TOP STORIES

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Thursday, February 2020

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BLOOMBERG TERMINAL Mike Bloomberg emerged from behind the shield of a $300 million-plus advertising blitz on Wednesday night for his first nationally televised Democratic debate. The result wasn’t pretty. The media and financial services mogul got pummeled over his record of allegedly sexist comments and behavior, his racist policing practices, his failure to release his tax returns, his support for Republicans, and his efforts to buy his way into the Democratic primary. [HuffPost]

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THE REAL ELIZABETH WARREN STEPS UP Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has been playing nice, and sliding steadily downward in the polls. But that all changed at Wednesday's debate. “I’d like to talk about who we’re running against: a billionaire who calls women ’fat broads’ and ‘horse-faced lesbians,’” Warren said in her opening comments. “And, no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.” [HuffPost]

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'XENOPHOBIC' SHOOTINGS IN GERMANY LEAVE 10 DEAD Shootings police attributed to a xenophobic motive killed at least nine people and the suspected gunman, and wounded five others in the German city of Hanau. The shootings took place at two hookah bars in heavily immigrant parts of the southwestern German city near Frankfurt. [HuffPost]

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FIRST 2 CORONAVIRUS DEATHS ON CRUISE SHIP Two elderly passengers aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship who contracted the coronavirus have died. They are the first confirmed deaths among the more than 620 people on board the vessel who have tested positive for COVID-19. Both had underlying health issues. [HuffPost]

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JUDGE SIDES WITH IMMIGRANTS OVER 'INHUMANE' CONDITIONS A U.S. judge in Arizona sided with migrants who have long complained about inhumane and unsanitary conditions in some U.S. Border Patrol facilities in the state. During a seven-day trial weeks ago, attorneys for migrants who sued in 2015 argued that the agency holds immigrants in extremely cold, overcrowded, unsanitary and inhumane conditions. [AP]

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BRITISH WOMAN PLAYS VIOLIN DURING BRAIN SURGERY Surgeons often listen to music in the operating room, but it’s rare that it’s being performed by the patient during the surgery. Doctors at Kings College in London got the in-operation performance courtesy of Dagmar Turner, who has had a passion for playing the violin since the age of 10. The 53-year-old former management consultant was diagnosed in 2013 with a slow-growing brain tumor after suffering a seizure during a symphony. [HuffPost]

WHAT'S BREWING

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BLOOMBERG: MY TAXES ARE TOO COMPLICATED Bloomberg claimed during the debate that releasing his tax returns to the public would be complicated and take “a long time.” “Unfortunately or fortunately, I make a lot of money and we do business all around the world and we are preparing it,” the billionaire, who is self-funding his presidential campaign, said. [HuffPost]

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AMY KLOBUCHAR CAN'T STAND PETE BUTTIGIEG Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s determination to portray Pete Buttigieg as artificial, incompetent and pretentious was striking during the debate. “You have not been in the arena doing that work,” the three-term senator said in response to pressure from Buttigieg over her record on immigration. “You’ve memorized a bunch of talking points.” [HuffPost]

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TRUMP NAMES FIREBRAND LOYALIST AS ACTING DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE President Donald Trump appointed U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell as the acting director of national intelligence, sidestepping a Senate confirmation process in which Grenell might not be confirmed. [HuffPost]

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FLORIDA CAN'T STOP FELONS FROM VOTING OVER UNPAID FINES Florida cannot, for now, bar felons who served their time from registering to vote simply because they have failed to pay all fines and fees stemming from their cases, a federal appeals court ruled. “We disagree with the ruling,” said Helen Ferre, chief spokeswoman for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. She said the state would immediately ask the entire 11th Circuit to reconsider. [AP]

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TRUMP BRINGS USUAL RAMBLING, LYING FARE TO ARIZONA RALLY “We’ve done more than any administration in history,” Trump told supporters during his 82-minute address, in which he veered from boasting of his accomplishments to insulting the Democratic candidates who were in the midst of a primary debate a few hundred miles north in Las Vegas. “Millions of registered Democrat voters are leaving their party to join our Republican Party.” [HuffPost]

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CHINA BOOTS 3 WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTERS OVER OP-ED China revoked the press credentials of three reporters for the U.S. newspaper Wall Street Journal over a headline for an opinion column deemed racist by the government. The expulsions come after the Trump administration designated five state-run Chinese news outlets that operate in the United States as “foreign missions.” [AP]

We Belong Here: Black History Month 2020

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