Why it matters: Health officials are sounding the alarm over the potential of low child vaccination rates fueling transmission and carrying the risk of severe illness for some of the youngest Americans.
Residents of Jackson, Mississippi, filed a class action lawsuit against the city, its current and former mayors, city officials and engineering companies, alleging that years of neglect culminated in a recent water crisis for more than 150,000 people.
Why it matters: The residents asked the court in the lawsuit to force the city to repair the water system and to cancel any bills or debts held by residents for unsafe water or water that was not delivered.
Why it matters: The podcast — and a 2019 HBO docuseries — cast doubt on the original prosecution and key pieces of evidence. Baltimore prosecutors' investigation further identified concerns with the reliability of cellphone records and data used in prosecution, as well as a key witness' testimony.
A judge on Monday denied MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's request to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Smartmatic over false claims about its voting systems.
Driving the news: Smartmatic, a company that provided election technology and services to Los Angeles County during the 2020 election, alleges that Lindell and MyPillow publicly promoted "the false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen," per the court order.
Vice President Kamala Harris is ramping up campaign road trips to turn out young voters and voters of color for the midterms — stopping this week in Wisconsin and South Carolina but so far without scheduled appearances with key Democratic nominees on the ballot.
Driving the news: On Thursday, Harris is set to appear in Milwaukee at an event for the Democratic Attorneys General Association. She has not announced any joint appearances with Gov. Tony Evers, who is up for re-election, or Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, the Democratic nominee challenging GOP Sen. Ron Johnson.
President Biden again vowed in an interview Sunday that American forces would defend Taiwan if China's military invaded the self-governing island — prompting the White House to stress that U.S. policy hasn't changed on the matter.
Driving the news: Biden said during an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" airing Sunday that U.S. forces would defend the democratically run island "if in fact there was an unprecedented attack."
President Biden said it's his intention to run for re-election, but it's "much too early" to make a "firm decision" on 2024.
Why it matters: Biden's comments during an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday evening mark a departure from previous remarks he and White House aides have made about the 2024 presidential election.
What he's saying: "The pandemic is over," Biden told CBS' Scott Pelley. "We still have a problem with COVID. We're still doing a lot of work on it ... but the pandemic is over."
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R.) is reversing the state's policies on how transgender students are treated in schools.
The big picture: Republican-led states around the country have been introducing laws targeting transgender youth. Virginia's new guidelines, released Friday, pit the state at the center of a national battle over how transgender youth should be treated at school, per WaPo.
Raymond Dearie's appointment as special master to review records the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago was a positive development for former President Trump, whose lawyers recommended him. But their call for the low-profile New York judge was befuddling given Dearie has no apparent connection or loyalty to Trump.
Driving the news: Two sources with direct knowledge of the closely held deliberations now tell Axios what Trump's legal team was thinking:
The final tally is in: Democrats succeeded in boosting right-wing candidates in six of the 13 Republican primaries they meddled in.
Why it matters: The six races in which Democrats spent money now look close to unwinnable for Republicans, after the GOP nominated fringe or flawed candidates expected to turn off general-election voters. That includes three governor's races, two House seats and one critical Senate battleground.
After Democrats' surge in political momentum over the summer, signs indicate the midterm environment is tilting back in the GOP's direction.
Why it matters: Republicans aren't likely to ride a historic red wave to power. But they're well-positioned to comfortably win back the House, and are on surer footing than just weeks ago to net the one seat necessary to capture a narrow Senate majority.
President Biden offered condolences Sunday on the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, saying her loss "leaves a giant hole."
Driving the news: "I think what she gave is a sense of, maybe above all, the notion of service," Biden said after signing the book of condolences. "There’s something within our capacity to do that can make things — not just the world better, but your neighborhood better, your household better, your workplace better. And that, that’s what she communicated to me."
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds joined several other prominent Republicans in saying he won't support Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-S.C.) new bill that would ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks, the South Dakota senator said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.
Why it matters: Although the bill doesn't have a chance ofpassing in a Democratic-controlled Congress, some Republican lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have distanced themselves from the proposal ahead of the midterms.
Joe O'Dea, the Republican nominee challenging Michael Bennet (D) in Colorado's U.S. Senate race, told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that he doesn't want to see former President Trump run again in 2024.
Why it matters: It's a rare critique of Trump from a fellow Republican, though first-time candidate O'Dea has cast himself as a moderate to help win over centrists to take the seat in Colorado.
Former President Clinton said on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" that he believes the Democratic Party can retain both the House and the Senate in the upcoming midterm elections.
Driving the news: The former president added, however, that the GOP may try to scare swing voters toward the extreme as Election Day approaches.
Amid his legal peril, former President Trump emerges from the midterm primary season with two trophies that show the extent to which he has reshaped the Republican Party in his image — and toward his obsessions.
Driving the news: In 24 states, across the map, Republicans are fielding 2020 presidential election deniers as November standard-bearers for statewide office — governor, secretary of state or attorney general. These candidates — nearly 1 in 3 GOP statewide candidates, according to AP — backed Trump's push to overturn the election or spread lies about results.
Lawyers representing around 30 immigrants recently flown to Martha's Vineyard from Texas asked the Massachusetts attorney general and the federal government in letters Saturday to open criminal investigations into what they described as a "political stunt."
Why it matters: The lawyers said their clients "were induced to board airplanes and cross state lines under false pretenses," including promises of working opportunities, schooling for their children and immigration assistance, by people working with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
Bloomberg Philanthropies has launched an interactive database around racial wealth disparities aimed at increasing Black wealth accumulation.
Why it matters: Two years into a national reckoning following the death of George Floyd, banks and cities are experimenting with programs to expand homeownership among people of color. The new database could provide important information for such initiatives.
A new documentary examines how the U.S. military in the 1960s prepared police for unrest in cities by using a fictional town and soldiers as actors.
The big picture: "Riotsville, U.S.A.," released Friday in selected theaters, shows the origins of the militarization of police amid demands by poor communities of color to end police brutality -- demands that continue today.
