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 …

‘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.

‘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 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 …

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.”

U.S. Consumer Prices Jump Most Since 2008, Topping All Estimates  — Monthly increase of 0.9% in CPI was the largest since 2008  — New and used vehicle prices advance by the most on record  —  Prices paid by U.S. consumers surged in June by the most since 2008 …

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 …

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 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 …

A surge in appointments follows the issuing of new vaccination rules in France.  —  More than 1.3 million people in France were reported to have booked appointments for coronavirus shots within hours of President Emmanuel Macron's announcement of new vaccination requirements as the authorities scrambled …

‘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 …

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.

Unions' Focus on Woke Over Work Rankles Rank and File  —  Los Angeles school teacher Glenn Laird has been a union stalwart for almost four decades.  He served as a co-chair of his school's delegation to United Teachers Los Angeles and proudly wore union purple on the picket line.  —  Pride at Work

Biden to call for ‘a new coalition’ to defend voting rights  —  In a high-profile voting rights speech Tuesday, President Joe Biden plans to “blast the denial of the right to vote as grounded in autocracy, undemocratic, un-American, and unpatriotic,” a White House official shared with POLITICO.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

The obscure foundation funding “Critical Race Theory” hysteria  —  Critical Race Theory (CRT), once a little-known academic concept, is now at the center of the national political discussion.  CRT is discussed incessantly on Fox News.  It is featured in campaign advertisements.

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 …

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.

“Stop Yelling Stop” and Check the Time  —  It's 2021, and Jonah Goldberg has nothing interesting to say.  —  23 hr ago  —  It's hardly a piercing insight to point out that 2016 broke a lot of people.  Those of us who had lived and worked in politics—in nearly every capacity …

Trump getting tougher for Senate GOP to ignore  —  Senate Republican leaders have tried to put former President Trump in the rearview mirror, rarely mentioning his name and keeping focused instead on the Democratic agenda, but Trump's iron grip on the party's grassroots is making it tougher and tougher to keep ignoring him.