Media: Biden Selects Fudge for Housing, Vilsack for Agriculture

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President-elect Joe Biden has selected Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge as his housing and urban development secretary and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role in his administration, according to four people familiar with the decisions. Fudge, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, was just elected to a seventh term representing a majority Black district that includes parts of Cleveland and Akron. Vilsack spent eight years as head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the Obama administration and served two terms as Iowa governor. Their intended nominations were confirmed to The Associated Press on Tuesday by four people familiarmore

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Trump Signals Continued Fight to Upend Biden Victory

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Campaign lawyers for U.S. President Donald Trump signaled Tuesday they intend to contest his loss to President-elect Joe Biden into January, even though all states but one certified their vote counts showing Biden won the national election last month. U.S. law calls for all 50 states to certify the outcomes in their individual states six days ahead of next Monday’s Electoral College vote, which determines the outcome of U.S. presidential elections. Only the Midwestern state of Wisconsin missed Tuesday’s “safe harbor day” deadline to certify its vote — which Biden carried — but could by the end of the week. Biden is expectedmore

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US Congress Buys Itself More Time for COVID-19 Aid Compromise

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U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed Tuesday that lawmakers set aside two of the most contested elements of coronavirus government aid to break a month-long deadlock over a new round of congressional relief addressing the economic impact of the pandemic. “Why don’t we set aside the two obviously most contentious issues?” McConnell said to reporters, referring to liability protections and aid for state and local governments. “We know we’re going to be confronted with another request after the first of the year. We’ll live to fight those another day and pass the things that we agree on,” the Kentucky Republican said. Senatemore

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Texas Asks US Supreme Court to Help Trump Upend Election

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The state of Texas, aiming to help President Donald Trump upend the results of the U.S. election, said on Tuesday it has filed suit against the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin at the Supreme Court, calling changes they made to election procedures amid the coronavirus pandemic unlawful. The lawsuit, announced by the Republican attorney general of Texas Ken Paxton, was filed directly with the Supreme Court, as is permitted for certain litigation between states. The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority including three justices appointed by Trump. The lawsuit represents the latest legal effort intended to reversemore

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Biden Introduces Top Health Care Officials as US COVID-19 Cases Soar

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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden introduced his top health care officials on Tuesday, all of whom will quickly face the country’s grim world-leading coronavirus statistics: nearly 15 million infections and more than 283,000 deaths.  Biden, set to be FILE – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra speaks during a news conference in Sacramento, California, March 5, 2019.Biden tapped former Congressman Xavier Becerra to be his Health and Human Services chief to lead the country’s fight against the virus and oversee millions of vaccinations in the coming months. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration could approve the first vaccine against COVID-19 in the comingmore

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If It’s 3:30 a.m., It Must Be Time for Online Class

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It’s 3:30 a.m. It’s almost time for class.I take a moment to stare into my pitch-black room. I always set my alarm 30 minutes before class starts so I don’t oversleep. Sometimes I hit the snooze button to get an extra 10 minutes of rest.After a few minutes, I get up and slowly open my door. I tiptoe to the kitchen to get a glass of water, careful not to wake my sleeping family members.As I click the link into the Zoom classroom, my professor greets everyone with a “Good afternoon.” It’s 2 p.m. in Virginia, but 4 a.m. inmore

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Biden Introduces Top Health Care Officials as US COVID Cases Soar

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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is introducing his top health care officials on Tuesday, all of whom will quickly face the country’s grim world-leading coronavirus statistics: nearly 15 million infections and more than 283,000 deaths.Biden, FILE – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra speaks during a news conference in Sacramento, California, March 5, 2019.Outgoing President Donald Trump, defeated for re-election by Biden in last month’s national vote, is delivering remarks at Tuesday’s Operation Warp Speed summit on the government’s effort to produce several vaccines against the coronavirus.Although Biden has promised to get inoculated when a vaccine is approved as safe, polls showmore

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White House Announces New Tennis Pavilion

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Nearly a year after announcing its construction, a new tennis pavilion has been completed on the White House grounds, the administration said in a statement Monday.  The project, for which construction began in 2019, was to refurbish the existing tennis court on White House grounds and construct a new building alongside it, inspired by the classic architecture of the East and West Wings, the White House said in a statement Monday. “It is my hope that this private space will function as both a place of leisure and gathering for future first families,” first lady Melania Trump was quoted as sayingmore

