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Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, seen here at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, is leading a group of Republican senators who have written to President Biden with a request to detail a COVID-19 rescue counterproposal.

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Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, seen here at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, is leading a group of Republican senators who have written to President Biden with a request to detail a COVID-19 rescue counterproposal.

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Updated at 3:25 p.m. ET

Ten Republican senators are requesting a meeting with President Biden to detail a smaller counterproposal to his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, an alternative they believe could be approved “quickly by Congress with bipartisan support.”

The outreach from more moderate GOP lawmakers, led by Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, comes as many Democrats look to a process called budget reconciliation, which would potentially enable Democrats to approve the president’s plan without any Republican support.

“We recognize your calls for unity and want to work in good faith with your Administration to meet the health, economic, and societal challenges of the COVID crisis,” the GOP senators write in a letter dated Sunday.

Republicans have balked at the price tag of Biden’s $1.9 trillion package, especially coming weeks after then-President Donald Trump signed a $900 billion relief measure into law. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who also signed the letter, told Fox News Sunday that the counterproposal would cost about $600 billion.

That 10 Republicans signed on is notable because that’s the number that would be needed to combine with Senate Democrats’ 50-person caucus to reach the 60-vote, filibuster-proof threshold to pass legislation under regular Senate rules.

Brian Deese, Biden’s top economic adviser at the White House, told CNN’s State of the Union that the White House will review the letter on Sunday.

“We’re certainly open to input from anywhere where we can find a constructive idea to make this package as effective as possible, but the president is uncompromising when it comes to the speed that we need to act at to address this crisis,” he said.

On Friday, Biden himself told reporters at the White House: “I support passing COVID relief with support from Republicans if we can get it. But the COVID relief has to pass.”

In the letter Sunday, the senators note that earlier COVID-19 relief packages passed with bipartisan support and that their proposal includes some elements similar to those in Biden’s plan, including allocating $160 billion for vaccine development and distribution, testing and tracing, and personal protective equipment.

“Our proposal also includes economic relief for those Americans with the greatest need, providing more targeted assistance than in the Administration’s plan,” the letter reads. “We propose an additional round of economic impact payments for those families who need assistance the most, including their dependent children and adults.”

The lawmakers say their plan also includes extending enhanced federal unemployment benefits and deploying additional resources to help small businesses.

Notably, the letter does not mention state and local aid, which was a key sticking point in past rounds of relief negotiations. Biden’s package includes $350 billion in emergency funding for state and local governments.

The letter was also signed by Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Todd Young of Indiana, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Mitt Romney of Utah and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.

Democrats prepare for budget reconciliation

The GOP senators plan to detail their counterproposal on Monday, the same day House Democrats are expected to introduce a budget resolution that will lay the groundwork for going through a reconciliation process.

“By the end of the week, we will be finished with the budget resolution, which will be about reconciliation, if needed,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters last week. “I hope we don’t need it. But if we need it, we will have it.”

Separately, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said on Thursday that Democrats’ “preference” is for the relief efforts to be bipartisan.

“But if our Republican colleagues decide to oppose this urgent and necessary legislation,” Schumer said, “we will have to move forward without them.”

He added “we must not repeat the same mistake” of 12 years ago when Democrats agreed to a stimulus many considered too small in order to gain Republican support.

“The dangers of undershooting our response are far greater than overshooting it,” Schumer said. “We should have learned the lesson, from 2008 and 2009, when Congress was too timid and constrained in its response to the global financial crisis and it took years — years — for the economy to get out of recession.”

With the thinnest possible majority in the Senate, Democrats have essentially two options to try to pass Biden’s coronavirus relief package without bipartisan support.

The first would be to kill the legislative filibuster, but at least two Democratic senators have pledged to oppose such a move to blow up the rules of the upper chamber.

The second option for Democrats is to use reconciliation, a process that has been used for the Affordable Care Act and the GOP tax cuts Trump signed into law. The process can be lengthy — and complicated — but would allow Senate Democrats to pass legislation with a simple majority vote without eliminating the filibuster.

But Senate Republicans have warned that using this process to avoid needing to garner their votes could be damaging.

Sen. Portman, who signed the letter to the White House, recently cautioned the Biden administration and congressional Democrats against moving forward on the new round of relief legislation without GOP support, saying doing so “poisons the well.”

“My hope is that we won’t go down this path of trying to circumvent the supermajority and just jam something through,” Portman told NPR’s Susan Davis. “I think that would set the tone for the administration that would be really problematic for the country and, frankly, bad for the Biden administration.”

NPR’s Kelsey Snell contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/01/31/962554923/10-senate-republicans-plan-to-detail-slimmed-down-covid-19-counteroffer

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(CNN)The driver accused of intentionally hitting a group of pedestrians in Northern California attacked people he believed were of the Muslim faith, police said.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/26/us/california-sunnyvale-crash-suspect/index.html

    If recent history is any indication, and of course it is, Michael Cohen’s testimony this week in front of Congress is about to make any lunatic ramblings by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., look like the musings of a wise sage.

    Cohen, President Trump’s former gofer, will on Tuesday deliver what is expected to be three days of testimony implicating his ex-boss in a series of crimes Cohen has already pleaded guilty to, including campaign finance violations (Zzz…), lying to Congress, and lying to the FBI.

    Cohen has admitted that he lied about the timeline of a real estate venture that the Trump Organization has pursued for decades, including into the 2016 election. Cohen also claimed that he acted on behalf of Trump during the election when he paid hush money to women who claimed they had separate affairs with Trump years before.

    [Read more: Here’s what Congress wants to hear from Michael Cohen this week]

    A federal judge sentenced Cohen to three years in prison for those crimes, which have some relation to Trump, and others, which don’t, including Cohen’s extensive history of tax evasion and bank fraud.

    So far, there is no strong evidence that Trump himself was engaged in any legal wrongdoing. The president denies he ever told Cohen to lie about the pursuit of a Trump Tower in Moscow, a project Trump has dreamed about since the 1980s, and he denies that the payments to his alleged mistresses from roughly 12 years ago were made to influence the 2016 election.

