The Weekly Town Crier (07/23/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (07/23/21).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Rapper Biz Markie dies” at The Hill.

Read “Byron Berline, Master of the Bluegrass Fiddle, Dies at 77” at New York Times.

Religion and Stuff:Human Rights/Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Sikhs, finding religious freedom on the road, take outsize role in American trucking” at Religious News Service.

Read “John Piper’s Successor Latest to Resign as Allegations of Abusive Leadership Mount at Bethlehem Baptist” at Roys Report.

Read “Why God is still the best scientific theory to explain our life on Earth” at New York Post.

Read “Despite white Christianity’s role in Capitol assault, some signs of hope and change” at Religion News Service.

Read “Is evangelical Christianity a religious movement, or is it something else?” at Current.

Read “The Six Way Fracturing of Evangelicalism” at Mere Orthodoxy.

Read “House panel rejects SBC-backed Hyde Amendment” at Baptist Press.

Read “Women’s Search for Women Leaders in the Early Church” at Daily JSTOR. “Some nineteenth-century women writers argued that the first Christians included women who were close to Paul—and maybe apostles themselves.”

Read “David Platt’s dreams for McLean Bible Church sour as members file lawsuit over elder vote” at Religion News Service. “Platt, the best-selling author of ‘Radical’ and beloved Bible preacher, finds his church facing controversy over critical race theory.”

Read “12 Women File Lawsuit vs Liberty U for Unsafe Environment, “Enabling On-Campus Rapes”” at Roys Report.

Read “Florida Youth Pastor Arrested 3rd Time for Video Voyeurism” at Roys Report.

Read “Among Mormon Women, Frank Talk About Sacred Underclothes” at New York Times. ““People are scared to be brutally honest, to say: ‘This isn’t working for me. It isn’t bringing me closer to Christ, it’s giving me U.T.I.s.’” Interesting story on Mormon women pushing for changes to their (often itchy, non breathable) holy undergarments:”

Read “Sanctifying the Status Quo: A Response to Reverend Kevin DeYoung” at Front Porch.

  • Read “Distinctively Christian? An Additional Response to Reverend Kevin DeYoung” at Front Porch.

Read “White Christian America built a faith-based safety net. What happens when it’s gone?” at Religion News Service.

Read “Evangelical' Prof’s ‘Biblical Comma’ Tweet Exposes Paradox of ‘Respectable’ Evangelical Anti-Intellectualism” at Religion Dispatches.

Read “UMC edges toward historic split over LGBTQ inclusion. This church showed the way.” at Religion News Service. “Community of Hope was founded in 1993 as an outreach to ‘people on the margin,’ including LGBTQ people and people living with HIV/AIDS, according to its former pastor.”

Read “Catholic priest who wants to prevent Biden from receiving communion resigns in sex scandal” at Boing Boing.

Read “In-Laws of Mark Driscoll’s Children & Key Pastor: ‘Cultic’ Church Is Dividing Families” at Roys Report.

  • Read “Postcards from Phoenix: When Church Divides a Family” at Warren Throckmorton.

Read “Former Pastor at Florida Megachurch Charged with Grooming & Sexually Molesting Young Girl” at Roys Report.

Human Rights/Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Federal judge declares DACA program illegal, but halts only new applications” at NBC News.

Read “Biden administration invites UN experts on racism to visit U.S. in bid to combat racial injustice”

Read “Voting Rights Activists Are Planning a Selma-Style March in Texas” at Vice.

Read “Alabama city leader won't quit after using racial slur” at Yahoo.

Read “Harvey Weinstein, Convicted Rapist, Claims He Didn't Rape Anyone in LA’” at Vice. “On Wednesday, Weinstein pleaded not guilty to 11 sexual assault charges.”

Read “Texas Starts Jailing Immigrants on State Charges After Crossing U.S. Border” at Democracy Now.

Read “U.S. Won’t Seek Death Penalty in 7 Cases, Signaling a Shift Under Biden” at New York Times.

Read “Mississippi's attorney general asks Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade” at The Hill.

Read “Giuliani being investigated over Turkish lobbying” at ABC News.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “Two men charged in alleged scheme to attack Democratic headquarters in Sacramento inspired by Trump defeat, DOJ says” at CNN.

Read “Father and son police officers charged with joining Proud Boys at Capitol riot” at The Hill.

Read “Garland bars prosecutors from seizing reporters' records” at Yahoo.

Read “Anti-Jewish manifesto found on California man arrested with ammo, high-powered weapons” at Forward.

Read “Men accused of Whitmer kidnapping plot say FBI set them up” at The Hill.

Read “Prosecutors say 'incel' planned mass shooting of sorority members on Ohio college campus” at The Hill.

Read “Pelosi Says Jan. 6 Panel To Move Ahead Without GOP’s Choices” at Huff Post.

  • Read “In Trump’s Jan. 6 recast, attackers become martyrs, heroes” at Associated Press.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio pleads guilty in Black Lives Matter banner burning” at AZ Central.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Police officers treat Black and white men differently. You can hear it in their tone of voice” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “The case of the mugshot with the missing tattoos concludes on hopeful note: ‘It’s like hitting the lottery’” at Oregon Live.

Read “Rapid City Police Officer Let Go After Racially Profiling Native Americans” at SDBP.

Read “NYC's Non-Police Mental Health Pilot Increasing Rate of Those Getting Aid, Data Show” at NBC New York.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “What the Author of the Poem “White Privilege” Thinks of a Teacher Getting Fired for Showing It to His Class” at Slate. “I know that it was just a terrible excuse for their discomfort,” said Kyla Jenee Lacey.

Read “Texas “critical race theory” bill limiting teaching of current events signed into law” at Texas Tribune. “Texas is one of a handful of states that have approved legislation that prescribes how teachers discuss current events and prohibits students from receiving credit for participating in civic activities.”

  • Read “Texas Senate Bill Drops Teaching Requirement That Ku Klux Klan Is ‘Morally Wrong’” at Huff Post. “Eliminated requirements also include the writings of Martin Luther King Jr., United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez and suffragist Susan B. Anthony.”

Read “California to provide free school meals for all students” at The Hill.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Delta Is Driving a Wedge Through Missouri” at The Atlantic. “For America as a whole, the pandemic might be fading. For some communities, this year will be worse than last.”

Read “Biden says platforms like Facebook are ‘killing people’ with COVID-19 misinformation” at The Verge.

Read “High-Profile COVID-19 Cases Are Disrupting Olympic Rosters And MLB Games” at NPR.

Read “World-renowned St. Jude children's hospital tells employees: Get vaccinated or get fired” at The Blaze.

Read “Music festival in the Netherlands leads to over 1,000 Covid infections” at CNBC.

Read “L.A. residents torn as mask mandate takes effect” at Yahoo.

Read “Federal judge will not block Indiana University's vaccine mandate” at The Hill.

Read “Federal appeals court to consider whether Michigan students can be required to wear masks” at Michigan Radio.

Read “Prisoners Keep Dying of COVID While ‘Compassionate Releases’ Stall in Court” at Vice.

Read “Unvaccinated Trump supporter who spread coronavirus conspiracy theories dies of COVID-19” at Raw Story.

Read the opinion piece: “Fox News' Covid vaccine denials can't go unpunished.”

Read “‘I’m sorry, but it’s too late’ Alabama doctor on treating unvaccinated, dying COVID patients” at AL.com. “One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late.”

Read “Tokyo hits six-month high in COVID-19 cases one day before Olympics begin” at The Hill.

Read “Guinea withdraws from Olympics, citing COVID-19” at The Hill.

Read “More Variants Are Coming, and the U.S. Isn’t Ready to Track Them” at Bloomberg.

Read “Klobuchar Takes Aim at Online Covid Lies With Section 230 Bill” at Bloomberg. “Senator Amy Klobuchar introduces a bill to make online platforms like Facebook and Twitter legally liable for misinformation about health issues such as Covid-19.”

Read “COVID-19 is surging again in Arizona, ASU disease expert says” at AZ Central.

Read “The New COVID Panic” at Slate. “What vaccinated people should really know about their risk from the delta variant.”

Read “NFL warns teams that COVID-19 outbreaks could lead to forfeits in 2021” at ABC 15.

Read “Under HIPAA Rules, Can Businesses Ask If You Have Been Vaccinated Against COVID-19?” at Snopes. “Where does HIPAA's privacy rule apply?”

Read “More than 1.5 million children lost a primary or secondary caregiver due to the COVID-19 pandemic” at NIH.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Dr. Anthony Fauci named 2021 Humanist of the Year” at Religion News Service. “The American Humanist Association awarded the honor to Fauci for embodying humanist values in the global fight against COVID-19.”

Read “Twitter Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene For COVID Misinformation” at News and Guts.

Read “Deion Sanders Scolds Reporter For Calling Him ‘Deion’ And Walks Away” at Huff Post. “The Jackson State football coach, a Hall of Fame retired pro, griped that the journalist was being “cute.”

Read “The Inevitable Weaponization of App Data Is Here” at Vice.

Read “Mercedes-Benz going all-electric by 2025” at The Hill.

Read “Controversial USPS Plan To Slow The Mail Slammed By Postal Regulator” at Forbes.

Read “Hundreds Demonstrated Against Poverty at Apollo 11 Moon Launch” at Space.

Read “Surprise Jump in Unemployment Claims Shows U.S. Labor Market Churn” at Time.

Read “Female Soldiers Are Getting New Body Armor Designed Just For Them” at NPR.

Read “A Defunct Video Hosting Site Is Flooding Normal Websites With Hardcore Porn” at Vice. “Stories on major news sites like ‘The Washington Post,’ and ‘New York Magazine’ currently have porn embedded in them.”

Internationalities:

Read “U.S. blames China for Microsoft hack” at World.

Read “‘Mom, I Don’t Think I Can Make It’: Inside the Subway Train Flooded by Extreme Rainfall” at Vice. “At least 12 people died in the subway system as a record-breaking rainstorm hit central China.”

Read “US House passes bill to provide 8,000 special visas for Afghans” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Room for 10,000: Inside China’s largest detention center” at Religion News Service. “This site suggests that China still holds and plans to hold vast numbers of Uyghurs and other minorities in detention.”

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Matt Gaetz’s ‘America First’ Rally Dumped By Third California Venue Hours Before Event” at Huff Post. “In last-ditch attempt, Gaetz asked supporters to join him outside Riverside City Hall to “protest against communism.”

Read “Biden's silence on filibuster strains Democrats' patience” at The Hill.

Read “Tech executives increased political donations amid lobbying push” at The Hill.

Read “American Dental Association Bares Teeth, Extracts Funding for Paul Gosar” at Vice.

Read “Senate Democrats propose requiring women to register for military draft” at Politico.

  • Read “Senate panel votes to make women register for draft” at The Hill.

Read “Sparse Voter-Fraud Cases Undercut Claims of Widespread Abuses” at Bloomberg.

Read “Democrats criticize FBI's handling of tip line in Kavanaugh investigation” at The Hill.

Read “Kyrsten Sinema’s Strategy of Refusing to Do Anything About Anything Is Not Impressing Voters, Poll Says” at Slate. “Arizona offers a natural experiment in whether people would rather see a Democrat hold out for Republican cooperation or just pass stuff they like.”

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “A false narrative of 74K extra votes in Arizona” at Associated Press.

Read “Elements of Trump's Big Lie sound alarms for students of history” at MSNBC.

Read “Republicans renege on deal with Democrats, strip funding for IRS in gift to rich tax cheats” at Salon.

Read “Trump campaign really did pay fake supporters to attend 2015 campaign launch, aide admits” at MSNBC.

Read “Trump still says the election was rigged (it wasn't)” at MSNBC.

Read “GOP Rep. Cawthorn Claims House Republicans Will ‘Prosecute’ Fauci For Doing His Job” at Huff Post. “We want to prosecute this guy to the full ability of the law,” the North Carolina congressman told a right-wing website.”

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Britney Spears Posts Fiery, Brutally Honest Response to Critics on Social Media” at Pop Culture.

Read “Yasmin Williams: A New Voice in Fingerstyle Guitar” at Premier Guitar.

Read “Johnny Rotten sued by ex-Sex Pistols members over upcoming miniseries” at Brooklyn Vegan.

  • Read “John Lydon likens contract at heart of Sex Pistols legal dispute to “slavery”” at NME. “Lydon is being sued by his former bandmates after refusing to grant permission for Sex Pistols music to be used in Danny Boyle's 'Pistol'.

Read “Faces are recording their first new music in four decades” at NME.

Read “Def Jam appears to confirm rumours of new Kanye West album after Las Vegas listening event” at NME.

Read “Olympics Opening Ceremony Composer Steps Down And Apologizes For Bullying” at NPR. “Japanese musician Keigo Oyamada, who performs under the name Cornelius, has resigned from the Tokyo Olympics after being criticized on social media for having bullied children with disabilities while he was himself a student.”

Read “Music Was Key Coping Tool During Lockdown, Says Survey” at The Quietus.

Read “‘Woodstock 99’ Documentary Clip: That ‘Mud’? It’s Shit” at Rolling Stone. “HBO’s Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage focuses on infamous music festival.”

Browse Vice’s picks for “16 Essential Albums You May Have Missed in 2021.”

Read “What Will Happen to My Music Library When Spotify Dies?” at Atlantic.

Read “Farm Aid Announces 2021 Lineup With Willie Nelson, Neil Young, & More” at Stereogum.

Read “Remembering the Phoenix rockabilly star behind 'the most important record ever cut here'“ at Arizona Central.

Browse “A Brief History of Philly Psych” at Bandcamp.

Read “Inside Sun Ra’s 1971 trip to Egypt” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “When a loudmouthed DJ tried to kill disco, the homophobic and racist implications were impossible to ignore’ at Timeline.

