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.

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.

New Yahoo News/YouGov poll: Only 22% of Americans think the 2020 presidential election will be ‘free and fair’  —  Just 22 percent of Americans believe this year's presidential election will be “free and fair,” according to  —  a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll — a disturbing loss of confidence …

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 …

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.

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 …

A Deal on Drug Prices Undone by White House Insistence on ‘Trump Cards’  —  The White House and the pharmaceutical industry were nearing a major deal to lower drug prices.  Then the administration demanded that $100 cash cards be sent to millions of seniors before the election — and the industry balked.

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.

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 …

White Supremacists Are a Threat to Elections, Says the DHS  —  While the Trump administration publicly downplays the rise of the far right, Homeland Security anticipates “physical threats” to the 2020 election.  —  Last week, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) whistleblower told the press …

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 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 …

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 …

Satchuel Cole, leader in the fight for racial equality in Indianapolis, lied about own race  —  Satchuel Cole, a highly visible community leader advocating for racial and social justice in Indiana, has apologized for misleading people about Cole's own race, saying “I have taken up space as a Black person while knowing I am white.”

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.

Trump administration announces $13 billion in additional aid to Puerto Rico  —  Washington (CNN)The Trump administration on Friday announced $13 billion in additional aid to Puerto Rico to help with rebuilding in the aftermath of 2017's Hurricane Maria.  —  Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez …

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.

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 …

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.

Trump: America's perfection shall not be questioned, except by me  —  Every successful presidential candidate promises the voters rewards both material and emotional.  They say they'll improve our lives in tangible ways — better health care, higher wages — but they'll also make us feel how we want to feel …

A Danish Children's TV Show Has This Message: ‘Normal Bodies Look Like This’  —  The program aims to counter social media that bombards young people with images of perfect bodies.  —  COPENHAGEN — “OK, children, does anyone have a question?” the TV show's host, Jannik Schow, asked.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Peters holds narrow lead over James in Michigan's US Senate race  —  U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., appears to be holding a slim 4-percentage-point lead over Republican businessman John James in his race for reelection, down from a 10-point margin he had two months ago, according to a new Free Press poll released Friday.

U.S. House committee issues subpoena for testimony from Trump broadcasting chief  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee said on Friday it had issued a subpoena to compel the head of U.S. government broadcasting operations to testify next week …