Racist videos put spotlight on Georgia House race
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a businesswoman who has expressed support for the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon and been criticized for a series of racist comments, has won the Republican nomination for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.
Ms. Greene beat neurosurgeon John Cowan in a primary runoff for the open seat on Tuesday in the deep-red district in northwest Georgia, despite several GOP officials denouncing her campaign after videos surfaced in which she expresses racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim views.
In a series of videos unearthed just after Ms. Greene placed first in the initial June 9 Republican primary, she complains of an “Islamic invasion” into government offices, claims Black and Hispanic men are held back by “gangs and dealing drugs,” and pushes an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who is Jewish, collaborated with the Nazis.
Suicide rates reach level similar to WWII
Officers in Los Alamos, N.M., were called to check on an individual earlier this year, and after breaching the door realized they were too late.
“One of our suicides we had just barely missed,” said Oliver Morris, operations commander for the Los Alamos Police Department, who had conducted countless checks as an officer for almost 17 years. Like many other Americans during the pandemic, the person had begun to work remotely, Mr. Morris said, and his co-workers asked police to check on him.
Los Alamos has seen an increase in suicides during the pandemic, rising from just two last year to triple that many so far this year.
The problem isn’t limited to that community. Cook County, Ill., and Fresno, Calif., are among those reporting similar spikes, with suicides up 13% in Cook County so far compared with the same period last year. In Fresno, suicides were 70% higher in June than in the same month last year.
The nation’s suicide rate reached historic highs prior to the COVID19 pandemic, with rates at the highest levels since World War II. Economic and social pressures this year have heightened the risks, worrying experts, health officials and lawmakers.
Powerful Midwest storm leaves 2 dead
Hundreds of thousands across the Midwest remained without electricity on Tuesday after a powerful storm packing 100-mph winds battered the region a day earlier, causing widespread damage to millions of acres of crops and killing at least two people.
The storm known as a derecho tore from eastern Nebraska across Iowa and parts of Wisconsin and Illinois, blowing over trees, flipping vehicles and causing widespread damage to property and crops. The storm left downed trees and power lines that blocked roadways in Chicago and its suburbs. After leaving Chicago, the most potent part of the storm system moved over north central Indiana.
In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds said early estimates indicate 10 million acres (4 million hectares) have been damaged in the nation’s top corn producing state, and many grain bins were destroyed. That would be nearly a third of the roughly 31 million acres (12.5 million hectares) of land farmed in the state. The most significant damage is to the corn crop, which is in the advanced stages of development, nearly a month away from the beginning of harvest.