U.S. and world news for August 5

Hurricane Debby: Hurricane Debby has made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 1 storm with sustained winds of 75 miles per hour. The storm is slow moving and was expected to move across the northern part of Florida and then head north along the eastern coastline. The storm was expected to drop record-setting heavy rain along the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina. More than 200,000 electric customers in Florida were without power this morning.  

New polls: A poll by Boston television station WCVB and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst shows that Vice President Harris has a three point lead over Donald Trump. That’s a change from the four point lead Trump had over Joe Biden in its poll that was conducted in January. A CBS News/YouGov poll released yesterday shows Harris leading Trump by one point. Republican strategist Karl Rove on Fox News predicted that Harris will solidify her lead unless her vice presidential pick turns out to be what Rove called “disastrous.”

Trump trial: In a ruling issued on Saturday, Federal Judge Tanya Chutkin refused to throw out the criminal case against Donald Trump in connection with the Jan. 6 attempt to overthrow the government. Chutkin ruled that she will go ahead with hearings this week and next week to determine which charges against Trump can continue to be pursued because they don’t fall within the boundaries of crimes for which the Supreme Court ruled presidents cannot be prosecuted. Trump is expected to appeal whatever Chutkin decides, making it impossible for his trial to start before the election.

Atlanta rally: Donald Trump accused Georgia State University of keeping people out of his rally on Saturday at the college’s Convocation Center in Atlanta. The arena holds 10,000 people and photos taken at various points during the Trump rally showed numerous empty seats. Blocks of empty seats were not visible when Vice President Harris held a rally at the same arena four days before Trump’s. During his rally, Trump launched into a 10-minute tirade against Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, blaming Kemp for Trump losing Georgia in the 2020 election.  

PAC: Michigan’s Secretary of State’s Office says it is investigating a political action committee, America PAC, that it says was formed and funded by billionaire Elon Musk. The Secretary of State’s office says it wants to determine whether the PAC has violated state laws. The PAC’s website offers to help people register to vote in Michigan and collects their data. Michigan’s Secretary of State’s office says if it finds that laws have been broken it will refer the matter to the state’s attorney general for possible prosecution.

Dead bear: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has admitted to dumping a dead bear cub in New York’s Central Park about 10 years ago. Kennedy says that he found the dead bear cub in upstate New York and put into his van with the idea of taking it home and butchering it and eating it. However, he then met some people for dinner at a restaurant and changed his mind about keeping the bear, so after dinner he drove to Central Park and dumped the dead bear cub.