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Friday, February 14

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2020 DEMS TURN UP HEAT ON BILLIONAIRE MIKE Democratic presidential candidates hoping to revive their flagging campaigns increasingly take aim at Michael Bloomberg, blasting their billionaire rival for trying to buy his way into the White House and raising questions about his commitment to racial equality. Struggling to recover from the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden took the lead in attacking Bloomberg. [AP]

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PEOPLE AREN'T BUYING BARR'S REBUKE OF TRUMP Critics have suggested that Attorney General William Barr’s comments to ABC News appearing to stand up to President Donald Trump were a coordinated attempt between him and the White House aimed at defusing the outrage sparked by the Justice Department’s walk-back of the sentencing recommendation for Trump’s longtime ally Roger Stone, which Trump had fiercely criticized. [HuffPost]

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CORONAVIRUS: OVER 1,700 MEDICAL WORKERS INFECTED The global total of coronavirus infections now tops 64,000, with the death toll over 1,380. Health officials in China say 1,716 medical workers have contracted the illness so far, including six who have died of Covid-19. A partial purge of officials in Hubei, the Chinese province at the center of the outbreak, began Thursday. [CNN]

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TRUMP TELLS CUOMO TO DROP NEW YORK LAWSUITS AGAINST HIM Trump demanded New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) drop all of New York state lawsuits against him prior to a meeting between the two on Thursday to discuss the suspension of travel programs that would benefit immigrants, along with other New Yorkers. [HuffPost]

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SENATE LEASHES TRUMP WITH VOTE TO LIMIT WAR WITH IRAN More than one month after Trump ordered a missile strike that killed a top Iranian general, the Senate passed a measure that would limit him from engaging in further hostilities against the country without first getting approval from Congress. [HuffPost]

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TRUMP BLASTS JUROR, JUSTICE OVER STONE 

Trump continued undermining the Department of Justice and the legitimacy of his former adviser Roger Stone’s criminal trial, this time by targeting a juror who publicly spoke out in support of the federal prosecutors. Trump tweeted that past anti-Trump sentiments that appear to have been made on social media by Tomeka Hart are proof of “significant bias.” [HuffPost]

WHAT'S BREWING

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THE BIG ROADBLOCK FOR BERNIE SANDERS' AGENDA Any Democratic president would have an extremely tough time enacting systemic changes like Medicare for All. Every Republican and most Democrats in Congress publicly oppose it. Lost in health care debates between presidential contenders is that the resulting health care policies would probably all look very similar, regardless of which person wins. [HuffPost]

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DEMOCRATS CALL FOR STEPHEN MILLER'S RESIGNATION Democrats in the House and the Senate introduced a joint resolution demanding the resignation of White House senior adviser Stephen Miller over his white nationalist views and racist, anti-immigrant policies. It condemns Miller's “trafficking in bigotry, hatred, and divisive political rhetoric and policies that are inconsistent with the trust and confidence placed in him as a Senior Advisor to the President.” [HuffPost]

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MAJOR NEVADA UNION NOT ENDORSING IN DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS The powerful Culinary Workers Union Local 226 announced it would not be endorsing a Democratic presidential candidate ahead of the Nevada caucuses on Feb. 22. “We are going to endorse our goals ― what we’re doing, that’s what we’re going to endorse,” the union’s secretary-treasurer said. “We’re not going to endorse a political candidate.” [HuffPost]

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YALE, HARVARD INVESTIGATED OVER UNREPORTED FOREIGN FUNDING The U.S. Education Department is investigating foreign gifts made to Harvard and Yale as part of a broader review of international money flowing to American universities. The department said it is reviewing whether the Ivy League schools potentially failed to report hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts and donations from countries including Saudi Arabia, Iran and China. [AP]

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HOPE HICKS TO RETURN TO WHITE HOUSE Hope Hicks, a former top aide to Trump who quit during special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, will return to the White House in a new role in the coming weeks. She will serve as counselor to the president and senior adviser reporting to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. In February 2018, Hicks testified before a House committee that her job sometimes required her to tell “white lies” on behalf of the president. [HuffPost]

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THE RACE TO END MASS INCARCERATION IN LOS ANGELES Los Angeles County is currently responsible for almost one-third of California’s incarcerated population. Black residents in the county are incarcerated at 13 times the rate of white residents, and LA County jails house more inmates than any other jail system in the country. More than 5,000 of those inmates are struggling with mental illness, making Los Angeles’ jail system the “largest in-patient mental health center” in the nation. [HuffPost]

We Belong Here: Black History Month 2020

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