‘Dark Money’ Campaign Contributions Headed for Record High

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Nonprofit organizations and other outside groups that don’t disclose their donors are spending record amounts of money on the 2020 U.S. presidential and congressional races, signaling their growing influence in national politics.These so-called “dark money” groups so far have funneled at least $177 million to independent political action committees, known as super PACs, in the 2020 election cycle, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based group that tracks money in politics.By comparison, those groups gave $178 million in the entire campaign cycle two years ago, according to the center. In addition, dark money groups thismore

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Trump Takes Executive Action on Economic Relief Package

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President Donald Trump acted Saturday to extend an expired jobless benefit to tens of millions of Americans who have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic and defer payroll taxes after negotiations with Congress on a new package of economic aid collapsed.As the United States neared 5 million cases of the coronavirus and 162,000 deaths Saturday, Trump called for up to $400 extra in weekly unemployment payments, one-third less than the $600 people had been receiving. Congress allowed those payments to end August 1, and talks to extend them fell apart Friday, with the White House and Democrats far apartmore

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Biden Risks Alienating Young Black Voters After Race Remarks

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Joe Biden’s controversial remarks about race this week risk alienating young Black voters who despise President Donald Trump but are not inspired by his Democratic rival.When pressed by Errol Barnett of CBS News on whether he’d taken a cognitive test, Biden responded that the question was akin to asking the Black reporter if he would take a drug test to see if “you’re taking cocaine or not? … Are you a junkie?”In a later interview with National Public Radio’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Biden seemed to draw distinctions between Black and Hispanic populations in the U.S. “Unlike the African American community, withmore

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Trump Threatens to Take Executive Action on Economic Relief Package

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U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he is ready to take executive action after congressional lawmakers failed again to reach agreement on a relief package for the tens of millions of Americans who have lost their jobs following the COVID-19 pandemic.Trump told a news conference that executive orders are being prepared to enhance unemployment benefits until the end of the year, defer student loan payments and forgive interest on the loans, and extend a moratorium on evictions. He said an executive order is also being prepared to defer payroll taxes until the end of the year.It was not immediately clearmore

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Who Will Win in 2020?

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Ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November, polls show presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump. While polls can reflect how popular a candidate is at a point in time, they don’t always predict the election result. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara spoke with two experts who have called the outcome of the election, not based on polls but on their own prediction models. …

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Liberty University President Taking Leave of Absence

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Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University in Virginia, will be taking an indefinite leave of absence, the university announced Friday afternoon.The executive committee of Liberty’s board of trustees met Friday and requested that Falwell take the leave, to which he agreed. The university statement said it would be “effective immediately.”Falwell has been president since 2007 of Liberty University, which was founded by his father, the late Reverend Jerry Falwell.The leave announcement came after Jerry Falwell Jr. apologized for a recent photo posted on social media in which his pants were unzipped.Talking with local radio station WLNI 105.9 in Lynchburg,more

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Last-ditch Virus Aid Talks Collapse; No New Help for Jobless

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A last-ditch effort by Democrats to revive collapsing Capitol Hill talks on vital COVID-19 rescue money ended in disappointment on Friday, making it increasingly likely that Washington gridlock will mean more hardship for millions of people who are losing enhanced jobless benefits and further damage for an economy pummeled by the still-raging coronavirus.”It was a disappointing meeting,” declared top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer, saying the White House had rejected an offer by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to curb Democratic demands by about $1 trillion. He urged the White House to “negotiate with Democrats and meet us in the middle. Don’tmore

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Postal Service Loses $2.2B in 3 Months as Virus Woes Persist

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The U.S. Postal Service says it lost $2.2 billion in the three months that ended in June as the beleaguered agency, hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, piles up financial losses that officials warn could top $20 billion over two years.”Our financial position is dire, stemming from substantial declines in mail volume, a broken business model and a management strategy that has not adequately addressed these issues,” Louis DeJoy, the new postmaster general, said Friday in his first public remarks since taking the job in June.”Without dramatic change, there is no end in sight,” DeJoy told the postal board ofmore

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Virus Aid Talks on Brink of Collapse; Sides ‘Very Far Apart’

