Foes gear up to counter Trump’s possible election moves

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was nonchalant last week when asked about a contested administration rule that would use the U.S. Postal Service to weed out allegedly illegal midterm election ballots. His foes say that’s all part of a broader plan, even as they offered few surefire ways to stop it.

Trump was asked last Thursday specifically about the fate of the rule, which was since frozen by a federal judge, since North Carolina planned to send ballots out in eight days. Trump began his answer with: “North Carolina is great. It’s a great place. I won it all three times.”

He then said of the proposed Postal Service rule and mail-in ballots: “We want to make them legitimate.” But, a day after the Supreme Court appeared to give the rule a new life, Trump appeared to signal a partisan intent, telling reporters in the Oval Office: “And it was a great ruling for the Republican Party.”

A federal judge in Massachusetts a day later again blocked the rule as the administration prepares a high-stakes appeal. As that legal battle plays out, some congressional Democrats and outside groups are gearing up to counter a broader White House program to overhaul how elections are administered.

—CQ-Roll Call

More than half of Texas data centers broke law by not responding to water use inquiry

AUSTIN — Scores of data center companies could face criminal investigations after most of the state's known data centers failed to respond to state-mandated inquiries into their water usage.

Information requests from state power and water regulators received responses from fewer than half of the data centers identified by the two state agencies.

The dearth of information underlined a lack of transparency from data center developers that has fed growing public mistrust. Data centers' rapid emergence in Texas has become a potent issue in this year's election cycle, especially in rural communities that tend to be Republican strongholds.

"There's not a bigger issue going on right now in Texas," Rick Thompson, program director for the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas, said at a Texas Senate committee hearing Tuesday, adding that much of the information fueling discussions on the local level "is misleading, and in many cases not true."

—The Dallas Morning News

Maggots, rat feces and a body in a bathroom: Records detail decrepit conditions at Chicago funeral home

CHICAGO — On Aug. 3, state investigators inspecting the notorious South Chicago Chapel were confronted with an overwhelming smell and a nightmarish scene.

In a ramshackle building, the temperature in one storage area rose to 88 degrees, as dozens of bodies decomposed, rats scurried around the area, and maggots covered some of the remains.

Public records obtained by the Chicago Tribune, as well as a newly filed city lawsuit, describe how bad conditions had gotten at the South Side funeral home before state and local officials intervened in the wake of the discovery of 56 decomposing bodies at the facility at 2939 E. 95th St. A Tribune investigation earlier this month showed how state agencies missed warning signs, leaving horrified family members to contemplate how their loved ones were treated with such little care.

The owners, Clark and Johanna Morgan, could not be reached for comment. In a housing complaint filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court, the city’s Department of Buildings charged a host of code violations against the funeral home, listing five pages of alleged dangerous, hazardous and unsanitary conditions that officials say overran the facility.

—Chicago Tribune

Carney says trade talks can resume if US stops ‘throwing shade’

OTTAWA, Canada — Prime Minister Mark Carney said he still believes there’s a “mutually beneficial” trade deal to be done with the U.S., but discussions can’t resume while Trump administration officials are publicly insulting Canada.

Carney, speaking Tuesday morning to reporters in Ottawa, was asked about President Donald Trump’s move to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America, along with other comments from U.S. officials denigrating Canada’s military and economy.

“There’s a positive opportunity that has always existed with the United States for a mutually beneficial trade deal that respects Canadian sovereignty,” the prime minister said. “When the Americans stop doing memes, stop throwing shade, stop trying to be tough and start being serious about having those discussions, we can have those discussions.”

Asked specifically about remarks from members of Trump’s Cabinet insulting Canada’s armed forces, Carney called those comments “beneath their office.” On Monday night, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made a post mocking two women in a Canadian youth cadet program.

—Bloomberg News