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As for nominating a justice to the USSC, I would say Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a perfect example of this. She was able to leave a legacy on people within her words. She was able to ensure equal justice and preserve the impartial rule of law.

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Revoke laws that unfairly penalize the poor 

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Revoke laws that unfairly penalize the poor 

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What I know about the gov/what I want to know

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What I know about the gov/what I want to know

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Jazelle Wenceslao - What I know & want to know about the Government?

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One issue we need to pay attention too is the environment. 

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One issue we need to pay attention too is the environment. 

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Five Biggest Environmental Issues Affecting the U.S.

We take a closer look at the current environmental issues in the U.S., how it may be exacerbating these problems and what the country may do to resolve them.

The environment plays a crucial role in the sustainability of life as we know it here on Earth. All living things depend on the planet's resources to survive and, if humans continue to pollute and over-use these resources, they may be completely destroyed or depleted in a matter of years. Recently, a number of environmental issues have risen to new heights, affecting economies and policies worldwide.

The U.S. is just one of many countries suffering from-and contributing to-these effects. From air pollution to the depletion of non-renewable resources, the nation is beginning to recognize and address environmental issues within its borders. Below, we'll take a closer look at the current environmental issues in the U.S., how it may be exacerbating these problems and what the country may do to resolve them.

1. Deforestation

Each year, the U.S. population grows by more than 1,700,000 people. And each person, statistically speaking, requires an additional acre of land and highways. This rapid influx of people has increased the demand for urbanization, resulting in a troubling rise in deforestation as we seek to find more land on which to build. Of course, using the land to house more and more people means less open land and farmland, more overcrowding and a huge loss of biodiversity and animal habitats all over the country.

2. Air Pollution

While air quality has improved greatly in the last 50 years, it still remains an issue in many major cities with large populations. Sunny California is particularly pressed to improve its air quality. Last year, the top 12 U.S. cities with the most polluted ozone were all located in California. And, by year-round particle pollution, three California cities tied for first place as the most polluted. So, while the U.S. may not struggle with air pollution as much as India or China, we still have much room for improvement.

3. Global Warming

Of all the current environmental issues in the U.S., global warming may be the most notable because its effects are so far-reaching. From melting glaciers to more intense hurricanes, Earth's rising temperatures are causing any number of negative effects on both local climates, weather patterns, and nearly every community in the U.S. and on the planet as a whole.

The issue even contributes to air pollution as spikes in temperature spark wildfires across the nation. Just take a look at Australia's recent blazes and its struggle with air pollution. These fires burn for months, releasing carbon and particulate matter into the air. Moreover, wildfires destroy crops and wildlife habitats, exacerbating food shortages and the loss of biodiversity.

4. Water Pollution

While the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does a relatively good job of regulating drinking water quality, our lakes, oceans and rivers are still suffering a great deal of water pollution. On a global scale, people dump two million tons of sewage into waterways every single day. Plus, pesticides and other chemicals on land often add to water and drainage runoff that funnels into these waterways, putting chemicals in our main bodies of water and drinking sources.

And some pollutants, like microplastics and dissolved metals and medications, are difficult to remove even through industrial wastewater purification processes. Additionally, abandoned U.S. mines continue to release pollutants into waterways. In Colorado alone, mines have polluted 2,300 kilometers of streams.

The Department of Environmental Protection (EPA) enforces the regulations for water safety. However, some controversial EPA policies and federal protection changes are currently receiving pushback for risking dangerous water pollution and wetland damage.

5. Natural Resource Depletion

The demand for resources will only grow as the U.S. population continues to increase. Energy and water demand, in particular, are set to grow by 50 percent in the next 10 years, intensifying resource stresses and bringing new uncertainties to our sustainability as a nation and international relations. Agricultural commodities will also remain tight over the next decade as the U.S. turns farmland into urban communities. Non-renewable materials like oil, minerals and metals will also continue to vanish over time. How much longer until there are no more of these resources left?

Worried Enough to Do Something?

If the U.S. carries on with urbanization at its current breakneck pace, biodiversity, natural resources, trade agreements and the economy will likely continue to suffer. However, as Americans become increasingly aware of environmental issues and their effects on their personal well-being, more people are beginning to take action to slow these effects.

One viable solution is the Paris Agreement, which Obama signed in 2016. Within this agreement, nearly every country pledged to cut carbon emissions. But the Trump administration has since begun to dismantle climate change policies, even announcing a U.S. withdrawal from the accord in June of 2017. Some policy makers don't think renewable energy management is the answer to these issues. Others, like Donald Trump, simply don't believe in climate change at all.

So, at the federal level, policymakers aren't currently introducing many solutions to environmental issues.

Thus, the fate of the U.S.-and the planet-continues to fall into the hands of the general public. Luckily, corporations, organizations and the average citizen have all proposed and enacted solutions to these environmental issues. Individuals are putting the EPA in the spotlight, and businesses are receiving legal assistance for conservation and environmental law compliance. In addition, universities and major corporations commit to net-zero emissions or major reductions in energy usage.

Community members frequent farmer's markets, support small businesses and work to reduce, reuse and recycle plastics and other materials. Others are eating less meat or buying repurposed clothes to reduce their carbon footprints. Organizations reforest barren lands and actively fight for change. Together, the people are a force to be reckoned with. And, working as one, we may incite worldwide change.

About the Author

Jenna Tsui is a Texan journalist who co-owns The Byte Beat blog. She writes about the latest news in sustainability, culture, technology and more. Check out her work on TBB or follow her on Twitter @jenna_tsui .

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Five Biggest Environmental Issues Affecting the U.S. -- Environmental Protection

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We take a closer look at the current environmental issues in the U.S., how it may be exacerbating these problems and what the country may do to resolve them.

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Creating a clear path to citizenship for immigrants 

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Creating a clear path to citizenship for immigrants 

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"Have respect for yourself and others"

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The U.S. economy added 245,000 jobs in November, as the unemployment rate fell to 6.7 percent, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists had predicted the economy would gain around 440,000 jobs.

Amid a fresh surge in coronavirus cases and a new round of shutdowns, Friday's figure represents the fifth straight month of decelerating job gains. It is by far the lowest monthly total since the economy started its halting recovery.

"Today's report is both a wakeup call and a warning," said Nick Bunker, Indeed economic research director. "Coronavirus cases are surging throughout the country and several federal relief programs are set to expire this month. Progress in the labor market has slowed at the worst possible time. We might be optimistic about the spring, but the winter could bring another round of economic pain."

BLS unemployment data is collected on or around the 12th of the month, but more recent metrics underscore how vulnerable the economy is to a "super-surge" of coronavirus infections around the holidays that could send people back into their homes and shutter businesses.

"This surge in cases has the potential to significantly slow down overall economic activity and therefore employers' desire to hire," said Nick Bunker, director of economic research at Indeed.com. "The pullback from those households could slow consumption and therefore overall economic growth," he said - a major risk given that consumer spending fuels some two-thirds of economic activity.

The BLS data came two days after a lackluster report on jobs growth by payroll processor ADP in conjunction with Moody's Analytics, which found that employers added 307,000 private sector jobs last month, in contrast to the 475,000 expected among economists surveyed by Dow Jones.

"ADP's employment report was somewhat disappointing," said Julia Pollak, labor economist at ZipRecruiter.com. "Ideally, we'd be adding 2 million a month and really climbing out of this recession."

Two of the past three weekly jobless claims reports showed increases, reversing a months-long trend of improvements - but seeing how many people are losing jobs is only part of the equation, said Dan North, chief economist, North America at Euler Hermes.

"It does not tell the other half, which is the number of people becoming employed. You would expect with the increase in lockdowns, you would see fewer people becoming employed as well."

Data bears this out: According to Glassdoor.com, job openings fell by 2.5 percent on a month-to-month basis and are still down by more than 10 percent from pre-pandemic levels.

"It is instructive that this decline has been very broad, which points to a repeat of what we saw in the spring, but on a smaller scale," said Daniel Zhao, senior economist at Glassdoor. "Basically, every major group except for health care has seen job openings fall," he said.

Since job openings are a forward-looking metric, economists are looking ahead with some trepidation to the December jobs report, which will be released just after the new year.

"Ultimately, the virus is in the driver's seat. The virus is what determines the trajectory of the recovery," Zhao said.

The profound distortion in usual hiring patterns that typically take place around the holidays will make forecasting difficult, North said. "There has been much less holiday hiring than the seasonal adjustments would normally account for, so that would hold the December... jobs numbers down as well," he said.

Although the promise of a vaccine has raised the hopes of investors, public health officials warn that a large-scale rollout sufficient to protect much of the population could still be months away.

"It's hard to see exactly when the recovery can really start," Pollak said. "The start of vaccination is not enough. We need people to feel totally safe gathering in large numbers."

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U.S. economy gains just 245,000 jobs in final report of 2020 as recovery stalls with Covid surging

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The U.S. economy added 245,000 jobs in November, as the unemployment rate fell to 6.7 percent, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists had predicted the economy would gain around 440,000 jobs. Amid a fresh surge in coronavirus cases and a new round of shutdowns, Friday's figure represents the fifth straight month of decelerating job gains.

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I don't think there is anything wrong with Absentee compared to in-person voting. I believe it is the most safest and convenient way for us to continue this progress.

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The Trump campaign has paid $US3 million for a partial recount in Wisconsin, a state the President lost by more than 20,000 votes.

In Congress, Nancy Pelosi won the Democratic nomination for House Speaker, as she eyes another two years as one of America's most powerful politicians.
This blog has now closed. Look back at the updates from Thursday. You can follow the latest US election news in our new live blog.

Live updates

That's it for this blog today, folks

Georgia? Georrrrrrgia? Georgia on my miiiind

-Ray Charles

Georgia's on my mind too, "Ray Charles". The deadline for the state to finish its hand recount of about five million votes has passed but we haven't had the final results through yet.

Rest assured that if the results come through, we'll cover it with an ~ article ~. Remember those?

The US election blog will be back bright and early tomorrow morning.

Georgia recount 'won't change result' as deadline nears

It's been almost two weeks since Joe Biden was elected the 46th president of the United States, but President Donald Trump is yet to concede defeat.

Barack Obama's new book on track to be the best-selling presidential memoir in modern history

AP: Jeff Chiu

It sold nearly 890,000 copies in the US and Canada alone in its first 24 hours according to AP.

The only book by a former White House resident to come close to the early pace of A Promised Land is the memoir by Michelle Obama, whose Becoming sold 725,000 copies in North America its first day and has topped 10 million worldwide since its release in 2018.

