WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell said he’s largely sticking with a partisan, scaled-back COVID-19 relief bill that has already failed twice this fall, even as Democratic leaders and a bipartisan group of moderates offered concessions in hopes of passing pandemic aid before Congress adjourns for the year.

The Kentucky Republican made the announcement Tuesday after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-wins-white-house-ap-fd58df73aa677acb74fce2a69adb71f9">President-elect Joe Biden</a>&nbsp;called upon lawmakers to pass a down payment relief bill now with more to come next year. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi resumed talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin about a year-end spending package that could include COVID-19 relief provisions. Key Senate moderates rallied behind a scaled-back framework.

It’s unclear whether the flurry of activity will lead to progress. Time is running out on Congress’ lame-duck session and Donald Trump’s presidency,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-pennsylvania-elections-93dbc7576bc75f7d4e2be1cdfedb03c7">many Republicans won’t even acknowledge that Trump has lost the election</a>&nbsp;and good faith between the two parties remains in short supply.

McConnell said that his bill, which only modestly tweaks an earlier plan blocked by Democrats, would be signed by Trump and that additional legislation could pass next year. But his initiative fell flat with Democrats and a key GOP moderate.

“If it’s identical to what (McConnell) brought forth this summer then it’s going to be a partisan bill that is not going to become law,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who joined moderates in unveiling a $908 billion bipartisan package only hours earlier. “And I want a bill that will become law.”

Democrats declined to release details of their concessions to McConnell.

“Speaker Pelosi and I sent him the proposal in a good faith effort to start, to get him to negotiate in a bipartisan way,” Schumer said.

McConnell’s response was to convene conversations with the Trump team and House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy of California. During the campaign, Trump appeared eager to sign a relief bill and urged lawmakers to “go big” but McConnell said Tuesday’s modest measure is all he’ll go for now.

“We don’t have time for messaging games. We don’t have time for lengthy negotiations,” McConnell said. “I would hope that this is something that could be signed into law by the president, be done quickly, deal with the things we can agree on now.” He added that there would still be talks about “some additional package of some size.”

McConnell’s reworked plan swiftly leaked. A summary ignores key demands of Democrats and moderates such as aid to states and local governments and additional unemployment benefits.

In Wilmington, Delaware, Biden called on lawmakers to approve a down payment on COVID-19 relief, though he cautioned that “any package passed in lame-duck session is — at best -- just a start.”

And a bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed a split-the-difference solution to the protracted impasse over COVID-19 relief in a last-gasp effort to ship overdue help to a hurting nation before Congress adjourns for the holidays. It was a sign that some lawmakers across the spectrum are reluctant to adjourn for the year without approving some COVID-19 aid.

The group includes Senate centrists such as Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Collins, who hope to exert greater influence in a closely divided Congress during the incoming Biden administration.

The proposal by the bipartisan group hit the scales at $908 billion, including $228 billion to extend and upgrade “paycheck protection” subsidies for businesses for a second round of relief to hard-hit businesses like restaurants. It would revive a special jobless benefit, but at a reduced level of $300 per week rather than the $600 benefit enacted in March. State and local governments would receive $160 billion, and there is also money for vaccines.

Previous, larger versions of the proposal — a framework with only limited detail — were rejected by top leaders such as Pelosi, D-Calif., and McConnell. But pressure is building as lawmakers face the prospect of heading home for Christmas and New Year’s without delivering aid to people in need.

Lawmakers’ bipartisan effort comes after a split-decision election delivered the White House to Democrats and gave Republicans down-ballot success. At less than $1 trillion, it is less costly than a proposal meshed together by McConnell this summer. He later abandoned that effort for a considerably less costly measure that failed to advance in two attempts this fall.

“It’s not a time for political brinkmanship,” Manchin said. “Emergency relief is needed now more than ever before. The people need to know that we are not going to leave until we get something accomplished.”

Pelosi and Mnuchin were discussing COVID-19 relief and other end-of-session items, including a $1.4 trillion catchall government funding bill. Mnuchin told reporters as he arrived at a Senate Banking Committee hearing to assess earlier COVID-19 rescue efforts that he and Pelosi are focused primarily on the unfinished appropriations bills, however.

“On COVID relief, we acknowledged the recent positive developments on vaccine development and the belief that it is essential to significantly fund distribution efforts to get us from vaccine to vaccination,” Pelosi said afterward.

Pelosi and Mnuchin grappled over a relief bill for weeks before the November election, discussing legislation of up to $2 trillion. But Senate GOP conservatives opposed their efforts and Pelosi refused to yield on key points.

The bipartisan compromise proposal is virtually free of detail, but includes a temporary shield against COVID-19-related lawsuits against businesses and other organizations that have reopened despite the pandemic.

That’s a priority for McConnell. But his warnings of a wave of destructive lawsuits haven’t been borne out, and it is sure to incite opposition from the trial lawyers’ lobby, which retains considerable influence with top Democratic leaders.

The centrist lawmakers, both moderates and conservatives, billed their proposal as a temporary patch to hold things over until next year. It contains $45 billion for transportation, including aid to transit systems and Amtrak, $82 billion to reopen schools and universities, funding for vaccines and health care providers, and money for food stamps, rental assistance and the Postal Service.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/12/1606913333932.png" alt="GOP Senate leaders ahead of a Tuesday news conference on&nbsp;their legislative agenda for the remainder of the month-photo courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>GOP Senate leaders ahead of a Tuesday news conference on&nbsp;their legislative agenda for the remainder of the month-photo courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell said he’s largely sticking with a partisan, scaled-back COVID-19 relief bill that has already failed twice this fall, even as Democratic leaders and a bipartisan group of moderates offered concessions in hopes of passing pandemic aid before Congress adjourns for the year.The Kentucky Republican made the announcement Tuesday after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-wins-white-house-ap-fd58df73aa677acb74fce2a69adb71f9">President-elect Joe Biden</a>&nbsp;called upon lawmakers to pass a down payment relief bill now with more to come next year. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi resumed talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin about a year-end spending package that could include COVID-19 relief provisions. Key Senate moderates rallied behind a scaled-back framework.It’s unclear whether the flurry of activity will lead to progress. Time is running out on Congress’ lame-duck session and Donald Trump’s presidency,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-pennsylvania-elections-93dbc7576bc75f7d4e2be1cdfedb03c7">many Republicans won’t even acknowledge that Trump has lost the election</a>&nbsp;and good faith between the two parties remains in short supply.McConnell said that his bill, which only modestly tweaks an earlier plan blocked by Democrats, would be signed by Trump and that additional legislation could pass next year. But his initiative fell flat with Democrats and a key GOP moderate.“If it’s identical to what (McConnell) brought forth this summer then it’s going to be a partisan bill that is not going to become law,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who joined moderates in unveiling a $908 billion bipartisan package only hours earlier. “And I want a bill that will become law.”Democrats declined to release details of their concessions to McConnell.“Speaker Pelosi and I sent him the proposal in a good faith effort to start, to get him to negotiate in a bipartisan way,” Schumer said.McConnell’s response was to convene conversations with the Trump team and House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy of California. During the campaign, Trump appeared eager to sign a relief bill and urged lawmakers to “go big” but McConnell said Tuesday’s modest measure is all he’ll go for now.“We don’t have time for messaging games. We don’t have time for lengthy negotiations,” McConnell said. “I would hope that this is something that could be signed into law by the president, be done quickly, deal with the things we can agree on now.” He added that there would still be talks about “some additional package of some size.”McConnell’s reworked plan swiftly leaked. A summary ignores key demands of Democrats and moderates such as aid to states and local governments and additional unemployment benefits.In Wilmington, Delaware, Biden called on lawmakers to approve a down payment on COVID-19 relief, though he cautioned that “any package passed in lame-duck session is — at best -- just a start.”And a bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed a split-the-difference solution to the protracted impasse over COVID-19 relief in a last-gasp effort to ship overdue help to a hurting nation before Congress adjourns for the holidays. It was a sign that some lawmakers across the spectrum are reluctant to adjourn for the year without approving some COVID-19 aid.The group includes Senate centrists such as Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Collins, who hope to exert greater influence in a closely divided Congress during the incoming Biden administration.The proposal by the bipartisan group hit the scales at $908 billion, including $228 billion to extend and upgrade “paycheck protection” subsidies for businesses for a second round of relief to hard-hit businesses like restaurants. It would revive a special jobless benefit, but at a reduced level of $300 per week rather than the $600 benefit enacted in March. State and local governments would receive $160 billion, and there is also money for vaccines.Previous, larger versions of the proposal — a framework with only limited detail — were rejected by top leaders such as Pelosi, D-Calif., and McConnell. But pressure is building as lawmakers face the prospect of heading home for Christmas and New Year’s without delivering aid to people in need.Lawmakers’ bipartisan effort comes after a split-decision election delivered the White House to Democrats and gave Republicans down-ballot success. At less than $1 trillion, it is less costly than a proposal meshed together by McConnell this summer. He later abandoned that effort for a considerably less costly measure that failed to advance in two attempts this fall.“It’s not a time for political brinkmanship,” Manchin said. “Emergency relief is needed now more than ever before. The people need to know that we are not going to leave until we get something accomplished.”Pelosi and Mnuchin were discussing COVID-19 relief and other end-of-session items, including a $1.4 trillion catchall government funding bill. Mnuchin told reporters as he arrived at a Senate Banking Committee hearing to assess earlier COVID-19 rescue efforts that he and Pelosi are focused primarily on the unfinished appropriations bills, however.“On COVID relief, we acknowledged the recent positive developments on vaccine development and the belief that it is essential to significantly fund distribution efforts to get us from vaccine to vaccination,” Pelosi said afterward.Pelosi and Mnuchin grappled over a relief bill for weeks before the November election, discussing legislation of up to $2 trillion. But Senate GOP conservatives opposed their efforts and Pelosi refused to yield on key points.The bipartisan compromise proposal is virtually free of detail, but includes a temporary shield against COVID-19-related lawsuits against businesses and other organizations that have reopened despite the pandemic.That’s a priority for McConnell. But his warnings of a wave of destructive lawsuits haven’t been borne out, and it is sure to incite opposition from the trial lawyers’ lobby, which retains considerable influence with top Democratic leaders.The centrist lawmakers, both moderates and conservatives, billed their proposal as a temporary patch to hold things over until next year. It contains $45 billion for transportation, including aid to transit systems and Amtrak, $82 billion to reopen schools and universities, funding for vaccines and health care providers, and money for food stamps, rental assistance and the Postal Service.

