Jul 19, 2019

Trump to nominate Eugene Scalia as labor secretary

Eugene Scalia gets encouragement from Sen. Kit Bond before Scalia's conformation hearing in 2001. Photo: Tom Williams/Roll Call/Getty Images

President Trump tweeted on Thursday evening his intention to nominate Gene Scalia as the new secretary of labor.

Details: Scalia, 55, is the son of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. A source told NPR that Trump offered the job to Scalia, and he accepted. He is a partner at a Washington, D.C.-based law firm where he focuses on labor and employment. He worked as an assistant to Attorney General William Barr in the 1990s.

Flashback: Alex Acosta resigned as head of the U.S. Department of Labor last week after facing scrutiny for his handling the Jeffrey Epstein case.

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Shawna Chen
Updated 36 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Voters in Wisconsin, Michigan urged to return absentee ballots to drop boxes

Signs for Joe Biden are seen outside a home in Coon Valle, Wisconsin, on Oct. 3. Photo by KEREM YUCEL via Getty

Wisconsin Democrats and the Democratic attorney general of Michigan are urging voters to return absentee ballots to election clerks’ offices or drop boxes, warning that the USPS may not be able to deliver ballots by the Election Day deadline.

Driving the news: The Supreme Court rejected an effort by Wisconsin Democrats and civil rights groups to extend the state's deadline for counting absentee ballots to six days after Election Day, as long as they were postmarked by Nov. 3. In Michigan, absentee ballots must also be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day in order to be counted.

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Sara Fischer, author of Media Trends
44 mins ago - Technology

Facebook warns of "perception hacks" undermining trust in democracy

Photo Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Facebook warned Tuesday that bad actors are increasingly taking to social media to create the false perception that they’ve pulled off major hacks of electoral systems or have otherwise seriously disrupted elections.

Why it matters: "Perception hacking," as Facebook calls it, can have dire consequences on people's faith in democracy, sowing distrust, division and confusion among the voters it targets.

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Orion Rummler
1 hour ago - Politics & Policy

Obama: Trump is "jealous of COVID's media coverage"

Former President Barack Obama launched a blistering attack on President Trump while campaigning for Joe Biden in Orlando on Tuesday, criticizing Trump for complaining about the pandemic as cases soar and joking that he's "jealous of COVID's media coverage."

Driving the news: Trump has baselessly accused the news media of only focusing on covering the coronavirus pandemic — which has killed over 226,000 Americans so far and is surging across the country once again — as a way to deter people from voting on Election Day and distract from other issues.

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