Many Mississippi courts have no records of search warrants, concealing an important key to monitoring police work

The site of a no-knock warrant in Greenville, Miss.
(Photo by Rory Doyle/ProPublica, via Daily Journal)

Over a third of Mississippi's courts are breaking record-keeping rules that require them to to keep all search warrant records, reports Caleb Bedillion for Tupelo's Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in partnership with ProPublica. The news organizations surveyed the state's 82 county justice courts in the state and the municipal courts in the 10 largest cities, and found that 15 courts had no search warrants among their records and 16 only had partial records, essentially blocking public access to them.

The problem of missing records becomes more acute when trying to track down no-knock search warrants — which hand officers the ability to search a residence without announcing themselves. The practice has attracted widespread national scrutiny, most recently after Breonna Taylor was killed by Louisville police in 2020 during a no-knock raid that has resulted in the indictment of three officers.

Merrill Nordstrom, a Mississippi public defender, found that many of the warrants being issued in Greenville were no-knocks. Yet the warrants, which had been signed by a local judge and should have been returned to the court after the search, were not in the court's possession. Instead the local police department kept them, and they were "hidden from view because law enforcement agencies, unlike the courts, can claim a broad public-records exemption over records in their possession," Bedillon reports.

Bayer wins two Roundup cases in Calif., makes appeal asserting that federal pesticide regulations trump state rules

"Bayer AG won a second consecutive trial in California over its top-selling Roundup weedkiller, as a jury rejected a woman’s claim that it caused her cancer," Jef Feeley reports for Bloomberg. "The verdict Thursday in state court in San Bernardino follows a Los Angeles jury’s Oct. 5 decision rejecting a mother’s claim that her young son developed cancer from exposure to the herbicide in the family’s yard."

The verdicts come after Bayer lost three similar California trials in 2018. It wants the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out one of the cases on the grounds that federal herbicide regulations trump state regulations. A successful appeal "could help the company fend off thousands of Roundup suits," Feeley reports.

Bayer will pull the current version of Roundup from the lawn-and-garden market in 2023, but will still sell the chemical to farmers. Its active ingredient, glyphosate, has long been controversial due to reports that it can harm people, pollinators and endangered species, can increase pesticide resistance in crops, and harm crops that aren't genetically engineered to survive it.

Major retailers found liable for opioid epidemic in 2 Ohio counties; ruling bolsters public-nuisance legal strategy

Recent court rulings in Oklahoma and California rejected claims that drug companies were responsible for the opioid epidemic, but an Ohio court ruling this week was a positive signal for other lawsuits using the strategy of claiming a public nuisance. Those cases could bring billions of dollars in payouts to states and municipalities to mitigate the addiction crisis.

On Tuesday a court ruled that major retailers CVS, Walgreens and Walmart helped fuel the opioid epidemic in two Cleveland-area counties. Jurors in a federal court concluded that the pharmacy chains' actions in Lake and Trumbull counties "helped create a public nuisance that resulted in an oversupply of addictive pain pills and the diversion of those opioids to the black market, Nate Raymond reports for Reuters. The verdict is the first the companies have faced over the issue.

The prosecutor will seek more than $1 billion from the companies to help the two counties address the toll of addiction, but "Judge Dan Polster will decide how much the companies owe to abate the epidemic in the counties and is expected to hold a trial on that question in April or May," Reuters reports.

The companies say they plan to appeal the verdict, citing recent Oklahoma and California rulings as proof that the public-nuisance claim was inappropriately applied. "The pharmacy chains have blamed drugmakers for marketing the addictive medications, and doctors for overprescribing, arguing that others were significantly responsible for the flood of legal opioids that were diverted to illegal use," Meryl Kornfield and Lenny Bernstein report for The Washington Post. "But federal law puts a 'corresponding responsibility' on the pharmacist to determine that a prescription he or she fills is for a legitimate medical purpose." Other chains such as Rite Aid and Giant Eagle have previously settled with the counties for undisclosed sums in the matter.

It's unclear whether the public-nuisance strategy will ultimately prove effective. Similar claims are ongoing elsewhere, in state courts in New York and Washington, and a federal court in West Virginia, Kornfield and Bernstein report.

USDA won't appeal order blocking debt-relief program for minority farmers, but says it will keep fighting in court

In an unusual move, the Department of Justice is not appealing a judge's order blocking an Agriculture Department program to forgive debt for some minority farmers, due to past USDA discrimination. At least 12 white farmers, in concert with conservative and libertarian groups, filed suit, insisting that the program is racially discriminatory, and won preliminary rulings, Politico reports.

