Updated 8:36 PM ET, Thu August 12, 2021
(CNN)The United States is more diverse and more multiracial than ever before, according to new 2020 Census data released on Thursday.

"Our analysis of the 2020 Census results show that the US population is much more multiracial, and more racially and ethnically diverse than what we measured in the past," said Nicholas Jones, the director and senior advisor of race and ethnic research and outreach in the US Census Bureau's population division.

People of color represented 43% of the total US population in 2020, up from 34% in 2010.
The non-Hispanic White share of the US population fell to 57% in 2020, shrinking by six percentage points since 2010, the largest decrease of any race or ethnicity. The share of those who identified as Hispanic or Latino or as multiracial grew the most.

The United States aged overall since 2010 and the population younger than 18 became more diverse. The adult population in the United States has grown from 237 million to 261 million during the last 10 years. The share of the adult-aged population has increased slightly, from 76% in 2010 to 78% in 2020.

While the under-18 population decreased during the last decade, it is rapidly diversifying. Non-White US residents younger than 18 now make up 53% of the population among minors, up from 47% in 2010.
Non-Hispanic White Americans continue to be the most prevalent group in every state, except for in California, Hawaii and New Mexico, as well as in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

There are now seven states and territories — California, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, Maryland, Hawaii and Puerto Rico — where the non-Hispanic White share of the population is below 50%.

Share of White population has decreased in many states;

In California, the Hispanic or Latino population officially became the largest racial or ethnic group in the state for the first time. The Hispanic or Latino community now represents 39.4% of Californians, an increase from 37.6% in 2010. The non-Hispanic White population in California was 34.7% in 2020.
The Census retooled their survey for 2020 to ask American residents more detailed questions about how they identify their race and ethnicity. The Census Bureau reported that these and other technical changes "enable a more thorough and accurate depiction of how people self identify."
The Census Bureau said comparisons on race and ethnicity between 2010 and 2020 should be "made with caution," though they are "confident that the changes we are seeing from 2010 to 2020 in the diversity measures ... likely reflect actual demographic changes in the population over the past 10 years, as well as improvements to the question designs, data processing and coding."
Almost all of the nation's population growth was in its cities. ​​More than half of all counties saw their population decline since 2010. The largest county population increase was in McKenzie County, ND, which grew by more than 130% since 2010.

"Population growth this decade was almost entirely in metro areas," said Marc Perry, a senior demographer at the Census Bureau. "Texas is a good example of this, where parts of the Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas Fort Worth, Midland and Odessa metro areas had population growth, whereas many of the state's other counties had population declines."

———————————-
7 of 8 People Are Clueless About This Trillion-Dollar Market
Investing May 5, 2021

You probably heard this: Billionaire Elon Musk came up with this crazy idea that all his Tesla electric cars will soon be self-driving.

Yes, Musk is a genuine genius and I'm a huge believer in where Tesla is steering the entire auto industry.

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Consider that the global self-driving market is supposed to reach $42 billion by 2025, according to Boston Consulting Group.

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You see, there is a special technology that some are calling "bigger than the internet." In fact, it's the technology that is behind much of what Amazon does.

The masses will soon be catching on as this tech gets more and more popular. And I suspect when they do, they'll be focusing on obvious names... like Cisco and Intel... as they look for their share of the pie.

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Crowded field of Republicans and Democrats compete for Texas House seat
By Clare Foran, CNN
Updated 8:05 AM ET, Sat May 1, 2021
An anti-Trump Republican struggles to break through in Texas

An anti-Trump Republican struggles to break through in Texas 04:16
(CNN)A special election in Texas on Saturday features a sprawling field of Republicans and Democrats competing for the US House seat formerly held by the late GOP Rep. Ron Wright, who died in February after contracting Covid-19.

Candidates from both parties are competing on the same ballot, with 23 candidates in total, including 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote on Saturday, the race will advance to a runoff between the two candidates who receive the most votes.
Texas' 6th Congressional District has been in Republican hands for years, though the GOP margin of victory has declined at the presidential level in recent elections. That creates a possible opening for Democrats, but a Republican candidate is still viewed as most likely to win.
"I think Democrats can compete in this district, but it is still right of center, and one would expect the Republicans to hold it," Kyle Kondik, an election analyst at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, told CNN. "Also, and just like in midterms, special elections are likelier to break against the White House party than toward it. If Trump was still in the White House, this race might very well be a coin flip, but it's not one would expect to flip with a Democratic president in office."
Among the Republican field, Susan Wright, the widow of the late congressman, is frequently described as the front-runner, and her campaign got a major boost with a recent endorsement from former President Donald Trump.
In a shocking last-minute development in the race, Wright's campaign said Friday that it has reached out to federal law enforcement authorities after learning of a robocall falsely alleging that she had murdered her husband.
"This is illegal, immoral, and wrong," Wright said in a statement. "There's not a sewer too deep that some politicians won't plumb. Imagine it: someone is attacking my late husband, the love of my life, a man who gave me such joy in life."
Other leading GOP contenders include state Rep. Jake Ellzey, a top fundraiser in the race, and Brian Harrison, a former Trump administration official who worked for the Department of Health and Human Services.
Almost all of the Republican candidates have tied themselves to Trump to varying degrees, including Dan Rodimer, a former pro wrestler running on the tagline "Make America Texas again," and Sery Kim, another former Trump administration official, who served as an assistant administrator at the Small Business Administration.
"President Trump is still the leader of the Republican Party," Rodimer told CNN in a recent interview. "I don't think he's going to go anywhere, ever. I hope he doesn't."
The exception in the GOP field is Michael Wood, a Marine combat veteran and the one Republican in the race who has run an explicitly anti-Trump campaign. Wood wants Republicans to reject Trump and stop perpetuating conspiracy theories like the lie that the 2020 election was stolen and like QAnon, which is frequently described as a virtual cult.
"I felt like I had to stand up. Somebody needed to stand up and say this isn't what the Republican Party should be, and we've got to go in a different direction," Wood told CNN. Wood is widely viewed as running a long-shot campaign, but he has the endorsement of GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and the race will be a high-profile test of whether an anti-Trump message can resonate with conservative voters in the aftermath of the January 6 US Capitol attack and Trump's attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
On the Democratic side of the field, three candidates appear to be most competitive: Jana Lynne Sanchez, who was the Democratic candidate for the seat in 2018; Lydia Bean, who ran for a state House seat in 202; and Shawn Lassiter, an educator and nonprofit leader.
Several of the Democrats in the race have taken aim at Washington politicians, including Texas' GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, zeroing in on his controversial decision to fly to Cancun, Mexico, in February as a weather disaster in his home state left millions without power or water, a move he has said was "obviously a mistake" and that "in hindsight I wouldn't have done."
In one campaign video, Sanchez says, "Too many working Texans are struggling, but Washington politicians like Ted Cruz opposed $1,400 checks for us. They even abandoned us when the lights went out."
Lassiter says in one of her campaign videos, "Texas families are angry, tired and we want answers ... Families who had power were bringing in strangers during a pandemic, but our senator leaves for a beach vacation. It should be instinct for our leaders to care, to fight."Under-the-radar stock could soar with release of Apple's 5G iPhone
Investing May 5, 2021

By: A.J. Tiarsmith

The "world's smartest billionaire" has quietly acquired over 230,000 shares of Apple.

And Jim Simons, the legendary founder of Renaissance Technology, is not the only billionaire loading up on Apple stock in anticipation of a once-in-a-decade iPhone opportunity.

Business Insider reports that the billionaire founder of Chewy's has invested "nearly all of his wealth" in Apple and just one other stock.

And now, Warren Buffett, the world's greatest investor, has gobbled up over $91 billion worth Apple stock—that means Buffett is now betting over 40% of his portfolio on Apple.

These are just a few of the billionaires piling into Apple before the release of the new iPhone.

Because Apple analysts are predicting the new iPhone will unleash a "supercycle" that drives potentially record-breaking sales—over 230 million iPhones by some estimates.

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See, for the first time ever, Apple will release an iPhone that is 5G ready.

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A Texas man arrested for storming the US Capitol and assaulting police officers on January 6 also serves as a Republican Party precinct chair and has been an election poll worker in north Texas.

Mark Middleton, 52, was appointed as the chair of Precinct 14 in Cooke County in December, just a month after the presidential election, according to Chris McNamara, chairman of the Cooke County Republican Party.
RELATED: Justice Department has charged at least 400 people in Capitol riot so far
A precinct chair is a low-level elected position in local party politics.
However, Middleton was not elected. He was appointed by a committee of local Republicans to fill the vacant precinct officer position.
The Texas Republican Party says the duty of its precinct chairs is to "help promote and grow the local county party" and "to maximize the Republican vote in your precinct."Middleton is one of multiple rioters with local Republican Party ties. Derrick Evans, a former member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, and Jorge Riley, former secretary for the State Board of the California Republican Assembly, are among those who have faced criminal charges for participating in the riot. Both men resigned after the riot.

Middleton and his wife, Jalise Middleton, were both arrested and face seven federal charges each. They have pleaded not guilty. Their attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
Middleton also worked as an election clerk in two recent Cooke County elections, according to Pam Harrison, the Cooke County clerk and elections administrator. Clerks are usually picked by the precinct election judge overseeing individual election sites.