    And there’s no reason why Cohen’s testimony should carry any weight. He most recently embarrassed himself in a nationally televised interview by insisting over and over again that he was “taking responsibility” for his crimes.

    Cohen is “taking responsibility” by going to prison the same way a deadbeat drunk is “taking responsibility” for being unemployed. When you’re fired from your job, “taking responsibility” is your only option.

    There has never been a time that Cohen didn’t look like a delusional mess.

    On Election Day 2016, after it was clear that Trump had won the presidency, Cohen reportedly told a group of friends, “Nobody’s going to be able to fuck with us. I think I’m going to run for mayor.”

    I imagine Cohen’s grandmother nearby offering an encouraging, “Some day you will, baby! You will!”

    In March of last year, Cohen referred to himself as Trump’s “Ray Donovan,” a TV character who made the problems of celebrities go away. If that was Cohen’s paid responsibility for Trump as a “fixer,” the president should ask for a full refund.

    But classic Cohen is his interview in 2015 with the Daily Beast, which sought comment from him for a story on Trump’s divorce from Ivana. Apparently unaware that Ray Donovan is not real, Cohen nonetheless channeled his fictional persona, telling the reporter, “So I’m warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I’m going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting. You understand me?”

    Now that Cohen’s going to prison, though, he’s supposedly gone from Ray Donovan to repentant deacon.

    No one took him seriously before, and they shouldn’t take him seriously now.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/michael-cohens-testimony-cant-be-taken-seriously-because-hes-always-been-a-sad-joke

    On Wednesday night, about 38,000 people had lost power across Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, according to PowerOutage.us, which aggregates live power data from utilities across the United States.

    On Thursday, the storms could continue to produce tornadoes, wind damage and large hail in parts of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, the Weather Service said.

    The warning of a second day of powerful storms came after the Weather Service had issued a “particularly dangerous situation” tornado watch for parts of Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi on Wednesday until 7 p.m., indicating “a potential for multiple strong, long-track tornadoes.”

    More than 2.7 million people had been at high risk from the storms on Wednesday, mostly in Mississippi and Alabama, it said, with an additional 5.6 million people at moderate risk. On Wednesday night, the Weather Service said, the potential for significant tornadoes continued, with much of the greatest risk in Alabama.

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/us/tornado-south-weather.html

    September 2 at 7:11 PM

    Category 4 Hurricane Dorian parked itself over the northwestern Bahamas on Sunday night and Monday morning, unleashing a devastating storm surge, destructive winds and blinding rain. With Dorian perched perilously close to the Florida peninsula, Monday is the critical day that is likely to determine whether the state is dealt a powerful blow or a less intense scrape.

    Just tens of miles and subtle storm wobbles could make the difference between the two scenarios.

    The storm has come to a standstill over Grand Bahama Island. If it soon starts to turn north, Florida would be spared Dorian’s full fury. But if Dorian lumbers just a little more to the west, more serious storm effects would pummel parts of the coastline. For this reason, the National Hurricane Center has issued hurricane, storm surge, and tropical storm watches and warnings from the Atlantic coast of Florida northward into South Carolina.

    “Although the center of Dorian is forecast to move near, but parallel to, the Florida east coast, only a small deviation of the track toward the west would bring the core of the hurricane onshore,” the National Hurricane Center wrote in its 5 p.m. bulletin.

    Hurricane and storm surge warnings are in effect for large areas along Florida’s east coast. Storm surge refers to the storm-driven rise in ocean water above normally dry land.

    “,[T]he threat of damaging winds and life-threatening storm surge remains high,” the National Weather Service office in Melbourne, Fla., wrote. “There will be considerable impacts and damage to coastal areas, with at least some effects felt inland as well!”

    Serious storm effects are likely in coastal Georgia and the Carolinas in the middle and latter half of the week as Dorian picks up speed and heads north, but here, too, the risks are heavily dependent on the details of the storm track.

    A hurricane landfall in the Carolinas, especially North Carolina, is a distinct possibility by late Thursday.

    The latest on Hurricane Dorian

    As of 7 p.m. on Monday, the storm was 30 miles northeast of Freeport on Grand Bahama Island and stalled. The storm’s peak sustained winds were 145 mph, making it a high-end Category 4 storm. Dorian has maintained Category 4 and now Category 5 intensity since Saturday, an unusually long period.

    Radar from South Florida showed Dorian’s outermost rain bands pivoting inland producing occasional gusty showers. Around 3 p.m. Juno Beach pier clocked a sustained wind of 40 mph (tropical-storm force) and gust to 56 mph and the Weather Service in Miami warned showers coming onshore could produce gusts up to 45 mph into the evening.

    Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 45 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 150 miles. The latest forecast from the Hurricane Center calls for Dorian to remain a Category 4 storm until Monday night before slowly weakening, but remaining a formidable hurricane, as it makes its closest pass to Florida (around a Category 3) and northward to the Carolinas (around a Category 2).

    “It is anticipated that the system will remain a dangerous major hurricane for the next several days,” the Hurricane Center wrote.

    Northwest Bahamas took a nightmarish extended direct hit

    While Florida and areas farther north await effects from the monster storm, a “catastrophic” scenario has unfolded in the northwestern Bahamas, where the storm’s eyewall, the ring of destructive winds around the center, struck Sunday and then stalled until late Monday afternoon.

    In the process, three islands endured direct hits Sunday: Elbow Cay, Great Abaco and Grand Bahama Island. Dorian hardly budged over Grand Bahama Island for 20 hours spanning Sunday night and Monday evening as the Hurricane Center warned of wind gusts between 170 to 220 mph and a storm surge up to 23 feet.

    The Hurricane Center described a “life-threatening situation” in Great Abaco on Sunday and on both Sunday night and Monday on Grand Bahama Island. It stated the wind and storm surge hazards would cause “extreme destruction.”

    The eyewall finally showed signs of lifting north of Grand Bahama Monday evening.