"While the Justice Department has filed appeals within hours to defend the administration’s high-profile priorities in areas like immigration, this time federal government lawyers let the 60-day appeal period run — and then run out," Josh Gerstein and Ximena Bustillo report. A USDA spokesperson said the administration would continue to defend the program in district courts.

Some minority-farmer advocates are disappointed that the Justice Department didn't appeal, but it may have been a long-game move to protect other programs for minorities, Gerstein and Bustillo report. If they had appealed the hold, they risked a higher court ruling that would have established unfavorable legal precedent. The minority farmer relief program will likely remain in limbo while the Justice Department continues arguing the cases in lower court, a process that could take months or even years.

Quick hits: Appalachian man rescues over 1,000 'lost' apple varieties; Purdue Pharma closer to settlement...

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email heather.chapman@uky.edu.

As many as one-third of Wisconsin's gray wolves likely died from hunting and poaching in the months since the federal government ended legal protections for the species, according to a newly published study. Read more here.

Climate change has worsened flooding across the Midwest, and is linked to a rise in rare crop diseases. Read more here and here.

Purdue Pharma is moving closer to a $4.5 billion court settlement as the attorneys general in 15 states drop their objections to the proposal. Read more here.

A new report highlights the best practices for building and maintaining more environmentally sustainable rural road infrastructure (a particularly timely consideration, since infrastructure spending is on deck in Washington). Read more here.

A retired North Carolina man has rescued and catalogued more than 1,000 "lost" apple varieties. Read more here.

One reason rural areas face health-care professional shortages: many general surgeons in rural America are getting older and retiring, and not enough younger ones are taking their places. Read more here.

It's sometimes difficult to be young and LGBTQ+ in rural areas; teens and experts offer ideas on ways to make it easier. Read more here.

Opioid trial update: Distributor trade-group memo shows plan to shift blame for drug epidemic to providers, patients

In 2015, a trade group for major drug distributors planned to shift blame for the opioid epidemic to pharmacists, doctors and their patients. That's according to a memo mentioned in the ongoing trial in West Virginia that aims to hold some of the nation's largest drug distributors (McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health) financially liable for the epidemic.

The memo was "sent to a senior executive at that trade group, the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, that bemoaned 'imbalanced' coverage by reporters at local papers" and offered strategies for shunting the blame elsewhere, Lucas Manfield reports for Mountain State Spotlight.

The prosecutors "have argued that the drug distributors were well aware that they were fueling an epidemic of opioid addiction, but were more concerned with their bottom line than restricting the flow of opioids," Manfield reports. "Meanwhile, defense attorneys have argued that drug distributors are just middlemen and that their actions did not cause the opioid crisis." Though it's unclear whether any of the defendants acted on specific advice in the memo, the prosecutors argued it illustrates the companies' willingness to prioritize profits over patient safety.

The memo is the latest eyebrow-raising document to come up in the trial. Earlier, a prosecutor questioned an executive about emails he got with parody songs calling West Virginians "pillbillies" who lived in "OxyContinville," Courtney Hessler reports for The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington.

Quick hits: Supreme Court to hear major gun rights case; thieves use drones to case farms and ranches...

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a case about the right of licensed gun owners to carry a firearm outside the home. It's the first major Second Amendment case the court has taken up in more than a decade. Read more here.

A New Yorker who moved to rural Vermont during the pandemic reflects on what she loves about her new home. Read more here.

At a recent hearing, tribal officials spoke to the House Natural Resources subcommittee about lack of access to broadband, utilities and other infrastructure on reservations. Read more here.

Thousands of tourists head to Tennessee, North Carolina and West Virginia year to see Appalachia's synchronous fireflies. Ecologists and park officials are trying to figure out how to protect the beetles from harm while letting tourists enjoy the display (and help local economies). Read more here.

For decades, some flood-damaged communities were deemed too poor to receive federal flood protection, but a new section of the federal water law could change that. Read more here.

The Society of Environmental Journalists is now accepting applications for environmental journalism grants. The deadline is June 15. Read more here.

Drones now help some thieves survey rural farms and ranches to find their next target. Read more here.

THC potency is the next big debate in legalizing marijuana. Read more here.