Read “The Sounds of Struggle” at Boston Review. “Sixty years ago, a pathbreaking jazz album from Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, and Oscar Brown, Jr., fused politics and art in the fight for Black liberation. Today many Black artists—women at the forefront—are taking similar strides.”

Read “Are You Relivin’ the Years?: How Steely Dan Became a Cult Favorite for Millennials” at The Ringer.

Read “Don Cherry on creativity and “the mysticism of sound” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “Hiss Golden Messenger :: Quietly Blowing It” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “From Soldier to Jazz Giant: The Life of Billy Bang” at Bandcamp.

Read “WILLOW's New Pop-Punk Album Comes From Her Mom's Wicked Wisdom” at NPR.

Read “Hyundai Mercury Prize 2021: Full Nominations Announced” at Clash Music.

Read “Yasiin Bey Steps Back From Thelonious Monk Biopic After Estate’s Disapproval” at Rolling Stone. ““I was given every indication by the production company that the family was on board,” rapper-actor says. “I took them at their word, and clearly that wasn’t the case.”

Read “Hall and Oates’ ‘Diddy Woo Wop (I Hear The Voices)’ Is The Most Sinister Kind of Earworm” at Treble.

Read “Eric Clapton Says He Won't Play Venues That Require COVID Vaccines” at NPR.

Read “Whitney Houston’s Hologram Is Coming to Las Vegas” at Rolling Stone.

Read “David Crosby On His New Album 'For Free' & Why His Twitter Account Is Actually Joyful” at Grammy.

Read “Buckcherry’s Josh Todd Wants To Front A Minor Threat Reunion” at Stereogum.

Browse JazzTimes’ picks for “JazzTimes 10: Great Albums of the Loft-Jazz Era.”

Read “Live Nation Offering $20 All-In Tickets to 1,000 Concerts As Part of Return to Live Promotion” at Consequence.

Read “The Roadrunner Director Made a Playlist Full of Anthony Bourdain's Favorite Music” at Esquire.

Read “Disc-go: Should you get rid of your CDs?” at The Guardian. “They’re ugly and they clog up your cupboards. But just like vinyl spun back into fashion, the compact disc could too.”

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “HBO apparently gave James Gandolfini $3 million to not do The Office” at AV Club. “The legacy of The Sopranos was apparently worth a lot of money to HBO.”

Read “Nicolas Cage on acting with a pig: "She was very, like many of us, payment-oriented"“ at AV Club. “The actor discusses the upcoming Pig and his love of animals in new interview.”

Read “The Anthony Bourdain documentary gets his #MeToo devotion all wrong” at The Week.

  • Read “Anthony Bourdain documentary sparks backlash for using AI to fake voice” at The Guardian.

  • Read “Why Roadrunner Director Morgan Neville Skipped Interviewing Asia Argento” at Vulture.

Read “Carl Sagan Tells Johnny Carson What’s Wrong with Star Wars: “They’re All White” & There’s a “Large Amount of Human Chauvinism in It” (1978)” at Open Culture.

Read “Dan Harmon still believes in a Community movie, despite the looming philosophical questions it poses” at AV Club. “The sitcom's creator says the "the gears are turning.”

Watch “15 Hours of The Pink Panther for Free” at Open Culture.

Read “When David Bowie Played Andy Warhol in Julian Schnabel’s Film, Basquiat” at Open Culture.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Spike Jonze’s Stop Motion Film Hauntingly Animates Paris’ Famed Shakespeare and Company Bookstore” at Open Culture.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “Jerry Garcia Family Partners With Yellowheart For NFT Collection” at American Songwriter.

Science/Health/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Two Rods and a ‘Sixth Sense’: In Drought, Water Witches are Swamped” at New York Times.

Read “Clinical Trial: Cannabis Extracts Effective for Refractory Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea” at NORML.

Read “UFOs over Northeast Michigan skies” at The Alpena News.

Read “No, You Beg Adopting used to be a good thing that good people could do. These days, you’re probably not good enough” at The Cut.

Read “Photo shared of acid-squirting 'land lobster from hell' found in US National Park” at The Hill.

Read “A powerful jet emerges from a black hole in unprecedented detail in new images” at Space.

Read “Bezos: Trip to space 'reinforces my commitment to climate change'“ at The Hill.

Read “US border agents seize 15 giant snails” at BBC.

Read “DeSantis dismisses calls for a red tide state of emergency” at Sun-Sentinel.

Read “Bin There, Done That: Scientists Learn How Cockatoos Learn To Lift Trash Lids” at Huff Post.

Read “Rare and beautiful blanket octopus caught on camera” at The Hill.

Read “Scientists discover 15,000-year-old viruses frozen in glacier ice” at CNET.

Read “Enactment of Adult-Use Marijuana Legalization Associated with Immediate, But Temporary Reductions in Opioid-Related Emergency Room Visits” at NORML.

Food And Drink Cultures:

Read “Meet the Italian Brothers Who Grew the World’s Biggest Cherry” at Gastro Obscura.

Misc. Oddities:

Read ‘The Hilarious History of 'OK'“ at Merriam Webster.

Local:

Read “Few Arizona voter fraud cases undercut Trump's claims” at ABC 15.

Read “Advocates Call For Arizona To Give Federal Funds To Former Foster Care Youth” at KJZZ.

Read “Desert in distress? New study ranks Arizona as worst place to live in 2021” ABC 15.

Read “AZDHS Director Says Arizona School Quarantine Policies Are Appropriate In Some Cases” at KJZZ.

The Weekly Town Crier (07/16/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (07/23/21).


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We’ll Miss You:

Read “Paul Orndorff Dies: Wrestling Legend Known As “Mr. Wonderful” Who Fought In 1st WrestleMania Was 71” at Yahoo.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “The Rapid Decline of White evangelical America?” at Washington Post.

  • Read “What is a mainline Christian, anyway?” at Religion News Service.

  • Read “Why It’s Unlikely US Mainline Protestants Outnumber Evangelicals” at Religion Unplugged.

  • Read this 2020 piece “The Power Worshippers: A look inside the American religious right” at Al Jazeera.

Read “QAnon moves into the shadows but movement remains active” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Southern Baptist Convention sparks small COVID-19 cluster in Nashville” at Tennessean.

Read “Santa Fe Church Forgives Entire State of New Mexico Medical Debt” at Episcopal News.

Read “SBC President Ed Litton Announces Task Force to Review Mishandling of Abuse Allegations” at Roys Report.

Read “Family loses appeal in lawsuit over priest’s funeral remarks” at Religion News Service. “A priest who criticized a teenager's suicide during his funeral is protected by the First Amendment.”

Read “Atheist and humanist groups sue Mississippi over state’s ‘In God We Trust’ license plate” at Religion News Service. “The suit says car owners have to choose between displaying the state’s standard license tag, with the words ‘In God We Trust,’ on their vehicles or paying an additional fee to display a special tag of their choice.”

Read the opinion piece: “Why are White Evangelicals embracing an anti-democratic movement? Because they’re panicking” at Washington Post.

Read “Church leaders arrested on sex-related charges involving minors” at Baptist Press.

Read “MAGA Pastor Jackson Lahmeyer Discovers the Downside of QAnon” at Right Wing Watch.

Read “United Methodist Church Seizes Assets of Conservative Georgia Megachurch” at Roys Report.

Human Rights/Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Biden administration bars ICE from detaining pregnant or nursing women” at CBS News.

Read “Police investigating child’s death at Maggie’s Farm in Manitou Springs” at KRDO. “Two Colorado parents were arrested and charged with "criminally negligent child abuse resulting in death" after their 4-year-old son unintentionally shot and killed himself while left unattended in a car in Manitou Springs.”

Read “Previous ACLU: Miami Correctional inmates lived in total darkness, frequently shocked” at Okaloosa.com.

Read “Federal court blocks Tennessee's anti-trans bathroom law from going into effect” at Business Insider.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “White nationalists prep for "physical" altercation with security at Dallas CPAC conference” at Salon.

Read “Charlottesville begins taking down Confederate statues” at CNN.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Officers sue California city over Black Lives Matter mural” at AZ Family.

Read “Cop Accused of Hiding Stepson’s Body in a Hole in the Wall of His Home” at Vice.

Read “All DPS Troopers To Get Body Cameras, But Arizona Limits Release Of Video” at KJZZ.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Arizona governor signs bill to prohibit critical race theory teaching” at The Hill.

  • Read “What Is Critical Race Theory, and Why Is Everyone Talking About It?” at Columbia.edu.

  • Read “Nikki Haley calls on 'every governor' in US to ban funding for critical race theory in public schools” at Yahoo.

Read “Tears, politics and money: School boards become battle zones” at Associated Press.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Rand Paul, Fellow GOPers Fighting Mask Mandate On Airplanes” at News and Guts.

Read “'Surprising amount of death' will soon occur in these US regions from increased Covid-19 cases, expert says” at CNN.

Read “Canada donating AstraZeneca doses to other countries” at The Hill.

Read “Anti-vaxx nurse dies from COVID-19 in Louisiana” at Raw Story.

Read “Tennessee abandons vaccine outreach to minors — not just for COVID-19” at Tennessean.

Read “Surgeon general warns of dangers of misinformation amid misleading vaccine claims” at CNN.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Tobacco group Philip Morris buys maker of inhalers” at Economic Times. “US cigarette giant Philip Morris said Friday that it has agreed to buy Vectura, a UK company making breathing inhalers, as part of a push into healthcare.”

Read the opinion piece “Only the Rich Could Love This Economic Recovery” at New York Times.

Read “Rachael Denhollander: Let's channel our anger over the FBI and Nassar and save the children” at USA Today.

Internationalities:

Read “US sanctions a Chinese facial recognition company with Silicon Valley funding” at The Verge.

Read “Biden Tells Putin Russia Must Crack Down On Cybercriminals” at Huff Post. “U.S. President Joe Biden warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that he must “take action” against criminals within his country.”

Read “Haitian police: Foreign hit squad killed President Moïse” at PRI The World.

Read “UK mom killed hubby with boiling water for allegedly sexually abusing her kids” at New York Post.

Read the opinion piece “Abolish the Olympics” at The New Republic. “They’ve long been a financial boondoggle that ruins lives and enriches the corporate class. This year, they might also spread a deadly Covid variant among a largely unvaccinated population.”

Read “World disgusted by racist abuse toward players” at The Hill.

Read “South Africa Deploys Army to Contain Unrest Over Former President Zuma’s Arrest” at Wall Street Journal.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Why Toyota's reversal on Republican financial support matters” at MSNBC News.

Read “Senate Democrats Announce $3.5 Trillion Budget Agreement” at NPR.

Read “Schumer: Marijuana legalization will be a Senate priority” at The Hill.

Read “Democratic Senators Call for Investigation of Tax Avoidance by the Ultrawealthy” at Pro Publica. “Calling ProPublica’s Secret IRS Files series a “bombshell,” Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Sheldon Whitehouse demanded an investigation into how the rich use “legal tax loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of income taxes.”

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Dissension in AZGOP as Trump dumps Ducey” at AZ Capitol Times.

Read Greg Abbott Says Fleeing Texas Democrats 'Will Be Arrested' When They Return to State” at Newsweek.

Read “Kremlin papers appear to show Putin’s plot to put Trump in White House” at The Guardian.

Read “USA Today Investigation Links Ducey With Efforts To Extract $100M In Tax Refunds” at KJZZ.

Read ‘Democratic Rep. Beatty arrested while calling for Senate action on voting rights” at Yahoo.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “The Creative Urge: John Coltrane on Perseverance Against Rejection, the Innovator’s Mindset, and How Hardship Fuels Art” at Brain Pickings.

Read “The Residents Announce 50th Anniversary Tour” at Consequence.

Read “Iggy Pop to Narrate King Tutankhamun Documentary” at Pitchfork.

Read “Grateful Dead’s best album is ‘In the Dark’ – even if Deadheads won't admit it” at Herald-Tribune.

Read “Why Are Independent Artists and Labels Turning Away From Vinyl?” at Pitchfork. “Faced with interminable manufacturing delays, some of music’s DIY players are giving up on the beloved format.”

Read “Heartbreakers Keyboardist Benmont Tench Talks ‘She’s the One,’ Life After Tom Petty” at Rolling Stone.

Read “UK Lawmakers Call for Sweeping Reform to Streaming Payouts” at Pitchfork.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Hannity tells fans to 'take their sports back' by singing national anthem” at The Hill.

Read “Lea Thompson is volunteering to direct a Howard The Duck reboot” at AV Club.

Read “Rob Schneider Unwilling to Take COVID-19 Vaccine, Is Willing to Shoot People” at Consequence.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “The battle for the public library” at Current. “It looks like some conservatives are running for local library boards so they can remove books on race and racism from the stacks.”

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “At least seven states report mosquitoes carrying disease that can paralyze humans” at The Hill.

Read “Meth Pollution in Waterways Turns Trout Into Addicts” at Smithsonian.

Read “Mass bird die-off in eastern US baffles scientists” at Live Science.

Read “EPA: 11,000 facilities illegally discharged pollutants into nearby waters in 2018” at The Hill.

Read “Wobbling’ moon will cause devastating worldwide flooding in 2030’s NASA warns” at Telegraph.

Read “Scientists are tracking the loneliest whale in the world” at The Hill.

Local:

Read “72% of Arizona taxpayers will save less than $45 per year under @dougducey ‘s tax cut. But he repeated again and again that the average taxpayer would save $300. There are two possible explanations: he was being dishonest or he didn’t check the math” at AZ Central.

Read “Phoenix Firefighters Union Asks City To Shutter Two Trails On Extreme Heat Days” at KJZZ.

Read “Arizona Supreme Court halts projected execution dates for 2 inmates” at KTAR.

Read “Arizona flood swept this Prius down a street, caught on video” at Boing Boing.

The Weekly Town Crier (07/09/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (07/09/21).

