Unconventional: With coronavirus cases and deaths mounting in Florida, President Trump called off the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville that he had already moved from Charlotte, North Carolina because of that state’s health restrictions. 

  Trump has suddenly gotten religion about the virus he has downplayed for months.  “We won’t do a big, crowded convention, per se — it’s not the right time for that,” Trump said during a short news conference in the White House briefing room. He plans a scaled-down event back in Charlotte.

  The Florida convention threatened to be both a health and political disaster. A Quinnipiac University poll says that 62 percent of the state’s voters thought the convention would be unsafe to hold. The poll also showed Joe Biden leading Trump by 13 percentage points in Florida, spiking nine points since  April. 

  “I’m glad Donald Trump took his head out of the sand long enough to realize what a predictable, preventable disaster he was about to inflict on the city of Jacksonville,” Terrie Rizzo, the chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, said in a statement.

Econ 101: As a $600 a week federal unemployment benefit is about to run out, the Labor Department reported more than 1.4 million new applications for state unemployment benefits last week, up from 1.3 million in the two preceding weeks.

  The Census Bureau reports that 22 percent of American households say they won’t be able to make their rent or mortgage payments next month. Bizarrely, though, President Trump was crowing about how housing prices are going up;  “Housing prices, pricing of housing up 21%, the highest in history. It’s the highest number in history.”

  That’s a good thing when people have no money?

  While American workers walk the plank, Congress is negotiating the next round of economic stimulus. Republicans support a package of about $1 trillion and the Democrats are demanding $3 trillion.

  In the midst of this, President Trump wants money to build a new FBI headquarters near his Washington hotel.

School Daze: As the US yesterday surpassed 4 million cases of the coronavirus, President Trump offered the promise of more federal money for schools that re-open for the new school year. The request is part of the new emergency bill before Congress.

  “We cannot indefinitely stop 50 million American children from going to school, harming their mental, physical, and emotional development,” the President said. He cited statistics that say children are less affected by the coronavirus. “When children do contact the virus,” he said, “they often have only very mild symptoms or none at all, and medical complications are exceedingly rare.”

  But there’s always another agenda with Trump. He wants the new education money, if he gets it, to “follow the student.” If the child doesn’t return to public school, the money goes where the kid goes. It’s another effort to give federal money to private and religious schools. Trump said, “The funding should go to parents to send their child to public, private, charter, religious, or homeschool of their choice.” 

The Numbers: As the virus continues to surge, the US recorded nearly 70,000 new cases yesterday, and 1,116 deaths. The state of California has become the  new epicenter, surpassing New York with nearly 431,000 cases.

  California has lost 8,201 people. Overall, coronavirus deaths in the US are up 41 percent, now at 144,306.

Free Press: Following the vote of the Portland, Oregon City Council, a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring federal officers from using force, threats and dispersal orders against journalists or legal observers documenting daily demonstrations.

  Protesters have been battling federal officers who have treated reporters like combatants. 

  US District Judge Michael Simon quoted case law from the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, saying, “When wrongdoing is underway, officials have great incentive to blindfold the eyes of the Fourth Estate. The free press is the guardian of the public interest, and the judiciary is the guardian of the press.”

Do Tell: A federal judge ruled that President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen must be released from prison a second time because he had been sent back for writing a tell-all book about President Trump. Judge Alvin Hellerstein said, “And it’s retaliatory because of his desire to exercise his First Amendment rights to publish a book and to discuss anything about the book or anything else he wants on social media and with others.”

   Cohen had been released to serve his time at home because of the danger of coronavirus in prison. While finishing paperwork related to his release, he was asked to sign a document barring him from writing a book during the rest of his sentence, and he refused. He was already writing one.

 The book ban was an unusual condition of release and Cohen was quickly sent back to the slam for not signing it.

Shipped Out: The Navy is trying to decide whether to fix or scrap the seriously damaged amphibious assault ship, the Bonhomme Richard. The loss of the ship has put a crimp in the Navy’s rotation of ships in duty and in the yard for maintenance. It seems to suggest they couldn’t afford to lose a ship if they actually went to war.  

Tit for Tat: China has ordered the closure of the US consulate in Chengdu in retaliation for the US closing the Chinese consulate in Houston. 

Flattening the Curve: Wearing a mask, epidemiologist Dr. Anthony Fauci, 79, threw a wild pitch that skidded over the first base line last night to open the 2020 baseball season for the Washington Nationals. Evidently he’s a non-practicing doctor.

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