The Washington Post reports: The political maelstrom swirling around coronavirus vaccines may be to blame for a higher rate of excess deaths among registered Republicans in Ohio and Florida during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study published yesterday. The report in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine underscores the partisan divide over coronavirus vaccines that have saved lives but continued …

Mediaite reports: Immediately after the news of college basketball player Bronny James suffering cardiac arrest, conspiracy theorists were quick to blame the Covid-19 vaccine. TMZ reported Tuesday that Bronny — the oldest son of NBA superstar LeBron James — was hospitalized Monday morning after going into cardiac arrest at a basketball workout. He’s since been moved out of the ICU …

The Daily Beast reports: Dan Wootton, a former star reporter at Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper, has been accused of creating bogus online identities to trick and bribe men into sending him sexually compromising images. Byline News first reported Wootton had targeted media colleagues, friends, and members of the public for more than a decade, posing as a fictitious celebrity agent …

Axios reports: Seven Republican presidential candidates appear to have qualified for the Republican National Committee’s first 2024 debate on August 23. The Fox News debate presents an opportunity for Republican 2024 hopefuls to try to launch their campaigns — but they’re likely to face the absence of Republican frontrunner Trump. Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, …

Politico reports: Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign is expanding the number of staff it’s cutting to include more than a third of his payroll as the Florida governor looks to get his primary bid back on track. The cuts, which were confirmed by advisers, will amount to a total of 38 jobs shed across an array of departments. They will include …

Florida Politics reports: The DeSantis campaign is marketing official “Team DeSantis” membership cards. They’re sleekly designed, black and show anyone who asks that cardholders are on board with what the candidate calls the “Great American Comeback.” DeSantis has a lot of deep-pocketed backers, but the membership card is targeting those of more modest means. “By donating $47 or more today, …

The Texas Tribune reports: Joy Alonzo, a respected opioid expert, was in a panic. The Texas A&M University professor had just returned home from giving a routine lecture on the opioid crisis at the University of Texas Medical Branch when she learned a student had accused her of disparaging Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick [photo] during the talk. In the few …

CNBC reports: UPS and the union representing more than 300,000 workers at the package carrier reached a preliminary labor deal, narrowly avoiding a strike that was set to start in the coming days if the two sides failed to strike a deal. “Together we reached a win-win-win agreement on the issues that are important to Teamsters leadership, our employees and …

The Washington Post reports: House Democrats are preparing to file a censure resolution targeting a Republican lawmaker for the second week in a row, this time against far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Freshman Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) is expected to introduce the censure this afternoon, which would condemn Greene for fanning “the flames of racism, antisemitism, LGBTQ hate speech, …

Reuters reports: Elon Musk plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether the Securities and Exchange Commission overstepped its authority in enforcing a consent decree that he has called a “muzzle” on his free speech. Musk would be appealing a decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit of Appeals in Manhattan to uphold the decree, which arose from his …

“Every headline that comes out in media — I don’t even know if I would recognize the Daily Beast as a valuable media source — but the Daily Beast, you know, they come out with these leaks and, you know, I read a little bit more reputable newspapers, but listen, they come out with this for a reason, and everything …

ABC News reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis was not injured after he was involved in a car crash in Tennessee on Tuesday morning, according to his press secretary. The governor was on the way to an event when the crash happened in Chattanooga. His team was also uninjured. Campaign press secretary Bryan Griffin released the following statement: “This morning, the governor …

The Texas Tribune reports: Lawyers for suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton are pushing to disqualify three Democratic state senators as jurors in his upcoming impeachment trial. Paxton’s lawyers filed a motion Friday that asks Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to disqualify Sens. Nathan Johnson of Dallas, Roland Gutierrez of San Antonio and José Menéndez of San Antonio, arguing they have a …

Posted to the Family Research Council’s website: The film’s message (the phrase “underlying message” would imply a degree of subtlety that writers Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach clearly decided to club to death with hot pink and magenta baseball bats) was by no means a novel one and is the same tired, exponentially-worsening schtick feminists have screeched for decades. This …

The Washington Post reports: The political world is watching closely to see if and when Donald Trump is indicted — again. Trump announced on social media last week that he’d received a “target” letter in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the election. Such letters are often precursors to criminal charges, as was the case recently in …

“In their quest for power, radical elements within the Democrat Party have abandoned any pretense of fairness, tolerance, and justice. “In their woke new world, Democrat strategists use unscrupulous lawfare tactics to skew our election system, even as weaponized bureaucracies like the Department of Justice, FBI and National Archives—now under Democratic control—seek to destroy the Republican Party and its de …

Dallas’s NBC affiliate reports: Defend Texas Liberty PAC has urged Republican lawmakers to vote against removing impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton. Campaign records published Tuesday show the group also gave a $1 million donation and a $2 million loan to the presiding officer over the Paxton case in the Texas Senate — Republican Lt. Governor Dan Patrick. Luke Macias, director …

NBC News reports: A graphic designer and activist who made TikTok content debunking the claim by Jason Aldean that his controversial music video only uses “real news footage” has been facing a wave of racist and violent hate mail by defenders of his song. Destinee Stark is among the first who publicly criticized Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” …

“They are doing anything they can to take down my father. Everybody forgets that Jack Smith’s wife was the one who did the Michelle Obama documentary. “I mean, isn’t it really convenient that she’s team Michelle Obama and happens to be the person that’s going after Donald Trump when, in a Harvard Harris poll this morning, my father’s leading Biden …

The New York Post reports: Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) is begging GOP megadonors to help stop former President Donald Trump from easily clinching the party’s nomination in the 2024 race. The 2012 Republican presidential nominee urged party powerbrokers to condition their donations on a demand that candidates promise to drop out and coalesce around the most viable anti-Trump contender by …