    The extended nature of the direct hit has meant that these areas were hit with extreme winds and storm surge flooding during multiple high tides, tearing infrastructure apart and subjecting anyone who did not evacuate before the storm to a truly terrifying ordeal.

    While the worst of the storm has lifted north of Grand Bahama Island, pounding rain (totaling up to 30 inches), damaging winds and the storm surge may not entirely ease until the second half of Tuesday in the region.

    This is a storm that could reshape the northwest Bahamas, particularly Great Abaco and Grand Bahama, for decades.

    Complicated forecast for Florida

    The hurricane warnings posted in Florida are focused on the period from Monday night through early Wednesday. Tropical-storm-force winds began Monday afternoon in coastal South Florida and should spread north Tuesday. These winds are likely to continue into Wednesday, perhaps reaching hurricane-force strength late Tuesday or Wednesday depending on how close to the coast Dorian tracks.

    Some computer models show the center of Dorian coming closest to the northern half of Florida’s east coast Tuesday night into Wednesday, when conditions may become most hazardous.

    The latest storm surge forecast for Florida shows that if the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide, the area from Lantana (just south of West Palm Beach) to the Georgia Border could see four to seven feet of water above ground, while the region from Deerfield Beach to Lantana could experience two to four feet.

    “The threat for life-threatening storm surge also remains high, and severe erosion of the beaches and dune lines is a near certainty! The combination of surge and high astronomical tides will cause severe runup of waves and water, resulting in inundation of many coastal locations,” the Weather Service office in Melbourne wrote.

    On top of that, about four to eight inches of rain is projected to fall.

    Because the storm is predicted to be a slow mover, effects from wind, rain and storm surge could be prolonged, lingering through the middle of next week.

    The forecast is highly sensitive to the storm track, and subtle shifts to the east or west would result in less or more severe wind, surge and rain.

    Forecast for coastal Georgia, the Carolinas, and farther north

    Conditions are expected to deteriorate by Tuesday in coastal Georgia, by Wednesday in South Carolina and by Thursday in North Carolina. But just how much is uncertain. Where and whether Dorian makes landfall will depend on the exact trajectory of its turn relative to the coast as it turns north and then starts to bend northeastward.

    Scenarios involving a direct hit, a scrape and a graze are possible based on available forecasts.

    A hurricane watch was issued Monday for coastal Georgia and the South Carolina coast as far north as South Santee Island (which is just south of Myrtle Beach).

    “Life-threatening storm surge and dangerous hurricane-force winds are expected along portions of … the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina, regardless of the exact track of Dorian’s center,” the Hurricane Center wrote. “Water levels could begin to rise well in advance of the arrival of strong winds. “

    The Hurricane Center projects a storm surge of 4 to 7 feet in coastal Georgia north to the South Santee River in South Carolina.

    While specific projections are not yet available farther north, a direct hit is perhaps most likely in North Carolina because its coast sticks out into the ocean farthest east.

    “The risk of life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds continues to increase along the coast North Carolina,” the Hurricane Center wrote. “Residents in these areas should follow advice given by local emergency officials.”

    Locations even farther north from Virginia Beach to the Delmarva and even up to Cape Cod could get brushed by the storm Friday and Saturday. Virginia governor Ralph Northam (D) declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm.

    Model forecasts

    The overwhelming majority of computer model forecasts keep the center of Dorian just to the east of the Florida coast rather than bringing the eye of the storm ashore.

    However, there are still some outliers that bring the eye onshore or right to the coastline, particularly in the northern half of the state.

    Farther north, from Georgia to the Carolinas, the margin between a landfall and offshore track is also razor thin. However, of all the locations between Florida and the Mid-Atlantic coast, models suggest that the North Carolina coast between Wilmington and the Outer Banks may be most prone to a hurricane landfall on Thursday.

    Dorian’s place in history

    Dorian is tied for the second-strongest storm (as judged by its maximum sustained winds) ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, behind Hurricane Allen of 1980, and, after striking the northern Bahamas, tied with the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane for the title of the strongest Atlantic hurricane at landfall.

    It is only the second Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the Bahamas since 1983, according to Phil Klotzbach of Colorado State University. The only other is Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The international hurricane database goes back continuously only to 1983.

    The storm’s peak sustained winds rank as the strongest so far north in the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida on record. Its pressure, which bottomed out at 910 millibars, is significantly lower than Hurricane Andrew’s when it made landfall in South Florida in 1992 (the lower the pressure, the stronger the storm).

    With Dorian attaining Category 5 strength, this is the first time since the start of the satellite era (in the 1960s) that Category 5 storms have developed in the tropical Atlantic for four straight years, according to Capital Weather Gang tropical weather expert Brian McNoldy.

    The unusual strength of Dorian and the rate at which it developed is consistent with the expectation of more intense hurricanes in a warming world. Some studies have shown increases in hurricane rapid intensification, and modeling studies project an uptick in the frequency of Category 4 and 5 storms.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/09/02/catastrophic-hurricane-dorian-blasting-bahamas-bearing-down-florida-georgia-carolinas/

    Horner, quien dice “odiar” al presidente electo republicano, no las llama noticias falsas, sino parodias o sátiras. “Honestamente, la gente está cada vez más tonta. Ya nadie chequea nada, así es como Trump fue elegido. Decía cualquier cosa que quería y la gente le creía cualquier cosa“, dijo el ¿comediante?

    Source Article from http://www.infobae.com/america/eeuu/2016/11/17/paul-horner-hablo-el-escritor-de-noticias-falsas-en-facebook-creo-que-donald-trump-esta-en-la-casa-blanca-por-mi/

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    Argentina celebra el ensayo marcado por el fullback Joaquín Tuculet que sentenció el encuentro en el estadio Millenium de Cardiff.

    La selección argentina de rugby, más conocida como Los Pumas, se clasificó a la semifinal del Mundial de este deporte, que se disputa en Inglaterra.

    En un vibrante partido, los dirigidos por Daniel Hourcade lograron vencer con un marcador de 43-20 al actual campeón del Seis Naciones, Irlanda.

