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This story is co-published with WNYC.

President Donald Trump’s recent musings about staging his Republican National Convention speech at the White House drew criticism from government ethics watchdogs and even one Republican senator, John Thune of South Dakota.

The suggestion wasn’t an isolated blending of official presidential duties and the campaign. It was part of a yearslong pattern of disregarding such boundaries in the Trump White House. There is a law, called the Hatch Act, that prohibits most government officials from engaging in politicking in the course of their official work.

The law does not apply to the president or vice president. While other presidents took campaign advantage of the trappings of the office, something that came to be known as the “Rose Garden strategy,” they typically refrained from explicit electoral appeals or attacks on their opponents at official presidential events. Federal election law and measures governing appropriations prohibit using taxpayer dollars for electioneering.

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Click here to read their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

On Tuesday, former Vice President Joe Biden selected Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., as his vice presidential running mate. We’ve collected some of the best stories on Harris to get you up to speed on the candidate.

The 2020 Campaign Trail

“How Kamala Harris Went From ‘Female Obama’ to Fifth Place,” Politico, November 2019

Drawing on interviews with people inside and outside her campaign, Christopher Cadelago charted Harris’ parabolic bid for president, from its initial momentum to its floundering final month. He connects her past races, particularly her 2010 bid for California attorney general against Republican Steve Cooley, to help explain her present. Cadelago followed up in December for a look at how Harris’ campaign eventually unraveled, both financially and with clashing advisers.

PHOENIX – For any teen, getting a driver’s license is a rite of passage – a small taste of freedom in their adolescent lives.

But for Black teens in America the little bit of freedom that comes with car keys also comes with “the talk”: The time when Black parents sit their children down and explain to them what to do if stopped by a police officer.

It’s been happening for generations. Sometimes the talk comes earlier in life. Sometimes it’s in response to a headline-grabbing death of a Black person who had been stopped by police.

In the wake of recent deaths of Black people at the hands of police – George Floyd in Minneapolis, Dion Johnson and Muhammad Muhaymin Jr. in Phoenix and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, the latest in a history of such killings – Cronkite News asked Black leaders in Arizona to talk about the time they had the talk.

Tempe Mayor Corey Woods remembers details of “the talk” with his dad nearly three decades later. For Flagstaff Mayor Coral Evans, it brought memories of being talked to by her mother – then having the talk with her own daughter.

Arizona State University football coach Herm Edwards said the talk with his father was not one specific event but what he called a series of small life lessons. That was the case for Arizona Rep. Geraldine Peten, D-Gila Bend, who knows that those are lessons and talks that will continue for generations to come.

LA PEÑITA, PANAMA – Salman Khan is 9,000 miles from his home country of Pakistan. He crossed one of the most dangerous jungles in the world. He sits in a squalid camp overseen by the Panamanian border patrol, unsure of what his future holds. But to Khan, Panama represents a path to freedom.

“I want to live a free life,” said Khan, who is gay and left Pakistan because he was persecuted. “So I leave. I fly.”

Two-thirds of the more than 22,000 migrants who in 2019 crossed the dangerous Darién Gap – a 60-mile wide, dense jungle along the border of Colombia and Panama – are from Haiti and Cuba.

But surprisingly, migrants from far-flung places in Asia account for the next-largest group to brave the Darién. Most hope to eventually land in the U.S and Canada. During the crossing, they encounter wild animals, venomous snakes, challenging terrain and human predators.

According to Panama’s National Migration Service, Asians made up 21% of the 87,191 migrants detained by SENAFRONT, Panama’s border patrol, during an eight-year period.

“We have started to see an increase in migrants from African countries and Asia,” SENAFRONT Director General Oriel Ortega Benitez said. “From 2014 until now, migration flows have been massive.”

The third, fourth and fifth-largest populations of migrants came from Nepal, India and Bangladesh, respectively, from 2010-2018.

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Click here to read their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans.

Since March, the Trump administration has pushed thousands of migrant children back to their home countries without legal screenings or protection, citing the risk that they could be carrying COVID-19 into the United States.

But by the time the children are boarded on planes home, they’ve already been tested for the virus — and proven not to have it.

Court documents, and information given by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to congressional staff last week, reveal that the Trump administration has agreed to test every child in its custody before sending them back to their home countries under the expulsion policy.

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As of this morning, Pima County has just a few thousand ballots left to count.

County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez had completed signature checks on the ballots that arrived by mail and had shipped them over to the Elections Department to tabulate them.

Rodriguez still had about 3,000 provisional ballots to review.

Given the small number of ballots left to count, it appears that every race in Pima County has been resolved except for the Ovo Valley Town Council, where third-place finisher Tim Bohen is leading fourth-place finisher Bill Rodman by just 74 votes.

