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Trays of Mail, Including Absentee Ballots, Found by Roadside in Wisconsin

Years of Near-Zero Interest Rates the Latest Bid to Spur Recovery in US, Canada

The Canadian and American central banks are pulling out all the stops to support the economic recovery, with the latest move being their indications that they expect to hold interest rates near zero over the next few years. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic persists, the hoped-for sustained revival in consumer borrowing and spending is anything but certain. In an unprecedented move on Sept. 16, the U.S. Federal Reserve said it doesn’t expect to raise its key interest rate until 2023, providing a very powerful signal that near-zero rates are here to stay for a long time.  A week earlier, the Bank of Canada had said, “The Governing Council will hold the policy interest rate at the effective lower bound [0.25 percent] until economic slack is absorbed so that the 2…

Trays of Mail, Including Absentee Ballots, Found by Roadside in Wisconsin

Trays of mail were found along a Wisconsin road on Tuesday, including absentee ballots, local authorities said, according to reports.

Police in Greenville said three trays of mail were discovered near Appleton International Airport, according to WLUK.

The Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office was cited by the outlet as saying that the mail, found in a ditch, was turned over to the United States Postal Service (USPS).

An investigation has been launched into how the mail, which the sheriff’s office told the Washington Examiner was “mail going to the post office,” ended up in a roadside ditch.

“The United States Postal Inspection Service immediately began investigating, and we reserve further comment on this matter until that is complete,” USPS spokesman Bob Sheehan told WLUK.

It was not immediately known how many pieces of mail were involved in the incident.

Concerns about mishandled or missing ballots have arisen as more states are encouraging mail-in voting amid the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus outbreak.

President Donald Trump has criticized universal mail-in voting this November, claiming it opens the door to election fraud. He has distinguished between states that automatically send mail ballots to all registered voters and those, like Florida, that only send them to voters who request a mail ballot.

In remarks at a White House press conference Wednesday, the president denounced large-scale vote-by-mail initiatives, saying, “the ballots are out of control,” adding: “I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster.”

Attorney General William Barr, in an interview on CNN several weeks ago, claimed that a system in which mail-in ballots are distributed widely is “very open to fraud and coercion,” calling it “reckless and dangerous,” and “playing with fire.” Asked about the lack of evidence for “widespread” fraud, Barr argued that this may be because “we haven’t had the kind of ‘widespread’ use of mail-in ballots that is being proposed.”

Trays of Mail, Including Absentee Ballots, Found by Roadside in Wisconsin

So far, nine states and the District of Columbia plan to hold universal mail-in elections, in which ballots are automatically mailed to all registered voters without the need for voters to first request a ballot. Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington were the only universal vote-by-mail states prior to the pandemic. They have recently been joined by California, Nevada, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. In addition, Montana, North Dakota, and Nebraska let individual counties decide whether to mail ballots to all registered voters.

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Focus News: Trays of Mail, Including Absentee Ballots, Found by Roadside in Wisconsin

Facebook Removes Fake Chinese Accounts That Posted on US Election, Spread Beijing Propaganda

Facebook has shut down more than 180 fake accounts, groups, pages, and Instagram accounts that it determined to be run in China, which posted content on the U.S. presidential election and spread Beijing’s talking points on a range of topics, from the South China Sea to Hong Kong protests. The U.S. social media giant announced the takedown in a blog post published on Sept. 22, saying that these accounts were a violation of its rule against “coordinated inauthentic behavior on behalf of a foreign or government entity.” In total, 155 Facebook accounts, 11 pages, nine groups, and six Instagram accounts were shut down. The Instagram app is owned by Facebook. Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy and author of the blog post, explained that while people behind these accounts…