Religion and Stuff:

Read the opinion piece “Patriot games: CRT, Christian nationalism and a battle for the real truth of America” at Religion News Service.

  • Read “Where Were They Radicalized? No Answer Is Complete Without Addressing Evangelical Churches and Schooling” at Religion Dispatches.

Read ‘Breaking the silence: Clergy address pandemic’s surge in domestic violence” at Religion News Service.

Read “Promise Keepers Tried to End Racism 25 Years Ago. It Almost Worked” at Christianity Today. “As new tensions divide the country, the men’s movement leaders wonders what they could have done differently.”

Read “Apocalypse Now And Then: How A Biblical Genre Shapes American Politics” at Religion Dispatches.

Read “The uncomfortable truth about the authoritarian Christian right's role in American politics” at AlterNet.

Read “Franklin bomb scare caused by fake TNT prop used for coal mining-themed church program” at Tennessean.

Read “White mainline Protestants outnumber white evangelicals, while ‘nones’ shrink” at Religion News Service.

Read “NDAs Kept These Christians Silent. Now They’re Speaking Out Against Them” at Christianity Today.

Human Rights/Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Lethal Force Against Pipeline Protests? Documents Reveal Shocking South Dakota Plans for National Guard” at Democracy Now.

Read “12 Holdout States Haven't Expanded Medicaid, Leaving 2 Million People In Limbo” at NPR.

Read “At least 150 people fatally shot in more than 400 shootings over the Fourth of July weekend” at CNN.

Read “Tucson to ignore Arizona’s ‘Second Amendment sanctuary’ law” at AZ Capitol Times.

Read “Juan Williams: How the Supreme Court eroded voting rights” at The Hill.

Read “SCOTUS Is Finishing the Job on Financial Disclosure Requirements” at Slate. “Doing bad things in two steps several years apart is becoming something of a strategy for John Roberts.”

Read “Cuomo declares 'state emergency' on gun violence in New York” at The Hill.

Read “ACLU Lawsuit: MCAO ‘coerces’ guilty pleas by fast-tracking cases” at ABC 15.

Read “Trump files suit against Facebook, Twitter and YouTube” at Associated Press.

Read “An MLK Jr. Statue Was Vandalized With Graffiti, Prompting A Hate Crime Investigation” at NPR.

Read “Michigan Judge Refuses to Allow Sidney Powell, Lin Wood, and Other ‘Kraken’ Attorneys to Skip Sanctions Hearing” at Law and Crime.

Read “Ghoulish pall is cast over America by Alabama's plan to gas humans to death” at Montgomery Advertiser.

Read “An Appeals Court Has Suspended Rudy Giuliani's Ability To Practice Law In D.C.” at NPR.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read ‘6 Months After Capitol Assault, Corporate Pledges Fall Flat” at NBC Los Angeles. “6 months later, many of those companies have resumed funneling cash to PACs that benefit the election efforts of lawmakers whether they objected to the election certification or not.”

Read “Covering up the insurrection is the Bigger Lie. And it’s worse.” at MSNBC.

Read “Virginia ‘Bible study’ group was cover for violent militia plans, prosecutors say” at Washington Post.

This Week With The Police:

Read “New video shows altercation between man and New Rochelle detective charged with assault” at Westchester 12 News.

Read “Judge Accepts Nashville Officer’s Voluntary Manslaughter Plea For 2018 Shooting, Leaving Daniel Hambrick’s Family ‘Disgusted’” at WPLN.

Read “Why Cops Are Driving a ‘Game Truck’ Around New York City” at Vice.

Read “Baltimore IG: Police officers allowed to take paid leave and overtime simultaneously” at Baltimore Brew.

Read “Darnella Frazier Filmed George Floyd’s Murder. The Minneapolis Police Just Killed Her Uncle” at Mother Jones.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Teaching critical race theory isn't happening in classrooms, teachers say in survey” at NBC News.

  • Read “Anti-Critical Race Theory Laws Are Un-American” at New York Times.

  • Read “Former Trump official’s God-and-country nonprofit calls CRT a threat to ‘colorblind society’” at Religion News Service. “Russ Vought, a former Trump official, blames woke pastors for promoting a dangerous and anti-Christian ideology.”

Read “Nikole Hannah-Jones Issues Statement on Decision to Decline Tenure Offer at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and to Accept Knight Chair Appointment at Howard University” at NAACPLDF.

  • Read “Two Iconic American Writers Join Howard University to Create the Center for Journalism and Democracy” at MacArthur Foundation.

Read “How QAnon supporters work to spread ideas via school boards” at MSNBC.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Pandemic Pushes Millions of Small Thai Companies Into Crisis” at Bloomberg.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Reflect on 75 Years of Marriage” at New York Times.

Read “Wells Fargo tells customers it’s shuttering all personal lines of credit” at CNBC.

Internationalities:

Read “Haiti's president assassinated” at CNN.

  • Read “What Is Happening in Haiti?” at Vice.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “VP Harris says DNC will pour $25M into voting rights protection” at AZ Mirror.

Read “How Democrats Lost the Courts” at The Atlantic.

Read “DeSantis won't commit to new review of Florida buildings after condo collapse” at The Hill.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Why are Republicans sticking with Trump? Peer pressure—and we’re all susceptible to it.” at American Magazine.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Explore Nikhil Banerjee’s music in Meeting Rivers’ latest Indian classical mix” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “Britney Spears’s Conservatorship Nightmare” at New Yorker.

  • Read “Britney Spears: Mother says pop star should be allowed to choose her own lawyer” at BBC.

Read “How Lonnie Smith Found an Unlikely New Collaborator: Iggy Pop” at New York Times.

Read “King Tubby: A Beginner’s Guide To The Prolific Dub Innovator” at Treble.

Browse “M.C. Taylor’s 13 Spiritually Uplifting Songs” at Spirituality and Health.

Read “Vinyl Is More Popular Than Ever. Surprisingly, That's a Problem” at Vice.

Read “Sonic Youth Partner For Premium Running Apparel Collection Modeled By Walter Schreifels” at Stereogum.

Watch “the Chaos of Woodstock 99 Unfold in New Trailer for Upcoming Documentary” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Krist Novoselic on Nevermind’s impact: “So much was going on. And then it all just spectacularly blew up” at Uncut.

Read “MF DOOM Will Be Honored With His Own Street Sign In New York” at Okay Player.

Read “Fender to honour Kurt Cobain and Primal Scream with new guitar collection” at NME.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “On and off stage, Questlove’s Summer Of Soul is an invigorating and inspiring concert film” at AV Club.

Read “Fox News backs away from defending Tucker Carlson after NSA spying claims” at Salon.

  • Read “Tucker Carlson sought Putin interview at time of spying claim” at Axios.

Read “Kyle MacLachlan Cast as Carole Baskin’s Husband in Joe Exotic Series” at The Hollywood Reporter.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “What Technology Could Reduce Heat Deaths? Trees.” at New York Times. “At a time when climate change is making heat waves more frequent and more severe, trees are stationary superheroes: They can lower urban temperatures 10 lifesaving degrees, scientists say.”

Read “Radioactive hybrid terror pigs have made themselves a home in Fukushima's exclusion zone” at The Register.

Read “Climate change: The craft brewery using algae to cut emissions” at BBC.

The Weekly Town Crier (07/02/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (07/02/21).




We’ll Miss You:

Read “Blackalicious Rapper Gift of Gab Dead at 50” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Richard Altuna, Who Redesigned What Retail Looks Like, Dies At 70” at NPR.

Read “Jon Hassell, pioneering electronic musician, RIP” at Boing Boing.

Read “‘Cops’ Creator John Langley Dead at 78” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Former Skid Row Singer Johnny Solinger Dead at 55” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Donald Rumsfeld, former secretary of defense, dies at 88” at CNN.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “The American church needs to reckon with its legacy in Indigenous boarding schools” at Religion News Service. “The American church will not be able to hide from its history of complicity in the treatment of Indigenous peoples — and the ongoing colonization Indigenous peoples continue to face today.”

Read ‘Are We Attempting to Serve Two Masters, Jesus and Gun Rights?” at Christianity Today. “Reflections from a school shooting survivor.”

Read “White hysteria, Critical Race Theory, and eyes that dare not see” by David Gushee at Baptist News.

  • Read “Where Did White Evangelicalism’s Hatred of Critical Race Theory Really Begin?” at Religion Dispatches.

  • Read “Critical race theory is a gift to Christians” at Christian Century. “The good news about collective and institutional sin is that, like individual sin, it can be redeemed.”

Read “Who are the Catholic bishops drafting the controversial Communion document?” at Religion News Service. “A look at the clerics tasked with penning a document many see as a rebuke of President Joe Biden.”

Read “More churches burn down on Canada indigenous land” at BBC.

Read “How the Southern Baptist Convention Rejected Populist Fundamentalism” at The Bulwark.

  • Read “As Southern Baptists Begin to Grapple with Sexual Abuse, Looming Challenges Remain” at Roys Report.

Read “Indian priest’s wife chops off his penis after he wanted to marry again” at New York Post.

Meet “the Theobros, who want you to know they’re right about everything” at Baptist News.

Read “Pope to meet with delegation of Indigenous People of Canada” at Vatican News.

Read “Behind Biden’s 2020 Victory” at Pew Research. “Trump’s support among white evangelicals rose from 77% in 2016 to 84% in 2020.”

Read “Catholic bishop of Syracuse decries Doctrine of Discovery, suggests pope do the same” at Religion News Service.

Read “UK Methodist Church Votes to Allow Same-Sex Marriages, While US Methodists Anticipate Split” at Roys Report.

Read “How Philadelphia’s reform DA is teaming with clergy to tackle rising gun violence” at Religion News Service.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “In Suing Georgia, Justice Department Says State's New Voting Law Targets Black Voters” at NPR.

Read “An Iowa County Chooses to Be Named for a Black Professor, Not a Slaveowner” at New York Times. “Johnson County selected Lulu Merle Johnson, a Black educator and historian, as its official eponym, replacing Richard Mentor Johnson, the ninth U.S. vice president.”

Read “How Did This Anti-Labor Lawyer Become One of Joe Biden’s First Judicial Nominees?” at Slate.

Read “Clarence Thomas says federal laws against marijuana may no longer be necessary” at NBC News. “The federal government's current approach is a half-in, half-out regime that simultaneously tolerates and forbids local use of marijuana,” the conservative Supreme Court justice wrote.”

Read “US Supreme Court rejects Virginia school board’s trans bathroom ban appeal” at AL.com.

Read “Supreme Court lets lawsuit continue in death of man detained in prone position” at NBC News.

Read “Bill Cosby to Be Freed as Court Overturns His Sex Assault Conviction” at New York Times.

Read ‘James Franco Agrees to Pay $2.2 Million in Sexual-Misconduct Lawsuit Settlement” at Vulture.

Read “Supreme Court Invalidates Key Part of Voting Rights Act” at New York Times.

Read “Adding to Trump's woes, grand jury indicts his core business” at MSBNC.

Read “NFL Levies $10 Million Fine, Biggest in League History, Against Washington Football Team for Workplace Culture” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “City sells former police academy to become a marijuana grow facility” at Boing Boing.

Read “Woman who falsely accused Black teen of stealing phone charged with hate crime” at The Hill.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “A Florida man admitted storming the Capitol, feds say. Then he told the FBI his pastor had come with him” at Washington Post.

Read ‘‘Castrate, kill, remove voting rights’: Ex-Marine, Georgia deputy was in extremist cell, feds say” at Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Read ‘Spurred By The Capitol Riot, Thousands Of Republicans Drop Out Of GOP” at NPR.

Read “California’s yoga, wellness and spirituality community has a QAnon problem” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Toyota under fire for giving $55K to 37 Republicans who objected to certifying election” at MSNBC News.

Read “Marine Corps officer pleads not guilty in Capitol riot” at The Hill.

Read “House Votes to Remove Confederate Statues from the Capitol” at Democracy Now.

Read “House Approves Creation of Select Committee to Probe Jan. 6 Attack” at Wall Street Journal.

Watch “Day of Rage: An In-Depth Look at How a Mob Stormed the Capitol” at New York Times.

Read “GOP Rep. Paul Gosar appears to ally with white nationalists — again” at Washington Post.

Read “Former cop who allegedly attacked police with flagpole during Capitol riots to be released from jail, placed on house arrest” at The Hill.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Ex-Cop Chauvin Gets 22 1/2 Years in Prison for Floyd Murder” at Bloomberg.

  • Read “How Former Police Officers Are Treated in Prison” at Vice. “We spoke to some experts to find out what life is like for ex-cops behind bars.”

Read “Oakland to divert $17M from police budget” at The Hill.

Read “US Border Patrol launches new marine unit amid rise in maritime smuggling” at PRI.

Read ‘Proposed law making cell phone video of cops a crime moves forward by Ohio legislators” at News 5 Cleveland.

Read “Family demands justice after teen fatally shot by Lonoke County sheriff's deputy” at KATV.

Read “Fox News Sunday host asks GOP congressman why it's "the Republicans who are defunding the police"“ at Salon.

Read “Budget bill provision allows DPS to block release of all video records” at AZ Mirror.

Read “UN calls for US, others to end 'impunity' for police violence against Black people” at The Hill.

Read “Watch a police officer admit to playing Taylor Swift to keep a video off YouTube” at The Verge.

Read “Police group says ambush attacks on officers up 91 percent over past year” at The Hill.

Read “Ex-Nashville officer Andrew Delke takes plea deal in deadly shooting of Daniel Hambrick” at Fox17.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “The hypocrisy of cancel culture means young people can never learn anything” at The Telegraph.

Read “The Death of Gratitude in the American Classroom” at Public Discourse. “Encouraging people to be gracious, and to recognize what others have provided them through no merit of their own, is not about “guilt tripping” them. It is to encourage a particular way of existing in the world. Gratitude acknowledges the plenitude of goodness that surrounds us every moment of every day in millions of small acts of people we do not know.”

