House lawmakers called on General Services Administration Administrator Emily Murphy to provide a briefing to Congress on her delays in ascertaining Joe Biden’s election win.

Susan Walsh/AP


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Susan Walsh/AP

House lawmakers called on General Services Administration Administrator Emily Murphy to provide a briefing to Congress on her delays in ascertaining Joe Biden’s election win.

Susan Walsh/AP

Top House Democrats have sent a letter demanding that General Services Administration Chief Emily W. Murphy brief lawmakers on why she has yet to ascertain Joe Biden’s election win — a necessary first-step before the president-elect can receive resources for a transition of government.

The move comes as President Trump and his campaign have refused to concede the election, instead contesting results from the Nov. 3 vote in a series of failed lawsuits. Murphy, who was appointed by Trump in 2017, has so far withheld her official decision.

“We have been extremely patient, but we can wait no longer,” Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., and Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rep. Nita M. Lowey, D-N.Y., wrote.

The formal presidential transition doesn’t begin until the GSA administrator ascertains the “apparent successful candidate,” in accordance with the Presidential Transition Act of 1963. There are no specifics on how that determination should be made, however.

The senior lawmakers gave Murphy until Monday to provide the briefing. They warned in a letter sent to her sent Thursday that depending on the information provided in the briefing, that she, along with her deputy, chief of staff, and general counsel, might have to take part in a public hearing to explain themselves.

Congress appropriated millions of dollars in transition funding on Oct. 1. However, without Murphy’s official “ascertainment” of Biden’s win, his transition team can’t begin to access resources and important briefings to prepare for him for the White House.

“Your actions in blocking transition activities required under the law are having grave effects, including undermining the orderly transfer of power, impairing the incoming Administration’s ability to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, hampering its ability to address our nation’s dire economic crisis, and endangering our national security,” the letter said.

Oversight and Reform Committee’s Government Operations Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, D-Va., and Appropriations Committee’s Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., also signed the letter.

Murphy’s delay continues to be a real concern for the Biden team as it tries to prepare a coronavirus response plan that can be implemented on day one and to establish a system for distributing vaccines when they become available.

“Unfortunately — because of the lack of ascertainment by the GSA — my transition team hasn’t been able to get access to the information we need to be able to deal with everything from testing and guidance to the all-important issue of vaccine distribution and vaccination plan,” Biden said Thursday. “We haven’t been able to get into Operation Warp Speed,” he said, referring to the Trump administration’s plan for accelerating vaccine development.

The pandemic aside, some experts say any additional delay in transitioning to Biden’s administration may also impact national security.

The lawmakers also want to question Murphy and others on her team about the “last-minute actions” by the White House that altered the GSA’s leadership team leading up to the election.

In September, Trump issued an executive order which added the general counsel of the GSA as fourth in line to lead the agency. Trump then installed former White House lawyer Trent J. Benishek as the GSA’s new general counsel just a week before the election.

To House Democrats, these changes are suspicious.

“We do not know why these actions were taken, but they raise questions about whether the White House may be placing undue pressure” on Murphy to delay granting Biden access to post-election resources, the lawmakers said in their letter. “Our concerns are even more heightened in light of the President’s erratic decisions to fire other department and agency heads.”

A spokesperson for the GSA wasn’t immediately available to comment.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2020/11/20/936929823/top-house-democrats-demand-biden-transition-briefing-from-gsa-chief

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/11/19/rudy-giuliani-invokes-my-cousin-vinny-films-director-reacts/6346964002/

What is that stuff running down Rudy Giuliani’s face? Is it hair dye? Has his brain-coal been liquefied by all the lies?

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/20/along-with-everything-else-trump-has-killed-satire-as-well

“It would require halting the certification of results in a state election in which millions of people have voted,” the judge said. “It would interfere with an election after the voting was done.”

The judge also seemed to allude to the acrimonious atmosphere surrounding the election as a reason to be wary about interfering in the process as Wood requested.

“It harms the public interest in countless ways, particularly in the environment in which this election occurred,” Grimberg said. “To halt the certification at literally the 11th hour would breed confusion and potentially disenfranchisement that I find has no basis in fact or in law.”

Much of Wood’s suit complained about a consent decree, reached in March, that requires officials to try to contact a voter before disqualifying a mail-in ballot because of a signature that does not appear to match the one on file.