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Washington talks on vital COVID-19 rescue money are teetering on the brink of collapse after a marathon meeting in the Capitol generated lots of recriminations but little progress on the top issues confronting negotiators.”There’s a handful of very big issues that we are still very far apart” on, said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. He talked of impasses on aid to states and local governments and renewing supplemental unemployment benefits in the Thursday night meetings. Both sides said the future of the talks is uncertain. No meeting is scheduled so far for Friday, an informal deadline to reach the broad outlinesmore

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Appeals Court Revives House Lawsuit for McGahn Testimony

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A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday revived House Democrats’ lawsuit to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to appear before a congressional committee, but left other legal issues unresolved with time growing short in the current Congress.  The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted 7-2 in ruling that the House Judiciary Committee can make its claims in court, reversing the judgment of a three-judge panel that would have ended the court fight.The matter now returns to the panel for consideration of other legal issues. The current House of Representatives session endsmore

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Liberty University President Apologizes for Photo

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The president of Liberty University in Virginia has apologized for a recent photo posted on social media in which his pants are unzipped. Talking with local radio station WLNI 105.9 Lynchburg, Jerry Falwell Jr. gave an explanation for the photo in which his arm is around a woman whose pants are also unzipped, and he holds a plastic cup filled with “black water,” as he described the liquid.  “Yeah, it was weird. She’s pregnant. She couldn’t get her pants zipped and I was like trying to like …” said Falwell, who leads the conservative and religious university. “I had on a pairmore

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Doctors Ask Medical Schools to Drop MCAT Tests During Pandemic

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A professional society of 163,000 physicians, trainees and fellows of internal medicine in the United States is asking medical schools to waive the entrance exam because the COVID-19 pandemic has made testing unmanageable. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.The American College of Physicians (ACP) suggests the schools look at applicants holistically – considering factors including grades and experience – and dispense with the Medical College Admission Test – known as the MCAT – for entrance year 2021.“Applicants have experienced disruptions in taking the MCAT examination, whether due to personal health and safety concerns, vendor-initiated scheduling changes, or difficultiesmore

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Harvard Enrollments Drop by 20%

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Harvard College is likely to see a more than 20 percent drop in enrollment this fall, according to the student-staff The Harvard Crimson news outlet.  Harvard, considered among the top three universities in the United States, has been besieged with the complications of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus. Many students cannot travel, do not want to be on campus in close quarters with others, or are deferring while classes are online because those classes are not deemed a good value financially. Students Give Online Learning Low MarksMany call on universities to end the semester earlyAboutmore

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Trump Loses Bid to Add Fourth Debate with Biden in Early September

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign on Thursday lost its bid to add a fourth debate with Democratic challenger Joe Biden in early September.In rejecting the request, the Commission on Presidential Debates said it remains committed to the current schedule of three 90-minute debates beginning in late September.It would only add a fourth debate, or move an existing debate to earlier in the month, if both sides in the campaign for the November 3 election agreed to it, it said.Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani had asked for either a fourth debate in the first week of September or for themore

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Trump, McConnell Huddle; Virus Aid Talks at Risk of Collapse

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President Donald Trump huddled at the White House Thursday with the Senate’s top Republican over a vital COVID-19 rescue package, but hopes on Capitol Hill for a deal were souring and there was increasing worry that GOP negotiations with Democrats might collapse.The impasse in the negotiations is putting at risk more than $100 billion to help reopen schools, a fresh round of $1,200 direct payments to most people, and hundreds of billions of dollars for state and local governments to help them avoid furloughing workers and cutting services as tax revenues shrivel.Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is a key player inmore

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‘See You in Court’: ACLU Files Nearly 400 Cases Versus Trump

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The day after Donald Trump’s election in November 2016, the American Civil Liberties Union posted a message to him on its website: “See you in court.” As president, Trump hasn’t personally squared off against the ACLU from the witness stand, but the broader warning has been borne out. As of this week, the ACLU has filed nearly 400 lawsuits and other legal actions against the Trump administration, some meeting with setbacks but many resulting in important victories. Among other successes for the ACLU, it prevailed in a U.S. Supreme Court case blocking the administration from placing a citizenship question onmore