Read “Spanking can worsen a child’s behavior and do real harm, study finds” at CNN.

Read “UNC trustees approve tenure for journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones after students removed from meeting area” at CBS News.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Hundreds of PPP Loans Went to Fake Farms in Absurd Places” at Pro Publica.

Read “WHO Urges Vaccinated People to Keep Taking COVID Precautions as Delta Variant Spreads Across Globe” at Democracy Now.

Read “American carnage: What we are now learning about Trump's nightmarish mishandling of COVID” at Salon.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “The Meet-Cute That Made WrestleMania How a ponderous wrestler and a pop star from Queens formed an unlikely friendship that started it all” at Vulture.

Read “Kanye West sues Walmart for allegedly copying his foam runner shoes” at NME.

Read “The Teamsters Announce Coordinated Nationwide Project to Unionize Amazon” at Vice.

Read “Grief Is Another Word For Love” at Guernica Magazine.

Read “Well, now we know what happens when you swallow an AirPod” at AV Club.

Read “Leaving Conservatism Behind” at Dissent Magazine. “How I renounced the God-and-guns conservatism of my blue-collar roots and embraced class politics.”

Read “Nurse suspended for TikTok videos about mistreating her patients claims they were comedy skits” at The Independent.

Read “NCAA Votes To Let Athletes Earn Money Based On Their Names And Images” at NPR.

Read “Amazon Delivery Companies Revolt Against Amazon, Shut Down” at Vice.

Internationalities:

Read “The Dominican Republic Is Building a Wall to Keep Haitian Migrant Kids Out” at Vice. “Close to half a million Haitians are living undocumented in the Dominican Republic, and many of them are children.”

Read “Roughly 650 troops to stay in Afghanistan after withdrawal” at The Hill.

Read “Classified UK military documents found at bus stop” at The Hill.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Pence says it would have been 'un-American' to not certify results of 2020 election” at ABC 15.

Read “Ron Johnson calls for Republicans to run for local office and 'take back our culture'“ at The Hill.

  • Read “Milwaukee newspaper blasts Ron Johnson as 'irresponsible representative of Wisconsin citizens'“ at The Hill.



This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “In Arizona, GOP Lawmakers Strip Power From a Democrat” at Yahoo.

Read “Audit leader Doug Logan appears in conspiracy theorist election film” at AZ Mirror.

Read “Trump Sought Justice Department Intervention to Stop SNL from Making Fun of Him” at Second Nexus.

Read “Documents Show Ivanka Trump Didn’t Testify Accurately in Inauguration Scandal Case” at Mother Jones.

Music-Related News and Such:

Browse “2021.5 : Our Favorite Albums + Songs From The First Half Of The Year” at Gorilla vs. Bear.

  • Browse “Alt.Latino's Best Music of 2021 (So Far)” at NPR.

  • Browse “The Best Of 2021 – Halftime Report” at Uncut.

Read “How Black People Created All Your Favorite Music” at HighSnobiety.

Read “Ed Sheeran turned to Bono for fatherhood advice: “We had a three-hour chat”” at NME.

Read “One Day the Music Goes Away” at Passion Weiss. “After Myspace lost over 50 million song uploads, Will Hagle ponders the fleeting shelf-life of digital music and the impermanence of a life lived online.”

Read “New Hawkwind book to be published in October” at Louder Sound.

Watch “The Ramones on Regis and Kathy Lee (1988)” at Boing Boing.

Read “Rich Robinson Rehashes Black Crowes Split, Calling Drummer Steve Gorman “Extremely Negative” and “Manipulative” at Jambands.com.

Read “Britney Spears’s Courtroom Plea Spurs Questions for Her Lawyer” at New York Times. “The singer said she had not known she needed to petition the court to be released from her conservatorship, placing a focus on the court-appointed counsel who has represented her for 13 years.”

  • Read “Is It Legal to Prevent Britney Spears From Having a Baby and Removing Her IUD?” at Variety.

  • Read “Britney Spears: ‘I Just Want My Life Back’” at New York Times.

  • Read “Management Firm Pulls Out of Britney Spears Conservatorship” at Variety.

Read “Review: Hiss Golden Messenger’s ‘Quietly Blowing It’ Belies Its Title” at American Songwriter.

  • Read “Hiss Golden Messenger's M.C. Taylor Processes His Pandemic Blues In Latest Album” at NPR.

Read “A Race ‘Report Card’ Measures Whether the Music Industry Changed” at New York Times.

Read “Courtney Love Demands ‘Rude’ Olivia Rodrigo Send Her Flowers For Copying Album Cover” at Huff Post.

  • Read “Courtney Love and Olivia Rodrigo Spark Debate About Creative Homage vs. Theft” at Flood.

Read “Sharp Ascent: In Conversation with Six Organs Of Admittance’s Ben Chasny” at Sun-13.

Read “Antifa Defeats Mumford & Sons” at Slate.

Read “Avril Lavigne partners with real-life 'Sk8er boi' Tony Hawk in TikTok debut” at CNN.

Read “Add to Your Record Collection With Amazon’s New Monthly Vinyl Subscription Service” at Variety.

Read/Listen to “Talkhouse Weekend Playlist: Inside the World of Jaubi” at Talkhouse. “The bandleader behind Jaubi shares up-and-coming artists and some influences behind the new record, Nafs at Peace.”

  • Read “Jaubi | Interview | Spiritual Journey from Pakistan” at Psychedelic Baby.

Read “Wanda Jackson Announces Final Album ‘Encore’ With Joan Jett” at Rolling Stone.

Read “How Japanese Breakfast Builds An Album, Sound By Sound” at NPR.

Read “How Sun Ra Taught Us to Believe in the Impossible” at New Yorker. “The visionary jazz artist sketched an “Astro-Black mythology” that aligned ancient Egyptian history with a future human exodus “beyond the stars.”

Browse Americana-UK’s picks for “Essentials: The top ten Howe Gelb albums.”

Read “Supreme Partners with Butthole Surfers for Clothing Collection” at Consequence.

Browse “Ishmael Butler On The 10 Best Shabazz Palaces Songs” at Treble.

Read “Biz Markie Is Still Alive, Manager Confirms Amid Death Rumors on Social Media” at Pitchfork.

Read “Ryley Walker Talks Moving to Vermont and His New Album” at Seven Days VT.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Browse “37 Hitchcock Cameo Appearances Over 50 Years: All in One Video” at Open Culture.

Read “‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ at 25: ‘The Most R-Rated G You Will Ever See’” at New York Times.

Read “Apple TV+ Shortening Its Free One-Year Trials” at Pop Culture.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “David Bowie art from Ontario landfill sets $50K auction record, but some locals aren't happy with the fame” at CBC. “Some from the small community of South River fear an influx of treasure hunters following rare find.”

Read “Picasso Painting Hidden In Maine Closet For 50 Years Sold” at Huff Post.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Discovery of ‘Dragon Man’ Skull in China May Add Species to Human Family Tree” at New York Times.

Read “'Important first step': Highly anticipated UFO report released with no firm conclusions” at AZ Central.

  • Read “For UFO enthusiasts at Oregon festival, ‘it’s all extraterrestrial’” at Religion News Service.

  • Read “U.S. Has No Explanation for Unidentified Objects and Stops Short of Ruling Out Aliens” at New York Times.

  • Read “How the Pentagon learned to start worrying and investigate UFOs” at National Geographic.]

  • Read “New video shows unidentified glowing objects near US Navy ship” at Mystery Wire.

Read “This Is My Brain on Salvia” at Wired. “I loaned my head to the world’s first fMRI study on the effects of salvinorin A, a potent psychedelic. Here’s what it revealed.”

Read “Does drinking hot tea in summer really cool you down?” at Universal-Sci.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Uncover the (actually not very mysterious) origins of Massachusetts' toy horse graveyard, Ponyhenge” at AV Club.

Local:

Read “Phoenix firefighters union pushing for change after 2 firefighters hospitalized from back to back trail rescues” at 12 News.

The Weekly Town Crier (06/25/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (06/25/21).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Antivirus pioneer John McAfee found dead in Spanish prison” at Miami Herald.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Albert Mohler’s darkest hour” at Religion News Service. “In his bid to lead America’s largest denomination, he was his own worst enemy.”

Read “After politically charged debate, bishops vote to draft controversial Communion document” at Religion News Service.

  • Read “Targeting Biden, Catholic Bishops Advance Controversial Communion Plan” at New York Times.

  • Read “AOC, other Catholic Democrats urge bishops against ‘weaponization’ of Communion” at Religion News Service.

  • Read “Biden dismisses Catholic bishops potentially banning him from communion” at The HIll. “That’s a private matter.”

  • Read “Lieu calls Catholic bishops 'hypocrites' for move to deny Biden communion” at The Hill.

  • Read “Weaponizing the wafer: Why San Francisco Archbishop opposes communion for Biden” at San Fransisco Examiner.

Read “Black Mountain pastor makes first court appearance on child sexual offense charges” at WLOS.

  • Read “Members of The Ridge Church defend pastor charged with child sex offenses” at WLOS.

Read “Critical Race Theory, Sex Abuse, and Southern Baptists” at Christianity Today.

  • Read “How Critical Race Theory Overran the Southern Baptist Convention” at NY Mag.

  • Read ‘Christian Opponents of CRT Peddle A Hollow Salvation” at Sojourners.

Read “Under Attack from Fundamentalist Pirates, Evangelical Baptists Refused to Give Up the Ship” by David French. “In Nashville, Evangelicals clashed with toxic fundamentalists—and Evangelicals prevailed.”

  • Read “America’s largest evangelical denomination is at war with itself” at Vox. “Why the Southern Baptist Convention is in turmoil — and why you should care.”

  • Read “When Southern Baptists Share the Gospel with Democrats, You May Get Christian Democrats! Can You Handle That?” at Southern Baptist Voices.

  • Read “Southern Baptist Convention Calls for ‘Immediate Abolition of Abortion Without Exception or Compromise’” at FaithWire.

  • Read “Christian Nationalist Leader Attacks SBC Election, New President” at Roys Report.

Read/Listen to “The Fight Over Evangelicals’ Future” at Slate. “Conservatives are divided. So are their churches.”

Read “‘An excuse for the feast’: Witches celebrate the summer solstice with cakes, mead — and salsa” at Religion News Service. “For many pagans, spirituality is tied to nature, and eating local seasonal foods connects them to the earth and with a specific time and place.”

Read ‘Religion 'ISN'T the secret to happiness': Global study claims atheists are just as happy as those with a faith” at Daily Mail.

Read “Braveheart’s Warped History Keeps Suckering Evangelicals” at Daly Beast. “Mel Gibson’s sadomasochistic fantasy is beloved by evangelical Christians (and William Wallace wannabes like Ted Cruz), who wallow in its exaltation of violent, macho religion.”

Read “How 'Modest Is Hottest' Is Hurting Christian Women” at Christianity Today. “What the phrase communicates about female sexuality and bodies.”

Read “DeSantis gets standing ovation by promising to put on the 'full armor of God' to fight against leftism” at Washington Examiner.

Read “The Nigerian priest saving Igbo deities from the bonfires” at BBC.

Read “Former Megachurch Pastor & Presidential Adviser Kirbyjon Caldwell Enters Prison” at Roys Report.

Read “Whitewashing Evangelical Scripture: The Case of Slavery and Antisemitism in the English Standard Version” at Oxford Academic.

Read “Can a tender-hearted president solve the Southern Baptists’ trust problem?” at Religion News Service. “The nation's largest Protestant denomination is based on voluntary cooperation by more than 40,000 churches. That cooperation is threatened by growing distrust of national leaders.”

Read “My Farewell to Sojourners” by Jim Wallis at Sojourners.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Much of our slang comes from the Black community. Not acknowledging that perpetuates racism.” at USA Today.

Read “How TV Dramas Informed And Misinformed Perceptions Of The War On Drugs” at NPR.

Read “DOJ warns Missouri officials state can't ignore federal gun laws” at The Hill.

Read “14 Votes Against Juneteenth: A Racist Act In The Halls Of Congress” at The Uprising.

  • Read “As Juneteenth marks the end of slavery, lawmakers turn their focus to forced prison labor” at Washington Post.

Read “North Carolina death row inmate freed after newly discovered evidence” at The Hill.

Read “Connecticut Becomes First State to Provide Free Calls from Prison” at Equal Justice Initiative.

Read ‘DOJ Asks SCOTUS to Reinstate Death Penalty for Boston Marathon Bomber” at Democracy Now.

Read “John Roberts Just Pulled Off His Greatest Judicial Magic Trick” at Slate.

Read “Idaho Republican candidate for governor claims US is under attack from 'invasive species'“ at American Independent.

Read “Jesse Jackson, William Barber arrested protesting filibuster and Manchin” at Religion News Service.

Read “Rudy Giuliani suspended from practicing law in New York state” at AZ Family.

  • Read “With Giuliani’s Law License Suspended, Here Are The Other Trump Lawyers Who May Face Discipline Next” at Forbes.

Read “Parkland parents trick former NRA president into speaking in anti-gun violence video” at Salon. “Empty chairs were placed in a stadium to represent seniors who didn't graduate this year because of gun violence.”

Read “Connecticut Legalizes Recreational Marijuana” at Democracy Now.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “Tucker Carlson And The Far Right Want To Recast Jan. 6 As A False Flag By The Deep State” at Huff Post.

Read “Charlottesville Neo-Nazi Trial Won’t Move Over Violence Fear” at Bloomberg.

Read “Pelosi announces a select committee will investigate Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob” at Washington Post.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “A Group of White Cops Beat a Black Undercover Officer at a BLM Protest” at Vice.

Read “Portland riots: Police crowd-control team resigns after officer indicted” at BBC.

Read “Charges dismissed against trucker who drove into George Floyd protest” at The Hill.

