This is Toby Sumpter with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Tuesday, June 9, 2020.

In today’s news brief you will hear who has been charged in the murder of retired St. Louis Police Captain David Dorn, how the New York Times arranged for the resignation of an opinion editor for publishing the opinions of a sitting Republican senator from Arkansas, and Minneapolis city council announces it will disband the Minneapolis City police department. 

Man Charged in Officer Dorn Murder

KMOV reports: “A man has been charged with the murder of retired St. Louis Police Captain David Dorn five days after a handful of looters broke into a pawn shop in north St. Louis and ended the night with a tragic loss to the St. Louis community.

Officials with the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office said 24-year-old Stephan Cannon was charged with first-degree murder for the death of Dorn. The shooting happened at Lee's Pawn and Jewelry on June 2 after a night of looting and violent rioting in St. Louis. 

Police said Dorn was found shot multiple times.

"[Dorn] was murdered by looters at a pawn shop. He was the type of brother that would’ve given his life to save them if he had to," the Ethical Society of Police of St. Louis wrote after the murder. "Violence is not the answer, whether it’s a citizen or officer."

Cannon was also charged with robbery, burglary, armed criminal action and unlawful possession of a firearm.

According to charging documents, Cannon and other people can be seen on surveillance video leaving a Pontiac G6 just outside the pawn shop and then going in the store and grabbing several televisions. At some point, Cannon was the only one standing at a corner outside the store and then Dorn arrived. Police said video shows Cannon pointing the gun at Dorn and then Dorn is seen falling to the ground. 

Witnesses told police someone yelled to the people inside the store and told them it's time to leave after shots were fired. Police found several 9mm shell casings at the corner. 

Cannon, the driver and another person got inside the G6 and left the area. 

Police said Cannon admitted he cut his hair to change his appearance after seeing surveillance video released by police.

An eyewitness identified Cannon to police and officers found a television taken from the pawn shop at his home at the time of his arrest. Police said Cannon has a criminal history and is a felon. 

“David Dorn was a fine captain, many of us young officers looked up to him,” St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden said.

Dorn spent 38 years with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department before becoming the police chief in Moline Acres.

The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office said no bond was allowed. Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner said her office began an extensive investigation and with collaboration with the police department and the "outraged community, we have issued charges for the tragic murder of former Captain David Dorn."

Officers also arrested 27-year-old Jimmie Robinson. He was charged with burglary, armed criminal action and stealing. His bond was set at $30,000 cash only. 

What the news story doesn’t say is that both suspects charged are black men. Does that matter? Well, yes and no. On the one hand, it doesn’t matter because sin doesn’t discriminate between melanin levels. But it sort of does matter since the media and certain culture manipulators seem to care when white cops abuse their authority killing people with less melanin in their skin. Now, is there a history of violence and prejudice among whites against blacks? Yes, in many places in our country. But is there any history of violence and bloodshed among blacks? Absolutely, as in this case. The point being that despite real racial animosity in some quarters, the deeper problem is the race of Adam and sin, that afflicts all nations and tribes, and is an equal opportunity offender. And only the blood of Christ can heal these wounds.  

Fight Laugh F

This is Jesse Sumpter, managing editor of the CrossPolitic Magazine. Here with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Friday, June 5, 2020. Check out the CrossPolitic Magazine for articles and commentary on theology, politics, culture, and history.

George Floyd tested positive for COVID-19, autopsy shows

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/501082-george-floyd-tested-positive-for-covid-19-in-autopsy

The Hill Reports: George Floyd had likely contracted and recovered from the novel coronavirus at the time of his death in Minneapolis police custody last week, according to an autopsy report released by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office that also showed trace amounts of fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system.

The 20-page report is dated May 25, the day of Floyd’s death. It indicates Floyd had tested positive for the virus on April 3, suggesting he had likely recovered by the time of his death. While a post mortem nasal swab confirmed the diagnosis, the report released on Wednesday noted "the result most likely reflects asymptomatic but persistent ... positivity from previous infection."

