By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ORLANDO, Fla. — Jul 19, 2016, 5:47 PM ET

The Latest on the investigation into the mass shooting at a gay Florida nightclub that left 49 people dead (all times local):

5:15 p.m.

More than two dozen protesters shouted chants against U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio as he toured businesses that were forced to close for several days because of an investigation into the shooting deaths of 49 people at a nearby gay nightclub.

The protesters on Tuesday criticized Rubio's past stances against gun control and gay rights as he met with business owners about small-business loans that may be available to them because of lost revenue.

Rubio told reporters that he understood why the protesters were there. The Florida Republican made an unsuccessful bid earlier this year for the GOP presidential nomination.

Advocates of gun control measures and gay rights have targeted Rubio in the month since Omar Mateen opened fire at the Pulse nightclub, leaving 49 patrons dead and 53 people wounded.

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http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/latest-doj-nightclub-recordings-federal-records-40710701

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, ASSOCIATED PRESS PHILADELPHIA — Jul 19, 2016, 5:39 PM ET

Civil rights lawyers have sued a third U.S. school district over what they call a practice of denying older refugee and immigrant students a meaningful education by steering them to alternative high schools.

The plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Pennsylvania are refugees ages 17 to 21 who came to the U.S. from Myanmar, Sudan and other war-torn countries.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the Lancaster School District has steered at least 30 students over three years to a disciplinary high school, denying them the classes and services offered at the traditional high school.

Some of the students had been in refugee camps for years, said Witold "Vic" Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, which filed the suit along with the Education Law Center and others.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/aclu-suit-seeks-school-access-older-immigrant-students-40705843

By Anne Gearan and Abby Phillip July 19 at 5:30 PM
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Sen. Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia have emerged as the leading candidates among a longer list of finalists Hillary Clinton is considering to be her vice presidential running mate, according to interviews with multiple Democrats with knowledge of her deliberations.

Although her list is not limited to those two, Clinton has spoken highly of both in recent days to friends and advisers as she closes in on an announcement that one aide told CNN is likely to come Friday.

Among those from whom Clinton has received advice is President Obama, who has offered thoughts on the two contenders who serve on his Cabinet, Vilsack and Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez, several Democrats said. These individuals did not say what advice the president gave.

These and other Democrats cautioned that Clinton has not made a final choice and is keeping mum about her deliberations. Several other people remain in the running, they said. Clinton campaign press secretary Brian Fallon declined to comment.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/two-names-emerge-from-clintons-vp-deliberations-kaine-and-vilsack/2016/07/19/62189146-4d2d-11e6-aa14-e0c1087f7583_story.html

Source: Washington Post

A column in a major Turkish daily claims the United States planned last week's failed coup and tried to kill Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Ibrahim Karagul, editor in chief of Yeni Safak, a right-wing newspaper, pinned the putsch on Washington, which has given sanctuary to the controversial figure whose movement Turkish authorities claim was behind the attempted violent takeover of the state. The ongoing purge of thousands of members of the country's military, judiciary and civil bureaucracy is ostensibly aimed at rooting out those linked to Fethullah Gulen, the aging Turkish cleric who lives in a compound in Pennsylvania.

[Turkey suspends more than 15,000 education workers in widening purge]

"The U.S. administration planned a coup in Turkey through the Gülen terror organization and tried to cause a civil war, make our people kill each other," wrote Karagul. "The U.S. is the one who planned and applied this coup attempt. Those generals, those traitors got all the instructions from Gülen and he conveyed the orders of those who planned the intervention."

He continued: "The U.S. administration which protects a terrorist organization should be declared as a country that supports terrorism. This country, which is still carrying out operations on Turkey through Gülen, directed its final attack especially on our country and rained bullets on our civilian people through Gülen's terrorists."

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/07/19/the-u-s-tried-to-kill-erdogan-says-editor-in-chief-of-turkish-daily/

July 19, 2016 — 11:35 AM EDT

One in eight Americans has a federal student loan, and complaints of mistreatment are legion. Unfortunately, a series of recent moves by the federal government could prolong borrowers’ misery.

The Obama administration has struggled to police student loan collectors at a time when student loan debt has skyrocketed. (The Federal Reserve pegs the total at about $1.4 trillion, double the amount from the start of 2009). The consequences of this debt load for the general public could be disastrous. Of the nearly 42 million people with federal student loans, more than 7 million of them are in default, government data show. Almost 3 million more are at least one month behind on their required payments.

Borrowers who default can face a lifetime of ruined credit, affecting their ability to secure housing or even a job. High debt burdens could hamper household consumption and limit demand for new credit, stunting economic growth, as the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department, and the nation's financial regulators have warned (PDF). The federal government owns or guarantees more than 90 percent of all outstanding student loans.

