May 23, 2020

Trump's disconnect with DC widens during viral pandemic

WASHINGTON (AP) — District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser’s cellphone rang earlier this week from an unfamiliar number: It was the White House calling to say President Donald Trump wanted to talk.

The president congratulated Washington's mayor on $876 million in federal coronavirus relief going to the Washington-area Metro system — money that was welcome but not under the mayor's jurisdiction, instead going to a regional transportation authority.

Bowser used the moment to remind Trump that the District — a city of 700,000 people that includes more than 150,000 federal workers — got $700 million less in coronavirus relief money than each of the 50 states because it was classified as a territory at Senate Republicans' insistence in the first round of federal relief passed by Congress.

As a candidate, Trump spoke warmly of the nation’s capital and said he wanted “whatever is best” for its residents. But over the course of his more than three years in office a disconnect between the president and District of Columbia has emerged. The public differences have only become more stark during the pandemic.

Read more: https://dentonrc.com/ap/washington/trumps-disconnect-with-dc-widens-during-viral-pandemic/article_34f87ca7-e433-50b4-8e44-55da05f8f89b.html
(Denton Record-Chronicle)

May 23, 2020

Follow-up: Open Carry Texas plans rally to teach Ector sheriff 'a lesson'

In a video posted last week, Open Carry Texas Vice President David Amad said the group will return to Odessa and teach Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis “a lesson” following the arrests of some group members for carrying guns outside a West Odessa bar.

Six men were arrested earlier this month after openly carrying rifles in a lot adjacent to Big Daddy Zane’s. They said they were supporting the owner, who opened against Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive orders. She was also arrested for violating those orders, as was another employee.

Griffis said in a press conference the day after the arrests that the presence of Open Carry Texas was meant to intimidate law enforcement and that the men were not there to exercise their Second Amendment rights.

Now, members of Open Carry Texas are planning to return to Big Daddy Zane’s and hold a second rally on June 6, according to a Facebook event and video posted on YouTube.

Read more: https://www.mrt.com/news/article/Open-Carry-Texas-plans-rally-to-teach-Ector-15287756.php
(Midland Reporter-Telegram)

Earlier thread:
Bar owner calls in 'armed vigilantes' to protest Texas coronavirus restrictions -- and she joins them
https://www.democraticunderground.com/107846242

May 23, 2020

Girlfriend accused of injuring ex-Texas lieutenant governor

HOUSTON (AP) — Prosecutors in Houston said Wednesday that the girlfriend of former Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst was arrested on charges of injuring the longtime Republican officeholder in an alleged attack that broke two of his ribs.

Dewhurst, 74, called police Tuesday when X-rays confirmed his injuries, said Mary McFaden, the division chief of family criminal law at the Harris County District Attorney's Office. Leslie Ann Caron, 40, was charged with injury to an elderly person, a third-degree felony in Texas.

Caron was booked on $10,000 bond. It was not immediately clear whether she had an attorney. Attempts to reach Dewhurst or his representatives were not immediately successful.

Approached by Houston television station KTRK on Wednesday, Dewhurst said he was doing OK but declined further comment.

Read more: https://www.itemonline.com/news/girlfriend-accused-of-injuring-ex-texas-lieutenant-governor/article_53de6aaa-9af0-11ea-913a-d7e1b8aaff47.html
(Huntsville Item)

May 23, 2020

Abbott suspends in-person county, city jail visits for inmates

Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered county and municipal jails to suspend in-person visitations for inmates in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

The executive order, which was announced Friday, will not apply to attorneys who are visiting clients, or to religious leaders and clergy members.

When Abbott declared a state of disaster for Texas counties in March, he had suspended visitations to the state’s jails, prisons and juvenile justice facilities.

In a written statement, Abbott said Friday’s announcement is a continuation of the state’s efforts to curtail the spread of COVID-19 in highly susceptible areas.

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20200522/abbott-suspends-in-person-county-city-jail-visits-for-inmates

May 23, 2020

Texas unemployment rate hits worst on record at 12.8%

by Mitchell Ferman, Texas Tribune


The state’s April jobless rate was 12.8% — Texas’ worst monthly tally on record.

That number, included in the Labor Department’s monthly report released Friday, is the government’s clearest and most comprehensive look at the economic devastation in Texas since the coronavirus pandemic first swept the state in March.

Previously, the state’s worst-ever monthly unemployment rate was 9.2% in November 1986, as Texas reeled from the last big oil bust. Now, with more than 2 million Texans who have filed for unemployment during the outbreak, the contracting oil industry is only part of the state’s economic problems.