By comparison, Bill Clinton's My Life sold around 4 00,000 copies in North America its first day and George W Bush's Decision Points around 220,000, with sales for each memoir currently between 3.5 and 4 million copies.

What sort of crimes do you imagine a turkey would want to commit?

The Thanksgiving turkeys stay in a hotel before being pardoned

Wild fact?! Turkey will be required to wear a mask? PLEASE?!

-Nick (White Choccy Lobby / Messenger Crew)

I'm sorry Nick, that isn't it.

But isn't the fact that they live large in a hotel before being pardoned even more wild?

Last year the birds, named Bread and Butter, stayed in a private suite at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel ahead of their big day.

That's a five star hotel, folks.

Fans waited to see the turkeys arrive and they then walked a red carpet before being pushed up to their suite by a porter. They also got separate beds ... to ... roost in? Phew, America.

You can see footage of them in their room last year in this clip:

How are the vote counts looking?

So Pete's just taken us through the status of all the legal challenges Donald Trump has left (snaps for Pete!)

But what about the vote counts?

While Mr Biden is the clear winner, vote counting is still underway, and the multiple legal challenges launched by the Trump campaign are further slowing the final tally.

Let's have a gander. First up, we have Georgia.

In Georgia a hand recount of about 5 million votes is expected to be completed by midnight on Wednesday (local time). That's 4:00pm AEST.

Before the recount, Mr Biden led Mr Trump by a margin of about 14,000 votes.

"We're finishing up, waiting for a few more counties to get back to us - some of the large counties - but I don't believe at the end of the day it'll change the total results," Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told CNN.

However, previously uncounted ballots were discovered on memory cards that had not been uploaded in four counties - Douglas, Fayette, Floyd and Walton.

The uncounted ballots - the majority of which are believed to have been cast for Mr Trump - will reduce Mr Biden's lead to about 12,800, according to Gabriel Sterling, who oversaw the implementation of the state's new voting system.

I wouldn't be able to count them all, let's put it that way.

What was the go with Michigan and certification?

Let's dig into this a little with the help of the Associated Press. Normally the certification process is barely looked it. It's a boring formality that only the nerdiest of election nerds get into. But we're not in normal times, are we?

And the certification process what plenty of Donald Trump's lawsuits are trying to delay or stop.

In those normal times, after an election, local officials count ballots, review the tallies to make sure they match the votes cast, and check that people who cast provisional ballots because of some problem at the polls did so legally.

Local elections officer then sends the final results to a board for certification. Such boards are typically bipartisan, their members either elected or appointed by county leaders. The board then approves the vote tallies before sending them to the state for final certification. That's usually done by a state canvassing board, the secretary of state or a small group that might include the governor and other state officials.

From there, federal law requires governors to prepare official certificates to report the popular vote in their states. These documents are often signed by the governors and must carry the seal of the state.

Hey... HEY. Are you still awake? Ok if not, that's super boring I know. But that's what this whole process is normally. BORING.

Back here in our weird 2020 reality, yesterday two Republican members on Michigan's Wayne County Board of Canvassers voted against certifying of the county's votes - then abruptly reversed course amid heavy criticism.

Explaining the initial vote, a Republican member of the Wayne County board said absentee ballot books did not match the number of ballots cast in majority-black city of Detroit.

But a Democrat on the board noted the issues were the result of routine "human error," and the Republican's claim drew complaints of racism from Democrats and election experts who also noted there has been no sign of widespread voting fraud in Michigan or elsewhere.

And the results weren't even close - president-elect Joe Biden beat Trump in Wayne County by a more than 2-to-1 margin and won Michigan by 146,000 votes, according to unofficial results.

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Trump campaign pays millions for partial Wisconsin recount as Pelosi firms up return to Speaker

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The Trump campaign has paid $US3 million for a partial recount in Wisconsin, a state the President lost by more than 20,000 votes. In Congress, Nancy Pelosi won the Democratic nomination for House Speaker, as she eyes another two years as one of America's most powerful politicians. This blog has now closed.

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Last updated: September 11, 2020
General elections are often the focal point of election-year media coverage as they determine control of elected offices up and down the ballot. Primary elections, however, can provide insight on future elections as they help dictate the direction each party takes.

Although many of the most competitive primaries take place for open seats or offices that are held by a different party, even high-ranking federal officeholders can lose renomination to primary challengers. In the 2014 primary for Virginia's 7th Congressional District, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R), ranked behind only then-Speaker John Boehner (R) in Republican House leadership, was defeated by economics professor Dave Brat (R).

On this page, you will find information on noteworthy and notable Republican Party primaries taking place across the country for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and state executive offices.

Ballotpedia has identified 76 Republican battleground primaries taking place in 2020. This page is updated weekly. To nominate a primary for inclusion on this page, click here to email us.

Click here for information on Democratic Party battleground primaries in 2020.

It is typically difficult to predict how competitive primaries will be until after filing deadlines take place. However, Ballotpedia used a number of factors to give insight into the most interesting 2020 primary elections. Factors that were used to determine the competitiveness of primaries included:

Whether or not the seat was open (retiring or resigning incumbent)

Notable endorsements of multiple candidates

Significant fundraising from multiple candidates

Number of candidates

Incumbent's years in office (if seeking re-election)

Whether or not the district's general election was expected to be a battleground

U.S. Senate primaries

The following map shows each state with a Republican battleground primary for U.S. Senate in 2020. Use the buttons in the upper-right hand corner of the map or your mouse's scroll wheel to zoom in and out. Hover over or tap a state to view the incumbent's name. There are seven U.S. Senate Republican battleground primaries in 2020.

U.S. House primaries

The following map shows each U.S. House district with a Republican battleground primary in 2020. Use the buttons in the upper-right hand corner of the map or your mouse's scroll wheel to zoom in and out. Hover over or tap a district to view the incumbent's name. There are 53 U.S. House Republican battleground primaries in 2020.

State executive primaries

The following map shows each state with Republican state executive battleground primaries in 2020. Hover over or tap a state for information on which primaries are battlegrounds and who the incumbent is in each. There are eight Republican state executive battleground primaries in 2020.

State legislative primaries

The following maps shows each state with a Republican state legislative primary battleground chamber in 2020. Hover over or tap a state for more information on which chambers are battlegrounds and how many seats Democrats control in each. There are seven Republican primary battleground chambers in 2020.

Republican state legislative primary battleground chambers, 2020

Chamber

Primary date

Seats controlled by Republicans

Seats controlled by Republicans that are up for election in 2020

Number of contested Republican primaries

Top-two primaries for Republican seats

There are two top-two battleground primaries for Republican-held seats in 2020.

California uses a top-two primary system, in which all candidates appear on the same ballot. The top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, move on to the general election. In states that do not use a top-two system, all parties are usually able to put forward a candidate for the general election if they choose to.

Unlike the top-two format used in some states (Louisiana and Georgia special elections for example), a general election between the top two candidates in California occurs regardless of whether the top candidate received 50 percent of the vote in the first round of elections.

As of 2019, California was one of three states to use a top-two primary system. Washington used the system for congressional and state-level elections, and Nebraska utilized a top-two system for its nonpartisan state legislature.

This section lists every change that was made to our battleground list since we launched the page in September 2019.

August 7, 2020: Removed two battleground races from the list: MN-02 and WI-07.

July 27, 2020: Removed one battleground race from the list: AZ-04.

July 10, 2020: Added three battleground races to the list: FL-13, FL-26, and Alaska State Senate.

July 6, 2020: Added one battleground race to the list: NH-01.

May 18, 2020: Added two battleground races to the list: OR-Sen and NJ-03. Removed two races: IA-02 and Montana Attorney General.

April 26, 2020: Added two battleground races to the list: AZ-04 and South Dakota State Senate.

April 8, 2020: Added two battleground races to the list: VA-02 and VA-05.

March 31, 2020: Added one battleground race to the list: Utah Attorney General.

March 23, 2020: Added two battleground races to the list: FL-15 and NV-03.

March 15, 2020: Added two battleground races to the list: TX-23 and Montana Attorney General.

March 1, 2020: Added five battleground races to the list: NM-02, NY-02, OR-02, UT-04, and Montana Secretary of State.

February 14, 2020: Removed two battleground races from the list: TX-23 and TX-24.

February 7, 2020: Added two battleground races to the list: TN-Sen and TX-12.

January 31, 2020: Added two battleground races to the list: GA-09 and GA-14.

January 24, 2020: Added nine battleground races to the list: KY-04, MS-03, Indiana Attorney General, North Carolina Lieutenant Governor, Alaska House of Representatives, Kansas State Senate and House of Representatives, Ohio House of Representatives, and Texas House of Representatives

January 13, 2020: Added eight battleground races to the list: IA-02, MN-02, NC-11, OK-05, TN-01, TX-13, TX-32, and VA-0. Removed NC-Sen.

January 3, 2020: Added two battleground races to the list: FL-03 and NJ-02. Removed two battleground races from the list: GA-06 and NC Gov.

December 3, 2019: Added one battleground race to the list: PA-7.

November 15, 2019: Added one battleground race to the list: FL-19.

September 18, 2019: Added five battleground races to the list: NH Senate, GA-6, GA-7, KS-3, and TX-23.

September 12, 2019: Launched initial battlegrounds list with 35 races.

2018 battlegrounds

Ballotpedia identified 78 Republican federal and state battleground primaries in 2018. There were eight senate battleground primaries, 43 house battleground primaries, and 27 state executive battleground primaries.

Disputes between potential members of the House Freedom Caucus and other members of the Republican Party occurred in U.S. House primaries in 2018.

Led by U.S. Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the House Freedom Caucus supported candidates who were likely to join its ranks if elected to the House. Other wings of the Republican Party, including those aligned with House Republican leadership, often preferred candidates not aligned with the Freedom Caucus.

The Freedom Caucus said it "gives a voice to countless Americans who feel that Washington does not represent them" and supported "open, accountable and limited government, the Constitution and the rule of law, and policies that promote the liberty, safety and prosperity of all Americans." The Pew Research Center said the group formed in January 2015 "with the declared aim of pushing the House GOP leadership rightward on certain fiscal and social issues" and wanted "power shifted away from the leadership to the rank-and-file."

Other House Republican caucuses more closely allied with leadership included the Republican Main Street Partnership, which aimed for "conservative, pragmatic, solutions-oriented policies that can gain support from legislators on both sides of the aisle," and the Republican Study Committee, which "is dedicated to a limited and Constitutional role for the federal government, a strong national defense, the protection of individual and property rights, and the preservation of traditional family values."