Federal court strikes down Interior Department rule requiring paid permit to film in national parks

A federal judge has struck down a portion of the Interior Department's film-requirements, ruling that the National Park Service cannot require commercial filmmakers to obtain a paid permit to shoot video on National Park System lands, saying that such a rule violates filmmakers' First Amendment rights.

"In her ruling, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia declared that the statute and enacting regulations that require those engaged in 'commercial filming' to obtain permits and pay certain fees are unconstitutional," the National Press Photographers Association reports. "The court also found that the permit rules restrict speech in public forums, including the many National Park locations that are already considered traditional public forums such as the National Mall. The court found that the rules were content-based restrictions on speech, subject to strict scrutiny. Likewise, she found, the regulations and underlying reasons offered by the government—namely obtaining a 'fair market' payment on top of any administrative costs—do not meet that scrutiny."

Blackjewel bankruptcy motion, apparently denied, would dodge mine cleanup laws, abandon miners' medical claims

A judge has apparently denied a proposal to shift Blackjewel, LLC's bankruptcy from reorganization to liquidation, a shift that would have allowed the coal company to dodge its responsibility to clean up abandoned mines and pay workers' compensation for medical bills. On Nov. 25, Blackjewel lawyers motioned to convert the bankruptcy from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7. "That would mean that instead of exiting bankruptcy as a new company with less debt, Blackjewel L.L.C. would effectively cease to exist," Sydney Boles reports for Ohio Valley ReSource.

"Blackjewel had 1,100 employees at its Appalachian mines and about 600 at surface-mining operations in Wyoming," The Lane Report reports. "At the time of its bankruptcy filing, Blackjewel owed about $146 million in unpaid taxes and also owed workers unpaid wages and retirement funding." The company made national headlines in 2019 after laid-off miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, blocked a coal train from leaving for months because the bankrupt company had not paid them for recent work.

Dec. 17 was the deadline to file objections to the company's plan to liquidate. A wide range of environmental and community groups did so, along with the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and federal creditors, Matt Hepler and Molly Moore report for The Appalachian Voice. At a hearing that day, Judge Benjamin Kahn denied Blackjewel's motion to shift to Chapter 7. 

It's "pretty common" for companies to shift to Chapter 7 "when they're struggling like Blackjewel is," University of Chicago School of Law assistant professor and coal bankruptcy expert Joshua Macey told Boles.

One reason Blackjewel may have been struggling so much: its former CEO, Jeff Hoops, was allegedly defrauding the company. Blackjewel lawyers filed a civil suit against Hoops on Dec. 10, accusing Hoops of making tens of millions of dollars in fraudulent transactions, Boles reports.

Former HHS secretary: Supreme Court case on Affordable Care Act could devastate the rural health-care system

A challenge at the Supreme Court to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act could devastate rural America’s fragile health-care system, according to Kathleen Sebelius, a former Kansas governor who was secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services "during the landmark legislation’s passage and rollout." Tim Marema reports for The Daily Yonder.

On Tuesday at the Rural Assembly Everywhere virtual conference, Sebelius said the pending case has created "a very precarious situation where all of that could be struck down . . . All of those provisions could vanish, including Medicaid expansion." Sebelius noted that Kansas has lost three rural hospitals in the past two years, partly because the state did not expand Medicaid under the law, Marema reports.

"Since 2010, 133 rural hospitals have closed nationally, according to the University of North Carolina Sheps Center. Most have been in states that did not expand Medicaid," Marema notes.

In 2018, Texas and 19 other states sued to have the ACA declared unconstitutional on grounds that Congress's removal of the individual mandate to buy health insurance had removed the linchpin of its constitutionality in a previous Supreme Court decision. Oral arguments in the case are set for Nov. 10.

Judge invalidates ousted Bureau of Land Management chief's decisions in Montana; could set precedent elsewhere

"A federal judge in Montana has once again handed the Bureau of Land Management and its embattled former de facto acting chief, William Perry Pendley, another major legal defeat," Scott Streater reports for Energy & Environment News.

Last week, Montana Chief District Judge Brian Morris ruled that three major land-use plans revisions in the state were invalid because Pendley had been unlawfully leading BLM for more than a year, Streater reports. All three of the plan revisions would have opened more federal lands to oil and gas drilling. 

The ruling could jeopardize the BLM's decisions in other states, Rebecca Beitsch reports for The Hill. Environmental groups have a list of at least 30 land-management plans overseen by Pendley they'd like to see reversed.