"These people tried to overturn the election. I don't want someone like that near a poll," said John Angus, the chairman of the Cooke County Democratic Party.
'We are on the front lines'
Mark and Jalise Middleton traveled to Washington, DC, to attend the protest against the certification of the 2020 presidential election. In court documents, FBI investigators say the Middletons marched from the White House to the Capitol grounds where they engaged in violent confrontations with two police officers trying to prevent the mob from storming inside the building.
On officer body camera footage, federal investigators say Middleton is heard saying "F**K You" after Capitol Police officers warn him and other rioters to "get back."
The court documents allege the Middletons helped knock down a barrier that allowed hundreds of other protesters to storm the west side of the Capitol.
Investigators say the Middleton couple assaulted the officers by repeatedly grabbing and striking at them with their hands. The couple would later write in Facebook posts that the officers doused them in pepper spray to keep the crowd from moving forward.
Investigators say the Middletons documented their movements on January 6 in a series of now deleted Facebook postings. "We are on the front lines. We helped push down the barriers," Middleton wrote in the Facebook post, according to federal investigators. "We had to retreat, but more patriots pushed forward, and they're taking back our house."
Mark Middleton started volunteering with the Cooke County Republican Party last year before he was appointed as a precinct chair, according to McNamara.
Cooke County is deeply conservative and sits on the Texas-Oklahoma border about 65 miles north of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Trump won the county in the 2020 election with 82% of the vote.
Middleton was appointed to the precinct chair position as Trump was scaling up his fraudulent attacks on the 2020 election results. But McNamara says he doesn't know if Trump's lies about the election inspired Middleton to take on a more official role in local party politics.
Justice Department has charged at least 400 people in Capitol riot so far
Justice Department has charged at least 400 people in Capitol riot so far
"I never got extreme vibes from him," McNamara said. "I felt that he was disappointed that President Trump lost."
If he chooses, Mark Middleton will be able to serve out the remainder of his term until March 2022. The Cooke County Republican chairman says the party "has no mechanism for removing him" from office.
McNamara said he was "very disappointed" in Middleton's actions and the Cooke County Republican Party does not condone the attack on the Capitol.
"It's a sad day in American history," he said. "It's not the way we do things."

There's really good news, but getting back to normal is hard
5:58 PM ET, Thu May 6, 2021

After more than a year of unimaginable loss -- in excess of 579,000 Covid deaths in the US, unnerving economic and political uncertainty -- there's some really good news to report.

Good news on Covid. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects that with high US immunization and moderate adherence to preventative measures, Covid hospitalizations and deaths will plummet further in the US and stay low through July.
Note the first part -- vaccination and prevention -- are needed to make the second part -- low hospitalizations and deaths -- reality. And variants will remain the wild card.

But at the moment, big cities are reopening. Multiple states have reported no new cases on some recent days. Only six states report rising cases over the past week, according to CNN's Covid tracker. This is good news, although tempered by a new analysis from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington that worldwide Covid deaths, including in the US, have been vastly undercounted and could actually exceed 900,000 in the US by the fall.
The advances in the US are coming as other countries are still in the throes of this disease. The news out of India, in particular, is heart-wrenching. Nepal could be next. But the drop in the US and in other developed countries is a step forward. They are seeing the highest rate of death of the pandemic as a second wave seizes the country. The US, emerging from its second wave, has its lowest death rate in seven months.
The data from CNN's report:
Right now, the US sees an average of 686 deaths per day, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The nation has not seen the 7-day average of deaths this low since July 10 -- nearly 10 months ago. At its peak on January 14, the US was averaging 3,432 deaths per day, JHU data shows.
Good news on the US economy. Weekly jobless claims fell to a pandemic low -- under 500,000 -- last week. Jobs data out Friday is expected to show the economy added a million or more jobs.
The unemployment rate is not expected to match the pre-pandemic less-than 4% rate, but it could drop under its current 6%.
Difficulties as the economy roars back to life. There are so very many stories about pent up demand driving up prices.
Lumber is more expensive, driving up construction prices.
Steel prices have tripled after the pandemic shuttered mills and the reopening drove up demand. Bank of America warned this surge is a bubble. But for now, prices are high.
The computer chip shortage slowing car manufacturing is getting worse.
Factories can't find workers. This is only partially a pandemic problem, but it's a $1 trillion issue for US manufacturers.
Restaurants can't find enough chicken to sell, according to the Wall Street Journal. Prices are through the roof.
Restaurants can't find workers as they try to open up. A New York restaurateur, Philippe Massoud, told CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich he can't open for lunch and is in a "new war of survival." He's got 15 open positions from manager to dishwasher.
Some are blaming lingering fears about Covid and some restaurant workers left the business.
Massoud and others are blaming generous unemployment benefits creating a "conflict of interest" for workers.
Montana's Republican governor, Greg Gianforte, said his state will now reject some federal unemployment benefits starting in June. "Montana is open for business again, but I hear from too many employers throughout our state who can't find workers. Nearly every sector in our economy faces a labor shortage," Gianforte said earlier this week in a statement.
People are going to desperate lengths to buy houses, offering six figures over asking in some places, and seven figures over asking in weird markets like the Bay Area.
There are continued concerns about inflation -- when prices rise and eat into the purchasing power of a dollar. It would equal a sort of pay cut for everyone. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, and then walked back, the obvious fact that the Fed may need to hike interest rates to tamp down on inflation, rattling investment markets.
CNN's Julia Horowitz put all that into context:
Big picture: Whether investors want it to or not, post-Covid inflation has arrived. What matters is whether higher prices are transient, as Yellen forecasts, or turn out to have staying power.
"The question is not whether there will be some inflation this year, but whether it will represent 'overheating' of the economy as a whole," J. Bradford DeLong, a professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley, wrote in a column published Tuesday.
Anyone who normally reads this newsletter and wonders where all the good news is will have gotten to this portion today and see this next bit coming: on the economy, at least, it's possible to have too much of a good thing.
What else?
Making it harder to vote: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs restrictive voting bill
Making it easier to carry a gun: Texas moves toward permit-free gun carrying, joining five other states this year
Breaking up is hard to do: Four months into Brexit, the UK and France have resorted to gunboat diplomacy over fish
More and more freebies for the vaccinated: US rolls out carrots and expands access in push to get holdouts vaccinated against Covid-19
Going vegan: One of the world's top restaurants is ditching meat. Here's what could go wrong

The Justice Department on Wednesday issued a warning in the Republican-run Arizona Senate-ordered audit of the 2020 election ballots, saying the audit could be in violation of federal voting and civil rights laws.

The warning comes amid scrutiny over the audit of nearly 2.1 million ballots from Arizona's largest county, Maricopa, where election officials previously found no evidence of widespread voter fraud or other issues during the state's 2020 presidential election. The review -- which perpetuates the falsehood that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump -- has been decried by both Maricopa County's Board of Supervisors, which is majority Republican, and the Arizona secretary of state, who is a Democrat. The results of the election have long been certified by the secretary of state.
Pamela Karlan, principal deputy assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, warned Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican, in a letter obtained by CNN that turning over election materials to audit contractor Cyber Ninjas -- a Sarasota, Florida audit contractor hired by the GOP-controlled Arizona Senate -- could be a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1960. Karlan also wrote in the letter that there are "at least issues of potential non-compliance with federal laws enforced by the Department."
The first, according to Karlan, is regarding reports that suggest the ballots, elections systems, and election materials in the Maricopa County audit are "no longer under the ultimate control of state and local election officials and are not being adequately safeguarded by contractors at an insecure facility, and are at risk of being lost, stolen, altered, compromised or destroyed."Federal law requires state and local officials maintain ballots and election materials for 22 months. After a legal battle, an Arizona judge sided with the Senate when it issued a subpoenaed for the Maricopa County ballots and election machines. However, Maricopa County refused to participate in the counting. The letter also notes that the Arizona Senate could give custody of the materials to others, but must retain ultimate control.

"We have a concern that Maricopa County election records, which are required by federal law to be retained and preserved, are no longer under the ultimate control of elections officials, are not being adequately safeguarded by contractors, and are at risk of damage or loss," Karlan wrote.
CNN has reached out to Fann's office for comment.
Karlan also noted that Cyber Ninjas' statement of work includes canvassing to "identify voter registrations that did not make sense, and then knock on doors to confirm if valid voters actually lived at the stated address" raises concerns of potential voter intimidation.

"The Department enforces a number of federal statutes that prohibit intimidation of persons for voting or attempting to vote," Karlan wrote, mentioning a section of the Voting Rights Act that prohibits voter intimidation. "Past experience with similar investigative efforts around the country has raised concerns that they can be directed at minority voters, which potentially can implicate the anti-intimidation prohibitions of the Voting Rights Act."
CNN previously reported that Cyber Ninjas released some of their procedures, including acknowledging the use of UV lights, after an order by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Martin. In the Cyber Ninjas document, however, it wasn't clearly explained why they were needed. Another Cyber Ninjas document revealed security plans for the coliseum where the audit is being performed. Called "The Arizona Audit Security Overview," it lays out potential security breaches, the number of private security guards and singles out "Antifa" as a security threat.
The document shows that Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey denied a request for members of the Department of Public Safety and National Guard members to provide security. Instead, private security firms, including a volunteer organization known as the Arizona Rangers, have been hired to protect the ballots and election equipment.

+

An attempted robbery at a Wells Fargo has turned into a hostage situation in Minnesota
9:20 PM ET, Thu May 6, 2021

There is an active hostage situation stemming from an attempted bank robbery at a Wells Fargo in St. Cloud, Minnesota, according to the bank and law enforcement officials.

St. Cloud officers were called to the bank around 2 p.m. CT Thursday for reports of a possible robbery in progress, St. Paul Police said.
Wells Fargo spokesperson Staci Schiller confirmed an active hostage situation inside the bank.

