Tate Reeves of Mississippi reacted angrily to the coronavirus vaccine mandates President Biden imposed on private businesses. Declaring the move ‘terrifying,’ he wrote on Twitter: ‘This is still America, and we still believe in freedom from tyrants.’
There is a deep inconsistency in that argument. Mississippi has some of the strictest vaccine mandates in the nation, which have not drawn opposition from most of its elected officials. Not only does it require children to be vaccinated against measles, mumps and seven other diseases to attend school, but it goes a step further than most states by barring parents from claiming ‘religious, philosophical or conscientious’ exemptions.
Resistance to vaccine mandates was once a fringe position in both parties, more the realm of misinformed celebrities than mainstream political thought. But the fury over Mr. Biden’s mandates shows how a once-extreme stance has moved to the center of the Republican Party. The governors’ opposition reflects the anger and fear about the vaccine among constituents now central to their base, while ignoring longstanding policy and legal precedent in favor of similar vaccination requirements.
‘Republicans care about getting beyond this pandemic every bit as much as Democrats do,’ said Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. But, he added, ‘politicians are certainly happy to exploit this issue for political gain, which is why I think the Republican governors are up in arms.’
Mr. Biden also imposed vaccine mandates on federal workers and many health care workers. But Republican outrage is really boiling over his plan to require all private-sector businesses with more than 100 employees to mandate vaccines or weekly testing for their work forces.
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called the president’s move ‘a power grab.’ Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina promised to fight Mr. Biden in court, to ‘the gates of hell.” Gov. Greg Gianforte of Montana called it “unlawful and un-American.’ Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama called the move ‘outrageous’ and ‘overreaching.’
But each of these states — indeed every state in the country — already mandates certain vaccinations for children, and sometimes for adults, including health care workers and patients in certain facilities.” Read more at New York Times
“The U.S. and its drug companies likely won't get the poor, unvaccinated parts of the world out of the pandemic — but China might, Axios' Bob Herman reports.
China has ramped up exports of its Sinopharm, Sinovac and CanSino vaccines, which can be stored at normal refrigerator temperatures, leading some to believe China will be the global savior.
Incredible stat: Nine months after the global COVID vaccination campaign began, 58% of the world's population has yet to receive even one dose.
State of play: Wealthier nations have more vaccines than citizens who want them, while poorer countries are facing bleaker timelines for when they can administer first doses.
The U.S. and other Western countries could vaccinate teenagers and provide boosters to everyone, and still have 1.2 billion doses to send elsewhere this year, according to a report from analytics firm Airfinity.
The global COVAX consortium now anticipates receiving 25% fewer doses than expected due to production problems with the vaccines made by Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Novavax, as well as export restrictions from a major supplier in India.
Between the lines: Vaccines by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech have proven to be life-saving and reliably produced. But the companies choose to sell mostly to high-income countries, where they make more money.
Moderna expects to make up to 1 billion doses by year's end. But hardly any of the doses are going to Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Pfizer told Axios the company could deliver as many as 3 billion doses by the end of 2021, with 1 billion going to low- and middle-income countries.
Reality check: Scaling up vaccine production was understandably slow at first.
Creating the mRNA vaccines is complex, with several steps that require materials like small plastic tubes, lipids and molecules called ‘caps’ that were in limited supply and had very few vendors.” Read more at Axios
“JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli aircraft struck a series of targets in the Gaza Strip early Monday in response to rocket launches out of the Hamas-ruled territory. It was the third consecutive night of fighting between the two sides, even as Israel’s foreign minister sought to dangle incentives for calm.
Tensions have risen after last week’s escape from an Israeli prison by six Palestinian inmates, as well as struggling efforts by Egypt to broker a long-term cease-fire in the wake of an 11-day war last May.
The Israeli military reported three separate rocket launches late Sunday and early Monday, saying at least two of them were intercepted by its rocket defenses. In response, it said it attacked a number of Hamas targets. There were no reports of casualties on either side.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Sunday called for a new approach to end the cycle of fighting with Hamas, describing a plan of international investment in Gaza’s infrastructure in exchange for pressure on Hamas to halt its military buildup and preserve calm.” Read more at AP News
“WASHINGTON (AP) — First, some blamed the deadly Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol on left-wing antifa antagonists, a theory quickly debunked. Then came comparisons of the rioters to peaceful protesters or even tourists.
