The nation in brief

Biden out-raises president in 2nd quarter

ATLANTA -- Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden outpaced President Donald Trump's campaign fundraising juggernaut in June and in the second quarter of this election year, continuing the Biden campaign's reversal of fortune from its threadbare primary campaign.

The former vice president's spokesman said Tuesday that Biden and the Democratic National Committee raised $141 million in June, bringing their second-quarter total to more than $282 million.

Republicans announced earlier Tuesday that Trump and the national GOP had raised $131 million in June and $266 million for the quarter. The president's reelection effort still had nearly $300 million cash on hand at the end of June, the campaign said.

Biden's campaign has not yet disclosed its cash-on-hand figure, though it will be well behind Trump's figure. At the end of May, Democrats had about $122 million.

Top Biden aides and allies have downplayed that gap in recent weeks, noting that Trump already has spent lavishly on advertising and voter outreach, yet still finds himself trailing Biden in national and many battleground state polls.

Trump niece cleared to publish book

NEW YORK -- A New York appeals court has cleared the way for a publisher to distribute a tell-all book by President Donald Trump's niece over the objections of the president's brother.

The New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division said late Wednesday it was lifting a temporary restraining order that a judge put on Simon & Schuster a day earlier that sought to block distribution of "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man."

Although the book was scheduled to be published on July 28, Simon & Schuster said thousands of copies of the 75,000-copy first run of the book had already been sent to bookstores and others.

The appeals ruling, written by Judge Alan D. Scheinkman, left in place restraints against Mary Trump, the book's author and the president's niece, after the president's brother, Robert Trump, said she agreed not to write about their relationships without permission.

Robert Trump had sued Mary Trump to block publication of a book promoted to contain an "insider's perspective" of "countless holiday meals," "family interactions" and "family events."

In his ruling, Scheinkman made clear the court was not considering the publisher to be an agent, though that issue could be decided in further proceedings at the lower court.

In court papers, the publisher said it was not aware of an agreement between Mary Trump and her relatives until she was sued.

Former youth center staff charged in death

KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- Three former Michigan youth center staff members charged in the death of a Black teenager who was restrained after throwing a sandwich have been arraigned.

Michael Mosley of Battle Creek and Heather McLogan of Kalamazoo turned themselves in Wednesday to authorities and appeared in Kalamazoo County District Court on involuntary manslaughter and second-degree child abuse charges.

A third former employee of Lakeside Academy in Kalamazoo, Zachary Solis of Lansing, was arraigned Tuesday after turning himself in.

They were charged last week in the May 1 death of 16-year-old Cornelius Fredericks.

Authorities have said Fredericks went into cardiac arrest April 29 while being restrained. He was hospitalized but died two days later. A doctor who performed an autopsy said Fredericks had been restrained on the ground, resulting in asphyxia.

Mosley, 47, and Solis, 28, are accused of restraining Fredericks in a "grossly negligent manner," Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting said last week. McLogan, 48, is accused of gross negligence for allegedly failing to seek medical care for the teen in a timely manner. Each was released on bond.

Harley-Davidson cuts ties with dealer

MILWAUKEE -- Harley-Davidson said it is pulling its Facebook ads for the month of July and severing ties with a Tennessee dealership whose owner was accused of posting racist comments on social media disparaging Black Lives Matter protesters.

The post was made on the Facebook page of Abernathy's Cycles, a Union City, Tenn., motorcycle and ATV dealership, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Thursday.

"I'm sick of this black lives matter," read the post, which also called for Black people to go "back to Africa and stay."

The dealership's owner, Russell Abernathy II, told Jackson, Tenn., TV station WBBJ that he did not make the posts and that his account was hacked.

"The derogatory nature of the comment in no way aligns with my personal beliefs or that of Harley-Davidson Motor Co. It personally saddens me that this post has caused such wide-reaching pain to those that have already been subject to so many social injustices," he wrote in a statement posted on the company's website.'

However, Harley Davidson Inc., headquartered in Milwaukee, said on Wednesday that the Tennessee company would no longer be part of its dealer network.

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