Morning Headlines - Tuesday, Jul. 19, 2022 | Recent News

U.S. and World Headlines

Ukraine War: Putin To Visit Iran In Rare International Trip

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Iran on Tuesday in just his second foreign trip since he launched the invasion of Ukraine in February.

Mr Putin will meet Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Grain exports, Syria and Ukraine will be discussed in Tehran, a Turkish official said.

Republicans Warm To $52B Computer Chip Bill, Adding Momentum

Key Republicans are warming up to passing a bill that provides roughly $52 billion in incentives for the semiconductor industry now that Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has quashed the idea of imposing higher taxes on the rich and corporations as part of a separate Democratic-only effort.

Three weeks ago, the computer chips bill looked like it could be in trouble despite having bipartisan support. That's when Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said there would be no such bill as long as Democrats pursued what he called a “partisan reconciliation bill." But Manchin's decision to dramatically narrow the Democratic effort and axe the tax hikes appears to have opened the window for Republican cooperation on semiconductors.

A Fundamental Challenge Of Teaching Got Even Harder During The Pandemic

The pandemic’s impact on children has been so uneven that many U.S. classrooms now have a wider range of student abilities, with more students lagging far below grade level, new testing data shows. That’s made teachers’ jobs more difficult and put the prospect of academic recovery even further out of reach for many students.

While classrooms have always had a mix of students, with some above grade level and some below, research from NWEA — a testing organization that analyzed math and reading tests given to 8.3 million students in grades three to eight in the last three years — shows that the pandemic has exacerbated those differences.

A Deadly Virus Was Just Identified In Ghana: What To Know About Marburg

After the coronavirus pandemic and the rise of monkeypox cases, news of another virus can trigger nerves globally. The highly infectious Marburg virus has been reported in the West African country of Ghana this week, according to the World Health Organization.

Two unrelated people died after testing positive for Marburg in the southern Ashanti region of the country, the WHO said Sunday, confirming lab results from Ghana's health service. The highly infectious disease is similar to Ebola and has no vaccine.

Profile Of A GOP Voter: Meddling Dems Target Hunters, Country Music Lovers

Democrats boosting a hard-right Republican gubernatorial candidate in Maryland are targeting a particular brand of voter: she loves hunting and country music, has no interest in yoga or public libraries and lives in one of America's wealthiest ZIP codes.

Those are just a few of the targeting criteria for a Democratic Governors Association ad campaign touting Republican Dan Cox's conservative bona fides ahead of Tuesday's Maryland GOP primary, according to Meta ad targeting data.

GOP Attorney General Candidates Clash Over Open Records Request

A five-month-old open records request has become a point of contention in Wisconsin’s Republican attorney general primary.

Attorney and former state Rep. Adam Jarchow says the response (or lack thereof) shows that Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney can’t be trusted to serve as an expert on open government. Toney says his office — like other district attorneys’ — is doing its best to balance records requests with prosecutorial duties, all with limited resources.

The request — submitted by Erin Fern to Toney’s office Feb. 16 — seeks the following records:

Democrat Kaul Takes In Nearly $860,000 Over 6 Months

Democratic Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul raised nearly $860,000 over the first half of the year for his reelection bid this fall.

Kaul's fundraising was nearly double that of one of his Republican rivals. Former state Rep. Adam Jarchow said he raised more than $445,000 over the first six months of the year.

Jarchow raised more than four times as much as his main Republican rival, Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney, who reported raising $102,000.

GOP Candidate Michels Reworks Flyer To Erase NRA Endorsement

Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial hopeful Tim Michels’ campaign is reworking a flyer that falsely claims he won the National Rifle Association’s endorsement, saying the declaration was a mistake.

Michels has already secured former President Donald Trump's endorsement and a nod from the NRA would have marked another significant win for him heading into the Aug. 9 election.

Michels' campaign sent out a flyer that landed in mailboxes Saturday that claimed the gun advocacy group had endorsed him. Scott Meyer, a Wisconsin lobbyist who has done work for the NRA, said the group hasn't endorsed anyone in the GOP primary and doesn't plan to do so.

Bernie Sanders Endorses Mandela Barnes For US Senate

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont, endorsed Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes Monday in Wisconsin's U.S. Senate primary race. Sanders joins a growing list of endorsements from progressive members of Congress in Barnes' bid to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson this fall.

In a Monday morning tweet, Sanders said Barnes' upbringing as the son of a public school teacher and union autoworker in Milwaukee means the lieutenant governor "knows the struggles of the working class."

"His agenda advances the interests of working families, not the billionaire class," said Sanders.

Wisconsin Dentist Sent To Prison For Harming Patients Teeth To Get Insurance Money

A Wisconsin dentist who intentionally broke patients’ teeth to fix them and get insurance money has been sentenced.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that 62-year-old Scott Charmoli of Grafton would tell patients they needed crowns put in on their teeth when they didn’t need them. He’d then fake x-rays and harm teeth beforehand to make sure insurance companies would pay out on the procedures.