A woman is seen walking out of the Wells Fargo bank in St. Cloud, Minnesota, during an active hostage situation.
"We are cooperating with local law enforcement and will do whatever we can to assist the authorities in their investigation," Schiller said. "We recognize this is a traumatic moment for the community and our colleagues. The safety and security of our customers and employees is our most important priority."At least two people have left the building, according to video from CNN affiliate WCCO-TV. Both were women who came out to applause from bystanders. It is unclear whether they were employees of the St. Cloud Wells Fargo bank.
Another woman is seen walking out of the Wells Fargo bank in St. Cloud, Minnesota, during an active hostage situation.
Another woman is seen walking out of the Wells Fargo bank in St. Cloud, Minnesota, during an active hostage situation.
St. Cloud police said they do not have any reported injuries at this time and confirmed the FBI is assisting with their investigation. St. Cloud is approximately 65 miles northwest of Minneapolis.

Passengers aboard a boat that sank near San Diego paid thousands to smugglers, authorities say ; Thu May 6, 2021

Passengers aboard a vessel that sank near San Diego on Sunday told investigators they each paid thousands of dollars to be smuggled into the US, according to a federal complaint filed Wednesday against the suspected captain of the boat.

The boat hit a reef and broke apart near the Cabrillo National Monument in Point Loma around 10 a.m. PT, according to the complaint. Thirty-three people were pulled out of the water with three of the individuals found deceased.
One passenger remains in critical condition at a local hospital and two others are still receiving medical attention for their injuries as of Wednesday.
"Every indication from our perspective is that this was a smuggling vessel to smuggle migrants into the United States illegally," US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Supervisory Agent Jeff Stephenson said at a news conference following the accident. At least 26 of the surviving passengers were Mexican nationals who did not have legal status to enter the US, according to the complaint, citing a post-crash investigation conducted by US Customs and Border Protection. The three people killed were also determined to be Mexican nationals. One passenger told hospital staff that he is a citizen of Guatemala, the complaint said. One of the Mexican nationals was an unaccompanied 15-year-old boy, CBP said. The other Mexican nationals ranged in ages between 18 and 39.
Twenty-six passengers admitted they were paying between $15,000 and $18,500 to be smuggled into the US, the complaint said.
Antonio Hurtado, a US citizen, was identified as the captain of the boat by many of the passengers when Border Patrol agents showed his photo in a lineup, according to the complaint. Hurtado is currently in federal custody for allegedly attempting to bring people into the US illegally and assaulting a Border Patrol agent during his arrest.

CNN is working to determine whether Hurtado has an attorney.
During Sunday's press conference, Brandon Tucker, CBP deputy director of air operations for the San Diego Air and Marine Branch, said the captain was "a bit out of it, but he is speaking to agents on scene."
Boat 'just slowly disintegrated,' official says
Multiple agencies, including the Coast Guard, lifeguards and firefighters, responded to the area after the call came in for a multiple casualty incident. Stephenson said the boat was "severely overcrowded" when the sinking occurred.
Some individuals were rescued from the water while others were able to walk or swim to shore on their own, Lifeguard Lt. Rick Romero with San Diego Fire-Rescue said Sunday afternoon. Injuries ranged from hypothermia to physical injuries sustained when the boat broke apart.
"Conditions were pretty rough, five to six feet of surf, windy, cold, water is around 60 degrees, so you get hypothermia pretty quickly," Romero said.
"The boat was on the reef, bouncing back and forth, and then just slowly disintegrated into a bunch of pieces, so there's no boat there, it's all debris."While there were life jackets aboard the vessel, it's unknown how many passengers or crew were using them, he said.
Search efforts were suspended Monday, CBP said.

San Diego captain of suspected smuggling vessel in custody after boat overturned, killing 3. Here's what we know

The person believed to have been operating a suspected smuggling vessel that overturned off the coast of San Diego on Sunday, killing three people, is in custody.

There were 32 people aboard the 40-foot cabin cruiser, including the captain, when the boat hit the reef and broke apart near the Cabrillo National Monument in Point Loma around 10:30 a.m. PT, authorities said in an update Monday.
Twenty-nine people survived, officials said. Among five remaining in the hospital, one is in critical condition, according to a news release from the US Coast Guard 11th District PA Detachment San Diego.
"Every indication from our perspective is that this was a smuggling vessel to smuggle migrants into the United States illegally," US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Supervisory Agent Jeff Stephenson said at a news conference Sunday.
In Monday's release, US Customs and Border Patrol said that 27 of the surviving passengers were Mexican nationals who did not have legal status to enter the US.
One of the Mexican nationals was an unaccompanied 15-year-old boy, CBP said. The other Mexican nationals ranged in ages between 18 and 39.

Another passenger was from Guatemala, with no legal status in the US, according to CBP.
The final person, the captain of the boat, is a US citizen who remains in US Border Patrol custody. His name has not been released.
3 dead, more than 20 hospitalized after suspected smuggling vessel overturns off San Diego
3 dead, more than 20 hospitalized after suspected smuggling vessel overturns off San Diego
During Sunday's press conference, Brandon Tucker, CBP deputy director of air operations for the San Diego Air and Marine Branch, said the captain of the suspected smuggling boat was"a bit out of it, but he is speaking to agents on scene."Search efforts were suspended Monday, CBP said.
Boat was 'severely overcrowded,' official says
Multiple agencies responded to the area after the call came in for a multiple casualty incident, including the Coast Guard, lifeguards, and firefighters.
Stephenson said the boat was "severely overcrowded" when the incident occurred.

Debris is littered along the shoreline off Cabrillo Monument on May 2, 2021 in San Diego, California.

Six people were rescued from the water and others were able to walk or swim to shore on their own, Lifeguard Lt. Rick Romero with San Diego Fire-Rescue said during a news conference Sunday afternoon.

Romero said injuries ranged from hypothermia to physical injuries sustained when the boat broke apart.
"Conditions were pretty rough, five to six feet of surf, windy, cold, water is around 60 degrees, so you get hypothermia pretty quickly," Romero said.
"The boat was on the reef, bouncing back and forth, and then just slowly disintegrated into a bunch of pieces, so there's no boat there, it's all debris."
While there were life jackets aboard the vessel, it's unknown how many passengers or crew were using them, he said.
Romero also said that the boat did not have a manifest, so he couldn't say if there were children on board at the time the boat overturned.
CBP said it was 'ramping up operations to disrupt maritime smuggling'
The 40-foot vessel that struck the reef Sunday is larger than the smuggling boats CBP typically encounters off the Southern California coast, according to Tucker.
"We're assuming that it was illegal migration, but generally they are smaller, in the 20 to 30-foot range, generally about 20-plus migrants," he said. "This one was a bit larger than normal, but for overcrowding on these vessels, the unsafe conditions on these vessels, it's the same, it's just slightly larger."The City of San Diego Fire-Rescue Department posted the following photos of their rescue operation and wreckage after a boat officials believe was used for human smuggling struck a reef.
In a news release issued on Saturday, CBP said it was "ramping up operations to disrupt maritime smuggling off the coast of San Diego this weekend.""We've seen a dramatic increase in the number of maritime smuggling attempts recently," Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Heitke with CBP's San Diego sector said in the news release. "All of these illegal crossings at sea are inherently dangerous, and we have seen too many turn from risky to tragic as smugglers sacrifice the safety of those on board for the sake of profits."
A small wooden "panga" type vessel was interdicted by CBP off the coast of Point Loma on Thursday with 21 people on board, officials said in the news release.
"When we interdict suspect vessels, we routinely find unsafe conditions, with people overcrowded into small boats without necessary safety equipment," N. Michael Montgomery, director of CBP's air and marine operations in San Diego, said in the release.
"The individuals on board these small vessels, trying to enter the U.S. illegally, frequently are not told of the dangers they will face on their journey and are not prepared. They will end up far out to sea, in a small boat without adequate food, water, safety gear, or protection against the elements."
Correction: The Coast Guard has revised its information regarding the number of people on board and those who died. This story has been updated to reflect the corrected numbers.

It's been over a month since the American Relief Plan was passed, sending a third stimulus check to eligible Americans, but many are still in dire straits financially, especially families. Well for millions, more money is on the way and after President Biden's address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, stimulus checks could be sent monthly for the next four years.

During the speech, Biden presented his American Families Plan, which, if it comes to fruition, would greatly expand the federal child tax credit. Thanks to his American Relief Plan, that child tax credit has already been extended for one year, during which time eligible families can receive up to $3,600 per child in stimulus checks, but with the American Families Plan, that benefit would continue through 2025. The proposal is actually a compromise as many Democrats wanted the child tax credit to be made permanent, but Biden felt the cost of that would be would be too high.

As we've reported, the federal child tax credit is open to married couples who together earn $150,000 or less and have children under the age of 18, or individual parents making $75,000 or less with children under the age of 18. For every child those moms and dads have between the ages of 6 and 17, they'll get a check for $250 every month for six months - that's $1,500. For any kid they have under the age of six, they'll get $300 monthly for six months, totaling $1,800. That's not all though, they will also get a tax credit next year - $1,500 for each kid six to 17 and $1,800 for each child under six. You can find out how much you'll get here.

If Biden's proposal becomes a law, it will include many other benefits as well, including free community college tuition, paid family leave, more access to Medicaid and much more. Of course, there has to be a way to help pay for it all and that will come from raising taxes for the wealthiest citizens, something that is going to be hard to get Republicans to agree on.

Regardless, the monthly stimulus checks and tax credits are definitely happening this year, and will begin in July. First, the IRS needs to create an online portal and hire and train a staff for it. They can't get to that until they get through the current complex tax season. Once the portal is up and running, more information about how to get the checks will be available.

Jeff Brown is the founder and chief investment analyst for Brownstone Research. Before founding Brownstone Research, Jeff spent 25 years as a high-technology executive.

He worked at an executive level for some of the best technology companies in the world, like Qualcomm, NXP Semiconductors, and Juniper Networks.

