10 things you need to know today: August 7, 2019

1. Trump sues over California law requiring candidates' tax returns

President Trump on Tuesday sued California over its law requiring presidential primary candidates to release their tax returns or lose their spot on the ballot. "The issue of whether the president should release his federal tax returns was litigated in the 2016 election and the American people spoke," Jay Sekulow, an attorney for Trump, said in a statement. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who frequently clashes with Trump, signed the bill last week. The state and national Republican parties also filed lawsuits, accusing California of overstepping its constitutional authority by trying to impose such a demand on presidential candidates, calling the law "a naked political attack against the sitting president of the United States."

Los Angeles Times

2. Novelist Toni Morrison dead at 88

Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, whose best-sellers explored black identity, died on Monday night, her publisher confirmed on Tuesday. The celebrated novelist was 88. A spokeswoman said she died of complications from pneumonia. Morrison was the first black woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature. She wrote 11 novels, including Song of Solomon, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1977, and Beloved, which won a Pulitzer Prize. Her latest book, God Help the Child, was published in 2015. Morrison also wrote children's books and essay collections, and worked as an editor at Random House publishers and a professor in the humanities at Princeton University. Morrison was frequently described as "the most important living American author."

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Vulture The New York Times

3. FBI joins Dayton investigating gunman's 'violent ideologies'

FBI officials announced Tuesday that the agency was launching an investigation alongside the city of Dayton, Ohio, examining the "violent ideologies" of the gunman in last weekend's deadly mass shooting in the city. The FBI head and Dayton's police chief released few details of the investigation, saying they had a lot of work still to do. They said that while there was evidence that the attacker had expressed a "violent ideology," there was "no indication it's a racial motivation." The suspect, 24-year-old Connor Betts, was killed by police. Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley confirmed that she would welcome President Trump to the city Wednesday, but she said Trump's early remarks on the mass shootings in Dayton and in El Paso, Texas, "fell really short," scarcely mentioning gun issues. Trump also will visit El Paso Wednesday.

NBC News

4. Huntsman resigns as U.S. ambassador in Moscow

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman reportedly submitted his resignation to President Trump on Tuesday. Huntsman, a former GOP presidential hopeful, served as former President Barack Obama's ambassador to China before becoming Trump's ambassador in Moscow in 2017. In his resignation letter, Huntsman told trump he was "honored" to have had the president's trust "during this historically difficult period in bilateral relations." He said he and his wife wanted to "return to the United States after two years to reconnect with our growing family and responsibilities at home." Huntsman also reportedly is considering running for Utah governor, a job he held from 2005 through 2009.

The Salt Lake Tribune

5. Ohio governor proposes 'red flag' gun law

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) on Tuesday proposed a "red flag" law and other measures intended to reduce gun deaths. A crowd of mourners on Sunday urged DeWine to take action following the Dayton mass shooting, which killed nine people on the same weekend as another shooting in El Paso, Texas, left 22 dead. "Some chanted 'do something' and they were absolutely right," DeWine said at Tuesday's news conference. The other measures he proposed included background checks for most firearm purchases, more access to mental health treatment, and harsher penalties for felons with guns. Congressional Republicans, also facing pressure to respond to the shootings with legislation, also are considering "red flag" laws allowing law enforcement to take guns from people deemed to pose an imminent danger.

NPR The New York Times

6. Ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok sues over his firing

Former FBI agent Peter Strzok filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the FBI, saying he was unfairly fired for writing derogatory text messages about President Trump. The lawsuit says that the FBI buckled under "unrelenting pressure" from Trump and unfairly punished him for privately expressing his political opinions. "The Trump administration has consistently tolerated and even encouraged partisan political speech by federal employees, as long as this speech praises President Trump and attacks his political adversaries," the complaint says. Strzok was an investigator in the early days of the federal investigation into Russian election meddling and possible collusion by Trump associates. Strzok was removed from then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team after an internal investigation uncovered the texts, which he exchanged with FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with whom he was having an affair.

The Associated Press

7. House Democrats seek records of Kavanaugh's White House service

Two House Democrats on Tuesday asked the National Archives for records covering Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's service in former President George W. Bush's White House. The lawmakers, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), said the documents from 2001 to 2006 were necessary to help lawmakers develop a "code of conduct for Supreme Court justices." The Senate confirmed Kavanaugh 50-48 along party lines, with Democrats opposing him. The Senate Judiciary Committee examined an allegation by Christine Blasey Ford that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in 1982, but senators only got to see a small percentage of the material from Kavanaugh's time in Bush's White House counsel's office, and as White House staff secretary.

Reuters

8. China accuses U.S. of 'unreasonably' labeling it a currency manipulator

China on Tuesday said the United States "disregards the facts" and has acted "unreasonably" in labeling it a currency manipulator. The U.S. did so on Monday after China's central bank devalued its currency to its weakest level in a decade, with the Treasury Department in a statement saying that "the purpose of China's currency devaluation is to gain an unfair competitive advantage in international trade." The People's Bank of China on Tuesday responded by saying that "the Chinese side firmly opposes this" and that "this will not only seriously undermine the international financial order, but also trigger financial market turmoil." Stock futures mostly rebounded Tuesday after the markets on Monday experienced their biggest percentage drops of 2019.

Politico Treasury Department

9. Disney reports disappointing earnings but announces streaming bundle

Disney on Tuesday reported quarterly earnings that fell short of Wall Street expectations. The entertainment giant reported its earnings were $1.35 per share, while analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had estimated $1.75 per share. Revenue came in at $20.25 billion, missing the Refinitiv estimate of $21.47 billion. Disney blamed costs from the integration of Fox entertainment assets for the miss. The company's shares fell by 3.7 percent in after-hours trading. Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a call with analysts that the company would offer a bundle of Disney+, ESPN+, and an ad-supported Hulu subscription for $12.99 per month, matching Netflix's price for its standard streaming video plan.

CNBC

10. FBI investigating Gilroy Garlic Festival mass shooting as domestic terrorism

The FBI announced Tuesday that it was treating the recent mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California, as an act of domestic terrorism. The shooting left three people dead. They have been identified as Stephen Romero, 6, Keyla Salazar, 13, and Trevor Irby, 25. The FBI said investigators have uncovered evidence that the gunman, identified as Santino William Legan, 19, was "exploring violent ideologies" and had left behind a target list that included religious and political organizations, as well as government buildings. The Legan family issued its first comments on the killings on Tuesday, the day of Salazar's funeral, saying they were "heartbroken" and "have never and would never condone the hateful thoughts and ideologies that led to this event."

Mercury News