Virus relief: Senate stuck on plan that failed twice

NEW YORK (AP) — Health care workers and nursing home residents should be at the front of the line when the first coronavirus vaccine shots become available, an influential government advisory panel said Tuesday.

The panel voted 13-1 to recommend those groups get priority in the first days of any coming vaccination program, when doses are expected to be very limited. The two groups encompass about 24 million people out of a U.S. population of about 330 million.

Later this month, the Food and Drug Administration will consider authorizing emergency use of two vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna. Current estimates project that no more than 20 million doses of each vaccine will be available by the end of 2020. And each product requires two doses. As a result, the shots will be rationed in the early stages.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet again at some point to decide who should be next in line. Among the possibilities: teachers, police, firefighters, and workers in other essential fields such as food production and transportation; the elderly; and people with underlying medical conditions.

Tuesday’s action merely designated who should get shots first if a safe and effective vaccine becomes available. The panel did not endorse any particular vaccine. Panel members are waiting to hear FDA’s evaluation and to see more safety and efficacy data before endorsing any particular product.

Experts say the vaccine will probably not become widely available in the U.S. until the spring.

The panel of outside scientific experts, created in 1964, makes recommendations to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who almost always approves them. It normally has 15 voting members, but one seat is vacant.

The recommendations are not binding, but for decades they have been widely heeded by doctors, and they have determined the scope and funding of U.S. vaccination programs.

It will be up to state authorities whether to follow the guidance. It will also be left to them to make further, more detailed decisions if necessary — for example, whether to put emergency room doctors and nurses ahead of other health care workers if vaccine supplies are low.

The outbreak in the U.S. has killed nearly 270,000 people and caused more than 13.5 million confirmed infections, with deaths, hospitalizations and cases rocketing in recent weeks.

As the virtual meeting got underway, panel member Dr. Beth Bell of the University of Washington noted that on average, one person is dying of COVID-19 per minute in the U.S. right now, “so I guess we are acting none too soon.”

About 3 million people are living in nursing homes, long-term chronic care hospitals, and other U.S. long-term care facilities. Those patients and the staff members who care for them have accounted for 6% of the nation’s coronavirus cases and a staggering 39% of the deaths, CDC officials say.

Despite the heavy toll, some board members at Tuesday’s meeting said they hesitated to include such patients in the first group getting shots.

Dr. Helen Keipp Talbot, an infectious diseases researcher at Vanderbilt University who was the lone committee member to vote against the proposal, cited flu research that found vaccinating the staff of such facilities has the greatest impact on preventing its spread there.

Dr. Richard Zimmerman, a University of Pittsburgh flu vaccine researcher who watched the meeting online, echoed Talbot’s concerns.

“I think it was premature” to include nursing home residents as a priority group, said Zimmerman, a former ACIP member. “Their vote seems to assume that these people will respond well to the vaccine. ... I don’t think we know that.”

Committee members were unanimous in voicing support for vaccinating health care workers — about 21 million people, according to CDC officials.

That broad category includes medical staff who care for — or come in contact with — patients in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and doctor’s offices. It also includes home health care workers and paramedics. Depending on how state officials apply the panel’s recommendations, it could also encompass janitorial staff, food service employees and medical records clerks.

The government estimates people working in health care account for 12% of U.S. COVID-19 cases but only about 0.5% of deaths. Experts say it’s imperative to keep health care workers on their feet so they can administer the shots and tend to the booming number of infected Americans.

For months, members of the immunization panel had said they wouldn’t take a vote until the FDA approved a vaccine, as is customary. But late last week, the group scheduled an emergency meeting.

The panel’s chairman, Dr. Jose Romero, said the decision stemmed from a realization that the states are facing a Friday deadline to place initial orders for the Pfizer vaccine and determine where they should be delivered. The committee decided to meet now to give state and local officials guidance, he said.

But some panel members and other experts had also grown concerned by comments from Trump administration officials that suggested differing vaccine priorities.

Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House coronavirus task force said in a meeting with CDC officials last month that people 65 and older should go to the head of the line, according to a federal official who was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Then last week U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar stressed that ultimately governors will decide who in their states gets the shots. Vice President Mike Pence echoed that view.

Asked whether Azar’s comment played a role in the scheduling of the meeting, Romero said; “We don’t live in a bubble. We know what he said. But that wasn’t the primary reason this is being done.”

Jason Schwartz, a professor of health policy at the Yale School of Public Health, said it makes sense for the panel to take the unusual step of getting its recommendation out first.

“Without that formal recommendation, it does create a void from which states could go off in all sorts of different directions,” said Schwartz, who is not on the panel.

HHS officials have said they will distribute initial doses to states based on population, and it’s possible that some states won’t receive enough to cover all of their health care workers and nursing home residents.

CDC officials said they are optimistic such shortages would last only a few weeks.

Still, governors and local officials may have to decide which health care workers or regions get shots first, Schwartz said.

“It’s up to states to figure out the more granular detail,” he said.

