$5,800 Whiskey Bottle, a Gift From Japan to Pompeo, Is Missing, U.S. Says  —  The State Department is investigating what happened to it.  —  The State Department is investigating the whereabouts of a $5,800 bottle of whiskey the Japanese government gave to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2019 …

Marist Poll Results & Analysis: Governor Andrew Cuomo  —  The post Marist Poll Results & Analysis: Governor Andrew Cuomo first appeared on Home of the Marist Poll.

Fauci warns COVID-19 cases may double in delta variant surge  —  Coronavirus cases driven by the delta variant are rising in a “very steep fashion” across the United States and may double in the coming weeks to 200,000 cases a day, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday.

Biden Loses Ground On His Handling Of COVID-19 Response, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Infrastructure Bill Gets A Thumbs Up By A 2 To 1 Margin  — mail_outline  —  With the Delta variant spreading and coronavirus cases once again spiking in the U.S. …

NYU researchers speak out after Facebook disables their accounts  —  On Tuesday, Facebook suspended the accounts, apps and pages of several New York University researchers who have been using scraping tools to better understand political ads and disinformation on Facebook.

The DOJ Official Who Tried to Steal the Election for Trump Has a Sweet New Gig  —  On Tuesday, ABC News reported that Jeffrey Bossert Clark—the Justice Department official who spearheaded an effort to overturn the 2020 election—sought to convince the Georgia General Assembly to throw …

Boston mayor uses slavery, Trump to shoot down questions about vaccine passports  —  NYC Mayor de Blasio announces proof of vaccination will be required in indoor restaurants, gyms  —  De Blasio's vaccine mandate will hurt minorities the most  —  Acting Boston Mayor Kim Janey shot down talks …

White woman in viral video says she had no choice but to call police on Black bird-watcher … The white woman who was recorded on video calling police to claim that a Black bird-watcher was threatening her in New York City's Central Park last year said she felt she was backed into a corner.

Poll: Most Americans now favor mask mandates to slow Delta's rapid spread  —  hypercontagious Delta variant of the coronavirus continues to fuel  —  a new wave of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations across the U.S. — and as scientists discover that vaccinated people can experience

These corporations just donated to a Republican group that helped create the January 6 mob  —  Judd Legum, Tesnim Zekeria, and Rebecca Crosby … That was an excerpt from robocalls sent on January 5 by the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), through its self-described “policy branch,” the Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF).

Dickinson councilman H Scott Apley, hospitalized with COVID-19, dies at 45  —  H Scott Apley, a Dickinson city council member and official in the Galveston County Republican Party, has died after being hospitalized with COVID-19, officials said Wednesday in a post on the party's Facebook page.

Obama Significantly Scales Back 60th Birthday Party as Virus Cases Rebound  —  Hundreds of former Obama administration officials, celebrities and Democratic donors had been planning to attend the huge bash on Martha's Vineyard on Saturday.  —  WASHINGTON — The party plans had been months …

‘The stuff of which violent insurrections are made:’ Federal judge sanctions Colorado lawyers for 2020 election lawsuit  —  A federal judge in Colorado has sanctioned two lawyers who filed a lawsuit challenging the 2020 election late last year, finding that the case was “frivolous,” …

Two House Democrats who broke quorum missing from Washington, D.C., reportedly vacationing in Portugal  —  Their vacation does not affect the lack of quorum that the House has in Austin to pass the elections bill.  But it is at odds with Democrats' insistence that they would use their time away …

Biden's novel evictions defense: Maybe it's illegal, but it's worth it  —  After days of his administration suggesting that it couldn't do this legally, it did it anyway.  And Biden isn't really trying to put a good face on that, either.  —  Early last decade, then-President Barack Obama and Congress were in a standoff.

Iraq War authorization repeal clears key Senate hurdle  —  A key Senate committee voted on Wednesday to repeal two authorizations for the use of military force against Iraq, setting up a full chamber vote later this year.  —  All Democrats and three Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations …

Andrew and Chris Cuomo's media love-ins come back to bite them  —  Live by the press conference, die by the press conference.  Last year, as the pandemic ravaged his state, Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, was widely lauded for the way he communicated.

Nina Turner Lost to the Redbox  —  How Shontel Brown used questionably legal campaign finance tactics to take a House seat  —  A cardboard cutout likeness of Nina Turner atop a campaign vehicle  —  As recently as June, the special election to replace Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge …

Reality Winner's lawyer lays out the case for her freedom  —  Scott speaks with Alison Grinter, a lawyer to some of America's most politically persecuted people, including Reality Winner, whose bombshell NSA leak about Russia's attack on the 2016 election changed the course of our nation's politics.

A $5 Million Fine for Classroom Discussions on Race?  In Tennessee, This Is the New Reality  —  Remove  —  Tennessee aims to levy fines starting at $1 million and rising to $5 million on school districts each time one of their teachers is found to have “knowingly violated” …

Tucker Carlson Has Seen the Future, and It Is Fascist Orban's Hungary is the road map for American authoritarianism.  —  In 1919, the progressive journalist Lincoln Steffens visited the nascent Soviet Union and declared, “I have seen the future and it works.”

The Myth of the Golden Years  —  “You'll want to read this,” my wife said, handing me the Sunday Boston Globe.  The cover story that week in late September 2020 was about a 62-year-old woman who had colon cancer that had metastasized.  She died in a local hospital; her husband was also in poor health …

‘Dark times’: Houston's fourth COVID-19 wave to be the largest yet, medical leaders predict  —  Fueled by the delta variant, a surge in Houston COVID-19 hospitalizations is growing as fast as at any time during the pandemic so far, and is projected to pass previous records by mid-August …

Shock poll: Charlie Crist leads Ron DeSantis amid COVID-19 surge … Janelle Irwin Taylor  —  Janelle Irwin Taylor has been a professional journalist covering local news and politics in Tampa Bay since 2003.  Most recently, Janelle reported for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Scoop: Buzzy media startup Puck launches in beta  —  Puck, a splashy new digital media company, is coming out of stealth mode, Axios has learned.  The company debuted its landing page, puck.news, on Wednesday, and will officially launch its website in September.

Virginia Covid patient goes from ‘invincible’ to hospital-bed vaccine advocate … An unvaccinated Virginia man who's been hospitalized with Covid-19 is using social media to urge others to go out and get the shot.  —  Travis Campbell, 43, has been in the hospital for more than a week …

Mexico to sue U.S.-based gunmakers over flow of arms across border  —  MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government said Wednesday it plans to file legal action against several major U.S.-based gun manufacturers, alleging that lax controls contribute to the illegal flow of weapons over the border …

Don't let public sector unions off the hook when it comes to vaccine mandates  — Government, as an employer, can and should mandate public sector workers get vaccinated or find another job.  — Many public sector labor unions are pushing back, treating vaccinations as a bargaining chip.