Scott Wong wrote for The Hill that the primaries were a "proxy battle over how much influence...the Freedom Caucus can exert over the House GOP conference next year- and who might lead Republicans after retiring Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) steps down." Jordan emerged as a speaker contender and announced he would run for the position against Ryan's preferred candidate, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). After Republicans lost their majority in the general elections, McCarthy defeated Jordan in a contest for Republican minority leader. The vote was 159 to 43.

To detail this fight, we identified competitive open Republican primaries where the Freedom Caucus or its leaders backed a candidate. We also considered primaries where candidates said they would join the Freedom Caucus if elected.

The chart below shows a summary of results in the competitive open Republican primaries we tracked where either the Freedom Caucus or its leaders backed a candidate.

Top 10 Republican primaries in 2018

The list below was selected by Ballotpedia staff at the end of the 2018 primary season. Click the links to learn more about each primary.

1. Arizona Senate (August 28)

2. South Carolina's 1st Congressional District (June 12)

3. Florida governor (August 28)

4. Georgia governor (May 22) & runoff (July 24)

5. Kansas governor (August 7)

6. Ohio's 12th Congressional District (May 8)

7. Wyoming governor (August 21)

8. Minnesota's 1st Congressional District (August 14)

9. Texas state legislative Republican primaries (March 6 and May 22)

10. Michigan's 11th Congressional District (August 7)

1. Note: Candidates for Indiana state executive offices (other than governor and lieutenant governor) are nominated at party conventions rather than selected in primaries.

2. Ballotpedia research conducted December 26, 2013, through January 3, 2014, researching and analyzing various state websites and codes.

3. The original 35 races identified were: AL Senate, AZ Senate, KS Senate, NC Senate, WY Senate, AL-1, AL-2, IL-6, IL-14, IL-15, IN-5, IA-4, KS-1, KS-2, ME-2, MI-3, MI-10, MN-7, MT-AL, NY-27, PA-1, SC-1, TX-7, TX-11, TX-17, TX-22, TX-24, UT-1, WI-5, WI-7, MO Gov, MT Gov, NC Gov, UT Gov, and WV Gov.

4. We chose to focus on open primaries in order to see how many new members the caucus could potentially add after the 2018 elections.

5. We chose to focus on open primaries in order to see how many new members the caucus could potentially add after the 2018 elections.

6. This includes all seats not held by members of the Freedom Caucus prior to the 2018 elections, including those held by Democrats.

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Republican Party battleground primaries, 2020 - Ballotpedia

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Last updated: September 11, 2020 General elections are often the focal point of election-year media coverage as they determine control of elected offices up and down the ballot. Primary elections, however, can provide insight on future elections as they help dictate the direction each party takes.

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“Pick a leader who is strong and confident, yet humble. Intelligent, but not sly. A leader who encourages diversity, not racism. One who understands the needs of the farmer, the teacher, the welder, the doctor, and the environmentalist -- not only the banker, the oil tycoon, the weapons developer, or the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyist" (Suzy Kassem, Rise up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)

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As the US death toll from Covid-19 surpassed 250,000 on Wednesday, with a caseload above 11.3m and more than 161,000 new cases added the previous day, an internal White House taskforce report warned of "aggressive, unrelenting, broad community spread across the country, without evidence of improvement but, rather, further deterioration".

The report, which leaked widely to the media, added: "Current mitigation efforts are inadequate and must be increased."

Daily death numbers are rising: 1,707 were reported by Johns Hopkins University on Tuesday. With some forecast models predicting a death toll beyond 400,000 by March, a year after the pandemic began, states across the US are implementing targeted social restrictions in attempts to beat back rising case numbers and reduce pressure on hospital resources.

According to the Covid Tracking Project, an all-time high of 76,830 people were hospitalised with the virus as of Wednesday morning.

Speaking anonymously, one White House official told the Associated Press the taskforce had concluded existing efforts to slow the spread "are inadequate and must be increased to flatten the curve" and that Thanksgiving travel and gatherings, around the US holiday next Thursday, could "amplify transmission considerably".

Community spread doesn't stop spontaneously unless you do something about it. It's easier to stop when the level is low

Anthonuy Fauci

On Wednesday, President-elect Joe Biden was due to stage a virtual meeting with frontline healthcare workers. Continuing to prepare for government without a concession from Donald Trump and consequent federal government support, Biden has named a Covid advisory board and made tackling the pandemic a key focus of plans for his first steps in power next January.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key member of the White House taskforce, has said Trumpwho is in the White House with no public events scheduled, has not attended a taskforce meeting for five months.

On Tuesday, Fauci said he regretted not pushing harder for mass testing earlier in the pandemic.

"Deep down, perhaps I should've been much more vocal about saying, 'We really absolutely gotta do that,'" he told the Stat Summit healthcare conference. "I said it, it went nowhere and maybe I should have kept pushing the envelope on that.

"It never became a reality because we never really had enough tests to do the tests that you had to do."

Fauci also said: "Community spread doesn't stop spontaneously unless you do something about it. It is easier to stop when the level is relatively low. The only way that you can get at community spread is that you need to test people who are without symptoms, in order to show what the degree of penetrance of infection is."

Fauci praised the federal Operation Warp Speed vaccine development programme that pairs government with private sector efforts, but said: "A vaccine should not be considered as a total substitute at this point for public health measures.

"In my mind, it should be an incentive for people who have Covid fatigue and are really tired of public health measures to say, 'You know there is light at the end of the tunnel, help is coming, let me hang in there a bit longer.'

"If we could just hang on enough to do that until we get enough people vaccinated to turn around the dynamics of the outbreak, we will be OK. We will be OK."

Around the US, many counties, cities and states are in crisis. On Wednesday, Axios, using Johns Hopkins data, reported rising cases in 83% of counties.

"Crowley county, Colorado, and Lee county, Kentucky, had the first- and third-highest caseloads per 100,000 people this week," Axios reported. "Both were the site of prison-based outbreaks."

Many Republican-led states are struggling. In Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine has ordered a three-week curfew, from 10pm to 5am statewide. In Texas, in scenes reminiscent of New York in the early days of the pandemic, a convention center in El Paso has been turned into a field hospital and the city has more cases than the larger metropolitan centers of Houston and Dallas combined.

In Arkansas, Governor Asa Hutchinson has warned that 1,000 people are likely to die in the state before Christmas.

"We are on the precipice of a significant and possibly uncontrollable rise in cases," the Arkansas state health secretary, Jose Romero, said on Tuesday. "This is like a boulder rolling down a hill. There will come a time when we can not stop it ... Now is the time to act."

South Dakota, suffering particularly badly, remains without even a mask mandate, regarding the wearing of facial coverings in public. Its governor, Kristi Noem, is a rising star of the Trumpist right.

"The facts are simple: mask mandates, harsh lockdowns, massive testing and contact tracing haven't worked - in the United States or abroad," a spokeswoman for Noem, Maggie Seidel, claimed to the AP this week.

Local authorities are stepping into the breach. The Rapid City-area school system, for example, planned to close all schools and move to virtual instruction on Wednesday, after data showed 94 students and 47 staff with active Covid-19 cases and 105 staff and 676 students in quarantine following exposure.
The Associated Press contributed to this report

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Leaked White House report warns current Covid-19 mitigation efforts 'inadequate'

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As the US death toll from Covid-19 surpassed 250,000 on Wednesday, with a caseload above 11.3m and more than 161,000 new cases added the previous day, an internal White House taskforce report warned of "aggressive, unrelenting, broad community spread across the country, without evidence of improvement but, rather, further deterioration".

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What you need to know

President-elect Joe Biden is moving forward with transition plans, but said he needs access to President Trump's vaccine distribution plans as Covid-19 cases surge.

Trump meanwhile refuses to accept he lost the election and is challenging the results.

Here is who could serve in top roles of the Biden administration.

President-elect Joe Biden has announced new members of the White House staff Tuesday, filling nine new senior-level positions in his administration mainly with loyal advisors and staffers who served on his presidential campaign.

Campaign chief strategist Mike Donilon will be a senior advisor, along with former Black Caucus Chair Cedric Richmond, who will also serve as Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.

CNN previously reported that Richmond, who acted as a national co-chair of Biden's campaign, would leave Congress to join the White House in a senior advisor role.

Longtime Biden aide Steve Ricchetti, who served as Chairman of Biden's campaign and once acted as Biden's Chief of Staff while he was vice president, will serve as Counselor to the President.

Dana Remus, who served as General Counsel of the Biden-Harris campaign, will be Counsel to the President, and Annie Tomasini, who was seen on the road with Biden as his traveling Chief of Staff, will become Director of Oval Office Operations.

Julie Rodriguez will be the Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Rodriguez served as National Political Director and traveling Chief of Staff for Kamala Harris' presidential campaign before joining Biden's campaign as a deputy campaign manager.

Some key members of Jill Biden's staff were also announced Tuesday: Anthony Bernal, who acted as deputy campaign manager and Jill Biden's chief of staff during the campaign, will serve as senior advisor to the future first lady, and Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon will be her chief of staff.

Jen O'Malley Dillon will join President-elect Joe Biden's incoming administration as a deputy chief of staff, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.

The expected move, first reported by NBC News, is the latest in a long line of expected senior White House hires as Biden moves to fill out his administration.

O'Malley Dillon will be joining Ron Klain, who was announced as Biden's incoming chief of staff last week, and Rep. Cedric Richmond, who sources tell CNN is expected to leave Congress and join the Biden White House in a senior role.
Here are some things to know about O'Malley Dillon:

She was Biden's campaign manager, joining his team in March after he consolidated support among most of his primary rivals.

She helped transform a shoestring primary organization, which struggled to raise money, into a general election juggernaut that ultimately made Donald Trump a one-term president.

She was the first woman to lead a winning Democratic presidential race.

She has held a number of top jobs within the universe of Democratic organizations, including executive director of the Democratic National Committee and the founding partner at Precision Strategies, a Democratic consulting firm.

O'Malley Dillon has long told friends that she had no interest in working in the West Wing after the campaign, but after working in top jobs on numerous political campaigns - including former Rep. Beto O'Rourke's failed 2020 primary campaign and both of Barack Obama's presidential campaigns - the Democratic operative has never served in the White House.

That historical pull, said a person familiar with her decision, proved too much to turn down. O'Malley Dillon is expected to have the operations portfolio in the White House - a role Jim Messina played in Obama's first term.
Read up here on who else could serve in top roles of the Biden administration.

Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, formally told the court that he will represent the Trump campaign in its long shot case to block Pennsylvania from certifying votes.

