A 14-year-old killed two students, two teachers, and left at least nine more hospitalized after a mass shooting at a Georgia high school. Colt Gray will be charged with murder and tried as an adult. The high school reportedly received a phone call warning that there would be shootings at five schools, and that Apalachee High School would be the first. Biden called the shooting “another horrific reminder of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart.” Kamala Harris added that “This is just a senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies, and it’s just outrageous that everyday in our country, in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school, worried about whether or not their child will come home alive […] We’ve got to stop it, and we have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all. You know it doesn’t have to be this way.” Before today, there had been 29 mass killings in the U.S. so far this year. Last year, there were 217 deaths from 42 mass killings in the U.S. – one of the deadliest years on record for such shootings in the country. (
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- There have been 416 school shootings since the Columbine High massacre in 1999. More than 382,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine. (Washington Post)
The Biden administration accused Putin of orchestrating a campaign to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election, help Trump win, and erode international support for Ukraine. The Justice Department charged two Russian media executives and seized 32 web domains that it said were part of a broad, ongoing effort by the Russian government to spread propaganda. The two employees of RT – a Russian state-controlled media outlet – covertly funded a Tennessee-based company with nearly $10 million “to publish and disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government” on social media. The nearly 2,000 videos have gotten more than 16 million views on YouTube alone, prosecutors said. “The Justice Department’s message is clear: We have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic system of government,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. The Treasury Department also sanctioned 10 individuals and two entities in response to “Moscow’s malign influence efforts targeting the 2024 U.S. presidential election.” (
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A nonpartisan watchdog group asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to remove Judge Aileen Cannon from Trump’s classified documents case, arguing she’s taken “many efforts to undermine and derail the prosecution of this case.” In July, Cannon
dismissed the federal case, which accused Trump of mishandling classified information after leaving the White House, citing the “unlawful appointment” of special counsel Jack Smith. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, joined by a retired federal judge and two legal scholars, requested that the case be reassigned to a different South Florida judge if the appeals court overturns Cannon’s ruling. “Even before she dismissed this case on novel and insupportable grounds that ignored both statutory authority and Supreme Court precedent, Judge Cannon’s other extraordinary rulings and sluggish administration of the case had provoked well-founded concerns that she might be biased against the Government’s case and unable to manage that case impartially,” CREW wrote. (
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Biden is considering making his temporary asylum restrictions nearly impossible to lift. After Senate Republicans
blocked a $118 billion bipartisan border package, which Republicans had demanded but later rejected after pressure from Trump, who wanted to make the border a campaign issue, Biden issued an
executive order in June that temporarily suspended most asylum claims at the southern border when unauthorized crossings exceed a daily threshold. After the executive order went into effect, the number of arrests at the southern border has dropped from 118,000 in May to 56,000 in July. The ban was designed to be lifted when the number of migrants crossing the southern border illegally dropped below an average of 1,500 per day for one week, followed by a two-week waiting period. In July, Border Patrol apprehended an average 1,820 migrants a day. The change currently under discussion would increase the time the number of crossings must remain below that level to several weeks. (
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Trump’s federal criminal election interference case resumed after a nearly yearlong delay. The case had been on hold since late last year, when Trump appealed U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s
decision that he’s not entitled to “presidential immunity” from criminal prosecution. Despite two lower courts
rejecting Trump’s claim of total immunity, the Supreme Court took up the appeal and
ruled in July that Trump is entitled to “absolute immunity from criminal prosecution” for “official acts.”
Last week, special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump in a superseding indictment in the case involving an alleged conspiracy to obstruct the results of the 2020 election. The revised indictment kept the same four charges against Trump, but recalibrated the case to adjust to the Supreme Court’s ruling that presidents enjoy sweeping immunity from prosecution for their official conduct. Today, lawyers on both sides sparred over their proposed paths for how the election interference case against Trump should proceed. Chutkan appeared inclined to give prosecutors a chance to lay out the evidence against Trump within the next few weeks. Trump’s attorney, John Lauro, however, pushed back, saying this a “sensitive time” with the presidential election approaching. Chutkan responded: “The electoral process and the timing of the election […] is not relevant here. This court is not concerned with the electoral schedule.” (
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Kamala Harris called for a 28% capital gains tax rate for Americans who earn at least $1 million a year – 10 points lower than Biden’s proposed 39.6% top rate. The current capital gains tax rate is 20%. “While we ensure that the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share, we will tax capital gains at a rate that rewards investment in America’s innovators, founders and small businesses,” Harris said. While Trump hasn’t explicitly outlined a position, in 2016 he supported capping capital gains taxes at 20%, and the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 calls for a 15% tax on capital gains. (
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Trump pledged to cut the corporate tax rate to 15% from 21% for companies that make their products in the U.S. Trump has also called for tariffs of 10% to 20% – and even higher rates on China – he claims would return manufacturing jobs to the U.S. Economists, however, have warned that sweeping tariffs on $3 trillion worth of imports would reignite inflation. “I am promising low taxes, low regulations, low energy costs, low interest rates, secure borders, low, low, low crime,” Trump said. Trump,
meanwhile, also promised to ban undocumented immigrants from obtaining home mortgages. Out of the more than 3.4 million mortgages in 2023, some 5,000 to 6,000 were issued under a program designed for taxpayers without Social Security numbers. (
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Kamala Harris announced plans for a $50,000 tax benefit for small businesses, expanding the current $5,000 deduction for start-up expenses. In addition, Harris proposed developing a standard deduction for small businesses meant to save owners time when doing their taxes, make it easier to get occupational licenses, and new incentives for state and local governments to make it easier to form start-ups. “America’s small businesses are an essential foundation to our entire economy,” Harris said. The plans are part of a goal to spur some 25 million new business applications in her first term – up from the record 19 million since Biden took office. (
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Trump endorsed Elon Musk’s plan for a “government efficiency commission” to cut federal spending, which would be led by Musk “if he has the time.” Without offering concrete details, Trump claimed that “This commission will develop an action plan to totally eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months” by “conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms.” Musk, meanwhile, said he looked forward “to serving America if the opportunity arises” without pay or a title. It’s not clear how Musk would resolve his potential conflicts of interests leading the commission while SpaceX has contracts from the federal government and Tesla has received federal tax credits and other government incentives. Since Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, the social media company’s value has
plunged 72% and resulted in $24 billion in paper losses. (
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Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to the nine charges in the federal tax case against him. The plea came after prosecutors objected to his offer earlier in the day to enter what’s known as an Alford plea, which a defendant maintains their innocence but concedes that the prosecution’s evidence would likely result in a guilty verdict. He faces up to 15 years in prison and fines of up to $1 million after pleading guilty to three felonies and six misdemeanors, on charges he failed to pay $1.4 million in taxes from 2016 to 2019. His sentencing is now in the hands of the judge. Joe Biden, meanwhile, has repeatedly said he will not pardon Hunter or use his commutation power to reduce a prison sentence. (
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