DBON - October 11, 2020

TOPICS & SOURCES: 

 A federal judge on Friday blocked Gov. Greg Abbott's plan to authorize only one ballot box per county in Texas, no matter the size. Judge Robert Pitman said the directive imposed a burden on an already vulnerable voting population that is somewhere between 'slight' and 'severe.' (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/judge-texas-abbotts-limit-ballot-boxes) 

 Federal Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, on Friday allowed Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to move forward with new restrictions on gatherings at synagogues and other houses of worships, finding that the rules did not violate the free exercise of religion for Orthodox Jews. (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/world/a-brooklyn-judge-declined-a-request-to-block-cuomos-restrictions-on-houses-of-worship.html) 

 In Milwaukee, Protests ignited earlier in the week after prosecutors announced Wauwatosa police Officer Joseph Mensah wouldn't face charges for shooting and killing Alvin Cole, 17, outside the Mayfair Mall on Feb. 2. (https://www.foxnews.com/us/wisconsin-protests-heat-up-alvin-cole) 

 Two reporters for the conservative news outlet Daily Caller said they were beaten with nightsticks by police as they reported on an anti-police protest Thursday night in Wauwatosa, Wis. (https://www.foxnews.com/us/daily-caller-reporters-say-cops-beat-them-with-nightsticks-during-wauwatosa-protest) 

 North Korea displayed what appeared to be its largest-ever intercontinental ballistic missile during a nighttime military parade in Pyongyang on Saturday, but it was not immediately clear if the missile would work or was for show. North Korea had prepared for months for the parade on Saturday, the 75th anniversary of its ruling Workers’ Party. (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/10/world/asia/north-korea-icbm.html) 

 Spain’s government on Friday decreed a state of emergency for the Madrid region, overruling Madrid’s own regional politicians, who had applied a limited lockdown on specific neighborhoods. (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/world/spain-uses-emergency-powers-to-lock-down-madrid.html) 

 President Trump’s ordered his secretary of state to declassify thousands of Hillary Clinton’s emails, and also insists that his attorney general issue indictments against Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr., essentially ordering direct, immediate government action against specific opponents, timed to serve his re-election campaign (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/10/us/politics/trump-barr-pompeo.html) 

 President Trump’s decision to restrict the federal government and its contractors from engaging in what he calls “divisive” and “un-American” diversity training is sending a chilling effect throughout corporate America just as companies were stepping up efforts to address racial disparities. (