Democratic states urge Supreme Court to block Trump's new limits on mail ballots

WASHINGTON — California and 22 other Democratic-led states urged the Supreme Court on Monday to block President Trump's plan to take control of voting by mail through the U.S. Postal Service.

They said it is too late in the election year to impose a new set of regulations for mail ballots. Doing so, they said, would lead to mistakes, including eligible and registered voters being told they are not on the federal government's approved list.

"Because of the high risk of errors and the limited window for correcting mistakes, many of the millions of voters who rely on mail voting — especially voters with disabilities and those in rural areas — would likely be denied mail ballots and disenfranchised," they told the court.

More broadly, they argued that the Constitution "entrusted the states and Congress — not the president — with the responsibility to set rules for federal elections."

—Los Angeles Times

As Spokane burns, wildfires erupt across Washington, amid a parched forecast

SEATTLE — More than a dozen major wildfires continue to burn across Washington, with many of them growing fast over the weekend.

They’ve destroyed hundreds of homes and continue to imperil many more as they chew through the state’s landscape and communities. Tens of thousands have been forced from their homes. Many still have no power.

Already this has been one of the most destructive wildfire seasons in the state’s history, with over 700 structures destroyed in Spokane alone over the weekend and a nearly 30% increase in the land covered by wildfires in the past few days. And months still remain in Washington’s wildfire season.

The Kaiser Canyon wildfire on the Colville Reservation and north of Grand Coulee Dam, is the largest in the state at more than 136,000 acres, or 212 square miles. To the east, the Modrite fire has grown to cover nearly 78 square miles.

—The Seattle Times

How local hospitals treat heat stroke before it’s too late

As temperatures in the Las Vegas Valley climbed to 110 degrees on a recent Wednesday afternoon, an elderly woman who had been outside became dizzy and then passed out.

The 78-year-old’s body temperature was about 105 degrees when she arrived at MountainView Hospital in northwest Las Vegas, said Dr. Clarence Dunagan. That’s far above the typical body temperature range of 96.4 to 98.5 degrees for adults 65 and older, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

The woman also arrived confused, struggling to answer basic questions and unable to think clearly, Dunagan said. That’s a hallmark sign of heat stroke, a life-threatening condition that can quickly damage the brain and other organs if left untreated, he said.

When patients with suspected heat-related illness have “altered mental status, that’s when it’s a race against the clock,” said Dunagan, the chair of MountainView’s emergency department.

—Las Vegas Review-Journal

Spain says ‘vast majority’ of Ceuta migrants have returned to Morocco

Spain’s foreign minister said nearly everyone who illegally crossed into the African enclave of Ceuta last week has left, pledging to return “every last” person to Morocco.

“The vast majority of those who entered have already returned to Morocco,” José Manuel Albares said in an interview Monday morning on TVE, Spain’s state-owned station. “Every last one of them will return.”

Spain is trying to assure its European Union neighbors that it is swiftly returning the roughly 50,000 undocumented migrants who arrived in Ceuta late last week. The incident sparked chaos at one of the EU’s two land borders with Africa and led to allegations that Spain’s more open immigration laws helped lure the migrants.

Spain and Morocco have attributed the sudden surge to misinformation being circulated about a July 8 Spanish Supreme Court ruling restricting the immediate returns of migrants intercepted at sea.

—Bloomberg News