This Week With The Police:

Read “North Carolina sheriff's office settles for $6M in excessive force lawsuit” at The Hill.

Read “Black students pulled from car by Atlanta police sue city” at NBC. “Video of the May 2020 confrontation — shared widely online — shows officers shouting at the students, firing Tasers at them and dragging them from the car.”

Read “Baltimore May Soon Ban Facial Recognition For Everyone But Cops” at Wired.

Read “The history of the US police” at Al Jazeera. “From slave patrols to the criminalisation of Black communities, racism has been a feature of US policing for centuries.’

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Ted Cruz says critical race theory is as racist as 'Klansmen in white sheets'“ at The Hill.

  • Read “How a Conservative Activist Invented the Conflict Over Critical Race Theory” at New Yorker. “To Christopher Rufo, a term for a school of legal scholarship looked like “the perfect weapon.”

  • Read “'The Tea Party to the 10th power': Trumpworld bets big on critical race theory” at Politico.

  • Read Partisan war over teaching history and racism stokes tensions in U.S. schools” at Reuters.

  • Read “Teachers Say GOP’s Critical Race Theory Bills ‘Whitewash American History’ at Huff Post. “Republicans are pushing laws to prevent teaching about systemic racism and white privilege in schools. Teachers say they just want to teach the truth.”

Read “Why Juneteenth Isn't Taught In Schools — And What That Means For Our Understanding Of Slavery” at WBUR.

Read “Top U.S. military leader: ‘I want to understand White rage. And I’m White.’” at Washington Post.

Read “How the media's helping GOP fuel critical race theory hysteria” at Press Run.

Read “US sees record school shootings since March as students struggle with return from pandemic” at The Hill.

Read “DeSantis signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with state” at Salon.

Read “Supreme Court Sides With Teen Who Was Punished By School Over Expletive-Laden Snapchat Rant” at Comic Sands.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “‘We want them infected’: Trump appointee demanded ‘herd immunity’ strategy, emails reveal” at Politico. “Then-HHS science adviser Paul Alexander called for millions of Americans to be infected as means of fighting Covid-19.”

Read “Unvaccinated Arizonans made up 95% of COVID-19 cases in May” at AZ Mirror.

Read “The Spectacular Failure of the MyPillow Guy’s Mask Operation” at Daily Beast.

Read “More than 150 Houston Methodist employees resign or are fired over COVID vaccine mandate” at Houston Chronicle.

Read “NYC offering in-home vaccinations to all residents” at The Hill.

Read “Jim Bakker, his church settle lawsuit over COVID-19 claims” at Religion News Service.

Read “Nearly all COVID deaths in US are now among unvaccinated” at Associated Press.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Lessons from California’s Pot Industry Bailout” at Bloomberg. ‘California’s 15% tax on legal marijuana has pushed consumers to the illicit market, it’s clear that much more has gone wrong with legalization in the state.”

Read “French software engineer may have cracked the Zodiac killer's code” at Boing Boing.

Read “Retail workers are quitting at record rates for higher-paying work: ‘My life isn’t worth a dead-end job’” at Washington Post.

Read “Michael B. Jordan to rename his rum brand after appropriation accusations” at The Hill.

Internationalities:

Read “UN assembly condemns military coup in Myanmar” at The Hill.

Read “Hungary's anti-gay law threatens programming of TV favourites” at Vox.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Joe Biden Is Confirming Judges Faster Than Decades Of Past Presidents” at Huff Post.

Read “Biden announces bipartisan deal on infrastructure” at The Hill.

Read “States Have Cut Off Unemployment. So Why Aren’t More People Looking for Jobs?” at Slate.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “At Long Last, Donald T$&mp Finally Admits: 'We Didn't Win'“ at Yahoo.

Read “Arizona election audit takes wild turn: Voter data is transported to a "secret" lab in another state” at Salon. “Arizona voter data hits the road, and the location it's being sent to is apparently a secret.”

Read “Led by Trump's old doctor, over a dozen GOP lawmakers demand Biden take a cognitive test” at Salon.

Read “As Gaetz investigation ramps up, feds mount sweeping probe into Central Florida political scene” at Yahoo.

Read “Georgia releases names of over 100K people at risk of having voter registration canceled” at The Hill.

Read “Trump-inspired death threats are terrorizing election workers” at Reuters.

Read “House Republicans Are Still Pushing Trump’s Election Conspiracy Theories” at Slate.

Read “Corporations like Amazon pay big bucks for "union avoidance" — and it all happens in the dark” at Salon.

Read “What would America be like if Trump's coup had succeeded? Suppressing SNL is only the start” at Salon.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “The Horrors of Bull Island, “the Worst Music Festival of All Time” (1972)” at Open Culture.

Read “Billie Eilish Apologizes for Mouthing Racist Slur in Surfaced Video: “I Am Appalled and Embarrassed at Pitchfork.

Read “A Little Less Lonely: Joni Mitchell’s Blue at 50” at Treble Zine.

Read “Untangling MF DOOM’s Lifelong Struggle With the U.S. Immigration System” at Pitchfork.

Browse Treble’s picks for “The 33 Best Albums of 2021 So Far.

Read “Inner Ear Studios’ Original Location Shutting Down” at Pitchfork.

Read “Go Spelunking in Mark E. Smith’s Mind With This Collection of the Fall Ephemera” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Factory Records co-founder and Joy Division album cover designer Peter Saville honoured with CBE” at Manchester Evening News.

Browse Rolling Stone’s picks for “The 50 Greatest Pop-Punk Albums.”

Read “Britney Spears Has Wanted Out of Her Conservatorship for Years. Why Is She Still in It?” at Vice.

Read/Listen to “Ripley Johnson of Rose City Band” at Petal Motel.

Read “Photos of New York's explosive 80s music scene” at I-D Vice.

Read “Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus Reveals Cancer Diagnosis” at Pitchfork.

Read “Talking Heads’ David Byrne buys $5.5M Toluca Lake mansion” at New York Post.

Read “Winston Marshall Leaves Mumford and Sons After Endorsing Andy Ngo’s Book” at Spin.

Read “Behind the Music Returning to Paramount+ with New Episodes: Watch the Trailer” at Consequence.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Chris Cuomo calls Fox News a 'disgrace' for not informing viewers that Tucker Carlson shouldn't be taken seriously” at Yahoo.

Read “Diamond and Silk suggest Fox News is racist for dumping them over COVID-19 conspiracies that were also embraced by white hosts like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity” at Business Insider.

Books/Reading/Authors

Browse “Umberto Eco’s 36 Rules for Writing Well (in English or Italian)” at Open Culture.

Read “Enter an Archive of 6,000 Historical Children’s Books, All Digitized and Free to Read Online” at Open Culture.

Read “What We Can Learn from Studying UFOs” at Scientific American.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “New type of ancient human discovered in Israel” at BBC.

Read “The Truth Has Not Always Been Out There” at New York Times.

Food And Drink Cultures:

Read “Pepsi Seeks Trademark for Rockstar-Branded Beer, Hard Seltzer” at Bloomberg.

Read “California man arrested over theft of 42,000lbs of pistachios” at BBC.

Read “The Horrifying Legacy of the Victorian Tapeworm Diet” at Atlas Obscura.

Misc. Oddities:

Read ‘Yes, There Really is a Softball Field at Area 51” at Vice.

Local:

Read “Before she embraced Donald Trump, Kari Lake signed on with Democrats as Barack Obama's fortunes soared” at 12 News.

Read “Lake Mead's decline points to scary water future in West” at The Hill.

Read “New Mattel-inspired theme park finds a home in Glendale” at 12 News.

Read “Flat Tax Exacerbates Inequalities for Households of Color” at AZ Center For Economic Progress.

The Weekly Town Crier (06/18/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (08/16/21).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Frank Bonner, 'WKRP in Cincinnati' Star, Dead at 79” at Pop Culture.

Read “Obituary: Egypt’s first freely elected President Mohamed Morsi” at Al Jazeera.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Racism & Patriarchy: Two Strands of the Same Authoritarian Theology” at Faith, Philosophy and Politics.

Read “Southern Baptists Take Sides Ahead of Nashville Meeting” at Christianity Today.

  • Read “Pressure mounts for an independent investigation of SBC Executive Committee handling of abuse” at Religion News Service.

  • Read “Russell Moore leaves Southern Baptist leadership, but denomination’s troubles remain” at Religion News Service.

  • Read “Leaks Turn Up The Heat In Advance Of Southern Baptists' Nashville Meeting” at Religion Unplugged.

  • Read “Southern Baptists are at a Fork in the Road” at Christianity Today. “The SBC will be making choices about how we respond to abuse, race, and more at this watershed convention.”

  • Read “Less Fore Moore? If Russell Moore Left The SBC Due To Conscience And Convictions His Next Move Is A Curious One” at Religion Dispatches.

  • Read “SBC Polity Gives People in the Pews the Power to Stop Corrupt Leaders” at Christianity Today. “This week at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, attendees will ask for change from the top. But regular members also bear responsibility.”

  • Read “The Tragedy of Russell Moore” at Religion and Politics.

  • Read “Southern Baptists Narrowly Head Off Ultraconservative Takeover” at New York Times. “Ed Litton, a moderate pastor from Alabama, won a high-stakes presidential election with the potential to reshape the future of the country’s largest Protestant denomination.”

  • Read “Southern Baptist pastor: Minister accused of abusing a dozen boys never investigated” at Religion News Service.

  • Read “Southern Baptists approve task force on abuse, permanently ban pastors who abuse” at Religion News Service.

  • Read “This Quote About Pregnant Church From Outgoing SBC President Is Deeply Troubling For Anyone Concerned About Sexual Abuse” at Religion Dispatches.

Read “Atheist Stanford Biologist Robert Sapolsky Explains How Religious Beliefs Reduce Stress” at Open Culture.

Read ““In the Heights” is more Jewish than it seems” at Religion News Service.

Read “Nones’ now as big as evangelicals, Catholics in the US” at Religion News Service.

Read “James MacDonald Continues Tirade; Defends Using Hashtag “#JRgossipsl**” at Roys Report.

Read “Communion ban for pro-choice politicians is an old story, but the stakes have grown” at Religion News Service.

Read “Supreme Court Sides With Catholic Agency In LGBTQ Foster Care Case—But Avoids Major Religious Freedom Questions” at Time.

Read “Care About Religious Liberty? Defend Religious Minorities” at Christianity Today.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “She bought 47 guns last month. Police are already finding them in shooting investigations” at Star Tribune.

Read “Alabama close to completing nitrogen gas death chamber” at AL.com.

Read “White House Pushes To Jump-Start Civil Rights-Era Cold Cases Board” at Huff Post.

Read “'Abnormal methods': U.S. attorney general says feds will review Arizona's partisan election audit” at 12 News.

Read “Former NSA contractor Reality Winner, jailed for leaking secrets about Russian hacking, released early from prison” at NBC News.

Read “U.S. Military Guns Keep Vanishing, Some Used in Street Crimes” at Associated Press.

Read “Guantánamo Detainees Say Conditions Are Worse Since Biden Became President” at Vice.

Read “The Justice Department Overturns Rules That Limited Asylum For Survivors Of Violence” at NPR.

Read “Court fines baker $500 for refusing to make gender transition cake” at The Hill.

Read “Biden signs bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday” at Los Angeles Times.

  • Read “So You Want To Learn About Juneteenth?” at New York Times.

  • Read “Everything you need to know about Juneteenth, the new federal holiday” at The HIll.

Read “Firearm purchases to be videotaped under new San Jose law” at The Hill.

Read “Supreme Court Backs Nestle, Cargill on Child-Slavery Suit” at Bloomberg.

Read “After Reparations Study Suggests $151 Million for Each African American, Experts Say Money Alone Isn't Enough” at Time.

Read “St. Louis couple who flashed guns at protesters plead guilty to misdemeanors, forfeit firearms” at NBC News.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “'Traitors Need To Be Executed': 'Stop The Steal' Organizer Indicted In Jan. 6 Conspiracy Case” at Yahoo.

Read “Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, Forceful on Jan. 6, Privately Are in Turmoil” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Even More Insurrectionists Have Histories Of Violence Against Women” at Huff Post.

Read “Man Pleads Guilty to Shooting Black Girl at Iowa Trump Rally” at NBC Washington. “Michael McKinney, an Army veteran and resident of Saint Charles, Iowa, admitted that he intentionally fired into the girls’ vehicle.”

This Week With The Police:

Read “4 police officers placed on administrative leave after video goes viral” at Yahoo.

Read “LAPD officers got free swag from Ring, some promoted its cameras” at Los Angeles Times. “Ring says it stopped providing maps of its device network to law enforcement in 2019. In response to specific police data requests, consumers can consent to sharing their footage with investigators.”

Read “The Best Bargain in the History of Law Enforcement” — and the High Cost of Not Testing Backlogged Rape Kits” at Pro Publica. “When reporter Catherine Rentz began looking at the criminal histories of men who’d been arrested for rape based on DNA evidence, she found a system that protected serial criminals rather than survivors.”

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Nevada schools reckon with race, triggering polarization” at Associated Press. “A group wants Washoe County teachers to wear body cameras to ensure parents that no "critical race theory" is being taught in classrooms.”

Read “Most Americans don't know where Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls are, new poll finds” at The Hill.

Read “National Geographic adds 5th ocean to world map” at NBC News.

Read “Critical Race Theory Used To Attack Black Arizona School Board Member” at Newsweek. “A champion of equity in education, Lindsay Love planned to attend a conference for school board members in urban districts. But conservatives tried to twist the purpose of the conference claiming it proved the district supported critical race theory” at News One.

  • Read “Americans who have heard of critical race theory don’t like it” at The Economist. “But it is a problem of branding, not principle.”

  • Read “Critical Race Theory Is a Convenient Target for Conservatives” at Slate.

