President Trump to hold rally on Friday in Newport News, VA

President Donald Trump will be holding a rally in the southeastern Virginia city of Newport News.

The Virginian-Pilot reports that Friday evening’s rally will be at the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport. It is expected to start at 9 p.m. with doors opening at 6.

The campaign stop will fall in between visits in to Florida and Pennsylvania. Newport News is not far from the border of North Carolina, which is considered a key battleground state.

The last time the president was in Virginia’s Hampton Roads region was in March when a Navy hospital ship set off for New York to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Herschel Walker accuses Obama of doing 'absolutely nothing' to help racial issues as president

Former NFL star Herschel Walker panned former President Barack Obama Wednesday, arguing that the Democrat made grand statements about racism in America but failed to act on the issue while in office.

"Not to be mean ... I love the Obamas, but I'm going to be honest," Walker told Fox News Radio's "Fox Across America". "I hear all of the racial statements they're making today and I'm like, 'You were in office for eight years, what did you do to change anything?'

"You didn't do anything to change anything for anybody," Walker added, "so don't come out now talking about it because you had an opportunity [as] the most powerful man in the world, and you did absolutely nothing."

Walker, who spoke at this summer's Republican National Convention, also criticized Obama's vice president, current Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

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Early voting turnout hits record numbers in Virginia

Record numbers of Virginians are voting early and requesting absentee ballots this year, as the coronavirus pandemic and newly loosened election laws reshape Old Dominion voting habits in a presidential year.

Some 100,356 voters have cast ballots in person since early voting began

Friday, while 884,032 have requested absentee ballots, state elections officials reported on Wednesday. In all of 2016, just under 353,000 Virginians opted for early in-person voting and about 185,000 voted absentee by mail, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project.

Voters in three solidly blue Northern Virginia congressional districts, where President Trump is deeply unpopular, have requested the most absentee ballots, led by 140,465 requests in the 8th District, which is represented by Rep. Don Beyer (D).

That’s nearly triple the 48,191 ballots requested in the bright red 9th District in the state’s rural southwest, which Rep. H. Morgan Griffith (R) represents and Trump carried by 19 points four years ago.

“The great thing about Virginia is, you have no idea who’s requesting these ballots,” he said, noting that voters do not register by party in the state. “It could be every single Republican in those [Democratic] precincts requested those ballots.”


In any case, March said that Republicans are more inclined to wait to vote until Nov. 3. “Republicans are more likely to vote in person on Election Day,” he said. “That’s the sentiment I’ve gotten.”

Professor put on leave for saying she hopes presidential supporters get COVID-19 and die

A college professor in West Virginia has been placed on leave after telling her students that she hopes supporters of a “certain person” running for president get coronavirus “and die before the election.”

Video posted on social media identifies the teacher as Jennifer Mosher, a biology professor at Marshall University who made the inflammatory comments during an online class.

“I’ve become the type of person where I hope they all get it and die, I’m sorry,” she said, most likely referring to some supporters of President Trump, who don’t wear masks at campaign rallies. “I said to somebody yesterday, I hope they all die before the election. That’s the only saving hope I have.”

She doesn’t refer to Trump by name but says a “certain person is holding rallies.”

Mosher then notes, “I really should not be talking politics.”

It’s unclear when Mosher made the comments, but a statement from Marshall University on Friday said it became “aware of an overtly political statement made by a faculty member.”

“The university does not support or condone the use of any of its educational platforms to belittle people or wish harm on those who hold differing political views,” the statement said.

Hunter Biden received $3.5M wire transfer from Russian billionaire: Senate report

Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the richest woman in Russia and the widow of Yury Luzhkov, the former mayor of Moscow, Senate Republicans revealed in their report on the younger Biden’s work in Ukraine.

Baturina is referenced in the 87-page report, which was released Wednesday, addressing her payment to Biden’s investment firm in early 2014.

“Baturina became Russia’s only female billionaire when her plastics company, Inteko, received a series of Moscow municipal contracts while her husband was mayor,” it said in providing background on the businesswoman.

The report described her involvement with Biden as “a financial relationship,” but declined to delve deeper into why the wire transfer was made.

The probe also found that Baturina sent 11 wires transfers between May and December 2015 to a bank account belonging to BAK USA, a tech startup that filed for bankruptcy in March 2019.

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Bernie Sanders Sounds Alarm on a Trump 'Nightmare Scenario'

Sen. Bernie Sanders is planning to mount an aggressive campaign to counter potential attempts by President Donald Trump to delegitimize the results of the November election, warning that Democrats and Republicans alike must do “everything that we can to prevent that from happening.”

In a phone interview on Monday evening, Sanders said he would spend the next six weeks urging the country to prepare for a “nightmare scenario” in which Trump declares himself the winner of the election and refuses to step down even if he loses.

