1. THE MOUNTING MORASS: A wave of corruption scandals is crashing down on NYC Mayor ERIC ADAMS’ administration as federal probes focus their attention on his inner circle. The big picture: “Adams is now entering an already fraught 2025 re-election bid under the cloud of at least four separate federal investigations — a political and legal onslaught that New York Democrats broadly expect to ramp up in the coming weeks and months,” CNN’s Gregory Krieg, Mark Morales and Gloria Pazmino write. The latest shoe to drop: “Two high-ranking New York Fire Department chiefs were arrested early Monday on federal bribery and corruption charges that accuse them of taking nearly $100,000 apiece in a scheme to expedite safety inspections,” NYT’s William Rashbaum and Michael Rothfeld report. “There is no indication that the case is related to any of the four separate federal corruption investigations swirling around Mayor Eric Adams, his campaign and some of his most senior aides. The inquiry focused on the mayor is being conducted by the same agencies that investigated the chiefs.” Related read: “Pressure Grows on Mayor Adams as Key Officials Leave Amid Investigations,” by NYT’s Emma Fitzsimmons 2. ABORTION FALLOUT: ProPublica’s Kavitha Surana reports on the story of a 28-year-old woman in Georgia who died because she could not receive an abortion in a timely manner due to state law — one of two such cases that the harrowing report found. “In her final hours, AMBER NICOLE THURMAN suffered from a grave infection that her suburban Atlanta hospital was well-equipped to treat. She’d taken abortion pills and encountered a rare complication; she had not expelled all of the fetal tissue from her body. She showed up at Piedmont Henry Hospital in need of a routine procedure to clear it from her uterus, called a dilation and curettage, or D&C. “But just that summer, her state had made performing the procedure a felony, with few exceptions. Any doctor who violated the new Georgia law could be prosecuted and face up to a decade in prison. Thurman waited in pain in a hospital bed, worried about what would happen to her 6-year-old son, as doctors monitored her infection spreading, her blood pressure sinking and her organs beginning to fail. It took 20 hours for doctors to finally operate. By then, it was too late.” 3. WHAT THEY DO IN THE SHADOWS: AP’s Ryan Foley and Brian Slodysko take a peek under the hood of the Patriots Run Project, a shadowy group that over the past year has “recruited Trump supporters to run as independent candidates in key swing districts where they could siphon votes from Republicans in races that will help determine which party controls the House next year.” The recruits, who all described themselves as “retired, disabled — or both,” include two in Iowa, and one each in Nebraska, Montana, Virginia and Minnesota. “The group’s operation provides few clues about its management, financing or motivation. But interviews, text messages, emails, business filings and other documents reviewed by the AP show that a significant sum has been spent — and some of it traces back to Democratic consulting firms.” 4. WHAT THE FRACK: While a lot of policy focus surrounding Pennsylvania centers on fracking, the campaigns are missing out on an issue that has taken over as the primary concern for energy businesses and farmers in the Keystone State: low natural gas prices. “The state’s hilly southwest, where gas extends beneath homes and river valleys, is so awash in the fuel that prices have cratered, drilling has slowed and thousands of jobs have disappeared,” NYT’s Rebecca Elliott reports. “While Pennsylvania and energy policy are contested battlegrounds between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump, the bleak reality of the gas business in the state has been obscured by sparring over horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking” 5. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: AMOS HOCHSTEIN, one of Biden’s chief advisers is traveling to Israel today, where he is expected to meet with Israeli PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU and Defense Minister YOAV GALLANT “amid deepening concern that months of cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese militia, could escalate into a larger regional war,” NYT’s Liam Stack reports from Tel Aviv. “Statements by Israeli officials in recent days suggest that the window for negotiating a political settlement to the spiraling conflict in the north might be closing. Mr. Gallant said on Monday that he had informed U.S. Defense Secretary LLOYD J. AUSTIN III in an overnight phone call that time was ‘running out’ for a diplomatic solution.” 6. THE STAINED-GLASS CEILING: In Kenyon, Minnesota, AP’s Giovanna Dell'Orto takes a look at Midwestern Lutheranism, which has been a point of interest since Minnesota Gov. TIM WALZ joined the Harris ticket. If their ticket wins in November, Walz would be the first Lutheran elected vice president. Minnesotans describe Lutherans there as a “welcoming, open-minded community,” including by those who belong to the faith. “But the ways Midwest Lutherans live that faith in the public sphere — on social and political hot-button issues from immigrant integration to LGBTQ+ rights — can be as different as a marshmallow-topped hotdish from a prickly pear cactus salad.”
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