    Lea: ¿Puede Argentina repetir un milagro en el Mundial de Rugby?

    Con ensayos de Juan Imhoff, Joaquín Tuculet y Matías Moroni y las conversiones de Nicolas Sánchez Los Pumas se impusieron a uno de los equipos más experimentados del torneo.

    El encuentro se realizó en el Millenium Stadium de Cardiff, Gales.

    Con esta victoria el seleccionado argentino repite la hazaña conseguida en el torneo de 2007, que se celebró en Francia, donde alcanzaron la misma instancia pero fueron luego vencidos por Sudáfrica.

    El próximo rival de Argentina será Australia, que le ganó en un intenso partido a Escocia 35-34.

    Reacciones

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    La participación de Los Pumas en el Rugby Championship ha ayudado a mejorar su nivel.

    La exitosa participación de Los Pumas en el Mundial de Francia de 2007, donde consiguieron el tercer lugar, hizo que la popularidad de este deporte se disparara en Argentina, explica el corresponsal de BBC Mundo en Buenos Aires, Ignacio de los Reyes.

    Las autoridades del rugby nacional confiaban en que un buen papel en esta competición de 2015 pueda seguir sumando adeptos a un deporte que, comparado con el fútbol, todavía tiene un carácter minoritario en Argentina.

    #VamosPumas, #Rubgy y el nombre del entrenador y los jugadores del equipo fueron tema de moda en Twitter durante el partido y después.

    En el país, los medios describieron a los jugadores como “gigantes que hacen historia” y celebraron “un triunfo enorme”.

    Source Article from http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2015/10/151018_deportes_argentina_rugby_irlanda_mundial_amv

    October 10 at 6:57 AM

    As President Trump has lobbed unsubstantiated and false claims of international corruption at former vice president Joe Biden and his son, he’s often turned to one source for ammunition: conservative author Peter Schweizer. So when the New York Times ran an op-ed on Wednesday written by Schweizer about Biden and his son Hunter, the Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign cried foul.

    In a letter sent to New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet, Biden’s campaign called Schweizer a “discredited right-wing polemicist” and suggested the op-ed was part of a larger pattern of “journalistic malpractice.”

    “Are you truly blind to what you got wrong in 2016, or are you deliberately continuing policies that distort reality for the sake of controversy and the clicks that accompany it?” Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, wrote in the Wednesday letter, which was posted by CNN’s Oliver Darcy.

    The Times defended its work in a statement sent to The Washington Post.

    “Our coverage of the Biden campaign and Hunter Biden has been fair and accurate,” a spokesperson said, adding that the paper “will continue to cover Joe Biden with the same tough and fair standards we apply to every candidate in the race.”

    Schweizer didn’t immediately respond to messages sent to his spokesperson and to Breitbart News, where he is a senior contributor.

    Biden’s complaint to the Times comes amid a larger push against what his campaign argues is rampant misinformation. Earlier on Wednesday, Facebook rejected a plea from Biden to take down a 30-second Trump campaign ad that CNN refused to air because it made false claims about the former vice president. Biden made a similar request to Twitter, which has yet to respond.

    Trump’s near-daily attempts to tie Biden to corrupt dealings in Ukraine and China are at the center of that battle — and both allegations have roots in Schweizer’s work. Schweizer, who is also president of the Government Accountability Institute, a nonprofit founded by former Breitbart executive chairman Stephen K. Bannon, helped push the Uranium One allegations against Hillary Clinton.

    In his 2018 book, “Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends,” Schweizer first tied Hunter Biden’s role as a board member on a Ukrainian natural gas company to his father’s efforts to oust a prosecutor there, Bloomberg News reported. A House impeachment inquiry has now begun into Trump’s efforts to persuade Ukrainian officials to investigate Biden over that allegation.

    Schweizer’s 2018 book is also the source of repeated claims by Trump that Hunter Biden made $1.5 billion in corrupt dealings with China, which The Washington Post’s Fact Checker called “false.”

    The Times op-ed on Wednesday, which identifies Schweizer as “an investigative journalist,” ran under the headline “What Hunter Biden Did Was Legal — And That’s the Problem.” He argues that the vice president’s son used his father’s influence to make money in Ukraine and China, and that Washington should pass tougher financial disclosure laws for politicians’ relatives.

    In his letter to the Times, Biden’s campaign complains that the piece makes “more malicious claims about the Biden family.”

    “Despite voluminous work done by the independent press and fact-checkers — including some by The Times — to refute the heinous conspiracy theory that Donald Trump attempted to bully Ukraine into propping-up for him, the paper ran an op-ed by none other than Peter Schweizer, making more malicious claims about the Biden family,” Bedingfield wrote in the letter.

    In the statement, the Times spokesman defended the decision to run the op-ed, which also takes aim at alleged profiteering by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) through his own ties to China.

    “The op-ed makes an argument that nonpartisan government watchdogs would make, arguing in favor of a law that would prohibit self-dealing by those with government connections,” the spokesperson said.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/10/joe-biden-peter-schweizer-new-york-times-op-ed/

    President Donald Trump applauded Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris‘ presidential campaign launch, describing it as “the best opening so far” in the 2020 primary race.

    Trump made the remarks during an interview with The New York Times published on Thursday night, saying Harris has “a better crowd, better enthusiasm.”

    The president, who spent the latter part of his career in show businesses before landing at the White House, homed in particularly on Harris’ ability to draw a crowd, The Times indicated.

    The president has frequently pointed to the size of his own campaign rallies as a measure of his likability and success.

    Trump claimed that some Democratic candidates had “really drifted far left,” and took another jab at Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who launched an exploratory committee in late December.

    “I do think Elizabeth Warren’s been hurt very badly with the Pocahontas trap,” Trump reportedly said, referring to a racist slur he frequently uses to insult her claim of having Native American heritage. “I think she’s been hurt badly. I may be wrong, but I think that was a big part of her credibility and now all of a sudden it’s gone.”

