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Welcome to ‘the Pandemmys’

Editors  |  Paste BN

Good morning Daily Briefing readers! It’s Monday once again, and I’m Jane Onyanga-Omara. 

A decision could be close on whether three Louisville police officers will be charged in  the killing of Breonna Taylor. The United States is on the brink of a grim milestone as it nears 200,000 coronavirus deaths, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updates its guidance to say COVID-19 may spread through droplets and airborne particles. And it was a weird, virtual night at the 2020 Emmy’s — or “the Pandemmys" as host Jimmy Kimmel described the show.

Here’s today's news:

Welcome to ‘the Pandemmys’ — an Emmy Awards show like no other 

The 2020 Emmy Awards looked like no other Emmys in history due to the COVID pandemic. The show was unlike any other in the 72-year history of the TV awards ceremony — there was no audience in the Los Angeles Staples Center, so host Jimmy Kimmel stood on the stage alone. There was no red carpet, no usual parade of glitzy fashion or inane questions. But amid the nominees video-chatting in their award speeches and Kimmel and friends trying to make lemonade out of the horrifyingly sour lemons of 2020, there were some great moments. And also quite a few bad ones. Here are the highs, and the lows of the ceremony and winners:

Decision in Breonna Taylor case may come as early as Monday

Louisville's federal courthouse will be closed Monday and the rest of the coming week in anticipation of a potential decision in the investigation of Breonna Taylor's shooting death by police, the Louisville Courier Journal reports. That could mean Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron will make public this week whether Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, officer Myles Cosgrove and former officer Brett Hankison will be charged with homicide or other offenses in Taylor's death. Taylor, 26, was shot and killed after Louisville officers broke down her apartment door March 13 to serve a signed "no-knock" search warrant. Her death ignited more than 100 days of protests in Louisville and unleashed a torrent of national figures calling for "justice for Breonna" and the arrest of the officers who fired their weapons.

In coronavirus news:

Trump says he will nominate a woman to the Supreme Court this week

President Donald Trump said he will nominate a woman to the Supreme Court this week to succeed Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and that she should be confirmed as soon as possible. "I will be putting forth a nominee next week — it will be a woman," Trump told supporters Saturday at an airport rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Ginsburg, one of the court's liberal justices, died at age 87 on Friday after announcing in July she suffered a recurrence of cancer and that lesions had been found on her liver. 

More top stories:

Court hearing set for Jerry Harris, the 'Cheer' star charged with producing child pornography

A hearing Monday will determine if Jerry Harris, the celebrity cheerleader arrested and charged with producing child pornography, could be released on bond or under some other condition. Harris appeared Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge M. David Weisman but did not enter a plea. Prosecutor Christopher Parente described Harris as a danger to the community and asked the judge to keep him in detention. According to federal court records, Harris admitted to agents that he solicited and received explicit messages on Snapchat from at least 10 to 15 individuals he knew were minors, had sex with a 15-year-old at a cheerleading competition in 2019 and paid a 17-year-old money in exchange for nude photos. If convicted, Harris faces 15 to 30 years in federal prison. 

Weary Gulf Coast residents prep for Tropical Storm Beta

As Tropical Storm Beta takes aim at the Gulf Coast of Texas, authorities worry residents have become storm-fatigued and might react too casually to Beta's potential since it isn't likely to reach hurricane status. Beta, the earliest 23rd-named tropical storm in the Atlantic, is expected to make landfall along Texas’ central or upper Gulf Coast late Monday night, forecasters said. Beta's advancement — it was moving west-northwest at 6 mph early Monday — follows a recurring theme in storms this season: slow movers that can stall over an area and dump a foot or more of rain. The first rain bands from Beta reached the Texas coast on Sunday, but the heaviest rain wasn’t expected to arrive until Monday into Tuesday.  

And in better news:

See how a dapper Indian Runner duck named Tito loves to cosplay with his human in this cute video from Animalkind.

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