BREAKING NEWS

CNN reports: Joe Biden will become the 46th president of the United States, CNN projects, after a victory in the state where he was born put him over the 270 electoral votes needed to win. With Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes, Biden now has a total of 273 electoral votes. Before becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, Biden served as vice president …

NPR reports: U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen today threw out a suit challenging the legality of some 127,000 votes cast at drive-through voting sites in the Houston area. He ruled the plaintiffs don’t have legal standing to sue. Harris County, Texas’ most populous county, and majority-Democratic, erected ten tents to expedite the early voting process, as a way of …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump is expected to be taken to Walter Reed Medical Center Friday afternoon according to two administration officials, less then 24-hours after testing positive for the deadly coronavirus. Earlier today, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters that Trump is experiencing “mild symptoms” after he and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for …

The New York Times reports: President Trump said early Friday morning that he and the first lady have tested positive for the coronavirus, throwing the nation’s leadership into uncertainty and escalating the crisis posed by a pandemic that has already killed more than 207,000 Americans and devastated the economy. The president’s physician said Mr. Trump was “well” without saying whether …

The Daily Beast reports: Conservative operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman were charged on Thursday for allegedly orchestrating a series of robocalls aimed at suppressing the vote in the November presidential election, Michigan authorities said. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a slew of charges against Burkman, 54, and Wohl, 22, including conspiracy to commit an election law violation and …

The Miami Herald reports: Former Trump campaign manager Bradley Parscale was was involuntarily committed to a hospital Sunday at his Fort Lauderdale home after his wife reported that he was suicidal, according to police. Police say officers responded just before 4 p.m. to a home north of Las Olas Boulevard that property records show was purchased last year by Parscale …

The Louisville Courier Journal reports: Jefferson County grand jury has indicted one of three Louisville officers will face criminal charges in the March 13 fatal police shooting of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor. It was announced Wednesday. Former detective Brett Hankison was indicted on three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment. Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly was not indicted. Detective Myles Cosgrove was not indicted. …

NPR reports: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the demure firebrand who in her 80s became a legal, cultural, and feminist icon has died. The Supreme Court announced her death, saying the cause was complications from cancer. Architect of the legal fight for women’s rights in the 1970s, Ginsburg subsequently served 27 years on the nation’s highest court, becoming its most prominent …

Reuters reports: In a claim likely to intensify the controversy surrounding one of the most influential figures in the American Christian conservative movement, a business partner of Jerry Falwell Jr has come forward to say he had a years-long sexual relationship involving Falwell’s wife and the evangelical leader. Giancarlo Granda says he was 20 when he met Jerry and Becki …

Just in from the Justice Department: Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Philip R. Bartlett, Inspector-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the United States Postal Inspection Service (“USPIS”), announced the unsealing of an indictment charging BRIAN KOLFAGE, STEPHEN BANNON, ANDREW BADOLATO, and TIMOTHY SHEA for their roles in defrauding …

NPR reports: Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has picked California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate. The selection will make Harris just the third woman — and first African American — to be nominated for vice president by a major political party. “You make a lot of important decisions as president. But the first …

The BBC reports: A large blast in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, has killed at least 50 people and injured more than 2,700 others, the health minister says. It is not yet clear what caused the explosion. Videos show smoke billowing from a fire before the blast, which is followed by a mushroom cloud. Hospitals are said to be overwhelmed and …

The Guardian reports: A massive explosion has rocked central Beirut that shattered windows, knocked down doors and shook buildings several hundred feet away. The source of the blast, which appeared to occur around the Lebanese capital’s port, is unclear. An enormous cloud of smoke could be seen from across the city and witnesses said there were reports of a fire …

The Daily Beast reports: In a highly anticipated decision, the Supreme Court reversed a Louisiana abortion law that opponents say would close all but one abortion clinic in the state and have lasting repercussions for reproductive rights across the country. The 5-4 decision in June Medical Services v. Russo, written by Justice Breyer, will have effects far beyond Louisiana. Abortion …

NBC News reports: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration cannot carry out its plan to shut down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has allowed nearly 800,000 young people, known as “Dreamers,” to avoid deportation and remain in the U.S. The decision is a big legal defeat for President Donald Trump on the issue …

NBC News reports: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that existing federal law forbids job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, a major victory for advocates of gay rights — and a surprising one from an increasingly conservative court. The decision said Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it illegal for employers to discriminate …

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports: Attorney General Keith Ellison [photo] plans to elevate charges against the former Minneapolis police officer who knelt on George Floyd’s neck while adding charges of aiding and abetting murder against the other three officers at the scene, according to multiple law enforcement sources familiar with the case. Ellison is expected to provide an update this afternoon …

Minneapolis’s CBS News affiliate reports: Fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been arrested days after George Floyd’s fatal arrest that sparked protests and outcry across the city and nation. On Friday, John Harrington, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, announced that Chauvin has been taken into custody in connection with the May 25 death. Chauvin is the …

The New York Times reports: Larry Kramer, the noted writer whose raucous, antagonistic campaign for an all-out response to the AIDS crisis helped shift national health policy in the 1980s and ’90s, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 84. His husband, David Webster, said the cause was pneumonia. Mr. Kramer had weathered illness for much of his adult life. …

The Associated Press reports: Canadian police said at least 10 people were killed after a 51-year-old man went on a shooting rampage across the northern part of the province of Nova Scotia. The man was identified as Gabriel Wortman [photo]. He was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in a gas station in Enfield, Nova Scotia, northwest of downtown …