7. Another scandal for the Catholic Church, this time in Pennsylvania
— Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro says that over 300 priests molested over a thousand children and the Catholic churches knew about it and covered it up.
— Shapiro says, “The cover-up was sophisticated. And all the while, shockingly, church leadership kept records of the abuse and the cover” in order to avoid financial liability and paid publicity.
6. The defense did not call a single witness in defense of Paul Manafort
— There was a surprising lack of a defense offered by the Manafort defense team. Experts say this could mean they don’t think the prosecution made their case, or some argue that Manafort is working out a deal with special counsel Robert Mueller.
— Manafort’s freedom seems to rest on the fact that the federal government’s main witness Rick Gates is a questionable character who cut a deal, stole from Manafort and cheated on his wife.
5. Domestic violence claims continue to mount against Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) as a second accuser comes forward
— The DNC has finally broken their silence and a former DNC communications director says Rep. Ellison needs to be suspended.
— The American media has very little interest in this story and devotes almost no time to the story, compared to a similar story involving a Trump employee.
4. Senator Doug Jones wants Alabama polluted Superfund site moved up on the pollution cleanup priorities list
— A coal company and a law firm were involved in a scheme to keep a polluted site from being cleaned up. It ended in convictions or plea deals for a state representative, an attorney and a coal company executive.
— Jones sent a letter asking for the special attention to the site claiming that “it is now abundantly clear, as evidenced by the July 19, 2018 convictions of a former state legislator, a business executive and attorney on a number of federal charges including conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery, that the EPA’s initial public review process was undermined by an illegal misinformation scheme to prevent the North Birmingham site from being added to the NPL.”
3. President Donald Trump has some words of support for a saved Alabama coal mine
— The coal mine was covered by The Atlantic, and the president tweeted out the story with the tagline “Hope and Change in an Alabama Coal Mine.”
— The story starts with a nod to the excavator and a tribute to the president, “It was hulking, it was orange and its name was Trump.” It was named for the man they credit with saving their jobs.
2. Congressman Bradley Byrne confirms that there will be no illegal immigrants housed in Alabama
— Rep. Byrne and other Baldwin County officials have been lobbying the DOJ, the president, the secretary of state, and the secretary of Homeland Security to not choose a closed Alabama airfield as a site to store 10,000 illegal immigrants.
— After learning the news, the congressman tweeted, “BREAKING: My office has learned that there are no plans to house illegal immigrants at Navy airfields in south Baldwin County! This was a bad idea from the start, and I am pleased it will not come to fruition.”
1. The White House “cannot guarantee” that a tape of the president of the United States saying the “n-word” doesn’t exist after the furor over the president saying Omarosa Manigault Newman was a “dog“
— In what is an extraordinary movement at a White House press briefing, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked if there was a tape of the president using a racial slur and Sanders stated, “I can’t guarantee anything, but I can tell you that the president addressed this question directly.”
— Omarosa Manigault Newman is obviously a flawed messenger here and the idea that this tape could exist and not be released seems laughable, but there is now a tape of Manigault and Trump campaign spokesperson Katrina Pierson talking about the tape. Pierson’s story has changed on that issue after the tape has been released.
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