"Morris also issued what appeared to be a warning to Pendley and the Interior Department that they better abide by his previous order from last month barring Pendley from performing the duties of BLM director," Streater reports.

The ruling is another coup for Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, whose lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service forced the agency to reverse recent changes that slowed mail delivery nationwide. Bullock filed suit against the BLM in July, Streater writes.

Purdue Pharma settles opioid probes for $8.34 billion, but lacks assets to pay it all; claims by states totaled $2 trillion

Purdue Pharma has agreed to an $8.34 billion settlement with the Department of Justice, resolving longstanding federal criminal and civil cases against the company for how it marketed and distributed OxyContin. "Purdue has agreed to plead guilty to three counts related to payments to health-care providers and other actions. The deal doesn’t prevent the government from prosecuting owners or employees of Purdue in the future," Sara Randazzo reports for The Wall Street Journal.

The deal helps "clear the way for the bankrupt drugmaker to turn over future profits to cities and states that accuse it of fueling the opioid crisis," Randazzo reports. "The final price tag for Purdue, however, is largely symbolic: Because the company’s assets fall well short of $8 billion, it will pay $225 million and the federal government is expected to cede most of the rest to allow more money to flow to states, counties and Native American tribes." The Justice Department reached a separate settlement with the Sackler family, Purdue's owners; they will pay another $225 million to resolve civil claims.

Even the $8 billion would be "only a fraction of what it has cost federal, state and local governments to combat the opioid crisis. States across the country have filed claims topping $2 trillion in the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy case," Chris Isidore reports for CNN.

Census count can end early, Supreme Court rules

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration can halt the 2020 census count early, a decision that could result in hard-to-count populations in rural areas and elsewhere receiving less government funding and Congressional representation. 

"The brief unsigned order formally only pauses the population count while the administration and a host of groups advocating a more accurate census battle in a federal appeals court over whether the count could be stopped early," Adam Liptak and Michael Wines report for The New York Times. "As a practical matter, however, it almost certainly ensures an early end because the census — one of the largest government activities, involving hundreds of thousands of workers — cannot be easily restarted and little time remains before its current deadline at the end of this month. In fact, some census workers say, the bureau had already begun shutting down some parts of its count despite a court order to continue it."

The Trump administration sought to wrap up the count at the end of September, but in late September a federal judge ruled that the count had to continue until the end of October. Rural response to the census has consistently lagged, and as early as mid-April, the Census Bureau begged Congress to extend the deadline to the end of October, Zach Montellaro reports for Politico.

But Congress never granted the extensions, and in early August, Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham, a Trump appointee, announced it would withdraw its request for an extension and deliver the results to Trump by the end of 2020 (a decision that came from outside the bureau, according to the Commerce Department's inspector general).

Acting Bureau of Land Management director has served unlawfully for over a year, federal judge rules

William "Perry" Pendley

"A federal judge in Montana has ordered William Perry Pendley, the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, to leave the position after finding that he had served unlawfully as acting director for 424 days," Maria Cramer reports for The New York Times. He was also barred from using any authority to make decisions about federal lands, according to the 34-page ruling issued Friday by Judge Brian Morris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana.

The ruling hits at a core tactic of President Trump, who prefers to appoint directors in a temporary capacity so they don't have to be confirmed by the Senate and are more beholden to Trump for their jobs. The last Senate-confirmed BLM director, Neil Kornze, left in January 2017, Cramer reports. Since then, Trump has appointed five acting directors, with Pendley as the latest one in July 2019. He nominated Pendley to fill the position permanently in July, but soon withdrew the nomination after the move drew attention to Pendley's controversial views about public lands, the environment, and other issues.

However, even after Pendley's name was withdrawn over concerns that he might hurt Republicans in tight Senate races out West, Pendley continued to run the BLM. That violates the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which limits acting officers from serving for more than 210 days without Senate confirmation, the judge ruled. "The ruling also prevented Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who appointed Mr. Pendley, from picking another person to run the bureau," Cramer reports.

Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana, who is in a tight race with Republican incumbent Steve Daines for a Senate seat, filed the lawsuit in July against Pendley and Bernhardt, Cramer reports. His is one of the races most likely to be affected by Pendley's tenure at the BLM. Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican also in a tough race, could also be put in a politically inconvenient spot if forced to vote on Pendley's confirmation.