Now, allies of former President Donald Trump are calling those charged in the Capitol riot ‘political prisoners,’ a stunning effort to revise the narrative of that deadly day.
The brazen rhetoric ahead of a rally planned for Saturday at the Capitol is the latest attempt to explain away the horrific assault and obscure what played out for all the world to see: rioters loyal to the then-president storming the building, battling police and trying to stop Congress from certifying the election of Democrat Joe Biden.” Read more at AP News
“New limits on how and when voters can cast their ballots. A green light for most adults to carry handguns in public without undergoing training or obtaining a permit. And abortion restrictions that have the potential to upend Roe v. Wade.
In Texas, the red meat is looking rarer than ever, and a bitterly divided nation is taking notice.
With a successful 2020 election behind them and conservative challengerstargeting them in 2022, top Texas Republicans have leaned right during this year’s legislative sessions, passing a bevy of far-reaching conservative priorities. The moves have GOP activists crowing and other state legislators drafting copycat bills. But they’ve also caught the eye of the US Department of Justice — which sued the state last week over the abortion restrictions — as well as national Democratic strategists, who argue Texas conservatives’ machinations have the potential to backfire for Republicans across the country.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Two Florida middle-schoolers are being held at a juvenile detention center after being accused of planning a mass school shooting inspired by Columbine.
The 14-year-old and 13-year-old boys, whom The Washington Post is not naming because they are minors, are eighth-graders at Harns Marsh Middle School in Lee County, about two hours away from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a gunman killed 17 in 2018. They were charged with conspiracy to commit a mass shooting and have been ordered to be held at a juvenile detention center for three weeks, reported WINK, a CBS affiliate in Fort Myers, Fla.
Police investigations suggest the boys had looked for guns on the black market, studied ways to build pipe bombs and researched the 1999 school shooting that occurred at Columbine High School in Colorado, County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said.” Read more at Washington Post
“For more than a decade, suicide rates have been increasing in Black children and adolescents, and a new study says the sharpest rise occurred among young girls.
The study, published Thursday in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, found that more than 1,800 Black children died by suicide between 2003-17, and while most of the deaths were among boys, especially those ages 15-17, the gender gap is narrowing. The suicide rate of the girls increased an average of 6.6 percent each year — more than twice the increase for boys, the study said. Nearly 40 percent of the girls were 12-14 years old, indicating that this age group may need additional attention or different types of interventions.
‘That was just like, ‘Whoa’ — what’s going on with our Black girls?’ said Arielle Sheftall, the lead author of the study. ‘It caught me a little off guard.’
Mortality data shows that suicide rates of US teenagers and young adults remain highest in boys, particularly whites, Native Americans, and Alaskan Natives. But in recent years, researchers have found that the suicide rate of Black youth is increasing. A study published in May, for example, found that the suicide rate of Black males ages 15-24 rose by 47 percent between 2013-19 — and by 59 percent for Black females of the same age — but it decreased in white youth.” Read more at Boston Globe
“FRANKFURT AN DER ODER, Germany — His party is the biggest in Germany. It has won all but three elections since 1950, including the past four. Its departing chancellor is more popular than any politician in the country. And German voters crave stability and continuity.
Armin Laschet, the conservative Christian Democratic Union party’s candidate for chancellor, should be riding high. The race to replace Angela Merkel was his to lose.
So far, he appears to be doing just that.
Weeks before Germans vote on Sept. 26 in their most important election in a generation — one that will produce a chancellor who is not Ms. Merkel for the first time in 16 years — Mr. Laschet is sinking, and he is pulling his party down with him.
What You Need to Know About Germany’s National Election
The race is still close enough, and Germany’s coalition politics so unpredictable, that it would be dangerous to dismiss the conservative candidate. But after recent polls showed Mr. Laschet’s party dropping to record lows — of 20 percent to 22 percent support — his position is so dire that even some Christian Democrats have wondered aloud whether they picked the wrong candidate.” Read more at New York Times
“A new study has found that consuming alcohol, even as little as one can of beer or one glass of wine, can quickly increase the risk of a common type of cardiac arrhythmia known as atrial fibrillation in people who have a history of the condition.