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Trump Ties COVID-19 Vaccine Timing to November Election

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U.S. President Donald Trump is predicting a COVID-19 vaccine might be ready by this year’s election, less than 90 days away.  “I’m optimistic that it’ll probably be around that date,” Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn on Thursday.  “It wouldn’t hurt” his reelection chances to have the vaccine available by the November 3 election, acknowledged the president. “I’m doing it not for the election. I want it fast because I want to save a lot of lives.”  The scientific community, including prominent infectious disease experts such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is member of the White Housemore

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Professor Predicts Biden Will Beat Trump in November Vote

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A history professor who has correctly predicted the outcome of every U.S. presidential election since 1984 says Democrat Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States.Appearing in a FILE – Allan Lichtman of American University in Washington, D.C., is pictured at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, May 24, 2011.Six for TrumpTrump has the advantage in six keys. They include the president’s incumbency, no serious Republican primary challengers, no major foreign military failures, and what Lichtman says is Biden’s lack of charisma.Although Lichtman is predicting a close election, a CNN roundup of the latest polls showed Bidenmore

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Biden’s Challenge: Keeping Up Momentum

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Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is leading in the polls over incumbent President Donald Trump but must rally and unite his party’s progressive wing while appealing to the broader electorate if he hopes to win November’s presidential election.  The continuing coronavirus pandemic makes traditional campaigning difficult, and Biden campaign officials now say he will not travel to his party’s convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to accept the presidential nomination.  VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan reports on the strengths and vulnerabilities of the man Democrats hope will win the White House. Produced by: Mike O’Sullivan …

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US Lawmakers Ask 6 Top Universities to Hand Over Records of Foreign Donations

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Three members of the U.S. Congress are asking six of the nation’s top universities to hand over records of donations they have accepted from certain foreign nations, including China and Russia, citing concerns that these multimillion-dollar donations present a growing national security threat.Letters aimed at helping the members to “further understand the effects of adversarial foreign direct investments in the U.S. higher education system” were sent to the presidents of Harvard, New York University, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago and University of Delaware. The U.S. Department of Education building building is seen in Washington, on July 22,more

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US Supreme Court Approval Rating at Highest in Over Decade

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At a time when other branches of the U.S. government remain relatively unpopular, public approval of the Supreme Court has risen to its highest level in more than a decade, according to a new Gallup survey.The Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor speaks during a panel discussion celebrating Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to be a Supreme Court Justice, Sept. 25, 2019, at the Library of Congress in Washington.The nine-member court’s approval rating had hovered around 50% in recent years after rising as high as 61% in 2009, fueled in part by the historic appointment of the first Hispanic justice,more

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Biden to Skip Milwaukee Trip for Presidential Nomination Acceptance

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Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has decided to not travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to accept the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination at the party’s national convention this month out of fear of the “worsening” coronavirus pandemic, convention organizers said Wednesday.The party said none of the planned convention speakers would go to the Midwestern city, in order to “prevent risking the health of our host community as well as the convention’s production teams, security officials, community partners, media and others.” Normally about 50,000 convention delegates, workers and media would have gone to the four-day event starting August 17.Much of the conventionmore

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Trump Campaign Sues to Block Nevada Mail-in Voting 

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign and the national Republican Party have sued to block the western state of Nevada from sending a mail-in ballot to every registered voter in the state, even as Trump says absentee voting is fine by him in his adopted home state of Florida. The federal lawsuit filed Tuesday claims the Nevada voting plan approved by the state legislature Sunday night will result in “inevitable” fraud in the Nov. 3 national presidential election.  President Donald Trump speaks during a briefing with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Aug. 4, 2020, inmore

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Desperate to Play: Coronavirus’ Impact on College Sports

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Many colleges and universities in the U.S. are in danger of losing millions in revenue from canceled sports events.College sports make roughly $1 billion annually in ticket sales and promotions for universities, according to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Athletic dollars from basketball, football and baseball can contribute more than half to a school’s operating budget.“There’s never a good time for a pandemic but for college sports, I think this was particularly bad, because it happened right at the beginning of the men’s basketball tournament, and the men’s basketball tournament is the largest source of revenue for the NCAA,”more

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