Read “Education Department says Title IX protections apply to LGBTQ students” at CNN.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “AMA: 96% Of Doctors Are Vaccinated Against Covid-19” at Forbes.

Read “Utah reports 413 new cases of COVID-19 — the most in a month” at Salt Lake Tribune.

Read “Ricky Schroder and Anti-Vaxxers Protest Foo Fighters Concert” at Consequence.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “The Making of a Perfect Celebrity Apology” at Vice. “Saying ‘I’m sorry’ has become its own art form in Hollywood—and for better or worse, it takes a team to make it happen. Some of the biggest names in the business break down how the mea culpa sausage gets made.”

Read “National Parks Are Overcrowded and Closing Their Gates” at Wall Street Journal,

Read “Millions of Americans Are About to Lose Their Homes” at Slate. “When the CDC’s eviction moratorium ends on June 30, what will still-struggling renters do?”

Read “This British Schoolgirl Invented an Amazing Gadget to Fight Food Waste” at Global Citizen.

Read “MSNBC says it won't voluntarily recognize new union effort” at The Hill.

Read “50,000 security disasters waiting to happen: The problem of America's water supplies” at NBC News.

Read “Poll: Majority back blanket student loan forgiveness” at The Hill.

Read “Why American Women Everywhere Are Delaying Motherhood” at New York Times.

Internationalities:

Read “Amnesty International Accuses China of Crimes Against Humanity in Xinjiang” at Democracy Now.

Read “El Salvador Just Made Bitcoin Legal Tender, A World First” at Vice.

Read “Kim Jong-un Decries K-Pop as “Vicious Cancer” in Crackdown Against South Korean Pop Culture” at Consequence.

Read “Concerns grow over China's Taiwan plans” at The Hill.

Read “The US is banning dogs from 113 countries” at The Hill.

Read “5 Views From Belarus On The Country's Political Crisis” at NPR.

Read “China, Russia Biggest Cyber Offenders” at U.S. News.

Read “China successfully launches mission sending astronauts to new space station” at CNN.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “I’ve never regretted doing it’: Daniel Ellsberg on 50 years since leaking the Pentagon Papers” at The Guardian.

Read “GOP senator introduces constitutional amendment to ban flag burning” at The Hill.

Read “Two more Democrats signal opposition to bipartisan infrastructure deal” at The Hill.

  • Read “'A lot' of politicking still to be done on infrastructure deal” at MSNBC.

Read “US supreme court upholds Obamacare after Republicans seek to gut law” at The Guardian.

Read “Kyrsten Sinema Has Toxic White Lady Energy” at Slate. “The Arizona senator’s position on the filibuster does not square with her supposed admiration of John Lewis.”

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Matt Gaetz questioned the head of the FBI in Congress despite himself being under investigation by the FBI” at Yahoo.

Read “Donald Trump: I trust Vladimir Putin more than US intelligence” at Yahoo.

Read “Pelosi: Trump DOJ seizure of House Democrats' data ' goes even beyond Richard Nixon'“ at The Hill.

Read “Apple Is Said to Have Turned Over Data on Trump’s White House Counsel in 2018” at New York Times. “The company notified Donald F. McGahn II last month that it had been subpoenaed for his account information three years ago.”

Read “Emails Expose Coordination Between Mitch McConnell and His Wife, Elaine Chao” at Daily Beast.

Read “Majority of Republicans think state reviews will change 2020 outcome: poll” at The Hill.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Sony Music to Pay Royalties to Unrecouped Legacy Artists and Producers in Major Policy Change” at Pitchfork.

Read “Van Morrison and Eric Clapton Wonder Why They’re the Only ‘Rebels’ Left in New Duet” at Yahoo.

Read “Check out this remake of a classic Japanese portable record player” at Boing Boing.

  • Browse Spin’s picks for “The 30 Best Albums of 2021 (So Far)”.

Browse The Guardian’s picks for “The best albums of 2021 so far.”

Read “The Cure’s Robert Smith thinks the band’s next album will be their last” at NME. “I definitely can't do this again.”

Read “The Money Laundering Case Against The Fugees’ Pras Michél Just Took Another Wild Turn” at Okay Player.

Read “Concert, theater owners call pandemic relief fund efforts a ‘disaster’” at Cronkite News.

Read “David Bowie Recalls the Strange Experience of Inventing the Character Ziggy Stardust (1977)” at Open Culture.

Read “DJ Nile Rodgers Launches Los Angeles Roller-Disco Haven ‘The DiscOasis’” at Variety.

Read “Recording Academy Seeks to Close Deborah Dugan Arbitration Hearing to Public” at Pitchfork.

Read “Bob Dylan Announces His First Streaming Special, ‘Shadow Kingdom,’ for July” at Variety.

Read “Soundgarden And Vicky Cornell Reach Temporary Truce Over Social Media Accounts” at Stereogum.

Read “A Brief History of the Lumpen, the Black Panthers' Revolutionary Funk Band” at KQED.

Read “2021 Polaris Music Prize Long List Is Here” at Polaris Music Prize.

Read “Celebrating Juneteenth And Black Music Month With Classical Classics” at NPR.

Read “Cedric Burnside Grew Up Steeped in Mississippi Blues. Now, He’s Helping to Ensure Its Future” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Here’s How White and Male the Execs of the Music Business Are” at Rolling Stone.

Read “XTC’s Andy Partridge Announces First Volume in ‘My Failed Songwriting Career’ Series” at Rolling Stone.

Read “50 years of Blue: a celebration of the Joni Mitchell masterpiece” at CBC.

Read “Overlooked No More: Jobriath, Openly Gay Glam Rocker in the ’70s” at New York Times. “His space alien persona and theatrical rock music drew comparisons to David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust character. But American audiences seemed unwilling to accept his sexuality.”

Read “Wiz Khalifa Cast As George Clinton In New Movie About Casablanca Records” at Stereogum.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “NBC Halts Production on Ultimate Slip 'N Slide amid Report of 'Explosive Diarrhea' Outbreak on Set” at People.

Read “James Corden gets called out for mocking Filipino cuisine and other Asian dishes” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “'Queer Eye' cast faced 'blatant' hate filming in Texas” at The Hill.

Read “Ted Lasso’s seamless single-cam editing captures the comedy’s collaborative spirit” at AV Club.

Browse Paste’s picks for “The 20 Best TV Shows of 2021 (So Far).”

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Watch a Never-Before-Aired James Baldwin Interview From 1979” at Esquire.

Design/Artsy Things:


Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “The solar system probably has thousands of captured interstellar asteroids” at Universal-Sci.

Read “Weird ‘Living Fossil’ Fish Lives 100 Years, Pregnant For 5” at Huff Post.

Food And Drink Cultures:

Read “Thieves Find Money That Grows on Trees: ‘Avocados Are the Green Gold’” at Wall Street Journal.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Massachusetts lobster diver survives being swallowed by whale: 'I was completely inside'“ at Fox Propaganda.

Read “9 Surprisingly Ancient Marvels in Modern California” at Atlas Obscura.

Local:

Read “'Reasonable People Know the Elections Are Over.' Secretary of State Katie Hobbs on Death Threats, Arizona's Election 'Audit', and Running for Governor” at Time.

Read “Native American Artist Recasts Hollywood Sign As 'Indian Land'“ at KJZZ.

Read “'It's just been overwhelming': Mesa wig store targeted by anti-mask group gets outpouring of support” at AZ Central.

Read “Reps. Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar among few who voted against Juneteenth holiday” at AZ Central.

Read “Arizona Will Pay Prisoners $1.50 An Hour To Fight Wildfires” at KJZZ.

Read “Ducey ditches ‘things that matter’ to Arizonans so the rich can be richer” at AZ Mirror.

Read “Fully Vaccinated? No Masks, Social Distancing Required At Most Phoenix City Buildings” at KJZZ.

The Weekly Town Crier (06/11/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (07/11/21).






Religion and Stuff:

Read “Russell Moore’s Warnings Should Bring a Reckoning” by David French. “How much more evidence do we need that the church needs reform?”

Read “Godless grifters: How the New Atheists merged with the far right” at Salon. “What once seemed like a bracing intellectual movement has degenerated into a pack of abusive, small-minded bigots.”

Read “A refugee agency rebuilds its pipeline after Trump: ‘We’re starting from scratch’” at Religion News Service.

Read “Keep COVID-19 restrictions during in-person worship, ecumenical guide suggests” at Religion News Service.

Read: “A Chronicle Invesigation: Abuse of Faith” at Houston Chronicle. “In the past 20 years, a disturbing number of Southern Baptists with formal church roles have engaged in sexual misconduct, a new investigation by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News reveals. They were pastors. Deacons. Youth pastors. They left behind more than 700 victims. Read and hear the stories of those victims, and learn the depths of the crimes and misconduct of the church leaders they trusted.”

Read “PTL! Andrew Garfield, Jessica Chastain to star as Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker in biopic” at Religion News Service.

Read “Biden DOJ updates court filing after LGBTQ advocates blast its stance in religious schools case” at CNN.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Judge overturns California’s 32-year ban on assault weapons” at Associated Press.

Read “Supreme Court Will Hear Case Of FBI Allegedly Surveilling Some Muslim Californians” at Huff Post.

Read “Why Arizona May Resume Gas Chamber Executions” at KJZZ.

Read “America’s gun obsession is rooted in slavery” at The Guardian.

Read “The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax” at Pro Publica. “ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing.”

  • Read “Wealthiest Executives Paid Little to Nothing in Federal Income Taxes, Report Says” at New York Times.

Read “Michael Cohen on Trump criminal probe: Everyone in the company lied for Donald” at MSNBC.

Read “America’s Dangerous Obsession With Innocence” at The Atlantic. “Most people on death row are guilty. That doesn’t mean they deserve their fate.”

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “"It's now or never": Bipartisan congressional report finds Capitol police ignored Jan. 6 warnings” at Salon.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Could Brain Training Help Address Police Brutality?” at Wired. “New neuroscience-based technologies aim to improve decisionmaking under pressure. But solving systemic problems will take a lot more than that.”

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Judge orders reinstatement of Virginia teacher who opposed transgender rules” at The Hill.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Fauci calls on China to release medical records of Wuhan researchers” at The Hill.

Read “Washington state to allow free pot with vaccines” at The Hill.

Read “Experts Knew a Pandemic Was Coming. Here’s What They’re Worried About Next” at Politico. “Nine disasters we still aren’t ready for.”

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Bill Gates' affairs were an open secret, and someone in Melinda's inner circle hired a private investigator before she filed for divorce, report says” at Business Insider.

Read “Why Is Growing Pot So Energy-Intensive?” at Slate. “Federal regulations, budtender preferences, and a weird trick with carbon dioxide.”

Internationalities:

Read “Nigerian gov’t says it ‘indefinitely’ suspends Twitter” at Al Jazeera.

Read “The world has gained a brand new ocean” at CNet. “On World Ocean Day, the Southern Ocean was officially recognized by National Geographic's mapmakers.”

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “There are already 19 QAnon candidates running for Congress in 2022” at Mic.

Read “Bye-bye Miss American Pie — whatever happened to the Republican Party and conservatism?” at The Hill.

Read “Our Welfare Puritanism” at Democracy Journal.

Read “Trump Spawned a New Group of Mega-Donors Who Now Hold Sway Over the GOP’s Future” at Pro Publica.

Read “3 in 10 Republicans believe Trump will be reinstated as president” at The Hill.

Read “Bipartisan Senate group rules out tax hikes on infrastructure” at The Hill.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Iowa GOP advances bills to shorten early voting, restrict absentee ballots” at The Hill.

Read “Arizona's ballot audit could spread to other states. Here's what to know” at AZ Central.

Read “Giuliani Audio Proves Trump’s Team Was Lying About Ukraine” at Rolling Stone. “A new recording confirms that Trump and his allies were full of shit when they claimed “there was no quid pro quo” in Ukraine.”

Read “Joe Manchin Cares More About ‘Bipartisanship’ Than Fighting Jim Crow” at The Nation.

Read “Joe Manchin is opposing big parts of Biden’s agenda as the Koch network pressures him” at CNBC.

Read “OAN correspondent who is covering the Arizona election audit has been aiding the effort since at least December, documents show” at Business Insider.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Spotify Facing House Judiciary Committee Probe Over “Discovery Mode”” at Pitchfork.

Read “Reservoir Acquires Iconic Tommy Boy Music, Groundbreaking Hip-Hop Label, for $100 Million” at Variety.

  • Read “De La Soul's Catalogue Could Be Coming To Streaming Services” at Clash Music.

Read “Home Is Where My Record Collection Is” at Apartment Therapy.

Read “Sinead O'Connor Says She Is Retiring From Music” at Clash Music.

Read “Kid Rock Screams Homophobic Slur During Performance at Tennessee Bar” at Consequence.

Read “Foo Fighters to Play Madison Square Garden’s First Full-Capacity Show Since Start of the Pandemic” at Pitchfork.

Read “Moby on Making ‘Reprise’ and ‘Moby Doc,’ His Rise to Fame, and Living Sober” at Ozy.

Read “Dreamers Wait No Longer—An Expanded Crowded House Returns After A Decade Away” at American Songwriter.

  • Read “Neil Finn On Working With His Sons On New Crowded House Album, Canada Memories & Future Of Fleetwood Mac” at ET Canada.

Browse Stereogum’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums Of 2021 So Far.”

Read “Danny Elfman Is Here to Remind Listeners "It's Always Been About Politics"“ at Exclaim.

Read “East Meets West In Anoushka Shankar's Latest Album” at NPR.

Browse “The Strange World Of… Don Cherry” at The Quietus.

Read “Jimmy Eat World’s Zach Lind: Suns are special in ‘The Middle’ of playoff ride” at KTAR.

Read “YouTube Is Poised to Overtake Spotify as Music’s Biggest Bankroller” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Dancing With The Noise: A Conversation with Ben Chasny” at Record Crates United.

