Citizen Cartwright

Florida primary results: It’s Rubio vs. Murphy

Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Patrick Murphy easily won their primaries Tuesday, setting up a battle that promises to play a critical role in determining which political party controls the U.S. Senate for the next two years.

Rubio, who said four months ago that he didn’t want his Senate job anymore, won 72 percent of the vote in the Republican primary against brash, self-funding millionaire homebuilder Carlos Beruff and two lesser-known candidates.

Murphy won 59 percent of the vote in a Democratic primary that included liberal firebrand Rep. Alan Grayson.

Rubio on Monday declined on CNN to commit to serving a full six-year term in the Senate if he wins reelection.

“No one can make that commitment because you don’t know what the future’s gonna hold in your life personally or politically,” Rubio said.

Politico interprets Rubio’s comment as opening the door for another presidential run.

McCain wins in Tuesday's Arizona Senate primary

The senator, who is seeking a sixth term, had been targeted for defeat by conservatives who consider him too liberal on issues like immigration reform and gun control.

McCain opponent Kelli Ward got the most national media attention of her race last week when she made a last-minute attack on McCain’s age — he turned 80 on Monday — and health.

McCain will face Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick in the November election.

George Soros’ ‘quiet overhaul’ of the justice system

As America’s political kingmakers inject their millions into high-profile presidential and congressional contests, Democratic megadonor Soros has directed his wealth into an under-the-radar 2016 campaign to advance one of the progressive movement’s core goals — reshaping the American justice system, Politico reports.

The billionaire financier has channeled more than $3 million into seven local district-attorney campaigns in six states over the past year.

He’s supported African-American and Hispanic candidates with goals such as reducing racial disparities in sentencing and directing some drug offenders to diversion programs instead of to trial.

Soros’ effort is “by far the most tangible action in a progressive push to find, prepare and finance criminal justice reform-oriented candidates for jobs that have been held by longtime incumbents and serve as pipelines to the federal courts — and it has inspired fury among opponents angry about the outside influence in local elections,” Politico says.

Also in the news

Senior Islamic State strategist and spokesman Adnani reportedly killed in Syria

More global bank cyberthefts disclosed in wake of Bangladesh Bank heist

How Europe is going after Apple and other U.S. tech giants on taxes, antitrust

Obama commutes the prison sentences of 111 federal inmates

Trump to meet in Mexico with the country’s president, hours before delivering immigration speech

More than 50 House Republicans call for special prosecutor on Clinton Foundation donor access

Politico: Why we’re right to speculate about the health of Trump, Clinton

Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz wins primary against Sanders-backed challenger

Florida Rep. Corrine Brown loses primary after indictment

New Jersey Gov. Christie vetoes minimum wage hike to $15 an hour

ProPublica: California, EPA poised to expand pollution of potential drinking water reserves

Federal funding to fight Zika virus is nearly exhausted, CDC says

Sen. Elizabeth Warren leads 19 other senators in letter grilling EpiPen maker

Potential meddling by the Russians in the November election

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid wrote to the head of the FBI on Monday saying the threat of Russian interference in the election “is more extensive than is widely known and may include the intent to falsify official election results” — and he wants the FBI to investigate.

Recent classified briefings from senior intelligence officials have left him fearful that Russian President Putin’s “goal is tampering with this election,” Reid, D-Nev., said in an interview with The New York Times.

News reports on Monday said the FBI warned state election officials several weeks ago that foreign hackers had exported voter registration data from computer systems in at least one state and had pierced the systems of a second state. Yahoo News identified the states as Illinois and Arizona.

Until now, countries such as Russia and China have shown little interest in U.S. voting systems, says The Washington Post. But experts say that if a foreign government gained the ability to tamper with voter data — for instance by deleting registration records — such a hack could cast doubt on the legitimacy of U.S. elections.

U.S. trying to get its allies to focus on Syria, not each other

Washington was scrambling on Monday to get Turkey and the Kurdish YPG militia to focus their firepower on the Islamic State instead of each other, after clashes that have threatened to unravel America’s strategy in Syria, says Reuters.

Turkey, which long has viewed the Kurdish militants as its top security threat, upended U.S. assumptions about the conflict by launching a major push last week into northern Syria that’s included areas controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which includes experienced Kurdish YPG fighters.

The United States already is “walking on eggshells” after accusations from Turkey that Washington was too slow to condemn last month’s failed coup there, Reuters says.

The problems facing people who rely on Obamacare

Five states are expected to have just one company selling insurance on the 2017 Obamacare exchanges, and consumers in most counties in nine other states won’t find any competition for their exchange business either, says USA Today.

And a much bigger price increase for the Obamacare plans is expected next year than in the past, says The New York Times, which discusses some possible solutions to the challenges.

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Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff defends her record at impeachment trial

The 10,000th Syrian refugee is to arrive in the U.S. this week

Six senators urge Obama to prioritize cybercrime at this weekend’s G20 summit in China

House Freedom Caucus members consider leaving the Republican Study Committee

Visitor misbehavior abounds as National Park Service turns 100

Clinton piles up research in bid to needle Trump at first debate

When 100 GOP leaders reached their breaking point, said they won’t vote for Trump

Once an al Qaeda recruiter, now a George Washington University researcher of jihad

The surgeon general’s letter to doctors on fighting the opioid epidemic

Mylan to offer generic EpiPen, but even it will cost $300 for a pack of 2

Welcome to college, where triggers may or may not refer to guns

In Texas, they’re talking about triggers in college classrooms, as a new state law allows concealed handguns on college campuses.

Many professors and students are worried that guns in classrooms will scare people and discourage free expression — the bedrock of academia.

Meanwhile, the University of Chicago’s letter to incoming freshmen is getting a lot of attention for coming out against “trigger warnings” — messages sometimes posted at the top of campus publications, assignments and other material, saying they might be upsetting for people who’ve had traumatic experiences.

“Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called trigger warnings, we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own,” the letter says.

In case you haven’t been keeping up with the trigger warning/safe space debate, here is a guide, from CNN.

As far as what’s actually being taught in college, it’s not political history

What once was a central part of the historical profession, a vital part of this country’s continuing democratic discussion, is disappearing, say two history professors in a New York Times opinion article.

According to the American Historical Association’s listing of academic departments, three-quarters of colleges and universities now lack full-time researchers and teachers on political history.

What’s needed, the article’s authors say, “is for university administrators to identify political history as a priority, for students and families to lobby their schools, for benefactors to endow professorships and graduate fellowships and for lawmakers and school boards to enact policies that bolster its teaching — and without politicizing the enterprise.”

“Judging by the state of our political discourse during this dismal campaign season, the change can’t come soon enough,” they say.