Doctors have long suspected a link between alcohol and atrial fibrillation, but until now, they did not have definitive evidence that alcohol could cause arrhythmias. The new study is among the most rigorous to date: The researchers recruited 100 people with a history of atrial fibrillation and tracked them intensely for four weeks, monitoring their alcohol intake and their cardiac rhythms in real time.
The scientists found that drinking alcohol heightened the odds that a person would have an episode of atrial fibrillation, or an abnormal heart rhythm, within the next few hours. And the more they drank, the greater their likelihood of having an arrhythmia. The new study was published on Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The conclusions, along with data from previous studies, suggest that people with a history of atrial fibrillation could reduce their chances of developing arrhythmias by cutting back on alcohol or avoiding it altogether.” Read more at New York Times
“Gilbert Seltzer, who served with a secret Army unit in World War II that fooled German forces with inflatable tanks, dummy airplanes, fake radio transmissions and sound effects that mimicked troop movements, died on Aug. 14 at his home in West Orange, N.J. He was 106.
His son, Richard, confirmed the death.
Mr. Seltzer was one of 1,100 soldiers attached to the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, which pulled off elegant strategic cons on German forces, ingeniously creating the illusion that American troops were where they weren’t.
Shortly after the war, the 23rd became known as the Ghost Army. In later years Mr. Seltzer, who at his death was the oldest surviving Ghost Army soldier, became a public ambassador for the veterans of the unit.
‘We would move into the woods in the middle of the night, going through France, Belgium and Germany, and turn on the sound’ — from blaring loudspeakers — ‘so it sounded like tanks were moving on the roads,’ Mr. Seltzer told StoryCorps in 2019. ‘The natives would say to each other, ‘Did you see the tanks moving through town last night?’
‘They thought they were seeing them,’ he added. ‘Imagination is unbelievable.’
Mr. Seltzer, an architect, was a platoon leader and later a lieutenant and adjutant of the 603rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion, whose ranks included men who would go on to work in advertising, art, architecture and illustration, among them the future fashion designer Bill Blass, the photographer Art Kane and the painter Ellsworth Kelly.
The battalion handled the Ghost Army’s visual fakery; the 3132nd Signal Service Company was in charge of sound deception; the Signal Company, Special, devised realistic-sounding radio messages to throw off the Germans. The 406th Combat Engineer Company provided security.
In March 1945, in one of their most elaborate feats of trickery — during the critical Rhine River campaign, designed to finally crush Germany — the 23rd set up 10 miles south of the spot where two American Ninth Army divisions were to cross the river. To simulate a buildup of those divisions at their decoy location, the Ghost Army used inflated tanks, cannons, planes and trucks; sent out misleading radio messages about the American troops’ movements; and used loudspeakers to simulate the sound of soldiers building pontoon boats.
The Germans fell for the ruse, firing on the 23rd’s divisions, while Ninth Army troops crossed the Rhine with nominal resistance.” Read more at New York Times
Daniil Medvedev won his first Grand Slam title by defeating Novak Djokovic, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.Credit...Ben Solomon for The New York Times
“Novak Djokovic said he was going to play this match as if it were the last of his career, that he was going to pour every ounce of his heart and soul into trying to do what few thought could ever be done again.
It was not enough.
With a startling display of power and creativity, Daniil Medvedev upset Djokovic, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, in the final of the U.S. Open on Sunday, ending Djokovic’s bid to become the first man in 52 years to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in a calendar year. It was one last twist in a tournament that overflowed with stunning performances.
For at least another year, Rod Laver will remain the lone member of the most exclusive club in modern men’s tennis, and the 2021 U.S. Open will forever belong primarily to an 18-year-old British woman named Emma Raducanu, who went from being the 150th-ranked player to a Grand Slam champion in the most unlikely tennis tale of them all.” Read more at New York Times
“Britney Spears announced on Sunday that she was engaged to her longtime boyfriend, Sam Asghari, three months after she told a Los Angeles judge that the conservatorship that has governed her life since 2008 was robbing her of the ability to make personal decisions.” Read more at New York Times
No posts