The report, which lists Floyd’s ultimate cause of death as "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression,” contradicts that of an independent examiner hired by Floyd’s family, which attributed Floyd’s death as “asphyxiation from sustained pressure.” The county report does not list the trace amounts of fentanyl and methamphetamine as a cause of Floyd’s death.

Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was charged Friday with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. On Wednesday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) announced the charges against Chauvin would be upgraded to second-degree murder and that the other three officers present on the scene were also charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

Massive Robert E. Lee Statue In Richmond, Va., Will Be Removed

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/04/869519175/massive-robert-e-lee-statue-in-richmond-va-will-be-removed

NPR reports: Virginia will remove a statue honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in the city of Richmond "as soon as possible," Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday.

"Today, we're here to be honest about our past and talk about our future," Northam said, adding: "We have to confront where we've been in order to shape where we're going."

The statue will be placed into storage, where it will remain until government leaders and the community can discuss its future, according to the governor.

"In Virginia, for more than 400 years, we have set high ideals about freedom and equality," Northam said, "but we have fallen short of many of them."

The statue will be removed from Richmond's Monument Avenue, which is lined with effigies of Confederate generals. Of all the monuments, Lee's looms the largest — and unlike the others, it is owned by the state, a six-story monument on a 100-foot island of land that the state also owns.

It's up to the City of Richmond, the Confederacy's former capital, to decide what to do with the other statues; the city is in the process of determining what their fates will be.

Now some commentary: This is not the way to deal with history. History cannot be erased like this. History is messy and is rarely fixed by trying to erase it. 

Lee had an important role to play in American history. He was a key soldier in the United States Army. He also played an important role in the Mexican-American War as a chief aide. Later he was commander of the militia and US Marines who arrested John Brown at Harpers Ferry after Brown tried to incite slaves to rebel. Brown was also known to have captured some slave owners in Kansas and executed them with broadswords. This shows that Lee played an important role in bringing a criminal to justice. 

Even when it came to the Civil War between the states, Lee wa

This is Toby Sumpter with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Thursday, June 4, 2020.

In today’s news brief you will hear how Bernie got blasted for bowing to the wrong god, why the riots and now many of the protests are whiter than Joel Osteen, how you can tell most of these protests don’t really care about biblical justice, and why Christians must not be played.

Fight Laugh Feast Conference in Nashville October 1-3

But first: have you signed up for our first annual Fight Laugh Feast Conference in Nashville October 1st through 3rd? Rowdy Christian media meets the conference world – not for the faint of heart. We will kick the whole thing off with beer and psalm singing the first night, followed by a slate of speakers committed to driving the nails of the gospel into all of life including Douglas Wilson, George Grant, Rod Martin, Glenn Sunshine, yours truly, and more. The conference will conclude with a massive Fight Laugh Feast Network mashup, with representatives from all your favorite shows all on one show, fighting, laughing, and feasting. And then we really will feast together, with food trucks bringing in dinner to close out the conference. So please join us this October 1st through the 3rd as we build a rowdy Christian culture for God’s glory and our good. Go to Fightlaughfeast dot com and register today.

Bernie Tweets Support for Looting

https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1267248512523276290?s=20

On Sunday evening former democratic presidential hopeful Breadline Bernie Sanders tweeted: “The richest 400 Americans sit on $3 trillion—the size of the entire UK economy. The billionaire class now pays a lower tax rate than people living paycheck to paycheck. The looting of America has been going on for over 40 years—and the culprits are the ultra-rich.”

While the problem would seem to be with Sanders implying that the looters were just getting their stuff and money back – thus justifying the looting and vandalism, a number of commenters were just upset that Sanders bowed at the wrong idol. While he was doing his usual obeisance at the shrine of Mammon and class warfare, a number of respondents were miffed that he seemed to be downplaying the racial element of the riots. Sanders failed to put a pinch of incense on the intersectional goddess of racial grievance. 