In what remains the biggest shocker of the primary election, former state lawmaker Matt Heinz has knocked out Pima County Supervisor Ramon Valadez, who has served on the board since he was first appointed in 2003. Heinz, who also works as an emergency room doctor, captured 53 percent of the vote to Valadez’s 34 percent in District 2, which stretches from downtown Tucson to Sahuarita.

In the general election, Heinz will face Republican Anthony Sizer, who has previously run unsuccessfully for the Arizona Legislature.

In the four-way District 1 GOP primary to replace Republican Ally Miller, Steve Spain came out on top, winning 33 percent of the vote. A political newcomer who had the endorsement of Miller, Spain defeated Oro Valley Town Council member Rhonda Piña, former state lawmaker Vic Williams and former Pima County Republican Party chair Bill Beard.

Spain will now face Democratic candidate and former school administrator Rex Scott in the general election for this northside district that includes Marana, Oro Valley, Casas Adobes and the Catalina Foothills.

In District 3, Pima County Supervisor Sharon Bronson held off a primary challenge from Juan Padres, capturing 58 percent of the vote. She’ll face Republican Gabby Mercer in the general election.

In District 5, TUSD Board member Adelita Grijalva, daughter of Congressman Raul Grijalva, defeated Sunnyside School Board member Consuelo Hernandez. Grijalva, who captured 67 percent of the vote, will face Republican Fernando Gonzales in the race for the board seat formerly occupied by the late Richard Elias.

In District 4, Supervisor Steve Christy defeated challenger John Backer in the GOP primary with 65 percent of the vote. Christy will face Democrat Steve Diamond in this GOP-leaning district that includes Tucson’s east side, Vail and Green Valley.

In countywide races, Laura Conover won the Democratic primary for Pima County Attorney. The defense attorney captured 58 percent of the vote against two prosecutors who were seeking the office, Jonathan Mosher, who won 36 percent, and Mark Diebolt, who captured 6 percent.

In the Democratic primary for Pima County Sheriff, Chris Nanos, who was appointed the seat in 2015 but lost it after a procurement scandal erupted on his watch, captured 67 percent of the vote against Deputy Kevin Kubitskey, a union leader whose campaign erupted in scandal in July after his daughter accused him of abusing her.

Nanos’ win sets up a rematch against Republican Mark Napier, who defeated Nanos four years ago.

In the race between two Democrats who are seeking to replace the retiring F. Ann Rodriguez as Pima County's chief keeper of records, Gabriella Cázares-Kelly, an organizer with Indivisible Tohono, won 64 percent of the vote against Kim Challender, who has worked as Rodriguez’s chief deputy.

Cázares-Kelly will face Republican Benny White, a longtime GOP activist who has served on the county's Election Integrity Commission.

In the primary to replace the retiring Assessor Bill Staples, Suzanne Drobie won 58 percent of the vote against Brian Johnson and Dustin Walters. She faces no Republican opposition for the seat.

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The Pima County Recorder’s Office’s most recent election results show a razor-thin margin between the five candidates seeking three seats on the Oro Valley Town Council.

As of 2 p.m. today, incumbent Councilmember Steve Solomon leads the race with 7,360 votes (20.49 percent). Newcomer Harry “Mo” Greene is second with 7,355 votes (20.48 percent), Tim Bohen is third with 7,159 votes (19.93 percent) and Councilmember Bill Rodman is close behind with 7,085 votes (19.73 percent). Candidate Bill Garner trails behind with 6,955 votes (19.37 percent).

While an unknown number of votes remain to be counted, it is shaping up to be Solomon, Greene and Bohen’s victory.

Councilmembers Rodman and Solomon ran for re-election on a campaign that promised experienced leadership during the COVID-19 crisis. Newcomer Harry “Mo” Greene is running alongside them to fill the seat left vacant by exiting councilmember Rhonda Piña (who is running for Pima County Supervisor).

Challenging Greene, Rodman and Solomon are former council member Garner and political newcomer Bohen. Garner was voted out of council in 2016 and made an unsuccessful bid for an appointed spot on the Marana Town Council in 2018.

Bohen believes the town council culture was greatly improved after the 2018 election. He and Garner favor conservative economic development with an interest in extensive resident involvement as opposed to a more streamlined review process.

Earlier today, Solomon told Tucson Local Media that he was pleased with the early results of the election, but disappointed that Rodman is currently behind Bohen by just 53 votes. He hopes to see a shift in Rodman’s favor once all votes are counted.

Rodman said that it is still too early to comment on the election results since some ballots remain uncounted, but said it is interesting how close this race turned out to be.

“I’ve been involved in the town for 15 years and I plan to stay involved in the future,” Rodman told Tucson Local Media. “We’re at a time in the town where we’ve got to make some decisions about what we’re going to be when we grow up and so I think I want to be part of that whether it’s me on the council or as a citizen and a resident.”

Other candidates in the Oro Valley election were not immediately available for comment.

This post has been updated with new vote tallies released this afternoon.