NEW YORK (AP) — Health care workers and nursing home residents should be at the front of the line when the first coronavirus vaccine shots become available, an influential government advisory panel said Tuesday.The panel voted 13-1 to recommend those groups get priority in the first days of any coming vaccination program, when doses are expected to be very limited. The two groups encompass about 24 million people out of a U.S. population of about 330 million.Later this month, the Food and Drug Administration will consider authorizing emergency use of two vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna. Current estimates project that no more than 20 million doses of each vaccine will be available by the end of 2020. And each product requires two doses. As a result, the shots will be rationed in the early stages.The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet again at some point to decide who should be next in line. Among the possibilities: teachers, police, firefighters, and workers in other essential fields such as food production and transportation; the elderly; and people with underlying medical conditions.Tuesday’s action merely designated who should get shots first if a safe and effective vaccine becomes available. The panel did not endorse any particular vaccine. Panel members are waiting to hear FDA’s evaluation and to see more safety and efficacy data before endorsing any particular product.Experts say the vaccine will probably not become widely available in the U.S. until the spring.The panel of outside scientific experts, created in 1964, makes recommendations to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who almost always approves them. It normally has 15 voting members, but one seat is vacant.The recommendations are not binding, but for decades they have been widely heeded by doctors, and they have determined the scope and funding of U.S. vaccination programs.It will be up to state authorities whether to follow the guidance. It will also be left to them to make further, more detailed decisions if necessary — for example, whether to put emergency room doctors and nurses ahead of other health care workers if vaccine supplies are low.The outbreak in the U.S. has killed nearly 270,000 people and caused more than 13.5 million confirmed infections, with deaths, hospitalizations and cases rocketing in recent weeks.As the virtual meeting got underway, panel member Dr. Beth Bell of the University of Washington noted that on average, one person is dying of COVID-19 per minute in the U.S. right now, “so I guess we are acting none too soon.”About 3 million people are living in nursing homes, long-term chronic care hospitals, and other U.S. long-term care facilities. Those patients and the staff members who care for them have accounted for 6% of the nation’s coronavirus cases and a staggering 39% of the deaths, CDC officials say.Despite the heavy toll, some board members at Tuesday’s meeting said they hesitated to include such patients in the first group getting shots.Dr. Helen Keipp Talbot, an infectious diseases researcher at Vanderbilt University who was the lone committee member to vote against the proposal, cited flu research that found vaccinating the staff of such facilities has the greatest impact on preventing its spread there.Dr. Richard Zimmerman, a University of Pittsburgh flu vaccine researcher who watched the meeting online, echoed Talbot’s concerns.“I think it was premature” to include nursing home residents as a priority group, said Zimmerman, a former ACIP member. “Their vote seems to assume that these people will respond well to the vaccine. ... I don’t think we know that.”Committee members were unanimous in voicing support for vaccinating health care workers — about 21 million people, according to CDC officials.That broad category includes medical staff who care for — or come in contact with — patients in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and doctor’s offices. It also includes home health care workers and paramedics. Depending on how state officials apply the panel’s recommendations, it could also encompass janitorial staff, food service employees and medical records clerks.The government estimates people working in health care account for 12% of U.S. COVID-19 cases but only about 0.5% of deaths. Experts say it’s imperative to keep health care workers on their feet so they can administer the shots and tend to the booming number of infected Americans.For months, members of the immunization panel had said they wouldn’t take a vote until the FDA approved a vaccine, as is customary. But late last week, the group scheduled an emergency meeting.The panel’s chairman, Dr. Jose Romero, said the decision stemmed from a realization that the states are facing a Friday deadline to place initial orders for the Pfizer vaccine and determine where they should be delivered. The committee decided to meet now to give state and local officials guidance, he said.But some panel members and other experts had also grown concerned by comments from Trump administration officials that suggested differing vaccine priorities.Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House coronavirus task force said in a meeting with CDC officials last month that people 65 and older should go to the head of the line, according to a federal official who was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.Then last week U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar stressed that ultimately governors will decide who in their states gets the shots. Vice President Mike Pence echoed that view.Asked whether Azar’s comment played a role in the scheduling of the meeting, Romero said; “We don’t live in a bubble. We know what he said. But that wasn’t the primary reason this is being done.”Jason Schwartz, a professor of health policy at the Yale School of Public Health, said it makes sense for the panel to take the unusual step of getting its recommendation out first.“Without that formal recommendation, it does create a void from which states could go off in all sorts of different directions,” said Schwartz, who is not on the panel.HHS officials have said they will distribute initial doses to states based on population, and it’s possible that some states won’t receive enough to cover all of their health care workers and nursing home residents.CDC officials said they are optimistic such shortages would last only a few weeks.Still, governors and local officials may have to decide which health care workers or regions get shots first, Schwartz said.“It’s up to states to figure out the more granular detail,” he said.

US panel: 1st vaccines to health care workers, nursing homes

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday the Justice Department has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

His comments in an interview with The Associated Press come despite President Donald Trump’s repeated baseless claims that the election was stolen, Trump’s effort to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election and his refusal to concede his loss to President-Elect Joe Biden.

Barr said U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they’ve received, but they’ve uncovered no evidence that would change the outcome of the election. Barr was headed to the White House later for a previously scheduled meeting.

“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” Barr told the AP.

The comments are especially direct coming from Barr, who has been one of the president’s most ardent allies. Before the election, he had&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/9f1fde9bb0dd6e46be5a7add286093b9">repeatedly raised the notion&nbsp;</a>that mail-in voter fraud could be especially vulnerable to fraud during the coronavirus pandemic as Americans feared going to polls and instead chose to vote by mail.

Shortly after Barr’s statement was published, Trump tweeted out more baseless claims of voter fraud. And his attorney Rudy Giuliani and his campaign issued a scathing statement claiming that, “with all due respect to the Attorney General, there hasn’t been any semblance” of an investigation.

Last month, Barr issued a directive to U.S. attorneys across the country allowing them to pursue any “substantial allegations” of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/military-voters-fear-unsupported-fraud-f9e5adc810c506b4a7044c93ebe17a61">voting irregularities</a>, if they existed, before the 2020 presidential election was certified, despite no evidence at that time of widespread fraud. That memorandum gave prosecutors the ability to go around longstanding Justice Department policy that normally would prohibit such overt actions before the election was certified. Soon after it was issued, the department’s top elections crime official announced he would step aside from that position because of the memo.

The Trump campaign team led by Rudy Giuliani has been&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-allies-try-overturn-biden-victory-29da6aac9cc41e47f3095855e7af7031">alleging a widespread conspiracy</a>&nbsp;by Democrats to dump millions of illegal votes into the system with no evidence. They have filed multiple lawsuits in battleground states alleging that partisan poll watchers didn’t have a clear enough view at polling sites in some locations and therefore something illegal must have happened. The claims have been repeatedly dismissed including by Republican judges who have ruled the suits lacked evidence. Local Republicans in some battleground states have followed Trump in making similar unsupported claims.

Trump has railed against the election in tweets and in interviews though his own administration has said the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/top-officials-elections-most-secure-66f9361084ccbc461e3bbf42861057a5">2020 election was the most secure ever</a>. Trump recently allowed his administration to begin the transition over to Biden, but has still refused to admit he lost.

The issues Trump’s campaign and its allies have pointed to are typical in every election: Problems with signatures, secrecy envelopes and postal marks on mail-in ballots, as well as the potential for a small number of ballots miscast or lost.

But they’ve also requested federal probes into the claims. Attorney Sidney Powell&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-trump-legal-team-false-claims-5abd64917ef8be9e9e2078180973e8b3">has spun</a>&nbsp;fictional tales of election systems flipping votes, German servers storing U.S. voting information and election software created in Venezuela “at the direction of Hugo Chavez,” – the late Venezuelan president who died in 2013. Powell has since been removed from the legal team after an interview she gave where she threatened to “blow up” Georgia with a “biblical” court filing.

Barr didn’t name Powell specifically but said: “There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results. And the DHS and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that,” Barr said.

He said people were confusing the use of the federal criminal justice system with allegations that should be made in civil lawsuits. He said such a remedy for those complaints would be a top-down audit conducted by state or local officials, not the U.S. Justice Department.

