Asymptomatic spread of coronavirus is "very rare," WHO says . . . Coronavirus patients without symptoms aren’t driving the spread of the virus, World Health Organization officials said Monday, casting doubt on concerns by some researchers that the disease could be difficult to contain due to asymptomatic infections. 

 

Record Texas coronavirus hospitalizations . . . Texas reported a record-breaking number of COVID-19 hospitalizations on Monday as the governor ushers in Phase III to reopen the economy and health experts fear a resurgence amid nationwide protests. The Texas Department of State Health Services revealed that 1,935 people were admitted to hospitals for coronavirus-related treatment. This is higher than the previous record set on May 5 when 1,888 hospitalizations related to the virus were recorded. Daily Mail

 

Poll finds Trump 14 points behind Biden . . . Overall 38% approve of the way Trump is handling the presidency, while 57% disapprove. That's his worst approval rating since January 2019, and roughly on par with approval ratings for Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush at this point in their reelection years. Both went on to lose the presidency after one term. In the race for the White House, among registered voters, Trump stands 14 points behind Biden, who officially secured enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination in CNN's delegate estimate on Saturday. The 41% who say they back the President is the lowest in CNN's tracking on this question back to April 2019, and Biden's 55% support is his highest mark yet. CNN

 

 

Democrats unveil sweeping police reform legislation . . . Crafted by leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Justice in Policing Act aims to rein in the use of excessive force by law enforcers, particularly the violence targeting blacks and other minorities, who die disproportionately at the hands of police. The package — the most aggressive crack down on law enforcement to arrive in decades — would establish a federal ban on chokeholds, eliminate the legal shield protecting police from lawsuits, mandate the use of body cameras nationwide, limit federal transfers of military-style weapons to local police, ban military-style weapons for police and create a national database disclosing the names of officers with patterns of abuse. The Hill

 

White House has "no regrets" about handling of protestors at Lafayette Square . . . White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Monday that the White House has no regrets about how federal law enforcement forcibly cleared protesters from Lafayette Square the week prior. “It was [Attorney General William] Barr who made the decision to move the perimeter. Monday night Park Police had also made that decision independently when they saw all the violence in Lafayette Square.” McEnany defended the decision by the U.S. Park Police to use chemical agents to clear protesters from the park outside the White House, claiming police issued three warnings before doing so and that protesters hurled projectiles at law enforcement officers. “That was unacceptable. Park Police acted as they felt they needed to at that time in response,” McEnany said. “We stand by those actions.” The Hill

 

New York Times reporter: Media should not cover both sides in the Trump era . . .  Journalism is already so far gone. Why not just be honest about it? New York Times Magazine staff writer Nikole Hannah-Jones said on CNN Sunday that Republicans have “gone rogue,” so there’s not need to be evenhanded. That as the Democrats drift toward socialism. She said: "This adherence to even-handedness, both sides-ism, the view from nowhere, doesn’t actually work in the political circumstances that we’re in." White House Dossier

 

Barr contradicits Trump, says Secret Service called to move him to bunker . . . Barr made the comment during an interview with Fox News's Bret Baier. “On Monday, we were reacting to three days of extremely violent demonstrations right across from the White House, a lot of injuries to police officers, arson,” Barr said. “Things were so bad that the Secret Service recommended the president go down to the bunker. We can’t have that in our country. So the decision was made. We had to move the perimeter one block. That is what we were doing.” Trump had claimed he visited the bunker during the day to inspect it. The Hill

 

AOC accuses Kayleigh McEnany of racism . . . Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany of racism for referring to her as a 'Biden adviser' during Monday's press briefing. '@PressSec wouldn’t be the first person to mistake a women of color for having a lower position or title than she does, but Kayleigh - in case you haven’t picked up a newspaper in two years, I’m a Congresswoman,' AOC tweeted. Ocasio-Cortez lashed out because she had seen a tweet from Politico's Jake Sherman that said McEnany had called the New York Democrat from the podium, 'Biden adviser Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.' In reality, McEnany had referred to AOC as a congresswoman in the sentence before. Daily Mail

 

 

Video || Romney marches in DC, says "Black lives matter" . . . Well, I doubt he did any looting, at least. He has enough money that he doesn't need to walk out of Best Buy with a flat-screen TV, anyway.

The man just never will forgive Donald Trump for winning the office he thought was rightfully his. Unless,, of course, Trump offers to make him secretary of state. White House Dossier

 

Iran to execute man who allegedly provided US with intel on Soleimani . . . Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, the Iranian citizen who allegedly provided key details to the U.S. prior to the drone strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani earlier this year, will be executed, the country’s judiciary said on Tuesday, according to Reuters. Soleimani’s death in January was seen as a game-changing attack at the time. Soleimani was the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force and a source of national pride. Gholamhossein Esmaili, a judiciary spokesman, said in a news conference that Majd was a spy for the CIA and Mossad. Fox News

 

Amsterdam to clean up sex-and-drugs tourism in post-COVID rebound . . . As the coronavirus pandemic raged in March and April, the 500-year-old Amsterdam city-center became a ghost town: The scantily clad sex workers in brothel windows in small alleys like Stoofsteeg in the red-light district were gone, as were the hordes of tourists who come there to gawk at them; Coffee shops on historic plazas like Rembrandtplein and Leidseplein didn’t get the visitors who descend upon the city by the thousands for the cannabis they sell. By driving away the more than 1 million tourists the city gets on average each month -- surpassing its population -- the virus lifted the veil on something that had been in plain sight for years: local Amsterdammers have lost the city’s historic center. Now, a fight is on to reclaim it. Bloomberg

 

Jobs data spur GOP calls to go slow on new stimulus . . . The surprise rebound on U.S. job markets is leading some Republicans to question the need for more pandemic stimulus, as Congress debates whether to renew the extra benefits it approved for unemployed Americans during the crisis. The payments of $600 a week, currently due to expire July 31, will be discussed at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday. Republicans have argued that the need to juice the economy is receding, after 2.5 million jobs were created in May and the unemployment rate declined when it was expected to jump. Those data “underscores why Congress should take a thoughtful approach and not rush to pass expensive legislation paid for with more debt,” said Michael Zona, spokesman for committee chairman Chuck Grassley. Bloomberg

 

 

George Floyd to be buried . . . The black man whose death has inspired a worldwide reckoning over racial injustice will be buried in Houston Tuesday, carried home in a horse-drawn carriage.

