U.S. News

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is launching a years-long campaign for the clemency and release of 50,000 prisoners as a means to address “decades of racist, punitive, and degrading incarceration,” Fox News reported last week. “The Redemption Campaign” will be lobbying state governors to grant mass clemency to “older incarcerated people,” “people convicted of drug distribution and possession offenses,” “people incarcerated for technical probation or parole violations,” and people who would have received a lesser sentence if convicted under current laws.

Although the number of employment claims at the end of July was over 1 million for the 20th straight week, it was also the lowest number of new claims since the US was struck by COVID-19 in March, the Washington Examiner reports. The end of July saw 1.2 million claims when economists had forecast there would be 1.42 million.

President Trump signed multiple executive measures after Congress failed to pass another coronavirus relief bill.

More than a third of Americans say they would not get a COVID-19 vaccine right now, even if were free and FDA-approved, according to a new Gallup poll.

The economy gained 1.8 million jobs in July, lowering the unemployment rate to 10.2%, the Labor Department reported on Friday, as robust jobs growth has apparently slowed.

Police in Portland, Oregon, declared another riot after local and state officials requested federal officers withdraw from the state.

Nine named storms already in the books have broken records for the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, but government forecasters said Thursday that even stormier conditions are on the horizon that could push the limit on traditional storm names.

The day after Donald Trump’s election in November 2016, the American Civil Liberties Union posted a message to him on its website: “See you in court.”

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who for weeks had blamed President Trump for fueling riots in his Oregon city, on Thursday acknowledged that the violence has continued even after the federal presence was curtailed, and told peaceful protesters to stay home.

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit Thursday that seeks to have the National Rifle Association dissolved, saying the gun rights organization has been engaging in “illegal conduct” by funneling charitable donations to its leaders.

President Trump announced that he planned to sign executive actions that the White House is drafting to address expired unemployment insurance and to suspend payroll taxes, as congressional negotiations for coronavirus aid continue to drag on.

More than one-sixth of the mail-in ballots sent to voters in Nevada’s largest county during the 2020 primary went to outdated addresses, according to a new watchdog report.

Social media giant Facebook confirmed Wednesday that it removed President Donald Trump’s post of a Fox News television interview in which he claimed that children are “almost immune” from COVID-19.

Following overwhelming bipartisan Congressional support for the measure, on Tuesday President Donald Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act that will assign $3 billion a year to conservation, outdoor recreation, and maintenance of national parks and other public lands, USA News reports.

A majority in a Minneapolis commission is expected to support a City Council proposal Wednesday to dismantle the city’s Police Department and replace it with a new “Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention,” the Washington Times reports. If the amendment proceeds to a ballot in November, voters will be given the last word. The proposal follows the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.

A new Gallup poll has shown American parents are divided along party lines when it comes to their views on the coronavirus pandemic, its effect on their children and on whether schools should reopen, the Washington Times reports. Among its findings, the poll showed that 85% of parents who identify as Democrats and 29% who identify as Republicans are concerned their child might contract COVID-19.

In separate appearances on Monday, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence made it clear they support absentee voting, but not universal mail-in voting, where states “take millions of ballots and send them all over the place,” in Trump’s words.

Black Lives Matter wants to defund the police, but most Black Americans like their law-enforcement presence the way it is.

During testimony on Capitol Hill Wednesday former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said if she had it to do all over again, she would not have signed a warrant application allowing the 2016 investigation into Russian election interference to go forward. That’s because the application to surveil Trump aide Carter Page contained incorrect and incomplete information, something Yates says she did not know at the time.

Former Vice President Joe Biden sent out a tweet on Tuesday night saying that on his first day as president—if he is elected—he will send a bill to Congress creating a “roadmap” to citizenship for 11 million illegal aliens he calls “Dreamers.”