WHAT'S BREWING
POPE ENDORSES SAME-SEX CIVIL UNIONS Pope Francis endorsed same-sex civil unions for the first time as pope while being interviewed for the feature-length documentary “Francesco,” which had its premiere at the Rome Film Festival on Wednesday. The film delves into issues Francis cares about most, including the environment, poverty, migration, racial and income inequality, and the people most affected by discrimination. “Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God,” Francis said in an interview for the film. “What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.” [AP]
SCOTUS: ALABAMA CAN BAN CURBSIDE VOTING The Supreme Court said Alabama can ban curbside voting, overturning a lower court’s order meant to safeguard voters with disabilities and those concerned for their health amid the coronavirus pandemic. The 5-3 ruling granted a request by Alabama’s secretary of state, John Merrill, to put on hold decisions issued by lower courts that allowed counties to roll out the curbside voting mechanisms. Merrill had argued Alabama couldn’t safely have curbside voting in time for this year’s election and warned doing so could “cause confusion and much harm.” [HuffPost]
TRUMP IS THE BIGGEST 'SUPERSPREADER' OF ANTI-ASIAN RACISM Since March, a coalition of Asian American advocacy groups and scholars has been collecting and documenting the alarming surge in anti-Asian racism related to the COVID-19 pandemic. On Wednesday, the group, STOP AAPI HATE concluded Trump is by far the most influential “superspreader” of anti-Asian racism. Throughout this year, Trump has routinely used racist slurs and epithets to refer to COVID-19. He also frequently blames China, placing an outsized focus on where the virus originated, in order to deflect from his own catastrophic response to the pandemic. [HuffPost]
MITT ROMNEY SAYS HE DIDN'T VOTE FOR TRUMP Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, one of Trump’s harshest Republican critics, revealed that he didn’t vote for the president in the 2020 election, but wouldn’t say if he voted for Biden. Romney is the only Republican senator who voted to convict the president for abuse of power earlier this year. He carries enormous influence in Utah and in the Mormon community, of which he is a member. But the state is solidly red, and Biden still trails Trump there by several points. [HuffPost]
TRUMP'S FAKE PAYROLL TAX CUT IS A BIG MESS In August, Trump took unilateral action to help the economy weather the pandemic by deferring payroll taxes, essentially giving everyone a raise. Congress wouldn’t go along with Trump’s proposal, so the president did it himself. But the money would have to be paid back next year, meaning it’s not a tax cut so much as a deferral. Most private employers appear to have opted out of the scheme, and so did the U.S. Postal Service. But Trump decided to force it on more than a million employees of the federal government. Now, those civil servants must deal with the headaches of a loan they never asked for. [HuffPost]
HOW ONLINE LENDERS PREY ON SMALL BUSINESSES Natasha Larbie owns a construction firm with her husband in Katy, Texas. Larbie needed cash to pay for materials and workers, so she turned to online lenders who promised quick, easy financing. Most just asked her how much money she needed, without stating interest rates or time frames for paying off the loan. One offered the cash she needed in exchange for a portion of her sales receipts. The total cost would be $39,200 to borrow $28,000. She took the money, and soon the lender began deducting daily payments from her bank account. She spent six months repaying the advance. “The debt is like a mountain,’’ Larbie said. [HuffPost] |