    Harris declared her candidacy on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 21, and followed it with a campaign rally in her hometown of Oakland, California, where roughly 20,000 people attended.

    Harris also appeared at a CNN town hall event this week, where she became “the most-watched cable news single-candidate election town hall” among the age 25-to-54 news demographic, according to CNN’s internal metrics.

    Despite an otherwise energetic launch, Harris’ campaign encountered some headwinds over her record as a California prosecutor. She previously served as San Francisco’s district attorney and has faced criticism over her tough stance on crime, including defending the death penalty in California.

    Neither White House officials nor Harris’ campaign immediately responded to INSIDER’s request for comment on Thursday night.

    Source Article from https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-applauds-kamala-harris-2020-campaign-2019-1

    Vice President Kamala Harris appeared to misspeak during an interview aired Sunday when she answered “democracy” when asked what’s the biggest national security challenge facing the US.

    During the interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” host Margaret Brennan asked her about the one national security threat that keeps her up at night worrying. ​

    “​Frankly, one of them is our democracy. There is,​ I think, no question in the minds of people who are foreign policy experts that the year 2021 is not the year 2000​,” she said.

    “And we are embarking on a new era where the threats to our nation take many forms. Including the threat of autocracies taking over and having outsized influence around the world​,” Harris said.

    Later in the interview, she clarified her earlier comment, saying there is a need to “fight for the integrity of our democracy.”

    Vice President Kamala Harris was asked about the one national security threat that keeps her up at night worrying.
    CBS News/FTN

    In the wide-ranging interview, Harris also talked about the need for the Senate to pass voting rights legislation, but wouldn’t say whether the filibuster should be bypassed, and criticism directed at her. ​

    Harris also refused to take any responsibility for the debacle surrounding the US military pullout from Afghanistan in August, instead blaming the Trump administration for inking an agreement with the Taliban.

    She said she “fully supported” President Biden’s decision to end the nation’s 20-year war with Afghanistan by removing US troops. 

    Vice President Kamala Harris said during the interview that autocracies pose a large threat
    CBS News/FTN

    “I think it’s really important to remember that the previous administration negotiated a deal with the Taliban, did not invite the Afghan government to be at the table, and negotiated a deal that required and and promised as part of an agreement that we would pull out by the end of May,” Harris said on CBS. 

    “So we were saddled with that responsibility based on an agreement between the United States and the Taliban,” she continued.

    Harris claimed the Biden administration had to abide by the deal worked out by former President Donald Trump or risk a continuation of America’s longest war.

    “We made the decision that if we were to break the agreement, it would have been a whole other situation right now,” the vice president said.

    “I strongly believe that had we broken that agreement, we would be talking about the war in Afghanistan and American troops in Afghanistan, and we’re not talking about that. I don’t regret that,” she said. 

    Vice President Kamala Harris clarified that there is a need to “fight for the integrity of our democracy.”
    CBS News/FTN

    Biden has also pointed to the agreement his predecessor made in February 2020 with the Taliban for his reason to plow through with his decision to remove US troops by the end of August. 

    He said he “inherited” the deal Trump negotiated with the Taliban to depart by May 1, 2021, because after that date there would have been no cease-fire to protect US forces, leaving the option of withdrawing the forces or end up escalating the fight with the militant group.

    Harris also said the administration will do “whatever is necessary” to push for the 50-50 divided Senate to take up voting rights legislation but wouldn’t commit to bypassing the 60-vote filibuster threshold to do so. 

    Asked if that means using the filibuster, Harris said: “I’m not saying that.”

    “What I’m saying is that we are going to urge the United States Congress, and we have been, to examine the tools they have available to do what is necessary to fight for and retain the integrity of our voting system in America,” said Harris, who served as a US senator from California before become vice president.

    Creating a carve out on the filibuster would allow Senate Democrats to pass legislation with a simple majority, but moderate Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have opposed using the maneuver.

    Democrats contend that Republican-led states are passing bills that will restrict voting rights for minorities as Trump continues to claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.

    Vice President Kamala Harris said that the Biden administration will do “whatever is necessary” to push for the Senate to take up voting rights legislation.
    CBS News/FTN

    Harris also responded to reports that the Biden White House is setting her up to fail amid a possible rivalry with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who, like Harris, may run again for president in 2024 or 2028.

    She was asked if the scrutiny rises out of the fact that she is the first black and the first woman to serve as vice president. 

    “I’ll leave that for others to deal with. I have a job to do. And I’m going to get that job done,” she responded, noting that the criticism may be prompted by her raising issues about maternal health, postpartum care and Medicaid expansion.

    “I’m vice president United States. Anything that I handle is because it’s a tough issue, ​a​nd it couldn’t be handled at some other level. And there are a lot of big tough issues that need to be addressed. And it has actually been part of my lifelong career to deal with tough issues, and this is no different,” she said.

    Source Article from https://nypost.com/2021/12/26/kamala-harris-says-democracy-biggest-national-security-threat/

    El Frente Amplio dejó en claro esta mañana en el Senado que no apoyará la creación de una comisión investigadora sobre las tupabandas y acusó a la oposición de querer “desgastar” a las figuras de su partido con miras a obtener ventajas en las elecciones de 2019.

    En una sesión extraordinaria del Senado se debate sobre la existencia de las tupabandas a raíz de la nueva información divulgada por El País el domingo 18. La fiscal Stella Llorente analiza pedir la reapertura de la investigación a El País luego de las declaraciones del exfuncionario policial, Eduardo Vica Font.

    El expresidente y senador del MPP, José Mujica, dijo que “había gente en otra cosa. Es probable que tres o cuatro militantes hayan emprendido por otros caminos, quizás con otro proyecto político o una desviación de carácter bandidista”, expresó, pero negó las acusaciones en su contra: “Dicen que manejábamos millones de dólares y tuve que vender el rancho de mi vieja para pagar las deudas, por eso hablo de duelo”.

    “Un año comiendo remolacha y huevo para pagar las deudas y me vienen a decir que manejábamos millones”, insistió.

