Vandalizing American History: A List of 64 Toppled, Defaced, or Removed Statues

The list of American statues and other monuments that have been toppled, decapitated, defaced, or removed since the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis grew longer almost daily through June and into July. 

A mob cheered as it pulled down a statue of Christopher Columbus in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In Washington, D.C., rioters used ropes to tear down a bronze depiction of Albert Pike, a Confederate general, and then set the 11-foot statue on fire. 

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Commentary: Democrats Don’t Have the Winning Hand

It may be premature (as well as unoriginal), but I believe, in one of the Democrats’ former favorite phrases, that “the walls are closing in” on Joe Biden. The Rasmussen poll—one of the only regular polls consistently accurate in 2016 and one that tends to lead fluctuations in the current polling—has recorded a six-point gain for President Trump in the past 10 days.

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11 Incidents in Which Lawful Gun Owners Made a Difference

As the Supreme Court continued its decadelong silence in protecting the Second Amendment, Americans last month nevertheless proved that they understand the importance of the right to keep and bear arms.

The FBI conducted a record-high 3.9 million background checks for firearms sales and transfers in June. The previous record of 3.7 million was set just this past March.

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‘Anti-Catholic Bigotry’: Rep Banks Demands Investigations into Anti-Catholic Crimes

Republican Indiana Rep. Jim Banks denounced incidents of vandalism of Catholic churches that have occurred throughout the United States in a Friday statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation, and called on the Department of Justice to investigate the attacks.

The Indiana representative spoke out Friday following repeated instances of apparently anti-Catholic attacks in Florida, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and many more locations. Banks said that as hate crimes increase throughout the country, not every hate crime is given the same amount of attention.

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Commentary: Why Sweden Succeeded in ‘Flattening the Curve’ and New York Failed

Coronavirus deaths have slowed to a crawl in Sweden. With the exception of a single death on July 13, no deaths in this nation of 10 million have been reported since July 10.

But the debate over Sweden’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, which relied on individual responsibility instead of government coercion to maintain social distancing, is far from over.

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Pandemic Triggered Massive Decline in US Prison Population: Report

More than 100,000 state and federal prisoners were released from custody between March and June as the coronavirus spread nationwide, according to analysis from a criminal justice organization.

The overall U.S. prison population declined by 8% over the course of those four months compared to the 2.2% decrease that occurred in the entirety of 2019, according to data compiled by The Marshall Project and The Associated Press. The decrease was mostly a result of prisons not accepting individuals from county jails to stop the virus from spreading and court closures, although some facilities did elect to release some prisoners early, The AP reported.

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All These Major American Companies with Hong Kong Footprints Weighed in on George Floyd’s Death, but Not China’s Hong Kong Takeover

Major American companies were quick to issue statements in support of Black Lives Matter or social justice causes in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, but dozens of those same firms that have operations in Hong Kong have yet to weigh in on the Chinese Communist Party’s de facto takeover of the city.

Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Marriott, McDonalds, Nike and Scholastic are among the dozens of major American companies with footholds in Hong Kong that weighed in after Floyd’s death but have yet to weigh in on the new security law Beijing recently imposed on the city, which impacts its employees working in the city and which critics say is designed to crack down on dissent of the ruling Communist Party.

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FBI Tore Apart NYT Report on Trump-Russia Contacts in Newly Declassified Memo

An FBI document released Friday details at least 14 inaccuracies in a New York Times report from early 2017 that leveled shocking allegations of Trump associates’ contacts with Russian intelligence officers.

The document shows then-FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok’s comments on a Feb. 14, 2017 article entitled “Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence.”

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DNR Seeks Further Assurances from Enbridge Over Line 5 Risks

 The head of Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources has asked Enbridge to sign an agreement to cover all losses that might ensue should the company’s dual Line 5 pipeline fail in the Straits of Mackinac.

DNR Director Dan Eichinger sent a letter Friday to Enbridge Executive Vice President and President, Liquid Pipelines Veron Yu seeking a written agreement “to provide sufficient financial assurances to cover any loss, including a catastrophic release from the dual pipelines.”

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