However, Russ Willard, a lawyer in the Georgia attorney general’s office, said there was no legitimate reason for Wood to come to court eight months later to object to that widely publicized deal.

“Plaintiff attempts to change the rules at the end of the game in order to alter the score,” Willard said

Grimberg agreed on that account, too, saying that the unreasonable delay cut against Wood’s request for a restraining order. But the judge’s ruling did offer a glimmer of hope for Trump backers. He said he might have viewed the suit differently if it had been brought by the Trump campaign itself or even by the Republican Party.

“Neither the Republican Party nor the Trump campaign nor any other candidate has joined this lawsuit,” the judge said. “That certainly would have changed the analysis when it comes to standing.”

Wood quickly vowed an appeal, but Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani has also signaled that the campaign may file its own federal lawsuit in Georgia as soon as Friday.

Some of the claims Wood put forward as evidence of fraud or malfeasance during the hearing on Thursday seemed to disintegrate under close scrutiny.

Wood’s attorney Ray Smith said that the percentage of mail-in votes rejected by election officials dropped sharply in the recent election, suggesting that authorities were overlooking fraud and errors now that would have been caught in the past.

But Willard said the change reflected the fact that after elections in 2018, the Georgia Legislature eliminated some requirements for absentee ballots, including the rule that such voters had to write their dates of birth on the return envelope. Many were reluctant to do that for privacy reasons, so they left it blank, he said. This year, there was no such requirement, so those rejections were not an issue.

An audit of the election results that officials completed on Thursday led to Trump closing the gap with Biden by about 2,000 votes, but still outside of striking range.

The Trump campaign did score a modest win in Pennsylvania on Thursday evening as a state appeals court panel ruled, 2-1, in favor of a Republican candidate’s bid to disqualify 2,349 mail-in ballots in the Pittsburgh area that lacked a date next to the voter’s signature.

That ruling could be appealed further to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. If upheld, it could lower Biden’s vote total, but doesn’t seem like a path for Trump to overcome the roughly 81,000-vote lead that Biden has in the state.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/19/federal-judge-rejects-trump-allys-bid-block-election-certification-georgia-438563

California will impose a “limited” but mandatory stay-at-home order and overnight curfew on most residents in a ramped-up effort to slow a spike in COVID-19 cases, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday afternoon.

Starting this Saturday night, non-essential work, movement and gatherings will be prohibited between the hours of 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily, according to a news release from the governor’s office. The order will last a month and is set to expire at 5 a.m. on Dec. 21, but it could be extended as needed.

The order will impact all counties in the most-restrictive purple tier, which includes every one in Southern California.

“The virus is spreading at a pace we haven’t seen since the start of this pandemic and the next several days and weeks will be critical to stop the surge. We are sounding the alarm,” Newsom said in the release. “It is crucial that we act to decrease transmission and slow hospitalizations before the death count surges. We’ve done it before and we must do it again.”

The new stay-at-home order is more targeted than the first one imposed back in March, which impacted every county and was in effect around the clock.

This one is limited to late-night and overnight hours because that’s often when people are more likely to engage in social activities and gatherings that could lead to an increased risk of transmission, the release explained.

Under the latest order, nonessential businesses must close by curfew, but essential businesses — such as grocery and drug stores — can remain open after hours, officials said.

Restaurants will also be allowed to offer takeout after 10 p.m., and residents can still walk their dogs and perform some other routine activities even during the curfew.

People experiencing homelessness are exempt from the curfew restrictions.

In an afternoon news briefing, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly credited the order back in March in keeping the number of cases down at the beginning of the pandemic.

“We saw its impact back in March, those difficult days adjusting to the reality of COVID. But that kept us ahead of the curve,” he said. “And just like then, today’s actions will help us bring down transmission and flatten our curve, this time in a very important and urgent way.”

The order was issued just days after the state imposed tougher restrictions on numerous businesses and sectors amid a rapid acceleration of COVID-19 infections statewide.

California on Thursday reported 11,478 new cases of coronavirus over the previous 24 hours, the state’s highest single-day number to date during the pandemic. The seven-day average has ticked upwards to 9,665, according to Ghaly.

The state’s testing positivity rate has also increased at a concerning rate, nearly doubling to 5% over the past 14 days in just a few weeks, Ghaly said.

