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WHAT'S BREWING
FLORIDA TO OPEN ALL SCHOOLS DESPITE ROCKETING COVID-19 CASES Florida’s education commissioner ordered schools to reopen for in-person instruction in August, even as coronavirus cases jam hospitals. According to an “emergency order” signed by Commissioner Richard Corcoran, public school districts and charter school boards must open all kindergarten through 12th-grade schools for at least five days a week. Florida shut down its schools on March 17 when there was an average of 69 new COVID-19 cases a day. On Saturday, Florida tallied a record 11,400 new cases in a single 24-hour period. This comes as other states embrace restrictions, after reopening proved disastrous. [HuffPost]
FAUCI: U.S. STILL 'KNEE DEEP' IN FIRST WAVE Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the U.S., said the country is in a “serious situation” that needs immediate attention as the coronavirus surges in certain parts of the country. During a live interview streamed on Facebook, Fauci noted that the U.S. is “still knee-deep in the first wave” of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I would say this would not be considered a wave. It was a surge, or resurgence of infections superimposed upon a baseline ... that really never got down to where we wanted to go,” Fauci told National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins. [HuffPost]
BRAZIL'S PRESIDENT TESTED AGAIN FOR CORONAVIRUS Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said he had undergone another test for the coronavirus, after local media reported he had symptoms associated with the COVID-19 respiratory disease, including a fever. Bolsonaro told supporters outside the presidential palace that he had just visited the hospital and been tested for the virus, adding that an exam had shown his lungs “clean.” Bolsonaro has repeatedly played down the impact of the virus, even as Brazil has suffered one of the world’s worst outbreaks, with more than 1.6 million confirmed cases and 65,000 related deaths. [HuffPost]
SUPREME COURT: STATES CAN BIND PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS' VOTES The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that states can require presidential electors to back their states’ popular vote winner in the Electoral College. The ruling, just under four months before the 2020 election, leaves in place laws in 32 states and the District of Columbia that bind electors to vote for the popular vote winner, and electors almost always do so anyway. So-called faithless electors have not been critical to the outcome of a presidential election, but that could change in a race decided by just a few electoral votes. It takes 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. [AP]
OIL AND GAS PIPELINES LOOK LIKE INCREASINGLY RISKY BETS On Sunday, two major utilities canceled plans to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a 600-mile conduit to carry fracked gas from West Virginia through Virginia to North Carolina, despite a favorable Supreme Court ruling. On Monday, a federal court ordered the Dakota Access pipeline to shut down by Aug. 5 after finding that it fell short of safety requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act. The dual defeats come at a moment when weak demand for oil, swelling debt and mounting concerns over climate change are forcing gas companies out of business and oil giants to dramatically downgrade the value of their assets. [HuffPost]
CONGRESSIONAL RACES TO WATCH IN NEW JERSEY'S DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY New Jersey is holding contentious Democratic primary elections Tuesday that could have national implications. Three key House races could test the strength of New Jersey’s Democratic machine, one of the most powerful in the country, as it reckons with a revolt from reformers backed by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D). The elections also give progressive insurgents an opportunity to prove their mettle in parts of the state where the left has had little success to date, including swing-voting suburbs. [HuffPost]
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