2 shot dead and 1 injured in Kenosha during protests; police looking for man armed with a long gun  —  Kenosha Police said early Wednesday morning that two people had been shot and killed and a third injured during protests over the shooting of Jacob Blake; authorities were looking for a man armed with a long gun.

POLITICO Playbook: ‘This is absolutely not how it works’  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  OK, SORRY ... WE KNOW the convention was Tuesday night, but this was too good to bury.  THE USPS is looking for a VP of government affairs and public policy.  It might be smart to poke around …

CDC was pressured ‘from the top down’ to change coronavirus testing guidance, official says  —  (CNN)A sudden change in federal guidelines on coronavirus testing came this week as a result of pressure from the upper ranks of the Trump administration, a federal health official close to the process tells CNN.

Coronavirus concerns fall and Trump approval ticks higher in swing states, CNBC/Change Research poll finds  — Serious concerns about the coronavirus fell in six 2020 swing states, while approval of President Donald Trump's handling of Covid-19 rose, according to a new CNBC/Change Research poll.

RNC Speaker Cancelled After Boosting QAnon Conspiracy Theory About Jewish Plot to Enslave the World  —  Mary Ann Mendoza, an “angel mom,” was set to speak on Tuesday night.  But then she took to Twitter to encourage followers to read a thread about the Rothschilds.

How Trump could pull off another upset  —  It feels like August of 2016 all over again.  Polls show Donald Trump losing big.  Pundits proclaim he can't win.  Reporters sneer at Trump voters on Twitter and cable.  —  Why it matters: There are several signs that should give the Trump-is-toast self-assured pause.

Trump's RNC naturalization ceremony at White House: Tasteless, hollow and probably illegal  —  I watched the Republican convention start to finish for two days.  I'm a former Republican and a Never Trumper, so I understand that none of it was meant to speak to me.

Yale Law Professor Jed Rubenfeld Has Been Suspended for Sexual Harassment  —  On Monday morning, members of the Yale Law School faculty received a terse message from their provost informing them that Professor Jed Rubenfeld “will leave his position as a member of the YLS faculty for a two-year period …

U.S. service members injured in Syria after skirmish with Russian forces  —  U.S. service members were injured after an altercation with Russian forces in northeast Syria this week, according to a draft military statement and a person familiar with the matter.

Kellyanne Conway undermined the truth like no other Trump official.  And journalists enabled her.  —  Among the many appalling scenes in the many tell-all books written from an inside-the-Trump-administration perspective, one in particular spoke volumes about how Kellyanne Conway operates:

Lewd cheerleader videos, sexist rules: Ex-employees decry Washington's NFL team workplace  —  In “Beauties on the Beach,” the official video chronicling the making of the Washington NFL team's 2008 cheerleader swimsuit calendar, the women frolic in the sand, rave about their custom bikinis …

They tried to get Trump to care about right-wing terrorism.  He ignored them.  —  Elizabeth Neumann spent March 13 and 14 of 2019 at a conference in the picturesque Spanish port city of Málaga.  The topic: terrorism.  Western leaders were deeply worried about the dangers foreign …

Is The Electoral Map Changing?  —  We looked at how 16 battleground states have voted in the last five presidential elections to see how they might go in 2020  —  From one presidential election to the next, the battleground states that make — or break — the election remain largely the same.

Protesters target D.C. diners, triggering backlash after heckling woman  —  Lauren Victor refused to go along with raising her fist — although she supports the movement  —  A demonstration that began Monday evening in the District to protest the shooting of a Black man in Wisconsin wound …

‘I Fear That We Are Witnessing the End of American Democracy’  —  The frank racism of the contemporary Republican agenda is on display at the R.N.C.  —  Mr. Edsall contributes a weekly column from Washington, D.C. on politics, demographics and inequality.  —  The center-right political coalition …

Border Officials Weighed Deploying Migrant ‘Heat Ray’ Ahead of Midterms  —  Even as the Republican convention tries to soften President Trump's image, he has made it clear that the extreme immigration policies of his first four years will be central to his re-election pitch.

Fort Hood soldier likely found dead, attorney says, after disappearance, sexual assault claims  —  A soldier assigned to Fort Hood who was missing was likely found dead on Tuesday, his family's attorney said, adding to the toll of soldiers at the Texas installation who have vanished or died in recent months.

DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos Adds Two Candidates to DCCC ‘Red To Blue’ Program, Expands Offensive Battlefield  —  Brings DCCC to 33 Red to Blue Candidates in a 51 district offensive battlefield  —  Today, DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos announced that the DCCC added two candidates to the highly competitive Red to Blue program.

RNC Speaker Facing Federal Charges Of Insider Trading  —  Jack Brewer, a member of Black Voices for Trump who is scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, was charged with insider trading by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this month.

Why a Historic Eviction Wave Is Bearing Down on U.S.  —  With more than 16 million people in the U.S. out of work, Americans are having to stretch financially to keep the roof over their heads.  According to the Census Bureau, about a third of renters said in July that they had no confidence …

How TV media's coverage of the party conventions compares … There were several key differences between broadcast and cable news coverage of the Democratic National Convention's first day of programming and the Republican National Convention's counterpart.  The RNC included some midday programming …