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The state of Texas has already had nearly as many voters cast ballots in the 2020 election than in the all of the 2016 election.This year¡¯s election is still five days away.Throughout the country, lines have formed at early voting centers to cast a ballot in next week¡¯s election. According to the US Elections Project maintained by University of Florida professor Michael McDonald, more than 80 million voters have already submitted a ballot. Millions more are expect to vote between now and Election Day.In Texas, the number of early votes equals 95% of the total ballots cast in 2016. Part of what has driven the vote in Texas is for the first time in the 21st century, Texas is considered a battleground in the presidential election. In Travis County, which is where Austin and University of Texas is located, more voters have cast ballots there than in the 2016 election.Who is winning the early vote?According to a CNN poll released on Wednesday, Joe Biden is leading among those who have already voted by a 64-34 margin. Other national polls have similarly showed Biden leading early voting by up to a 2-to-1 margin.The challenge for Trump will be to make-up ground on Election Day. The same CNN poll showed Trump leading 59-36 among those who plan on voting on Election Day. Trump will need a strong Election Day turnout in order to overcome the lead Biden has likely established in early voting. Things like weather, daycare, illnesses, work and other factors that keep people from voting on Election Day could play against Trump on Election Day.While the news out of Texas may be discouraging for Trump, Pennsylvania and Ohio, two other key battleground states, have not seen nearly as much early voting as Texas. In Ohio, the early vote equals 43.8% of the total 2016 vote. In Pennsylvania, the early vote equals 34.3% of the 2016 vote.Similarly to Texas, Georgia, which has been a traditional GOP stronghold in recent decades, is a battleground state in 2020. There, the number of early voters equals 82% of the 2016 count.How votes will be tallied on Election DayEach state will release early voting numbers differently, and with such stark differences in how Trump and Biden voters are casting ballots, the numbers could have significant swings.In Pennsylvania, the early vote is expected to come in last after all ballots counted on Election Day are tallied. That means Pennsylvania will likely show a significant lead for Trump on Election Night, with the former vice president trying to make up ground. Some counties have said they will not even start counting the early vote until the day after the election.In close states that release the early vote first, Biden will likely amass a huge lead that will slowly evaporate throughout the night. For states that will wait to count the early vote, Trump will likely hold a huge initial lead. Election Night projections might take longer this year to account for how various states are counting the vote. 2977

The skies started darkening over Lake Charles, Louisiana, on Wednesday, as Hurricane Laura trekked toward the state.People planning to hunker down at home raced to a local home supply store.¡°My wife didn't want to travel this time,¡± said resident Robert Deboest. ¡°So, we decided to go head on and kind of stick it out.¡±That includes Adam Johnson, who was busy buying plywood to cover the windows of his home.¡°It was like a sheet,¡± he said.Johnson moved to the Lake Charles area several years ago from Colorado. Laura will be the first hurricane he experiences.¡°[The] duplex I live in was built in 2015, so it should be pretty secure,¡± Johnson said.Others, though, feel far less secure.¡°I was going to stay because I didn¡¯t have nowhere to go,¡± said resident Yvonne Lancto.However, local officials made arrangements at the Burton Coliseum Complex in Lake Charles for anyone wanting to evacuate, with the National Guard and dozens of buses ready to carry evacuees out of the danger zone and to shelter.Just a few days before her 77th birthday, Lancto chose to flee the storm.¡°I feel more safer now (sic),¡± she said, shortly before boarding a bus, ¡°Because I was gonna have to drive - I was scared.¡±What is scaring a lot of people in Lake Charles is not just the potential for Category 4 winds from Hurricane Laura, but massive storm surge, especially along the coast ¨C which can easily swamp the first floor of a building.Paul and Wanda Bertrand said that is why they are getting out of their home in coastal Cameron Parish.¡°I¡¯m ready to get back you know,¡± Paul Bertrand said. ¡°I just left and I¡¯m ready to get back already.¡±His wife, Wanda, said their lives were far more important and hopes that evacuating will only be temporary.¡°Hopefully, this will be over soon,¡± she said, ¡°and we can get back home and everything will be like it was normal.¡±It¡¯s a normalcy that Hurricane Laura will put to the test. 1917

The US ambassador to Mexico was not invited to a meeting between senior White House adviser Jared Kushner and Mexican officials, including President Enrique Pe?a Nieto, a US official told CNN.Roberta Jacobson, a career diplomat who has more than 30 years of experience in the region, announced her retirement earlier this month effective in May. Her departure comes at a time when US relations with Mexico have been strained over issues related to trade and migration.Kimberly Breier, who was just nominated to be the new assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere -- a senior State Department position Jacobson previously held -- was with Kushner at the Wednesday meeting.The New York Times first reported that Jacobson was not at the meeting.The timing of the meeting came amid NAFTA negotiations and questions over President Donald Trump's tariff proposal. It also comes shortly after Kushner had his security clearance downgraded because he had not obtained his full clearance.  995

The state of Kentucky announced Feb. 13 it would begin paying relatives who provide care for displaced children the same stipend as foster parents -- about 0 per month per child.Norma Hatfield, who has cared for her two grandchildren since 2014, welcomed the news. Although she was able to provide for the pair without state assistance, she said Monday that few grandparents in her position have the same financial resources."We didn't get a phone call," Hatfield said, when her grandchildren were removed from their parents' care after the youngest ingested meth from a spoon. She found out when she arrived at their home the next day and discovered it empty. She had been planning to take them to Disney World."That's when my whole world changed," she said. While the Hatfield family's case winded its way through the courts, "I started meeting all these grandparents that were struggling -- taking in kids and, financially, they are going broke. There were heavily in debt and had court fees."Moved by her experiences watching other men and women struggle to raise children for whom they had never expected to be responsible, Hatfield began petitioning the state to bring back kinship care, which would specifically create an allowance for those permanently caring for their relatives' children. "It's so the kids stay with that family instead of foster care," she said.The United States 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in October 2017 that Kentucky would be required to pay relatives who temporarily house children the same fee as foster parents.Although only 16 families will have received such payments by the end of February, the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services estimated by June 2019 the payments could affect 1,590 children and total about .3 million."It's a start," Hatfield said, although she would still prefer the establishment of a fund for relatives who will care for their kin permanently -- not just on a temporary basis. "It's something families would be grateful to have." 2034

The term "money laundering" was never more appropriate than this week, when Dutch police found around 0,000 stuffed inside the drum of a washing machine.A man present in the house during Monday's raid was arrested on suspicion of -- yes, you've guessed it -- money laundering.Authorities were checking for unregistered residents in western Amsterdam when they found the load."The municipal administration revealed that no one lived at the address," the police told CNN in a statement. "When the police did a search through the house they found €350,000 hidden in the washing machine."The police also confiscated several mobile phones, a firearm and a money-counting machine during the raid. The suspect, who is 24 years old, has not been named.The police news release included a picture of bundles of €20 and €50 bills crammed into the washing machine.They said in a statement that the raid was part of an investigation into "housing fraud, money laundering and other [signs] of crime." 997