The case and whether it should be dismissed will be argued in federal court on Tuesday.

The hearing will take place before Judge Matthew Brann in Williamsport in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Brann is an Obama appointee, but is a longtime Republican.

Some context: Trump has refused to concede the election and continues to make false claims of widespread voter fraud with no evidence.

On top of the fraud claims, his campaign and GOP allies have filed numerous and flimsy legal challenges in the days following the Nov. 3 election, with some attempting to deprive Biden of the Electoral College votes he's set to receive to become president.

On Friday, nine cases meant to attack Biden's win in key states were denied or dropped.

General Services Administrator Emily Murphy had a call with David Barram, the GSA administrator during the 2000 election, before this year's election, according to a source with direct knowledge of the call.

As administrator, Murphy is the person tasked with officially affirming President-elect Joe Biden has won the election on behalf of the Trump administration - something Trump hasn't done himself.

She needs to sign a letter to release funds to the Biden transition team through a process called ascertainment. This would mark the first formal acknowledgment from the Trump administration that Biden has in fact won the election, but it would also unlock access to national security tools to streamline background checks and additional funds to pay for training and incoming staff.

Barram, a Bill Clinton political appointee, ascertained Bush as then winner of the 2000 election following the historic Bush v Gore recounted that ended up in the Supreme Court.

The call between Barram and Murphy was set up by mutual associates as a way for him to discuss his experience with her, the source said.

Recently, post-election, Barram said that this year's election is "dramatically different,�� than what happened in 2000. "It was all about Florida. One state, and something like 537 votes. Everyone knew that once Florida was settled, the winner would become clear," Barram has said.

Murphy has still not issued an ascertainment letter that would officially trigger the transition period for the federal government.

AP first reported on the call between Barram and Murphy.

1 hr 23 min ago
Fauci: "It's important at every level to have a smooth transition"

Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN's Jim Sciutto that he has not yet had contact with President-elect Joe Biden and called the smooth transition of power "important" to fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

"Transitions are important and if you don't have a smooth transition, you would not optimize whatever efforts you're doing right now," Fauci said.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases noted that he has served six administrations which amounted to five transitions of power.

"I have been involved as a health person in the transition. It is really quite important as I used the metaphor the other day, it's like a relay race in which you're passing the baton and you don't want to slow down what you're doing but you want the person to whom you're giving the baton to be running with it as opposed to stopping and starting all over again," Fauci said, adding that's the "reason why it's important at every level to have a smooth transition."

Fauci said the level of communication needed to pass the baton would include communicating to the incoming administration what the level of supply is, getting interaction at "a formal level" with the governors and understanding "every detail" of the vaccine program.

"Not only the two vaccines that have fortunately been shown to be very effective but where we are in Operation Warp Speed with regard to the other candidates which are coming into their own in the sense of clinical trial, accumulating data. All of those things can be done in partnership," the nation's top infectious disease expert said.

Biden warned yesterday that President Trump's unwillingness to accept the outcome of the 2020 election could hamper the incoming Biden administration's ability to rapidly distribute a coronavirus vaccine.

"More people may die if we don't coordinate," Biden told reporters Monday in Delaware.

Biden's comment comes as Trump refuses to acknowledge the reality that he lost the presidential election.

Americans deserve a smooth transition between administrations and not coordinating now could lead to problems in the vaccine rollout process, according to Rick Bright, a member of President-elect Joe Biden's coronavirus taskforce, on "Good Morning America" on Tuesday.

Biden told reporters on Monday that "more people may die if we don't coordinate," during a news conference in Delaware. ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked Bright what isn't getting done now that needs to happen between the Trump administration and the Biden transition team.

"It's very important that in light of the good news we're hearing about the information coming from these new vaccines and the promising efficacy and safety data that we're hearing about, it's really important to understand that there's a lot of work still in front of us to make sure that these vaccines are available for all Americans," Bright said.

Bright told Stephanopoulos that there was a lot of coordination that goes into putting the vaccines into vials, shipping them across the country, getting them to doctors and nurses who can administer them and tracking to make sure that people get all the doses that they need at the right time.

"There's a lot of activity that must happen, and we need to coordinate that," Bright said. "You know that after January 20, a new administration will come in and a new team will take over that responsibility, so it's important that that new team has all of the information that the current team has so there's a smooth transition."

"Lives are at stake here, if we miss this opportunity to coordinate now, we could experience hiccups or delays that really we don't need to see," he continued. "Americans deserve a smooth transition so we can make sure to save their lives from this pandemic."

In a last-ditch lawsuit from the Trump campaign to block the certification of election results in Michigan, a federal judge on Tuesday morning pointed out that the Trump campaign's lawyers had not taken steps to move their case along quickly.

Judge Janet Neff wrote in a court order that the Trump campaign didn't serve the lawsuit to the defendants, Michigan's Secretary of State and Wayne County election officials, nor had it asked for the court to consider its case an emergency.

The lawsuit is part of a long shot court effort in Michigan and Pennsylvania from the Trump campaign as it so far fruitlessly trues to block election results in an unlikely play to grab electoral votes from President-elect Joe Biden.

The hiccup Neff points out comes after the Trump campaign has faced ridicule from the legal community for bringing meritless lawsuits to challenge the election, and after the campaign's case in Pennsylvania faces its own series of setbacks including swapping the legal team there twice and being cut off from making some constitutional arguments.

The Trump campaign lawyers had outlined that they would need intervention to stop the election results in Michigan in the next few weeks because of an initial Electoral College deadline to finalize popular vote results on Dec. 8.

"Despite setting forth these looming deadlines and despite having characterized their pleading as one requiring 'emergency' relief, Plaintiffs have, to date, neither Plaintiffs have, to date, neither served their Complaint on Defendants nor filed any motions for immediate injunctive relief," Neff wrote.

If the lawsuit is to continue at all, the Trump campaign has to serve the suit to the Michigan officials by 5 p.m. local time today, she added.

President Trump has "no public events" on Tuesday - the tenth day since the election that those words have appeared on his daily schedule.

Even by Trump's standards, the empty schedule is a remarkable stretch. Trump's public appearances since Nov. 3 have amounted to a lie-filled appearance in the briefing room, a wreath-laying at Arlington and remarks about the coronavirus vaccine, all of which ended without any questions.

In the immediate aftermath of the election, some of Trump's advisers pushed for more official events that would demonstrate the President going about the job he is now desperately trying to retain.

But the White House did not have any announcements or official engagements in the pipeline ahead of Nov. 3 because Trump and his team were so focused on re-election.

Trump has demonstrated little interest in adding more to his schedule, people familiar with the matter said, and few aides have raised the idea with him because of his dark mood and preoccupation with his loss.

Even as President-elect Joe Biden carries out daily public appearances focused on governing, Trump hasn't felt obliged to keep pace - though he has watched Biden's activities from the White House.

Instead, he is spending mornings in the residence watching television, arriving to the Oval Office later in the afternoon and remaining into the evening. He goes back-and-forth between the office and his adjoining dining room, which is equipped with the large television and where newspapers and magazines are strewn across the table.

The West Wing had also been without an in-person leader in the weeks since the election as chief of staff Mark Meadows recovered from coronavirus. Meadows returned to the White House on Monday. He had been working while in isolation and spent a lot of time on conference calls with colleagues and Trump, people familiar with what happened told CNN's Kaitlan Collins.

President-elect Joe Biden's national security briefing today will feature a team of diplomatic, intelligence, and defense experts, a transition official said.

"They'll discuss readiness at the relevant agencies as the president-elect prepares to lead on day one," the official said.

The briefing comes as Biden has yet to receive classified intelligence briefings as President Trump has refused to concede the race and blocked his administration from taking any of the administrative steps typically taken in a transfer of power, including allowing the General Services Administration to declare that there is a president-elect - a move that triggers the transition process.

Speaking Monday to reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden pointed to the fact that Vice president-elect Kamala Harris continues to receive intelligence briefings in her role on the Senate Intelligence committee.

"The good news here is my colleague is still on the intelligence committee, so she gets the intelligence briefings. I don't anymore," Biden said. "So that is, but there is a number of Republicans calling for that. I am hopeful that the president will be mildly more enlightened before we get to January 20."

Biden's briefing Tuesday will not be an official US government national security briefing.

What you need to know

President-elect Joe Biden is moving forward with transition plans, but said he needs access to President Trump's vaccine distribution plans as Covid-19 cases surge.

Trump meanwhile refuses to accept he lost the election and is challenging the results.

Here is who could serve in top roles of the Biden administration.

President-elect Joe Biden has announced new members of the White House staff Tuesday, filling nine new senior-level positions in his administration mainly with loyal advisors and staffers who served on his presidential campaign.

Campaign chief strategist Mike Donilon will be a senior advisor, along with former Black Caucus Chair Cedric Richmond, who will also serve as Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.

CNN previously reported that Richmond, who acted as a national co-chair of Biden's campaign, would leave Congress to join the White House in a senior advisor role.

Longtime Biden aide Steve Ricchetti, who served as Chairman of Biden's campaign and once acted as Biden's Chief of Staff while he was vice president, will serve as Counselor to the President.

Dana Remus, who served as General Counsel of the Biden-Harris campaign, will be Counsel to the President, and Annie Tomasini, who was seen on the road with Biden as his traveling Chief of Staff, will become Director of Oval Office Operations.

Julie Rodriguez will be the Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Rodriguez served as National Political Director and traveling Chief of Staff for Kamala Harris' presidential campaign before joining Biden's campaign as a deputy campaign manager.

Some key members of Jill Biden's staff were also announced Tuesday: Anthony Bernal, who acted as deputy campaign manager and Jill Biden's chief of staff during the campaign, will serve as senior advisor to the future first lady, and Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon will be her chief of staff.

Jen O'Malley Dillon will join President-elect Joe Biden's incoming administration as a deputy chief of staff, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.

The expected move, first reported by NBC News, is the latest in a long line of expected senior White House hires as Biden moves to fill out his administration.

O'Malley Dillon will be joining Ron Klain, who was announced as Biden's incoming chief of staff last week, and Rep. Cedric Richmond, who sources tell CNN is expected to leave Congress and join the Biden White House in a senior role.
Here are some things to know about O'Malley Dillon:

She was Biden's campaign manager, joining his team in March after he consolidated support among most of his primary rivals.

She helped transform a shoestring primary organization, which struggled to raise money, into a general election juggernaut that ultimately made Donald Trump a one-term president.

She was the first woman to lead a winning Democratic presidential race.

She has held a number of top jobs within the universe of Democratic organizations, including executive director of the Democratic National Committee and the founding partner at Precision Strategies, a Democratic consulting firm.

