Dallas County reported 285 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, its new highest single-day increase.

The county also reported its 250th COVID-19 death. The latest victim was a DeSoto man in his 60s who had underlying health conditions and had been critically ill in a hospital, officials said.

Dallas County has now reported a total of 11,243 coronavirus cases.

“Today, we saw the highest number of new cases on record for COVID-19,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a statement, adding that there has been a significant increase this week in average numbers of new daily cases compared to last week.

Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public-health/2020/06/04/dallas-county-reports-285-new-coronavirus-cases-a-new-single-day-high/

Expect to see the numbers to continue climbing as businesses can open to 50% capacity and because of the protest marches (although most of the protesters are wearing masks).

Two gatherings, both spurred by the death of George Floyd and the use of force by police, are planned for Saturday and Sunday at the downtown square in Georgetown.

The first event is an assembly from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday outside the Williamson County Courthouse,710 Main St. The Georgetown Events Facebook page said the assembly is about asking for policy changes to end police violence against all people, including limiting use of force.

“We love and support our Georgetown police,” the post said. “This is a respectful, peaceful assembly to promote positive change. If you have other agendas, please keep it civil, respectful and lawful.”

The second event is a prayer to honor all of the black people who have lost their lives to police violence. It will be from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, also outside the courthouse.

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20200604/two-gatherings-against-police-use-of-force-planned-in-georgetown-this-weekend

I'm enjoying the irony since Georgetown was known as the conservative bastion north of Austin since before I went to college there.

Austin City Council members are preparing to hear public comments from hundreds of people who signed up to speak at a special-called meeting to discuss police tactics and policies in the wake of protests that erupted in Austin over the weekend.

Thursday’s meeting initially was called as a briefing from law enforcement officials on the protests, but after more than 300 people signed up to weigh in on police issues, the council opted instead to hear public testimony starting Thursday afternoon.

City staff said a total of 330 people signed up to speak, the first 20 of whom will get three minutes to make their remarks. After that, those remaining will each have one minute to speak. Public comments could take more than 6 hours and go well into the night. Normally. speakers have been allowed to cede time to others when they run out. However, since council meetings have been held virtually to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, sharing time has not been allowed.

The briefing has been reset to 9 a.m. Friday. While council will discuss the protests and action of the police department, they will not take any action or votes on the issue.

Another protest in front of Austin Police Headquarters at Interstate 35 and 7th Street is scheduled for Thursday night, led by the Mike Ramos Brigade, which has organized previous protests in the city.

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20200604/as-austin-protests-continue-hundreds-take-their-voices-to-city-hall

by Alexa Ura, Texas Tribune


A three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals extended its order Thursday blocking a lower court’s sweeping ruling that would have allowed all Texas voters to qualify to vote by mail during the coronavirus pandemic.

With early voting for the primary runoff elections starting later this month — and the Texas Supreme Court also blocking expanded voting by mail in a separate case —Thursday's ruling effectively eliminates the possibility that Texas voters will be able to legally request mail-in ballots solely because they fear a lack of immunity to the new coronavirus will put them at risk if they vote in person.

The issue is likely headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery issued a preliminary injunction in late May expanding mail-in voting, but the appellate panel almost immediately put it on administrative hold while awaiting legal briefings from both sides. Thursday's ruling keeps Biery's ruling on ice while Texas appeals it.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/04/federal-appeals-court-extends-block-voting-mail-expansion-texas/

Bexar County GOP chair refuses to resign for racist George Floyd conspiracy theory post despite calls from her own party

by Patrick Svitek, Texas Tribune


Gov. Greg Abbott and other top Texas Republicans are calling for the resignation of the GOP chair in one of the state's biggest counties after she floated a conspiracy theory about the death of George Floyd. The chairwoman, Bexar County's Cynthia Brehm, is refusing to step down.

In a since-deleted Facebook post from this week, Brehm asked for her friends' thoughts on a theory that Floyd's death was a "staged event," apparently to gin up opposition to President Donald Trump. There is no evidence to support that claim; Floyd, a black Minnesota man, died last week after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

"These comments are disgusting and have no place in the Republican Party or in public discourse," Abbott spokesman John Wittman said in a statement Thursday morning. "Cynthia Brehm should immediately resign her position as Chair of the Bexar County Republican Party."

Brehm did not respond to request for comment for this story but told Spectrum News that she would not resign. She told the TV station that she did not agree with the post and rebuffed the cast of GOP leaders calling for her to step down, saying they "do a lot of things, too, that I don’t agree with but I don’t ask for their resignation."

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/04/texas-greg-abbott-bexar-GOP-conspiracy/

Barbershop owner told to leave building after allegation of racist comment. Bananas had been left at Old Winston Barber & Style.


The owner of Old Winston Barber & Style Co., on the corner of Sixth and Trade streets, was told Tuesday by the building's owner that he could no longer rent there because of racist comments from his Facebook account.

