1 Tropical Storm Beta Makes Landfall
Tropical Storm Beta has made landfall. The National Hurricane Center says the storm crossed over the Texas coast near the southern end of the Matagorda Peninsula. That's about 90 miles southwest of Houston. Beta is lashing the Texas coast with heavy rains, with as much as ten-inches of rain expected to fall in some parts of the state. Beta is expected to move across the Texas coast, eventually moving inland across Louisiana – and by the time it’s gone, the results are anyone’s guess. At last check, about half a foot fell in a number of areas yesterday. Officials say 11-million people in Texas and Louisiana are currently under flash flood warnings.
2 Lindsey Graham: We Have The Votes To Get Trump's Nominee Through
Whether you like it or not, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham says Senate Republicans have the votes to push President Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court through. This as Washington grapples with moving forward in the wake of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's passing. "We've got the votes to confirm Justice Ginsburg's replacement before the election,” he tells Fox News. “We're going to move forward in the committee. We're going to report the nomination out of the committee to the floor of the United States Senate so we can vote before the election." What makes this problematic for many is that in 2016 and in 2018, Graham said such a move shouldn’t happen. Specifically, he’s said that a Supreme Court seat should not be filled during an election year. Perhaps ironically, then-Vice President Joe Biden said something similar in 2016...though in the reverse. Back then, Biden maintained that a president should go forward with nominating a replacement Supreme Court judge...“even a few months before a presidential election.”
3 Ginsburg To Be First Woman To Lie In State At Capitol
She made history in life – so it should surprise no one that the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is also doing so in death. Ginsburg will be the first woman to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol on Friday. As you might recall, civil rights icon Rosa Parks laid "in honor" at the Capitol after her death in 2005 because she was a private citizen. Justice Ginsburg died this past Friday after a long fight against cancer. She joined the Supreme Court in 1993 and became only the second woman to serve on the high court. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced that there will be a formal ceremony after Ginsburg's casket is brought into the Capitol's National Statuary Hall. Before that, she will lie in repose at the Supreme Court tomorrow and Thursday so that members of the public can pay their respects.