National Hurricane Center Warns Of ‘Unsurvivable’ Storm Surge From Laura

Posted on by David Taintor

DELCAMBRE, La. (AP) — Laura strengthened Wednesday into a menacing Category 4 hurricane, raising fears of a 20-foot storm surge that forecasters said would be “unsurvivable” and capable of sinking entire communities. Authorities implored coastal residents of Texas and Louisiana to evacuate and worried that not enough had fled.

The storm grew nearly 70% in power in just 24 hours to a size the National Hurricane Center called “extremely dangerous.” Drawing energy from the warm Gulf of Mexico waters, the system was on track to arrive late Wednesday or early Thursday as the most powerful hurricane to strike the U.S. so far this year.

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Two Shot Dead, One Wounded As Protests Continue Over Jacob Blake Shooting

Posted on by David Taintor

This story was updated at 10:25 a.m. ET.

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — Two people were shot to death and another was wounded during a third night of protests in Kenosha over the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, and authorities Wednesday hunted for a possible vigilante seen on cellphone video opening fire in the middle of the street with a rifle.

The gunfire was reported just before midnight, and Sheriff David Beth said one victim was shot in the head and another in the chest, the Milwaukee Journal Sentine l reported. The third victim’s wounds were not believed to life-threatening.

According to witness accounts and video footage, police apparently let the young white man responsible for some or all of the shootings walk past them with a semi-automatic rifle over his shoulder as members of the crowd were yelling for him to be arrested because he had shot people.

Beth said that investigators had reviewed footage and that he was confident a man would be arrested soon.

The sheriff told the Journal Sentinel that armed people had been patrolling the city’s streets in recent nights, but he did not know if the gunman was among them.

“They’re a militia,” Beth said. “They’re like a vigilante group.”

The FBI said it is assisting in the case.

Cellphone video of at least two of the shootings that was posted online shows a young man with a rifle jogging down the middle of a street as a crowd and some police officers follow him. Someone in the crowd can be heard asking, “What did he do?” and another person responds that the man had shot someone.

The man with the gun stumbles and falls, and as he is approached by people in the crowd, he fires three or four shots from a seated position, hitting at least two people, including one who falls over and another who stumbles away to cries of “Medic! Medic!”

A witness, Julio Rosas, 24, said that when the gunman stumbled and fell, “two people jumped onto him and there was a struggle for control of his rifle. At that point during the struggle, he just began to fire multiple rounds and that dispersed people near him.”

“The rifle was being jerked around in all directions while it was being fired,” Rosas said.

In the cellphone footage, as the crowd scatters, the gunman stands up and continues walking down the street as police cars arrive. The man puts up his hands and walks toward the squad cars, with someone in the crowd yelling at police that the man had just shot someone, but several of the cars drive past him toward the people who had been shot.

Protester Devin Scott told the Chicago Tribune that he witnessed one of the shootings.

“We were all chanting ‘Black lives matter’ at the gas station and then we heard, boom, boom, and I told my friend, `’That’s not fireworks,’” said Scott, 19. “And then this guy with this huge gun runs by us in the middle of the street and people are yelling, ‘He shot someone! He shot someone!’ And everyone is trying to fight the guy, chasing him and then he started shooting again.”

Scott said he cradled a lifeless victim in his arms, and a woman started performing CPR, but “I don’t think he made it.”

At a news conference earlier Tuesday, Ben Crump, the lawyer for Blake’s family, said that Blake was shot multiple times by police on Sunday and that it would “take a miracle” for him to walk again. He called for the officer who opened fire to be arrested and for the others involved to lose their jobs.

The shooting of Blake — apparently while three of his children looked on — was captured on cellphone video and ignited new protests in the U.S. three months after the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer touched off a nationwide reckoning over racial injustice.

Kenosha police have said little about what happened other than that they were responding to a domestic dispute. They have not said why the officers opened fire or whether Blake was armed, and they have not disclosed the race of three officers on the scene.

The 29-year-old Blake underwent surgery Tuesday, according to Crump, who added that the bullets severed his spinal cord and shattered his vertebrae. Another attorney said there was also severe damage to organs.

Blake’s father, also named Jacob Blake, told the Chicago Sun-Times that his son had eight holes in his body. At a news conference, he said police shot his son “seven times, seven times, like he didn’t matter.”

“But my son matters. He’s a human being and he matters,” he said.

Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, told CBS “This Morning” in an interview that aired Wednesday that she feels as if she is in a “bad dream” and that it felt “unreal” that her son’s name has been added to the list of Black people who were shot by police.

“Never in a million years did I think we would be here in this place. Him being alive is just a miracle in itself,” she said.

During the latest round of unrest on Tuesday, police fired tear gas for the third straight night to disperse protesters who had gathered outside Kenosha’s courthouse, where some shook a protective fence and threw water bottles and fireworks at officers lined up behind it. On Monday night, crowds destroyed dozens of buildings and set more than 30 fires downtown.

On Tuesday, before the two deadly shootings, Kenosha County Board sent a letter to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers requesting that at least 2,000 more National Guard troops be sent. Evers initially dispatched 150 troops on Monday and increased that to 250 on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the board sent a second request, for 1,500 troops.