Michael Berrier, the owner of the barbershop, was singled out by people in the community after the comment began to circulate on social media during a weekend of protests and heightened awareness of police brutality.

A screen shot of the comment made from Barrier's Facebook account, “Throw some bananas down the street and they'll run towards them ... they like bananas."

The comment was on a post about protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd's neck. The protesters were mostly black and comparisons to monkeys, including the use of images of bananas, have long been considered a slur against African Americans.

Read more: https://www.journalnow.com/news/local/barbershop-owner-told-to-leave-building-after-allegation-of-racist-comment-bananas-had-been-left/article_d06b1fbe-707a-5af2-8471-7799b0a21e6f.html
(Winston-Salem Journal)

As a peaceful protest was dispersing on Tuesday night, Greensboro police arrested six African-American men, charging them with violating a North Carolina statute called “Weapons at Parades Etc. Prohibited” and seizing guns from five of them.

In contrast, three white men, including one with a history of firearms training with open white supremacists, showed up armed with handguns and rifles while wearing paramilitary gear at the protests on the first three nights while making violent posts on Facebook, and have so far managed to avoid incurring any similar charges from the Greensboro Police Department.

Jason Passmore, a Greensboro native, has been active with the Stokes County Militia, whose executive officer Brandal T. Payne has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as member of the white supremacist group Identity Dixie. Before joining the Stokes County Militia, Passmore organized the Guilford County Militia, whose members showed up at then-candidate Donald Trump’s June 2016 campaign stop at the Greensboro Coliseum. The now-defunct Guilford County Militia adopted the Guilford Courthouse battle flag, which members carried to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va. in August 2017 (Passmore did not attend that event).

Howard Graves, a senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said Passmore’s activism fits “within the umbrella of militant, anti-government extremism.”

Read more: https://triad-city-beat.com/black-men-arrested-weapons-protest-armed-white-militia/

by Thomas Mills


Republicans are losing the national narrative. They’ve followed Trump and their own base down a dead end road that’s leaving them further and further from an emerging American majority that will guide this nation in the future. They keep falling back on tired tropes that worked for them a few decades ago but don’t resonate with much of the country today. They are missing the societal shifts moving the country to be a more tolerant and equitable nation.

The pandemic was the turning point. When the threat of the disease became obvious, governors stepped up to protect their citizens, locking down their economies and issuing stay at home orders. Republicans almost immediately pushed back, calling the measures overreactions and complaining that the disease is most lethal to people who are either old or sick. As the economy tanked, Trump started attacking the governors, demanding they reopen their states and, in North Carolina, demanding that the Republican National Convention be held in Charlotte with no limitations.

Polls showed the people sided with the cautious Democrats. They believed that the economy needed to stay closed as the death toll crossed 100,000 people. In response, conservatives on social media started flailing, accusing the governors of wrecking the economy by killing jobs and small businesses. For the time being, the people believe the governors protected them while the GOP is putting them at risk. That’s not a great place to be heading into an election.

While the pandemic left Americans uncertain about the future, the taped killing of George Floyd enraged the nation. The pent up anxiety caused by months of social distancing, unemployment, and disease exploded into national protests that led to rioting in cities across the country. But a strange thing happened. Public sentiment stuck with protesters. Voice after voice condemned the property destruction but defended the protesters’ right to be heard.

Read more: https://www.politicsnc.com/enough/

Racism is a “social pandemic” in conflict with the nation’s founding principle that “all are created equal,” State Board of Education Chairman Eric Davis said Wednesday.

Davis made his comments in response to ongoing civil unrest in American cities over the death of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man killed by a police officer.

The chilling video of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin with his knee planted lethally on Floyd’s neck has sparked outrage across the nation and throughout the world.

Chauvin was initially arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The murder charge was upgraded to second-degree on Wednesday.

Read more: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2020/06/03/state-board-of-education-takes-on-racism-in-response-to-civil-unrest/

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s Pentagon chief shot down his idea of using troops to quell protests Wednesday but then reversed course on pulling part of the 82nd Airborne Division off standby in an extraordinary clash between the U.S. military and its commander in chief.

Both Trump and Defense Secretary Mark Esper also drew stinging, rare public criticism from Trump’s first defense secretary, Jim Mattis, in the most public pushback of Trump’s presidency from the men he put at the helm of the world’s most powerful military.

Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division remain on standby at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland and Fort Belvoir in Virginia outside Washington.

Esper angered Trump early Wednesday when he said he opposed using military troops for law enforcement, seemingly taking the teeth out of the president’s threat to use the Insurrection Act to send soldiers to states to “dominate” their streets. Esper said the 1807 law should be invoked in the United States “only in the most urgent and dire of situations.” He added, “We are not in one of those situations now.”

Read more: https://www.fayobserver.com/news/20200603/army-reverses-plan-to-send-fort-bragg-troops-others-home-from-washington-area
(Fayettesville Observer)