January 1, Dorian’s Not Done Yet, Relief Effort for the Bahamas Begins

Florida can finally breath a sigh of relief as Hurricane Dorian finally starts making its way north. 

But the storm is by no means over. North Carolina’s Outer Banks could still get raked, as well as Cape Cod and the New England coast.   The relief effort is very much underway in the Bahamas.  One report from CNBC has satellite images that shows nearly 60% of Grand Bahama Island was submerged during Dorian. 

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart is stepping back from gun sales after Americas latest mass shooting in Odessa Texas. The NRA calls the move shameful. Also today, read about the tens of thousands of kids in states like New York and Wisconsin who are heading back to school without their vaccines. It’s creating a showdown between public health officials and parents while the U.S. faces its worst measles outbreak in 27 years.  Finally you might remember a while back a reporter for Playboy got into a shouting match with former White House advisor Seb Gorka. The White House pulled the Playboy report’s “hard pass” due to his behavior, but a judge has just ordered the Trump administration to restore it. Is that a win for free speech? Hard to say in 2018. 

NRA Slams Wal-Mart for Backing Off Gun Sales 

(The Hill) – “It is shameful to see Walmart succumb to the pressure of the anti-gun elites,” the NRA said in a statement. “Lines at Walmart will soon be replaced by lines at other retailers who are more supportive of America’s fundamental freedoms.”

Read more from the Hill here

U.S. Copes with Worst Measles Outbreak in 27 Years

(New York Times) – With the start of school this week, Jacquelynn Ms. Vance-Pauls, a real estate lawyer in upstate New York,  along with the parents of about 26,000 other New York children who previously had obtained religious exemptions to vaccinations, are facing a moment of reckoning.

Under the new law, all children must begin getting their vaccines within the first two weeks of classes and complete them by the end of the school year. Otherwise, their parents must home school them or move out of the state.

(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) – When Wisconsin children return to school this week, close to 50,000 of them will have waivers that exempt them from vaccines, leaving them vulnerable to measles at a time when the nation has experienced its largest outbreak in 27 years.

Health officials across the U.S. have reported 1,215 cases of measles this year as of Aug. 22, the highest number since 1992, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Measles had been declared eliminated in 2000.

Read more from the New York Times and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Judge Orders White House to Restore Playboy Reporter’s Hard Pass

(Deadline) – U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras granted reporter Biran Karem’s motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. He found that White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham’s rationale for revoking the pass was too vague.

“White House events appear to vary greatly in character,” Contreras wrote in his opinion. “Thus, without any contextual guideposts, ‘professionalism,’ standing alone, remains too murky to provide fair notice here.”

Find out more from Deadline here