This may finally flush away that “Amber Turd” nickname. The British judge who ruled that Johnny Depp repeatedly beat ex-wife Amber Heard also closely analyzed shocking claims that she defecated in their marital bed — ruling that the offending turd likely came from one of her pet pooches. High Court Judge Andrew Nicol spent almost 600 words of Monday’s judgment analyzing the headline-grabbing incident that led to Depp giving his now-ex-wife the gross nickname — and finally dumping her.

A judge ordered the U.S. Postal Service to sweep some mail processing facilities on Tuesday afternoon for delayed ballots and immediately dispatch them for delivery in election battlegrounds such Pennsylvania and Florida among other places. Affected by the order are central Pennsylvania, northern New England, greater South Carolina, south Florida, Colorado, Arizona, Alabama and Wyoming as well as the cities of Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Lakeland, Florida.

Pro-Trump pundit Jesse Kelly suggested in a tweet that Republicans might “need” alleged Kenosha killer Kyle Rittenhouse on Election Day. On Monday afternoon, Kelly shared a New York Post article about Rittenhouse being held on a $2 million bond, asking, “But what if we need him tomorrow?

Four years ago, Trump won a landslide in Appalachia, including a crowning victory in the Democratic strongholds of West Virginia. The region has the highest concentration of white poverty in the nation, and so Trump's success helped launch theories of his 'white working class' base, invited a great deal of introspection and debate on the left, and gave Appalachia a cultural day in the sun unseen since the Johnson era. Now in 2020, years after Vance, Hochschild, and 'the Red State Revolt', Tarence Ray provides a new view from the heart of so-called "Trump Country." 

As concerns over political turmoil grew, the Secret Service gave a $1 million fortification contract to a familiar firm.

Sales surged in the spring amid coronavirus fears and climbed higher during protests for racial justice

Chowdry denied the allegations. "We are taking care of them as our guests," he said. "They are given proper food and access to all facilities." When Chowdry was asked about the whereabouts of the 306 Rohingya already on the island, he said none was available to meet the gathered journalists.

Multiple caravans of Trump-supporting motorists cruised through the streets and highways of New York on Sunday, threatening counter-protesters and blocking traffic on major bridges, just two days ahead of the November 3rd election. The coalition, which included the group "Jews for Trump" and several Long Island-based organizations, convened at various checkpoints throughout Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island, as part of the nationwide #MAGADrag event. The NYC convoy was accompanied by an NYPD escort, which did not intervene as participants halted traffic on the Whitestone Bridge to wave pro-Trump and pro-police flags in the roadway. The group continued upstate, later taking over the Mario Cuomo Bridge, according to video posted by Freedom News TV. A separate Trump motorcade blocked the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey, reportedly shutting down express lanes for miles.

A Kenosha County court commissioner set bail at $2 million for Kyle Rittenhouse at his first Wisconsin court appearance Monday, after being extradited from Lake County, Illinois, on Friday afternoon. Rittenhouse, 17, faces homicide charges from the Aug. 25 shootings during the civil unrest that followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake, who was left paralyzed, two days earlier. Rittenhouse is charged with killing Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, of Kenosha and Anthony Huber, 26, of Silver Lake and wounding Gaige Grosskreutz, 22, of West Allis. His attorneys say he acted in self-defense. During a Zoom hearing, Court Commissioner Loren Keating said he considered Rittenhouse a flight risk, given the fact he faces decades or life in prison if convicted, and might have the help of thousands of supporters nationwide if he decides not to return to court.

A wave of suspicious robocalls and texts bombarded voters as they began to cast their ballots on Tuesday, sparking fresh concerns about the extent to which malicious actors might harness Americans’ smartphones to scare people from the polls. Across the country, voters have received an estimated 10 million automated, spam calls in recent days telling them to “stay safe and stay home,” according to experts who track the telecom industry. In Michigan, meanwhile, government officials on Tuesday sounded early alarms about additional attempts to deceive the state’s voters, including one robocall campaign targeting the city of Flint that told people to vote tomorrow if they hoped to avoid long lines today.

