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Here's the biggest news you missed this weekend

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Pelosi calls on House to return to session to vote on bill that stops changes at USPS

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on the House to return into session later this week to vote on a bill that would prevent changes the Trump administration has made to the Postal Service, alterations Democrats say will cause a slowing of the flow of mail and potentially jeopardize the November election. Pelosi said Sunday that "American Democracy" is under threat from President Donald Trump, who last week said he opposed giving the USPS more money while at the same time acknowledging the lack of funding may hamper the office's ability to process mail-in ballots. Pelosi wants the House to vote later this week on Rep. Carolyn Maloney's Delivering for America Act, which prohibits changes to Postal Service operations in place on Jan. 1, 2020. 

Hours before Pelosi's call to return to session, Democrats urged the postmaster general to testify before a House committee nearly a month earlier than initially requested, saying the "urgent" hearing is needed to address the "dangerous operational changes" to the United States Postal Service. 

Robert Trump, the president's younger brother, has died at 71

President Donald Trump's younger brother Robert died Saturday of an undisclosed illness. He was 71. "He was not just my brother, he was my best friend," the president said in a statement issued late Saturday. "He will be greatly missed, but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever." The youngest of the Trump siblings, Donald Trump once described Robert as “much quieter and easygoing than I am,” and “the only guy in my life whom I ever call ‘honey.’” The White House announced Friday that Robert Trump had been hospitalized with an undisclosed illness and the president visited him that afternoon in Manhattan.

Saliva-based COVID-19 test wins FDA approval; nationwide testing issues cast doubt on decline in new cases

A saliva-based COVID-19 test developed by researchers at Yale with funding from the NBA and National Basketball Players Association was approved on Saturday for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The method is called SalivaDirect and researchers say it is less expensive and less invasive than nasopharyngeal swabbing. Testing overall, however, has dropped nationwide despite the virus picking up in many states. Daily nationwide case counts appear to have dropped in the last couple weeks, but reduced testing in some states makes it hard to confidently determine that infection rates are improving.

Real quick

With Iowa 'hurting' after derecho, Gov. Kim Reynolds seeks nearly $4 billion in federal disaster aid

Nearly a week after a ferocious derecho storm roared across the Midwest, Iowans are still reeling with the disaster left in its wake. Iowa homes, cornfields, utility companies and government agencies have losses estimated at nearly $4 billion from Monday's unusual storm, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Sunday as she announced she's filing an expedited presidential major disaster declaration with the federal government seeking that much money to rebuild and repair. The derecho, with hurricane-force wind gusts exceeding 100 mph, destroyed or extensively damaged 8,200 homes and 13 million acres of corn, about a third of the state's crop land, she said. More than a half million people were without electricity in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Utility companies reported about 83,000 people remained without power as of Sunday night.

Trump says he will look at granting pardon to whistleblower Edward Snowden

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he's considering granting a pardon to whistleblower Edward Snowden. “I’m going to take a look at that very strongly,” Trump said during a news conference at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey. Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency, has been living in exile in Moscow since fleeing the U.S. six years ago after leaking information on the nation's most secretive spy agencies and their programs. Trump said that he is “not that aware of the Snowden situation” but that people on both the left and the right are divided over the former contractor. In late 2016, then-President Barack Obama said he wouldn't consider a pardon until Snowden stopped running from the law.

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This is a compilation of stories from across the Paste BN Network. Contributing: Associated Press.

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