As an active and successful angel investor in early stage technology companies, he has access to information the public never sees. He is on the front line, in the field, seeing things months, if not years, before the mass market becomes aware.

ECONOMY

Biden wants to bring the economy from relief to recovery. A labor shortage may signal trouble for those plans.
By Jeff Zeleny, Chief National Affairs Correspondent
Updated 2:33 PM ET, Tue May 18, 2021

Washington Township, Michigan (CNN)Patti Eisenbraun had been anxiously waiting for the pandemic to subside so the dining room and patio at the Brown Iron Brewhouse would be bustling once again.

Yet the lights were off, and her business was closed here Monday -- not for a lack of thirsty customers, but for a lack of employees.
"We went from 92 hours to 55 hours a week," said Eisenbraun, who opened the brewery and restaurant in 2015 with her husband, after a decade of planning. "It's a tough business model right now to be closed during those hours."A labor shortage is one of the persistent headwinds facing President Joe Biden as he builds support for his economic agenda to invest trillions of dollars in new federal spending to move the country from relief to recovery. From restaurants and retail to manufacturing and construction, signs declaring "Now Hiring" hang outside businesses most everywhere you look.
"We're trying everything we can," Eisenbraun said. "There's just not the people out there right now."
MORE ON COVID-19 RELIEF
First enhanced child tax credit payments to go out July 15
More GOP states end $300 federal pandemic jobless benefits early
Stimulus checks and pandemic aid make it even more important to file a 2020 tax return
FEMA Covid funeral assistance program up and running after rocky start
From Washington Township, which sits less than an hour's drive north of Detroit, the hiring challenges are a critical piece of the complicated economic puzzle facing the Biden administration. It's a stark warning sign here in Michigan and across the nation, but one that White House officials argue helps make the case for their sweeping economic proposals.

It's an open question whether the economic speed bumps -- from a labor crunch to rising prices in the grocery store and at the gas pump -- signal a short-term headache or a long-term challenge for the President. He visited Michigan on Tuesday to tour an electric vehicle center at Ford Motor Co., highlighting the new F-150 Lightning that adds an electric battery option to the highest-selling truck in America.
But just as Biden's fortunes were tied to taming the coronavirus pandemic, so too are they linked to an economic recovery. The rest of his presidency will likely rise or fall on the strength of that rebound, creating a ripple effect for the congressional elections in 2022 and his agenda. "Yes, he will be judged on how the economy is doing -- as will all of us," said Rep. Debbie Dingell, Democrat of Michigan. "So, our job is to work together and keep the economy strong."
In an interview on Monday, Dingell said the labor shortage is very real -- as are its root causes, including childcare concerns that could keep people from returning to work. She said lingering Covid-19 fears -- particularly in a state only recently coming out of the grips of a springtime surge -- as well as women leaving the workforce in droves also contribute to a labor shortage. Asked whether she was optimistic about the economy, Dingell said: "I'm going to choose to be optimistic, and it's my responsibility and everybody else's to make sure we deliver on that optimism."
But delivering on that optimism means fighting the unmistakable economic headwinds -- many of which revolve around rebuilding America's vanishing workforce. "Throughout the pandemic there has been a need for workers and now we're starting to see an uptick in the number of people that are coming in looking for work," said Eva Garza Dewaelsche, president of SER Metro-Detroit Jobs for Progress, a workforce development organization. "There are a lot of jobs that are going unfilled, which is why we're going to need job training."

Biden just dethroned the Welfare Queen
Analysis by John Blake, CNN
Updated 9:15 AM ET, Sun May 16, 2021
(CNN)President Joe Biden has been compared to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson and has even been called the "Anti-Reagan."

But there's another legendary political character that people should cite to explain why Biden's governing approach during his first 100 days in office is such a radical break from the past.
That character is a Black woman of indeterminate age who has 12 Social Security cards, mooches on benefits from four fake dead husbands and collects welfare payments under 80 bogus names while getting food stamps.

She is, of course, the infamous Welfare Queen.
That's how Ronald Reagan described her when he introduced the character during a presidential campaign rally nearly half a century ago. Reporters investigating Reagan's 1976 Welfare Queen story concluded that it wasn't quite true. Though never mentioning a name or race, Reagan had exaggerated the abuses of an actual Black woman in Chicago.
It didn't matter, though, if the story was more fiction than fact. The Welfare Queen embodied the GOP's belief that sending government aid to the poor would backfire because freeloaders -- hint, Black people -- will invariably splurge that money on steak and lobster. The Welfare Queen became the political equivalent of a horror movie villain. Democratic leaders didn't have a counter story that could stop it. It spread the myth that most Black and poor people were lazy cheaters looking for a handout instead of a hand up. The story was so influential that even Democratic presidents became leery of pushing Big Government solutions to help low-income people of color.

But Biden is now boldly going where no contemporary Democratic president has gone before, and he's destroying one of the GOP's most effective political attacks in the process.

The heart of Biden's "Build Back Better" agenda is three massive plans that would use huge sums of government money to help working families, including people of color. The American Rescue Plan, which was signed into law in March, includes direct cash payments to struggling families. Two other plans would rebuild the country's infrastructure and expand tax credits to help working families and make education more affordable.
What's fascinating is how Republicans have responded. It's not what they've said: that Biden is a "radical" and a "socialist" and his proposals are a "sloppy liberal wish list."It's what they haven't said that's revealing. They haven't successfully deployed any Welfare-Queen-like stories about people of color mooching off pandemic aid to turn a critical mass of White voters against Biden's plans. If there have been such attacks, they haven't gained traction.
"[The Republicans] don't have a coherent pushback," James Carville told the Daily Beast in a recent interview, describing three right-wing lines of attack against the President. "It's all CBS: cancel culture, the border and senility."
Why it's hard to brand 'Uncle Joe' a radical
Few people would have predicted Biden to be the leader who deposed the myth of the Welfare Queen. He once helped her retain her place on the throne.

Jacksonville, North Carolina (CNN)In Onslow County, North Carolina, the public health department has already all but given up on herd immunity. This county has one of the highest rates of vaccine hesitancy in all of North Carolina, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And it's just one of hundreds of places across the country where the vaccine is not catching on, leading some experts to predict the US will never reach herd immunity, despite the advent of widely available and effective vaccines.

"About 70% of our population needs to be vaccinated for us to feel like we've got enough coverage, that we can kind of control this disease in our community and kind of learn to live along with it," said Kristen Richmond-Hoover, public health director in Onslow. "We're (at) about 20% that have had at least one vaccine in Onslow County. We have a long way yet to go."
Making it personal
Onslow County, located on the edge of the Atlantic, hosts some of America's largest domestic Marine Corps facilities, housing an always-ready force of thousands poised to deploy whenever the call comes. So some local authorities are adopting a "take the mountain to Mohammed" approach.
Every week, Brandy Quinn, a health department nurse supervisor in Onslow County, plugs a refrigerated cooler of Johnson & Johnson vaccines into the cigarette lighter in her old Chevy truck and drives it across the county to find people she can cajole into getting a shot.
Quinn, who is from the area, is a natural salesperson -- it's easy to see why someone might feel less hesitant about the vaccine after talking to her about it.

Parts of the Gulf Coast are already feeling storm conditions that have 7 million under warnings
By Jay Croft and Aya Elamroussi, CNN

Updated 9:18 PM ET, Fri June 18, 2021

Heavy rain and tropical storm-force winds were spreading across parts of the Gulf Coast on Friday as a tropical disturbance closed in on the US.

There were tropical storm conditions from east of Morgan City, Louisiana, to the Florida Panhandle. About 7 million Americans are under warnings for heavy winds and rain.
Maximum sustained winds with the system increased Friday from 35 to 45 mph as the system moved generally northward towards the US Gulf Coast.
Despite having sustained winds supportive of a tropical storm, the system remains disorganized without a center of circulation required to be a named storm. "Satellite images and surface observations indicate that the circulation is slowly becoming better defined, and the system still is likely to become a tropical or subtropical storm before landfall," according to the hurricane center.

If the storm forms it will gain the official name Claudette. Regardless, the storm will hit the Louisiana coastline Friday night, according to the National Hurricane Center.
"Landfall is expected later tonight, with the center moving near or over New Orleans on Saturday morning," said CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen.
Grand Isle, Louisiana, measured sustained winds at 40 mph. An oil rig south of the southeastern coast of Louisiana reported sustained winds of 44 mph and a wind gust of 58 mph

Tropical storm-force winds can be felt as far as 205 miles from the center of the disturbance, forecasters said. Louisiana, hit hard by heavy rain and flooding last month, is under a state of emergency.
The storm is forecast to hit Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle through the weekend, according to CNN meteorologist Robert Shackelford.

Tropical storm warnings extend from Louisiana into the Florida Panhandle, affecting cities like New Orleans; Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; and Pensacola, Florida. Heavy rainfall is expected to bring flash flooding across the central Gulf Coast on Friday night. These flood impacts are forecast to spread across the Southeast much of Saturday and into Sunday.
Widespread rainfall totals of 4-8 inches are expected but upwards of a foot of rain is possible, especially along the coast.
Most of the heavy rain and wind will be east of where the center hits land. So eastern Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia will bear the worst of the storm, forecasters say.
And some areas of the coast could see up to 3 feet of storm surge. Hennen said 14 million people are under flash flood watches from Louisiana to Georgia, including New Orleans; Birmingham, Alabama; and Atlanta.
Rainfall on the already saturated ground could be more than a foot in some areas.
Louisiana activates crisis action team
The storm is expected to make landfall along the Louisiana coastline Friday overnight or Saturday morning.
After landfall, the storm will weaken and head to the northeast, impacting Montgomery, Alabama; Atlanta, Georgia, and Columbia, South Carolina, Shackelford predicted.
The energy company Chevron Corp. said it has pulled non-essential workers from some Gulf of Mexico offshore operations ahead of the potential tropical weather.
"In preparation for the tropical weather, we have transported all non-essential personnel from our Chevron-operated Big Foot, Jack / St. Malo, and Tahiti platforms. All personnel on our Genesis facility have also been moved onshore," Chevron spokesperson Tyler Kruzich told CNN in a statement.
2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season Fast Facts
2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season Fast Facts

Stop the Execution of John Hummel in Texas

TEXAS BOARD OF PARDONS AND PAROLES & GOVERNOR GREG ABBOTT
actionnetwork.org

John Hummel is scheduled to die by lethal injection on June 30, 2021 in Huntsville, Texas, a rescheduled date from 2020 due to COVID. Hummel was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2009 murders of Joy Hummel and Clyde Bedford.