But California is hardly alone in seeing a surge of new infections. The virus hasn’t spared any part of the U.S., Ghaly noted, pointing to record-high rates of hospitalizations and people entering intensive care in virtually every region of the country. On top of that, more than 1 million new cases have been reported nationwide in just the last seven days.

“We have to take care of the urgency of the day, and in California, as we’ve enjoyed lower rates of transmission, lower number of cases, we too are seeing this surge growing faster and faster, and we must address it immediately,” Ghaly said.

On Monday, Newsom pulled the “emergency brake” on reopening the state’s economy and announced that 30 of the state’s 58 counties would be pushed back to more restrictive phases in the the state’s four-tiered system that has guided sector reopenings since August.

Orange and Ventura counties, which had previously been in the red tier — the second-most restrictive stage — were among those that moved backward.

Forty-one counties in total are currently in the purple tier, accounting for 94% of the state’s population, according to the release.

Earlier this week, California health officials also strengthened the state’s mask mandate, requiring Californians to wear a face covering while outside their homes, with a limited number of exceptions.

And late last week, the state issued a travel advisory urging people entering California to self-quarantine for 14 days after the state became the second in the U.S. to surpass 1 million coronavirus cases, after Texas.

Without the new and enhanced measures, officials said they fear there will be an “unprecedented surge” in hospitalizations if COVID-19 cases continue to rise sharply, something that could overrun the state’s health care system.

Hospitalizations have already climbed roughly 64% in the last two weeks, while the number of ICU beds occupied has increased by 40.5% over the same period, Ghaly said Thursday. He added that approximately 12% of people who test positive for the coronavirus today will likely be in the hospital in two to three weeks.

Officials are also concerned that Thanksgiving next week will only exacerbate the situation, with people heading out to celebrate the holiday with friends and family after largely being isolated from others for months.

Because of that, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday updated its guidance for Thanksgiving, advising Americans to avoid traveling and canceling their plans if possible in favor of a smaller celebration limited to members of their immediate household.

Source Article from https://ktla.com/news/california/california-to-impose-limited-stay-at-home-order-curfew-in-purple-tier-counties-all-socal-counties-impacted/


California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a COVID-19 testing facility Friday, Oct. 30, 2020, in Valencia, Calif. | AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

OAKLAND, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered California into a statewide curfew, escalating his response to rapidly rising coronavirus numbers.

More than 94 percent of Californians must remain in their homes between 10 p.m and 5 a.m. unless performing essential activities. The requirement applies to the 41 counties that have landed in the state’s most restrictive tier due to wide coronavirus spread.

“The virus is spreading at a pace we haven’t seen since the start of this pandemic and the next several days and weeks will be critical to stop the surge. We are sounding the alarm,” Newsom said in a statement. “It is crucial that we act to decrease transmission and slow hospitalizations before the death count surges. We’ve done it before and we must do it again.”

The curfew will start Saturday night at 10 p.m. and last until 5 a.m. on Dec. 21, more than a full month. To explain the curfew, Newsom’s statement essentially said higher spread occurs during activities fueled by inebriation and late night antics.

“Activities conducted during 10 PM to 5 AM are often non-essential and more likely related to social activities and gatherings that have a higher likelihood of leading to reduced inhibition and reduced likelihood for adherence to safety measures like wearing a face covering and maintaining physical distance,” the statement said.

Even before Newsom issued the order, local law enforcement vowed to defy it. Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said in a statement Thursday afternoon that he would not enforce “any health or emergency orders related to curfews, staying at home, Thanksgiving or other social gatherings inside or outside the home, maximum occupancy, or mask mandates.”

The order will likely deepen resentment among those opposed to Newsom’s efforts to reimpose tough measures to contain the virus. Assemblymember Devon Mathis (R-Visalia) excoriated Newsom for a “huge overreach,” especially considering a vaccine is on the horizon.

“They’re clearly targeting people having parties,” Mathis said.

The directive appears to prohibit people from different households from spending time together past 10 p.m., even at a private residence. It does not apply to people who are homeless. The order was formally issued Thursday by Acting State Public Health Officer Erica S. Pan.

It exempts trips to grocery stores, pharmacies and food retailers, as well as workers performing essential functions, which range from health care to public safety.

Virtually the entire state now lives in a county that must adhere to the toughest level of guidelines, slamming the door on indoor dining, church services and various forms of commerce. All of Southern California and the Central Valley, plus most of the Bay Area, must adhere to the curfew.

