A POLICE REFORM bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday (Shutterstock).

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a police reform act named after George Floyd, the black man who died while in the custody of Minneapolis police in March.

According to United Press International, all Democrats in the House, joined with three Republicans on a vote of 236-181 to send the measure to the Senate.

If approved there, the bill would then go to President Donald Trump to sign or veto.

The George Floyd Justice Act would weaken “qualified immunity” laws, which make it difficult to fire or charge police officers for bad conduct. Additionally, it would ban chokeholds and “no-knock” search or arrest warrants by basing federal aid to local and state law enforcement on whether such methods.

A similar bill pushed by Republicans in the Senate was blocked by Democrats because it did not include bans on chokeholds and no-knock warrants.

Coronavirus bites back and re-openings lose steam

Reports of sharp increases in new coronavirus cases are leading some states to re-think their decisions to quickly re-open their economies.

According to the Associated Press, Arizona, Mississippi and Texas are among the states faced with those concerns most strongly. In Arizona nearly one-quarter of those tested in the past week have reported positive results and in Mississippi, record highs in cases have occurred.

THE CORONAVIRUS (Shutterstock).

In Texas, the governor put further re-openings on standby and declared a hold on elective surgical procedures.

Some health officials have blamed the failure of many people to wear masks and practice social distancing for the rise in cases, although the numbers of deaths are in decline.

The Center for Disease Control estimated Thursday that as many as 20 million American have been infected, which is about 6 percent of the population.

For local Orange County statistics, go to: https://orangecountytribune.com/2020/06/25/new-high-in-coronavirus-cases/ .

And now, the other shoe … rises rather than falling

After a disheartening Wednesday, Wall Street bounced back on Thursday with all major stock exchanges showing strong results. The Dow Jones Industrials was up 229.66 points to 25,745.60, an increase of 1.18 percent. The S&P 500 rose 33.43 points (up 1.10 percent) and Nasdaq improved 107.84 points (up 1.09 percent).

Credit for the improvement is given to a rule change allowing banks to increase their investments in venture capital funds.

Gold and oil were each up 0.5 and 0.85 percent respectively.

Rain possible but unlikely

Haven’t watered your lawn since the last storm in April? There’s a possibility of some precipitation this weekend. According to the National Weather Service, the usual clouds in the morning, then sun in the afternoon will continue through Saturday, but there’s a 20 percent chance of showers Sunday night and Monday morning. Otherwise the usual highs in the 70s and nighttime lows in the low 60s.

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