    Mujica aseguró que en la actualidad “hacer política es hacer declaraciones por televisión altisonantes y tratar de judicializar todo”. Y agregó: “Además de utilizar el click de Facebook, es un machaque desacreditante”.

    “Hay una tendencia que está en juego, poner en duda la confianza en los partidos y en los sistemas políticos” en toda América Latina, opinó Mujica.

    “No soy cobarde, no me voy a amparar en mi fueros”, finalizó el senador durante la sesión extraordinaria.

    Debate parlamentario

    El senador frenteamplista Rubén Martínez Huelmo fue de los primeros en tomar la palabra para expresar la visión de su fuerza política. Dijo que la oposición está haciendo un “montaje” para atacar al expresidente José Mujica y afirmó que “sólo los jueces y los fiscales pueden determinar delitos” por lo que descartó la posibilidad de contar con una comisión investigadora al respecto.

    Martínez Huelmo le dijo a los legisladores de la oposición que si tienen pruebas de que el expresidente estuvo vinculado a las polibandas de la década de 1990 “vayan hoy mismo” a la Justicia. “Es como si quisiéramos investigar lo del Banco Pan de Azúcar basados en recortes de prensa”, agregó y continuó: “Que lleven a la Justicia los recortes y papeles de diario, no son más que eso”.

    Según el senador, se trata de “pura ficción”. “Son chimentos de barrio amparados en los fueros parlamentarios. Va también para la prensa. Son libros en donde abundan los personajes de ficción, como la Biblia: para unos es la palabra de Dios, para otros un libro de cuentos”.

    Por último, aseguró que la oposición “se quiere abonar el sueño del pibe, que es meter preso al compañero ‘Pepe’ Mujica” y citó las declaraciones brindadas por el ex ministro del Interior Juan Andrés Ramírez (1990-1993) al portal Ecos, en las que el nacionalista dijo que las afirmaciones de la periodista María Urruzola en el libro “Fernández Huidoro: Sin remordimientos” son “absolutamente disparatadas” y que “nunca apareció ninguna vinculación” entre los delincuentes y los tupamaros.

    “Verdad contaminada”.

    El senador Enrique Pintado remarcó que se quiere investigar “y llegar a la verdad”, pero “no llegar a una verdad contaminada por la opinión política partidaria o con el prejuicio porque eso es lo que ocurre en la realidad”.

    “¿Vamos a crear comisiones investigadores por todo lo que se dice? ¿vamos a tomar por cierto todo lo que se dice? Acá se han corrido rumores sobre personas que participaron de delitos (…) pero el que tiene una denuncia va y la hace donde corresponde”, apuntó. “Hoy nos abrazamos como un salvavidas a las declaraciones de este exfuncionario”, agregó.

    Pintado dijo que los hechos denunciados ocurrieron entre 1985 y 1998 y que “Llorente no reparó en que esos delitos podrían estar proscritos”.

    También dijo que de esa época “los delitos no quedaron impunes” y se preguntó si fue “tan nula la gente que investigó en ese momento”.
    De todas formas celebró que la fiscal retome el asunto “a partir de declaraciones muy graves de un expolicía” y dijo que a quienes no les genere garantías que “recuse en el ministerio público”.

    El senador frentista concluyó diciendo que su impresión es que “lo que menos interesa es la verdad y lo que sí interesa es el desgaste de las figuras porque se quiere alcanzar la victoria en algunos años”. “Una cosa es tener diferencias ideológicas y otras prestarse al enchastre”, dijo y acotó: “No vale todo para alcanzar la victoria electoral. Después no nos lamentemos cuando algunos sectores pidan que se vayan todos. Se está sembrando desesperanza en la sociedad. Se estimula el linchamiento virtual para conseguir una migaja de poder (…) por este camino vamos mál”.

    A su turno, en tanto, la senadora Mónica Xavier, dijo que “lo de Llorente es un detalle” y que si se denuncia una situación “ilícita” lo propio es “ir a la Justicia” y no al Parlamento. “Si tantas dudas hay cualquier funcionario puede ir a la Justicia”.

    Daniela Paysée también sostuvo que “si quiere investigar, que la Justicia investigue, pero no vamos a pedir comisión investigadora porque el parlamento tiene otros objetivos”.

    “Los propios tupamaros han confesado”.

    Entre la oposición, el senador nacionalista Luis Alberto Heber dijo que quiere saber “quién es la persona importante que detuvo la investigación”. Se mostró afín a que concurran todos los exfuncionarios involucrados a dar sus comentarios. 

    “Lo nuevo es las confesiones de tupamaros que salieron a decir que había tupabandas. Son los propios tupamaros los que han confesado esto y a confesión de parte relevo de prueba. No nos anima el odio”, agregó.

    Heber sostuvo que le “genera dudas que Llorente actúe con independencia”, tras el archivo de la causa. Pidió que el fiscal de Corte, Jorge Díaz, nombre a otro fiscal en el caso.

    La senadora Ivonne Passada respondió a esto que “se está cuestionando a la Justicia”, lo que es algo “muy preocupante”. 

    “Se hace necesario conformar la Comisión”.

    El senador colorado Pedro Bordaberry dijo que “hubo un cambio acerca de lo que se dijo hoy a lo largo de la sesión y lo que dijo el senador Mujica”. Destacó que “no se escudó en el ‘si nos tocan a uno nos tocan a todos’, sino que dio la cara, brindó explicaciones, hizo autocrítica y hasta reconocimientos”.

    “Hizo reconocimiento de hechos y de dudas. Dijo que él no sabía lo que hacían algunos compañeros y eso puede cerrar con alguna de estas versiones que se han dado hoy y de las dudas que tiene”, señaló.

    Bordaberry manifestó también que también que el expresidente “dijo cosas entendibles, como que a partir de 1985 algunos militantes todavía tenían dudas acerca de esa democracia que se había retomado en el Uruguay y cómo se iba a desarrollar. Es hasta humano que existieran esas dudas y es bueno que se reconozcan”.