“Our county is under attack. Our businesses are under attack. Our homes are under attack. Our local law enforcement agencies need additional support to help bring civility back to our community,” board leaders wrote.

Evers did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson and GOP Rep. Bryan Steil, whose district includes Kenosha, said Evers should accept federal troops from President Donald Trump.

Anger over the shooting has spilled into the streets of other cities, including Los Angeles and Minneapolis, the epicenter of the Black Lives Matter movement this summer following Floyd’s death.

___

Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin. Associated Press reporters Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin, Gretchen Ehlke in Milwaukee, Jeff Baenen in Minneapolis, Aaron Morrison in New York, and Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan, contributed.

Correction: This story’s headline originally reported that Jacob Blake had died after being shot by the police. He was severely wounded and is reportedly paralyzed from the waist down. We regret the error.

Fox News’ Chris Wallace Says RNC Using WH As Stage Broke Barriers ‘For Good Or For Ill’

Posted on by Zoe Richards

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace remarked late Tuesday that the Republican National Convention which in its second night made the White House its center stage has “completely blown away” barriers between political and professional government activity. 

Ahead of the convention, there had been significant controversy about whether or not the RNC could be held at the White House given restrictions the Hatch Act places on federal employees to conduct political activity at work.

“There was an uproar in Washington,” Wallace said, noting the reactions of prominent Republican lawmakers who had condemned the proposition that Trump might deliver convention remarks — an activity with clearly personal political objectives– from White House grounds. 

“That barrier was completely blown away tonight, for good or for ill,” Wallace said.

First Lady Melania Trump vouched for her husband from the newly-renovated Rose Garden.

As President, Trump conducted a pardon ceremony for convicted bank robber turned activist Jon Ponder that aired during the convention for his bid as a presidential candidate. The move squarely fits the bill for the kind of barrier-breaking that Wallace spoke about and that was also reported last night by TPM. 

While both the President and Vice President are omitted from provisions in the Hatch Act that bar government employees from participating in certain kinds of political activity at work, other government employees are not exempt from the rule.

Wallace argued that the “most controversial of all” were remarks made by Secretary of state Mike Pompeo who made “a political speech from a diplomatic hot-spot in Jerusalem.”

Wallace said that the move by Pompeo was unprecedented, adding that the State Department has established policy to prevent the muddling of politics and diplomacy.

The Washington Post noted that former Bush administration Secretary of State, Colin Powell declined to attend the RNC while he served in that role in 2004, saying that as secretary of state he was “obliged not to participate in any way, shape, fashion or form in parochial, political debates.”

“I have to take no sides in the matter,” Powell added at the time.

The State Department has defended Pompeo’s move however, claiming that the official was just speaking in his “personal capacity.”

“I don’t know what personal capacity a secretary of state has,” Wallace said.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, who is also the House Foreign Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair, issued a statement Tuesday calling for an investigation into the issue and saying that the American people “deserve a full investigation.”

“People can think it’s a big deal, they can think it’s a little deal. But all of this has never happened before. And it’s worth noting,” Wallace said.

Correction: This post originally reported that Jon Ponder was part of the naturalization ceremony. He was pardoned by Trump during the RNC broadcast. 

WH: Naturalization Ceremony At RNC Didn’t Violate Hatch Act Because It Was ‘Publicly Available Content’

Posted on by Cristina Cabrera

The White House insisted on Tuesday that the Trump administration’s naturalization ceremony at the Republican National Convention (RNC) that night wasn’t a violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits executive government officials from participating in political activity while on duty.

Continue reading “WH: Naturalization Ceremony At RNC Didn’t Violate Hatch Act Because It Was ‘Publicly Available Content’” →

Liberty University May Owe Falwell $10.5 Million

Posted on by Zoe Richards

Liberty University may owe its former president Jerry Falwell Jr. roughly $10.5 million over the next two years following his resignation from the evangelical institution after a series of scandals.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a source  familiar with Falwell’s contract said the former university president is due his $1.25 million salary for two years. Falwell is then entitled to a lump-sum of $8 million due to a clause in his contract that allowed him to resign with full pay after he was put on an indefinite leave of absence two weeks ago.

Falwell, who is also one of President Donald Trump’s most prominent evangelical supporters, will likely consult for the school during its period of transition to new leadership, the source told The Wall Street Journal.

University officials said the school’s board of trustees unanimously accepted Falwell’s resignation during a video conference call on Tuesday. Officials issued a statement that said the board of trustees had used the meeting to look forward and consider “steps that could be taken to ensure it remained true to its mission.”

Falwell’s resignation follows a series of allegations – including appearing in a photo posted to social media with his pants unzipped. A Reuters report Monday also cited allegations by a Miami pool boy who said Falwell “enjoyed watching” his wife Becki have sex the hotel staffer. Falwell was placed on an indefinite leave of absence and the formally resigned after some back and forth on Monday.

Hours after his resignation on Monday, Falwell told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that he wouldn’t have to sue to get paid. “I didn’t break any rules—I get my compensation,” he said. 

