Today’s edition of quick hits:
* On the Hill: “Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reached out to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday in an effort to renew stalled coronavirus relief talks, but their conversation did not appear to break the impasse. Following the conversation, Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) issued a joint statement accusing the administration of ‘refusing to budge.’”
* Belarus: The top opposition candidate in Belarus’ presidential election left for Lithuania Tuesday but anti-government demonstrators still turned out for a third straight night to protest the vote results, despite a massive police crackdown that prompted a warning of possible European Union sanctions. Hundreds of people took to the streets of Minsk and several other cities on Tuesday evening. Clashes between the protesters and police using stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds continued well into the night.
* A story we’ve been watching: “President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Britain, Robert ‘Woody’ Johnson, made inappropriate comments on race, religion or gender to embassy staff and the State Department should investigate whether he violated laws barring discrimination, according to a government watchdog report released Wednesday.”
* Georgia: “A Georgia school district that does not require masks has closed a high school and now has over 1,100 students and staff in quarantine due to the coronavirus.”
* Colorado: ‘The Colorado attorney general is investigating whether the Aurora Police Department permits ‘patterns and practices … that might deprive individuals of their constitutional rights’ after Elijah McClain, a young Black man, died in officers’ custody last year.”
* USPS: “The Senate’s highest-ranking Democrat assailed the Postal Service on Tuesday for what he said was an effort to jack up the cost to states of mail-in voting, a new line of criticism in the escalating dispute over ensuring Americans can vote safely this fall in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.”
* Keep an eye on this one: “President Donald Trump appears to have inflated the value of his three golf resorts in Scotland and Ireland in documents filed with the U.S. government, according to a new examination of six years of financial records in the U.S. and Europe. And the group behind the finding wants the discrepancy investigated as part of a sprawling government probe into the Trump Organization’s finances.” * Waiting to see how many Republicans agree with Dems on this: “All 47 members of the Senate’s Democratic caucus signed a letter opposing President Trump’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), citing William Perry Pendley’s history of controversial comments and opposition to federal ownership of public lands.” * I guess this didn’t have to be a Florida story, but I’m not surprised that it is: “A Florida sheriff barred deputies from wearing facial coverings in most work settings, authorities said Wednesday, even as the state continues to struggle with record-breaking coronavirus numbers. Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods insisted there’s no conclusive evidence that wearing masks curbs the spread of the virus — despite explicit Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines saying just that.” See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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