O'Malley Dillon has long told friends that she had no interest in working in the West Wing after the campaign, but after working in top jobs on numerous political campaigns - including former Rep. Beto O'Rourke's failed 2020 primary campaign and both of Barack Obama's presidential campaigns - the Democratic operative has never served in the White House.

That historical pull, said a person familiar with her decision, proved too much to turn down. O'Malley Dillon is expected to have the operations portfolio in the White House - a role Jim Messina played in Obama's first term.
Read up here on who else could serve in top roles of the Biden administration.

Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, formally told the court that he will represent the Trump campaign in its long shot case to block Pennsylvania from certifying votes.

The case and whether it should be dismissed will be argued in federal court on Tuesday.

The hearing will take place before Judge Matthew Brann in Williamsport in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Brann is an Obama appointee, but is a longtime Republican.

Some context: Trump has refused to concede the election and continues to make false claims of widespread voter fraud with no evidence.

On top of the fraud claims, his campaign and GOP allies have filed numerous and flimsy legal challenges in the days following the Nov. 3 election, with some attempting to deprive Biden of the Electoral College votes he's set to receive to become president.

On Friday, nine cases meant to attack Biden's win in key states were denied or dropped.

General Services Administrator Emily Murphy had a call with David Barram, the GSA administrator during the 2000 election, before this year's election, according to a source with direct knowledge of the call.

As administrator, Murphy is the person tasked with officially affirming President-elect Joe Biden has won the election on behalf of the Trump administration - something Trump hasn't done himself.

She needs to sign a letter to release funds to the Biden transition team through a process called ascertainment. This would mark the first formal acknowledgment from the Trump administration that Biden has in fact won the election, but it would also unlock access to national security tools to streamline background checks and additional funds to pay for training and incoming staff.

Barram, a Bill Clinton political appointee, ascertained Bush as then winner of the 2000 election following the historic Bush v Gore recounted that ended up in the Supreme Court.

The call between Barram and Murphy was set up by mutual associates as a way for him to discuss his experience with her, the source said.

Recently, post-election, Barram said that this year's election is "dramatically different,�� than what happened in 2000. "It was all about Florida. One state, and something like 537 votes. Everyone knew that once Florida was settled, the winner would become clear," Barram has said.

Murphy has still not issued an ascertainment letter that would officially trigger the transition period for the federal government.

AP first reported on the call between Barram and Murphy.

1 hr 23 min ago
Fauci: "It's important at every level to have a smooth transition"

Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN's Jim Sciutto that he has not yet had contact with President-elect Joe Biden and called the smooth transition of power "important" to fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

"Transitions are important and if you don't have a smooth transition, you would not optimize whatever efforts you're doing right now," Fauci said.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases noted that he has served six administrations which amounted to five transitions of power.

"I have been involved as a health person in the transition. It is really quite important as I used the metaphor the other day, it's like a relay race in which you're passing the baton and you don't want to slow down what you're doing but you want the person to whom you're giving the baton to be running with it as opposed to stopping and starting all over again," Fauci said, adding that's the "reason why it's important at every level to have a smooth transition."

Fauci said the level of communication needed to pass the baton would include communicating to the incoming administration what the level of supply is, getting interaction at "a formal level" with the governors and understanding "every detail" of the vaccine program.

"Not only the two vaccines that have fortunately been shown to be very effective but where we are in Operation Warp Speed with regard to the other candidates which are coming into their own in the sense of clinical trial, accumulating data. All of those things can be done in partnership," the nation's top infectious disease expert said.

Biden warned yesterday that President Trump's unwillingness to accept the outcome of the 2020 election could hamper the incoming Biden administration's ability to rapidly distribute a coronavirus vaccine.

"More people may die if we don't coordinate," Biden told reporters Monday in Delaware.

Biden's comment comes as Trump refuses to acknowledge the reality that he lost the presidential election.

Americans deserve a smooth transition between administrations and not coordinating now could lead to problems in the vaccine rollout process, according to Rick Bright, a member of President-elect Joe Biden's coronavirus taskforce, on "Good Morning America" on Tuesday.

Biden told reporters on Monday that "more people may die if we don't coordinate," during a news conference in Delaware. ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked Bright what isn't getting done now that needs to happen between the Trump administration and the Biden transition team.

"It's very important that in light of the good news we're hearing about the information coming from these new vaccines and the promising efficacy and safety data that we're hearing about, it's really important to understand that there's a lot of work still in front of us to make sure that these vaccines are available for all Americans," Bright said.

Bright told Stephanopoulos that there was a lot of coordination that goes into putting the vaccines into vials, shipping them across the country, getting them to doctors and nurses who can administer them and tracking to make sure that people get all the doses that they need at the right time.

"There's a lot of activity that must happen, and we need to coordinate that," Bright said. "You know that after January 20, a new administration will come in and a new team will take over that responsibility, so it's important that that new team has all of the information that the current team has so there's a smooth transition."

"Lives are at stake here, if we miss this opportunity to coordinate now, we could experience hiccups or delays that really we don't need to see," he continued. "Americans deserve a smooth transition so we can make sure to save their lives from this pandemic."

In a last-ditch lawsuit from the Trump campaign to block the certification of election results in Michigan, a federal judge on Tuesday morning pointed out that the Trump campaign's lawyers had not taken steps to move their case along quickly.

Judge Janet Neff wrote in a court order that the Trump campaign didn't serve the lawsuit to the defendants, Michigan's Secretary of State and Wayne County election officials, nor had it asked for the court to consider its case an emergency.

The lawsuit is part of a long shot court effort in Michigan and Pennsylvania from the Trump campaign as it so far fruitlessly trues to block election results in an unlikely play to grab electoral votes from President-elect Joe Biden.

The hiccup Neff points out comes after the Trump campaign has faced ridicule from the legal community for bringing meritless lawsuits to challenge the election, and after the campaign's case in Pennsylvania faces its own series of setbacks including swapping the legal team there twice and being cut off from making some constitutional arguments.

The Trump campaign lawyers had outlined that they would need intervention to stop the election results in Michigan in the next few weeks because of an initial Electoral College deadline to finalize popular vote results on Dec. 8.

"Despite setting forth these looming deadlines and despite having characterized their pleading as one requiring 'emergency' relief, Plaintiffs have, to date, neither Plaintiffs have, to date, neither served their Complaint on Defendants nor filed any motions for immediate injunctive relief," Neff wrote.

If the lawsuit is to continue at all, the Trump campaign has to serve the suit to the Michigan officials by 5 p.m. local time today, she added.

President Trump has "no public events" on Tuesday - the tenth day since the election that those words have appeared on his daily schedule.

Even by Trump's standards, the empty schedule is a remarkable stretch. Trump's public appearances since Nov. 3 have amounted to a lie-filled appearance in the briefing room, a wreath-laying at Arlington and remarks about the coronavirus vaccine, all of which ended without any questions.

In the immediate aftermath of the election, some of Trump's advisers pushed for more official events that would demonstrate the President going about the job he is now desperately trying to retain.

But the White House did not have any announcements or official engagements in the pipeline ahead of Nov. 3 because Trump and his team were so focused on re-election.

Trump has demonstrated little interest in adding more to his schedule, people familiar with the matter said, and few aides have raised the idea with him because of his dark mood and preoccupation with his loss.

Even as President-elect Joe Biden carries out daily public appearances focused on governing, Trump hasn't felt obliged to keep pace - though he has watched Biden's activities from the White House.

Instead, he is spending mornings in the residence watching television, arriving to the Oval Office later in the afternoon and remaining into the evening. He goes back-and-forth between the office and his adjoining dining room, which is equipped with the large television and where newspapers and magazines are strewn across the table.

The West Wing had also been without an in-person leader in the weeks since the election as chief of staff Mark Meadows recovered from coronavirus. Meadows returned to the White House on Monday. He had been working while in isolation and spent a lot of time on conference calls with colleagues and Trump, people familiar with what happened told CNN's Kaitlan Collins.

President-elect Joe Biden's national security briefing today will feature a team of diplomatic, intelligence, and defense experts, a transition official said.

"They'll discuss readiness at the relevant agencies as the president-elect prepares to lead on day one," the official said.

The briefing comes as Biden has yet to receive classified intelligence briefings as President Trump has refused to concede the race and blocked his administration from taking any of the administrative steps typically taken in a transfer of power, including allowing the General Services Administration to declare that there is a president-elect - a move that triggers the transition process.

Speaking Monday to reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden pointed to the fact that Vice president-elect Kamala Harris continues to receive intelligence briefings in her role on the Senate Intelligence committee.

"The good news here is my colleague is still on the intelligence committee, so she gets the intelligence briefings. I don't anymore," Biden said. "So that is, but there is a number of Republicans calling for that. I am hopeful that the president will be mildly more enlightened before we get to January 20."

Biden's briefing Tuesday will not be an official US government national security briefing.

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us election 2020: latest news on the trump-biden transition

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By Melissa Macaya and Meg Wagner, CNN

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US election 2020: Latest news on the Trump-Biden transition

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What you need to know President-elect Joe Biden is moving forward with transition plans, but said he needs access to President Trump's vaccine distribution plans as Covid-19 cases surge. Trump meanwhile refuses to accept he lost the election and is challenging the results. Here is who could serve in top roles of the Biden administration.

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Here's how officials in California plan to handle the first wave of COVID-19 vaccinations.

TOP STORIES
California's Vaccine Plan
As COVID-19 deaths in California and the U.S. hit record highs, some experts say the beginning of the end of the pandemic is within sight thanks to the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.

U.S. approval is expected this week, and possibly as soon as today, for the first candidate, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Britain and Canada have already approved it.

That means California could soon begin its historic and complex rollout of millions of immunizations. Though the exact timing is unclear, the state's first shipment of vaccines will include 327,000 doses - supplying 327,000 people with their first dose - and is expected to reach hospitals between Saturday and Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said.

The vaccine requires two shots administered 21 days apart to reach the 95% effectiveness established in clinical trials. By the end of the year, California expects to have given the first dose of the vaccine to 2.16 million people who are in the group that's first in line - healthcare workers as well as residents of long-term care facilities. Follow-up doses will come in further shipments.

A second vaccine, created by the pharmaceutical company Moderna in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, could be approved by the FDA within a week of the Pfizer vaccine.
More Top Coronavirus Headlines
- Can you be infected with the coronavirus after five minutes from 20 feet away? Yes, a new study of indoor viral spread finds. The research raises concerns that six feet may not be a safe enough distance - and underscores how South Korea's meticulous and often invasive contact tracing has helped researchers closely track how the virus moves through populations.