Newsom and public health officials have warned the state is entering a perilous new phase and have urged against large gatherings during the coming holidays.

Los Angeles had already instituted a lighter curfew that ordered businesses to shut their doors between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. starting Friday. If cases breach the 4,500 per day threshold in the county, California’s largest, there are plans to clamp down further with a renewed stay-at-home order. Officials have also further limited the capacity of restaurants and retail shops and the size of social gatherings.

Newsom is tightening his state’s restrictions as he navigates a sustained firestorm of criticism over his decision to attend a birthday celebration for a top aide and lobbyist at the French Laundry, an elite fine dining destination. Executives from the California Medical Association joined.

The backlash has extended to Capitol Hill, where Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) mocked Newsom from the House floor on Thursday for ignoring his own “idiotic Covid edicts as he partied at one of the few restaurants that’s not yet been forced out of business.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told a POLITICO reporter that Newsom had “lost a lot of credibility.”

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/11/19/newsom-orders-california-curfew-as-coronavirus-cases-surge-1337271

Before being elected to the Senate in 2015, Mr. Shirkey served four years in the Michigan House of Representatives, worked for General Motors, and founded Orbitform, which produces prototypes for manufacturers at a facility in the southern part of the state.

He will be forced to retire under the state’s term limits law on Jan. 1, 2023.

In his interview with Bridge Michigan, he went further than most Republicans in accepting Mr. Biden’s win, urging Mr. Trump to begin facilitating the transition.

“I do think that it’s inappropriate for the Trump administration to not start sharing information,” Mr. Shirkey said.

Mr. Chatfield has been more equivocal, tweeting on Nov. 6 that every “legal vote needs to be counted” and “whoever gets the most votes will win Michigan! Period. End of story. Then we move on.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/us/mike-shirkey-a-michigan-republican-who-will-meet-with-trump-said-this-week-he-would-not-override-bidens-victory.html

“Numerous courts, election officials from both parties, and even officials within Trump’s own administration, have all reaffirmed that claims of widespread voter fraud are categorically false,” Gwin said.

“In fact, lawyers for Trump have admitted that in papers filed in court and under direct questioning from judges,” he said. “No matter how hard Trump and the flailing Giuliani try, they cannot overturn the will of the American people, who resoundingly picked Joe Biden to be the next President of the United States.”

Chris Krebs, whom Trump fired via Twitter on Tuesday as head of Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in his own tweet Thursday said, “That press conference was the most dangerous 1hr 45 minutes of television in American history.”

“And possibly the craziest. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’re lucky,” Krebs tweeted.

Krebs on Election Day had said on Twitter from his government account that “allegations that election systems were manipulated … have been unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent.”

Krebs’ comments angered Trump, who claimed there had been “massive improprieties and fraud.” Those claims that have not been substantiated.

Hours before his press conference, the Trump campaign withdrew its federal lawsuit challenging ballots in Wayne County, Michigan.

Earlier in the week, Trump allies in multiple battleground states, including Michigan, withdrew their own lawsuits that were geared toward reversing Biden’s victories in those states.

And despite the claims of widespread voter fraud by Giuliani, other lawyers for the president, and Trump himself, the U.S. Justice Department — the executive branch agency that would be empowered to prosecute any multi-state conspiracy to rig a federal election — has taken no action to suggest any of those claims are based in fact.

That has left the Trump campaign relying on recounts and lawsuits in a handful of states for its effort to overturn Biden’s victory. Legal analysts and political experts give Trump little chance of doing so.

Biden, the former Democratic vice president, is projected to win 306 Electoral College votes when those votes are cast next month.

That is 36 more electoral votes than a candidate needs to win the presidency.

Since the national popular vote was called for Biden, Trump has, uncharacteristically for him, largely stayed out of the public eye as he refuses to concede the election.

The presumptive lame duck also has been firing off broadsides in tweets on which Twitter routinely slaps warning labels saying: “This claim about election fraud is disputed.”

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/19/biden-team-belittles-trump-lawyer-rudy-giuliani-for-vote-fraud-claims.html

Source Article from https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2020/11/19/trump-monica-palmer-wayne-canvassers-certification-election/3776190001/

The head of the Republican-leaning U.S. Chamber of Commerce is urging President Trump to move on with the transition to President-elect Joe Biden’s administration.

