CNN said Thursday that it will not run two Donald Trump campaign ads because they disparage the network’s journalists and make “demonstrably false” claims while discussing impeachment and pushing unsubstantiated allegations of corruption against former vice president Joe Biden.
The network’s decisions come as the Trump administration escalates its attacks on congressional Democrats’ impeachment efforts and continues to lash out at media organizations it tries to discredit as “fake news.” CNN’s move brought renewed ire from Trump’s reelection campaign, as communications director Tim Murtaugh called the news network a “Democrat public relations firm” that “spends all day protecting Joe Biden.”

Merlin Entertainments, the parent company of Legoland, announced Wednesday that the long-awaited Town of Goshen park near Route 17′s Exit 125 will open on July 4, 2020.
It will be the largest Legoland theme park Merlin Entertainments has ever built, with more than 50 rides, shows and attractions across seven themed “lands” on 150 acres of the total 500 acres it owns.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry is expected to announce his resignation next month, Politico reported Thursday night.
The report of Perry’s expected resignation comes days after the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee sent questions to Perry related to his travel to Ukraine amid scrutiny of the Trump administration’s dealings with the country.
The Energy secretary traveled to Ukraine in May for the inauguration of the country’s new president, Volodymyr Zelesnky, whose contacts with President Trump are now at the center of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.
Sources close to Perry claimed to Politico that his resignation would be unrelated to scrutiny over Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders came to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s defense on Thursday night after President Trump called the New York Democrat a “wack job” on Twitter.
“It’s going to be a real pleasure defeating you,” Sanders tweeted in response to Trump’s post.
Trump made his comment after a woman attending an Ocasio-Cortez town hall said that the lawmaker’s support of the Green New Deal was not enough and that she should campaign on “eating babies.”
Read more at The Hill.
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The White House reportedly plans to send Speaker Nancy Pelosi a letter as early as Friday saying President Trump doesn’t need to comply with Democratic lawmakers until the full House chamber formally approves an impeachment inquiry against him, Axios reported.
By sending Pelosi the letter, Trump and the White House are aiming to force House Democrats in toss-up districts to take a formal stance on impeachment, Axios noted, adding that Republican sources say that even as the chamber’s minority party, GOP lawmakers can have a greater say in impeachment hearings and other parts of an inquiry once the full chamber formally approves it.

President Trump on Thursday night defended his push for foreign governments to investigate allegations of corruption, asserting he has an “absolute right” to call for such help from a foreign power amid blowback over his push for probes into former Vice President Joe Biden.
“As the President of the United States, I have an absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate, or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to help us out!” Trump tweeted.
Trump maintained in a subsequent tweet that his push “isn’t about a Campaign,” despite political backlash for seeking probes related to Biden, a top political rival who is leading polls for his party’s nomination to take on Trump in 2020.

It looks as though the ill-named Forever 21 will be shuttering some stores, as it charts its way through murky financial waters.
The Los Angeles-based retailer announced it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a letter to customers Sunday. The letter made it clear that the clothier was not going out of business, but filed for bankruptcy protection as a “deliberate and decisive step to put us on a successful track for the future.”
“We are confident this is the right path for the long-term health of our business,” Forever 21 said in the letter to customers. “Once we complete a reorganization, Forever 21 will be a stronger, more viable company that is better positioned to prosper for years to come.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed President Trump on Thursday night after he called her a “Wack Job” on Twitter.
“Better than being a criminal who betrays our country,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in response, apparently referencing Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.
Ocasio-Cortez later tweeted that she believed the woman at the event may have had a mental condition, and ripped critics online who were widely sharing a clip of the woman’s comments in an effort to mock the Democratic lawmaker.
“This person may have been suffering from a mental condition and it’s not okay that the right-wing is mocking her and potentially make her condition or crisis worse. Be a decent human being and knock it off,” she wrote.

Anti-Semitic fliers circulated around Whitefish, Mont., on Monday, the first day of Rosh Hashanah, as part of a continuing trend that has been happening there for years.
The literature included code words like the number “88,” which stands for “Heil Hitler,” as “h” is the eighth alphabetical letter; and “14 Words,” referring to a 14-word statement promoting white supremacy that was coined by white nationalist David Lane, who is named on the flier, according to the Montana Human Rights Network.

Ride-sharing company Uber is set to expand its collaboration — first announced in February — with Israel-based public transit app developer Moovit App Global, the latter said Wednesday. The original partnership saw Uber leverage Moovit’s application programming interface to provide users in London and four other cities with public transportation information, so that riders can access real-time transit data and route planning in the Uber app. As part of the expanded partnership, Uber is set to expand its service to 15 additional cities globally, including Paris and San Francisco.
Moovit also announced that ride-sharing company Lyft is set to implement a similar service in New York.