And if you haven’t heard by now, the protests that continue to spread around the country are now as white as Joel Osteen. No, literally. Joel Osteen was on the scene in Houston, Texas for their protest. What are we protesting again? You do know that the officers involved in the George Floyd death have been fired and charges brought, right? You also know that a bunch of the protests have been weaponized by anarchists and antifa, right? You care about racial justice? Why in the world would you be involved in something that ended up with retired police captain David Dorn, a 77 year old man murdered in St. Louis during the riots. And if you must know, he was a black man, but that’s not the most important thing about it. What is most important is that he was a human being, made in the image of God, just like George Floyd.

Retired Officer David Dorn Murdered During Riots

https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnn-david-dorn-retired-police-captain-killed-st-louis

Fox News reports: Officer Dorn, suffered a gunshot wound to his torso about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday and died on a sidewalk in front of the looted shop, Lee's Pawn & Jewelry, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

St. Louis officials said Tuesday that Dorn was killed responding to a burglar alarm that looters set off. “David Dorn was exercising law enforcement training that he learned here,” St Louis Police Chief John Hayden said. The person responsible for killing Dorn has not been captured as of Wednesday. CrimeStoppers is now offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to their arrest.

President Trump honored Dorn on Twitter: “Our highest respect to the family of David Dorn,

This is Toby Sumpter with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Tuesday, June 2, 2020.

 

Not the Bee: NBA Reporter Cheers Rioters Torching Lowing Income Housing & then Two Days Later Freaks When They Come for His Gated Community

https://disrn.com/news/not-the-bee-nba-reporter-cheers-low-income-housing-being-burned-freaks-out-when-rioters-come-to-his-gated-community

 

Adam Ford writes for Disrn: “Veteran NBA reporter Chris Palmer, who has worked for ESPN and Bleacher Report, delivered a "Not the Bee"-worthy performance on Twitter in recent days, showcasing incredible hypocrisy by cheering the destruction of America's inner cities and then, just two days later, publicly wetting his pants when the same "animals" showed up at his gated community.

 

His first tweet, from Friday, was a picture of a building burning in a raging inferno in downtown Minneapolis. He captioned the picture, "Burn that s**t down. Burn it all down.":

 

The second tweet completing his double-double of hypocrisy and lack of self-awareness came just two days later, as he took to social media to freak right out after rioters showed up at his gated community. He called them "animals" and said, "Go back to where you live.":

 

As if this one-two could be any more stunning, the first picture he tweeted was actually of a brand-new $30 million affordable housing complex that was just about to open up for low-income individuals in Minneapolis, while Palmer tweeted from his gated community.

 

Fight Laugh Feast Conference in Nashville October 1-3

Before we getting to the next story, I want to invite you to sign up for our first annual Fight Laugh Feast Conference in Nashville October 1st through 3rd. Rowdy Christian media meets the conference world – not for the faint of heart. We will kick the whole thing off with beer and psalm singing the first night, followed by a slate of speakers committed to driving the nails of the gospel into your every day life including Douglas Wilson, George Grant, Rod Martin, Glenn Sunshine, yours truly, and more. The conference will conclude with a massive Fight Laugh Feast Network mashup, with representatives from all your favorite shows all on one show, fighting, laughing, and feasting. And then we really will feast together, with food trucks bringing in dinner to close out the conference. So please join us this October 1st through the 3rd as we build a rowdy Christian culture for God’s glory and our good. Go to Fightlaughfeast dot com and register today.

 

Even NPR Admits Coronavirus is Less Risky Than First Claimed

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/28/863944333/antibody-tests-point-to-lower-death-rate-for-the-coronavirus-than-first-thought

 

Jon Hamilton at NPR reports: “Mounting evidence suggests the coronavirus is more common and less deadly than it first appeared. The evidence comes from tests that detect antibodies to the coronavirus in a person's blood rather than the virus itself. The tests are finding large numbers of people in the U.S. who were infected but never became seriously ill. And when these mild infections are included in coronavirus statistics, the virus appears less dangerous.

