The Sarasota Herald reports: Facing an explosive charge that his administration is manipulating coronavirus data to help make the case for reopening Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis played down the controversy today as a “nonissue.” Rebekah Jones, a data expert at the Florida Department of Health, told FLORIDA TODAY that she was fired on Monday. And she said in an email …

The Christian Post reports: Federal authorities in New York filed a civil complaint Monday asking for the forfeiture of a rare artifact bearing a portion of an epic Sumerian poem known as the “Gilgamesh Dream Tablet” that was unlawfully acquired by an auction house and later sold to Hobby Lobby to be displayed at the Museum of the Bible in …

CBS News reports: Day two back on the job for thousands of workers at Chicago’s Ford assembly plant did not go as planned. Many were forced to leave early after two employees tested positive for COVID-19. CBS 2’s Charlie De Mar spoke with some employees who have mixed feelings about being back on the line. Some of those employees, of …

NPR reports: You will not find a citizenship question on the 2020 census forms. But in the months since federal courts permanently blocked the Trump administration from asking the hotly-contested question for this year’s national head count, the administration has been pushing ahead with a backup plan — amassing government records to try to determine the U.S. citizenship status of …

NBC News reports: As federal workers file out of the State Department at the end of a Washington workday, an elite group is often just arriving in the marbled, flag-lined lobby: Billionaire CEOs, Supreme Court justices, political heavyweights and ambassadors arrive in evening attire as they’re escorted by private elevator to dinner with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Until the …

Courthouse News reports: A pair of Republican lawmakers in California say they’re prepping a bill aimed at restricting the unprecedented power wielded by Governor Gavin Newsom during the Covid-19 health emergency. The bill by Assemblymen James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, and Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin [photo], seeks to end Newsom’s emergency powers by enacting a resolution that overturns the state’s declaration of …

The Texas Tribune reports: A federal judge opened a path for a massive expansion in absentee voting in Texas by ordering Tuesday that all state voters, regardless of age, qualify for mail-in ballots during the coronavirus pandemic. Days after a two-hour preliminary injunction hearing in San Antonio, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery agreed with individual Texas voters and the Texas …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Wednesday threatened to withhold federal funding to Michigan after the state’s Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) announced all of the state’s registered voters would receive applications for absentee ballots in the mail this year. Trump charged that the step was done “illegally” and threatened to withhold funding if the state did not reverse …

The Washington Post reports: A new ad bluntly urging people to vote on behalf of fellow Americans who have died of the coronavirus offers a glimpse of how Democrats are gearing up to use the pandemic against President Trump heading into November. The spot, produced for a political action committee affiliated with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), closes with a montage …

Yahoo News reports: Former Vice President Joe Biden, speaking publicly for the first time about President Trump’s controversial announcement Monday that he was taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent coronavirus infection, reacted, as many Americans did, with bafflement. “It’s like saying maybe if you inject Clorox into your blood it may cure you,” Biden said at a Yahoo News town hall on …

“When did to the liberal media get so uptight about drugs all of a sudden? I mean, these people push medical marijuana on the entire country. I mean, like Silicon Valley’s micro-dosing. And if you’re a rich Democrat and you get cancer, you can fly to Germany for an experimental treatment. “I mean, are you kidding me? I would love …

The African News Agency reports: A popular Cameroonian pastor has died less than a week after being diagnosed with Covid-19, leaving hundreds of his supporters panicked after the man had laid hands on them in an effort to “cure” them of the infection. Pastor Frankline Ndifor was also a candidate in the central African state’s last presidential election. Cameroon police …

Politico reports: The Trump campaign has an order from the president: Find a way to get him back on the road and into mega-rallies to re-energize his base. In recent meetings with top campaign officials and White House aides, Trump has questioned why he’s avoiding campaign events if it‘s safe for him to travel in his official capacity. Some White …

The Associated Press reports: Republican political operatives are recruiting “extremely pro-Trump” doctors to go on television to prescribe reviving the U.S. economy as quickly as possible, without waiting to meet safety benchmarks proposed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. The plan was discussed in a May 11 conference call …

Deadline Hollywood reports:  This is a shocker: Ruby Rose, the star of the CW’s freshman drama series Batwoman, is leaving the Warner Bros. TV/Berlanti Prods. drama after one season. The series, which already has been renewed for a second season, will continue with the title role getting recast. Orange Is the New Black alumna Rose returned to the small screen …

Via email from hate group leader Tony Perkins: When the dust settles from the coronavirus — months, maybe even years from now — there will be a lot of storylines from the crisis that were never told. One of the biggest, history will show, is about this president. Like most leaders in his position, he’d never faced a tragedy of …

The Washington Post reports: A North Dakota construction firm that has received backing from President Trump has now secured the largest border wall contract ever awarded, a $1.3 billion deal to build 42 miles of black-painted fencing through the rugged mountains of southern Arizona. The company that won the contract, Fisher Sand and Gravel, has been repeatedly lauded by the …

Axios reports: 35 of the 92 people (38%) who attended services at a rural Arkansas church March 6–11 tested positive for the coronavirus, ultimately killing three, according to a case study released Tuesday by the CDC. Why it matters: Places of worship continue to be a problem for controlling the widespread transmission of the coronavirus, especially as some churches and …

“The mob, the media go insane, as we’ve been discussing, over hydroxychloroquine. Forgetting the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons endorsed it. “And then they get the conspiracy theories over at MSDNC, the conspiracy theory state-run socialist television network of the Democratic Socialist Party. This time claiming the president’s doctor is lying, the president’s not actually taking hydroxychloroquine. “Uh, OK …

Newsweek reports: The CEO of Australia’s largest airline said Tuesday the company does not plan to enforce social distancing measures on planes due to concerns that doing so would require high increases in passenger fares. The announcement by Qantas Airlines Limited’s Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce came as airlines around the world work on strategies to increase in-flight COVID-19 protections …