Read more about this case in the Austin Chronicle. Appeals raise issues of conflict of interest by Hummel's trail attorney, who is now employed by the Tarrant County District Attorney's office. Issues of inadequate defense at trial are also being raised.

Please sign the petition asking Governor Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to do everything within their power to stop this execution, including issuing a stay, and seeking a path to clemency in the case.

Additionally, you may reach out now to the Board at [email protected] and the Governor at https://gov.texas.gov/contact/ and (512) 463-1782

Please note: In Texas, the Governor does have limited power when it comes to the death penalty. But the story we are told that "it's out of the governor's hands," is only true if we allow it to be. Yes, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles must recommend clemency in that state in order for the Governor to grant clemency (mercy) by commuting a death sentence. But the fact is that the governor appoints the members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles. He can choose to appoint members who will take valid claims and concerns more seriously, instead of acting like rubber-stamping gate-keepers. He can still use his position of power and influence to enact justice in the State of Texas.

To: Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles & Governor Greg Abbott
From: [Your Name]

We are writing to ask that you to stop the June 30, 2021 execution of John Hummel, who was convicted of capital murder for the 2009 deaths of Joy Hummel and Clyde Bedford. We are concerned at allegations of inadequate representation and a conflict of interest with Mr. Hummel's trial attorney.

Thank you for your time and attention to this very serious and very urgent matter.

send this !

Legal scholar explains the origins of America's policing crisis and how it may change
Analysis by Brandon Tensley, CNN
Updated 7:48 AM ET, Mon May 24, 2021

A version of this story appeared in CNN's Race Deconstructed newsletter. To get it in your inbox every week, sign up for free here. Tell us what you'd like to see more of in the newsletter at [email protected].
Washington (CNN)Since George Floyd's murder last May, the US has engaged in another reckoning with racial caste, examining the enduring menace of police brutality against Black Americans.

What change has this perpetual interrogation of anti-Black police violence led to?
Over the past year, city and state lawmakers have passed more than 140 police oversight and reform bills designed to address police behavior and accountability.
On Capitol Hill, the Democratic-led House in March passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act without Republican support. But the bill's path in the 50-50 Senate, where most pieces of legislation need 60 votes to break a filibuster, is uncertain.
Crucially, even with the substantial attention on Floyd, police killings of Black Americans have continued at a steady clip. Not even two weeks before a 12-member jury found Chauvin guilty of Floyd's murder, a White police officer fatally shot Daunte Wright.
To examine the current state of policing in the US, I spoke with Monica Bell, a legal scholar and sociologist at Yale University.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
What are the origins of the US's policing crisis?
The country's policing crisis is deeply historical. US policing has roots in slave patrols but also in the breaking of unions in the mid-19th century, when urban police forces were started. While those are the origins, the experiences of policing in racially marginalized communities in the ensuing decades have meant that the crisis is perpetual.
Think of the roles of police in participating or failing to intervene in lynching, the harsh policing of Black urban communities in the mid-20th century that led to a spate of uprisings during the 1960s, police use of military-grade weapons to flatten some Black communities in many of our lifetimes and the role of policing in inhumane styles of immigration enforcement today.

These roots and contemporary realities mean that police departments have been engineers of maintaining the status quo. When that status quo is White supremacy, economic hierarchy, border patrol, the policing of queer populations and so forth, the very design of policing has been overwhelmingly oppressive to marginalized communities. We have to get past questions of whether individual police officers are kind. Of course many are. But all the good intentions in the world don't make up for unjust systems and institutions.
Which reminds me of your work on legal estrangement. Could you explain its consequences for Black communities? The policing crisis as I described it is partly why we're at a situation where certain communities, especially Black communities, experience legal estrangement. This describes a sense of not really belonging in one's community or city or state or country because of the police and other legal institutions.
This estrangement happens on multiple levels. Often when people discuss distrust between Black communities and the police, they focus on individual police behavior. But the reasons for these frayed relationships are also communal.

So if a police officer stops me, a Black person, for having a scented tree hanging on my rearview mirror, I know that there's a pattern of stopping people who look like me for this kind of often pretextual reason. Most policy interventions that people propose to achieve police reform don't attempt to address this sense of group exclusion.
Finally there's structural exclusion. Policing operates differently because of, for example, racial segregation in cities and suburbs. Police reinforce existing segregation. And segregation also structures individual interactions with law enforcement officers.

"Defund the police" changed the conversation in some fundamental ways. While there's a difference between conversation and material change, the change in discourse is important groundwork for longer-term change.
Defund made people in power take seriously the idea that there might need to be less investment in policing and more investment elsewhere.
The deeper change in conversation was in the fact that, really for the first time in broad-based national discourse, people were asking: Do the police actually make us safer? And the "us" included Black people. In the wake of Chauvin's conviction, there are real questions about how the movement is responding. For some people, the conviction perhaps symbolized the dawn of a new era where police can be held criminally liable for murdering Black people. For others, the conviction was at best a narrow victory, and maybe even a setback toward the goal of creating non-punitive responses to violent harm. These debates about the direction of racial justice activism are unsettled but vibrant right now.
Policy change has been moving at a more glacial pace than conversation change has.
There have been many barriers to turning the implications of policing conversations into policy. We can look at the power of police unions, which have been critical in pushing back against some of the initial stirrings toward defunding and against changes like ending qualified immunity.
Another barrier has to do with the spike in violence created largely by the pandemic. More people are now willing to question whether police create safety, but there's a gap in knowledge about the availability of alternatives and how they work.
There are alternative emergency responses, front-end violence prevention efforts and transformative justice projects that address harm without resorting to the criminal system. These exist and in some places have been successful. But for many reasons, these alternatives aren't yet widespread, and where they do exist, not enough community members know about their success. What's funded and studied and recognized is policing. So partly because we live during a time when there's fear of violence and because there have been some spikes in violence in several cities, the path toward transformational change is on precarious ground.
What should the path forward look like?
There are short-term goals and long-term goals, not just for reform within policing but for reorienting the country toward a broader set of justice aims. The criticism that "defund the police" isn't politically savvy is, I think, a myopic view of a theory of social change that's building toward something greater than police reform legislation.
Recently, we've seen states pass changes like body camera requirements -- the kinds of reforms activists would call reformist reforms. But recall that in 2014 and 2015, discussion of body cameras was all the rage, yet many jurisdictions didn't institute them.
We're currently seeing a shift in the politics of police transformation. Activists are moving the conversation more than most politicians and much of the wider public are ready to move right now, and creating space for reforms they were pushing for years ago.
Everyone should step back and think carefully and charitably about theories of social change. There must be a theory big enough to include everyone needed to make sustainable and substantial change: members of communities most directly affected by the criminal system, policy-makers, activists, politicians and people in the public who less tangibly understand racial injustice and the policing crisis. The fight for justice needs all of us.

At least 159 missing after partial building collapse near Miami
By Fernando Alfonso III, Maureen Chowdhury and Zamira Rahim, CNN

Updated 2:54 p.m. ET, June 26, 2021
What we know so far
At least 159 people remain missing after a residential building partially collapsed in Surfside, Florida, yesterday. Search and rescue teams are racing to find survivors.
At least four people are dead, officials said.
Emergency officials are also asking people to call 305-614-1819 if they have relatives who are unaccounted for.
The cause of the collapse is still unknown.

Miami-Dade mayor says the fire at rescue site is hampering search efforts

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said that rescue crews are continuing to face "incredible difficulties" due to an ongoing fire under the rubble.

"It's a very deep fire. It's extremely difficult to locate the source of the fire. So, they've been working around the clock, these fire rescue teams, these brave men and women, under the rubble to fix this problem so they can get on, but it is hampering our search efforts," Cava said during a news conference.
Cava detailed that the smoke from the fire "spread laterally throughout the pile" making it difficult to isolate the source and stop it.

The mayor also noted that rescue teams have created a trench to try and isolate the fire and continue to search for victims.

"We're using everything possible to address this fire. We are using infrared technology. We're using foam. We're using water. All the tactics that we can to contain the fire and minimize the smoke spread," Cava said.

Cava added: "Obviously, the smoke itself is the biggest barrier right now to proceeding in those areas. So, we created a trench using heavy equipment to try to isolate the fire and continue searching for victims in the part of the pile that we can access. No further victims have been found."

No other victims have been found following the condo collapse, Miami-Dade mayor says

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said no other victims have been found in the rubble following the partial building collapse in Surfside, she said this morning during a news conference.

"No further victims have been found, as you've heard. The numbers are the same as they were yesterday; 127 have been accounted for," Cava said. "One hundred and fifty-nine unaccounted for. Four confirmed dead."
Cava added: "To the community and the world, please be patient. Please stand with us. Please continue your prayers. We are not going to stop. We need your support."

What, exactly, is Mike Pence doing?

On Thursday night, the impossibility of being Mike Pence came into sharp relief.