 

"The current best estimates for the infection fatality risk are between 0.5% and 1%," says Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

That's in contrast with death rates of 5% or more based on calculations that included only people who got sick enough to be diagnosed with tests that detect the presence of virus in a person's body.

 

Mr. Hamilton scrambled to defend Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force by noting that one time in an editorial back in March Dr. Fauci and colleagues wrote that the case fatality rate for COVID-19 "may be considerably less than 1%."

 

Mr. Hamilton added that this means we should still believe every blessed thing tha

This is Toby Sumpter with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Thursday, May 28, 2020.

Romans 13, Trump, California, and the Supreme Court

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/499484-california-church-going-to-supreme-court-on-in-person-restrictions

Rebecca Klar from The Hill reports: “A church in California is petitioning the Supreme Court to block California Gov. Gavin Newsom's (D) order restricting in-person services amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

The South Bay Pentecostal Church, represented by the conservative law firm Thomas More Society, filed an initial petition over the weekend arguing that the restrictions are a “blatant violation” of the First Amendment.   

“These most essential liberties and fundamental freedoms are prescribed at the very outset of our Bill of Rights. California’s four stage Reopening Plan permits manufacturing, warehousing, retail, offices, seated dining at restaurants, and schools to reopen, but bans places of worship from holding church services,” Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society, said in a statement.

“On its face this plan is a blatant violation of the Free Exercise Clause of our First Amendment," he added. 

In a 2-1 decision last week, California’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found in Newsom’s favor against the South Bay United Pentecostal Church. 

Churches in California were ordered to shut when Newsom issued a stay-at-home order on March 19.

On Monday, the governor announced guidelines allowing churches to reopen for in-person services, at 25 percent capacity, with approval from county public health officials, but the Bay Area has yet to lift restrictions on people meeting for worship services. 

A lawyer for the Thomas More Society reportedly said its challenge to the Supreme Court would be amended but go forward. 

"Based on a quick review of the California guidelines for a variety of industries, from food packing to manufacturing to indoor shopping centers, none have anywhere as strict a set of capacity controls as have been put on churches," Peter Breen, vice president and senior counsel of the Thomas More Society, told CNN Monday night. "The next closest appears to be shopping centers, at 50% of capacity."

President Trump last week ordered governors to allow houses of worship to open immediately and warned that he would override them if they did not do so.

And just a quick note on this: submission to the civil government in constitutional republic like America means submitting to the form of government we have as much as it means showing honor and deference to the civil servants we have elected. This means that Christians, taking Romans 13 seriously, must protest injustice and evil and plead with their magistrates to do justice. In Ephesians 5, Paul tells wives to submit to their own husbands in the Lord, as the church does to Christ in everything. Does this mean that the Church never pleads with Christ? Does this mean that the Church never appeals to Christ to deliver us, to do justice, to act? Of course not. The book of Psalms is an inspired book of prayers, an inspired script you might say for the Church to submissively appeal to Christ. Therefore, Christian wives may respectfully follow that example. Many Psalms are songs of praise and honor, but some of them ask: Why do you stand so far off O God? Christian submission means appealing for justice, and therefore, Romans 13 includes Christians appealing to magistrates for redress of injustices. 

Fight Laugh Feast Conference in Nashville October 1-3

Before we getting to the next story, I want to invite you to sign up for our first annual Fight Laugh Feast Conference in Nashville October 1st through 3rd. Rowdy Christian media meets the conference world, and we think the impact will be punchy and peachy. And provocative. Also, we will kick the whole thing off with beer and psalm singing the first night, followed by a slate of speakers committed to

This is Toby Sumpter with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Thursday, May 21, 2020.