Read “The Enduring Appeal of Italian Composers’ Dramatic ‘Library Music’” at New York Times.

Read “Uncovering the Rich History of Spanish Experimental Music” at Bandcamp.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Enjoy these surreal "One Minute Movies" by The Residents” at Boing Boing.

Read “Carole Baskin to “bring bad guys to justice” in new ITV show” at NME.

Read “Cowboy Bebop Composer Yoko Kanno Returns to Score Netflix’s Live-Action Series” at Consequence.

Read ‘Elizabeth Olsen was “frustrated” watching her ‘WandaVision’ performance” at NME. "I can see my 10-year-old theatre-kid self playing out to the audience.”

Read “Anthony Bourdain Didn’t Just Travel the World, He Let It Speak for Itself” at Variety.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Those times the US military hoaxed the public about extraterrestrial contact” at Boing Boing.

The Weekly Town Crier (06/04/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (06/04/21).





We’ll Miss You:

Read ‘Actor Gavin MacLeod of 'The Love Boat' and 'Mary Tyler Moore' dies at age 90” at CNN.

Read “Patrick Sky, Folk Singer and Bob Dylan Contemporary, Dead at 80” at Rolling Stone.

Read “B.J. Thomas, 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head' singer, dies at age 78” at CNN.

Read “Buddy Van Horn, Clint Eastwood’s Stunt Double and Director, Dies at 92” at Hollywood Reporter.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Zondervan won't publish ‘God Bless the USA Bible,' says marketing was 'premature' after backlash” at Christian Post.

Watch “The 15 year old that Mark Driscoll targeted for kissing his daughter tells his side” at Youtube.

  • Read “Postcards from Phoenix: When Church Divides a Family”

Read “Kentucky ties to Baptist kids agency at risk over LGBTQ rights” at Religion News Service. “Baptist-affiliated Sunrise Children’s Services is refusing to sign a clause in a new contract with the state that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation.”

Read “‘It is a constituency:’ QAnon embraced by many in the U.S.” at MSNBC.

Read “The Untold Story of Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard’s Secret Pact With Nazi Propagandist Leni Riefenstahl” at Daily Beast.

Read “Exclusive: Sex abuse allegations by Carl Lentz’s former nanny put spotlight on Hillsong culture” at Religion News Service.

Read “Preaching at FBC Dallas, Patterson Denounces “Lynch Mob” Trying to Get Him” at Word and Way.

  • Read “Patterson disputes allegations he improperly took items, used SWBTS’ donor list” at Baptist Press.

Read “Leaked Russell Moore letter blasts SBC conservatives, sheds light on his resignation” at Religion News Service. “In a letter written more than a year before his resignation, Moore explained his troubles with the SBC leadership in bitterly frank terms. Then-President Donald Trump barely makes an appearance.”

  • Read “Russell Moore to ERLC trustees: ‘They want me to live in psychological terror’” at Religion News Service.

Read “I'm a teacher but I serve God first': Virginia teacher refuses to comply with proposed pronoun policy” at NBC News.

Read “Rape Victim Says Liberty University Deceived & Betrayed Her” at Roys Report.

Read “How Is The GOP Adjusting To A Less Religious America?” at NPR.

 

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Latino or Latinx? The Linguistic Debate Over Inclusive Terms” at KJZZ.

Read “Texas State Rep. Moody On Bill That Would Allow Anyone To Carry A Handgun Without A Permit, License” at WBUR.

  • Read “Miami Police Chief Slams Texas Bill That Would Allow Unlicensed Carrying Of Handguns” at Huff Post. “Common sense tells us” that the new gun measure is “ridiculous,” said Art Acevedo, the former Houston police chief.”

Read “The U.S. forced them into internment camps. Here’s how Japanese Americans started over.” at National Geographic.

Read “The Gig Economy’s Business Model Is a Racial Justice Issue” at Vice.

Read “San Jose Gunman Expressed Hate for Co-Workers for Years, Had History of Sexual Violence” at Democracy Now.

Read “One hundred years ago, white mobs burned Tulsa’s Black neighborhood to the ground.” at Wall Street Journal.

  • Read “Tulsa's Greenwood neighborhood found prosperity after the 1921 massacre. Then the highways arrived” at NBC News. “The plot to take it over has happened — it just didn’t happen in 1921,” a researcher said of the once-thriving Greenwood district.”

  • Read “When Our Forefathers Fail” by David French. “On the moral imperative of mourning the Tulsa Race Massacre today.”

  • Read “The job is not done yet": Black Wall Street documentaries detail the massacre & still seek justice” at Salon.

  • Read “Tulsa pastors honor ‘holy ground’ 100 years after massacre” at Associated Press.

Read “Biden leaves Hyde Amendment out of budget” at The Hill.

Read “Roger Stone predicts a Donald Trump criminal indictment is on the horizon” at Salon.

Read “2 dead, 20 injured in mass shooting in Miami” at The Hill.

Read “One-fifth of Americans who bought guns last year were first-time buyers” at The Hill.

Read “Judge approves plea deal of Gaetz associate Joel Greenberg; sentencing set for August” at The HIll.

Read “NFL pledges to halt ‘race-norming,’ review Black claims” at Associated Press.

Read “Giuliani and Prosecutors Agree on Former Judge to Review Seized Materials” at New York Times.

Read “How the Supreme Court has tilted election law to favor the Republican Party” at Los Angeles Times.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “Jan. 6 defendants continue to struggle as Trump continues to lie” at MSNBC.

Read “DOJ adds four defendants to Oath Keepers conspiracy case” at The Hill.

Read “Former Trump advisor Michael Flynn said the US should have a coup like Myanmar, where the military overthrew the democratically elected government” at Yahoo.

Read “Neo-Nazi Was Behind Walmart Mass Shooting Plot, Group Claims” at Vice. “The Texas man was arrested and police confiscated guns, ammo, and extremist paraphernalia, including a T-shirt featuring the image of the neo-Nazi group that claims he was one of their own.”

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Thousands marched in Phoenix against police brutality a year ago. So, what's changed since?” at 12 News.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Deputy demoted after leaving his K-9 partner in a patrol car, the dog died” at AZ Family.

Read “What If Your Abusive Husband Is A Cop?” at New Yorker.

Read “Phoenix Settles Rape Claim Against Former Police Officer” at KJZZ.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Oklahoma teacher says summer class canceled due to bill that bans teaching critical race theory” at KOCO.

Read “How Hillary Clinton Went Undercover to Examine Race in Education” at New York Times.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Methodist Hospital employees sue over vaccine requirement, citing violation of Nuremberg Code” at Houston Chronicle.

Read “Costco says free samples and food courts will fully return by June” at USA Today.

Read “Florida rock concert tickets are $18 if you're vaccinated – $1,000 if you're not” at The Hill.

Read “Hat makers distance from Nashville store amid uproar over 'Not Vaccinated' badges” at The Hill.

Read “Vietnam Detects New Highly Transmissible Coronavirus Variant” at Slate.

Read “Anti-vaxxer sheriff's deputy dies from COVID-19 complications shortly after mocking the vaccine on Facebook” at Yahoo.

Read “'Karen' baby name popularity drops over 170 spots in 2020” at The Hill.


Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “The Colorado River is facing an alarming water shortage for the first time ever” at The Hill.

Read “U.S. Military Personnel Spilled Nuclear Secrets in Online Flashcards” at Vice.

Read “Homebuyers Squeezed As Western States See Prices Double Or More In Last Decade” at NPR.

Read “Matt Gaetz says $155k to close on yacht with his fiancee ‘went missing’” at Yahoo.

Read “TikTok’s ‘Americancore’ Trend Shows Americans How the Rest of the World Feels at Vice.

Read “American Airlines joins Southwest in delaying return of alcohol sales” at The Hill.

Read “How Would You Feel About a 4-Day Workweek?” at The Nation. “As productivity has soared, time off has not kept pace. It’s time to change that.”

Read “Mental Health Struggles Don't Care About 'Success'“ at Huff Post. “Naomi Osaka is just one of many examples where compassion evaporates the second someone publicly discusses their well-being.”

Read “World No. 1 Ash Barty Withdraws From French Open Due To Hip Injury” at Huff Post.

Internationalities:

Read “NGOs say Biden's proposed military aid to Egypt undermines human rights” at Al-Monitor.

Read “Germany Officially Recognizes It Committed Genocide In Present-Day Namibia” at NPR

ReadUS returns ancient stone carvings to Thailand” at BBC.

Read “Remains of 215 children found at former residential school in British Columbia” at APTN News.

Read ‘AI emotion-detection software tested on Uyghurs” at BBC.

Read “Tiananmen: Hong Kong vigil organiser arrested on 32nd anniversary” at BBC.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “The six GOP senators who backed Jan. 6 commission bill” at The Hill.

Read “Trump Slams Paul Ryan For Calling End To His Presidency ‘Disgraceful’” at Huff Post. “The ex-president claimed the former House speaker is “a curse to the Republican Party.”

Read “A win for DeSantis? Fla. law fines social media companies for banning candidates” at MSNBC.

Read ‘Fmr. DHS Secretary Napolitano slams GOP Senators for ignoring national security threats” at MSNBC

Read “Alaska: Biden to suspend Trump Arctic drilling leases” at BBC.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Senate Republicans block commission on January 6 insurrection” at CBS News.

  • Read “These 11 senators skipped the Jan. 6 commission vote” at Daily News.

  • Read “Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Won’t Explain Why She No-Showed for the Capitol Riot Commission Vote” at Daily Beast.

Read “Sen. Cruz shares far-right Russian propaganda video to attack U.S. military” at MSNBC.

Read “Texas Republicans finalize bill that would enact stiff new voting restrictions and make it easier to overturn election results” at Washington Post.

Read “DOJ Asks Judge to Dismiss Lawsuits Against Trump for Violent Clearing of Lafayette Square” at Slate.

Read “The RNC's scandal-plagued finance team, four years later” at MSNBC. “Four years ago, the RNC announced its national finance team. How many of the quartet have faced Justice Department investigations? All of them.”

Read “National Review writer 'can attest' to Trump pressing conservatives to say election was 'stolen'“ at The Hill.

Read “Postmaster General DeJoy under investigation for claim he once called ‘outrageous’” at MSNBC.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “It Came Out of the Sky: Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Willy and the Poor Boys’ at 50” at The Ringer (originally from 2019).

Read “10 big talking points from the posthumous new DMX album ‘Exodus’” at NME.

Read “What Is Asian American Music, Really?” at Pitchfork.

Read “Jeff Tweedy in Conversation with Jeff Tweedy” at Believer.

Read “Man Returns Bob Dylan Album to Library After 48 Years Overdue” at Consequence.

Read “Resistance Songs: Mdou Moctar's Favourite Music” at The Quietus.

Read “Hanson Tap Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen for New Song ‘Don’t Ever Change’” at Rolling Stone.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Apple Orders ‘The Big Door Prize’ TV Adaptation From ‘Schitt’s Creek’ Producer David West Read” at Variety.

Read “'Rugrats' Reboot: Phil and Lil's Mom Betty Will Be Openly Gay in Paramount+ Show” at Pop Culture.

Read “‘Paddington 2’ Loses Top Movie of All Time Honor Due to New Bad Review” at Hollywood Reporter.

Read “The Healing Power of Lodge 49 How a Short-Lived Show Broke Through My Pandemic Fog” at Vogue.

Read “Universal Reportedly Wants A Fast & Furious And Jurassic World Crossover” at We Got This Covered.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “A Medieval Book That Opens Six Different Ways, Revealing Six Different Books in One” at Open Culture.

Design/Artsy Things:



Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “UFO whistleblower says Pentagon tried to silence him” at The Hill.

  • Read “UFO filmmaker releases 46-second video allegedly showing swarm of objects hovering near Navy ship” at Yahoo.

  • Read “U.S. Finds No Evidence of Alien Technology in Flying Objects, but Can’t Rule It Out, Either” at New York Times.

Read “Even Creatures in The Deepest Ocean Trench Have Eaten Plastic” at Global Citizen.

Read “It’s really beginning to look like Tom DeLonge can blow the lid off the mystery of UFOs” at A Journal Of Musical Things.

Read “Viral video shows massive shark circling boat in Atlantic Ocean” at 12 News.

Read “China to send 3 astronauts to its new space station in June” at 12 News.

Read “Nasa to launch baby squid to International Space Station” at BBC.

Food And Drink Cultures:



Misc. Oddities:



Local:

Read “Arizona ‘refurbishes’ its gas chamber to prepare for executions, documents reveal” at The Guardian.

Read “Ducey vetoes 22 bills, says nothing will be signed until budget is approved” at AZ Mirror.

Read “‘We should be very worried’: Top Arizona election official sounds alarm over GOP’s war against democracy” at The Independent.

The Weekly Town Crier (05/28/21)

womans.jpg

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (05/28/21).





We’ll Miss You:

Read “R.I.P. School Of Rock star Kevin Clark” at AV Club.

Read “Eric Carle, Author Of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar,’ Dies At 91” at Huff Post.

Religion and Stuff:

 Read “Why Complementarianism Can’t Be a “Gospel” Issue” at Heidel Blog.

Read “More Churches Closed than Opened in 2019. Then Came the Pandemic.” at Christianity Today.

Read “Southern Baptist decline continues, denomination has lost more than 2 million members since 2006” at Religion News Service.

Read “QAnon is spreading in churches. These pastors are trying to stop it” at CNN.

Read “Can America Be America When Jews Are Beaten in the Streets?” at David French. “George Washington’s promise to American Jews helped define this nation. Breaking that promise would define us again.”

Read “From DNA to NDA” at Christianity Today. “Can you separate Ravi Zacharias International Ministries from Ravi Zacharias?”

Read “15 percent of Americans believe central QAnon theory” at The HIll.