New engineered seed resists five different pesticides, but scientists question chemicals' future role in weed control

"A new genetically engineered corn seed designed by Bayer to be sprayed by up to five herbicides could represent the future of farming, providing growers with more pesticides to combat the problem of weed resistance," Jonathan Hettinger reports for The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. "But for how long? That’s the question raised by weed scientists, who say farmers need to start switching to non-chemical options to keep weeds under control." The new seed is resistant to glyphosate, glufosinate, dicamba, 2,4-D and quizalofop.

Weed resistance has become a big problem for U.S. growers over the past 50 years, and "the problem has increased significantly since the introduction of genetically modified crops and use of accompanying herbicides in the 1990s," Hettinger reports. In essence, the presence of weedkillers has led weeds to adapt, resulting in a decades-long arms race. Some scientists say that weeds are developing resistance so quickly that a different long-term solution may be needed.

The growing use of pesticides has also triggered thousands of court cases—many successful—accusing pesticide makers of causing health problems and damaging non-resistant crops. "In June, Bayer announced a $10 billion settlement of claims that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, causes cancer," Hettinger reports. "The company also announced a $400 million settlement of claims that dicamba, a herbicide sold by Bayer and German agribusiness company BASF, has drifted and harmed thousands of other farmers."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture allowed public comment for the seed petition on the Federal Register until July 7, drawing 4,112 comments, Hettinger reports.

Investigative reporters in N.D. uncover names of dozens of drillers who owe millions in royalties to state education fund

In a win for accountability reporting, investigative reporters in North Dakota were able to obtain the names of 34 oil and gas companies operating in the state that owe tens of millions of dollars in overdue gas royalty payments meant to help fund the state's public schools. 

"The names of the firms on the hook for old royalty payments have not been publicly released in the past, but the state Department of Trust Lands provided them following a request by Forum News Service," Jeremy Turley reports for Inforum, an online partnership between The Forum newspaper and TV station WDAY in Fargo. The companies include Continental Resources, "which is chaired by billionaire businessman Harold Hamm, was the state's top gas royalty payer in fiscal year 2020."

The exact amount of money owed is unclear because companies are responsible for looking through their records and calculating the amount. Also, the amount is increasing for many of the companies that are fighting overdue payments in court, racking up interest and penalties on the principle all the while., Turley reports.

"Once repaid, the money goes to the Common Schools Trust Fund, which supports public K-12 education in the state. The fund that also receives income from land leased to ranchers, a tobacco lawsuit settlement and earnings on investments provided nearly $367 million toward the state's school funding during the current two-year budget cycle," Turley reports. "The amount for schools was increased to $419 million for the next two-year cycle to soften any blows to state aid resulting from the coronavirus, low oil prices and overall economic downturns."

Tyson gets immunity in poultry price-fixing probe

In return for its cooperation Tyson Foods has gained immunity from prosecution in the Justice Department's investigation into whether major poultry processors illegally colluded to fix the price of broiler chickens. "Under a program run by the department’s antitrust division, a company can receive immunity if it’s the first member of a price-fixing cartel to inform federal prosecutors," Ryan McCrimmon reports for Politico's Morning Agriculture.

Four poultry executives from Pilgrim's Pride and Claxton Poultry Farms were indicted last week on charges that they fixed prices and rigged bids on broiler chickens sold to grocery chains and restaurants from 2012 to 2017. "All four individuals have pleaded not guilty, and the trial is set for August, McCrimmon reports.

The DOJ began investigating meat processors in recent weeks after farmers and ranchers complained that processors have been paying them extremely low prices for their livestock, even though meat prices (especially beef) surged for buyers, Leah Nylen and Liz Crampton report for Politico.

Appeals court bans dicamba-based herbicide sales in U.S. for 6 months; EPA is likely to reauthorize it for next year

A federal appeals court has essentially halted the sale of dicamba-based herbicides in the U.S. for the next six months after ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency did not do its due diligence when reauthorizing the chemical in 2018. That reauthorization expires Dec. 20.

Environmental groups sued EPA in 2018 in an attempt to force the agency to cancel its approval of XtendiMax, a dicamba-based herbicide then produced by Monsanto, which has since been acquired by Bayer AG, Joel Rosenblatt reports for Bloomberg. The ruling applies to dicamba-based herbicides by other companies such as BASF and Corteva Agriscience.