Before we get into the News Brief, we are hosting our first annual Fight Laugh Feast Conference in Nashville October 1st through 3rd. Step out of the boring, benign Christian conference circuit, and step into the rowdy Christian world of engaging culture with your faith, standing firmly on God’s word. Most conferences will lull your faith to sleep and teach you how to be nice, all the while our culture needs a gospel that packs a punch that is full of fighting, laughing, and feasting. So please join us this October 1st through the 3rd as we build a rowdy Christian culture for God’s glory and our good.

Just one news story and then a bit of longer editorial, or devotional, or mini-sermon. 

37 Planned Parenthoods Applied for & Received Federal Stimulus Checks

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/planned-parenthood-coronavirus-stimulus-money-ppp-return

Thirty-seven Planned Parenthood affiliates applied for and received a total of $80 million in loans from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" has learned -- and now the federal government wants the money back, saying the affiliates should have known they weren't eligible for the coronavirus stimulus payouts.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is reaching out to each involved Planned Parenthood affiliate explaining that affiliates of larger organizations with more than 500 employees aren't eligible for PPP distributions, Fox News is told. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PFFA) alone has had more than 600 employees.

A Planned Parenthood affiliate in Metropolitan Washington (PPMW), for example, will receive a letter stating that although self-certified that it was eligible for a $1,328,000 PPP loan in accordance with the SBA's affiliation rules, it will need to return the money.

PPMW's request for money from the Trump administration came just months after the affiliate's president and CEO, Laura Meyers, promised to turn down federal funds.

"Planned Parenthood is never going to allow the Trump-Pence administration to bully us into withholding critical health information from our patients," Meyers said last August, after the White House banned Planned Parenthood clinics from making abortion referrals if they wanted to continue receiving federal funds. At the time, Planned Parenthood vowed to give up federal funds entirely, rather than comply with the order.

The SBA warned more "severe penalties" were possible, beyond mandatory repayment. In particular, incorrect or false eligibility certifications by PPP recipients could result in criminal or civil sanctions if the SBA determined borrowers made knowingly false statements, the SBA letter read.

The letter explained that PPFA affiliates clearly were covered by the PPP affiliate rules. "PPFA's bylaws, a version of which is publicly available, reveal that becoming a PPFA affiliate requires a certification by the PPFA board," the document continued. "Once certified, "[e]ach Affiliate shall be governed by written bylaws, which conform to PPFA policies."

The largest single government loan was a $7.5 million allotment to the Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties in California. One Planned Parenthood affiliate received a loan but declined it.

After this report was published, Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called for an investigation and said the money needed to be returned, warning that criminal prosecution may be appropriate. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and James Lankford, R-Okla., also demanded Planned Parenthood return the funds.

Corona Eucatastrophe

Despite these Shenanigans by America’s Largest Molech Machine, Christians should be at the forefront of discerning what God is up to in all of the Corona Catastrophe. In fact, given that we know that God is behind all of this, we ought to be looking for signs of “eucatasrophe” –

05/20/2020

This is Gabriel Rench with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Wednesday, May 20th, 2020.

Before we get into the News Brief, we are hosting our first annual Fight Laugh Feast Conference in Nashville October 1st through 3rd. Step out of the boring, benign Christian conference circuit, and step into the rowdy Christian world of engaging culture with your faith, standing firmly on God’s word. Most conferences will lull your faith to sleep and teach you how to be nice, all the while our culture needs a gospel that packs a punch that is full of fighting, laughing, and feasting. So please join us this October 1st through the 3rd as we build a rowdy Christian culture for God’s glory and our good.

Voodoo Modeling

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/six-questions-that-neil-ferguson-should-be-asked/amp

Neil Ferguson, remember the professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London, the one who in all his omniscience, created the initial Coronavirus model that predicted up to two million people could be killed due to the COVID pandemic. Well it turns out this was not the first time he cried wolf. 

