monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Updated at 8:26 a.m. ET

Republican Troy Balderson held a narrow lead over Democrat Danny O'Connor in a hotly-contested Ohio special congressional election, with outstanding provisional and absentee ballots still to be counted.

Even if Balderson secures victory in the end, the result is sending the GOP warning signs for what's to come in November.

Balderson leads O'Connor by 1,754 votes, or just under one percent of all votes cast. According to Ohio's secretary of state, there are 3,435 provisional ballots to be counted and 5,048 outstanding absentee ballots — and those ballots cannot be counted until at least Aug. 18.

The results will likely not be certified until at least Aug. 24, based on deadlines set by the Ohio secretary of state's office. If the final margin is within 0.5 percent, an automatic recount would be triggered under Ohio law.

Regardless of who wins, Balderson and O'Connor will face a rematch in the regular election for the seat in November.

In Kansas, another top Trump ally is in a neck-and-neck race. Secretary of State Kris Kobach leads incumbent Gov. Jeff Colyer in the GOP gubernatorial primary by less than 800 votes.

By a 2-to-1 margin, Missouri voters also resoundingly rejected a so-called "right to work" law passed by the GOP state legislature which prohibited unions from charging fees for workers they represented who didn't want to pay. After the state legislature passed the law, Democrats and labor groups organized a large signature campaign to put it on the ballot.

Robert McCulloch's 28-year run as St. Louis County's elected prosecutor came to a stunning end Tuesday when he was upset by a Ferguson councilman who promised to reform the criminal justice system.

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This was the first time McCulloch had faced a challenger since the Ferguson protests that erupted over the killing of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer in August 2014. Protesters criticized his office for its handling of the grand jury inquiry into the killing of Brown. The grand jury brought no charges against Officer Darren Wilson.

Robert McCulloch's 28-year run as St. Louis County's elected prosecutor came to a stunning end Tuesday when he was upset by a Ferguson councilman who promised to reform the criminal justice system.

<snip>

This was the first time McCulloch had faced a challenger since the Ferguson protests that erupted over the killing of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer in August 2014. Protesters criticized his office for its handling of the grand jury inquiry into the killing of Brown. The grand jury brought no charges against Officer Darren Wilson.

The number of migrant families taken into custody along the U.S. border with Mexico remained nearly unchanged from June to July, according to government data released Wednesday, an indication the Trump administration’s controversial move to separate thousands of parents and children did little to deter others from attempting the journey.

U.S. border agents arrested 9,258 “family units,” along America’s southwest border last month, down slightly from 9,434 in June and 9,485 in May.

The administration cited a springtime surge of parents crossing illegally with children as justification for its “zero tolerance” initiative, which led to the separation of approximately 2,500 families between May 5 and June 20, when public outcry forced President Trump to end the practice.

Since then some of the policy’s defenders have argued the separations would have had a stronger deterrent effect if allowed more time. They insist its true impact would not be apparent until word of the crackdown had spread to rural Central America, prompting parents to reconsider their travel plans.

But the July arrest totals released Wednesday suggest the separations made little difference. While families continued to arrive at roughly the same rate, the number of unaccompanied minors taken into custody dropped from 5,093 in June to 3,938 in July, even though that group wasn’t a target of the “zero tolerance” crackdown.

A senior official at the Department of Homeland Security said the agency hasn’t concluded why there were fewer apprehensions of unaccompanied minors. But the official noted that, in July, family groups accounted for a larger share of unauthorized border-crossers — 29.6 percent.

“The fact that we’re unable to detain family units is attracting more people to cross as family groups,” said the official, referring to court-imposed limits on the government’s ability to keep migrant children in detention for longer than 20 days.

In total, U.S. agents took 39,953 migrants into custody along the border in July, down from 42,838 the previous month. Those figures were significantly lower than the 50,000 or more arrests made each month in March, April and May, an increase that left President Trump fuming at Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and demanding tougher measures.

By a 2-to-1 margin, Missouri voters also resoundingly rejected a so-called "right to work" law passed by the GOP state legislature which prohibited unions from charging fees for workers they represented who didn't want to pay. After the state legislature passed the law, Democrats and labor groups organized a large signature campaign to put it on the ballot.

The percentage of the country's wealth that goes to the top 1% keeps increasing year by year and the percentage that goes to the 99% keeps getting smaller

Obama got through a law which provides health care for people in jobs which don't offer it-disproportionately lower income jobs.

And you try to portray Obama as being against improvements in race relations?