The three-judge panel ruled that the EPA had "failed entirely" to acknowledge the risks of dicamba and therefore violated federal regulations by reauthorizing XtendiMax for two years in October 2018," Rosenblatt reports. The judges wrote in the opinion that the EPA's decision also failed to consider the "enormous social cost to farming communities" where disagreements over dicamba damage have "turned farmer against farmer, and neighbor against neighbor," and cited the 2016 murder of an Arkansas farmer during an argument over dicamba damage.

Dicamba is well-known for vaporizing after application and drifting to nearby fields, where it can damage crops not genetically engineered to resist it. That can unfairly influence farmers to buy dicamba-resistant seeds and pesticides, the judges ruled. "The decision is the latest blow to Bayer in the wake of its $63 billion takeover of Monsanto — a deal that made the German company a leader in agriculture products but also saddled it with a mountain of legal liabilities related to weed killers," Rosenblatt reports. In February, a Missouri peach farmer was awarded $265 million in a lawsuit against Bayer and BASF over dicamba-damaged crops.

State inspection agencies have been inundated with similar complaints for the past three years. Bayer's XtendiMax herbicide is "widely blamed for damaging 3.6 million acres of untreated soybeans in 2017, and more than 1 million acres in 2018," Rosenblatt reports.

"Still, the EPA will probably re-authorize dicamba in a revised form in time for next year -- and the agency could even move up that reauthorization before Dec. 20, when the current clearance was set to expire."

Supreme Court lets states regulate church gatherings in pandemic; White House waters down CDC guidelines

Churches continue to serve as a legal and regulatory battleground during the pandemic as concerns over free speech and public health collide.

The Supreme Court ruledFriday that states still retain some power to regulate how many people are allowed to gather in churches during a pandemic, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the court's liberal minority in a 5-4 vote, Adam Liptak reports for The New York Times.

South Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista, Calif., sued to block the state from enforcing restrictions on attendance at religious services, alleging that their freedom of speech was being violated. However, Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that churches were not being unfairly singled out since non-essential secular gatherings have also been restricted, Liptak reports.

"The court’s ruling was its first attempt to balance the public health crisis against the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom," Liptak reports. "And it expanded the Supreme Court’s engagement with the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, after rulings on voting in Wisconsin and prisons in Texas and Ohio."

Meanwhile, last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed language from its pandemic guidelines for faith communities that had encouraged them to limit or eschew singing since it can spread the coronavirus, Lena Sun and Josh Dawsey report for The Washington Post.

The guide was initially released on Friday, May 22, but it was altered over the weekend to exclude language about choirs, apparently because the White House had not approved it, Bill Chappell reports for NPR. An anonymous federal official told NPR that the CDC "posted the wrong version of the guidance" and that the one "currently up on the website is the version cleared by the White House."

"The altered guidance also deleted a reference to 'shared cups' among items, including hymnals and worship rugs, that should not be shared," Sun and Josh Dawsey report. "The updated guidelines also added language that said the guidance 'is not intended to infringe on rights protected by the First Amendment'."

Churches have been the source for multiple local outbreaks in rural areas. "There is probably no better way to aerosolize the virus than singing," Kevin Kavanagh told The Rural Blog. "Close contact, indoor closed quarters plus singing is a set-up for a disaster." Kavanagh is a retired physician in Somerset, Ky., and chair of Health Watch USA.

Supreme Court won't hear challenge to ban on bump stocks

"Bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic firearms to fire rapidly like machine guns, will remain banned by the federal government in most instances after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case challenging recently imposed regulations," reports Guns & America.

Some states banned bump stocks after one was used in a deadly October 2017 Las Vegas shooting, and in December 2018, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives declared that bump stocks essentially turned a semi-automatic firearm into a fully automatic "machinegun." Since machineguns are tightly regulated at the federal level, that made bump stocks and similar devices effectively illegal, Jeremy Bernfeld reports for Guns America, a two-year partnership among 10 publicly owned media outlets to report on firearms and related issues.

Many gun owners chose not to fight the ban, pointing out that DIY bump stocks can be made easily, and that the law was difficult to enforce. However, some gun-rights activists sued to challenge the ban,. Lower courts upheld it and the Supreme Court opted not to hear the case. Though the case might appear to be about the Second Amendment, Justice Neil Gorsuch said that the case narrowly focused on a legal doctrine that prevents courts from overruling some federal regulations.