According to the Spectator, here are six instances of voodoo modeling gong wrong at the fingertips of Neil Ferguson:

In 2005, Ferguson said that up to 200 million people could be killed from bird flu. He told the Guardian that ‘around 40 million people died in 1918 Spanish flu outbreak… There are six times more people on the planet now so you could scale it up to around 200 million people probably.’ In the end, only 282 people died worldwide from the disease between 2003 and 2009.

In 2009, Ferguson and his Imperial team predicted that swine flu had a case fatality rate 0.3 per cent to 1.5 per cent. His most likely estimate was that the mortality rate was 0.4 per cent. A government estimate, based on Ferguson’s advice, said a ‘reasonable worst-case scenario’ was that the disease would lead to 65,000 UK deaths. In the end swine flu killed 457 people in the UK and had a death rate of just 0.026 per cent in those infected.

In 2001 the Imperial team produced modeling on foot and mouth disease that suggested that animals in neighboring farms should be culled, even if there was no evidence of infection. This influenced government policy and led to the total culling of more than six million cattle, sheep and pigs – with a cost to the UK economy estimated at £10 billion.It has been claimed by experts such as Michael Thrusfield, professor of veterinary epidemiology at Edinburgh University, that Ferguson’s modeling on foot and mouth was ‘severely flawed’ and made a ‘serious error’ by ‘ignoring the species composition of farms,’ and the fact that the disease spread faster between different species. Does Ferguson acknowledge that his modeling in 2001 was flawed...sooo

In 2002, Ferguson predicted that between 50 and 50,000 people would likely die from exposure to BSE (mad cow disease) in beef. He also predicted that number could rise to 150,000 if there was a sheep epidemic as well. In the UK, there have only been 177 deaths from BSE.

What is going on with education?

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/17/colorado-school-openings-262874

States and schools across the nation are working on strategies for students to go back to school in the fall. While most states and schools seem to be planning on opening up in person scenarios, Colorado’s Governor estimates that up to 20% of parents will want to keep their kids at home. California’s Governor, who continues to thrive in ambiguity and a supposed genuine concern for citizens health, said in regards to schools opening up: “"I think some schools will not be. Many schools will be...There's nuance. But we are moving forward, in hope and expectation that we can start that school year very strategically and methodically, again, based upon the health as a prime frame of reference in terms of those decisions."

Oh Gov Newsom’s comments turn my stomach

This is Toby Sumpter with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Tuesday, May 19, 2020.

The Judges Strike Back

https://www.christianpost.com/news/nc-judge-sides-with-churches-blocks-gov-coopers-restrictions-on-indoor-services.html

A string of court rulings would seem to be giving momentum to pushback against lockdown orders from state governors in lawsuits led by churches.

Christian Post reports: A federal judge in North Carolina issued an order Saturday to allow indoor worship services, blocking Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s enforcement of restrictions on churches during the coronavirus pandemic.

“The record, at this admittedly early stage of the case, reveals that the Governor appears to trust citizens to perform non-religious activities indoors (such as shopping or working or selling merchandise) but does not trust them to do the same when they worship together indoors,” stated Judge James C. Dever III, according to The Associated Press.

“The assembly for religious worship provisions in [Executive Order] 138 starkly illustrate the extent to which religious entities and individuals are not subject to neutral or generally applicable law,” Dever wrote in a 22-page order granting the emergency motion for a temporary restraining order to two Baptist churches, a minister and a Christian revival group that filed a federal lawsuit.

Cooper’s order prevented most religious organizations from holding indoor services for more than 10 people, but he will not appeal the court’s decision.

“We don’t want indoor meetings to become hotspots for the virus and our health experts continue to warn that large groups sitting together inside for long periods of time are much more likely to cause the spread of COVID-19,” the governor’s spokesman, Ford Porter, said in a statement. He said churches are being urged to voluntarily follow public health directives.

The court has scheduled a hearing for May 29 to decide whether the order will become permanent, according to The News & Observer.

“We are very thankful and we are elated that our First Amendment rights would be re-established,” the Rev. Ronnie Baity, founder and pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem and president of nonprofit organization Return America, was quoted as saying.