Loan servicers are central to taxpayers' and borrowers' future success. They are the financial middlemen who collect borrowers’ payments and counsel them on repayment options. When borrowers struggle, servicers are supposed to answer their phone calls and evaluate their eligibility for the government's various income-based repayment plans. But loan servicers and debt collectors say borrowers dodge their calls. Consumer advocates, state and federal regulators, and borrowers say these loan companies are largely to blame, due to ill-trained staff and companies’ general desire to minimize costs. They argue that some loan companies create financial incentives for employees to end borrowers’ phone calls as quickly as possible. The Education Department last year paid its student loan servicers about one-third the typical fee that mortgage servicers receive for handling traditional home loans, according to calculations by Bloomberg.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-19/the-feds-get-caught-in-the-crossfire-between-students-and-debt-collectors

U.S. antitrust officials are poised to file lawsuits to block Anthem Inc.’s takeover of rival health-insurer Cigna Corp. and Aetna Inc.’s deal to buy Humana Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter.

Justice Department officials, who are responsible for protecting competition, are concerned that the deals, which would transform the health-insurance industry by turning its five biggest companies into three, would harm customers, according to several people familiar with the situation. While the companies may offer to sell assets to gain approval for the deals, that’s unlikely to sway antitrust officials, one of the people said.

The final decision on whether to sue to block the deals could come this week or next, another of the people said. The companies could settle a lawsuit before or after one is filed.

Shares of all four companies fell following the news. Humana dropped 3.9 percent to $153.38 at the close in New York and Cigna fell 2.1 percent to $130.30. Anthem lost 2.2 percent to $132.06, and Aetna slid 2.7 percent to $115.15.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-19/u-s-said-readying-suits-against-anthem-aetna-insurer-deals

Source: Reuters

North Korea fired three ballistic missiles early on Tuesday into the sea off its east coast that had a range of between 500 and 600 kilometers (300 and 360 miles), South Korea's military said.

The missiles were launched towards east from an area in the North's western region called Hwangju from 5:45 a.m. local time (2045 GMT Monday) to 6:40 a.m., the South's military said.

"The ballistic missiles flight went from 500 kilometers to 600 kilometers, which is a distance far enough to strike all of South Korea including Busan," the South's military said in a statement.

Busan is a South Korean port city in the south.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-idUSKCN0ZY2PC

The Daytona Beach Police Department is investigating a fire that severely damaged a police cruiser parked outside a mosque early Sunday morning.

Police told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that investigators found an anti-police note at the scene implicating “Black Lives Matter,” but they haven’t concluded that the vandalism was carried out by anyone associated with the largely peaceful civil rights movement.

The note said “Black Lives Matter A. Sterling P. Castile (expletive removed) the police,” according to a police statement posted online. A picture of the note shows that it was written on notebook paper using black ink.

Police Chief Mike Chitwood told the News-Journal that the incident doesn’t reflect the relationship between law enforcement and local residents.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/07/18/black-lives-matter-note-found-near-firebombed-police-cruiser-authorities-say/?utm_term=.17d5cb38034d

BRUSSELS — The United States and the European Union stepped up pressure on Monday on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey to not use an attempted coup as an excuse for an authoritarian crackdown.

Officials even suggested that Turkey’s continued membership in NATO and its aspirations of joining the European Union could be at stake.

Meeting in Brussels, Secretary of State John Kerry and European Union foreign ministers called on Mr. Erdogan to show restraint in the wake of the failed coup, even as he continued to round up political opponents and as Turkey debated whether it should reinstate the death penalty to deal with the plotters.

“Obviously, NATO also has a requirement with respect to democracy, and NATO will indeed measure very carefully what is happening,” Mr. Kerry said. “And my hope is that Turkey is going to move in ways that do respect what they have said to me many times is the bedrock of their country.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/19/world/europe/eu-turkey-coup-erdogan.html?_r=0

VIENNA (AP) -- Key restrictions on Iran's nuclear program imposed under an internationally negotiated deal will start to ease years before the 15-year accord expires, advancing Tehran's ability to build a bomb even before the end the pact, according to a document obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

The document is the only text linked to last year's deal between Iran and six foreign powers that hasn't been made public, although U.S. officials say members of Congress have been able to see it. It was given to the AP by a diplomat whose work has focused on Iran's nuclear program for more than a decade, and its authenticity was confirmed by another diplomat who possesses the same document.

The diplomat who shared the document with the AP described it as an add-on agreement to the nuclear deal. But while formally separate from that accord, he said that it was in effect an integral part of the deal and had been approved by the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, the six powers that negotiated the deal with Tehran.

Details published earlier outline most restraints on Iran's nuclear program meant to reduce the threat that Tehran will turn nuclear activities it says are peaceful to making weapons.

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http://www.wptv.com/news/national/passage-in-nuke-deal-may-allow-iran-to-build-bomb-before-deal-expires