Speaking to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, the former vice president did everything he could to talk about the accomplishments of the "Trump-Pence" administration on everything from immigration to trade to foreign policy.
"President Donald Trump is also one of a kind," Pence said at one point. "He, too, disrupted the status quo. He challenged the establishment. He invigorated our movement, and he set a bold new course for America in the 21st century. And now, as then, there is no going back."

Except that, on the one thing Trump cares the most about -- his fantasy that the 2020 election was stolen from him -- Pence continued to defend his own unwillingness to overturn the election during the certification process on January 6.
"Now, there are those in our party who believe that in my position as presiding officer over the joint session, that I possessed the authority to reject or return electoral votes certified by states," Pence said. "But the Constitution provides the vice president with no such authority before the joint session of Congress. And the truth is, there's almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president."

Which is the only part of Pence's speech that Trump -- or his most ardent fans -- will care about. Which means that all of Pence's attempts to link himself to Trump's accomplishments (and the former president personally) will be for absolutely naught.

Trump has repeatedly attacked Pence for not blocking the certification of the Electoral College results on January 6; "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution," Trump tweeted in the immediate aftermath of the certification as rioters gathered near the US Capitol. (Pence was not, in fact, empowered in any way, shape or form to influence the certification.)
Some of those same rioters -- hours later -- were chanting "Hang Mike Pence" as they steamrolled through the Capitol building -- even as a gallows was being constructed outside. For Trump, Pence's unwillingness to break the law to overturn the election erased all of the good things the vice president had done for him over the past four years. Which is a remarkable erasure, given that there was no more loyal ally for Trump than Pence -- seemingly at the President's side for, well, everything.
Pence, in this speech and a few others he has delivered since emerging after the January 6 debacle, appears to be walking an impossibly fine line. He wants to be Trump's legislative heir. But he also knows he can't rewrite history on his role on January 6. Nor can he make Trump like him again.

So, Pence's case in 2024 -- and, to be clear, he's planning to run -- is that he is Donald Trump, without the full-on election denial that sparked January 6.
Which, really, isn't a thing. Because Trumpism isn't really about policies. It's about tone and feel. And at least now, about fighting the facts on the 2020 election.
It's like saying that you love baseball, except for the pitching part. Or that you love Italian food -- just not spaghetti or lasagna. There's not one without the other.
Trump has so fused his personality (and his following) with election rejection that there is no space for someone like Pence to embrace the policy end of Trumpism, such as it exists, but reject the core passion of the former President and his movement.

With severe drought conditions continuing across the Western United States, the risk of larger and more frequent wildfires threatens the safety of residents, communities and wildlife. This map visualizes wildfires active within the last 30 days.

Air quality

Wildfire smoke creates fine particulate matter that can linger in the atmosphere and spread from coast to coast. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in large quantities, this microscopic dust is linked to cardiovascular disease also associated with smoking cigarettes. The EPA measures regional air quality index (AQI) by how hazardous it is to the general public. Discover the AQI in your city by searching below.

Four of the five victims killed in the Florida building collapse were identified. 156 people remain unaccounted for
By Jason Hanna, Aya Elamroussi, Hollie Silverman, Ray Sanchez and Casey Tolan, CNN

Updated 10:01 PM ET, Sat June 26, 2021

The death toll in the Surfside, Florida, residential building collapse has risen to five, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a Saturday evening news conference.

"Today our search and rescue teams found another body in the rubble," Levine Cava said. "And, as well, our search has revealed some human remains."
The process of identifying the victims is difficult, the mayor said, and officials will be relying on DNA testing "and that is why we've already been gathering DNA samples from the family members," she said.
The victims were identified as Antonio Lozano, 83, Gladys Lozano, 79, and Manuel LaFont, 54, the Miami-Dade Police Department said in a news release Saturday night.

Stacie Fang, 54, was previously been identified, CNN reported.
Antonio and Gladys Lozano were both recovered from apartment 903, with Antonio recovered June 24 and Gladys recovered June 25, the release said.
A fifth victim has not yet been identified.
There are now 130 people accounted for and 156 unaccounted for, she said. Officials have not determined a cause of the collapse.
About 55 of the 136 units at the building a few miles north of Miami Beach collapsed at around 1:30 a.m. Thursday, leaving huge piles of rubble on the ground and materials dangling from what remained of the structure, officials said.

"Our top priority continues to be search and rescue and saving any lives that we can," the mayor added.
Crews are continuing an "aggressive search and rescue strategy," in the rubble at Champlain Towers South, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky said during the news conference.
Fire crews were able to contain the fire and minimize the smoke that was hampering search and rescue operations, Cominsky said.
"Currently we're searching the entire debris field, we've separated it into multiple sections and we actively ... are applying our search and rescue techniques."Engineer had raised concerns about structural damage
Nearly three years before Thursday's deadly partial collapse, an engineer raised concerns about structural damage to the concrete slab below the pool deck and "cracking and spalling" located in the parking garage, according to documents.
A structural field survey report from October 2018 was included in a series of public documents published overnight on the Surfside town website. The New York Times was first to report about the field survey report. The structural field survey said the waterproofing below the pool deck and entrance drive was failing and causing "major structural damage."

"The waterproofing below the pool deck and Entrance Drive as well as all of the planter waterproofing is beyond its useful life and therefore must all be completely removed and replaced," the report reads. "The failed waterproofing is causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas. Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially."
The report said the waterproofing was laid on a flat structure rather than a sloped concrete slab that would have allowed the water to drain. That resulted in water sitting on the waterproofing until it evaporated, in what the report identified as a "major error."
The report further noted that "the replacement of the existing deck waterproofing will be extremely expensive...be disruptive and create a major disturbance to the occupants of this condominium building."
The report, the goal of which was to "understand and document the extent of structural issues," detailed signs of "distress/fatigue" in the parking garage. "Abundant cracking and spalling of various degrees was observed in the concrete columns, beams and walls. ... Though some of this damage is minor, most of the concrete deterioration needs to be repaired in a timely fashion."
Spalling is a term used to describe areas of concrete that have cracked or crumbled.
The 2018 report also noted that "many ... previous garage concrete repairs" were "failing."
The report didn't give any indication that the structure was at risk of collapse. It was completed by Frank Morabito of Morabito Consultants.
Consulting company says it was hired again in 2020
In a Saturday statement, Morabito Consultants said the company completed a report in 2018 that detailed "significant cracks and breaks in the concrete" and provided "an estimate of the probable costs to make the extensive and necessary repairs."
The condominium association hired the firm again in June 2020 "to prepare a '40-year Building Repair and Restoration' plan with detailed specifications for completing the necessary repairs and restoration work," its statement said.
At the time of the collapse, there were roof repairs taking place, but concrete restoration had not started, the firm said, adding that it "exclusively provides" engineering consulting services and does not provide construction-related services.
"We are deeply troubled by this building collapse and are working closely with the investigating authorities to understand why the structure failed," it added.
'Nothing like this was foreseeable,' condo association attorney says
Abieyuwa Aghayere, a professor of structural engineering at Drexel University who reviewed the report, said its findings were alarming and should have spurred further review of the building's integrity.
An attorney for the building's condominium association, Kenneth Direktor, previously warned against early speculation. The building, he told CNN on Friday, had been subject to a series of inspections "over the last several months" as part of its milestone 40-year safety certification process.
"Nothing like this was foreseeable," Direktor said. "At least it wasn't seen by the engineers who were looking at the building from a structural perspective."
CNN reached out to Direktor on Saturday for comment. Surfside mayor: Evacuate nearby tower
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett on Saturday recommended residents of the nearby north tower evacuate out of "an abundance of caution."
"I don't think people need to live with the possibility, or the even the thought that their" building may collapse, Burkett told CNN.
Burkett said he has not seen the 2018 report, and that it's still "unclear what steps the building was taking to address ... cracks" mentioned in the document. At an emergency meeting Friday evening, the mayor and town commission discussed the evacuation of the north tower -- which Burkett described as "exactly the same property" in design as the collapsed tower -- and the hiring of an engineer to investigate.
On Saturday morning, CNN asked Levine Cava, the Miami-Dade County mayor, about the report.
"We need all this information, we need all this evidence, and we are going to get to the bottom of what happened at this particular building," she said.
The mayor later told reporters, "We knew nothing about this report."
Levine Cava said Miami-Dade is conducting an audit of all county buildings at their 40-year point and beyond.
"We want to make sure that every building has completed their recertification process," she said.
The building that collapsed was undergoing that recertification process, and the board only knew what the engineer's certification report included in terms of repair work, she said.
Permit for roof repairs issued day before collapse
Donna DiMaggio Berger, an attorney for the Champlain Towers condo association, said board members had no information that would have foreshadowed Thursday's disaster.
"Typical things that an engineer looks for in a certification report in Miami-Dade and Broward County, which are the two counties that require this kind of certification, is a review of the roof, the HVAC system, electrical, plumbing, and the building envelope," Berger told CNN.
"But certainly, there was nothing hazardous that was outlined in that report, anything that would have proven to be a danger to life."
The town of Surfside issued a permit for roof repairs on the Champlain Towers South building the day before the collapse, according to documents released Friday. Wednesday's permit was issued to a South Florida concrete company to "install roof safety anchors and provide stucco repairs." The work included removal of the "existing roof down to concrete deck" and replacing it, the permit said. The building fell the next day.
The company set to perform the work, Concrete Protection and Restoration LLC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.
Another document produced as part of the 2018 structural engineer's report also noted that small portions of the building were "showing distress."
The report, conducted by Morabito for the building's condo association, noted that about "2% of exterior columns have experienced concrete spalling" and about "5% of the balcony structural floor slabs showed hairline cracking."
A class-action lawsuit filed Thursday claims that the association of the collapsed condo is responsible for "failures to secure and safeguard" the lives and property of condo owners.
Direktor responded on behalf of the association saying, "I don't know what caused this building to fall down ... The engineers don't know with certainty what caused this building to fall down."
Families missing their loved ones
While anxious family members await news -- and the search continues -- officials remain hopeful. A boy who was under a mattress and bed frame was pulled out alive from under the rubble on Thursday.
"I am holding out hope because our first responders tell me they have hope," Levine Cava told CNN.

