Courthouse News reports: Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, who was recently sent back to prison after being released to home confinement due to Covid-19, claims in a lawsuit filed Monday that he is being punished for writing — and intending to publish — a book critical of the president. While released to home confinement, the president’s former attorney was photographed …

Politico reports: Donald Trump Jr. has a new book coming out next month, and he’ll have a powerful ally helping him sell it: the Republican National Committee. The RNC is buying copies of the first son’s forthcoming “Liberal Privilege,” which it will offer to donors who contribute at least $75. The committee orchestrated a similar fundraising campaign last year around …

ProPublica reports: Companies owned by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and his family received up to $24 million from one of the federal government’s key coronavirus economic relief programs, according to data made public Monday. At least six companies from Justice’s empire showed up on the list of Paycheck Protection Program aid recipients released by the Small Business Administration. The …

Reuters reports: Rapper Kanye West posted a series of tweets late on Monday claiming his wife was trying to have him locked up on medical grounds, comparing himself to Nelson Mandela and suggesting the movie “Get Out” was based on his own life. The late night flurry of activity on West’s official Twitter account – the bulk of which was …

The Washington Post reports: On Monday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson made a surprising accusation: the New York Times, he said, was trying to endanger him and his family by revealing where they live in an upcoming story. As he lambasted the newspaper on-air, Carlson suggested that his prime-time show could expose the home addresses of the reporter and …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni took to Instagram over the weekend to tease their reunion in the upcoming Law & Order: SVU spinoff. Hargitay posted a close-up photo of the two, simply captioned “It’s on.” As previously reported, the spinoff titled Law & Order: Organized Crime will be headlined by Meloni reprising his role as Elliot Stabler. …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump tweeted an image of himself wearing a face mask and indirectly called the act “patriotic” on Monday — a clear pivot away from his earlier reluctance to wear a facial covering in public. The shift to encouraging mask-wearing was primarily motivated by floundering poll numbers. For months, aides tried to get Trump to wear a …

Joe Biden writes for Medium: In spite of President Trump’s failure to act, America’s adversaries must not misjudge the resolve of the American people to counter every effort by a foreign power to interfere in our democracy, whether by hacking voting systems and databases, laundering money into our political system, systematically spreading disinformation, or trying to sow doubt about the …

The New York Times reports: Teachers unions sued Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Monday over his administration’s emergency order pushing schools to fully reopen next month even as coronavirus cases in the state are surging. The suit, which appears to be the first of its kind across the country, sets up a confrontation between unions and politicians that could …

“What happened in Portland over the weekend, it was not only unlawful and unconstitutional, it’s just plain wrong. Sending armed, untrained police into the streets wearing fatigues without the knowledge or consent of the local police actually caused more violence. All the people that they arrested, they didn’t file one criminal complaint. “You have a lot of peaceful demonstrators. The …

The Washington Examiner reports: Two female former Fox News employees have sued the network over claims that its most popular on-air talents sexually harassed them. Jennifer Eckhart and Cathy Areu filed a lawsuit in federal court on Monday alleging that Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Howard Kurtz, Gianno Caldwell and Ed Henry, who was fired earlier this month, of sexual misconduct …

St. Louis’s ABC News affiliate reports: St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has filed charges against a St. Louis couple who confronted protesters with guns in June, 5 On Your Side has learned. Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the Central West End couple who confronted protesters June 28 with a rifle and a gun in Mayor Lyda Krewson’s neighborhood, have been …

Via press release: The Washington Nationals are thrilled to announce that Nats super-fan, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has accepted our invitation to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day, Thursday, July 23. Dr. Fauci has been a true champion for our country during the Covid-19 pandemic and throughout his …

The Daily Beast reports: A week after he publicly donned a face mask for the first time following months of refusal, President Donald Trump — who still opposes a nationwide mask mandate — posted a photo of himself with a face mask while declaring that “many people say” that it’s “patriotic” to wear a mask. On Monday morning, meanwhile, U.S. …

“There’s data out there, there’s scientific evidence now of who this affects and who it doesn’t, and kids are the least likely to have a problem with this. “These kids have got to get back to school. They’re at the lowest risk possible, and if they do get COVID-19, which they will — and they will when they go to …

USA Today reports: Dollar Tree and Family Dollar have reversed course. The two retailers, both part of Dollar Tree, Inc., had initially started requiring shoppers wear masks along with vendors and employees in stores, according to a July 8 update on its coronavirus updates page. But the company updated its mask policy last week to “request” face coverings in stores …

Axios reports: Duval County Sheriff Mike Williams told Politico that security plans put forth for the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, Florida, next month are “not achievable” under current time constraints. Why it matters: The decision to move most of the RNC’s programming to Jacksonville last month has already come under scrutiny due to a massive surge in coronavirus cases …

Politico reports: A test run of one of Donald Trump’s most important voter-contact programs was abruptly shut down over the July 4 weekend, potentially costing the president millions of dollars in donations and raising alarms about whether the initiative will face roadblocks in the run-up to the election. Trump’s campaign used the weekend to test-drive its text messaging program, a …

Ketchikan’s NPR affiliate reports: An ordinance that prohibits discrimination against LGTBQ individuals in Ketchikan city limits was passed today. The local law was approved by the Ketchikan City Council over the objections of religious advocates. Though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this summer that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender …

The Daily Beast reports: The gunman who shot the husband and son of a federal judge in New Jersey is believed to be a lawyer and men’s rights activist who was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound hours later, two law-enforcement sources told The Daily Beast. Roy Den Hollander was discovered in the upstate New York town of …