- Some Americans continue to be unsure about lining up for a vaccine, but Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn isn't one of them: "I have 100% confidence."

- Arguments over mask requirements and other restrictions have turned ugly in recent days as the deadly coronavirus surge across the U.S. engulfs small and medium-size cities that once seemed at a safe remove from the outbreak.

- Following outcry from parents and some legislators, California has reversed course on closing playgrounds to contain a surge in coronavirus cases.
Break Up Facebook?
It's not often the Federal Trade Commission and 46 states including California, as well as Guam and the District of Columbia, can agree on something. But in groundbreaking antitrust lawsuits, they accuse Facebook of engaging in monopolistic practices to snuff out rivals and stifle competition.

Federal regulators are seeking to break the company, which includes Instagram and WhatsApp, into pieces. A separate multistate lawsuit accuses the Menlo Park, Calif.-based tech giant of anti-competitive conduct and of abusing its position as the market leader to mine consumer data and rake in advertising dollars.

"Years after the FTC cleared our acquisitions, the government now wants a do-over with no regard for the impact that precedent would have on the broader business community or the people who choose our products every day," Facebook said in a statement.

The breadth of the bipartisan coalition bringing forward the suits suggests this fight will continue past President Trump's last day in office and well into President-elect Joe Biden's administration.
Cheating Death
A legion of mostly older Americans is being targeted for audacious, widespread fraud in the end-of-life industry that's meant to provide comforting care in their final days, a Los Angeles Times investigation found.

Many are unwitting recruits by unscrupulous providers who bill Medicare for hospice services and equipment for "terminally ill" patients who aren't dying.

Intense competition for new patients - who generate $154 to $1,432 a day each in Medicare payments - has spawned a cottage industry of illegal practices, including kickbacks to crooked doctors and recruiters who zero in on prospective patients at retirement homes and other venues, The Times found.

Nowhere has that growth been more explosive, and its harmful side effects more evident, than in Los Angeles County.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Before the Los Angeles River got its bed of concrete, it was the place to be for prospectors in Southern California.

They found not only gold but also iron, silver, copper, brass and lead. Writer Don Ashbaugh covered the rush in the Dec. 12, 1938, edition of the Los Angeles Times.

He described "a couple of score of hard-working men down there with shovels, screens and sluice boxes making themselves a comfortable living." Some prospectors said they turned to panning for precious metals when their acting careers didn't go as planned.

(Los Angeles Times Archive / UCLA)

CALIFORNIA

- The owner was a willing seller, and Los Angeles County an eager buyer. But plans to buy a motel and turn it into housing for homeless people hit a snag when the county learned management was locking out residents who had lived there for months or even years, forcing some into homelessness.

- As legal cannabis businesses struggle to compete with the illicit market, a state panel that advises regulators has recommended loosening some restrictions to give licensed pot shops a better shot.

- Six days before its application deadline,the Cal State systemsays all 23 campuses will reopen next fall after more than a year of virtual instruction. The early announcement is aimed at helping students plan and decide whether to apply.

- A 29-year-old political activist who was shot in the face with a police projectile at a protest this year is suing the LAPD to stop its use of such weapons to quell demonstrations.

Support our journalism

NATION-WORLD

- The House of Representatives passed a one-week spending bill designed to avert a government shutdown and buy time for more talks on a stalled COVID-19 relief package.

- The Justice Department's investigation scrutinizing Hunter Biden's taxes has been examining some of his Chinese business dealings, among other financial transactions, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press.

- With spending in Georgia's twin Senate runoffs rocketing toward record levels, Republicans appear to be gaining a significant advantage on the state's airwaves as heavy spending by outside groups finances a flood of mostly negative ads.

- Joe Biden made two key domestic policy picks, selecting Ohio Rep. Marcia L. Fudge as his Housing and Urban Development secretary and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role in his administration, according to five people familiar with the decisions.

- Thousands of protesters converged on Armenia's parliament building to push for the prime minister to resign over his handling of the fighting with Azerbaijan.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

- From homegrown jazz to raw hip-hop recorded from prison, these 10 albums from this year highlight L.A.'s creative spirit in a hardscrabble time for musicians.

- The Spanish flu of 1918 helped spur the creation of the Hollywood studio system. Now, Hollywood is experiencing another massive disruption as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

- "The Crown" star Josh O'Connor thinks the British culture minister's proposal that the Netflix series get a "fiction" disclaimer is "a bit of a low blow," he told The Times on our new podcast "The Envelope." (Get our Envelope newsletter for the latest on awards season, plus highlights from each new episode.)

- The minimalist composer and musician Harold Budd, whom collaborator Brian Eno once described as being "a great abstract painter trapped in the body of a musician," has died of complications from COVID-19. He was 84.

BUSINESS

- The Trump administration plans to hold the first oil lease sale in California in eight years, part of a last-minute rush to auction off as much federal land as possible before Biden is sworn in.

- UCLA economists have issued an optimistic forecast, predicting the U.S. economy will experience "a gloomy COVID winter and an exuberant vaccine spring," followed by a roaring '20s.

SPORTS

- Has quarterback Jared Goff grown since losing in the Super Bowl in 2019? The Rams could find out in a rematch with the Patriots tonight.

- The Lancaster JetHawks are no more. The lone minor league baseball team in L.A. County is one of dozens of affiliate teams eliminated by Major League Baseball.

Free online games

OPINION

- Trump has succeeded magnificently at building a personality cult of the kind that generations of authoritarian leaders have used to maintain their popularity, writes Ruth Ben-Ghiat, the author of "Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present."

- Goodbye to Betsy DeVos, who survived by accomplishing almost nothing as secretary of Education, The Times' editorial board writes.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

- Trump's efforts to overturn the election continue: In a late-night call, he warned Georgia Atty. Gen. Chris Carr not to rally other GOP officials against a long-shot Texas lawsuit seeking to toss out the state's election results, according to several people with direct knowledge of the conversation. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

- Sen. Dianne Feinstein's missteps raise a painful age question. (The New Yorker)

ONLY IN L.A.

You probably don't know Kathleen Gosnell Seiler, but if you're a longtime reader of The Times, you know her work. As a copy editor, she rarely had her name in print. But for 23 years, she used her blue pen to perfect the newspaper's signature stories, including those that won the Pulitzer Prize for spot news coverage of the 1994 Northridge earthquake. As she worked on the Pulitzer entry, her daughter, Jessie, made a fort under her mother's desk at The Times' headquarters. Gosnell died last week at age 75. She'll always be remembered for her work in making the 1995 Times style and usage guide more equitable, her moxie in standing up to big egos, and her devotion as a mother.
Comments or ideas? Email us at headlines@latimes.com.

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Today's Headlines: California's vaccine plan

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Here's how officials in California plan to handle the first wave of COVID-19 vaccinations. California's Vaccine Plan As COVID-19 deaths in California and the U.S. hit record highs, some experts say the beginning of the end of the pandemic is within sight thanks to the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. U.S.

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A law that should be a law but isn't should be letting people come into the U.S and allowing them to stay if they so choose

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Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) was formally nominated as the Democratic presidential nominee at the 2020 Democratic National Convention on August 18, 2020. The convention was originally scheduled to take place July 13-16, 2020. Organizers postponed the event in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Prior to the national convention, individual state caucuses and primaries were held to allocate convention delegates. These delegates vote at the convention to select the nominee. In 2020, a Democratic presidential candidate needed support from 1,991 delegates to secure the nomination.

With the plurality of pledged delegates, Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee on April 8, 2020, after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) suspended his presidential campaign. Biden crossed the delegate threshold necessary to win the nomination on June 5, 2020.

Biden announced U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D) as his running mate on August 11, 2020. Harris is the first Black woman to appear on a major party's ticket in the United States.

Democratic presidential nominee

Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) is the projected winner of the 2020 presidential election, according to a consensus call from ABC News, CNN, Fox News, NBC News, and The New York Times. Projected to win Pennsylvania on November 7, 2020, Biden secured at least 273 electoral votes, putting him over the threshold of 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. President Donald Trump (R) won at least 213 electoral votes.

Biden will be the oldest president to take office on January 20, 2021, at 78 years old. His running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), will be the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president.

Click here to learn more about the Biden presidential transition.

Biden announced that he was running for president on April 25, 2019. With the plurality of pledged delegates, Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee on April 8, 2020, after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) suspended his presidential campaign. Biden crossed the delegate threshold necessary to win the nomination on June 5, 2020, and was formally nominated at the 2020 Democratic National Convention on August 18, 2020.

Biden announced Harris as his running mate on August 11, 2020. He called her "a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country's finest public servants." Harris is the first Black woman to appear on a major party's ticket in the United States.

Biden framed his campaign as a challenge to Trump. "I believe history will look back on four years of this president and all he embraces as an aberrant moment in time. But if we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation-who we are-and I cannot stand by and watch that happen," he said.

He represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2009 before serving as vice president under President Barack Obama (D) from 2009 to 2017.

Democratic National Convention

See also: Democratic National Convention, 2020 and Democratic delegate rules, 2020

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) held its presidential nominating convention the week of August 17, 2020, across four stages in New York City, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, and Wilmington.

The convention was originally scheduled to take place July 13-16, 2020, in Milwaukee. Organizers postponed the event in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Most of the convention's events took place remotely. The DNC announced in June 2020 that delegates should not plan to travel to Milwaukee to attend the convention. Instead, votes on reports from the Rules, Platform, and Credentials committees took place remotely from August 3-15, 2020.

The Democratic National Convention Committee announced on August 5, 2020, that former Vice President Joe Biden (D) and other speakers would not travel to Milwaukee. Biden was formally nominated at the convention on August 18, 2020.

Biden announced U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D) as his running mate on August 11, 2020. Harris is the first Black woman to appear on a major party's ticket in the United States.

Since the last multi-ballot Democratic convention took place in 1952, conventions have largely become ceremonial. They provide candidates with the "opportunity to shape their images to voters who hadn't really tuned in before," according to AP national politics reporter Bill Barrow.

Presidential nomination roll call

The following spreadsheet contains the number of delegates each candidate received during the presidential nomination roll call at the Democratic National Convention on August 18, 2020. It was updated live during the event.

In addition to Joe Biden, the following candidates appeared on five or more Democratic primary ballots:

Campaign finance

The following chart shows Democratic presidential campaign fundraising, including both total receipts and contributions from individuals, as well as campaign spending. Figures for each candidate run through the end of June 2020 or through the final reporting period during which the candidate was actively campaigning for president. The total disbursements column includes operating expenditures, transfers to other committees, refunds, loan repayments, and other disbursements.