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Trump Summit Aims to Boost Faith in Vaccine; Biden Excluded; Drugmakers Decline

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The Trump administration is aiming to instill public confidence as well as claim major credit for the forthcoming coronavirus vaccines with a White House summit Tuesday featuring experts who will outline distribution plans in detail. Officials from President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team are not invited, even though they will oversee the continuation of the largest vaccination program in the nation’s history once he takes office January 20. President Donald Trump is trying to frame vaccine development as a key component of his legacy. The Operation Warp Speed summit will feature Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and a host of government experts, state leadersmore

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Biden Names Top Health Care Officials

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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden named his top health care officials on Monday, tapping former Congressman Xavier Becerra as his Health and Human Services chief to lead the country’s fight to curb the surging coronavirus pandemic and oversee millions of vaccinations against it in the coming months.  FILE – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra speaks during a news conference in Sacramento, California, March 5, 2019.Becerra currently is attorney general for the western state of California who led the defense last month in the U.S. Supreme Court against a conservative bid to overturn the country’s Affordable Care Act, in a case yetmore

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Young Saudis Grapple With Life-Altering COVID-19

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Ethar Fahad, a young legal specialist in Saudi Arabia, was dumbfounded when COVID-19 infected her family.   “I didn’t believe it at first,” said the 26-year-old, whose mother and sister caught it before she did and all fell seriously ill with the fever and lethargy, the standard symptoms of COVID. “We were joking around about it … but then we started to fall down, one after the other.”  Saudi Arabia shut quickly and broadly in April in a nationwide lockdown. Only essential businesses were open, and citizens were prohibited from going beyond their neighborhoods.  “We felt very uncomfortable at first. Wemore

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US Schools Confront ‘Off the Rails’ Numbers of Failing Grades

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The first report cards of the school year are arriving with many more Fs than usual in a dismal sign of the struggles students are experiencing with distance learning. American school districts from coast to coast have reported the number of students failing classes has risen by as many as two or three times — with English language learners and disabled and disadvantaged students suffering the most. “It was completely off the rails from what is normal for us, and that was obviously very alarming,” said Erik Jespersen, principal of Oregon’s McNary High School, where 38% of grades in late October weremore

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Georgia Republican Senator Loeffler Dodges Questions on Trump During Debate With Challenger Warnock

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Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler danced around questions about whether President Donald Trump lost the November 3 election in a debate with her Democratic challenger on Sunday before two Georgia runoffs that will decide control of the U.S. Senate. Facing off with the Rev. Raphael Warnock on a debate stage in Atlanta, Loeffler repeatedly called the political newcomer a “radical liberal,” while Warnock criticized Loeffler’s stock trades after the wealthy businesswoman was appointed senator a year ago. Each criticized the other’s interpretation of the Christian faith. As the debate began, Loeffler sidestepped a question about whether she agreed with Trump’s baseless claims thatmore

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US Congress Braces for Tough Week as COVID, Budget, Defense Dominate Agenda

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Top U.S. lawmakers scrambled Sunday to reach difficult agreements as quickly as possible on a new aid package for the coronavirus-battered economy, a funding bill to avoid a government shutdown and the defense budget.And time was running out.The current federal budget law expires on December 11. If Congress fails to agree on a new one by that date, American public finances will suddenly dry up.In order to avoid a shutdown, Congress could decide to pass a temporary law for a few days, to give itself time between now and Christmas to reach a broad annual agreement on the 2021 budget.Republicanmore

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Biden Taps California Attorney General to Be First Latino Health Secretary

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President-elect Joe Biden has picked California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be his health secretary, putting a defender of the Affordable Care Act in a leading role to oversee his administration’s coronavirus response.  If confirmed by the Senate, Becerra, 62, will be the first Latino to head the Department of Health and Human Services, a $1-trillion-plus agency with 80,000 employees and a portfolio that includes drugs and vaccines, leading-edge medical research and health insurance programs covering more than 130 million Americans.As California’s attorney general, Becerra has led the coalition of Democratic states defending Obamacare, as the Affordable Care Act ismore

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Georgia Officials Reject Trump Vote Fraud Claims

