If the U.S. learned anything from Tuesday's primary in Wisconsin, it's that in-person voting doesn't work in a pandemic.
Yet even though COVID-19 and its mandatory stay-at-home orders will likely last for a while, many Republicans lawmakers have deemed efforts to expand voting by mail a partisan ploy designed to help elect Democrats. There are a few problems with that theory though, beginning with the fact that voting by mail is already incredibly common, even in solidly red states.
Democrats have held out on approving the next phase of coronavirus relief because, among other things, they want increased funding for expanding and securing vote-by-mail for the general election in November. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) claimed Democrats were doing this because they thought it "gives you some political benefit. That's disgusting to me." President Trump has baselessly called voting by mail "very dangerous" and "corrupt," and said it would mean "you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again," even though he votes by mail himself.
Tell that to Utah, which is among five states where mail ballots are automatically sent to every registered voter. Its governor, senators, and three of its four representatives are Republicans. Voters can request a mail ballot in every other state in the nation — albeit in some places they must provide an excuse — and most of them have had no problem electing Republicans. As recently as Thursday, New Hampshire's Republican Gov. Chris Sununu declared everyone in the state could vote absentee this fall if the coronavirus is still a major factor, even though he's objected to widespread vote-by-mail before. Kathryn Krawczyk
Bed Bath & Beyond announced on Wednesday it will permanently shutter 200 stores over the next two years, after sales fell almost 50 percent over its last quarter.
There are 955 Bed Bath & Beyond stores, and the closures will begin later this year. By shutting down 200 locations, the company should generate an annual cost savings of between $250 million and $350 million, CNBC reports.
During the fiscal first quarter that ended on May 30, Bed Bath & Beyond sales dropped 49 percent to $1.31 billion, from $2.57 billion a year ago. Brick-and-mortar stores suffered when they had to close because of the coronavirus pandemic, but online sales increased by more than 100 percent in April and May.
The company said it is in a "strong financial position" to survive the pandemic, with Bed Bath & Beyond CEO Mark Tritton telling CNBC as stores reopen, many are doing better than expected, thanks to customers stocking up on cleaning products and decor. "Home is now everything," he said. "It's the epicenter." Catherine Garcia
Once on the brink of extinction, California condors were seen soaring over Sequoia National Park in May, the first time the endangered bird has been spotted there in five decades.
The California condor is North America's largest land bird, with a 9.5-foot wingspan. By 1982, lead poisoning had killed off most of the population, leaving about 25 condors in the wild. To try to keep the condor from going extinct, the wild birds were captured and put into breeding programs at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and Los Angeles Zoo. In 1992, condors were released into the wild at Southern California's Los Padres National Forest, and there are now about 100 birds in this flock.
At least six condors were seen at Sequoia National Park in late May, wildlife officials said on Tuesday — four in the Giant Forest and two near Moro Rock. California condors are known to nest in sequoia tree cavities, and biologist Dave Meyer told the Los Angeles Times he was excited to see them in an "important historic habitat." Researchers use GPS transmitters to track the condors, giving them insight into their nesting and feeding habits.
The condor sighting is "evidence of continued recovery of the species," Tyler Coleman, a wildlife biologist with Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, told the Times. It took "decades for the population to recover to the point where they were being seen in locations far beyond their release site," he said, and "arrival in Sequoia is good evidence that they are utilizing and occupying habitat where they once lived. It is an important milestone." Catherine Garcia
A Wonder Years revival is coming to ABC, 27 years after the show ended its six-season run.
The Wonder Years told the story of suburban teenager Kevin Arnold and his middle-class family in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The reboot will feature a Black family in Montgomery, Alabama, in the 1960s, The Hollywood Reporter says. The goal is for the show to start airing during the 2021-22 television season.
Lee Daniels will serve as an executive producer, with Big Bang Theory and Frasier's Saladin K. Patterson writing the script. The Wonder Years co-creator Neal Marlens has signed on as a consultant, while the show's original star, Fred Savage, will executive produce and direct. Catherine Garcia
The Ivy League on Wednesday suspended all fall sports because of the coronavirus pandemic, becoming the first Division I conference to do so.
The decision affects football, soccer, field hockey, volleyball, and cross country, and could influence other leagues as they decide how to proceed with sports during the pandemic. The Ivy League Council of Presidents said in a statement its leaders did not think they could "create and maintain an environment for intercollegiate athletic competition that meets our requirements for safety and acceptable levels of risk."
The New York Times reports all sports will be on hold until at least January, and the league has yet to determine whether fall sports might be moved to the spring. Princeton football Coach Bob Surace told the Times he's hopeful his team will be able to play in early 2021, but that can only happen if there are better treatments and people take social distancing measures seriously. Catherine Garcia
President Trump's campaign rally at a Tulsa, Oklahoma, stadium in late June "likely contributed" to a big jump in new COVID-19 cases, Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart said Wednesday.
"In the past few days, we've seen almost 500 new cases, and we had several large events just over two weeks ago, so I guess we just connect the dots," Dart said in explaining the case surge. The city saw a record high of 261 new cases on Monday, and another 206 on Tuesday. Several Trump campaign staffers tested positive for COVID-19 before the event, and a reporter who attended the rally and Trump campaign surrogate Herman Cain tested positive after it. Oklahoma is among several southern and western states that have seen massive rises in new coronavirus cases in recent weeks after many of them moved to reopen businesses.
Trump is set to have another rally this weekend in New Hampshire, where case counts have been steadily declining. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) has encouraged rally attendees to wear masks. Kathryn Krawczyk
Newly-released transcripts of Minneapolis police body camera footage filed in state court Tuesday shed more light on the final moments before Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who faces second-degree murder and manslaughter charges, killed George Floyd in May. The transcripts were filed as part of an effort by another officer, Thomas Lane, to have charges that he aided and abetted Floyd's murder thrown out, The New York Times reports.
One of the more harrowing moments in the transcripts occurs when Floyd, who was arrested on suspicion of using counterfeit money at a nearby store, was on the ground with Chauvin's knee on his neck pleading for his life, a scene captured on video by a passerby. The new transcripts reveal that after Floyd said the officers were going to kill him, Chauvin responded by telling him to "stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Later, Lane, who was helping Chauvin restrain Floyd, said he was worried Floyd was having a medical emergency. "Well, that's why we got the ambulance coming," Chauvin replied, as shown in one of the transcripts. Read more at The New York Times. Tim O'Donnell