    Luego, señaló que “cuando se habla de técnicas para degradar la confianza de gobiernos importada de otros países, se está señalando a la oposición como que la está aplicando. Y yo creo que poner estos temas arriba de la mesa aquí y en cualquier lugar del mundo lejos está de degradar o pulverizar el sistema político. Lo que se hace es protegerlo. La transparencia es que se conozcan los hechos y que los aclare como ha hecho el senador Mujica hace a la salud de un sistema democrático”.

    Por último, consideró que “quizás después de sus palabras se hace necesario conformar la Comisión, más cuando se dice que es muy probable que tres o cuatro militantes (del MLN) hayan tomado ese camino”.

    Punta de la madeja

    La punta de la madeja ocurrió en 1994, cuando se produjo un tiroteo en una casa de citas entre un guardia de seguridad y dos asaltantes. Uno, de apellido Santander —colombiano, guerrillero y refugiado de Acnur—, resultó muerto. El otro era una chica de 19 años que puso a la Policía en la pista de la novia de Santander. Esa segunda mujer, reveló que sus compañeros después de cada robo “iban al comité de base de la calle Ejido, de Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro, a llevar el dinero”, relató a El País el expolicía que los perseguía, Eduardo Vica Font.

    Source Article from http://www.elpais.com.uy/informacion/fa-oposicion-desgaste-figuras-tupabandas.html

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    “It’s become increasingly obvious to the people around the president that he won’t have the luxury of running on his record, not if he hopes to win,” said William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank. “His best shot is to tear Biden down to his own level.”

    But the 77-year-old Biden has been surprisingly hard to caricature, in part because he has largely stayed in his Delaware home due to the coronavirus outbreak while Trump has struggled to respond to the twin crises of the pandemic and racial justice protests.

    Biden similarly survived blistering attacks on his record from his rivals during the Democratic primaries. Senator Kamala Harris memorably lambasted Biden for his decades-old stance against busing to integrate public schools, while liberals derided his stated willingness to compromise with Republican senators — even ones who defended segregation — and his assurances to donors that nothing would fundamentally change if he were elected.

    Now, Trump has half-heartedly begun painting Biden as a secret radical, one who wants to “defund the police” and dramatically raise taxes, or at least who will be manipulated into doing so. The move fits into Trump’s larger strategy of warning his mostly white base that civil rights protesters seek to “erase” their history and transform the country, and that Biden will facilitate that.

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    “Joe is just — look, let’s face it, he’s been taken over by the radical left,” Trump said on Fox News on Thursday night. “I think they brainwashed him.”

    In one of Trump’s campaign’s recent digital ads, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Senator Bernie Sanders silently leap out of the wooden cavity of a Trojan horse topped with the head of Biden, as ominous music plays in the background.

    But Biden faced months of criticism from liberals for being too moderate in the Democratic race. Trump’s attacks face a credibility problem.

    “They try to say he’s extreme. But of course Joe Biden has been ‘canceled’ every week for the last two years by people who think he’s too centrist,” said Sean McElwee, the founder of the liberal polling firm Data for Progress. “All the stuff that people really hated about Joe Biden in the primary, it’s ended up making it hard for Trump to attack him in the general.”

    “It’s hard to say this man is this woke statue destroyer,” McElwee added, referring to Trump’s messaging around statues of Confederates and other historical figures that have been defaced or toppled in recent weeks.

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    Biden’s own relative blandness as a political figure hurts Trump’s attempts to define him negatively, as he does not inspire strong feelings in a significant portion of the electorate. Just 22 percent of Americans say they dislike Biden “a lot” compared to 40 percent who dislike Trump “a lot,” according to a July Economist/YouGov poll.

    That lack of venom can be seen at recent Trump events, where relatively few fans sport anti-Biden gear, unlike in 2016, when Hillary Clinton was skewered on pins and T-shirts and other paraphernalia, often in sexist terms.

    “While I don’t want to say anyone is Teflon, Biden in some ways is unique because of his generic nature,” said Ian Russell, a Democratic strategist who used to run the House Democrats’ campaign arm. “The truth is they don’t have a ‘lock him up’ chant, they don’t have a ‘Crooked Hillary’ equivalent.”

    In fact, even as Trump attacks him, Biden’s favorable rating has been on a modestly positive trajectory since the primary. Voters were split 44 percent to 44 percent in a July poll from Monmouth on whether they approved of Biden, up from his 42 percent favorable rating in June. Meanwhile, only 38 percent of voters have a favorable view of Trump in that poll, and his net favorable rating is 17 percentage points underwater.

    Sam Nunberg, a Trump aide during the 2016 campaign, said he was concerned that the campaign had not, until relatively recently, blanketed the air with negative ads about Biden.

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    “Wasting [money] on Facebook and whatever else they were doing as opposed to blasting Biden on national TV is one of the most consequential decisions of this cycle,” Nunberg said. “Biden should not be above water in favorability.”

    Nunberg speculated that Trump just may not feel the same antipathy toward Biden as he has toward other rivals. He characterized a phone call in early April between the two men, which Trump called a “wonderful, warm conversation,” as a political mistake on the part of Trump’s team.

    “Once you talk to him and flatter him a little, he doesn’t want to attack you,” Nunberg said.

    Biden has also benefited from maintaining a relatively low profile, as coronavirus absorbed the country’s attention and also limited his ability to make public appearances for several months. Although Biden often criticizes Trump in speeches or at fund-raisers, he rarely gets into a protracted back-and-forth with the president.

    In May and June, the Trump campaign attempted to make Biden’s low-key campaign an issue, mocking the former vice president’s decision to follow Delaware’s stay-at-home order, repeatedly taunting him as “Hidin’ Biden,” keeping a count of how many days he’d gone without holding a press conference, and challenging him to agree to more than the standard three presidential debates in the fall. The president also mocked Biden for wearing a mask, despite his own top health officials’ advice that masks help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

    “Attacking Biden for doing what most Americans are doing is never going to be super effective,” said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist and former aide to Marco Rubio’s 2012 presidential run. “If anything, Biden’s message is that he may not be flashy but he’s responsible. Trump attacking him for putting responsibility ahead of politics only helps Biden’s image.”

