Sep 6, 2018

Conservative group launches six-figure ad campaign to boost Kavanaugh nomination

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

The Judicial Crisis Network, a top conservative political group, is spending $600,000 national airtime to boost President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh ahead of his confirmation vote.

The details: JCN said the 30-second ad will be aired for two weeks on CNN, MSNBC and FOX News Channel starting Thursday — the third day of Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings. JCN is a dominant outside group that helped confirmed Trump's first justice nominee, Neil Gorsuch, and it had recently launched an ad campaign to pressure vulnerable red-state Democrats to support Trump's pick.

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Orion Rummler

House passes bill to make lynching a federal hate crime

Photo: Aaron P. Bauer-Griffin/GC Images via Getty Images

The House voted 410-4 on Wednesday to pass legislation to designate lynching as a federal hate crime.

Why it matters: Congress has tried and failed for over 100 years to pass measures to make lynching a federal crime.

Go deeper42 mins ago - Politics & Policy

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.

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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 2 hours ago - Health