After stepping down from his post, Falwell also seized on a famous refrain from the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, telling NPR in an interview Tuesday that he is “free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty, I am free at last!”

Attendees At FLOTUS’ RNC Speech Not Required To Take COVID-19 Tests

Posted on by Cristina Cabrera

Audience members at First Lady Melania Trump’s speech during the Republican National Convention (RNC) in the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday night were reportedly not required to test for COVID-19 beforehand.

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GOP, White House Showcase Their Control Over Levers Of Power In Unprecedented Infomercial

Posted on by Matt Shuham

It’s an election year, and that means using the levers of government power to propel the President of the United States to reelection. 

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Night 2 Of GOP Convention: The Made-For-TV Spectacle

The second night of the GOP convention was, once again, all about President Donald Trump.

Trump harnessed the weight of the White House to deliver several made-for-TV moments intended to bolster his flagging campaign. First, Trump pardoned a convicted bank robber. Then, he hosted a naturalization ceremony celebrating newly sworn-in Americans, despite the Trump administration’s harsh crackdown on immigration — legal and otherwise.

Even before the broadcast began, the convention was beset with political scandal.

One of the event’s speakers, Mary Ann Mendoza, was abruptly yanked from the schedule for boosting anti-Semitic conspiracies on Twitter.

She wasn’t the only RNC speaker taking heat. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo already faced a probe for his speech before it was even delivered.

It’s highly unusual for the United States’ top diplomat to participate in such a partisan domestic political event. In fact, Pompeo’s appearance violated his own State Department’s policy against taking a stance in a political campaign.

First lady Melania Trump closed out the evening with a keynote address from the newly revamped White House Rose Garden. She delivered a mostly apolitical speech, though she offered a few swipes at the media. In contrast to the rest of the night’s speakers, she also acknowledged the devastating impact and death toll of the coronavirus pandemic.

Catch up on all our coverage below.

Bundy Arrested At Idaho Statehouse, Wheeled Away By Cops While Sitting In Office Chair

Posted on by John Light

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Authorities on Tuesday arrested anti-government activist Ammon Bundy at the Idaho Statehouse after he refused to leave a meeting room where a few hours earlier angry protesters forced out lawmakers.

Bundy didn’t respond to a reporter’s shouted questions as he was wheeled into an elevator in a chair he apparently refused to get out of. At least two others were also arrested after police cleared the room, and they also refused to follow police commands to leave. Another person was taken into custody earlier in the same room where protesters shouted down lawmakers.

The incident follows another on Monday when angry protesters forced their way into the Idaho House gallery that had limited seating because of the coronavirus pandemic, the window of a glass door getting shattered as protesters jostled with police. Protesters were ultimately let in when Republican House Speaker Scott Bedke stepped in, seeking to avoid violence.

Lawmakers are meeting in a special session called by Republican Gov. Brad Little because of the coronavirus pandemic. Bundy and other protesters are opposed to a proposed liability law intended to shield schools, businesses and government entities from lawsuits from people who get COVID-19. Some lawmakers also oppose the legislation they say will remove accountability.

Tuesday’s unrest started when the committee chairman, Republican Rep. Greg Chaney, directed two people sitting in an area reserved for credentialed members of the media to leave those seats. Press credentials are controlled by the Capitol Correspondents Association.

“I’m not sure precisely what their goal is, but I’m absolutely sure that the two individuals whom I asked to leave were intending to create a scene,” he said. “At times in the last 24 to 36 hours, this building has descended into complete chaos, and the only way to make sure that all citizens feel comfortable coming here to be heard is to make sure that we don’t allow rule deviations in general.”

The committee considering that legislation left the meeting room as at least a dozen Idaho State Police formed a shield between them and the crowd of more than 100.

Bundy, who led the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, took one of the credentialed media seats after lawmakers left the room. He said police and lawmakers were itching to exert their authority after Monday’s incident. He said he hadn’t instructed anyone to disrupt the meeting, and he challenged those who qualified as a credentialed member of the media.

“What does credentialed mean? Who is the freedom of the press for? Those who have credentials? No, it’s not,” he told The Associated Press. “The freedom of the press is a protection for the people. Your credentials are great, and I think you guys do a much better job at it than we do, but the fact is the government is not supposed to say this person has the freedom of the press and has a right to be in a certain place and these people don’t.”

The committee convened later in the day in a different room with heavy security and approved a public hearing for the liability legislation.

Meanwhile, another committee earlier in the day killed legislation intended to allow greater opportunity for in-person voting for the Nov. 3 general election amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The House State Affairs Committee voted 10-5 to kill the legislation that was a primary reason Republican Gov. Brad Little called the part-time Legislature back for a special session.

The legislation would have allowed counties to create voting centers where residents from different precincts could vote. Elections officials say they are facing a shortage of poll workers and potentially polling sites in November because of the pandemic.

Idaho State Police form a row in a committee meeting room in the Idaho Statehouse in Boise, Idaho, on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020. One person was taken into custody and lawmakers abandoned the room after spectators at a House committee meeting at the Idaho Statehouse became disruptive. The committee left the room as at least a dozen Idaho State Police formed a shield between them and the crowd of more than 100. (AP Photo/Keith Ridler)