Mar 21, 2019

Florida man pleads guilty to mailing explosives to Trump critics

Mugshot of Cesar Sayoc Jr. Photo: Handout/Getty Images

Cesar Sayoc pleaded guilty on Thursday to 65 criminal counts for sending pipe bombs to 16 critics or opponents of President Trump, including Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, billionaire George Soros and 2 CNN bureaus, the AP reports.

Details: Prosecutors cited evidence connecting the 57-year-old Florida man to the crime that included DNA linking and fingerprints. Sayoc, who was charged with using weapons of mass destruction and illegal mailing of explosives with intent to kill, still faces a possible life sentence, but will no longer go on trial as scheduled in July.

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Kim Hart

This year's census may be the toughest count yet

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

Community leaders are concerned that historically hard-to-count residents will be even harder to count in this year's census, thanks to technological hurdles and increased distrust in government.

Why it matters: The census — which will count more than 330 million people this year — determines how $1.5 trillion in federal funding gets allocated across state and local governments. Inaccurate counts mean that communities don't get their fair share of those dollars.

Go deeper54 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Axios

Live updates: Coronavirus spreads to Latin America

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's Health Ministry. Note: China numbers are for the mainland only and U.S. numbers include repatriated citizens.

Brazil confirmed the first novel coronavirus case in Latin America Wednesday — a 61-year-old that tested positive after returning from a visit to northern Italy, the epicenter of Europe's outbreak.

The big picture: COVID-19 has killed more than 2,700 people and infected over 81,000 others. By Wednesday morning, South Korea had the most cases outside China, with 1,261 infections. Europe's biggest outbreak is in Italy, where 374 cases have been confirmed.

Go deeperUpdated 58 mins ago - Health

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian

Scoop: Census Bureau is paying Chinese state media to reach Americans

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

The 2020 Census Paid Media Campaign, which sends U.S. taxpayer dollars to community media outlets to run ads about the upcoming census, is including a Chinese state-run broadcaster as one of its media vendors.

Why it matters: After China's yearslong campaign to co-opt independent Chinese-language media in the U.S., Washington is now paying Beijing-linked media outlets in order to reach Chinese Americans.

Go deeper2 hours ago - World