“We are in some sense a state having to deal with two extraordinarily negative circumstances all at once,” Venkatesh Shankar, an economist and director of research at the Center for Retail Studies at Texas A&M University, said in an interview.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/05/22/texas-unemployment-rate-coronavirus/

May 23, 2020

"This is a scam": Lt. Gov. Patrick calls it laughable for people under 65 to fear voting in person

by Matthew Watkins, Texas Tribune


Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Friday that efforts to expand mail-in voting during the coronavirus amount to a "scam by Democrats to steal the election" and claimed that people under 65 are at more risk of dying in a car wreck on the way to vote than they are from dying from the new coronavirus because they voted in person.

"There is no reason — capital N, capital O — no reason that anyone under 65 should be able to say I am afraid to go vote," Patrick, a Republican, said in an interview with Fox News. "Have they been to a grocery store? Have they been to Walmart? Have they been to Lowe’s? Have they been to Home Depot? Have they been anywhere? Have they been afraid to go out of their house? This is a scam by the Democrats to steal the election."

Texas has been locked in a legal fight over whether it has to expand who is eligible to vote by mail during the coronavirus pandemic. Democrats and multiple voters have sued the state, saying it's dangerous to require people to wait in line and cast ballots on machines shared with other voters while the virus is spreading. GOP state officials have opposed the effort, however, saying that mail-in voting is vulnerable to fraud.

Patrick repeated those worries about fraud Friday while also dismissing any fears people might have about going to the polls if they aren't eligible for a mail-in ballot. Patrick noted that the vast majority of people dying from the virus are older. Currently in Texas, anyone 65 or older or with a disability is eligible for a ballot.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/05/22/texas-dan-patrick-voting-by-mail-coronavirus/

May 22, 2020

Judge ends Arkansas' two-year limit on campaign contributions

LITTLE ROCK — A federal judge has made his temporary injunction permanent in allowing Arkansas candidates for statewide office to accept campaign donations more than two years before an election.

U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr.'s move Tuesday reinforced his initial ruling that it's unconstitutional for the state to bar contributions for state office hopefuls more than two years before an election.

In January, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Moody's decision to grant a preliminary injunction against the state's "blackout period" for accepting campaign contributions.

Attorneys for Peggy Jones, the Pulaski County woman who sued over the restriction, have said the blackout period prevented her from exercising her First Amendment right to contribute money to candidates she wished to support in the 2022 election.

Read more: https://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/arkansas/story/2020/may/22/judge-ends-arkansas-two-year-limit-campaign-contributions/828270/

May 22, 2020

Food Banks Get The Love, But SNAP Does More To Fight Hunger

Millions of newly impoverished people are turning to the charitable organizations known as food banks. Mile-long lines of cars, waiting for bags of free food, have become one of the most striking images of the current economic crisis. Donations are up, too, including from a new billion-dollar government effort called the Farmers to Families Food Box Program.

Yet many people who run food banks are ambivalent about all the attention, because they know the limitations of their own operations. They point to a stream of food aid that's far more important than food banks: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Food banks actually have two separate functions. They provide food to people who need it, but they also find new homes for food that might go to waste — often because farmers and food companies haven't been able to sell it. This second job can be unwieldy and labor-intensive.

Take, for example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's new food bank donation program. It was set up, in large part, to relieve distress among farmers and food companies who can't find places to sell their products — like Borden Dairy, a Dallas-based milk processor which saw demand plunge when restaurants and schools closed in mid-March. The company couldn't find buyers for all the milk its farmers were producing, and asked some of them to simply dump the surplus.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2020/05/22/859853877/food-banks-get-the-love-but-snap-does-more-to-fight-hunger

May 22, 2020

FBI: NAS-CC shooting 'terrorism-related'; alleged shooter dead, potential second suspect at large

The FBI is investigating an active shooter incident that left one security force personnel injured Thursday morning.

About 6:15 a.m. Naval Air Station-Corpus Christi officials said authorities were responding to an active shooter on base. About 7:30 a.m., the shooter was "neutralized" and an injured sailor was taken to a nearby hospital and released, according to a news release.

The Navy Times and Stars and Stripes reported a female Navy police officer was struck by a bullet. The officer’s protective vest stopped the bullet, the report states.

FBI Supervisory Senior Resident Agent Leah Greeves said at a press conference that the incident was "terrorism-related" and the alleged shooter is deceased.

Read more: https://www.caller.com/story/news/crime/2020/05/21/nas-corpus-christi-reports-active-shooter-base-one-security-member-injured/5234988002/
(Corpus Christi Caller-Times)

May 22, 2020

Jimmy Kimmel's Quarantine Monologue - Trump is "Man of the Year" & "King of Ventilators"