An Ignoble Experiment: Trump wins straw poll at CPAC as conservatives urge him to run again

By Liza Hearon

TOP STORIES

Monday, July 12

CONSERVATIVES URGE TRUMP TO RUN AGAIN Former President Donald Trump handily won the straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday as attendees overwhelmingly said they would like to see him run for another term in the White House in 2024. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) came in second with 21% of the votes and former Vice President Mike Pence received zero percent. [HuffPost]

TEXAS THREATENS VOTER WITH DECADES IN JAIL Texas police arrested Hervis Rogers, a 62-year-old Black man who waited seven hours in line to vote despite voter suppression efforts during the 2020 presidential primaries. Rogers faces two felony counts of illegal voting for casting ballots before he'd fully completed his parole for a previous crime. His attorney said Rogers was unaware he was ineligible to vote and his prosecution should raise concerns. [HuffPost]

CUBANS MARCH TO PROTEST FOOD SHORTAGES Thousands of Cubans marched on Havana's Malecon promenade and elsewhere on the island to protest food shortages and high prices amid the coronavirus crisis, in one of the biggest anti-government demonstrations in memory. Many people tried to broadcast the protest live but authorities shut down internet service. [AP]

FAUCI HORRIFIED BY CPAC CROWD CHEERING ANTI-VACCINE REMARKS Dr. Anthony Fauci said he was horrified to see attendees at CPAC cheering that the U.S. hadn't reached its vaccination goals. "I mean, they are cheering about someone saying that it's a good thing for people not to try and save their lives," Fauci told CNN's Jake Tapper. [HuffPost]

Did a study find your cat hated having you home during lockdown? Not quite.
Four life-changing benefits more companies should be offering.
Even nice hotels can get bedbugs. Here's how to check for them.
The phrase that completely transformed how I think about exercise.
Is it safe to lift the U.K.'s lockdown when cases are up?
Fauci: Too soon to say if Americans need a vaccine booster.

Get the latest coronavirus updates on our dedicated page

WHAT'S BREWING

FIRES RAGE AS HEAT WAVE BROILS WEST Firefighters working in searing weather struggled to contain a Northern California wildfire that continued to grow Sunday and forced the closure of a major highway, one of several large blazes burning across the U.S. West amid another heat wave that shattered records and strained power grids. California officials asked all residents to reduce power consumption quickly. [AP]

BILLIONAIRE BRANSON BLASTS OFF Virgin Galactic entrepreneur Richard Branson blasted off in his own space plane Sunday, reaching an altitude of about 53 miles over the New Mexico desert — enough to experience three to four minutes of weightlessness and see the curvature of the Earth — and then safely glided home to a runway landing, beating fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos into space. [AP]

MICHIGAN AG INVESTIGATES ELECTION LIE PROFITEERS Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office and state police are investigating fundraising scams linked to lies that the 2020 election was rigged. State residents can be assured Joe Biden's victory was legitimate, and should be wary of those pushing lies, warned a report backed by GOP lawmakers. [HuffPost]

CHARLOTTESVILLE ROBERT E. LEE STATUE FINALLY REMOVED Cheers erupted as a Confederate statue that towered for nearly a century over downtown Charlottesville was carted away by truck from the Virginia city where it had become a flashpoint for racist protests and deadly violence, culminating in the "Unite the Right" rally in 2017. It was a day of joy and relief as the statue was taken to storage. [HuffPost]

GOP REP SLAMS COLLEAGUES FOR VACCINE NAZISM COMPARISONS Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) slammed some of his GOP colleagues for comparing the Biden administration's latest COVID-19 vaccination campaign to Nazism. "This is outrage politics that is being played by my party and it's going to get Americans killed," Kinzinger said on CNN's "State of the Union." [HuffPost]