June 28, 2020

Kamala Harris to host fundraiser for black women running for Congress

https://twitter.com/emilyslist/status/1277024662652739584?s=20

June 28, 2020

Oklahoma voters to weigh in on State Question 802 which would expand Medicaid coverage

Voters will go to the polls Tuesday to decide on a constitutional amendment that asks whether the state should expand Medicaid to cover more lower-income workers.

Backers of State Question 802 say the measure is needed to provide health insurance coverage to low-income households who cannot afford private health insurance and make too much to qualify for government-subsidized coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

“It’s going to allow Oklahoma voters a chance to decide an issue that politicians have failed to do for the last decade,” said Amber England, campaign chairwoman for the pro-SQ 802 effort.

Opponents say the state can’t afford to take on the added state expense required by the program, especially as the state grapples with budget problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and depressed energy prices.


https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/voters-to-weigh-in-on-state-question-802-which-would-expand-medicaid-coverage/article_8f1ec26b-fa66-5c88-997b-59f9fc92d32b.html?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_tulsaworld

June 28, 2020

Bonus Tweet of the Day

https://twitter.com/HoarseWisperer/status/1277047982840373248?s=20

June 28, 2020

FLIPPABLE: Likeithia Williams for TX-HD54

Combat veteran and Gold Star Family member Likeithia “Keke” Williams is running to be a Democratic voice for her community. A relentless advocate for marginalized groups, Keke will fight hard to open new gateways for success and opportunities for Texans.

Committed to helping local business flourish by creating a first-class working environment for employers and employees

Proud supporter of the CROWN Act, banning hair discrimination in Texas

Critical red-to-blue flip opportunity in the Lone Star State






https://races.dlcc.org/races/likeithia-keke-williams/

June 28, 2020

New Ad Hits Trump on Putin's Bounty on U.S. Troops

June 27, 2020

In 2 a.m. vote, NC lawmakers target coronavirus measure on wearing masks in public BY WILL DORAN Re

A 2 a.m. vote Friday in the North Carolina Senate has some politicians questioning if it’s going to be illegal for people to wear face masks in public, starting in a little more than a month.

“We purposefully took out a provision that would have made it legal, and that just seems wrong to me in the middle of a pandemic,” Democratic Sen. Natasha Marcus of Mecklenburg County said.

The early-morning vote in the Senate came on the same day that Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s statewide order making mask-wearing mandatory in public was set to go into effect. Republican Senate leader Phil Berger has strongly criticized that order, which will begin at 5 p.m. Friday.

The hours preceding the mask vote were also filled with numerous other contentious, partisan debates on various executive orders from the governor related to coronavirus and the reopening of bars, gyms, playgrounds, amusement parks and more.

The day’s schedule at the legislature began first thing in the morning Thursday and didn’t end until nearly 3:30 a.m. Friday.



https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article243813917.html#storylink=cpy

June 27, 2020

Florida officials accused of manipulating coronavirus numbers by former department of health employe

As Florida continues to deal with skyrocketing coronavirus cases, the state is facing renewed criticism from the woman who designed Florida’s official COVID-19 database.

Rebekah Jones, a former employee of the Florida Department of Health (DOH), said in May she was ousted from her role as manager of the COVID-19 dashboard for refusing to manually change data in a way to support the state’s plan to reopen. The state claims Jones was fired for insubordination.

In response, Jones designed her own dashboard, one that uses state data but offers several other metrics, including hospital bed availability by facility. Jones’s platform, unlike Florida’s, includes figures of out-of-state residents who die of COVID-19 in the state.

On Tuesday, Jones took to Twitter to make several accusations against the state’s handling of coronavirus data.




https://thehill.com/changing-america/resilience/natural-disasters/504800-florida-officials-accused-of-manipulating

June 27, 2020

Official finds Montana GOP violated campaign finance laws by helping Green candidate.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The Montana Republican Party and two minor party qualification committees violated state campaign finance laws in a successful effort to qualify the Green Party of Montana for the primary ballot without the Green Party’s knowledge, the commissioner of political practices said Friday.

The Montana GOP has acknowledged paying Advanced Micro Targeting $100,000 to gather signatures to certify the Green Party for the ballot. The money was also listed as an in-kind contribution to a group called Montanans for Conservation, which didn’t register as a minor party qualifying committee until after the Green Party was certified for the ballot on March 6.

The 2019 Legislature passed a law requiring groups to report any spending for paid signature gatherers to qualify issues or parties for Montana’s ballots to ensure transparency after an unknown entity paid signature gatherers to qualify the Green Party of Montana for the 2018 ballot.

Advanced Micro Targeting employees gathered signatures in major Montana cities in January and February. At the time, Club For Growth Action was registered as a minor party qualifying committee, but it said it had abandoned its efforts to gather signatures to qualify the Green Party for the ballot because someone else was doing it. No other minor party qualifying committees were registered with the commissioner of political practices at the time.



https://apnews.com/301e1e48b792f61d7a94604eddee015e

June 27, 2020

Federal officials allowed distribution of COVID-19 antibody tests after they knew many were flawed

Federal officials failed to immediately stop the distribution of many COVID-19 antibody tests they knew were flawed, leading to inaccurate data about the spread of the virus. Congress is now investigating why the FDA did not review the tests it allowed to be distributed widely throughout the U.S. Sharyn Alfonsi's three-month investigation into the faulty tests will be broadcast on 60 Minutes, Sunday, June 28 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

COVID-19 diagnostic kits were in short supply when the pandemic broke out. An alternative test to detect the presence of antibodies in blood was sold as a way to indicate who was exposed to the virus at some point and could now be immune. Such tests would help officials track the disease and determine when it might be safe to begin opening up the economy. The FDA said it would allow the antibody tests to enter the US market and would do so without a formal review. Over 200 companies hit the market with the tests.

Laredo, Texas, wound up getting thousands of antibody test kits from a Chinese company. The untested kits were then tested by the city's health director, Dr. Hector Gonzalez, who found the tests accuracy to differ wildly depending on when it was given and how long after a person was exposed to the virus. The small sample he tested was only about 20% accurate. "We had such high hopes to test… we were ready to do public drive-through testing… Now we couldn't. We were on hold," recalls Gonzalez.

Laredo officials reported the faulty tests to federal agents at Homeland Security and officials came to town to seize the tests and start an investigation, but the federal government did little to halt the spread of other un-proven antibody testing kits.



https://www.cbsnews.com/news/federal-officials-allowed-flawed-covid-19-antibody-tests-2020-06-25/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7d&linkId=92064279

June 27, 2020

Sensors in Sweden have detected a rise in nuclear particles from somewhere near on or near the Balti

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1276866881308307459?s=20