July 31, 2020 4:16 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Newly unsealed court documents provide a fresh glimpse into a fierce civil court fight that preceded criminal charges against financier Jeffrey Epstein and his ex-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. The documents released late Thursday have drawn intense scrutiny because they describe sex abuse and sex trafficking claims made against Epstein and Maxwell by a woman who met them in Florida when she was a teenager. Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan federal lockup last August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell was recently charged with recruiting at least three girls to be abused by Epstein. She denies the allegations.
July 31, 2020 4:15 am
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – Forecasters have declared a hurricane watch for parts of the Florida coastline as Hurricane Isaias drenches the Bahamas on a track for the U.S. East Coast. Officials in Florida say they’re closing beaches, marinas and parks in Miami-Dade County beginning Friday night. Mayor Carlos Gimenez says the county has 20 evacuation centers on standby that could be set up with COVID-19 safety measures. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Isaias had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph) Friday morning and it was expected to remain a hurricane for the next few days.
July 31, 2020 4:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – With aid expiring, the White House has offered a short-term extension of a $600 weekly unemployment benefit that has helped keep families and the economy afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Democrats rejected it, saying President Donald Trump’s team failed to grasp the severity of the crisis. Democratic leaders panned the idea in talks late Thursday at the Capitol, opting to keep the pressure on for a more sweeping bill that would deliver aid to state and local governments, help for the poor, and funding for schools and colleges to address the pandemic. Talks will resume Friday.
July 31, 2020 4:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Dr. Anthony Fauci has told lawmakers that once a coronavirus vaccine is approved as safe and effective, Americans should have widespread access within a reasonable time. Appearing before a House panel investigating the nation’s response to the pandemic, Fauci on Friday expressed “cautious” optimism a vaccine would be available, particularly by next year. Fauci’s message in recent days has been Americans can’t afford a devil-may-care attitude toward COVID-19 and need to double down on basic measures such as wearing masks, keeping their distance from others and avoiding crowds. Health and Human Services testing czar Adm. Brett Giroir blames delays in coronavirus test results on overwhelming demand across the nation.
July 31, 2020 4:10 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Tom Wolf is denouncing a Republican state lawmaker and self-styled opponent of mask-wearing for mimicking the words of the state’s health secretary, who is transgender, by appealing for tolerance of the “unmasked community.” Lebanon County Rep. Russ Diamond on Wednesday released a nearly word-for-word parody of Dr. Rachel Levine’s call for tolerance and acceptance of LGBTQ people. Diamond swapped out her references to “LGBTQ” with “unmasked.” Diamond’s parody drew the wrath of the Democratic governor, who on Thursday called it “abhorrent, disrespectful, dangerous” and a “thinly veiled attack on the LGBTQ community” and Levine. Diamond responded by calling Wolf’s pandemic policies “abhorrent, unlawful, political and deadly.”
July 30, 2020 9:33 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. economy shrank at a dizzying 32.9% annual rate in the April-June quarter – by far the worst quarterly plunge ever – when the viral outbreak shut down businesses, throwing tens of millions out of work and sending unemployment surging to 14.7%, the government said Thursday. The Commerce Department’s estimate of the second-quarter decline in the gross domestic product, the total output of goods and services, marked the sharpest such drop on records dating to 1947. The previous worst quarterly contraction, a 10% drop, occurred in 1958 during the Eisenhower administration.
July 30, 2020 9:33 am
MILWAUKEE (AP) – Democrats will meet for just two hours each night of their national convention next month in Milwaukee due to the coronavirus pandemic. A preliminary schedule released late Wednesday has Joe Biden accepting the party’s presidential nomination on the final night of the convention which runs Aug. 17-20. Biden’s vice presidential pick will be nominated on Aug. 19 and is scheduled to address the mainly virtual gathering. The pandemic has delegates casting ballots remotely. Typically, the party holds meetings during the day with delegates gathering for several hours each night to listen to speeches. A safety plan announced Monday says everyone attending will have to wear a face mask.
July 30, 2020 9:31 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is for the first time floating a “delay” to November’s presidential election. And he’s making unsubstantiated allegations that increased mail-in voting will result in fraud. The dates of federal elections are set by Congress and the Constitution makes no provisions for a delay to the January 20, 2021 presidential inauguration. On Thursday morning, Trump tweets: “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history.” There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud through mail-in voting, even in states with all-mail votes.
July 30, 2020 4:26 am
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is continuing his push to reopen schools. He said Wednesday that parents should decide for themselves whether to send their children back into the classroom next month. Florida’s largest school district is announcing it will not reopen schools for in-person learning for the first six weeks of the school year because of the surge of infections. Health officials on Wednesday reported a new single-day record of 216 reported deaths. The state’s death toll now stands at more than 6,330, and the number of confirmed cases at 9,446.
July 30, 2020 4:21 am
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin and union officials say the U.S. Postal Service is considering closing post offices across the country, sparking concerns ahead of the November election because of the increased interest in mail-in balloting. Manchin on Wednesday said he has received numerous reports from post offices and colleagues about service cuts or looming closures in West Virginia and elsewhere. That prompted him to send a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy requesting an explanation. The possible downsizing comes as DeJoy moves to eliminate overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers, potentially causing a delay in mail deliveries.