The U.S. Postal Service experienced some of its worst delays all year in the final week before the election, according to a Times project tracking first-class. An avalanche of late-arriving political pamphlets and advertisements appears to have added to backlogs for the Postal Service, after months of slowdowns. The Postal Service reported that its workers have prioritized election mail, and that most ballots that are easily tracked have been processed on time. But there are also signs in the official data that even some ballot processing has slowed as Election Day approached. The week beginning Oct. 26 was the slowest week recorded for local mail, which the Postal Service aims to deliver within two days. But a delay of even one day for ballots in the final stretch of the presidential election could make the difference between a vote that is counted and one that is not, especially as legal fights continue in crucial states over whether to count ballots that are postmarked before Election Day but arriving after it.

South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg was "distracted" before he drove onto a highway shoulder where he struck and killed a pedestrian in September, state Secretary of Safety Craig Price said Monday. Price said 55-year-old Joseph Boever was walking on the side of the road and displaying some type of light on the night of Sept. 12 when he was struck by Ravnsborg's 2011 Ford Taurus. Price did not describe what led Ravnsborg to become distracted. The final line in the "narrative" section of the state's report reads: "The specific distraction is still under investigation."  

A video showing the arrest of a Clearwater man during a political rally in Palm Harbor has raised concerns over a deputy’s use of force.  The video shows deputies punching a Joe Biden supporter in the head and elbowing him in the back multiple times as he’s being held to the ground.

Just a few scattered reports of alleged voter intimidation had been fielded by midday Tuesday, but the potential for disruption and violence at polling sites has perhaps never been greater as voters cast their ballots for president amid a global pandemic and threats of civil unrest. President Donald Trump, who has falsely claimed voter fraud is widespread, has called for an army of poll watchers to ensure the election is fair. Right-wing extremist groups have signaled they plan to heed the call. Left-wing groups have vowed to confront people they believe are engaged in voter suppression. Extremist groups have planned actions in key states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, which has been tracking extremists on social media. Those states, along with Georgia and Oregon, face the highest risk of election-related activity by armed vigilante groups, according to a report by MilitiaWatch and the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

A federal lawsuit is accusing police in North Carolina of voter intimidation after they deployed pepper spray during a get-out-the vote rally and hauled several participants to jail in a chaotic display of pre-Election Day discord. The complaint, filed late Monday against the police chief of Graham, a rural community west of Durham, and the Alamance County sheriff, says that protesters were not expecting conflict at Saturday's "I Am Change" march, but that the situation escalated "when deputies and officers planned and orchestrated the violent dispersal" of a peaceful crowd. The demonstration, attended by about 250 people, coincided with the last day North Carolina residents were allowed to sign up for same-day voter registration and vote early in person. Videos on social media showed the tense scene unfold as participants, some in Black Lives Matter shirts, clashed with deputies, seen spraying the crowd outside the county courthouse.

President Donald Trump on Monday created a “1776 Commission” to promote "patriotic education” and counter lessons that he says divide Americans on race and slavery and teach students to “hate their own country." On the eve of Election Day, Trump directed the commission’s creation, via executive order, to “better enable a rising generation to understand the history and principles of the founding of the United States in 1776 and to strive to form a more perfect Union.”

Kentucky State Police Commissioner Rodney Brewer is resigning from his position in the agency this week. Brewer, who was assigned to the post in January by Gov. Andy Beshear, will step down effective by the end of the day Wednesday, KSP spokesman Lt. Josh Lawson confirmed Monday evening.  Lt. Col. Phillip Burnett will serve as interim commissioner until the agency finds a permanent replacement, Lawson said.  Lawson said he did not have information regarding the reason for Brewer's resignation. The move comes three days after journalism students at Louisville's Manual High School revealed in a bombshell report that KSP had at one time used a training slideshow that quoted Adolph Hitler multiple times and advocated for troopers to use "ruthless violence."

Birds are good. In our internal work chat we were talking about some birds that we like. Then somebody had the good idea that for this day we should make a list of birds that we like! Below are some birds that we like. What are some birds that you like?

‘We shut it down, baby! We shut it down!’ man shouts in video of vehicle blockade

Two chimpanzees who escaped from their enclosure at Amersfoort’s DierenPark zoo have been shot dead, zoo officials have confirmed. My dick is out for these noble monkes. R. I. P.