Cities sue US Census Bureau over ending ’20 head count early
More than a half-dozen cities, counties and civil rights groups sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, saying there was no justification for its decision to cut the 2020 census short by a month, and it will lead to the undercounting of minority communities and an inaccurate head count of every U.S. resident.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in San Jose against the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Commerce, which oversees the agency, asks a judge to reinstate a plan that had the once-a-decade head count ending in October instead of September.
“Undercounted cities, counties, and municipalities will lose representation in Congress and tens of millions of dollars in funding. And communities of color will lose core political power and vital services,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit was filed by the cities of Los Angeles, San Jose and Salinas in California. Also joining were Harris County in Texas, King County in Washington, and several civil rights organizations.
The census will help determine the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal spending and the number of congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state gets.
Cities such as Los Angeles — where large numbers of residents are renters, don’t speak English proficiently and don’t have access to the internet — are especially at risk of losing funding and the representation they deserve, said Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer.
Census Bureau spokesman Michael Cook said the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
Facing delays caused by the pandemic, the Census Bureau earlier this year pushed back wrapping up the count from the end of July to the end of October.
Rescuer drowns: An 18year-old woman has drowned in a northwestern Minnesota lake after pulling several children from turbulent water, authorities said.
The children had been swimming Monday in a river near a dam on Clearwater Lake in Sinclair Township when some of them were caught in churning water coming over the dam, witnesses told Clearwater County sheriff ’s deputies.
The water level at the dam was high due to recent rain, officials said.
When the first deputy arrived, an 8-year-old girl had been pulled from the water and initially was unresponsive. Bystanders performed lifesaving measures and were able to resuscitate her, KSFY-TV reported.
Bystanders also were attempting to revive the woman before paramedics arrived, but she was unresponsive.
Assassination conviction: A U.N.-backed tribunal in the Netherlands on Tuesday convicted one member of the Hezbollah militant group and acquitted three others of being involved in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon said Salim Ayyash was guilty as a co-conspirator of five charges linked to his involvement in the suicide truck bombing. Hariri and 21 others were killed and 226 were wounded in a blast outside a Beirut hotel.
However, after a yearslong investigation and trial, three other Hezbollah members were acquitted of all charges that they also were involved in the killing of Hariri.
None of the suspects were ever arrested and were not in court to hear the verdicts.
Anger in Belarus: More workers in Belarus joined a widening strike Tuesday to press for the resignation of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has extended his 26-year rule in an election the opposition says was rigged.
Lukashenko has refused to step down following a harsh police crackdown on protesters after the Aug. 9 vote. In a move intended to secure the loyalty of law enforcement agencies, he signed a decree honoring over 300 police officers for their service.
The opposition denounced the awards as a national insult following the suppression of protests with rubber bullets, stun grenades and clubs. Nearly 7,000 people were detained, hundreds were injured, and at least two people died.
Lukashenko’s actions prompted thousands — including workers at statecontrolled factories and plants, actors and broadcasters — to walk off the job. Lukashenko has relied on blue-collar workers as his base of support.
Mauritius oil spill: Authorities have arrested the captain of the Japanese ship that ran aground near Mauritius and spilled tons of oil on the Indian Ocean island’s protected coastline.
Sunil Kumar Nandeshwar, captain of the MV Wakashio and who is from India, was charged with “endangering safe navigation” and is in custody pending a bail hearing next week, Sivo Coothen, a police inspector, said Tuesday.
The ship’s first officer was also charged and is being held, he said.
The Wakasio ran aground on July 25 and after being pounded by heavy waves for several days, the vessel cracked and started leaking oil on Aug. 6. The damaged ship spilled more than 1,000 tons of fuel into the turquoise waters of the Mahebourg Lagoon, one of the island’s most pristine coastal areas.
Saving rhinos: An international team of scientists said they successfully extracted eggs from the last two remaining northern white rhinos, a step to possibly saving the subspecies from extinction.
Ten eggs were harvested from the female rhinos at a conservancy in Kenya. The scientists said Tuesday they hope to use them to create viable embryos that would be transferred into surrogates since neither Najin and Fatuwill can carry a pregnancy to term.
The harvested eggs — the third set to be taken from the two females since August 2019 — were flown to the Avantea Laboratory in Italy to be artificially inseminated with frozen sperm from now-deceased northern white rhino bulls.
The last male northern white rhino died in 2018.
Virus at Notre Dame: Notre Dame University on Tuesday canceled in-person undergraduate classes for two weeks after a spike of coronavirus cases that occurred since the semester began Aug. 10.
University president the Rev. John Jenkins says he decided against sending students home after consulting with health care experts. Instead, the university is imposing restrictions on student activity, including limiting access to dormitories to residents and barring students from major gathering places on campus.
Jenkins said there have been 147 confirmed cases of coronavirus on campus since the start of classes.