“There’s a growing tendency to use the criminal justice system as sort of a default fix-all, and people don’t like something they want the Department of Justice to come in and ‘investigate,’” Barr said.

He said first of all there must be a basis to believe there is a crime to investigate.

“Most claims of fraud are very particularized to a particular set of circumstances or actors or conduct. They are not systemic allegations and. And those have been run down; they are being run down,” Barr said. “Some have been broad and potentially cover a few thousand votes. They have been followed up on.”

In the campaign statement, Giuliani claimed the had gathered “ample evidence of illegal voting in at least six states, which they have not examined.”

“We have many witnesses swearing under oath they saw crimes being committed in connection with voter fraud. As far as we know, not a single one has been interviewed by the DOJ. The Justice Department also hasn’t audited any voting machines or used their subpoena powers to determine the truth,” he said.

The witnesses Giuliani has pointed to in the past included Jessy Jacob, identified as a City of Detroit employee, who said in an affidavit filed in court that she saw other workers coaching voters to cast ballots for Joe Biden and the Democrats.

But a judge who denied a bid to block the certification of Detroit-area election results noted that Jacob’s claims of misconduct and fraud included no “date, location, frequency or names of employees” and that she only came forward with her allegations after the unofficial results indicated Biden had won Michigan.

WASHINGTON (AP) —Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday the Justice Department has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

His comments come despite President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that the election was stolen, and his refusal to concede his loss to President-Elect Joe Biden.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Barr said U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they’ve received, but they’ve uncovered no evidence that would change the outcome of the election.

“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election,” Barr told the AP.

The comments are especially direct coming from Barr, who has been one of the president’s most ardent allies. Before the election, he had repeatedly raised the notion that mail-in voter fraud could be especially vulnerable to fraud during the coronavirus pandemic as Americans feared going to polls and instead chose to vote by mail.

Last month, Barr issued a directive to U.S. attorneys across the country allowing them to pursue any “substantial allegations” of voting irregularities, if they existed, before the 2020 presidential election was certified, despite no evidence at that time of widespread fraud. That memorandum gave prosecutors the ability to go around longstanding Justice Department policy that normally would prohibit such overt actions before the election was certified. Soon after it was issued, the department’s top elections crime official announced he would step aside from that position because of the memo.

The Trump campaign team led by Rudy Giuliani has been alleging a widespread conspiracy by Democrats to dump millions of illegal votes into the system with no evidence. They have filed multiple lawsuits in battleground states alleging that partisan poll watchers didn’t have a clear enough view at polling sites in some locations and therefore something illegal must have happened. The claims have been repeatedly dismissed including by Republican judges who have ruled the suits lacked evidence. Local Republicans in some battleground states have followed Trump in making similar unsupported claims.

Trump has railed against the election in tweets and in interviews though his own administration has said the 2020 election was the most secure ever. Trump recently allowed his administration to begin the transition over to Biden, but has still refused to admit he lost.

But they’ve also requested federal probes into the claims. Attorney Sidney Powell has spun fictional tales of election systems flipping votes, German servers storing U.S. voting information and election software created in Venezuela “at the direction of Hugo Chavez,” – the late Venezuelan president who died in 2013. Powell has since been removed from the legal team after an interview she gave where she threatened to “blow up” Georgia with a “biblical” court filing.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/11/1604529701860.png" alt="Processing ballots in Pennsylvania - photo courtesy Pennsylvania Secretary of State" />
 <figcaption>Processing ballots in Pennsylvania - photo courtesy Pennsylvania Secretary of State</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday the Justice Department has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.His comments in an interview with The Associated Press come despite President Donald Trump’s repeated baseless claims that the election was stolen, Trump’s effort to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election and his refusal to concede his loss to President-Elect Joe Biden.Barr said U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they’ve received, but they’ve uncovered no evidence that would change the outcome of the election. Barr was headed to the White House later for a previously scheduled meeting.“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” Barr told the AP.The comments are especially direct coming from Barr, who has been one of the president’s most ardent allies. Before the election, he had&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/9f1fde9bb0dd6e46be5a7add286093b9">repeatedly raised the notion&nbsp;</a>that mail-in voter fraud could be especially vulnerable to fraud during the coronavirus pandemic as Americans feared going to polls and instead chose to vote by mail.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/12/1606852995602.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Shortly after Barr’s statement was published, Trump tweeted out more baseless claims of voter fraud. And his attorney Rudy Giuliani and his campaign issued a scathing statement claiming that, “with all due respect to the Attorney General, there hasn’t been any semblance” of an investigation.Last month, Barr issued a directive to U.S. attorneys across the country allowing them to pursue any “substantial allegations” of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/military-voters-fear-unsupported-fraud-f9e5adc810c506b4a7044c93ebe17a61">voting irregularities</a>, if they existed, before the 2020 presidential election was certified, despite no evidence at that time of widespread fraud. That memorandum gave prosecutors the ability to go around longstanding Justice Department policy that normally would prohibit such overt actions before the election was certified. Soon after it was issued, the department’s top elections crime official announced he would step aside from that position because of the memo.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/11/1604697559728.png" alt="Volunteers counting votes on November 5, 2020- photo courtesy Nevada Secretary of State" />
 <figcaption>Volunteers counting votes on November 5, 2020- photo courtesy Nevada Secretary of State</figcaption>
 </figure>The Trump campaign team led by Rudy Giuliani has been&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-allies-try-overturn-biden-victory-29da6aac9cc41e47f3095855e7af7031">alleging a widespread conspiracy</a>&nbsp;by Democrats to dump millions of illegal votes into the system with no evidence. They have filed multiple lawsuits in battleground states alleging that partisan poll watchers didn’t have a clear enough view at polling sites in some locations and therefore something illegal must have happened. The claims have been repeatedly dismissed including by Republican judges who have ruled the suits lacked evidence. Local Republicans in some battleground states have followed Trump in making similar unsupported claims.Trump has railed against the election in tweets and in interviews though his own administration has said the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/top-officials-elections-most-secure-66f9361084ccbc461e3bbf42861057a5">2020 election was the most secure ever</a>. Trump recently allowed his administration to begin the transition over to Biden, but has still refused to admit he lost.The issues Trump’s campaign and its allies have pointed to are typical in every election: Problems with signatures, secrecy envelopes and postal marks on mail-in ballots, as well as the potential for a small number of ballots miscast or lost.But they’ve also requested federal probes into the claims. Attorney Sidney Powell&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-trump-legal-team-false-claims-5abd64917ef8be9e9e2078180973e8b3">has spun</a>&nbsp;fictional tales of election systems flipping votes, German servers storing U.S. voting information and election software created in Venezuela “at the direction of Hugo Chavez,” – the late Venezuelan president who died in 2013. Powell has since been removed from the legal team after an interview she gave where she threatened to “blow up” Georgia with a “biblical” court filing.Barr didn’t name Powell specifically but said: “There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results. And the DHS and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that,” Barr said.He said people were confusing the use of the federal criminal justice system with allegations that should be made in civil lawsuits. He said such a remedy for those complaints would be a top-down audit conducted by state or local officials, not the U.S. Justice Department.“There’s a growing tendency to use the criminal justice system as sort of a default fix-all, and people don’t like something they want the Department of Justice to come in and ‘investigate,’” Barr said.He said first of all there must be a basis to believe there is a crime to investigate.“Most claims of fraud are very particularized to a particular set of circumstances or actors or conduct. They are not systemic allegations and. And those have been run down; they are being run down,” Barr said. “Some have been broad and potentially cover a few thousand votes. They have been followed up on.”In the campaign statement, Giuliani claimed the had gathered “ample evidence of illegal voting in at least six states, which they have not examined.”“We have many witnesses swearing under oath they saw crimes being committed in connection with voter fraud. As far as we know, not a single one has been interviewed by the DOJ. The Justice Department also hasn’t audited any voting machines or used their subpoena powers to determine the truth,” he said.The witnesses Giuliani has pointed to in the past included Jessy Jacob, identified as a City of Detroit employee, who said in an affidavit filed in court that she saw other workers coaching voters to cast ballots for Joe Biden and the Democrats.But a judge who denied a bid to block the certification of Detroit-area election results noted that Jacob’s claims of misconduct and fraud included no “date, location, frequency or names of employees” and that she only came forward with her allegations after the unofficial results indicated Biden had won Michigan.----------WASHINGTON (AP) —Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday the Justice Department has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.His comments come despite President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that the election was stolen, and his refusal to concede his loss to President-Elect Joe Biden.In an interview with The Associated Press, Barr said U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they’ve received, but they’ve uncovered no evidence that would change the outcome of the election.“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election,” Barr told the AP.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/12/1606852995602.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>The comments are especially direct coming from Barr, who has been one of the president’s most ardent allies. Before the election, he had repeatedly raised the notion that mail-in voter fraud could be especially vulnerable to fraud during the coronavirus pandemic as Americans feared going to polls and instead chose to vote by mail.Last month, Barr issued a directive to U.S. attorneys across the country allowing them to pursue any “substantial allegations” of voting irregularities, if they existed, before the 2020 presidential election was certified, despite no evidence at that time of widespread fraud. That memorandum gave prosecutors the ability to go around longstanding Justice Department policy that normally would prohibit such overt actions before the election was certified. Soon after it was issued, the department’s top elections crime official announced he would step aside from that position because of the memo.The Trump campaign team led by Rudy Giuliani has been alleging a widespread conspiracy by Democrats to dump millions of illegal votes into the system with no evidence. They have filed multiple lawsuits in battleground states alleging that partisan poll watchers didn’t have a clear enough view at polling sites in some locations and therefore something illegal must have happened. The claims have been repeatedly dismissed including by Republican judges who have ruled the suits lacked evidence. Local Republicans in some battleground states have followed Trump in making similar unsupported claims.Trump has railed against the election in tweets and in interviews though his own administration has said the 2020 election was the most secure ever. Trump recently allowed his administration to begin the transition over to Biden, but has still refused to admit he lost.The issues Trump’s campaign and its allies have pointed to are typical in every election: Problems with signatures, secrecy envelopes and postal marks on mail-in ballots, as well as the potential for a small number of ballots miscast or lost.But they’ve also requested federal probes into the claims. Attorney Sidney Powell has spun fictional tales of election systems flipping votes, German servers storing U.S. voting information and election software created in Venezuela “at the direction of Hugo Chavez,” – the late Venezuelan president who died in 2013. Powell has since been removed from the legal team after an interview she gave where she threatened to “blow up” Georgia with a “biblical” court filing.Barr didn’t name Powell specifically but said: “There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results. And the DHS and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that,” Barr said.He said people were confusing the use of the federal criminal justice system with allegations that should be made in civil lawsuits. He said such a remedy for those complaints would be a top-down audit conducted by state or local officials, not the U.S. Justice Department.“There’s a growing tendency to use the criminal justice system as sort of a default fix-all, and people don’t like something they want the Department of Justice to come in and ‘investigate,’” Barr said.He said first of all there must be a basis to believe there is a crime to investigate.“Most claims of fraud are very particularized to a particular set of circumstances or actors or conduct. They are not systemic allegations and. And those have been run down; they are being run down,” Barr said. “Some have been broad and potentially cover a few thousand votes. They have been followed up on.”