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    Trump has since deemphasized that line of attack, as Biden has begun appearing in public more regularly, including on Thursday with a speech at a metalworks plant in Pennsylvania and a visit to his hometown of Scranton.

    Instead, the campaign is painting Biden as a tool of liberals or mocking his age and stamina. One of the Trump campaign’s negative TV ads features clips of Biden misspeaking, while a narrator says he’s 77 and “diminished,” and does not have the “stamina” to lead the country. (Trump is 74, and recently faced his own negative ads from the Lincoln Project SuperPAC mocking his shaky walk down a ramp.)

    Although questions of stamina and strength can be potent, the focus on Biden’s could inadvertently lower the bar for his debate performance, as happened when Jimmy Carter’s campaign painted Ronald Reagan as old and out of touch in 1980.

    “If the Trump campaign isn’t really careful, it will lower expectations about Biden’s debate performance to such an extent that if Biden shows up and doesn’t drool, he’ll win,” Galston said.

    Another ad ties Biden to the “defund the police” movement that sprang from George Floyd’s killing, a policy the former vice president does not support. It features an imagined automated recording that plays after a citizen dials 911, in which a voice asks the person to leave a message to report a rape or murder, with a wait time of days.

    On Friday, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway and Trump reached back through the mists of time to bash Biden for “plagiarizing” Trump’s economic platform, a reference to Biden’s using unattributed lines from a British politician in a speech during his failed 1988 presidential campaign.

    “He plagiarized from me but he can never pull it off,” Trump told reporters of Biden’s economic plan, which calls for buying American goods and investing in US jobs and infrastructure.

    But Biden is not out of the woods yet. His favorability rating could change as more voters start paying attention to the race, and Trump’s attacks ramp up. The president also may become more inspired when Biden announces his vice presidential pick, who Biden has said will be a woman. From Clinton to Ocasio Cortez to Omar, Trump has often shown more enthusiasm skewering female politicians.

    “I think it’s been pretty clear that Trump has a problem with strong women leaders, so he saves special venom for Hillary Clinton or Angela Merkel or Elizabeth Warren,” Russell said.

    Aimee Allison, the founder of “She the People,” a political advocacy group for women of color, said Black women are used to the incoming fire from this administration and will be prepared for sexist or racist attacks if Biden picks a woman of color as his running mate. “Centering women of color is the key and we’re at this point where we shouldn’t be afraid of Trump’s attacks,” she said.

    Terry McAuliffe, the former Virginia governor and a surrogate for Biden, added that attacking a woman vice presidential candidate could backfire.

    “I think if Trump goes and attacks our nominee for vice president who is a woman, he will do that at his peril,” he said. “He’s already in such bad shape with suburban women and independent women. It’d put another nail in the coffin.”


    Liz Goodwin can be reached at elizabeth.goodwin@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizcgoodwin

    Source Article from https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/11/nation/sleepy-joe-trump-struggles-stick-label-teflon-biden/

    A wildfire raging for a second day Saturday in central California’s Mariposa County outside Yosemite National Park has burned more than 9,500 acres and forced evacuations of rural communities, fire officials said. The fire still has 0% containment as of Saturday evening.

    The fire began Friday in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada near the small community of Midpines, roughly a 9-mile drive northeast of the county seat, the town of Mariposa, state fire officials said.

    Flames tore through trees and sent thick smoke into the sky Friday, and in at least one rural area burned close to homes and parked vehicles, video from CNN affiliates KFSN and KGO showed.

    “(Authorities) came by … and told us everybody’s got to go,” Wes Detamore, a resident of the Mariposa Pines area, told KFSN Friday.

    Electricity service in the area stopped at about 4 p.m. Friday, “and the fire has been coming towards us faster and faster,” Detamore said.

    The fire has destroyed at least 10 structures and damaged another five, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, said Saturday. The blaze is threatening 2,000 other structures, Cal Fire said.

    It had burned 6,555 acres by Saturday morning, Cal Fire said. Fire activity was extreme, and emergency personnel were working to evacuate people and protect buildings, the department said.

    Eleven fire crews with more than 400 personnel, as well as 45 fire engines and four helicopters, have been assigned to fight the flames, Cal Fire said.

    Nick Smith told CNN his parents’ home burned down as a result of the fire. His parents, Jane and Wes Smith, lived in their Mariposa home for 37 years, he said.

    “It’s pretty sad to see the house that I grew up in and was raised in gone,” he said. “It hits hard.”

    Smith told CNN that his father is a Mariposa sheriff and was working on the fire when his mother, Jane, had to evacuate. She had time to load their horses and get out of the area, according to Smith.

    “They had just the clothes on their back and the shoes on their feet,” he added.

    In the meantime, the couple is staying with friends and family. Smith created a verified GoFundMe to support his parents and help them overcome their loss.

    “They lived in their home for over 37 years, and now have lost everything,” Smith wrote on the GoFundMe. “37 years of memories, generations of family treasures, and countless more sentimental things. Although these are materials, it is devastating to lose everything literally in the blink of an eye without notice.”

    Evacuations have been ordered for certain areas in Mariposa County south and east of the fire, as shown in an online map. The evacuation zones did not include the town of Mariposa.

    A Red Cross evacuation center has been established at an elementary school in Mariposa, Cal Fire said.

    The blaze is a few dozen miles southwest of Yosemite National Park’s southern edges, though the park is closer when measured by a straight line.

    The Oak Fire is the largest of California’s currently active wildfires of note, which numbered at least six Saturday morning, according to Cal Fire.

    The second-largest, the Washburn Fire, has burned in and near southern Yosemite National Park for more than two weeks. It had burned more than 4,850 acres and was 79% contained by Saturday morning, according to InciWeb, a US clearinghouse for fire information.

    CNN’s TIna Burnside contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/23/us/oak-fire-mariposa-county-yosemite/index.html