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The Dakota Access Pipeline, an oil route from North Dakota to Illinois that has inspired intense protests and legal battles, must shut down pending an environmental review and be emptied of oil by Aug. 5, a district court ruled on Monday. It essentially vacates a federal permit that had allowed the pipeline to operate while the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which had granted the permits for the pipeline, conducted an extensive environmental impact review. The decision, which could be subject to appeal, is a victory for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other Native American and environmental groups...

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a dozen Native American leaders and organizations sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday calling for the league to force Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder to change the team name immediately. The letter was signed by 15 Native American advocates and obtained by The Associated Press. It demands the team and the NFL cease the use of Native American names, imagery and logos — with specific importance put on Washington, which last week launched a “ thorough review ” of its name. The letter was delivered on the same day that President...

The numbers: Restaurants, dentists and other service-style companies that dominate the U.S. economy saw a surge in growth in June as businesses were allowed to reopen, pointing to a gradual recovery after extended coronavirus lockdowns. The Institute for Supply Management’s index of nonmanufacturing companies jumped to 57.1% in June from 45.4% in May, marking the single biggest increase since the survey was created in 1997. It was also the highest reading since February and easily topped the 51% forecast of economists polled by MarketWatch. Any number above 50% indicates more companies are expanding, but the big increase in June overstates...

International students will be forced to leave the U.S. or transfer to another college if their schools offer classes entirely online this fall, under new guidelines issued Monday by federal immigration authorities. The guidelines, issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, provide additional pressure for universities to reopen even amid growing concerns about the recent spread of COVID-19 among young adults. Colleges received the guidance the same day that some institutions, including Harvard University, announced that all instruction will be offered remotely. President Trump has insisted that schools and colleges return to in-person instruction as soon as possible. Soon after...

People have been making donations to the foundation in recent weeks, believing it to be associated with the Black Lives Matter Movement, which it is not ============================================================================= A state attorney general in New York says that the Black Lives Matter Foundation must immediately stop seeking donations from New Yorkers who believe the organization is affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement. The foundation is a California-based company that is not registered in New York as a charitable organization, which makes it illegal to collect donations from inside the state, New York Attorney General Letitia James said Monday. “Every organization that...

The Eurozone economy will fall into a deeper recession this year than initially thought, and the recovery in 2021 will be less robust, according to an updated economic forecast released by the European Commission on Tuesday. The revised forecast predicts the economy of the 19 nations that use the euro will shrink 8.7% in 2020 before recovering by 6.1% next year. For the 27 countries that comprise the EU, a downturn of 8.3% is expected in 2020, before growing 5.8% in 2021. This means that in 2021 Europe will still be worse off than before the global outbreak of COVID-19...

....in blue states, it should come to no one's surprise that hordes of people are left defenseless. Some might have known about their respective states' anti-gun regime, especially in California and New Jersey, but a lot of folks found out the hard way when they tried to purchase a firearm in the past few weeks. Stephen Gutowski of the Washington Free Beacon has been on this beat, noting that some California residents have been shocked at how stringent their state's gun laws have become, even mulling running for office to change them. For his latest, he wrote about a US...

The grand economic question of our time is not the coronavirus, nor the lockdown, but how quickly do we put this all behind us? We know we're in a recession, and we know what has caused it, obviously enough. What we don't know is whether this time around will be like the recession of 1920, wherein by 1921, we couldn't quite see that it actually even happened, or whether it will be more like the events starting in 1929, when it took at least a decade to claw our way back. The answer will tell us a lot about the...

Advertisers that are now boycotting Facebook to protest "hate speech" have spent years running ads and marketing campaigns on a Russian social media platform that bans gay-rights groups and is known as a haven for white supremacists. Over 100 companies announced a boycott of Facebook last week in protest of divisive political speech on the website. The boycott coincides with a public pressure campaign led by Joe Biden and other top Democrats to press Facebook to enforce stricter control over President Trump’s postings. But many of these companies—including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Adidas, and Reebok—have been regular advertisers on VK, a popular...

The tapes reportedly implicate Epstein’s elite network in sex crimes. The Daily Mail is reporting that longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislane Maxwell possesses a ‘secret stash’ of video evidence of sex crimes against minors. The Mail is citing an anonymous longtime ‘former friend’ of Epstein’s so-called madame, who was arrested by the FBI last week as a result of an investigation into her involvement in the now-deceased pedophile billionaire’s sex trafficking and pedophile ring. Maxwell’s ‘former friend’ is quoted as believing that the longtime Epstein associate will use her video evidence of criminal sex activity to implicate individuals connected to...

