NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
_1 Senator on trial: The judge at Sen. Bob Menendez’s corruption trial refused to throw out any of the charges against the New Jersey Democrat on Monday. U.S. District Judge Williams Walls in Newark rejected defense lawyers’ arguments that the allegations against Menendez didn’t meet a new, narrower definition of bribery under a 2016 Supreme Court ruling that reversed the conviction of Republican former Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia. Menendez, 63, is charged with accepting free flights, luxury hotel stays and other gifts from wealthy Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen. In exchange, prosecutors say, he pressured government officials on Melgen’s behalf over an $8.9 million Medicare billing dispute and a contract to provide port screening equipment.
_2 Travel ban: A federal judge in Greenbelt, Md., did not immediately rule Monday on three lawsuits requesting preliminary injunctions to block the most recent Trump administration travel restrictions. A hearing was held before U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang. The lawsuits argue that restricting travel for citizens of predominantly Muslim countries violates the U.S. Constitution. In March, Chuang blocked a previous version of President Trump’s revised travel ban. The new restrictions are to go into effect Wednesday.
_3 Bodies found: The bodies of two adults were found in Joshua Tree National Park near the area where a Southern California couple vanished while hiking nearly three months ago. The San Bernardino County Sheriff ’s Department said officials have not yet confirmed the identities of the bodies. Rachel Nguyen and Joseph Orbeso, both in their 20s, were reported missing July 28. The couple’s car was later found in the northwestern area of the park. Temperatures in the park had topped 100 degrees and it was unclear whether the couple had water and supplies with them.
_4 Sickouts: A Rhode Island judge has ordered teachers in a Warwick school district not to hold any more sickouts for the next 10 days. Superior Court Judge Susan McGuirl issued a temporary restraining order Monday, the third day in two weeks that teachers staged what the district says are sickouts amid ongoing contract negotiations. A lawyer for the Warwick Teachers Union denied there were any union-sanctioned sickouts.
_5 Opioid crisis: A Democratic senator on Monday demanded that the White House withdraw the nomination of Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Tom Marino to be the nation’s drug czar. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said Marino played a key role in passing a bill weakening the Drug Enforcement Administration’s authority to stop companies from distributing opioids. The Washington Post and CBS’s “60 Minutes” reported Sunday on the 2016 law. Manchin also scolded the Obama administration for failing to “sound the alarm on how harmful that bill would be for our efforts to effectively fight the opioid epidemic” that killed more than 52,000 Americans in 2015.
_6 Supremacist speech: Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Monday declared a state of emergency in advance of a speech white nationalist Richard Spencer is scheduled to give this Thursday at the University of Florida. Scott warned in an executive order that a “threat of a potential emergency is imminent” in Alachua County, in north Florida. The university has already said it expects to spend $500,000 on security.
_7 Transgender ban: Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey is leading a group of 15 Democratic attorneys general in opposing President Trump’s administration’s plan to bar transgender individuals from openly serving in the military. The group filed a brief Monday in federal court arguing that banning transgender individuals from the military is unconstitutional and against the interest of national defense and that it harms the transgender community. Besides Healey, the attorneys general who signed onto the court brief represent California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, D.C., and Vermont.