memeorandum: Senate passes $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package (Alayna Treene/Axios)

12:15 PM ET, August 10, 2021

Top Items:

Mark Niesse / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Walker's wife voted in Georgia as couple lives in Texas, records show — Potential U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker and his wife live in Texas, but she voted in Georgia's election for president last fall. — The absentee ballot cast by Julie Blanchard raises questions about whether …

Discussion: Joe.My.God., Raw Story and Twitchy

NBC News:

Senate passes massive infrastructure package that is centerpiece of Biden agenda … WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday passed a sweeping $550 billion infrastructure bill that would make a huge investment in the nation's roads, public transit, water and broadband.

Discussion: Fox News, The Atlantic, The Hill, One America News Network, Deadline, ABC13, POLITICUSUSA, Associated Press, Washington Times and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Emily Cochrane / New York Times:
Senate Passes $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill, Handing Biden a Bipartisan Win

Discussion: Washington Post, Financial Times, Israpundit, Daily Kos and The American Independent

Mychael Schnell / The Hill:
Trump rips McConnell as ‘overrated’ ahead of infrastructure bill's passage

Discussion: Insider, New York Post, Washington Times, POLITICUSUSA and The Daily Caller

Washington Examiner:
Biden's radical remaking of America

Discussion: Quartz, CBS News, Politico, American Prospect and NPR

Patrick Svitek / The Texas Tribune:

Gov. Greg Abbott asks Texas hospitals to delay nonessential procedures as COVID-19 patients strain capacity — Abbott's request was one of several steps to address rising coronavirus case numbers and hospitalizations. He did not back down from his refusal to allow local mask mandates. — Copy link

Madeline Holcombe / CNN:
US vaccination rate is at its highest in weeks. But mandates may be needed for kids going back to school, expert says

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, CBS Baltimore and The Guardian

Terry Wallace / Associated Press:
Texas Gov. Abbott seeks out-of-state help against COVID-19

Discussion: Insider, Washington Post, CBS News, driftglass, The Daily Beast, Popular Information, New York Post, WTOP and ABC13

Timothy Bella / Washington Post: Ted Cruz calls for ‘zero’ coronavirus mandates, while Rand Paul urges defiance amid delta variant surge

CBS Miami:
Gov. Ron DeSantis' Office: State Education Board Could Withhold Salaries Of Superintendents, School Board Members Who Implement Mask Mandates

Phil Helsel / NBC News:
DeSantis' office says salaries of officials who require masks for students may be withheld

Discussion: Washington Post, Denver Post, Florida Politics, Orlando Weekly, Trending Politics, UPROXX and Orlando Sentinel

CNN:
Florida governor's office says state could withhold salaries of officials who enact school mask mandates

Discussion: Austin American-Statesman, Washington Post, Forbes, The Daily Beast, CBS Miami, Slate, USA Today, Mercury News, Daily Kos, UPI, Raw Story, HuffPost, Tallahassee Democrat, WSVN-TV, Eschaton, The Hugh Hewitt Show, Vanity Fair and The Hill

Alexa Corse / Wall Street Journal:

Dominion Sues Newsmax, One America News Network, Others Over Election Claims — Voting-machine company seeks billions of dollars in damages, citing lost profit and other costs — WASHINGTON—One of the largest voting-machine companies in the U.S. on Tuesday sued two conservative media networks …

Discussion: NBC News, Washington Examiner, Politico, Bloomberg, The Hill, Raw Story, Insider, Slate, Forbes, Sputnik News, Variety, ABC News, One America News Network, Deadline, Mediaite, Joe.My.God. and POLITICUSUSA, more at Mediagazer »

CNN:

Twitter suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene's account for one week — (CNN Business)Twitter (TWTR) has suspended Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's account for one week following another violation of the platform's rules, the company said Tuesday. — Greene tweeted on Monday that the Food and Drug Administration …

Discussion: VICE, Washington Post, The Hill, UPI, Breitbart, KTVX-TV, Raw Story, The Wrap, Mediaite, Joe.My.God., POLITICUSUSA, Washington Times and Forbes

Davey Alba / New York Times:

Twitter suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene for 7 days over vaccine misinformation. — Twitter on Tuesday suspended Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, from its service for seven days after she posted that the Food and Drug Administration should not approve …

Discussion: HuffPost, New York Magazine, Washington Examiner, Insider, Mediaite, The Right Scoop and New York Post, more at Techmeme »

Olivia Beavers / Politico:
Lawyer for House conservatives suing Pelosi has his own rap sheet

Discussion: Washington Examiner, POLITICUSUSA and RedState

Ronan Farrow / New Yorker:

Andrew Cuomo's War Against a Federal Prosecutor — A call to the Obama White House that some legal experts say is impeachable fits a pattern of the Governor smearing those who scrutinize him. — In April, 2014, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo placed a call to the White House and reached Valerie Jarrett …

Discussion: Fox News, National Review and HotAir

Craig Whitlock / Washington Post:

Deceptions and lies: What really happened in Afghanistan — Part one of an excerpt from “The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War.” Whitlock will discuss the book during a Washington Post Live event on Aug. 31. — The suicide bomber arrived at Bagram air base in a Toyota Corolla late in the morning on Feb. 27, 2007.

