WHAT'S BREWING
EX-ETHICS CHIEF REVEALS "DISTURBING" IVANKA EMAILS Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and adviser, was conducting government business from a private email account before she was employed by the government, according to records getting new attention this week. Walter Shaub, former head of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, highlighted two messages uncovered by the nonpartisan watchdog group American Oversight. One of the messages Shaub shared on Twitter appeared to show Ivanka Trump conducting business with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos almost a month before she had an official role. [HuffPost]
WHITE HOUSE WON'T SAY IF ANY HEALTH EXPERT BACKS TRUMP RALLY SAFETY White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany repeatedly refused to say whether any health experts told Trump it was safe to hold a massive rally this weekend, falsely insisting to reporters that his campaign was taking every possible safety precaution. Trump’s planned rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday will host up to 19,000 people indoors. The campaign event is the exact type of mass gathering that public health experts warn is a hotbed for disease. [HuffPost]
UNCLE BEN'S 'EVOLVING' AFTER AUNT JEMIMAH NAME CHANGE Pepsico's Aunt Jemimah pancake products' name and logo are based on "a racial stereotype" and will be retired, the company said as demands for racial justice roil the corporate world. Rice brand Uncle Ben's identity will be "evolving," owner Mars Inc. said. [HuffPost]
HONDURAS PRESIDENT HOSPITALIZED WITH COVID The hospitalization of Honduras’ president with COVID-19 and pneumonia has drawn attention to another country's struggle as cases rise sharply in the capital. President Juan Orlando Hernández announced Tuesday he and his wife had tested positive for the virus. Just hours later he was hospitalized after doctors determined he had pneumonia. From March to June 7, Honduras confirmed 6,327 coronavirus infections. In the 10 days since, it added 3,329 more, a surge that has come after the government began a gradual reactivation of the economy. [AP]
IOWA GOV. WILL RESTORE VOTING RIGHTS TO FELONS Iowa’s Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said she plans to sign an executive order this summer restoring voting rights to felons who have earned parole. Iowa is the only remaining state to deny voting rights to felons for life. “We’re working on that right now, sitting down with various groups, listening to what they think is important ― what is contained in that executive order,” Reynolds said. “I’ve got my legal team working on it,” she added. [HuffPost]
MISSISSIPPI OFFICIAL: BLACK PEOPLE 'DEPENDENT' SINCE SLAVERY After rejecting a proposal to move a Confederate monument, Harry Sanders, a white elected official in Mississippi, said African Americans “became dependent” during slavery and as a result, have had a harder time “assimilating” into American life than other mistreated groups. “You know why ... they were slaves ... they didn’t have to go out and earn any money, they didn’t have to do anything. Whoever owned them took care of them, fed them, clothed them, worked them," he said. Critics called on Sanders to resign. [AP]
THE POLICE AREN'T GOOD AT SOLVING CRIME According to the FBI’s official crime data, law enforcement solved just 46% of violent crimes and just 18% of property crimes in 2017, the most recent year for which numbers are available. Homicides and aggravated assaults were the only types of crime with clearance rates above 50%. They also solved only 35% of rapes, 29% of robberies, 14% of burglaries, 19% of larcenies and 14% of automobile thefts. Other FBI data shows that murder cases are less likely to be solved when the victim is Black. [HuffPost]
SENATE PASSES MAJOR PUBLIC LANDS MAINTENANCE BILL In a rare display of bipartisanship, the U.S. Senate has passed a sweeping public lands package that addresses the ballooning maintenance backlog at national parks and provides full, permanent funding for the popular Land and Water Conservation Fund, a program established in 1964 to protect natural areas and water resources. Co-sponsors of the legislation, which passed Wednesday by an overwhelming 73-25 vote, have hailed it as the most important conservation bill in a generation ― one that will preserve public lands and create thousands of jobs. [HuffPost] |
