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Wednesday, August 5

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PROGRESSIVE TOPPLES 10-TERM INCUMBENT IN MISSOURI Progressive challenger Cori Bush defeated Rep. William Lacy Clay in the Democratic primary for Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, extending the winning streak of the activist left. The primary win in one of the most Democratic House districts in the country assures Bush’s spot in the next Congress and likely adds to the progressive bloc known as the Squad. Bush characterized her win as the culmination of activist work that began when a white police officer killed Black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014. [HuffPost]

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HUGE EXPLOSIONS IN BEIRUT KILL AT LEAST 100 Two massive explosions rocked Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, resulting in widespread damage and casualties, and throwing a country already mired in political and financial distress into further chaos. Videos posted on social media show the blasts near Beirut’s port, one of the busiest in the eastern Mediterranean, where tons of a material used in fertilizer and bombs had been stored. The head of Lebanon’s Red Cross told Reuters at least 100 people had been killed and nearly 4,000 injured. Some hospitals were flattened, and others were so overwhelmed they were turning patients away. [HuffPost]

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MISSOURI VOTERS APPROVE MEDICAID EXPANSION FOR 460,000 

Almost half a million Missourians will become eligible for health care coverage as voters in this conservative state bucked the Republican Party and approved an amendment to the state’s constitution to expand Medicaid. The final vote was 52% in favor of the amendment. The vote was the culmination of a grassroots effort backed by health care and business interests. [HuffPost]

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KRIS KOBACH LOSES KANSAS GOP SENATE RACE Rep. Roger Marshall defeated anti-immigration hard-liner Kris Kobach to claim the GOP nomination for Kansas’ open U.S. Senate seat, a result that will bring relief to national Republicans who feared a Kobach nomination would guarantee a Democratic victory in November. The Republican will face Barbara Bollier, a state senator who switched parties from Republican to Democrat in 2018, in what should be a competitive general election. Democrats have not won a Senate seat from Kansas since the 1930s, but hope for a competitive race. [HuffPost]

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PROGRESSIVE ST. LOUIS PROSECUTOR TARGETED BY TRUMP FENDS OFF DEM CHALLENGER Top St. Louis prosecutor Kim Gardner, the city’s first Black circuit attorney, defeated a former city homicide prosecutor in her Democratic primary race, all but ensuring her reelection in the general election this fall. Garner received over 60% of the vote. Trump attacked her after her office charged a white couple who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters. [HuffPost]

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SHORTENED SCHEDULE RISKS 2020 CENSUS ACCURACY The U.S. Census Bureau is cutting its schedule for data collection for the 2020 census a month short as legislation that would have extended the national head count’s deadlines stalls in Congress. The move is worrying researchers, politicians and others who say the change will miss hard-to-count communities, including minorities and immigrants, and produce less trustworthy data. Census experts, academics and civil rights activists worry the shortened count could hurt its thoroughness and produce inaccurate data that will have lasting effects through the next decade. [HuffPost]

WHAT'S BREWING

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WHITE HOUSE SUED FOR NOT PROVIDING SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETER An advocacy group for deaf Americans is suing the White House for failing to provide real-time sign language interpretation during COVID-19 news briefings, saying the omission violates the First Amendment and laws for Americans with disabilities. The National Association of the Deaf says in a federal lawsuit that President Donald Trump and his White House coronavirus task force briefings have not featured an American Sign Language interpreter visible on-screen since the briefings began in March. [HuffPost]

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BIDEN TURNS TRUMP'S MOST CALLOUS COVID COMMENT AGAINST HIM Trump’s insensitive “it is what it is” dismissal of the soaring U.S. death toll from the coronavirus is turned against him in presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s new campaign video. The clip released on Tuesday begins with footage of Trump making the comment during an Axios interview that aired on HBO. It was one of several eyebrow-raising statements made by the president in the sit-down chat. The Lincoln Project, meanwhile, has been trolling GOP senators with Trump impersonator endorsements. [HuffPost]

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POLL: AMERICANS FAVOR RENEWING $600 UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS Public support for renewing expanded unemployment benefits far outweighs opposition to the expanded benefits that expired last week, a new HuffPost/YouGov survey finds. Earlier this year, Congress passed a law giving people added federal unemployment benefits of $600 per week due to the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. These payments lapsed over the weekend as negotiations between the White House and congressional leaders devolved into finger-pointing. Americans say, 54% to 29%, that the expanded unemployed benefits should have been renewed. [HuffPost]

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PENCE GETS NEAR-INSTANT FACT CHECK ON MAIL-IN VOTING Vice President Mike Pence received a near-instant fact check on social media after he echoed Trump’s baseless claims about mail-in voter fraud to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham. Pence promoted the use of absentee ballots, describing them as “perfectly acceptable,” while criticizing universal mail-in voting as “ripe for fraud.” Twitter users pointed out that mail-in voting and absentee ballots are pretty much the same. [HuffPost]

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COLORADO POLICE HANDCUFF BLACK FAMILY FOR 'STEALING' OWN CAR Police in Aurora, Colorado, detained and handcuffed a Black mother and four children at gunpoint after mistakenly identifying the SUV she was driving as a stolen motorcycle. Video of the incident shared by witness Jenni Wurtz shows Brittany Gilliam and four children, including her sister, two nieces and 6-year-old daughter, lying face down on the asphalt in a strip mall parking lot, surrounded by officers. “I actually didn’t know what I was watching when I first started seeing what was happening. I’d never seen a gun that close,” Wurtz told CBS. [HuffPost]

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HUSBAND OF LA PROSECUTOR CHARGED WITH PULLING GUN ON PROTESTERS The husband of Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey has been charged with pointing a gun at Black Lives Matter members who demonstrated outside the couple’s home the day before she faced a primary election in March. The state attorney general filed three misdemeanor charges against David Lacey for assault with a firearm for the March 2 incident. Lacey, 66, pointed a gun at demonstrators who protested outside the couple’s home before dawn on March 2 and said “I will shoot you,” according to video. [HuffPost]

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