A makeshift memorial to the missing was set up along a fence near the site of the collapse, with photos, candles and flowers.
Among the missing are Gil Guerra and his wife, Betty, who lived on the ninth floor. Search and rescue personnel work to find any survivors or casualties in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside, Florida.
"We're doing our best to stay hopeful," Michelle Guerra said of her father and stepmother. "That's what they would want."
Also missing was Vishal Patel, his wife Bhavna Patel, their 1-year-old daughter Aishani Patel, their niece Sarina Patel told CNN, adding that Bhavna Patel is four months pregnant.
Sarina Patel told CNN on Friday that she last spoke to her family June 20 to tell them she had booked a flight to visit. They were home at the time the collapse took place, Sarina Patel said.
"We have tried calling them countless of times and there's just been no answers," she said.
CNN's Rosa Flores reported from Surfside; Steve Almasy, Curt Devine, Rebekah Riess, Amanda Watts, Sara Weisfeldt, Theresa Waldrop, Ana Zuniga, Melissa Alonso, Jamiel Lynch, Camille Furst, Abel Alvarado, Kristen Holmes, Valentina Moreira, Gerardo Lemos and Radina Gigova contributed to this report.

Dueling heat waves are baking the East and West Coasts. One is going to be worse than the other From the Pacific Northwest to the Northeast, the heat is on this weekend, and by next week soaring temperatures could travel as far north as the Arctic Circle.

A historic heatwave has prompted excessive heat warnings for Washington and Oregon, as well as most of Idaho and parts of northern California. Skyrocketing temperatures could easily shatter June records across Washington and Oregon, while all-time records are also in jeopardy.
Get your weekend forecast >>>
On the other side of the country, high temperatures in the Northeast will climb well into the 90s by the end of the weekend, far above the seasonal averages.
Unprecedented heat bakes the Northwest
Summertime temperatures in the Pacific Northwest normally sit around a balmy 70 degrees. This weekend, conditions typical of the desert Southwest will bake the region as a heat dome parks itself over Washington and Oregon. "Excessive heat warnings have been issued for nearly all of Washington and Oregon, as well as much of Idaho and northern California. Heat of this magnitude can be extremely dangerous if proper precautions aren't taken," warns the Weather Prediction Center (WPC). Excessive heat warnings are issued when extreme temperatures persist for an extended period with little nighttime relief.
"Nighttime temperatures are only expected to briefly cool into the 70s throughout the lower elevations, which can significantly increase the threat for heat related illnesses," the WPC said.
As a large ridge of high pressure moves northward over the Northwest this weekend, a heat dome has formed, essentially acting as an oven to bake the region for an extended period of time.
Hot air rises, but the high pressure acts as an atmospheric lid -- forcing the hot air back to the surface where it is heated even further.
High pressure dome centered over the Pacific Northwest this weekend.
High pressure dome centered over the Pacific Northwest this weekend.
"Imagine a swimming pool when the heater is turned on — temperatures rise quickly in the areas surrounding the heater jets, while the rest of the pool takes longer to warm up," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says.

The circulations within the heat dome allow temperatures to increase quickly and within a fairly confined region.
Factoring in the longest days of the year and drought conditions, high temperatures are expected to break records beginning Saturday and lasting through at least the middle of next week, the WPC said.
Residents of large metropolitan areas like Portland and Seattle will be working up a sweat.
The Portland NWS office says the Portland airport will probably record the highest temperature ever for the month of June and could break the all-time high of 107 degrees Fahrenheit.

A no-swimming order was issued at a Cape Cod beach after a great white shark was sighted

A temporary no-swimming order was issued at a beach in Provincetown, Massachusetts, after a great white shark was spotted nearby.

Beachgoers at Race Point Beach were ordered out of the water by lifeguards around 11:55 a.m. on Saturday, according to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy app Sharktivity, which tracks shark sightings and alerts.
The no-swimming order remained in effect at the beach on the northern tip of Cape Cod National Seashore until one hour after the last shark sighting.
Over 24 sharks have been sighted in the area so far this month, according to John Chisholm, a shark biologist at the New England Aquarium.
"This is the time of year that white shark numbers start to increase in the region which happens to coincide with an increase in people heading to the beach," Chisholm told CNN. "Everyone should be shark smart and review shark safety guidelines before hitting the water. If you do happen to spot a shark please report it."
How to stay safe in the water
The National Park Service has issued eight tips to follow to stay "shark smart" at the beach:

Stay aware
Stay close to shore
Stay in a group
Avoid areas with seals
Avoid areas with schools of fish
Avoid murky water
Limit splashing
Follow signs, flag warnings, and lifeguard instructions
If you notice a shark in the water, immediately let a lifeguard know, the NPS says. Do not reenter the water until you are told it is safe to do so.

America's finance chiefs don't think inflation will go away overnight.

Chief financial officers, on average, expect higher-than-normal cost increases to persist for eight to 10 months, according to a Duke University survey released Wednesday.
Some worry inflation will linger longer. About one in four CFOs expect elevated costs to last through most of 2022.
The vast majority of executives in the Duke survey indicate they have passed along cost hikes to customers.

The findings suggest that Americans may not get relief anytime soon from surging consumer prices. Consumer prices spiked in June by the fastest annual pace since 2008. Prices for used cars, washing machines and hotel skyrocketed.
The Duke survey, conducted in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and Richmond, found evidence of widespread inflation. About 80% of CFOs reported larger-than-normal cost hikes that are expected to last for many months.
Almost 25% of CFOs reported passing through almost all of their cost increases to customers. By contrast, a similar percentage of executives said they didn't pass along any cost increases.

The Federal Reserve and White House have repeatedly said they expect inflation will be temporary, with pricing cooling off as the economy reopens and supply catches up to demand. And there is some reason for optimism, given the cooling off of lumber and wholesale car prices (what dealers pay manufacturers).

However, some are less confident.
"I do not believe inflation is going to be transitory," BlackRock (BLK) CEO Larry Fink told CNBC on Wednesday.
Likewise, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon said Tuesday that inflation may not be temporary and could be stronger than the Fed anticipates.
Of course, no one can say for sure given the fact that there is no playbook for inflation following a once-in-a-century pandemic.
How the worker shortage is slowing the recovery
Despite the inflation jitters, CFOs surveyed by Duke University are getting a bit more confident. The average optimism ticked up to 74.9, on a scale of 0 to 100. That's up from 73.2 during the first quarter. CFO optimism about the US economy also inched higher.

Yet there is also new evidence that labor shortages are slowing the recovery.

Three out of every four respondents to the CFO survey indicated difficulty in finding new employees for open positions. That jives with the record-high number of job openings reported in the latest government statistics.

Yes 4 Minneapolis has called on city leaders to "move away from violent policing to create a department that addresses community safety holistically and with a public health approach," according to its website.
The ballot question measure has been submitted to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for his consideration. He has five days starting Monday to decide whether to sign or veto the resolution, which the city council can override with a two-thirds majority vote. If the mayor decides to abstain from approving the ballot question, it will go into effect on July 31 without his signature.
In a statement to CNN, the mayor's office said he "will not be signing the measure, but appreciates the careful work and thorough analysis done by City staff to prepare fair and accurate language for voters to consider this fall."
It added: "Mayor Frey maintains that giving the Minneapolis City Council control over public safety work would mark a major setback for accountability and good governance."
If the resolution moves forward without his signature, the city will arrange to have the approved language placed on the ballot before the statutory deadline of August 20 for this year's municipal general election, according to the Minneapolis city clerk's office.
Tens of thousands march in largest George Floyd protests so far in the US
Tens of thousands march in largest George Floyd protests so far in the US
Frey, who's a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, has previously made his stance on the issue clear: He does not support abolishing or defunding the city's police department but wants to prioritize restructuring the agency to focus on building community trust and public safety.

"You need law enforcement and the community-driven approach working simultaneously to see safety," Frey said at a May news conference.
City Councilmember Steve Fletcher, who represents portions of downtown Minneapolis and has advocated for police reform, told CNN he was in favor of disbanding the department.
"I am supporting the resolution because we really need to change how we approach public safety in our city," Fletcher said. "We need accountability, we need a broader range of approaches other than traditional policing, and 20,000 Minneapolis residents signed the petition to put it on the ballot."

The official ballot language that would be presented to voters in November reads, "Shall the Minneapolis City Charter be amended to strike and replace the Police Department with a Department of Public Safety that employs a comprehensive public health approach, and which would include licensed peace officers (police officers) if necessary, to fulfill its responsibilities for public safety, with the general nature of the amendments being briefly indicated in the explanatory note below, which is made a part of this ballot?"
CNN's Aya Elamroussi contributed to this report.

Man arrested after taking Houston ambulance at gunpoint with paramedic and patient inside, police say
By Carma Hassan, CNN

Updated 3:36 PM ET, Fri July 23, 2021
Houston Fire paramedics were taking a hit-and-run victim to the hospital when they were blocked.
Houston Fire paramedics were taking a hit-and-run victim to the hospital when they were blocked.
(CNN)A man has been arrested after using a car to block an ambulance, ordering the driver out at gunpoint and driving the ambulance away with a 16-year-old hit-and-run victim and a paramedic inside, Houston police say.