President, AG disagree over widespread voter fraud

BY JIM MCLEAN <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2020-11-30/a-pandemic-exhaustion-and-threats-why-dozens-of-kansas-public-health-officials-are-quitting">Kansas News Service</a>

FREDONIA — Nick Baldetti resigned as director of the Reno County Health Department in July.

He
 left to head an effort to establish a school of health at McPherson 
College. It was a good opportunity, Baldetti said, but he likely would 
have stayed to see the department through the pandemic if not for the 
80-hour work weeks, the hostile political environment and the threats to
 his family.

“I had the local police watching my house because my 
family was home and I was not,” said Baldetti, who also served as the 
department’s health officer. “There was a period of time that I had 
escorts to and from work.”

Baldetti, like his counterparts across 
the state, spent years preparing to deal with a public health crisis 
like the COVID-19 pandemic. He never imagined that when the moment 
arrived he would encounter such antagonism for simply doing his job.

“By
 the end of the day, you just felt like you were on an island by 
yourself,” he said. “Whatever decision I made, 50% of people were going 
to be upset because it was too ‘restrictive’ and the other 50% were 
going to be upset because it wasn’t restrictive enough.”

Baldetti 
wasn’t alone. The pressure of dealing with the pandemic and the politics
 surrounding it triggered an exodus of public health workers across the 
state.

In the nine months since the state’s first documented 
coronavirus infection, 27 county health officials have left their posts.
 Some retired but others resigned or were fired.

The Kansas 
Department of Health and Environment says that number includes 15 county
 health department administrators and 18 health officers. Six of those 
leaving held both positions.

The same pressures are thinning the 
ranks of local public health officials across the country. Many are 
leaving because they’ve been physically threatened or “politically 
scapegoated” for doing their jobs, Lori Freeman, chief executive of the 
National Association of County and City Health Officials, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/938873547/embattled-public-health-workers-leaving-at-steady-and-alarming-rate" target="_blank">told National Public Radio</a>.

<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2020/11/12/kansas-public-health-workers-are-not-your-enemies-theyre-your-neighbors/" target="_blank">Vicki Collie-Akers,</a>
 a professor of public health at the University of Kansas Medical 
Center, said many of the health officials in Kansas who are leaving are 
doing so “because they can’t manage both the pandemic crisis and the 
harassment and denigration that’s come with it.”

The long-term 
impact of the exodus on the state’s already undermanned and underfunded 
public health system, Collie-Akers said, will be profound.

Lee 
Norman oversees the public health system as secretary of KDHE. Recently 
assigned a security detail, Norman said the departure of so many 
frontline workers is “disheartening and cause for concern.”

Gianfranco
 Pezzino recently announced that after 14 years as the health officer of
 the Shawnee County Health Department he would step down at the end of 
the year.

“There’s a lot of burnout, anger and frustration,” Pezzino said.

A
 doctor and public health researcher, Pezzino said months battling 
county commissioners over how to contain the coronavirus had worn him 
out.

“I’m tired emotionally, I’m tired physically,” Pezzino said. “I don’t think I have the energy … to do another year like this.”

The amount of misinformation spread on social media — much of it <a href="https://khn.org/morning-breakout/trump-fueled-38-of-pandemic-misinformation-conspiracies-study/" target="_blank">emanating from the White House</a> — politicized the nation’s response to the pandemic, Pezzino said.

“If
 there had been a unified message coming down from the federal 
government to the state and local levels,” he said, “it would have been 
much easier for everybody.”

Jennifer
 Bacani McKenney is also tired and frustrated. Nevertheless, she’s 
fighting to stay on as Wilson County’s health officer.

McKenney, a doctor, grew up in Fredonia, the county seat. She returned about a decade ago to join her father’s medical practice.

Initially,
 she said, citizens of the county in the southeast corner of the state 
embraced orders issued by Gov. Laura Kelly and her department aimed at 
slowing the spread of the coronavirus. Those orders sequestered people 
in their homes, closed schools and some businesses.

“That first probably two months we were everybody’s best friend,” McKenney said. “We were here to take care of you.”

But
 support for those policies eroded as the number of unemployed Kansans 
grew to levels not seen since the Great Recession. Republican 
legislative leaders responded by reining in Kelly’s emergency powers and
 those of local health officials.

The legislative changes allowed 
county commissioners to opt out of Kelly’s mask mandate and gave them 
authority over all local policies aimed at containing the virus.

As
 the political debate grew more heated — nationally and in Kansas — 
hostility towards public health officials, like McKenney, increased.

