10 things you need to know today: August 13, 2016

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1. Hacker dumps personal info for Democratic representatives and donors, plus top Republicans
2. 1 in 4 people in Puerto Rico will have Zika by January
3. Clinton, Kaine release 2015 tax returns, putting pressure on Trump
4. U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky wins 800-meter freestyle by 11.38 seconds, demolishing her own world record
5. New polls show Clinton thumping Trump in key swing states
6. ISIS suffers key setbacks in Afghanistan and Syria
7. Trump says he was being sarcastic when he called Obama the 'founder of ISIS'
8. Judge overturns the conviction of Making a Murderer's Brendan Dassey
9. Torrential rains, flooding leave at least 2 dead, 2 injured in Gulf states
10. Fox News names 2 company veterans as co-presidents

last updated 13 August 2016

1. Hacker dumps personal info for Democratic representatives and donors, plus top Republicans

The hacker(s) who previously breached Democratic National Committee records released Friday evening a cache of personal contact information, including private email addresses and cell numbers, for nearly all of the 186 Democrats in the House of Representatives. The leak from Guccifer 2.0 also includes the names of major Democratic donors along with their Social Security numbers, plus several internal Democratic memos. The hacker has promised this data is just a fragment of a much larger collection soon to be published at Wikileaks. But complicating the narrative that Guccifer 2.0 and the DCLeaks site where he publicized the DNC hacks are specifically targeting Democrats is the discovery that DCLeaks also shared leaked emails from hundreds of Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and former presidential campaign staff of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The Department of Health and Human Services declared a public health emergency over the Zika virus in Puerto Rico on Friday. Some 1,914 new Zika cases have been reported in the American territory in the past week alone, and U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said he expects fully one in four of Puerto Rico's 3.5 million people to be infected with the virus by the end of this year. Meanwhile, new research from Italy finds that Zika, which can cause birth defects including microcephaly, can remain in an infected man's sperm for as long as six months, even with treatment, suggesting the risk of sexual transmission is greater than previously believed.

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Hillary Clinton released her 2015 taxes on Friday, showing she and her husband paid an effective federal income tax rate of 34 percent and donated nearly 10 percent of their gross income to charity. Clinton's running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine, also released a decade of tax returns. The release is clearly intended to pressure Republican Donald Trump to release his own tax returns, a request he has so far refused. Some have speculated Trump may be secretive because he has paid as little as zero percent in income taxes for years. The Trump campaign said Friday afternoon Clinton's move was "nothing more than an attempt at distraction and misdirection" from her email scandal.

Katie Ledecky won her fourth gold medal at the Rio Olympics on Friday, beating her nearest competitor in the 800-meter freestyle race by an astounding 11.38 seconds. The American swimmer also topped her own world record in the process, improving from eight minutes, 6.68 seconds to 8:04.79. The next fastest swimmer in the race, Britain's Jazz Carlin, clocked in at 8:16.17. Ledecky previously won gold in Rio for the 200 and 400 freestyle and the 4x200 freestyle relay. She also took silver in the 4x100 relay.

The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls out Friday delivered more bad news for Donald Trump. Surveys of the battleground states of Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia each revealed Hillary Clinton well ahead of Trump, and in some cases winning with double-digit margins. "These are supposed to be battleground states, but right now, they don't look that way," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. In the days since the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, Trump has lost support among key voting demographics, including GOP loyalists. His campaign still predicts a Trump victory in Pennsylvania, which Trump says guarantees overall triumph.

The Pentagon confirmed Friday that Hafiz Saeed Khan, the leader of the Islamic State in Afghanistan and Pakistan, was killed by a U.S. drone strike on July 26. Khan had been reported dead before, but in the past the kill was never verified. Meanwhile, in Syria, U.S.-backed forces seized the strategically important city of Manbij, driving out ISIS occupiers and releasing hundreds of civilians the terrorist organization was using as human shields. Photos from the aftermath of the victory showed Manbij residents celebrating by flouting ISIS bans on smoking and women appearing in public with uncovered faces.

Donald Trump claimed repeatedly this week that President Obama was "the founder" of the Islamic State in a more meaningful sense than radio host Hugh Hewitt's suggestion that Obama "created the vacuum, he lost the peace." Early Friday morning, Trump finally backtracked, tweeting: "Ratings challenged @CNN reports so seriously that I call President Obama (and Clinton) 'the founder' of ISIS, & MVP. THEY DON'T GET SARCASM?" By the afternoon, however, Trump left the whole thing ambiguous. "Obviously I'm being sarcastic — but not that sarcastic, to be honest with you," he said in Pennsylvania.

A Wisconsin judge issued a 91-page ruling Friday afternoon which overturned the conviction of Brendan Dassey for the murder of Teresa Halbach. "[Investigators'] repeated false promises, when considered in conjunction with all relevant factors, most especially Dassey’s age, intellectual deficits, and the absence of a supportive adult, rendered Dassey’s confession involuntary under the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments," the decision said. Dassey's case came to national attention when he and his uncle, Steven Avery, who was also convicted for Halbach's death, were featured in Netflix's hit documentary series, Making a Murderer. Within the next 90 days, the State of Wisconsin must either file an appeal or release Dassey from prison.

At least two people were killed by heavy rain and subsequent flooding in Louisiana on Friday, and two more were injured in neighboring Mississippi. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency as more rain is expected Saturday, adding to as much as 17 inches dropped in just 24 hours the day before. Dozens of people have been rescued in each state, and those remaining in their homes in affected areas have been advised to boil tap water before use and abide by a curfew.

On Friday, Fox News announced Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy will serve as the network's new co-presidents. The two company veterans will report to 21st Century Fox owner and Fox News CEO Rupert Murdoch, who took over leadership of the network after former Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes resigned July 21 following allegations of sexual assault. Abernethy, who was Fox Television Stations' CEO, will head up advertising, finance, sales, and distribution, while Shine, who was the station's senior executive vice president, will oversee programming, news, and editorial content.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.