As part of his effort, he is set to deliver a speech in Washington on Thursday — his first in-person appearance related to the election since before he dropped out of the presidential race — to outline in stark terms the danger that he says Trump poses to the nation’s democracy.

“We are living in an unprecedented and dangerous moment — extremely dangerous moment — in American history,” Sanders said. “And what this speech is going to be about is whether or not the United States of America will continue to be a democracy and a nation ruled by law and our Constitution.”

A Maryland schools Ninth Grade English reading is under fire

Parents of a Crisfield High student voiced their concerns about two of the books that were on their sons required reading list.

“Matt” Lankford said he and his wife received the syllabus for their son’s English class at Crisfield High School and they were “ very concerned” about the inclusion of the novel All American Boys and a second text titled Stamped, which is described as an examination of racism.

Mr. Lankford played an audiobook excerpt of All American Boys for the board, apologizing “up front for the content” which included use of the “F” word along with other profanity and references to drug use.

The fictional story is about a white police officer that brutally beats a young Black teenage boy “for no justification or no reason,” Mr. Lankford said. “I want to bring our society together. I don’t think this book does that.”

And if the school board didn’t know this was being used in the classroom, “then it’s a huge problem.”

In addition to language he counted eight times “they took the Lord’s name in vain, over 50 F bombs...it’s talking about people doing drugs, alcoholism, all the things we try to teach our kids to stay away from.”

Mr. Lankford said the second book, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You has a chapter on Adam and Eve titled “A Different Adam” that notes that Africans “had a different creation story” and “not actually human.”

“Can you imagine a young Black boy reading this,” Mr. Lankford asked the board. “It almost brought me to tears. What is our school system coming to?”

The three School Board Members that were present made no comment, the School's Superintendent asked for more information in writing.

According to Lilly Welch, English and World Languages supervisor for Somerset County Public Schools, the books have been used in the English curriculum for a handful of years.

A response to Mr. Lankford is anticipated in the coming weeks.

Local school districts allow teachers to bring kids to work to address day care issues

As a growing number of Maryland public school teachers prepare for in-person learning, on campus, some may have day care issues.

With that in mind, close to a dozen school districts may have found a way for teachers to bring their children to work.

Harford County teachers will walk into school buildings on Oct. 12, a little more than a week ahead of students, but what will that mean for teachers who are also parents?
“We have a structure in place that we could allow staff to have their children at the learning center,” said Harford County Schools Superintendent Sean Bulson. Many of the teachers were running out of options for childcare.

“There really is a short window for them to make this decision,” Harford County Education Association President Chrystie Crawford-Smick said.

“If teachers are being asked to return back to the classroom, they need to make sure that there is an opportunity for their children to be able to learn during the day,” Crawford-Smick said.

Besides Harford County, administrators in Baltimore City, Calvert, Caroline, Charles, Kent and St. Mary's counties are also allowing teachers to bring their children to school. The arrangement was included in their school reopening plans submitted to the Maryland State Board of Education.

Hogan calls push to confirm Supreme Court justice before election a 'mistake'

Gov. Larry Hogan said Wednesday it would be a "mistake" for the U.S. Senate to push to confirm a Supreme Court justice before the November election.

Trump urged the Republican-run Senate to consider "without delay" his upcoming nomination to fill the Supreme Court vacancy just six weeks before the election.

But Hogan weighed in on the issue, speaking at the Texas Tribune Festival, saying: "We should not be playing partisan games with the Supreme Court. It would be a mistake for the Senate to ram through a nominee on a partisan line vote, just as it would be a tragic mistake to question the integrity of the court or even pack the court."

On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, called Trumps move a power grab "to try and stack the court with right wing justices. We will use every procedural opportunity to block this abuse of power."

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Colin Kaepernick speaks on Breonna Taylor shooting indictment: 'Abolish The Police'

Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick voiced his frustration on Wednesday over a grand jury’s decision to indict one of three police officers involved in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor with criminal charges.

"The white supremacist institution of policing that stole Breonna Taylor’s life from us must be abolished for the safety and well being of our people. #BreonnaTaylor #SayHerName #AbolishThePolice," Kaepernick wrote on Twitter.

A Jefferson County grand jury indicted Officer Brett Hankison with three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree for his role in a drug operation that resulted in the death of Taylor, a 26-year-old Black emergency medical worker. The charges against Hankison relate to shots that were fired into a neighbor's home, not Taylor's death.

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Louisville police shot amid Breonna Taylor protests after curfew; suspect in custody

Two police officers were shot in Louisville, Ky., on Wednesday night as protesters flocked to the streets to rally against the death of Breonna Taylor, authorities said.

Shortly after a police news conference, reports emerged on social media that a third police officer may have been injured.

The two police victims confirmed by authorities were being treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, Interim Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Robert Schroeder said in a short news conference around 10 p.m. ET.

"One is alert and stable, the other officer is currently undergoing surgery and stable," Schroeder said, adding that one suspect was in custody.

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