The chamber, which typically has favored Republican candidates who support lower taxes and fewer regulations, joins a chorus of business groups imploring Trump to stop delaying the transition to the next president while he challenges the vote counts in multiple states.

“President-elect Biden and the team around him have a wealth of executive branch experience that should allow them to hit the ground running,” chamber CEO Tom Donohue said in a statement provided to Axios. “While the Trump administration can continue litigating to confirm election outcomes, for the sake of American safety and well-being, it should not delay the transition a moment longer.”

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/11/19/trump-biden-stop-delaying-transition-chamber-of-commerce/3778635001/

Republican members of the Board of Canvassers in Wayne County, Mich., asked to rescind their votes to certify the election one day after casting them during a contentious meeting. 

The board’s GOP chairwoman, Monica Palmer, and board member William Hartmann signed affidavits on Wednesday stating that they only voted for the certification because other members promised a full audit of the county’s votes.

Palmer’s affidavit stated that “the Wayne County election had serious process flaws which deserve investigation. I continue to ask for information to assure Wayne County voters that these elections were conducted fairly and accurately.”

“Late in the evening, I was enticed to agree to certify based on the promise that a full and independent audit would take place. I would not have agreed to the certification but for the promise of an audit,” reads Hartmann’s affidavit.

It’s unclear what effects, if any, the two affidavits will have, as the board members already voted unanimously Tuesday night to certify the election results in the heavily Democratic county, which includes Detroit, Michigan’s largest city.

The two Republicans initially sought to delay certification, including in one instance  by moving during Tuesday’s proceedings to certify results from all parts of the county except Detroit.

The move provoked vocal outrage from Detroit residents during the Zoom proceedings and a swift condemnation from Detroit’s mayor, Mike Duggan (D).

“You could see the racism in the behavior last night,” the mayor said at a press conference on Wednesday. “American democracy cracked last night, but it didn’t break. But we are seeing a real threat to everything we believe in.”

Earlier this week, President-elect Joe BidenJoe BidenManufacturers association calls on GSA to begin transition process Biden vote tally getting close to 80 million AOC, progressive Dems attack corporate greed during health care discussion MORE had a nearly 150,000-vote lead over President TrumpDonald John TrumpManufacturers association calls on GSA to begin transition process Biden vote tally getting close to 80 million Brent Budowsky wins The Hill’s 2020 election prediction contest MORE in Michigan, which was called in Biden’s favor, and a nearly 40-point lead in Wayne County.

Updated at 8:55 a.m.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/526652-republicans-in-key-michigan-county-try-to-rescind-votes-to-certify


* Press release…

Future of the Democratic House Caucus

This year has presented us with many challenges and we have always put the betterment of the people of Illinois first. We want to see our caucus go a new direction with different leadership. Therefore, we will not be supporting the current speaker for the 102nd General Assembly.

Representative Jonathan Carroll
57th District

Representative Sam Yingling
62nd District

That’s 14.

If everyone who has said they won’t vote for Madigan (8 plus today’s 2) or said he should step aside and let someone else take over (4) actually stick to their guns, Speaker Madigan is now at 59 for the January election. That’s one short of the 60 he needs to win another term.

*** UPDATE 1 *** Rep. Will Guzzardi makes 15…

In so many ways, our state is at a crossroads. We face unprecedented political, economic, social, and public health crises. And they are compounded by Illinoisans’ lack of faith in our government to lead our state fairly and ethically.

The charges announced last night only confirm what we already knew: the old ways of doing business in Springfield will not be adequate to rise to our present challenges. We will need new, transformative leadership to meet this moment.

I join many of my fellow House members in asking Rep. Madigan not to seek re-election as Speaker of the Illinois House. If he does, we will not be voting for him. And without our votes, we do not believe he will have the requisite number to be re-elected as Speaker.

It is time for our House Democratic Caucus to decide on new leadership for the 102nd General Assembly. This is a historic moment, and I look forward to the discussion with my colleagues on a transformative new direction for our Caucus.

…Adding… Reps. Kelly Cassidy, Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, Terra Costa Howard, Maurice West, Bob Morgan, Anne Stava-Murray, Stephanie Kifowit and Lindsey LaPointe have all said they would not vote to reelect Madigan. Reps. Deb Conroy, Robyn Gabel, Anna Moeller and Ann Williams recently sent Madigan a letter asking him not to run again so somebody new could take his place. Add today’s three and that’s 15. The House Democrats will have 73 seats in the next General Assembly, so MJM is now two shy of the 60 he needs for reelection unless some folks get cold feet and flip back.