Baity said he will not hold indoor services this weekend as they had already planned for an outside service but will move inside next week.

“Freedoms curbed eventually becomes no freedom at all,” Baity had said earlier. “If there’s ever been a time our communities need the church, it is now.”

The lawsuit called Cooper’s orders “unconstitutional both facially and as applied to Plaintiffs.”

“Governor Cooper’s Orders have been interpreted, applied, and enforced by his Office and local law enforcement authorities as prohibiting indoor gatherings for religious worship by more than 10 people,” the lawsuit read.

“The Orders are not neutral laws of general applicability because they target Constitutionally protected activity, significantly burdening the Plaintiffs’ right to freedom of religion and assembly, establishing an orthodox form of religious exercise approved by the State, all the while providing broad exemptions for many other gatherings of more than 10 people that are not constitutionally protected.”

https://katu.com/amp/news/local/judge-tosses-coronavirus-restrictions-by-oregon-governor-brown?fbclid=IwAR3GgbgJQpImmg_QGy0mFdDYgmIESMZ1z65HZDpUnbCZgGOL47gdnLKsZfA

Likewise, a Baker County Circuit Judge Matthew Shirtcliff issued his opinion in response to a lawsuit filed earlier this month by 10 churches around Oregon that argued the state's social-distancing directives were unconstitutional.

Governor Brown filed paperwork within hours seeking an emergency review by the Oregon Supreme Court and a hold on the ruling until the high court could take it up. Her attorneys had asked the judge to stay his ruling until that time, but he declined.

In a statement,

This is Jesse Sumpter, managing editor of the CrossPolitic Magazine. Here with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Friday, May 15, 2020. 

Michigan barber defying Gov. Whitmer’s coronavirus shutdown has license stripped

Fox News reports: A Michigan barber who reopened his shop in defiance of Gov. Whitmer’s coronavirus shutdown orders had his license temporarily stripped Wednesday.

Karl Manke, 77, became a symbol of resistance when he opened the doors of his Owosso shop on May 4 and refused to close, pledging to keep his doors open until police arrest him or “Jesus walks in.”

After a judge declined to sign an order to shut down his shop Monday without first holding a hearing, state regulators opted to suspend Manke’s barber and shop licenses.

“It is paramount that we take action to protect the public and do our part to help save lives,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said.

However, Manke’s attorney, Dave Kallman, told the Lansing State Journal that the state’s action against the 77-year-old barber is “an abuse of power.”

"I think it’s totally vindictive," Kallman said. "It’s petty, it’s totally in retribution because they didn’t like the court order from earlier this week.”

Manke is still able to cut hair until the suspension is served; it had not reached the barber’s hands as of Wednesday afternoon, the paper reported. He can ask for an immediate hearing with an administrative law judge at the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs to fight the order.

Manke has cut hair for 60 years in Owosso, a small town 40 miles northeast of Lansing. He told reporters after reopening that he had no choice but to return to work because money got tight. He was issued a cease-and-desist order and two misdemeanor citations that could result in fines totaling over $1,000, but he refused to close.

Under Whitmer’s strict “stay-at-home” orders, hair salons and barbershops have been closed for weeks to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The governor has faced mounting criticism, including armed protests at the Capitol and death threats online, for her restrictions.

Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Manke said: “Obviously she [Whitmer] has no concept at all, the damage that she's doing to our state and to families.”

His defiance attracted the attention of Michiganders from across the state who drove hours to support Manke at his shop, some even getting haircuts.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/michigan-barber-defying-gov-whitmers-coronavirus-shutdown-has-license-stripped

Antibody testing reveals COVID-19 has been in Ohio since January, health officials say

WLWT5 Cincinnati news reports that “Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton announced Monday that they have found five different cases in five different counties that the date of onset of symptoms was in January.

