New study on delta variant reveals importance of receiving both vaccine shots, highlights challenges posed by mutations  —  New laboratory research on the swiftly spreading delta variant of the coronavirus is highlighting the threats posed by viral mutations, adding urgency to calls to accelerate vaccination efforts across the planet.

FACT SHEET: Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy … The economy is booming under President Biden's leadership.  The economy has gained more than three million jobs since the President took office—the most jobs created in the first five months of any presidency in modern history.

GOP and Fox News rush to turn vaccine door-knockers into terrifying straw men  —  It has been three days since President Biden announced an initiative to send people door-to-door trying to get more people vaccinated, and Republicans and their conservative media allies have wasted no time turning …

Citizens, Not the State, Will Enforce New Abortion Law in Texas  —  The measure bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.  And it effectively deputizes ordinary citizens to sue people involved in the process.  —  People across the country may soon be able to sue abortion clinics …

Trump Organization Indictment May Spell Trouble for Trump Spawn  —  The indictment against the Trump Organization named seven specific companies within the overall business.  Guess who's connected to those companies.  —  The indictment filed last week against the Trump Organization …

Scripps Spelling Bee 2021: Live Updates  —  Zaila Avant-garde spells her way to victory!  —  The last few words were rattled off fast between the two final finalists, Chaitra Thummala and Zaila Avant-garde.  —  First was fewtrils (things of little value), which Chaitra got right.

2 US men, ex-Colombia soldiers held in Haiti assassination  —  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Seventeen suspects have been detained so far in the stunning assassination of Haiti's president, and Haitian authorities say two are believed to hold dual U.S.-Haitian citizenship and Colombia's government …

ICE to avoid detaining pregnant, nursing and postpartum women  —  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will no longer detain most pregnant, nursing and postpartum women for deportation, reversing a Trump-era rule that permitted officials to jail thousands of immigrants in those circumstances …

The Christian Right Is in Decline, and It's Taking America With It  —  The presidency of George W. Bush may have been the high point of the modern Christian right's influence in America.  White evangelicals were the largest religious faction in the country.

Unvaccinated hospitalized patients say they regret not getting the shot … To describe Dr. Ryan Dare as frustrated would be a gross understatement.  —  Dare and his colleagues at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock are dealing with a surge in extremely ill Covid-19 patients …

POLITICO-Harvard poll: Most Americans believe Covid leaked from lab  —  Most Americans now believe that the coronavirus leaked from a laboratory in China, according to a new POLITICO-Harvard poll that found a dramatic shift in public perception of Covid-19's origins over the last year.

Tucker Carlson's Extremely Mad That Journalists FOIA'd His FOIA Request to NSA  —  The idea that reporters would use basic journalistic tools to verify his claims about the NSA set Carlson off on Thursday night—and he took specific aim at Ken Klippenstein.  —  Fox News host Tucker Carlson …

Pakistan, After Rooting for Afghanistan's Taliban, Faces a Blowback  —  Islamabad wants a negotiated agreement, fears that outright Taliban takeover would galvanize Pakistani jihadists  —  ISLAMABAD—For two decades, a large part of the Pakistani security establishment rooted for the Taliban in the Afghan war.

Feds agree to pay $6.1M to create database for Capitol riot prosecutions  —  The Justice Department has agreed to pay $6.1 million to a technology contractor to create a massive database of videos, photographs, documents and social media posts related to the Capitol riot as part of the process …

Trump, after agreeing to sit for a raft of book interviews, declares them a ‘total waste of time’  —  Former president Donald Trump, who reportedly agreed to sit for at least a dozen interviews in recent months for forthcoming books about his tenure, said Friday that he considered doing so “a total waste of time.”

Legally, Trump's tech lawsuit is a joke.  But it raises a serious question.  —  Former president Donald Trump's lawsuits against Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been rightly derided as wrong on the facts, preposterous on the law and doomed to be thrown out of court.

Schumer warns August recess in danger as infrastructure work piles up  —  Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned colleagues in a letter Friday to be prepared to work long nights, over the weekends and into the scheduled August recess so that they can finish work …

The press's Avenatti humiliation is 100% of their own making  —  Nobody knows how to humiliate the press quite like the press.  —  Not even former President Donald Trump.  —  Former media darling and convicted felon Michael Avenatti has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for attempting to extort Nike.

The Democrats' New Voting-Rights Obstacle  —  There is a gnawing anxiety among voting-rights advocates that even if Democrats find a way to roll back the Senate filibuster and pass new federal legislation safeguarding access to the ballot, the Republican-appointed majority on the Supreme Court might still strike it down.

The Nation That Wouldn't Get Out Of Bed And Go To Work  —  A country of roughly 330 million has more than 9 million job openings, and 9.5 million unemployed.  This is a disgrace, a clear indication that our American character and work ethic are slipping, a rolling tragedy that's been authored by the Democrats.

Progressive Policies Won't Stop the Crime Wave  —  An approach to crime-fighting that scorns policing and incarceration relies on empirical and conceptual errors.  —  Public safety  —  With last year's devastating homicide spike continuing, some proponents of “progressive” …

The Jolt: Brian Kemp's first ad focus: “Stacey Abrams and the liberal mob”  —  Even though Stacey Abrams has not announced what her plans are for a 2022 rematch against Gov. Brian Kemp, you get the strong sense that Republicans can't wait to run against her.Look no further …

Lincoln Project scores a win against the ‘Sedition Caucus’ after latest ad targeting Toyota  —  This Thursday, the anti-Trump conservative PAC Lincoln Project released a new ad targeting Toyota for being part of a string of corporations “lavishing massive campaign donations on Republicans …

Too hot to hike?  Yosemite to hit 111 degrees this weekend.  —  The mercury in Yosemite hit 103 degrees Thursday at 2 p.m., and it's still rising.  The national park is forecast to hit 106 degrees today at the start of a heat wave that will broil the U.S. West Coast through Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

California and Florida battle for the soul of a nation  —  Thanks to the blessings of decentralization, life can vary greatly in America depending on where you sit.  Those differences are growing into a chasm of philosophical and practical contrasts between two basic models for the American future.