Weeks after the novel coronavirus crisis began in December, there is still widespread confusion over the exact number of cases reported in China and whether the epidemic is finally stabilizing at the outbreak’s epicenter of Hubei province. On Thursday, China announced just 394 new confirmed cases, the lowest number of daily infections reported in weeks.…… MORE
Investigators have identified a suspect after three men were found dead this week at a cemetery in Southern California. Police issued an arrest warrant Thursday for Jose Luis Torres Garcia after the bodies were discovered Monday in Perris, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said. Garcia, 33, is wanted on three homicide warrants and unrelated misdemeanor…… MORE
A US Customs and Border Protection employee allegedly shot and killed his wife and two sons in Florida before killing himself, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. Police went to the family’s home around 3 p.m. Thursday after receiving a call from CBP that the man had not been heard from. Upon further investigation,…… MORE
The Democratic presidential contenders are racing to refill their campaign coffers — following costly battles in the early nominating states and the looming Super Tuesday threat from New York tycoon Michael Bloomberg, who has plowed nearly half a billion dollars of his fortune into the fight to become the party’s standard-bearer. The campaign filings rolling…… MORE
British backpacker Grace Millane was strangled to death, crammed into a suitcase and buried in a New Zealand woodland after a Tinder date in December 2018. On Thursday her killer, a 28-year-old man, was sentenced to life imprisonment with minimum 17 year non-parole period. The Courts of New Zealand said in a statement: “Overall, the…… MORE
Five Harvard students are suing university officials over Harvard’s investments in what they call the “prison-industrial complex.” The students are accusing the university’s president, a senior fellow of Harvard Corporation, and Harvard’s endowment manager, Harvard Management Company (HMC), of a “violation of fiduciary duty and breach of the Harvard charter.” Jason Newton, a spokesman for…… MORE
The latest in President Donald Trump’s chaos: The New York Times reported Thursday that Trump edged out his acting Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire, because Maguire briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill about Russian meddling in the 2020 election. Reminder: Maguire took over the intelligence post last summer, just as the Ukraine scandal was erupting.…… MORE
It’s happening again. America is blundering into a new Russia election-meddling hall of mirrors that’s already doing Moscow’s work: tearing fresh political divides and threatening to again tarnish democracy’s most sacred moment, a national election. Revelations Thursday about intelligence assessments that Russia has launched a new interference effort to help reelect Donald Trump — and…… MORE
A small private plane slid on its belly down the main runway at the Daytona Beach Airport on Thursday, showering sparks and causing a fire. No one was injured, officials at the airport said. Video posted to Facebook by Yelvington Jet Aviation shows the plane, a Cessna 510, sliding across the asphalt with no landing…… MORE
A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. You can sign up for it here. In 256 days, Americans will head to the polls to vote on whether to re-elect Donald Trump as President or to go in another direction. A lot will happen between now and then. But one thing…… MORE
