U.S. Admits That Congressman Offered Pardon to Assange If He Covered Up Russia Links  —  Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher offered Assange the deal in 2017, a year after the emails that damaged Hillary Clinton had been published.  —  LONDON—Lawyers representing the United States …

Virus Pulls Down Trump, Poll Shows, and G.O.P. Senators Suffer With Him  —  A New York Times/Siena College survey showed Joe Biden leading President Trump by wide margins in Maine and Arizona, and effectively tied in North Carolina.  Susan Collins trailed her Democratic rival in Maine's Senate race.

Emails Detail Effort to Silence C.D.C. and Question Its Science  —  Emails from a former top Trump health official and his science adviser show how the two refused to accept Centers for Disease Control and Prevention science and sought to silence the agency.

An Idaho ‘no-masker’ pastor prayed against a mask mandate.  He's now in intensive care for covid-19.  —  When coronavirus cases began increasing in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in late July, Pastor Paul Van Noy prayed with his congregation that the city council would not pass a mask mandate.

Covid-19 Live Updates: After Criticism, C.D.C. Reverses Guidelines About Testing People Who Were Exposed  —  Israel becomes one of the few countries to impose a second nationwide lockdown.  In the U.S., Joe Biden tries to focus the campaign on President Trump's virus performance.

Republican U.S. House campaign arm cancels $2 million in Houston-area advertising  —  The region is home to multiple competitive races, including Congressional District 7 where Republicans are seeking to unseat U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher  —  WASHINGTON - The National Republican Congressional Committee …

The Falwells, the pool attendant and the double life that brought them all down  —  For 2½ years, Giancarlo Granda had been telling his family about the generosity of his business partners.  The wealthy couple from out of town had taken him under their wing, he said …

We Are All Algorithms Now  —  Is that what's really destroying the legitimacy of our democracy?  —  I've never felt this way about an election before.  For my entire adult life, campaigns could be exhilarating, tedious, crowded with incident or laden with foreboding, but you always felt that …

AP Exclusive: More migrant women say they didn't OK surgery  —  HOUSTON (AP) — Sitting across from her lawyer at an immigration detention center in rural Georgia, Mileidy Cardentey Fernandez unbuttoned her jail jumpsuit to show the scars on her abdomen.  There were three small, circular marks.

Rating Change: Republicans Sound Alarm, Riggleman's VA-05 Moves to Toss Up  —  Is it deja vu all over again?  In 2008, Virginia's 5th District was the site of a gigantic upset when tireless 34-year-old Democrat Tom Perriello unseated GOP Rep. Virgil Goode by 727 votes.

Commerce Department Prohibits WeChat and TikTok Transactions to Protect the National Security of the United States  —  In response to President Trump's Executive Orders signed August 6, 2020, the Department of Commerce (Commerce) today announced prohibitions on transactions relating to mobile applications …

Police Haul Man Out of Library for Not Wearing Mask During Meeting About Wearing Masks  —  A man was physically removed from a school board meeting in Mitchell, South Dakota, on Monday night because he refused to wear a protective face covering.  —  Reed Bender had attended meetings in the past …

Chief Justice Roberts's lifelong crusade against voting rights, explained  —  He has fought to undermine voting rights his entire career.  —  John Roberts was 26 years old, and he was outraged that he'd just been outmaneuvered by older and much more experienced political hands.  —  It was 1981.

Judge: Michigan must count absentee ballots that arrive late  —  A judge has cleared the way for more absentee ballots to be counted in Michigan  —  FBI director says there is little evidence for potential mass voter fraud  —  While he says there is little evidence for mail-in voter fraud …

Book excerpt: An FBI sex crimes investigator helped trigger 2016's ‘October Surprise’  —  This article is adapted from “October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election,” which will be published Sept. 22 by PublicAffairs.  The book is a comprehensive …

The United States is backsliding into autocracy under Trump, scholars warn  —  The weakening of democratic values — a path that's difficult to reverse — has accelerated, according to hundreds of indicators assessed each year  —  Three years into the Trump administration …

Few Trump or Biden supporters have close friends who back the opposing candidate  —  Supporters of Donald Trump and Joe Biden are divided not just in their views of the two presidential candidates and in their broader political beliefs and values.  They are also largely divided …

Poll: Biden Maintains Lead Over Trump With Likely Voters  —  Former Vice President Joe Biden continues to lead President Trump in the 2020 presidential election nationally by a substantial margin, according to the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.  —  Biden leads Trump by 9 points, 52% to 43%, among likely voters, the survey finds.

Housekeepers Face a Disaster Generations in the Making  —  Ghosted by their employers, members of the profession are facing “a full-blown humanitarian crisis — a Depression-level situation.”  —  The scariest day of Maria Del Carmen's life started with a phone call that initially cheered her up.

Senior Biden campaign cybersecurity expert participated in racist internet troll group  —  A senior cybersecurity adviser to Joe Biden's presidential campaign spent years affiliating with a hacking organization and boasted on a personal blog about breaking into her neighbor's computers.

Trump campaign manager didn't vote for his boss in 2016 — or at all  —  President Trump's campaign manager didn't vote for his boss in the last presidential election.  He didn't vote at all.  —  The last time Bill Stepien voted, according to public records, was in 2015, when he lived in New Jersey and was registered there.

‘Meet the Press’ host Chuck Todd is first in viewers — and Twitter critics.  Here's why  —  When “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd hears that his name is trending on Twitter, he knows it probably isn't good.  —  Social media is a harsh real-time critic, even for the NBC Sunday public affairs program …

“It Was All About the Election”: The Ex-White House Aide Olivia Troye on Trump's Narcissistic Mishandling of COVID-19  —  The first staffer on the coronavirus task force to go public tells The New Yorker that America's pandemic response was “derailed by the person at the very top.”

Joe Biden Resurrects False College Claim That Helped Ruin His 1988 Presidential Run  —  Joe Biden is not the first person in his family to attend college.  But he has a lengthy history of claiming otherwise, no matter how much the lie gets him in trouble.  —  Joe Biden is not the first person in his family to have gone to college.

A neighbor asked for a tomato.  This is where the story gets weird.  —  The following account is completely true, and, no, there is nothing funny about it.  —  I was on my laptop in the dining room of my rowhouse in downtown Washington, D.C., when someone rapped at the window.

How the Trump Campaign Lit a Billion Dollars on Fire  —  In this ep. of The New Abnormal, Rick breaks down how Team Trump has burned a billion and a former Obama national security aide has bad news about how other countries view America.  —  The Trump campaign raised more cash …

Police say ‘autonomous zone’ blocked emergency response to brutal assault; citizens' group disagrees  —  5 EYEWITNESS NEWS obtained surveillance video that captures the owner of a small business on Chicago Avenue being assaulted in the heart of a four-block area often referred to as an “autonomous zone” near George Floyd Square.

Poorly Protected Postal Workers Are Catching COVID-19 by the Thousands.  It's One More Threat to Voting by Mail.  —  More than 50,000 workers have taken time off for virus-related reasons, slowing mail delivery.  The Postal Service doesn't test employees or check their temperatures, and its contact tracing is erratic.

What do Iowans think about the U.S. Senate, presidential races?  A new Iowa Poll will offer answers  —  Starting Saturday night at DesMoinesRegister.com and in the Des Moines Sunday Register, a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll will check the pulse of Iowans on the upcoming election and other issues.

Pelosi snaps at reporter who asks about smaller coronavirus relief bill: ‘Just go read my statement’  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday reiterated her hard-line demand for a $2.2T coronavirus relief package  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday reiterated her hard-line demand …