She got threatening emails and was the target of personal attacks on social media.

“It
 hurts your heart, it really does,” McKenney said. “It’s not only that 
people are mean, it’s that you’ve lost friends. Relationships are 
broken.”

During the worst of it, McKenney said, she often sat alone in her office and cried after seeing her last patient of the day.

“There’s nothing else to do,” she said.

Andy
 Miller, a Wilson County commissioner, said McKenney brought some of the
 criticism on herself by disparaging President Donald Trump’s handling 
of the pandemic in social media posts.

“When you start getting political,” Miller said, “you’ve created a storm.”

When that happens, he said, the attacks run both ways.

“I’ve
 probably got a dozen emails or so that are just, ‘it’s either a mask 
(mandate) or you’re a killer,’” he said. “There’s no in between.”

Early last month, commissioners rejected McKenney’s proposal for a 
mask mandate. But as COVID-19 cases in the county and across the state 
surged and Kelly called for a statewide policy they agreed to consider a
 compromise.

They scheduled a rare evening meeting to hear from 
the public. Most of the 80 people who showed up opposed the mandate as 
an assault on their personal liberty.

“My fear doesn’t happen to 
be the COVID virus but the overreach of national and state officials who
 believe because of their positions or ego that their opinions are 
fact,” said Charles Fox, a Fredonia veterinarian.

Donovan 
Hutchinson, the owner of the Dry Creek Saloon in Neodosha, said giving 
in to a mask mandate would lead to further abuses of government power.

“What will they come after next, our guns, our children?” he said.

Burt Carlson, a 70-year-old retiree from Fredonia, recently spent a week in the hospital for COVID-19 but opposed the mandate.

Despite more than 265,000 U.S. deaths it has caused, Carlson said the coronavirus isn’t as bad as health officials claim.

“It’s no more than a super bad flu,” he said.

When
 it became apparent that the commission was ready to approve the 
compromise — a 30-day mandate — several people walked out in protest.

Sheriff’s deputies escorted McKenney to her car after the meeting.

Still, she doesn’t want to add her name to the growing list of local public health officials calling it quits.

“That’s not me,” she said. “I can’t have this knowledge and ability to help people and just walk away.”

Jim McLean is the senior correspondent for the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/jmcleanks?lang=en" target="_blank">@jmcleanks</a> or email jim@kcur.org.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/12/1606838282342.png" alt="Dr. Jennifer McKenney, Wilson County health officer, in her office at the Fredonia Regional Medical Center. Jim McLean / Kansas News Service" />
 <figcaption>Dr. Jennifer McKenney, Wilson County health officer, in her office at the Fredonia Regional Medical Center. Jim McLean / Kansas News Service</figcaption>
 </figure>BY JIM MCLEAN <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2020-11-30/a-pandemic-exhaustion-and-threats-why-dozens-of-kansas-public-health-officials-are-quitting">Kansas News Service</a>FREDONIA — Nick Baldetti resigned as director of the Reno County Health Department in July.He
 left to head an effort to establish a school of health at McPherson 
College. It was a good opportunity, Baldetti said, but he likely would 
have stayed to see the department through the pandemic if not for the 
80-hour work weeks, the hostile political environment and the threats to
 his family.“I had the local police watching my house because my 
family was home and I was not,” said Baldetti, who also served as the 
department’s health officer. “There was a period of time that I had 
escorts to and from work.”Baldetti, like his counterparts across 
the state, spent years preparing to deal with a public health crisis 
like the COVID-19 pandemic. He never imagined that when the moment 
arrived he would encounter such antagonism for simply doing his job.“By
 the end of the day, you just felt like you were on an island by 
yourself,” he said. “Whatever decision I made, 50% of people were going 
to be upset because it was too ‘restrictive’ and the other 50% were 
going to be upset because it wasn’t restrictive enough.”Baldetti 
wasn’t alone. The pressure of dealing with the pandemic and the politics
 surrounding it triggered an exodus of public health workers across the 
state.In the nine months since the state’s first documented 
coronavirus infection, 27 county health officials have left their posts.
 Some retired but others resigned or were fired.The Kansas 
Department of Health and Environment says that number includes 15 county
 health department administrators and 18 health officers. Six of those 
leaving held both positions.The same pressures are thinning the 
ranks of local public health officials across the country. Many are 
leaving because they’ve been physically threatened or “politically 
scapegoated” for doing their jobs, Lori Freeman, chief executive of the 
National Association of County and City Health Officials, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/938873547/embattled-public-health-workers-leaving-at-steady-and-alarming-rate" target="_blank">told National Public Radio</a>.<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2020/11/12/kansas-public-health-workers-are-not-your-enemies-theyre-your-neighbors/" target="_blank">Vicki Collie-Akers,</a>
 a professor of public health at the University of Kansas Medical 
Center, said many of the health officials in Kansas who are leaving are 
doing so “because they can’t manage both the pandemic crisis and the 
harassment and denigration that’s come with it.”The long-term 
impact of the exodus on the state’s already undermanned and underfunded 
public health system, Collie-Akers said, will be profound.Lee 
Norman oversees the public health system as secretary of KDHE. Recently 
assigned a security detail, Norman said the departure of so many 
frontline workers is “disheartening and cause for concern.”Frustration, fear and fatigueGianfranco
 Pezzino recently announced that after 14 years as the health officer of
 the Shawnee County Health Department he would step down at the end of 
the year.“There’s a lot of burnout, anger and frustration,” Pezzino said.A
 doctor and public health researcher, Pezzino said months battling 
county commissioners over how to contain the coronavirus had worn him 
out.“I’m tired emotionally, I’m tired physically,” Pezzino said. “I don’t think I have the energy … to do another year like this.”The amount of misinformation spread on social media — much of it <a href="https://khn.org/morning-breakout/trump-fueled-38-of-pandemic-misinformation-conspiracies-study/" target="_blank">emanating from the White House</a> — politicized the nation’s response to the pandemic, Pezzino said.“If
 there had been a unified message coming down from the federal 
government to the state and local levels,” he said, “it would have been 
much easier for everybody.”Mask mandate backlashJennifer
 Bacani McKenney is also tired and frustrated. Nevertheless, she’s 
fighting to stay on as Wilson County’s health officer.McKenney, a doctor, grew up in Fredonia, the county seat. She returned about a decade ago to join her father’s medical practice.Initially,
 she said, citizens of the county in the southeast corner of the state 
embraced orders issued by Gov. Laura Kelly and her department aimed at 
slowing the spread of the coronavirus. Those orders sequestered people 
in their homes, closed schools and some businesses.“That first probably two months we were everybody’s best friend,” McKenney said. “We were here to take care of you.”But
 support for those policies eroded as the number of unemployed Kansans 
grew to levels not seen since the Great Recession. Republican 
legislative leaders responded by reining in Kelly’s emergency powers and
 those of local health officials.The legislative changes allowed 
county commissioners to opt out of Kelly’s mask mandate and gave them 
authority over all local policies aimed at containing the virus.As
 the political debate grew more heated — nationally and in Kansas — 
hostility towards public health officials, like McKenney, increased.She got threatening emails and was the target of personal attacks on social media.“It
 hurts your heart, it really does,” McKenney said. “It’s not only that 
people are mean, it’s that you’ve lost friends. Relationships are 
broken.”During the worst of it, McKenney said, she often sat alone in her office and cried after seeing her last patient of the day.“There’s nothing else to do,” she said.Andy
 Miller, a Wilson County commissioner, said McKenney brought some of the
 criticism on herself by disparaging President Donald Trump’s handling 
of the pandemic in social media posts.“When you start getting political,” Miller said, “you’ve created a storm.”When that happens, he said, the attacks run both ways.“I’ve
 probably got a dozen emails or so that are just, ‘it’s either a mask 
(mandate) or you’re a killer,’” he said. “There’s no in between.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/12/1606839930252.png" alt="Wilson County Commissioner Andy Miller on his ranch near Fredonia in southeast Kansas. Jim McLean" />
 <figcaption>Wilson County Commissioner Andy Miller on his ranch near Fredonia in southeast Kansas. Jim McLean</figcaption>
 </figure>Early last month, commissioners rejected McKenney’s proposal for a 
mask mandate. But as COVID-19 cases in the county and across the state 
surged and Kelly called for a statewide policy they agreed to consider a
 compromise.They scheduled a rare evening meeting to hear from 
the public. Most of the 80 people who showed up opposed the mandate as 
an assault on their personal liberty.“My fear doesn’t happen to 
be the COVID virus but the overreach of national and state officials who
 believe because of their positions or ego that their opinions are 
fact,” said Charles Fox, a Fredonia veterinarian.Donovan 
Hutchinson, the owner of the Dry Creek Saloon in Neodosha, said giving 
in to a mask mandate would lead to further abuses of government power.“What will they come after next, our guns, our children?” he said.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/12/1606839970395.png" alt="Donovan Hutchinson, owner of the Dry Creek Saloon in Neodosha, speaking against a mask mandate at a Wilson County Commission meeting on Nov. 23, 2020. Jim McLean" />
 <figcaption>Donovan Hutchinson, owner of the Dry Creek Saloon in Neodosha, speaking against a mask mandate at a Wilson County Commission meeting on Nov. 23, 2020. Jim McLean</figcaption>
 </figure>Burt Carlson, a 70-year-old retiree from Fredonia, recently spent a week in the hospital for COVID-19 but opposed the mandate.Despite more than 265,000 U.S. deaths it has caused, Carlson said the coronavirus isn’t as bad as health officials claim.“It’s no more than a super bad flu,” he said.When
 it became apparent that the commission was ready to approve the 
compromise — a 30-day mandate — several people walked out in protest.Sheriff’s deputies escorted McKenney to her car after the meeting.Still, she doesn’t want to add her name to the growing list of local public health officials calling it quits.“That’s not me,” she said. “I can’t have this knowledge and ability to help people and just walk away.”Jim McLean is the senior correspondent for the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/jmcleanks?lang=en" target="_blank">@jmcleanks</a> or email jim@kcur.org.

