A witness in a lawsuit from allies of President Donald Trump trying to overturn democracy in Michigan said the votes in Edison County “are cause for concern and indicate fraud” because President-elect Joe Biden won “more than 100% of the votes.”

There’s just one problem: There is no Edison County in Michigan, the Detroit Free Press pointed out.

In fact, there is no Edison County in the entire United States of America.

The claim came from Navid Keshavarz-Nia, who describes himself in an affidavit as a cybersecurity expert working at a defense contractor who has received training from several government agencies. The affidavit is included as an exhibit appended to a lawsuit filed last week by people working with Sidney Powell, a former member of the Trump campaign’s legal team.

Keshavarz-Nia’s nonsensical claim about Edison County drew widespread attention with a tweet from Jonathan Oosting, a reporter at the nonprofit news organization Bridge Michigan.

Source: A witness in Trump ally Sidney Powell’s lawsuits says the voting results in ‘Edison County’ indicate fraud. No such place exists.

SACRAMENTO – As the federal government fails to provide additional financial stimulus support to main street businesses, Governor Gavin Newsom today announced that California will provide temporary tax relief for eligible businesses impacted by COVID-19 restrictions. The temporary tax relief entails an automatic three-month income tax extension for taxpayers filing less than $1 million in sales tax, extends the availability of existing interest and penalty-free payment agreements to companies with up to $5 million in taxable sales and provides expanded interest free payment options for larger businesses particularly affected by significant restrictions on operations based on COVID-19 transmissions. The total tax relief, if fully utilized, is estimated to have billions in impact. These efforts are informed by recommendations made by the Governor’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery. Source: Governor Newsom Announces Immediate Assistance for Businesses Impacted by COVID-19 Including Temporary Tax Relief and $500 Million in Grants | California Governor

Ohio smashed its record for daily hospitalizations, reporting 585 in the last 24 hours, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Cases increased by 9,030 Tuesday, bringing the total to 430,093. The state’s 21-day case average is 8,029. Source: Coronavirus: Ohio sets record for daily hospitalizations

We’re about to enter the grimmest period of the covid-19 pandemic, with cases, hospitalizations, and deaths spiking across the country and with holiday travel and gatherings driving what will likely be a deadly surge. As the Washington Post noted, we may soon “reach levels where hospitals are forced to choose which patients to save and which to let die, and where lockdowns become unavoidable realities of everyday life.”

That this is bleak goes without saying. That this is a situation brought about largely by the massive failure of our government, run as it is by the Republican death cult and bringing to mind what the scholar Ruth Wilson Gilmore has coined “organized state abandonment,” also goes without saying, despite all of the scoldings about individual behavior and personal responsibility.

And the story of Dr. Joseph Varon, the chief of staff at Houston’s United Memorial Medical Center who was captured in a heartbreaking photo on Thanksgiving Day embracing an older patient, illustrates the very human toll of that abandonment.

Source: Houston Doctor Has Worked 256 Days Straight in Pandemic

“American Samoa remains the only US Jurisdiction which has not been ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic and we have made great sacrifices to maintain and to continue our “Free Coronavirus Bubble”, wrote the governor.

He expressed appreciation of the US Air force efforts to engage in protective protocols exhibiting sensitivity and support of the territory’s efforts to keep American Samoa Covid-19 free.

The governor explained that perceived uncontrolled exponential surge in the number of Covid-19 cases and the corresponding uptake in the number of deaths had emboldened his administration’s resolve to take even harsher protective measures to eliminate any possible risk of accidental transmission.

He suggested that adhering to preventative protocols might not provide absolute guarantees of no virus entering the territory, hence the denial of a stopover.

Source: US officials denied stopover in American Samoa | RNZ News

But it took nearly two years after the disasters for HUD to sign off on any of the state’s proposals to respond to the 2017 wildfires. Last week, more than two years after the 2018 wildfires, federal officials finally authorized the state’s plans for that year’s relief efforts. Source: California got $1.3 billion in fire relief. Victims? Nothing – Los Angeles Times

Source: Germany’s second wave of Covid-19 has been worse than the first

Source: For 42 million student loan borrowers, monthly payments resumes January