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.

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.

Trump makes Ashli Babbitt, killed in the Capitol riot, into a martyr.  Why that's so dangerous. … When Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, 35, was shot dead by police while trying to force her way through a barricaded door protecting members of the House of Representatives from a mob …

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 …

‘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 …

Youngkin to skip marquee debate over moderator's donation to Clinton Bush Haiti Fund  —  RICHMOND — Republican Glenn Youngkin will skip what is typically the premier debate of the Virginia governor's race, saying he objects to the moderator, PBS NewsHour host Judy Woodruff …

‘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 …

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 …

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 …

Trump said whoever ‘leaked’ info on his White House bunker stay should be ‘executed,’ new book claims  —  Then-President Donald Trump told a number of his advisers in 2020 that whoever leaked information about his stay in the White House bunker during protests last June had committed treason …

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 …

June Consumer Prices Climbed Sharply Again as Economy Rebounded  —  Higher used auto prices continue to push inflation up, along with increases for new autos, airline fares and apparel  —  U.S. consumer prices continued to climb swiftly in June, as the economic recovery gained steam …

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 …

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”

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.”

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 …

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 …

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.

N.J. has dismissed 88K weed cases under new marijuana law  —  EDITOR'S NOTE: NJ Cannabis Insider is hosting an in-person day-long conference and networking event Sept. 15 at the Carteret Performing Arts Center, featuring many of the state's leading power players.  Early-bird tickets now on sale.