Pandemic, exhaustion, threats: Dozens of Kan. public health officials quitting

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — A judge has set bond at $100,000 cash for a man charged with fatally shooting his girlfriend’s teenage son at a home near Rapid City. 

Prosecutors say 43-year-old Jason Sharp is charged with second-degree murder in the Nov. 24 shooting of 19-year-old Ocean Sun Eberlein at a mobile home park where Sharp lives. 

A probable cause affidavit says the two men were seen fighting in a driveway before Eberlein was shot with a rifle.

 The victim’s mother told deputies that that Eberlein and Sharp did not have a good relationship and had been squabbling with each other that day.

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — A judge has set bond at $100,000 cash for a man charged with fatally shooting his girlfriend’s teenage son at a home near Rapid City. Prosecutors say 43-year-old Jason Sharp is charged with second-degree murder in the Nov. 24 shooting of 19-year-old Ocean Sun Eberlein at a mobile home park where Sharp lives. A probable cause affidavit says the two men were seen fighting in a driveway before Eberlein was shot with a rifle. The victim’s mother told deputies that that Eberlein and Sharp did not have a good relationship and had been squabbling with each other that day.

Bond set at $100,000 for Rapid City man charged in fatal shooting

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A new monthly survey of business leaders in nine Midwest and Plains states suggests faltering confidence in the region's economy. 

After climbing every month since bottoming out in April, the overall index of the Creighton University Mid-America Business Conditions survey fell to 69.0 in November from October’s 70.2. 

Any score above 50 on the survey’s indexes suggests growth, while a score below 50 suggests recession. 

Meanwhile, the survey's confidence index looking ahead six months plummeted 20 points to 50.0 this month from October’s 70.4. 

The monthly survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A new monthly survey of business leaders in nine Midwest and Plains states suggests faltering confidence in the region's economy. After climbing every month since bottoming out in April, the overall index of the Creighton University Mid-America Business Conditions survey fell to 69.0 in November from October’s 70.2. Any score above 50 on the survey’s indexes suggests growth, while a score below 50 suggests recession. Meanwhile, the survey's confidence index looking ahead six months plummeted 20 points to 50.0 this month from October’s 70.4. The monthly survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

Confidence in Midwest economic future plummets in survey

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming’s governor continues to have mild symptoms of COVID-19 five days after testing positive for the virus. 

Gov. Mark Gordon continues to work in isolation. 

Gordon spokesman Michael Pearlman said Monday that Gordon’s wife, Jennie Gordon, has tested negative for the coronavirus and is isolating separately from the governor. 

Two staff members in the governor’s office have tested positive. 

All other close, recent contacts of Gordon's have tested negative. 

Gordon first showed symptoms Nov. 22 and immediately took an at-home test. 

The at-home test and another at a medical clinic came back positive for the coronavirus Wednesday.

State officials say it’s unclear where Gordon contracted the virus.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming’s governor continues to have mild symptoms of COVID-19 five days after testing positive for the virus. Gov. Mark Gordon continues to work in isolation. Gordon spokesman Michael Pearlman said Monday that Gordon’s wife, Jennie Gordon, has tested negative for the coronavirus and is isolating separately from the governor. Two staff members in the governor’s office have tested positive. All other close, recent contacts of Gordon's have tested negative. Gordon first showed symptoms Nov. 22 and immediately took an at-home test. The at-home test and another at a medical clinic came back positive for the coronavirus Wednesday.State officials say it’s unclear where Gordon contracted the virus.

Wyoming governor still isolated with COVID-19 symptoms

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Prosecutors in Nebraska say a methamphetamine trafficker who worked for a Mexican-based drug organization has been sentenced to 11 years in prison. 

The U.S. attorneys office in Nebraska said Monday that 35-year-old Raymundo Hernandez-Rubio will be deported to Mexico after serving his prison term.

 He was convicted of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. 

Prosecutors say an inspection of his drug ledgers showed he was responsible for handling hundreds of pounds of meth and thousands of dollars in drug proceeds for a Mexico-based drug trafficking organization.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Prosecutors in Nebraska say a methamphetamine trafficker who worked for a Mexican-based drug organization has been sentenced to 11 years in prison. The U.S. attorneys office in Nebraska said Monday that 35-year-old Raymundo Hernandez-Rubio will be deported to Mexico after serving his prison term. He was convicted of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Prosecutors say an inspection of his drug ledgers showed he was responsible for handling hundreds of pounds of meth and thousands of dollars in drug proceeds for a Mexico-based drug trafficking organization.

Drug trafficker sentenced to 11 years in Nebraska case

ATLANTA (AP) — A panel of U.S. advisers will meet Tuesday to vote on how scarce, initial supplies of a COVID-19 vaccine will be given out once one has been approved.

Experts have proposed giving the vaccine to health workers first. High priority also may be given to workers in essential industries, people with certain medical conditions and people age 65 and older.

Tuesday’s meeting is for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The panel of experts recommends who to vaccinate and when -- advice that the government almost always follows. The agenda for next week’s emergency meeting was posted Friday.

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have asked the Food and Drug Administration to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Moderna Inc. is also seeking emergency use of its vaccine.

FDA’s scientific advisers are holding a public meeting Dec. 10 to review Pfizer’s request, and send a recommendation to the FDA.

Manufacturers already have begun stockpiling coronavirus vaccine doses in anticipation of eventual approval, but the first shots will be in short supply and rationed.