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Officials in Georgia on Sunday rebuffed Republican President Donald Trump’s contention that Democratic challenger Joe Biden fraudulently won the southern U.S. state, declaring that the president-elect’s claim to Georgia’s 16 electoral votes would stand.Brad Raffensperger, the state’s top elections official, told ABC News’s “This Week” show that as a conservative Republican he was “disappointed” that Trump lost Georgia, but the people “have spoken” and “we don’t see anything that would overturn the will of the people.”Trump on Saturday asked the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, to call a special session of the state legislature to overturn the vote there andmore

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Trump Campaigns in Georgia for Republican Senators

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U.S. President Donald Trump traveled to the key southeastern state of Georgia on Saturday to campaign for two Republican senators running against Democratic challengers in the January runoff election that will decide which party controls the Senate, but he mostly repeated his claims of widespread vote fraud.”You know we won Georgia, just so you understand,” Trump told the large crowd gathered for the first post-election rally for the president. Few in the crowd wore masks.Democrat Joe Biden, a former vice president, unofficially won Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes out of about 5 million cast, the first Democratic presidential candidatemore

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US Universities Ask for $120 Billion During Prolonged Pandemic

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Colleges and universities are asking congressional leaders to appropriate $120 billion toward higher education to offset “massive new expenses” because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.“The situation currently facing America’s colleges and universities is a crisis of almost unimaginable magnitude,” said a letter signed by Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, on behalf of dozens of higher education groups. “Colleges and universities have already pushed their financial capacities to the limits in addressing this crisis.”Mitchell described the efforts by colleges and universities to adapt to the crisis as Herculean “… so that we can educate our students safely,more

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Trump Campaign Files Another Election Lawsuit, Suffers More Legal Defeats

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Donald Trump’s campaign said it filed a lawsuit in Georgia state court on Friday seeking to invalidate the presidential election results there, the latest in a series of legal challenges aimed at reversing his loss that have so far gone nowhere.The Trump campaign said in a statement its new lawsuit would include sworn statements from Georgia residents alleging fraud.Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, like Trump, and other state officials have said repeatedly they have found no evidence of widespread fraud in the Nov. 3 election won by Democrat Joe Biden.Trump’s team and various individuals backing him havemore

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Biden Officially Secures Enough Electors to Become President

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California certified its presidential election Friday and appointed 55 electors pledged to vote for Democrat Joe Biden, officially handing him the Electoral College majority needed to win the White House.Secretary of State Alex Padilla’s formal approval of Biden’s win in the state brought Biden’s tally of pledged electors so far to 279, according to a tally by The Associated Press. That’s just over the 270 threshold for victory.These steps in the election are often-ignored formalities. But the hidden mechanics of electing a U.S. president have drawn new scrutiny this year as President Donald Trump continues to deny Biden’s victory andmore

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Pentagon Installs 2 Trump Allies on Defense Advisory Board

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The Pentagon has appointed two close allies of President Donald Trump, Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, to a defense advisory board, continuing a post-election purge in the final weeks of the administration.The acting secretary of defense, Christopher Miller, who was installed by Trump on Nov. 9 after Trump fired then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper, said in a written statement Friday that nine members of the Defense Business Board had been replaced with the appointment of 11 new members.Lewandowski and Bossie are among Trump’s most vocal supporters. The nine other appointees are Henry Dreifus, Robert McMahon, Cory Mills, Bill Bruner, Christopher Shank,more

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Who’s in Georgia’s US Senate Election Runoffs?

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Georgia will hold two special elections Jan. 5, with the results ultimately determining which party will control the U.S. Senate.In the southeastern state of Georgia, a political candidate in a primary or general election must earn more than 50% of the votes. If no one in the race meets that threshold, the top two vote-getters enter into a runoff election.One runoff race features incumbent Sen. David Perdue, a Republican who received 49.7% of the vote on Nov. 3, and Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff, who received 47.9%.The other runoff race is for a seat vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson.more

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Pence Visits Georgia as Calm Before Potential Trump Storm

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Vice President Mike Pence is trying to help Republicans project a unified front in two high-stakes Senate runoffs as he campaigns in Georgia a day ahead of President Donald Trump’s potentially volatile visit to the state that will determine which party controls the Senate in January. The vice president is campaigning Friday with Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, with the GOP roiled by Trump’s continued denial of his own defeat and his baseless attacks that Republican officials in Georgia, including the governor and secretary of state, enabled widespread voter fraud on behalf of President-elect Joe Biden. Pence navigated Trump’s refusal tomore

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