Tennessee's former top vaccine official: ‘I am afraid for my state’  —  Editor's note: On Monday, July 12, the Tennessee Department of Health fired Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the top vaccine official in the Tennessee state government.  Fiscus said she was scapegoated to appease Republican state lawmakers …

‘Get on the team or shut up’: How Trump created an army of GOP enforcers  —  From the earliest days of his presidency Donald Trump and his political team worked to re-engineer the infrastructure of the Republican Party, installing allies in top leadership posts in key states.

‘They will be arrested.’ Gov. Abbott responds to Texas Democrats' flight to Washington, D.C.  —  The Texas Legislature's special session started on July 8.  Among the issues that lawmakers are expected to address are bail reform and “election integrity.”  —  AUSTIN, Texas …

Several tied to Haiti assassination plot were previously US law enforcement informants  —  Several of the men involved in the operation that killed Haiti's president previously worked as US law enforcement informants, according to people briefed on the matter, as US investigators grapple …

Trump Organization removes indicted top finance officer Allen Weisselberg from leadership roles at dozens of subsidiaries  —  The Trump Organization has removed indicted Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg from his leadership roles at more than 40 subsidiary companies, according to corporate filings in the U.S. and Scotland.

Maria Bartiromo's top 10 fails  —  Former President Trump failed to secure a second term in office via lawsuits contesting the Nov. 3 election, a Capitol riot by his supporters or all this whacked-out chatter about “reinstatement.”  Yet that doesn't mean that he can't still act out one of the rituals of his years in office.

‘I Alone Can Fix It’ book excerpt: Inside Trump's Election Day and the birth of the ‘big lie’ … Finally, Election Day had arrived.  The morning of Nov. 3, 2020, President Trump was upbeat.  The mood in the West Wing was good.  Some aides talked giddily of a landslide.

Biden's bipartisan infrastructure deal could face key Senate GOP defections  —  Washington (CNN)Several GOP senators who initially endorsed a bipartisan infrastructure deal are warning they may ultimately vote against it as it moves through the legislative process, a sign of the daunting hurdles ahead …

The Republican Party's top lawyer called election fraud arguments by Trump's lawyers a ‘joke’ that could mislead millions  —  The Republican Party's top lawyer warned in November against continuing to push false claims that the presidential election was stolen, calling efforts …

Newsmax host suggests vaccines are “against nature,” and some diseases are “supposed to wipe out a certain amount of people”  —  Rob Schmitt: “That's just kind of the way evolution goes.  Vaccines kind of stand in the way of that”

Cubans, broken by pandemic and fueled by social media, confront their police state  —  Alfredo Martínez Ramírez was browsing his gray iPhone 6 in his Havana apartment Sunday when he saw the footage on Facebook Live.  —  Ordinary people in the country's interior had taken …

Lawyers retreat from pro-Trump election suit  —  The legal reckoning for attorneys who pushed former President Donald Trump's spurious claims of election fraud advanced on Monday, with a federal court in Detroit holding a hearing on whether to impose sanctions over a suit filed last year seeking …

The Plight of the Violence Interruptors One of the deadliest summers in recent memory tests the alternative to police.  —  When someone has been shot or is about to shoot someone in Brownsville, there is a good chance that Darien Scriven knows who they are.  For the past five years …

Why Facebook really, really doesn't want to discourage extremism  —  Our research finds that outrage is what goes viral — and that makes money.  —  Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook executives allegedly shut down internal research showing that the platform increased …

Catherine Lhamon will make our schools better, fairer, and more just  —  I am confident that the United States is on the move toward a stronger and fairer nation, in part because of a new generation striving to make discrimination a relic of the past and justice and equality the promise for a brighter future.

Ice cream's back — thank you, Joe!  —  On the official schedule, it was just another vaccination push.  On Tuesday, July 6, first lady Jill Biden jetted to Savannah, Ga., in yet one more valiant attempt to convince Americans not yet vaccinated to step up and do the right thing.

Trump unloads on Kavanaugh in new Michael Wolff book  —  Former President Donald Trump, in a book out Tuesday by Michael Wolff, says he is “very disappointed” in votes by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, his own hard-won nominee, and that he “hasn't had the courage you need to be a great justice.”

Amid Florida COVID spike, Miami hospital's virus patients are younger, unvaccinated  —  Florida's COVID epidemic is on the rise again, driven by outbreaks in the Miami area, Jacksonville and the Panhandle.  —  Several months after highly effective and safe vaccines have been made available …

Virginia Bar Association cancels debate after Youngkin chooses to skip it  —  The Virginia Bar Association has cancelled its planned gubernatorial debate after Republican Glenn Youngkin broke with recent tradition by skipping what is usually the first face-to-face matchup of the general election.

U.S. Officials Press Pfizer for More Evidence of Need for Booster Shot  —  After meeting with company representatives, officials said the decision would depend partly on data on infections in vaccinated people that cause serious disease or hospitalization.  —  Representatives of Pfizer met privately …

Fox Runs All-Caps Disclaimer Over Trump's Lies About Stolen Election at CPAC  —  ‘DENIED THE VARIOUS ALLEGATIONS’  —  Fox News ran a disclaimer during Donald Trump's speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference Sunday as the former president said yet again that the 2020 election had been “rigged.”

Senators seek Medicaid-like plan to cover holdout states  —  ATLANTA (AP) — Three Democratic U.S. senators from states that have refused to expand Medicaid want the federal government to set up a mirror plan to provide health insurance coverage to people in those states.

Empty Threats and Warnings on Cyber  —  On July 9, President Biden warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that the United States will take “any necessary action,” including imposing unspecified “consequences,” if Russia does not disrupt ransomware attacks from its soil.

Absentee Drop Box Use Soared In Democratic Areas Before Voting Law Change  — Stephen Fowler , - Mark Niesse , - Sarah Kallis , and - Isaiah Poritz  —  In this Monday, Oct. 19, 2020 file photo, a voter submits a ballot in an official drop box during early voting in Athens …