Loeffler poses with ex-KKK boss

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Monday, December 14

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SUSPECTED RUSSIAN HACKERS BROKE INTO TREASURY, COMMERCE EMAIL Hackers believed to be working for Russia reportedly broke into email systems at the U.S. Treasury Department and at a Commerce Department agency that decides internet and telecommunications policy as early as spring. U.S. intelligence fears the hackers used a similar tool to break into other government agencies, gaining free reign over email systems. [Reuters]

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COPS SHOOT MAN WHO OPENED FIRE AT NEW YORK CATHEDRAL New York City police said they shot a man dead after he opened fire at Manhattan’s St. John the Divine Cathedral, the largest cathedral in North America. Officers struck the suspect at least once in the head and killed him after he fired multiple shots. There were no injuries to police or attendees. [HuffPost]

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TRUMP HAS HIDDEN EVIDENCE OF HIS CRIMES FOR YEARS. BIDEN COULD EXPOSE IT. If President-elect Joe Biden was inclined to prosecute Donald Trump, his only dilemma would be where to start. Trump’s own Department of Justice refused to indict him for alleged crimes uncovered related to hush-money payments to his extramarital lovers, and for obstruction of justice alleged in the Russia investigation. He faces multiple state-level criminal inquiries stemming from his personal business practices, civil suits related to his alleged sexual assaults and his 2017 inauguration. But Biden is reportedly wary of pressing charges against his predecessor. [HuffPost]

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EX-CUOMO AIDE ALLEGES SEXUAL HARRASSMENT A former adviser to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo accused him of sexually harassing her “for years” while she worked in his administration. Lindsey Boylan, who is running for Manhattan borough president, made her allegations on Twitter and claimed that she wasn’t the only woman to have been victimized. “Many saw it, and watched,” she wrote on Twitter. “I could never anticipate what to expect." [HuffPost]

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VACCINE SHIPPED; SHOTS START TODAY The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine for Americans 16 and older as the pharmaceutical company began to roll out its first nationwide shipments. Hospital workers are set to receive the first inoculations, probably today. [HuffPost]

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LOEFFLER POSES WITH FORMER KKK LEADER Days after Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) posed for a photo with former Ku Klux Klan leader Chester Doles, leading to outcry from Jewish activists, Loeffler’s campaign insisted she had no idea who Doles was. But Doles’ profile as a white supremacist was prominent enough that he was reportedly ejected from a campaign rally in September featuring Loeffler and Rep.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). [HuffPost]

WHAT'S BREWING

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POLICE INVESTIGATE BURNING OF BLM SIGNS AS HATE CRIMES

Police are investigating as possible hate crimes the destruction of Black Lives Matter signs at churches in Washington during violent pro-Trump demonstrations over the weekend. Someone tore down banners supporting the anti-racism movement from at least three churches Saturday night as thousands of maskless “Stop the Steal” protesters marched through the nation’s capital. Four people were critically injured in stabbings during the demonstrations. [HuffPost]

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CLEVELAND BASEBALL TEAM DROPPING RACIST MONIKER Cleveland’s Major League Baseball franchise will reportedly drop its name, the latest team to heed fans’ and tribal communities’ request to leave behind a term considered racist. The team could keep the Indians name on uniforms for the 2021 season as the franchise figures out the massive logistical challenge to convert more than a century of iconography into a new era. [HuffPost]

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TRUMP NIXES PLAN FOR VACCINE LINE-BUTT AT WHITE HOUSE

Trump said he was reversing an administration directive to vaccinate top government officials against COVID-19, while public distribution of the shot is limited to front-line health workers, and people in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Trump made the announcement hours after his administration confirmed that senior U.S. officials would be offered vaccines as soon as this week. [AP]

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UK HEALTH OFFICIALS APOLOGIZE FOR MAKING SANTA SICK

Officials from the U.K.’s National Health Service have apologized for a controversial ad featuring Santa Claus desperately sick with COVID-19 that angered some parents. The public service announcement, which was yanked from YouTube, featured a gravely ill man with a white beard being rushed into the emergency room of a hospital. He’s clearly in distress and cared for by a crew of caring professionals. [HuffPost]

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HUNDREDS OF NIGERIAN KIDS MISSING AFTER ATTACK ON SCHOOL Hundreds of Nigerian students are missing after gunmen attacked a secondary school in the country’s northwestern Katsina state, police said, while the president said the military was in gunfights with bandits in a forest as it tried to find the students. The Government Science Secondary School in Kankara was attacked Friday night by a large group of bandits who shot “with AK-47 rifles,” a police spokesperson said. [AP]

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MILLIONS IN FEDERAL AID WENT TO ANTI-GAY GROUPS Millions of dollars in taxpayer funds in the federal coronavirus Payroll Protection Program went to anti-gay businesses, schools and organizations. The taxpayer loans can be forgiven and many likely will be, which would transform them into subsidies that will never be paid back. The funds were paid to groups and businesses with either a history of anti-LGBTQ advocacy or “policies that explicitly discriminate” against the community. [HuffPost]

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