"We are doing a lot more investigation, our disease detectives are going back to take a look at that and see if they were associated with travel," Acton said. "These cases now, we can pick them up because of the antibody testing. We are going to learn more and more about this disease, how long it was here in Ohio, how long it was spreading as we do more and more testing."

Acton said she does not have the specific counties where the patients are from.

https://www.wlwt.com/amp/article/antibody-testing-reveals-covid-19-has-been-in-ohio-since-january-health-officials-say/32438290

Trump traveled to Pennsylvania on Thursday as he calls for the state to ‘move quickly’ to reopen

President Donald Trump traveled to Pennsylvania on Thursday to visit a medical equipment distributor. 

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that this will be Trump’s second major trip outside the White House since March, when much of the country shut down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said Tuesday “anybody is welcome to visit the state.”He also said he would “urge anybody coming to Pennsylvania to respect our efforts to stay

This is Toby Sumpter with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Thursday, May 14, 2020.

FISA Get’s Renewed with a Latin Amendment

https://gizmodo.com/heres-who-just-voted-to-let-the-f-b-i-seize-your-searc-1843445032

Dell Cameron from Gizmodo reports: “A bipartisan amendment that would have prohibited law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, from obtaining the web browsing and internet search histories of Americans without a warrant failed to pass in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday by a single vote.

Twenty-seven Republicans and 10 Democrats voted against the amendment to H.R. 6172, which will reauthorize lapsed surveillance powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The amendment offered up by Sen. Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, and Sen. Steve Daines, Republican of Montana, would have forced the government to get a warrant before obtaining the internet search history of Americans. 

Under Section 215 of the Act, the government can compel phone companies and internet service providers to turn over such data, if it is deemed vaguely “relevant” to a terrorism or counterespionage case. 

In December, an inspector general report outlined what the New York Times’ Charlie Savage called a “staggering dysfunctional and error-ridden process” in reference to the FBI’s procurement of a FISA wiretap warrant for Carter Page, a former Trump campaign advisor. The litany of problems with the FBI’s surveillance applications, Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, said at the time, “demonstrates how the secrecy shrouding the government’s one-sided FISA approval process breeds abuse.” 

“For far too long the Patriot Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, commonly referred to as FISA, have been used to trample the civil liberties of American citizens,” Daines said in floor speech Tuesday morning. 

The final vote on Wyden-Daines Amendment was 59-37. Sixty “ayes” were required for it to pass. Members had to be physically present to vote. Among the 27 Republicans who voted against the amendment were Graham, Lindsey (R-SC), Romney, Mitt (R-UT), and Rubio, Marco (R-FL). Four members did not cast votes, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE).

A separate amendment proposed by Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) was passed by the Senate. It includes various provisions designed to protect Americans and their civil liberties. Among other reforms to the role of amicus curiae, the amendment requires the FISA court to appoint “one or more” individuals with privacy and civil liberties expertise in cases that raise “significant concerns” with respect to First Amendment-protected activities. 

It further enshrines specific requirements for the mandatory disclosure of exculpatory material, saying the government must bring forth any information that “might reasonably call into question the accuracy” of a surveillance application, or any information that would “otherwise raise doubts” with respect to the findings required under the application process.

Sean Vitka, a senior policy counsel at Demand Progress, called the amendment’s passage “a major victory for Americans’ civil liberties,” despite the Wyden-Daines Amendment being shot down earlier this afternoon.

“The Lee-Leahy amendment ensures an independent voice has access to and can raise issues with FISA surveillance targeting religious groups, political groups, and the media. The underlying bill remains broken, but adoption of the Lee-Leahy amendment represents a privacy victory well beyond what many believed to be possible,” said Vitka, adding that it marks a “long-awaited turn for privacy in Congress, and the start of many more fights to restore it.”

Wisconsin Supreme Court Has Struck Down Governor Tony Evers Extension Stay-at-Home Order

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/05/13/wisconsin-supreme-court-strikes-down-governors-extension-stay-at-home-order/

Washington Post repo