ATLANTA (AP) — A panel of U.S. advisers will meet Tuesday to vote on how scarce, initial supplies of a COVID-19 vaccine will be given out once one has been approved.Experts have proposed giving the vaccine to health workers first. High priority also may be given to workers in essential industries, people with certain medical conditions and people age 65 and older.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/12/1606828228813.png" alt="Image courtesy HHS.gov" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy HHS.gov</figcaption>
 </figure>Tuesday’s meeting is for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The panel of experts recommends who to vaccinate and when -- advice that the government almost always follows. The agenda for next week’s emergency meeting was posted Friday.Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have asked the Food and Drug Administration to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Moderna Inc. is also seeking emergency use of its vaccine.FDA’s scientific advisers are holding a public meeting Dec. 10 to review Pfizer’s request, and send a recommendation to the FDA.Manufacturers already have begun stockpiling coronavirus vaccine doses in anticipation of eventual approval, but the first shots will be in short supply and rationed.

CDC panel to vote on COVID-19 vaccine priority

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - CSX is acquiring a regional railroad in New England to bolster its network in the northeastern United States, but a rival railroad says the deal could hurt competition.

CSX said Monday it is acquiring Pan Am Railways, but it didn't disclose terms of the deal. The transaction will expand CSX's 23-state network into Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine while adding to its reach in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

If regulators approve the deal, CSX would also acquire Pan Am's partial ownership of a 600-mile joint venture with Norfolk Southern railroad called Pan Am Southern. Earlier this month, Norfolk Southern raised concerns about this deal with the Surface Transportation Board because it said allowing CSX to buy Pan Am could undermine competition between CSX and Norfolk Southern in the eastern United States.

Edward Jones analyst Jeff Windau said he's not sure how regulators will look at Norfolk Southern's objections.

"The question will be obviously to see if it is really harming competition or if there are still ways for the industry to compete in those regions," Windau said.

If the deal is approved, Pan Am, which is based in North Billerica, Massachusetts, would become part of Jacksonville, Florida-based CSX.

"In Pan Am, CSX gains a strong regional rail network in one of the most densely populated markets in the U.S., creating new efficiencies and market opportunities for customers as we continue to grow," CSX CEO Jim Foote said.

CSX already operates more than 21,000 miles (34,000 kilometers) of track in 23 Eastern states and two Canadian provinces. Norfolk Southern's network of 19,500 miles of track covers much of the same territory as CSX in 22 Eastern states.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/11/1606783546842.png" alt="Photo:&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:BMRR">BMRR</a>&nbsp;at&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/">English Wikipedia</a>" />
 <figcaption>Photo:&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:BMRR">BMRR</a>&nbsp;at&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/">English Wikipedia</a></figcaption>
 </figure>By JOSH FUNK-AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - CSX is acquiring a regional railroad in New England to bolster its network in the northeastern United States, but a rival railroad says the deal could hurt competition.CSX said Monday it is acquiring Pan Am Railways, but it didn't disclose terms of the deal. The transaction will expand CSX's 23-state network into Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine while adding to its reach in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.If regulators approve the deal, CSX would also acquire Pan Am's partial ownership of a 600-mile joint venture with Norfolk Southern railroad called Pan Am Southern. Earlier this month, Norfolk Southern raised concerns about this deal with the Surface Transportation Board because it said allowing CSX to buy Pan Am could undermine competition between CSX and Norfolk Southern in the eastern United States.Edward Jones analyst Jeff Windau said he's not sure how regulators will look at Norfolk Southern's objections."The question will be obviously to see if it is really harming competition or if there are still ways for the industry to compete in those regions," Windau said.If the deal is approved, Pan Am, which is based in North Billerica, Massachusetts, would become part of Jacksonville, Florida-based CSX."In Pan Am, CSX gains a strong regional rail network in one of the most densely populated markets in the U.S., creating new efficiencies and market opportunities for customers as we continue to grow," CSX CEO Jim Foote said.CSX already operates more than 21,000 miles (34,000 kilometers) of track in 23 Eastern states and two Canadian provinces. Norfolk Southern's network of 19,500 miles of track covers much of the same territory as CSX in 22 Eastern states.

CSX plans to buy regional railroad in northeastern U.S.

MILFORD, Neb. (AP) — Authorities in southeastern Nebraska say a Lincoln man has died in a motorcycle crash near Milford. 

The Lincoln Journal Star reports the crash happened Wednesday night on U.S. Highway 6 just west of Milford, killing 20-year-old Luke Anderson. 

Seward County Sheriff Mike Vance says Anderson was on a motorcycle headed west on the highway when he hit a disabled car on the shoulder of the roadway. 

Anderson died at the scene. Investigators say no one was in the car at the time of the crash.

MILFORD, Neb. (AP) — Authorities in southeastern Nebraska say a Lincoln man has died in a motorcycle crash near Milford. The Lincoln Journal Star reports the crash happened Wednesday night on U.S. Highway 6 just west of Milford, killing 20-year-old Luke Anderson. Seward County Sheriff Mike Vance says Anderson was on a motorcycle headed west on the highway when he hit a disabled car on the shoulder of the roadway. Anderson died at the scene. Investigators say no one was in the car at the time of the crash.

Lincoln man killed in motorcycle crash west of Milford

WICHITA&nbsp; — Small earthquakes continue to rattle Wichita. At 9:11 a.m. Monday, a 2.4 magnitude quake shook residents, according <a href="http://maps.kgs.ku.edu/earthquake_mini_viewer/index.html?type=quake&amp;id=1001466143">to the Kansas Geological Survey.</a> This is the third quake since Thanksgiving Day.

The trembler on Thursday measured 2.7 on the Richter scale, while one on Friday had a magnitude of 2.6. 

The threshold for damage usually starts at 4.0.United States Geological Survey geophysicists Paul Caruso said 26 people “in and around Wichita” reported to the USGS feeling Friday’s earthquake. 

The earthquake on Thursday hasn’t yet been reported to the USGS. Both had epicenters in the eastern part of the Wichita.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Small earthquakes have rattled Wichita for two straight days. 

A trembler on Thursday measured 2.7 on the Richter scale, while one on Friday had a magnitude of 2.6. The threshold for damage usually starts at 4.0.United States Geological Survey geophysicists Paul Caruso said 26 people “in and around Wichita” reported to the USGS feeling Friday’s earthquake. 

The earthquake on Thursday hasn’t yet been reported to the USGS. Both had epicenters in the eastern part of the city.

“People generally if they felt it would be close to the epicenter and they would experience a little bit of vibration. Maybe they would see their chandelier swinging back and forth. We certainly wouldn’t expect any damage to be caused by anything that small.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/11/1606586334604.png" alt="Location of Friday's quake -Image courtesy Kansas Geological Survey" />
 <figcaption>Location of Friday's quake -Image courtesy Kansas Geological Survey</figcaption>
 </figure>WICHITA&nbsp; — Small earthquakes continue to rattle Wichita. At 9:11 a.m. Monday, a 2.4 magnitude quake shook residents, according <a href="http://maps.kgs.ku.edu/earthquake_mini_viewer/index.html?type=quake&amp;id=1001466143">to the Kansas Geological Survey.</a> This is the third quake since Thanksgiving Day.The trembler on Thursday measured 2.7 on the Richter scale, while one on Friday had a magnitude of 2.6. The threshold for damage usually starts at 4.0.United States Geological Survey geophysicists Paul Caruso said 26 people “in and around Wichita” reported to the USGS feeling Friday’s earthquake. The earthquake on Thursday hasn’t yet been reported to the USGS. Both had epicenters in the eastern part of the Wichita.-------------WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Small earthquakes have rattled Wichita for two straight days. A trembler on Thursday measured 2.7 on the Richter scale, while one on Friday had a magnitude of 2.6. The threshold for damage usually starts at 4.0.United States Geological Survey geophysicists Paul Caruso said 26 people “in and around Wichita” reported to the USGS feeling Friday’s earthquake. The earthquake on Thursday hasn’t yet been reported to the USGS. Both had epicenters in the eastern part of the city.“People generally if they felt it would be close to the epicenter and they would experience a little bit of vibration. Maybe they would see their chandelier swinging back and forth. We certainly wouldn’t expect any damage to be caused by anything that small.”