*** UPDATE 2 *** This seals it…

November 19, 2020

On November 8, 2020, we sent a letter to Speaker Madigan calling on him to step aside and make room for new leadership of the Illinois House in January. In the wake of yesterday’s expansive and far-reaching indictment, it has become even more clear that the Speaker will no longer be able to effectively lead the House Democratic caucus, and we will not be supporting him for Speaker.

We are committed to working collaboratively with our colleagues to identify the best path forward to protect working families, ensure access to healthcare, protect our environment and address other critical Democratic priorities.

Representative Deb Conroy – 46th District
Representative Robyn Gabel – 18th District
Representative Anna Moeller – 43rd District
Representative Ann M. Williams – 11th District

Source Article from https://capitolfax.com/2020/11/19/tipping-point-two-more-house-democrats-say-they-wont-vote-to-reelect-speaker-madigan/

The CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the powerful business lobbying group that long has backed Republican presidents, says President Donald Trump “should not delay the transition” to President-elect Joe Biden “a moment longer.”

Chamber of Commerce chief Tom Donohue pointedly called Biden the “president-elect” in a statement to media outlet Axios.com that urged Trump to allow federal officials to begin the transition process to the former Democratic vice president.

“President-elect Biden and the team around him have a wealth of executive branch experience that should allow them to hit the ground running,” Donohue told the news site.

Donohue also said that “while the Trump administration can continue litigating to confirm election outcomes, for the sake of Americans’ safety and well-being, it should not delay the transition a moment longer.”

A Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman referred CNBC to Donohue’s remarks to Axios when asked for comment from him.

Donohue’s group spends more money on lobbying than any other entity in the United States, a whopping $59.3 million this year, according to the political spending tracking site OpenSecrets.org. While the group’s political action committee increased its donations to Democratic candidates this year, its donations to Republicans were three times as much, according to OpenSecrets.

Trump has refused to concede the presidential election to Biden, falsely claiming to have won the election and alleging — without evidence — widespread voting fraud that benefitted his Democratic opponent to a decisive degree.

Emily Murphy, administrator of the federal General Services Administration, has failed to sign a letter of ascertainment that would recognize Biden as the next president and release funds for a transition to begin.

On Thursday, the leaders of another major business group, the National Association of Manufacturers, called on Murphy to sign the letter.

“While we understand and respect the court challenges that are a part of our democratic process, it’s imperative that our nation has a President and advisors who are fully prepared to lead our nation on Inauguration Day given the magnitude of the challenges ahead and the threats to our economic and national security, and most importantly, to the public health,” the manufacturing group said.

“It is highly appropriate that the Trump administration allow key individuals from the Biden team to access critical government personnel and information now.”

The group also said, “we call on the Trump administration to work cooperatively with President-elect Biden and his team.”

“There is no time to waste nor room for error. Manufacturers have been leading throughout these crises, and we know what is at stake: American lives and livelihoods.”

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/19/chamber-of-commerce-ceo-donohue-urges-trump-to-begin-biden-transition.html

Israel’s military occupation has received a symbolic US stamp of approval after Mike Pompeo toured an archaeological dig run by a far-right settler group and visited a settlement that farms grapes on land Palestinians say was stolen from them.

The trips on Wednesday and Thursday marked the first time a US secretary of state had officially visited settlements, a deeply provocative move that previous American administrations went to lengths to avoid.

Pompeo, who has been tipped to pursue a presidential bid in four years and whose base includes fervently pro-Israel evangelical Christians, flew by helicopter to Psagot Winery, which produces, among many wines, a blended red named in his honour.

The vineyard operates out of two settlements, Psagot, and its new location Sha’ar Binyamin, both of which are on land Palestinians say was taken from them.

Tamam Quran, a 25-year-old Palestinian high-school teacher who has American citizenship and claims part ownership of the land, said her grandmother used to pick grapes from the vines in Psagot, which Palestinians call Jabal al-Taweel.

“Growing up a five-minute walk from where we are here now, I woke up every morning to the settlement,” she said, speaking on Wednesday at a protest against the trip. Pompeo’s visit, she added, sent a message that if you have enough power, “nothing is going to happen, there are no consequences to your actions”.

Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem on Thursday with the Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, Pompeo said the state department had historically taken “the wrong view of settlements”, which he claimed “can be done in a way that [is] lawful, appropriate and proper”.

A majority of world powers consider settlements as illegal under international law.

Pompeo later released a statement saying products from settlements could be labelled “Made in Israel”.

The night before, he had made a trip to the City of David, a huge tourist attraction next to the Old City in East Jerusalem, which is run by Elad, an Israeli settler organisation that seeks to strengthen the Jewish presence in the neighbourhood of Silwan at the expense of its Arab residents.

“Wonderful to see the work being done to preserve the ancient City of David and the new discoveries by archaeologists working in the area,” Pompeo, who is on a three-day tour to the region, tweeted on Thursday morning.

EU diplomats have criticised the dig as seeking to ignore the ancient city’s diverse history in favour of “an exclusively Jewish narrative, while detaching the place from its Palestinian surroundings”.

Elad has expanded by buying Palestinian houses and using Israeli laws that allow the state to take over Palestinian property. Approximately 450 settlers now live alongside almost 10,000 Palestinians in Silwan.

Delighting his Israeli government hosts, Pompeo also broke new ground by taking a helicopter to the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 war and now claims as its own.

The US’s top diplomat had earlier announced on Thursday that Washington would consider a Palestinian-led boycott movement “antisemitic” and cut off government support for any organisations taking part in it.

“We will regard the global, anti-Israel BDS campaign as antisemitic,” Pompeo said, referring to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which he labelled “a cancer”.

Other countries, such as Germany, have also condemned BDS as antisemitic.

However, the US step could deny funding to Palestinian and international rights groups that Israel has associated with BDS, and Pompeo said he would identify organisations engaged in “politically motivated actions intended to penalise or limit commercial relations with Israel”.

In 2019, Gilad Erdan, then Israel’s strategic affairs minister, threatened to ban Amnesty International over a report that called on websites such as Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia and TripAdvisor to boycott listings in Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The same year, Israel deported the local director of Human Rights Watch for his alleged personal support for a boycott campaign, a charge he denied.

“[The] Trump administration is undermining the common fight against the scourge of antisemitism by equating it with peaceful advocacy of boycotts,” Eric Goldstein, the acting Middle East and north Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said on Thursday.

“Americans have a long history of supporting peaceful boycotts to promote social justice and human rights, like the civil rights boycotts in Mississippi or those against apartheid South Africa.”

BDS, which describes itself as a non-violent pressure movement, has rejected all claims of antisemitism.

“The fanatic Trump-Netanyahu alliance is intentionally conflating opposition to Israel’s regime of occupation, colonisation and apartheid against Palestinians and calls for nonviolent pressure to end this regime on the one hand with anti-Jewish racism on the other, in order to suppress advocacy of Palestinian rights,” it said in a statement.

Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and support for Israeli territorial claims has emboldened the country’s government and powerful settler movement.

Palestinians fear Israel’s hardline government and its backers in the Trump administration are rushing to impose a new status quo before the US president leaves office.

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/19/mike-pompeo-makes-provocative-visit-to-israeli-settlement

[See a grid showing what’s open and what’s closed under each tier on the California Department of Public Health’s website.| Look up where your county falls here.]

All that said, individual counties may impose more stringent restrictions than the state mandates.

For instance, officials in Los Angeles County — which has struggled for months with stubbornly high case loads — have said that the virus is spreading to dangerous and unsustainable levels.

So, effective Friday, the county is requiring that restaurants operate at half capacity, even outdoors. Also, personal care businesses can’t accept walk-ins, and they must provide only services that don’t require customers to take their masks off.

As far as outdoor gatherings, which the state guidelines cap at simply three households, Los Angeles County is capping at 15 people.

And if things continue to get worse, officials say they will reimpose a stay-at-home order similar to the one the county implemented in March, which would require people to stay home except to go to essential businesses. (The threshold would be a five-day average of more than 4,000 new cases per day, or if there are more than 1,750 hospitalizations per day.)

San Francisco officials have also paused reopening plans without a state mandate.

[Track coronavirus case numbers and hospitalizations by California county.]

So is there a curfew?

Although earlier this week, Mr. Newsom said he and other state officials were looking at research into whether some kind of statewide curfew could be effective, there is no such curfew right now.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/us/california-covid-tiers.html