The teenaged girl had been struck by a vehicle at 2:30 a.m. and suffered non-life-threatening injuries, Houston Police Public Information Officer Kese Smith told CNN.
Houston Fire paramedics were taking her to the hospital when the driver of a silver Honda Accord swerved in front of the ambulance, hit the brakes and jumped out of the car, Smith said.
"He pointed a pistol at the paramedic driving the ambulance and ordered him out. The paramedic complied and the suspect then took the ambulance, which had another paramedic and the 16-year-old hit-and-run victim in the back," Smith said.
The suspect repeatedly pointed a pistol at the paramedic in the back through a window separating the cab of the ambulance from the area where the patient was with the paramedic, police said.
Officers pursued him onto the Southwest Freeway, Smith said. At the Wesleyan exit, the suspect stopped in the moving lanes of traffic and got out of the ambulance. He was taken into custody without incident and the paramedic and patient were both unharmed, according to Smith.
Reports of earlier incident involving suspect
The suspect told officers at the time of his arrest that he took the ambulance to get the attention of police and that he had ingested narcotics, Smith said.
He was transported to the hospital to be checked out and is facing pending charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and felony evading arrest, Smith said.
Police investigating the incident discovered that prior to taking the ambulance, the suspect stopped his vehicle next to a family waiting at a red light.

"He got out of his vehicle with a gun pointed at the ground and told the couple to stop messing with him. The driver then accelerated away from the suspect who fired multiple shots at them," Smith said. "Fortunately, the husband, wife, and their three boys ages 5, 10, and 15, none of them were hurt."
CNN has contacted the Houston Fire Department for comment.
CNN's Susannah Cullinane contributed to this report.

California's power grid operator has issued a statewide alert urging residents to cut back electricity use
By Alexandra Meeks, CNN

Updated 2:18 AM ET, Wed July 28, 2021

California's power grid operator has issued a statewide alert urging residents to cut back electricity use Wednesday due to higher-than-normal temperatures expected in Northern California and tight energy supplies across the West.

Officials called for voluntary electricity conservation from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday to avoid rolling outages during the persistent heat, the California Independent System Operator said in a press release.
In order to avoid straining the state's power grid, consumers are urged to turn off unnecessary lights, set air conditioner thermostats to 78 degrees or higher, and delay using major appliances until after 9 p.m., CAISO said.
"The conservation measures can help stabilize the power grid during a time of tight demand and supply and avoid power interruptions," the release said.
Thieves in California are stealing scarce water amid extreme drought, 'devastating' some communities
Thieves in California are stealing scarce water amid extreme drought, 'devastating' some communities
Some Northern California cities, including Sacramento and Redding, are expected to reach triple digits Wednesday and remain abnormally warm the rest of the week, according to the National Weather Service. Some valleys of Siskiyou and Shasta counties are expecting dangerously hot conditions with temperatures reaching up to 110 degrees, NWS said.
The high temperatures are not reserved to California.
A ridge of high pressure is bringing a heat wave with above-average high temperatures to much of the central portion of the country.
"Around 75% of the US population will see a high above 90° over the next week, and 32 million people will swelter above 100°," CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen said.

Supreme Court denies request to stop Texas 6-week abortion ban, with John Roberts and liberals dissenting
By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter
Updated 1:19 AM ET, Thu September 2, 2021

The Supreme Court formally denied a request from Texas abortion providers to freeze a state law that bars abortions after six weeks. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberal justices in dissent.

The court's move means that the law -- which is one of the strictest in the nation and bans abortion before many people know they are pregnant -- will remain on the books.
Texas' 6-week abortion ban lets private citizens sue in an unprecedented legal approach
Texas' 6-week abortion ban lets private citizens sue in an unprecedented legal approach
The law allows private citizens to bring civil suits against anyone who assists a pregnant person seeking an abortion in violation of the ban.

In an unsigned opinion, the majority wrote that while the clinics had raised "serious questions regarding the constitutionality of the Texas law," they had not met a burden that would allow the court to block it at this time due to "complex" and "novel" procedural questions.
The majority stressed that it had not formed a conclusion about the constitutionality of the law -- despite the order coming nearly 24 hours after the law, the tightest abortion restrictions since the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade, took effect.
"In particular, this order is not based on any conclusion about the constitutionality of Texas's law, and in no way limits other procedurally proper challenges to the Texas law, including in Texas state courts," the majority wrote.
There were several dissents. In one, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by her two liberal colleagues, called the majority's order "stunning."
"Presented with an application to enjoin a flagrantly unconstitutional law engineered to prohibit women from exercising their constitutional rights and evade judicial scrutiny, a majority of Justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand," Sotomayor wrote.
"No federal appellate court has upheld such a comprehensive prohibition on abortions before viability under current law," she wrote. "Taken together, the Act is a breathtaking act of defiance -- of the Constitution, of this Court's precedents, and of the rights of women seeking abortions throughout Texas."

Texas bans abortions at six weeks, one of the strictest laws in the US
The law prohibits abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is often before a woman knows she is pregnant. It took effect on September 1. Court orders had previously blocked similar six-week bans from taking effect in eight other states.

Under normal circumstances a dissenting justice "respectfully dissents." Sotomayor simply wrote, "I dissent" -- revealing her deep frustration.
"The Court should not be so content to ignore its constitutional obligations to protect not only the rights of women, but also the sanctity of its precedents and of the rule of law, " she said.
Justice Stephen Breyer also omitted the "respectfully" from his dissent.
After it took effect early Wednesday morning, clinics across Texas drastically limited their services. Whole Woman's Health, which operates four clinics in Texas, said it is offering abortion services "only if no embryonic or fetal cardiac activity is detected in the sonogram," according to a spokesperson, and several other providers also are taking that limited approach.
RELATED: How Texas' 6-week abortion ban will make accessing the procedure nearly impossible for some
Roberts dissents, says court needed more time
Roberts said that he voted to block the law for now to give the court more time to consider the unusual statute.
Roberts said that the state Legislature had imposed a "prohibition on abortions after roughly six weeks" and then "essentially delegated enforcement of that prohibition to the populace at large" with the consequence of insulating the state from the responsibility of enforcing the law.
The law was designed to make it much more difficult to bring a pre-enforcement challenge because there are not the usual government officials to hold accountable in court.
How Texas' 6-week abortion ban will make accessing the procedure nearly impossible for some
How Texas' 6-week abortion ban will make accessing the procedure nearly impossible for some
The law allows any person -- as long as they're not a government official -- to bring a civil lawsuit in state court against a provider accused of violating the ban, regardless of whether the person bringing the lawsuit has any connection to the abortion being sought. If they prevail, they are entitled to at least $10,000 in damages, and the law is structured to make it especially costly for clinics that are targeted with an enforcement action. It prohibits clinics from recouping attorneys' fees from their court foes, even if a judge sides with the provider in the lawsuit. The measure also prevents clinics from seeking to transfer the cases to venues more convenient for them, unless they have the agreement of their opponents.
But by letting the law take effect, the conservative majority may already have tipped its hand on whether it is poised to reverse or at least undercut Roe v. Wade, the ruling that declared women's constitutional right to end a pregnancy.
Roberts' dissent likely signals the divisions to come.
"Alone among the conservatives, Chief Justice Roberts calls out the Texas law for what it is -- a transparent attempt not just to undermine Roe, but to make it hard for such a restriction to be blocked," said Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law.
"It's a pretty powerful sign that he, at least, is not ready to overrule Roe," Vladeck added. "But the million-dollar question that the 5-4 vote raises is whether, when the time comes, any of the other conservatives will join him."
This story is breaking and will be updated.
CNN's Dan Berman and Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.

Two Florida middle school students arrested in alleged school shooting plot, says sheriff
By Alta Spells and Melissa Alonso, CNN

Updated 7:51 PM ET, Fri September 10, 2021

Authorities in Lee County, Florida, thwarted a plot by two students to commit a school shooting, after a teacher shared a tip alleging a student had a gun in his book bag, according to Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno.

An 8th grade student at Harns Marsh Middle School in Lehigh Acres was removed from class and searched after the teacher shared the information with school officials, Marceno said at a news conference Thursday.
During the search, officials did not find any weapons, but did find a map of the school marked with the locations of "each of the school's interior cameras," said the sheriff.

Detectives from the department's Youth Services Criminal Investigations division began an investigation and identified two male students, ages 13 and 14, who Marceno said were "involved in a plot to carry out a school shooting."
The investigation uncovered the teens had taken an interest in the 1999 Columbine High school shooting and were "extensively studying to learn more about the incident and the shooters," the sheriff continued,
"Detectives also learned that students were attempting to learn how to construct pipe bombs and how to purchase firearms on the black market," Marceno said.
Search warrants executed at the students' homes turned up "a gun and several knives," among the evidence Marceno called "disturbing."
Students at the school were "safe at all times" during the incident, Lee County School District Superintendent Ken Savage said.
"As soon as students reported the potential threat, the teacher notified administrators, who immediately brought in the school resource officer. Together they emptied the classroom and investigated," Savage said.
Detectives interviewed both teens and "determined that they both met the criteria for evaluation at a mental health facility," said Marceno.
The teens face charges of conspiracy to commit a mass shooting, according to the sheriff.
In the past, deputies have responded to calls at the homes of the teens "almost 80 times combined," the sheriff said.
Marceno reiterated his department's commitment to a zero-tolerance policy, saying, "Those responsible for threats, real or fake, will be held accountable."
The teens will undergo a psychiatric evaluation under Florida's Baker Act before being moved to a detention facility, a police spokesperson told CNN. The Baker Act allows mental health facilities to hold a person for up to 72 hours for evaluation.