Associated Press:

US vows to isolate Taliban if they take power by force — KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A U.S. peace envoy brought a warning to the Taliban on Tuesday that any government that comes to power through force in Afghanistan won't be recognized internationally after a series of cities fell to the insurgent group in stunningly quick succession.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, HotAir, Associated Press and WTOP

Edward-Isaac Dovere / The Atlantic:

The Next Face of the Democratic Party — Sometime in the not-so-distant future, probably after next year's midterm elections, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will announce that she's stepping down. Her top deputies, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, aspire to her job …

Discussion: NBC News

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: The latest Democratic feud to watch

Discussion: CNBC, The Daily Beast, Daily Kos, Raw Story and Florida Politics

Monica Buchanan Pitrelli / CNBC:

Vaccines are being required for travel — here's how unvaccinated people feel about that — Unvaccinated people are eager to travel again. But more and more, the rules make that harder. — Travelers are increasingly required to show proof of vaccination before they can cruise …

Rachel Pannett / Washington Post:

Anti-vaccine protesters tried to storm the BBC's offices. But they had the wrong address. — A group of coronavirus vaccine protesters attempted to storm the offices of British public broadcaster BBC on Monday. But they had one big problem: the wrong address.

Discussion: HuffPost, The Independent, Insider, HotAir and Deadline, more at Mediagazer »

David Smith / The Guardian:

Trump was ‘in pain and afraid’ during post-Covid display of bravado, niece's book says — Mary Trump's new book The Reckoning, seen by the Guardian, describes a national trauma worsened by her uncle — Donald Trump was “afraid” when he put on a display of bravado at the White House …

Discussion: Sputnik News, Althouse, Insider and Raw Story

Bjorn Lomborg / New York Post:

Don't buy the latest climate-change alarmism — The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just released its latest climate report, and reactions from politicians and media pundits could not have been more predictable. — Fitting the apocalyptic narrative many have spun lately …

Discussion: Tangle, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Mother Jones and New York Times

Erin Banco / Politico:

'We're in trouble': Rural America can't escape Delta — EVANSTON, Wyo. — Steven was finally getting his Covid-19 shot because Mama told him to. And nobody crosses Mama. — Standing between the fried bread and slushie stands at the Uinta County fairgrounds in southwestern Wyoming …

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Judge suggests feds are too lenient toward Jan. 6 defendants — A federal judge suggested Monday that federal prosecutors were being too lenient in their handling of cases stemming from the storming of the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers were convening on Jan. 6 to certify Joe Biden's victory in the presidential race.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Breitbart and emptywheel

Spencer Hsu / Washington Post:
Judge asks why Capitol rioters are paying just $1.5 million for attack, while U.S. taxpayers will pay more than $500 million

Discussion: Insider

Kaylee McGhee White / Washington Examiner:

The media's DeSantis hysteria intensifies — Every time there's a bout of bad news out of Florida regarding the coronavirus pandemic, the media work itself into a tizzy to try and pin everything on Gov. Ron DeSantis and make him out to be some sort of villain.

Discussion: Townhall and National Review

Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:

Tucker Carlson's Spying Allegations Being Investigated by National Security Agency Watchdog — The Fox News host says the spy agency had improperly targeted his communications — WASHINGTON—The National Security Agency's internal watchdog is conducting a review of recent allegations …

Discussion: The Hill, Human Events and The Daily Caller, more at Mediagazer »

Rose Adams / The Intercept:

UnitedHealthcare Guided Yale's Groundbreaking Surprise Billing Study … In 2016, an academic study from some of the most respected scholars in health care economics prompted a national outcry. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Yale University researchers …

Michael Sneed / Chicago Sun-Times:

Chicago cops give cold shoulder to Mayor Lightfoot at hospital after two officers shot — The officers were waiting inside at the University of Chicago Medical Center when the mayor approached them and they turned their backs on her, sources said. — They turned away and gave her their backs.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Chicago Tribune, pjmedia.com, Breitbart, New York Post, National Review, WGN-TV, The Gateway Pundit, Fox News, CBS Chicago, The Right Scoop, The Daily Caller and RedState

Washington Post:

All population growth in U.S. driven by minorities, upcoming census data likely to reveal — For the first time in the history of the country's census taking, the number of White people in the United States is widely expected to show a decline when the first racial breakdowns from the 2020 Census are reported this week.

Brian Stieglitz / Daily Mail:

CNN and ‘Squad’ member Cori Bush are blasted for fake news story that helped to raise $230,000 for ‘single mom of three facing homelessness over eviction moratorium’ - but who was actually just a BABYSITTER — CNN recently came under fire for a story about a ‘single mom of three’ children who turned out to just be a babysitter

Discussion: RedState, The Gateway Pundit, BizPac Review and Instapundit

Mychael Schnell / The Hill:

Top House conservative endorses JD Vance Senate bid — Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) is throwing his support behind venture capitalist J.D. Vance in the competitive Ohio Senate race, as a number of Republicans jockey for the seat being vacated by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).

Discussion: Axios