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Monday hinted that President Trump will announce executive orders dealing with China after they mishandled the coronavirus outbreak. “This president will do more in the next four weeks than Joe Biden and his team did in the last 40 years, so you just need to stay tuned because starting this week, you’ll see executive orders, you’ll see business that goes forward from the Oval Office,” Meadows told "Fox & Friends." Meadows said that when Congress “does not act” against China, Trump will take action. “We’re going to be looking at how we...

The new North American free trade agreement that goes into effect Wednesday was touted by U.S. President Donald Trump as an engine of American job creation. But Japan's automakers are largely opting instead to keep operations in place and pay Mexican workers more or even just pay tariffs. The US-Mexico-Canada Agreement requires 40% or more of parts for each passenger vehicle be manufactured by workers who are paid at least $16 per hour as a condition to make them tariff free in the region. Trump hailed that feature as a way to boost production in the U.S., which has a...

KEY POINTS -Coronavirus vaccine distribution will be determined by a panel of experts, who won’t be from government -National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins is working with various agencies for the guidelines of ethical vaccine distribution -This is in response to Trump’s Operation Warp Speed that aims to deliver 300 million coronavirus vaccine by January 2021 A panel of experts, who will not be from the U.S. government, will likely be tasked to determine who gets the coronavirus vaccine first. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Francis Collins told a Senate panel in a hearing on vaccine...

The United States now has so few deaths due to COVID-19 that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday it is approaching the threshold for dipping below the level of an epidemic. The CDC defines an epidemic as an outbreak from which the number of deaths per week exceeds a given percentage of total deaths within the nation. The number of deaths from COVID-19 has steadily declined since hitting its peak in early May after it began spiking in the second week in March. That threshold death rate for COVID-19 and other diseases such as influenza and pneumonia...

The Congressional Budget Office is predicting the economy will come roaring out of the coronavirus recession with growth surging to 12.4% the rest of this year, before settling back into the longer-term trend of about half that. Unemployment will peak at more than 14% but “fall quickly” as the economy rebounds later this year and into next year, the CBO said in its new update Thursday... CBO can’t be sure of the numbers it’s using. “A further contributor to the overall uncertainty is that the speed and intensity of the recent downturn have greatly increased the difficulty of recording and...

Organizations that vigorously oppose government spending took Paycheck Protection Program loans, including some that have criticized the CARES Act, which created the PPP program, according to data released by the Small Business Administration. Americans for Tax Reform Foundation, which says it “educates taxpayers on the true cost of government” and “the realities of costly government programs,” received between $150,000 and $300,000 in loans. In a statement, Americans for Tax Reform claimed it “never opposed” the PPP program and defended the foundation’s decision to take government loans, which it said allowed the foundation to “maintain its employees without laying anyone off”...

Gov. Jim Justice followed through on an order for West Virginians to wear face coverings when they enter buildings that aren’t their own homes, but he also said there will be no penalties for those who don’t comply. “If you don’t take heed, we’re going to have funeral after funeral after funeral,” Justice said. An executive order goes into effect at midnight Monday. The order falls under the emergency declaration from the Governor’s Office that was first established a few months ago when the state began taking coronavirus precautions. Justice strongly hinted late last week that such an order would...

U.S. stocks finished sharply higher Monday, with the Nasdaq scoring a record close, as Wall Street followed surging Chinese equity benchmarks to their best levels in at least two years. Monday’s upbeat market action contrasted with a further spike in U.S. coronavirus cases and a resurgence of business restrictions by state and local authorities struggling to contain the viral outbreak. U.S. stocks ended up sharply Monday, led by shares of financial companies and record-setting technology shares as Wall Street followed Chinese equity markets higher. But Monday’s gains also came with growing doubts about the ability of the U.S. to contain...

The new alliance between Holcombe Mixers, Fisher Sand and Gravel Co. and Caterpillar Inc. is the latest strategic collaboration to accelerate completion of the border wall. “Working with Holcombe Mixers has been a game changer,” said Tommy Fisher, President and CEO of Fisher Sand and Gravel. “We made a commitment to President Trump, the Department of Homeland Security, and the US Army Corps of Engineers to get the wall up faster, and do it financially smarter. Generally, you’re pouring 2-5 loads per day. With Holcombe Mixers, we can pour 20-25 loads of fresh concrete each day and not have to...

Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf said Monday that an expanded mask-wearing order signed by his Health Sectary last week could be in place until there is a coronavirus vaccine. Speaking at an event at the PSECU Child Care Center Playground where new means of funding and support for child care centers was discussed, Wolf later fielded a question regarding how long the mask-wearing order would be in place and if there were any indicators that he was watching for regarding possibly ending it sooner rather than later. “I’m sort of thinking this is until we get a vaccine, but I don’t...