George Floyd, who was 46 when he was killed, will be laid to rest next to his mother. On May 25, as a white Minneapolis officer pressed a knee on Floyd’s neck, the dying man cried out for his mother. His funeral will be private. Some 6,000 people attended a public memorial service was held Monday in Houston, where he grew up. Associated Press

 

Chauvin bail set at $1.25 million . . . Unconditional bail for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was raised by $250,000 to $1.25 million Monday afternoon in the May 25 killing of George Floyd while in police custody. Chauvin made his first court appearance by video feed, handcuffed in an orange jumpsuit sitting at a small conference room table in the Hennepin County jail. In a hearing that lasted just 15 minutes, prosecutor Matthew Frank argued that the severity of the charges and the strength of public opinion against Chauvin made him a more likely flight risk. Minneapolis Star-Tribune

 

"Ludicrous": Top cops see chaos and economic crises if police defunded . . . Leading police organizations aggressively denounced calls to defund the country's 18,000 police departments and insisted doing so would lead to more crime and the closure of businesses.

“Defunding the police is one of the most ludicrous things I’ve heard in 44 years of law enforcement,” said Steve Casstevens, first vice president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the world’s largest professional organization of police leaders. “For years, people have been saying police need more training on use of force, more training on de-escalation, more training on dealing with the LGBT community, more training dealing with mental health issues — all true comments,” Casstevens said. “If we need more training, how is that going to happen if we defund those budgets? We’re going to be in even worse scenarios.” Washington Examiner

 

I say defund hospitals. You can use your own leeches at home or a doctor can come by and bleed you.

 

Chicago had its most violent day in 60 years . . . Over Memorial Day weekend, 18 people were fatally shot on May 31 in Chicago, making it the most violent 24-hour period the city has experienced over the last 60 years, experts said. The University of Chicago Crime Lab said that the 18 people killed on May 31, while the city experienced looting and George Floyd protests, was the most violent day in the city since 1961, when the lab started keeping track of the data. Previously, the record was August 4, 1991, when 13 people were killed in Chicago, the lab said. Daily Mail

 

Bon voyage: Bon Appetit editor resigns over blackface photo . . . Bon Appétit’s longtime Editor-in-Chief Adam Rapoport resigned Monday evening after a photo surfaced that showed him in brownface. A 2013 photo, originally posted on Instagram by Rapoport’s wife Simone Shubuck, shows the couple seemingly in brownface for an apparent Halloween costume. The image, which has since been taken down from Shubuck’s account, featured the caption “me and my papi” and the hashtag “boricua,” a synonym for Puerto Rican. Amid calls to resign by current and former employees, who took to social media, Rapoport  said that he was stepping down to “reflect on the work that I need to do as a human being and to allow Bon Appétit to get to a better place.” New York Post

 

CrossFit CEO allegedly under fire . . . CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman allegedly said: 'I do not mourn George Floyd' in Zoom call with staff and gym owners on the same day he came under fire for tweeting: 'It's FLOYD-19'.  One of the gym owners, Mike Young, recounted the call in a scathing Medium post on Sunday as Reebok and athletes around the world began cutting ties with CrossFit due to Glassman's comments. The controversy arose on Saturday after the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation posted a tweet which described racism and discrimination as a public health issue that needs an urgent response. Daily Mail

 

Self-proclaimed KKK leader drove into Virginia BLM protest . . . A self-described member of the Ku Klux Klan is facing hate crime charges after he allegedly drove his vehicle into a crowd of protesters in Virginia on Sunday. Henry H. Rogers, 36, drove his pickup truck to the protesters, revved the engine and plowed into the group, according to authorities. Virginia prosecutor said Monday she is investigating whether hate crimes charges are appropriate against Rogers, who reportedly described himself as the highest ranking member of the KKK in the state not to be incarcerated. Daily Mail

 

"Harry Potter" star Daniel Ratcliffe and author JK Rowling battle over gender . . . On Saturday, "Harry Potter" scribe J.K. Rowling issued a handful of tweets in response to an article that mentions "people who menstruate." Rowling responded by urging the word "woman" be used in place of the phrase, irking fans who accused her of ignoring transgender women. Now, Daniel Radcliffe responded: "Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I." Fox News

 

Police ask residents not to call 911 if they run out of toilet paper . . . The coronavirus has not been kind to supplies of toilet paper. "It's hard to believe that we even have to post this. Do not call 9-1-1 just because you ran out of toilet paper," the Newport, Oregon police department told residents in a reminder posted to Facebook last weekend. "You will survive without our assistance." Police warned that, whatever folks may think, they cannot assist with this particular need. Instead, they helpfully offered some alternatives gleaned from the annals of human history — improvised instruments such as dried corn cobs and pages torn from old magazines. "Seamen used old rope and anchor lines soaked in salt water. Ancient Romans used a sea sponge on a stick, also soaked in salt water," they suggested. "We are a coastal town. We have an abundance of salt water available. Sea shells were also used." NPR