Click on any of the following links to read policy positions from the 2020 presidential candidates.

Abortion

Criminal justice

Economy

Education

Energy and environmental issues

Foreign policy

Gun regulation

Healthcare

Immigration

Impeachment

Labor

Trade

Democratic primary debates

The following table provides an overview of the date, location, host, and number of participants in each scheduled 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate.

Democratic primary endorsements

With more than two dozen noteworthy candidates entering the Democratic primary for president in the 2020 election, endorsements from party leaders were one tool candidates used to distinguish themselves. According to political strategist Susan Del Percio, "Endorsements do matter; what you do with them is more important. They need to be treated as a way of targeting the group you seek to persuade, especially on certain issues."

Endorsements over time

The following chart shows the total number of noteworthy endorsements former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders received over time since January 2019.

Gubernatorial endorsements

The following table indicates which governors endorsed a Democratic presidential candidate during the primary.

U.S. Senate endorsements

The following table indicates which U.S. senators endorsed a Democratic presidential candidate during the primary.

U.S. House endorsements

The following chart and table indicate which U.S. represenatitives endorsed a Democratic presidential candidate during the primary.

PredictIt markets

General election

Campaign travel

Ballotpedia compiled the number of days each Democratic presidential candidate has spent in the four early primary states- Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada -from January 1, 2019, through February 29, 2020.

Information about the candidates' schedules was sourced from The Des Moines Register, NBC Boston/NECN, The Post & Courier, The Nevada Independent.

The following table shows the number of days each candidate spent in each early primary state between January 1, 2019, and February 29, 2020. Candidates marked with an asterisk did not have complete information available for one or more states.

The following chart includes the campaign logo and slogan for each Democratic presidential candidate.

2020 Democratic presidential candidate logos

Candidate

Logo

Slogan

Joe Biden

Our Best Days Still Lie Ahead

Early voting states

New Hampshire

Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominees, 1900-2016

The following chart shows the Democratic presidential ticket from every presidential election between 1900 and 2016.

Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominees, 1900-2016

Year

Democratic presidential nominee

Democratic vice presidential nominee

General election result

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Democratic presidential nomination, 2020 - Ballotpedia

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Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) was formally nominated as the Democratic presidential nominee at the 2020 Democratic National Convention on August 18, 2020. The convention was originally scheduled to take place July 13-16, 2020. Organizers postponed the event in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

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"Treat others the way you want to be treated"

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WASHINGTON - Coronavirus infections continue to spread at record levels in the United States, reaching a new daily high of nearly 228,000 cases on Friday.

The 227,885 cases eclipses the previous high of more than 217,000 on Thursday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The seven-day rolling average of COVID-19 attributable deaths in the U.S. has passed 2,000 for the first time at 2,011. Two weeks ago, the seven-day average was 1,448. There were 2,607 deaths reported in the U.S. on Friday.

Globally, Johns Hopkins reports more than 1.5 million people have died from the coronavirus pandemic, including more than 279,000 in the United States.
First groups sign up for vaccine in Moscow
MOSCOW - Thousands of doctors, teachers and others in high-risk groups have signed up Saturday for a coronavirus vaccination in Moscow.

The vaccination effort comes three days after President Vladimir Putin ordered the launch of a "large-scale" immunization campaign even though a Russian-designed vaccine has yet to complete the advanced studies needed to ensure its effectiveness and safety in line with established scientific protocols.

The Russian leader said Wednesday that more than 2 million doses of the Sputnik V shot will be available in the next few days, allowing authorities to offer shots to medical workers and teachers across the country starting late next week.

On Saturday, Russia reported a record 28,782 daily cases, including 7,993 in Moscow. Russia's 2.4 million confirmed cases is the fourth-largest caseload in the world behind the United States, India and Brazil.

There's been 42,684 total confirmed deaths in Russia.
India registers more than 36,000 cases
NEW DELHI - India has registered 36,652 confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours.

India's health ministry on Saturday also recorded 512 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking total deaths to nearly 140,000. The pace of new cases has seen a downward trend, with single-day cases remaining below the 50,000 mark a month.

India has 9.6 million total cases, second behind the U.S. with 14.3 million. But globally it has one of the lowest deaths per million population, according to the Health Ministry.

India's home ministry has allowed states to impose local restrictions, such as night curfews. It has asked state officials to consult before imposing lockdowns at state, district or city levels.
Connecticut expands unemployment access
HARTFORD, Conn. - Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont has signed an order allowing the state Department of Labor to expand eligibility for a federal pandemic unemployment program to an estimated 38,000 people who were previously disqualified.

Under Friday's order, $7.5 million from the state's unemployment trust fund will be used make sure residents who are unemployed due to the coronavirus outbreak and were previously disqualified from receiving the temporary, extra financial benefit receive at least $100 a week in unemployment benefits.

That would then make them eligible retroactively for an additional $300 under the federal Lost Wages Assistance Program.

More than 160,000 Connecticut residents already received the supplemental federal benefits, resulting in a total of $370 million being allocated over six weeks, from July 26 to Sept. 5.
Wyoming health official describes virus as communist plot
CASPER, Wyo. - An official in Wyoming's Department of Health involved in the state's response to the coronavirus is questioning the legitimacy of the pandemic and describes a forthcoming vaccine as a biological weapon.

The Casper Star-Tribune reports that Igor Shepherd called COVID-19 a "so-called pandemic" at a Nov. 10 event in Loveland, Colorado. It says Shepherd described efforts to develop a vaccine as a plot by Russia and China to spread communism worldwide.

Shepherd was introduced as a Wyoming Department of Health employee before his presentation.

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and other top state officials have declined to comment.
FBI warns New Jersey test recipients to be re-tested
VENTNOR, N.J. - The FBI is telling anyone who underwent a coronavirus test at a New Jersey laboratory to get retested and to contact the agency.

In a statement Friday on Twitter, the FBI's Newark office urges people who were recently tested for the virus at Infinity Diagnostic Laboratory in Ventnor "to be retested as soon as possible." It also asks that anyone who was administered a finger-prick blood test at the laboratory to contact a victim assistance unit at the FBI.

The announcement gave no further details, and a message left with the FBI seeking further information was not immediately returned.

Voicemail for the company's operations director Friday evening said it was closed and didn't offer the opportunity to leave a message.
Tennessee calls up national guard for health care duty
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has authorized medically trained National Guard soldiers to fill nursing roles, drive ambulances and perform coronavirus testing for hospitals that are overstretched on staffing while they care for a climbing number of coronavirus patients.

The order Friday allows the adjutant general to send hospitals reinforcements from the Tennessee National Guard. The state is focusing on troops who are actively assigned, including those serving in coronavirus testing roles statewide, but not those currently serving in civilian jobs in health care.

State health officials decline to identify which hospitals have expressed interest, but say there is need statewide.

The state reports 2,485 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, with only 14% of floor beds and 8% of ICU beds available.
Bay Area goes to stay-at-home protocols
SAN FRANCISCO - The health officers in six San Francisco Bay Area regions issued a new stay-at-home order Friday as the number of virus cases surge and hospitals fill.

The changes will take effect for most of the area at 10 p.m. Sunday and last through Jan. 4. The counties have not yet reached Gov. Gavin Newsom's threshold announced a day earlier requiring such an order when 85% of ICU beds at regional hospitals are full, but officials said the hospital system will be overwhelmed before the end of December when Newsom's order would apply.

It comes the same day the state recorded another daily record number of cases, with 22,018, and hospitalizations topped 9,000 for first time.

It means restaurants will have to close to both indoor and outdoor dining, bars and wineries must close along with hair and nail salons and playgrounds. Retail stores and shopping centers can operate with just 20% customer capacity. Gatherings of any size with people outside of your household are banned.
Judge orders examination of North Carolina prison response
RALEIGH, N.C. - A judge agreed to name a third-party expert to scrutinize the COVID-19 response within North Carolina's prison system, which like the rest of the state is experiencing a surge in cases and hospitalizations.

Ruling again in ongoing litigation about health and safety within prisons, Superior Court Judge Vince Rozier said he's worried about the pressure the coronavirus is now placing upon correctional institutions.

The prison system closed temporarily three units over the last two weeks to handle staffing challenges, brought on in part by the upward swing in positive cases and the medical care prisoners need.

The Department of Public Safety says 370 correctional staff testing positive for coronavirus were out of work Friday, up 50 workers from last week. There were 667 active cases among the roughly 30,000 prisoners statewide. Twenty-five prisoners have died from COVID-19-related illnesses since the pandemic.
Georgia's numbers soar over worst summer peaks
ATLANTA - Georgia's coronavirus infections are soaring above their worst peaks of the summer, resulting in more hospitalizations and more deaths.

Hitting a new single-day record of more than 6,000 suspected and confirmed infections on Friday pushed Georgia's rolling seven-day average of infections to nearly 4,300. That average was above its previous July record for the second day in a row.

Hospitalizations have not reached their summer heights in Georgia, but beds are filling rapidly with cases. Nearly 2,400 COVID-19 patients were in the hospital Friday.

Georgia has now recorded 9,725 confirmed and suspected deaths.
Alabama health officials urge extension of mask mandate
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Alabama health officials have urged the state to extend its statewide mask mandate, set to expire next week.

Dr. Sarah Nafziger, who teaches emergency medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said it was "critically important" for Republican Gov. Kay Ivey to maintain the requirement, which is opposed by some who consider it an infringement on personal rights or discount the threat of the coronavirus.

The president of the Alabama Hospital Association, Dr. Donald Williamson, said the organization "absolutely" supports continuing the order as cases rise statewide.

The order, which expires Dec. 11, requires anyone older than 6 to wear a mask when in public spaces indoors and outside if they can't stay 6 feet away from others. First imposed in July, health officials credit the rule with a sharp decline in cases until a recent spike began nationwide.
Oregon reports new record numbers
SALEM, Ore. - As Oregon reached a new record number for reported daily coronavirus cases and deaths, lawmakers, advocates and others continue to call on Democratic Gov. Kate Brown to declare a special legislative session.

The Oregon Health Authority on Friday reported 2,100 new cases and 30 deaths. The previous daily records have been 1,699 cases and 24 deaths. Oregon also surpassed 80,000 cases since the start of the pandemic in March.

Housing advocates in the state are asking the Legislature to act on a proposal to extend a statewide eviction moratorium until July 1. The current eviction moratorium, which was ordered at the beginning of the pandemic, is scheduled to lapse on Dec. 31.
Kansas moves meatpackers, grocery workers to second phase vaccinations
TOPEKA, Kan. - Gov. Laura Kelly says Kansas considers meatpacking plant workers and grocery store employees essential workers, putting them in the second phase for possible vaccinations.

