4 tied to RNC test positive for COVID-19
Two attendees and two local support staff at the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., tested positive for COVID-19, Mecklenburg County and GOP officials announced Friday.
The disclosures come after county health officials raised concerns about a lack of social distancing and maskwearing during the roll-call vote to renominate President Donald Trump for a second term Monday, despite strict health protocols that were supposed to be followed. The GOP is defending the safety procedures it had in place.
Local health officials said the county instructed those who were infected to isolate immediately, and people who came in close contact with them should also quarantine themselves. A county spokeswoman did not immediately respond to questions on if the orders were followed.
It is not clear how many people at the RNC might have been exposed to the coronavirus; 792 people were tested by the local hospital systems for the event.
COVID-19 reinfection reported in U.S. patient
Nevada officials are reporting what may be the first documented case of coronavirus reinfection in the United States, following similar reports earlier this week from Hong Kong and Europe.
A 25-year-old Reno man with mild COVID-19 symptoms initially was found to have the virus in April, recovered and tested negative twice and then tested positive again in June. He was much sicker the second time, with pneumonia that required hospitalization.
Genetic tests from each episode showed the viruses were similar in major ways but differed in at least 12 spots that would be highly unlikely from natural evolution of the bug if the man had it continuously rather than being infected a second time, said Mark Pandori, director of the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory.
Kansas girl’s killer executed in Indiana
A Kansas girl’s killer Friday became the fifth federal inmate put to death this year, an execution that went forward only after a higher court tossed a ruling that would have required the government to get a prescription for the drug used to kill him.
Questions about whether the drug pentobarbital causes pain prior to death had been a focus of appeals for Keith Nelson, 45, the second inmate executed this week in the Trump administration’s resumption of federal executions this summer after a 17-year hiatus.
Nelson, who displayed no outward signs of pain or distress during the execution, was pronounced dead at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., at 4:32 p.m. — about nine minutes after the execution began.
There was silence from Nelson when a prison official asked if he had any last words. Observers included the mother of 10-year-old Pamela Butler, who Nelson raped and strangled with a wire 21 years ago.
Palin’s lawsuit against NY Times to go to trial
Sarah Palin’s lawsuit against The New York Times over an inaccurate editorial is headed to trial.
Manhattan Federal Judge Jed Rakoff wrote in a 36-page decision the former Alaska governor’s allegations against former opinion editor James Bennet and the paper were best left to a jury. The judge scheduled a trial for Feb. 1, “pandemic permitting.”
Ms. Palin alleges Mr. Bennet acted with “actual malice” by writing an editorial, which was corrected, that linked advertisements by her political action committee to the 2011 attempted assassination of former Rep. Gabby Giffords.