Kelly says the Kansas vaccine plan calls for the first shots to go to front-line health care workers with a high risk of coronavirus exposure.

She says the second phase will focus on vaccinating essential workers, including first responders but also grocery store and meatpacking plant workers.

The Democratic governor says members of the Legislature will get vaccinated at different times, based on their risk of being exposed or developing serious complications.

Next week, the Food and Drug Administration will consider whether to grant emergency authorization for vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna.

Kansas has reported 168,295 confirmed cases, an increase of 6,234 since Wednesday, and 1,786 total confirmed deaths.__

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The Latest: U.S. reaches daily high of nearly 228,000 cases

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WASHINGTON - Coronavirus infections continue to spread at record levels in the United States, reaching a new daily high of nearly 228,000 cases on Friday. The 227,885 cases eclipses the previous high of more than 217,000 on Thursday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

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The vote capped a brazen feat for Republicans, who pushed through a Supreme Court nominee in little more than five weeks with the election looming.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett will be the 115th justice of the Supreme Court and the fifth woman ever to sit on its bench. Credit... Erin Schaff/The New York Times

WASHINGTON - Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative appeals court judge and protégée of former Justice Antonin Scalia, was confirmed on Monday to the Supreme Court, capping a lightning-fast Senate approval that handed President Trump a victory ahead of the election and promised to tip the court to the right for years to come.

Inside a Capitol mostly emptied by the resurgent coronavirus pandemic and an election looming in eight days, Republicans overcame unanimous opposition by Democrats to make Judge Barrett the 115th justice of the Supreme Court and the fifth woman ever to sit on its bench. In a 52-to-48 vote, all but one Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, who herself is battling for re-election, supported her.

It was the first time in 151 years that a justice was confirmed without a single vote from the minority party, a sign of how bitter Washington's decades-old war over judicial nominations has become. The vote concluded a brazen drive by Republicans, who moved to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just six weeks before the election. They shredded their own past pronouncements and bypassed rules in the process, even as they stared down the potential loss of the White House and the Senate.

Democrats called it a hypocritical power grab by Republicans who should have waited for voters to have their say on Election Day. They warned of a disastrous precedent that would draw retaliation should they win power, and in a last-ditch act of protest, they unsuccessfully tried to force the Senate to adjourn.

Republicans said it was their right as the majority party and exulted in their win. With Judge Barrett's elevation in place of Justice Ginsburg, a liberal icon, the court is expected to tilt decisively to the right. It is gaining a conservative who could sway cases in every area of American life, including abortion rights, gay rights, business regulation and the environment.

Her impact could be felt right away. There are major election disputes awaiting immediate action by the Supreme Court from the battleground states of North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Both concern the date by which absentee ballots may be accepted.

Soon after, Judge Barrett will quickly confront a docket studded with major cases on Mr. Trump's programs and policies, not to mention a potential challenge to the election results that the president had cited as a reason he needed a full complement of justices before Nov. 3. Coming up quickly are challenges related to the Affordable Care Act, signature Trump administration immigration plans, the rights of same-sex couples and the census.

The court is also slated to act soon on a last-ditch attempt from Mr. Trump's personal lawyers to block the release of his financial records to a grand jury in Manhattan.

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Signs at a Trump rally last month in Minnesota in support of Judge Barrett's confirmation. Credit... Erin Schaff/The New York Times

No Supreme Court justice is a certain vote, and Judge Barrett pledged during her confirmation hearings to be an independent mind. But she is widely viewed by both parties as a judge in the mold of Justice Scalia, her mentor, who would rule consistently in favor of conservative positions.

Neither her academic writing nor her relatively brief three-year stint on a federal appeals court provides strong evidence of how she would approach the wide array of cases that will come before her. She gave little hint during her hearings of how she regards any major issue, but she did earlier criticize Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. for voting to uphold the Affordable Care Act, and she once signed onto an ad calling for overturning Roe v. Wade and its "barbaric legacy." It is a good bet that she will be among the court's most conservative justices, probably to the right of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.

A jubilant White House planned to hold a swearing-in event shortly after the vote on Monday night to try to bolster to the president's flagging re-election campaign. Justice Clarence Thomas was expected to administer the oath of office. To hold the event at all was a remarkable choice after a similar one announcing the nominee one month ago to the day turned into a coronavirus superspreader event.

It was a confirmation saga that might never have materialized had Justice Ginsburg, 87, who had been determined to stay on the court rather than be replaced with a justice of Mr. Trump's choosing, not died. Before she did, she had told her granddaughter she wanted a new president to install her successor - a deathbed wish that Republicans made clear they had no intention of honoring.

On Monday, Republicans had profound reasons to celebrate. Judge Barrett, 48, was Mr. Trump's third nominee to the Supreme Court, but arrayed beneath her were 162 new district court judges and 53 appeals court judges who have been installed by Republicans over the past four years, roughly a third of the entire federal appellate bench. Together, they could hold broad sway over American law and policy long after Mr. Trump leaves office.

"The reason this outcome came about is because we had a series of successful elections," said Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, who was the architect of the strategy. "What this administration and this Republican Senate has done is exercise the power that was given to us by the American people in a manner that is entirely within the rules of the Senate and the Constitution of the United States."

Democrats sought to churn up a storm of outrage that they hoped would help sweep Republicans out of power and could set the stage for their own majority should it come to be.

Citing Judge Barrett's academic writings and decisions from the appeals court bench, they argued that she would pose an immediate threat to the Affordable Care Act in the middle of a national health crisis, and that she would upend abortion rights and other popular freedoms enjoyed by Americans.

Taking aim directly at Republican senators, they warned that the decision to rush ahead with the election-season confirmation four years after denying a vote to Judge Merrick B. Garland, President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, under similar circumstances would come to haunt them.

"You may win this vote, and Amy Coney Barrett may become the next associate justice of the Supreme Court," said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader. "But you will never, never get your credibility back. And the next time the American people give Democrats a majority in this chamber, you will have forfeited the right to tell us how to run that majority."

Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, has made confirming federal judges a priority throughout the Trump administration. Credit... Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

Republicans claimed the circumstances were different this time because they control both the White House and the Senate. But if Democrats did reclaim power, the right-tilting courts could prove a powerful and frustrating check on their legislative agenda. That prospect, and Democrats' fury over Republicans' hardball tactics since 2016, were fueling a drive by the party's left flank to seriously consider eliminating the last remaining vestige of minority rights in the Senate, the legislative filibuster. They could then proceed to expand the size of the Supreme Court to install liberal justices.

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic presidential nominee, and leaders in the Senate have declined to discuss plans that could amount to a significant and potentially destabilizing escalation in the fight over the judicial branch. But on Monday, even some more moderate senators hinted that the path was open before them if they needed to take it.

"They expect that they're going to be able to break the rules with impunity, and when the shoe maybe is on the other foot, nothing's going to happen," Senator Angus King, independent of Maine, who votes with Democrats, said of the Republicans. "One of the things that's amazed me since I've come here is how people feel they can do things to one another and never have it have any consequences, never have it come back on them."

The battle to replace Justice Ginsburg, a champion of women's rights and an heroine of the progressive left, always promised to be combustible in a Senate worn raw by earlier fights. But the timing turned up the heat considerably: Never before in American history had a justice been confirmed so soon before a presidential election.

The contest loomed over - and at times eclipsed - the nomination, as both sides sought to eke out an advantage from the struggle over the court seat. A handful of Republicans, led by Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, were hoping their roles in achieving a major conservative victory would be enough to pull them across the finish line of competitive races.

But for all of the partisan fighting, the confirmation process played out with remarkably little drama. Republicans quickly coalesced around filling the seat, regardless of whom Mr. Trump nominated, and that left Democrats with very little to do but turn to dilatory tactics and make their case to voters. So rich was the prize that Republicans quickly reversed statements from 2016 and 2020 pledging not to fill an election-year seat until the voters had a say.

Supporters of Judge Barrett and people protesting against her outside of the Supreme Court this month. Credit... Hilary Swift for The New York Times

Judge Barrett's qualifications were really never in question, though she had less experience than some of her recent predecessors. But in three days of confirmation hearings, she managed to reveal vanishingly little about how she might look at or rule on matters of public interest before the court.

"Judge Barrett may have established herself as the Babe Ruth of saying pretty much nothing," Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, said on Monday.

Like five other justices, Judge Barrett is Catholic. She has said her faith is central to her identity, and before she joined the appeals court bench, she signed onto statements advocating the repeal of Roe v. Wade and its "barbaric legacy." But in other ways, she breaks the court's mold. A Notre Dame alumna, she will be the only justice who did not graduate from Harvard or Yale. She also has seven children, two of whom were adopted.

After playing down its implications during the hearings, some Republicans openly celebrated her anti-abortion rights stance on Monday.

"The nomination of Amy Coney Barrett is truly historic," said Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri. "This is the most openly pro-life judicial nominee to the Supreme Court in my lifetime. This is an individual who has been open in her criticism of that illegitimate decision, Roe v. Wade."

By the time senators gathered on Monday night for the final vote, many were exhausted from a debate that had lasted through Sunday night into Monday and from jetting back and forth between Washington and the campaign trail.

Vice President Mike Pence had planned to preside over the vote, but after five of his close aides tested positive for the coronavirus, senators pleaded with him to steer clear of the chamber, which he did.

Ms. Collins framed her decision this time as a matter of principle. Republicans set a standard in 2016 by not confirming a nominee in an election year and should do the same now, she argued. She is trailing in a race in a liberal-leaning state in part because of her constituents' fury at her vote for Justice Kavanaugh, Mr. Trump's last nominee.

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, another Republican swing vote, made a similar argument, but ultimately voted to confirm Judge Barrett.

Adam Liptak contributed reporting.

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Senate Confirms Barrett, Delivering for Trump and Reshaping the Court

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The vote capped a brazen feat for Republicans, who pushed through a Supreme Court nominee in little more than five weeks with the election looming.

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trump tweets about election results and skips session on pandemic during g20  - cnnpolitics

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Trump tweets about election results and skips session on pandemic during G20

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President Donald Trump participated in his final Group of 20 summit on Saturday by tweeting throughout the opening session and skipping a special side-conference focused on the coronavirus pandemic.

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US election results 2020: Joe Biden defeats Donald Trump to win presidency

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Biden wins election and Georgia recount. Trump refuses to formally concede