Read “Gun Church That Worships With AR-15s Bought a 40-Acre Compound in Texas for Its ‘Patriots’” at Vice. “The Rod of Iron Ministries has become more militant since leader Hyung Jin “Sean” Moon attended the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.”

Read “Understanding QAnon’s Connection to American Politics, Religion, and Media Consumption” at PRRI.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Poor People’s Campaign, lawmakers unveil sweeping resolution to tackle poverty” at Religion News Service.

Read “Why Conservatives Want to Cancel the 1619 Project” at The Atlantic.

Read “The War on Critical Race Theory” at Boston Review. “Turning a blind eye to the realities of racial injustice, the highly orchestrated right-wing attacks cast a body of scholarship about race in the law as a great threat to American society.’

Read “Greenwood, 1921: One of the worst race massacres in American history” at CBS News.

Read “U.S. revises policy that denied citizenship to children of gay couples” at NBC News.

Read “Black Lives Matter activist in critical condition after being shot in head in London” at CNN.

Read “Joe Biden, Kamala Harris Condemn Jewish Hate Crimes in Stance Against Antisemitism” at Variety.

Read “TV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines donate to campaign against critical race theory in schools” at The Hill.

Read “Secretly recorded audio of Dave Ramsey reveals question of double standards in company” at WSMV.

Read “Texas Gets Ready To Allow Unlicensed Carrying Of Handguns” at NPR.

Read “Jewish Groups Call for Federal Action Amid Rise in Antisemitic Attacks” at Democracy Now.

Read “In historic first, climate activists are now on Exxon's board” at The Hill.

Read “Biden to visit Tulsa to commemorate 100th anniversary of Tulsa Race Massacre” at NBC News.

Read “Amy Cooper's "racial discrimination" lawsuit and the scourge of white whining” at Salon.

Read “America’s unique gun violence problem, explained in 16 maps and charts” at Vox.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “Baked Alaska of Capitol riot notoriety, out on bail, is now a hostile bully to store employees” at Boing Boing.

Read “Live From The Sahara Clermont Music” at The Hill.

Read “Largest US shrine to the Confederacy getting new exhibit describing KKK history” at The Hill.

This Week With The Police:

Read “How to use the Siri 'I'm Getting Pulled Over' shortcut to record police encounters during traffic stops with your iPhone” at Business Insider.

Read “Legalization of marijuana forcing some police K9s in Virginia to retire” at Fox5DC. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Please stop making dogs be cops.)

Read “Former Montana Police Chief Charged With Distributing Child Porn” at Huff Post.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Howard University Announces Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts” at Pitchfork.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Houston doctor trying to figure out why some COVID-19 patients develop massively enlarged tongues” at 12 News.

Read “US issues Japan travel warning weeks before Olympics” at BBC.

Read “Indiana AG says university mandating vaccines violates new state law” at The Hill.

Read “Tennessee anti-vaxxer arrested after deliberately plowing car through vaccination site” at Raw Story.

Read “California to pay $116.5 million in gifts, cash to those who get COVID vaccinations” at Los Angeles Times.

Read ‘Flight attendants: Spike in unruly passengers who refuse to wear a mask a safety issue” at Boston 25 News.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Target bans Pokémon and sports trading cards after fights between speculators” at Boing Boing.

Read “10 Questions About Empathy In America, A Year After George Floyd's Death” at NPR.

Read “Seth Rogen on cancel culture: 'If you've made a joke that's aged terribly, accept it'“ at The Hill.

Read “The Many Identity Crises of Sonic the Hedgehog” at Wired. “Sega's beloved speedster arrived on the scene 30 years ago. Since then, he's gone through numerous transformations—not all for the better.”

Read “Kellogg's robot vending machine lets you mix your favorite cereals” at CNet.

Read “K-Pop Group BTS And McDonald's Launch Exclusive Meal And Clothing Line” at NPR.

Read “‘Ax’ vs. ‘Axe’: Which is correct?” at Merriam Webster.

Internationalities:

Read “Kim Jong-un bans mullets, skinny jeans in North Korea” at New York Post.

Read ‘Eurovision winners under investigation for partying suspiciously hard” at AV Club.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Trump Is Marching Down the Road to Political Violence” at The Atlantic. “The Republican Party must counteract lies rather than indulge them.”

Read “Biden: 'Simply wrong' for Trump DOJ to seek journalists' phone records” at The Hill.

Read “Americans See Broad Responsibilities for Government; Little Change Since 2019” at Pew Research. “Share of adults ‘basically content’ with federal government rises to highest point since 2004, driven by Democrats.”

Read “88% of children covered by monthly payments starting in July” at ABC 13.

Read “It happened there: how democracy died in Hungary” at Vox.

Read “Democrats to introduce bill to prevent default recurring political donations” at The Hill.

Read “Democratic leaders discussed restraining order for Ocasio-Cortez against Greene” at The Hill.

Read ‘Americans Are Fine With a Broad Definition of ‘Infrastructure” at Slate. “Voters want bridges and roads, but they want child care, long-term care, and clean energy too.”

Read “66 percent of GOP want Trump to run for reelection” at The HIll.

Read “Sen. Tammy Duckworth: Republicans would rather ‘spread lies than defend our democracy’” at MSNBC.

Read “Senate confirms Wormuth as first female Army secretary — for real this time” at News and Guts.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Trump's election "audit" should be treated as a trojan horse, Arizona secretary of state warns” at Salon.

Read “Trump Has Charged Secret Service $40,000 For Mar-a-Lago Room Since Leaving White House” at Huff Post.

Read “Cheney primary challenger says he impregnated 14-year-old when he was 18” at NBC News. "She was a little younger than me, so it's like the Romeo and Juliet story," state Sen. Anthony Bouchard said of the girl he later married and divorced.”

Read “Emails show DEA’s “covert surveillance” of racial justice protesters in Philadelphia, Chicago, Albuquerque” at Citizens for Ethics.

Read “Trump supporter's nonprofit will help decide who counts ballots as election audit resumes” at AZ Central. “This is why it matters who’s paying for the audit. They outsourced the funding to election fraud conspiracy theorists, and now they’re calling the shots on important decisions.”

Read “Gaetz, Greene cheer election audit in Arizona rally” at KTAR.

Read “Florida, in a First, Will Fine Social Media Companies That Bar Candidates” at New York Times.

Read “They tried to overturn the 2020 election. Now they want to run the next one.” at Politico. “Trump supporters who back his claim that the 2020 vote was rigged are running to become the top election officials in key states.”

Read ‘Kansas Republican charged with battery allegedly kicked high school student in the crotch” at The Hill.

Read “Long After Trump's Loss, a Push to Inspect Ballots Persists” at Yahoo.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Guitarist Yasmin Williams’ Techniques Are Second Only To Her Songs” at Bluegrass Situation.

Read “Now That We Know Diddy Once Scrapped With J. Cole, Who Will the Mogul Fight Next?” at Pitchfork.

Read “Megadeth part ways with bassist David Ellefson following allegations” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “The Linda Lindas Sign With Epitaph Records” at Variety.

Read “Lil Nas X Has Wardrobe Malfunction in Middle of ‘Call Me By Your Name’ Performance on ‘SNL’ Finale” at Pop Culture.

Read “A Brief History of Talking Heads: How the Band Went from Scrappy CBGB’s Punks to New Wave Superstars” at Open Culture.

Read “Sunday Reading: Bob Dylan at Eighty” at New Yorker.

Read “Mdou Moctar on the Recording and Meaning of "Afrique Victime" at Reverb.

Read ‘The The announces ‘Comeback Special’ live album and film” at Slicing Up Eyeballs.

Read “Willie Nelson announces 2021 Outlaw Music Fest tour w/ Sturgill Simpson, Lucinda Williams & more” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “80 Artists Pick Their Favorite Bob Dylan Song For Bob Dylan’s 80th Birthday” at Stereogum.

Read “Just in time for the long weekend: Tragically Hip Road Apples cider”at A Journal of Musical Things.

  • Read “An oral history of The Tragically Hip’s Saskadelphia album” at A Journal of Musical Things.

Read “Renaissance Knives Had Music Engraved on the Blades; Now Hear the Songs Performed by Modern Singers” at Open Culture.

Read ‘Primavera Sound Barcelona Announces 2022 Lineup: Tame Impala, The Strokes, Khruangbin, The National and More” at Relix.

Read ‘Marilyn Manson Wanted In New Hampshire For Spitting On A Videographer” at Stereogum.

Read “How Eddie Van Halen, Homemade Hot Pepper, and a Simple Fuzz Pedal Inspired Mdou Moctar’s New Album” at Pitchfork.

Read “The Eden of Kraut Rock: The Sounds and Stories of the Zodiak Free Arts Lab” at In Sheep’s Clothing Hi Fi.'

Read “How the Rembrandts’ ‘Friends’ Song Became the Most Iconic TV Theme of the ’90s… and Beyond” at Variety.

Read “The Beat Behind Afrobeat: A Guide to the Music of Tony Allen” at Bandcamp.

Read “Robert Plant Asks for His Songwriting Archive To Be Released “Free of Charge” When He Dies” at Relix.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Tom Waits to Voice “The Narrator” in New AMC+ Animated Show Ultra City Smiths” at Pitchfork.

Read “Flavortown mayor Guy Fieri is now the highest-paid chef on cable” at AV Club.

Read “Danny McBride Developing Garbage Pail Kids Animated Series for HBO Max” at Consequence.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Read 12 Stories By Haruki Murakami Free Online” at Open Culture.

Read “John Steinbeck wrote a violent werewolf mystery novel and no one will let us read it” at AV Club.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “CDC urges against kissing, snuggling poultry in salmonella warning” at The Hill.

Read “I Look for Aliens for a Living, and No, I Don’t Study UFOs” at Slate.

Read “Extinct giant bird claw with the flesh still on it resurfaces online” at The Hill. “The claw belonged to a moa, an extinct flightless bird from New Zealand.”

Read “I Just Learned Why Olympic Divers Take Showers After Each Dive, and It Makes a Lot of Sense” at Yahoo.

Food And Drink Cultures:

Read “Craft beer industry undergoing a #MeToo-style reckoning” at ABC 15. “Women sharing stories of misogyny in the workplace.”

Read “The Lost Art of Growing Blueberries With Fire” at Atlas Obscura.

Browse “The 9 Best Spiked Cold Brews for Satisfying Your Alcohol and Coffee Cravings” at The Manual.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “The Collectors Who Hunt Down Radioactive Glassware” at Atlas Obscura.

Local:

Read “Why Arizona Cities Oppose Governor’s Flat Tax Proposal” at KJZZ.

Read “New law says Arizona bars, restaurants, liquor stores can sell to-go cocktails” at 12 News.

Read “Pre-lawsuit letter: Maricopa County doubling down that it did not delete election data” at ABC 15.

  • Read ‘How national news is covering the Arizona audit: 'I've never seen one this mismanaged'“ at ABC 15.

The Weekly Town Crier (05/21/21)

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (05/21/21).





We’ll Miss You:

Read “Charles Grodin, deadpan comic actor known for 'Midnight Run' and 'Beethoven,' dies at 86” at NBC News.

Read “Paul Mooney, 'Bamboozled' and 'Chappelle's Show' actor and comedian, has died” at CNN.

Read “Roger Hawkins, legendary Muscle Shoals drummer, RIP” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Religion and Stuff:

Read the opinion piece: “The debate over women pastors is a Southern Baptist smoke screen” at Religion News Service. “The fiery arguments distract from constructive conversations about entrenched racism, Christian nationalism and sexual abuse.”

Read “Survey: Faith groups showcase media divide” at Religion News Service. “White evangelicals were also the group most likely to say the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.”

Read “White evangelicals after Trump: What now?White evangelicals after Trump: What now?” at CNN.

Read “A Pennsylvania Lawmaker and the Resurgence of Christian Nationalism” at New Yorker. “How Doug Mastriano’s rise embodies the spread of a movement centered on the belief that God intended America to be a Christian nation.”

Read “Franklin Graham urges evangelicals to get vaccinated before it’s ‘too late’” at Religion News Service.

Read “Mark Driscoll Paid for Honeymoon with Church Funds; Uses Gift Cards to Pay Interns, Former Members Say” at Roys Report.

Read ‘DC Talk’s Kevin Max Is Now ‘Exvangelical,’ Says He’s Been ‘Progressing’ for ‘Decades’ at Faith Wire.

Read “Why grievance studies hoaxer and atheist James Lindsay wants to save Southern Baptists” at Religion News Service. “Much of the recent debate over critical race theory in the Southern Baptist Convention has been driven by an atheist, sword-wielding, former massage therapist best known for writing hoax academic papers.”

Read “If You End Church Mask Mandates, My Family Can’t Be There” at Sojourners.

Read “Russell Moore to Join Christianity Today to Lead New Public Theology Project” at Christianity Today.

Read “The New Republic postpones religion and politics forum. Replaces Eric Metaxas with Peter Wehner” at Current.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Joel Greenberg, key player in Matt Gaetz sex trafficking probe, agrees to cooperate with feds” at ABC7NY.

  • Read “Former Matt Gaetz associate Joel Greenberg pleads guilty to six federal charges” at CNN.

Read “House passes bill mandating accommodations for pregnant workers” at The Hill.

Read “Black homeowner had a white friend stand in for third appraisal. Her home value doubled” at Cincinnati.com.

Read “Mass shooting insurance in high demand as U.S. emerges from lockdown” at Reuters.

Read “How Black Lives Matter Changed the American Conversation About Israel and Palestine” at Slate. “The surge of attention to the occupation is unimaginable without last year’s protests.”

Read “80% Of Asian Americans Say They Are Discriminated Against” at NPR.

Read “The Supreme Court Just Took a Case That Could End Roe v. Wade’ at Vice.

Read “Trump legal bombshell? 45 'might be implicated' in Giuliani probe” at MSNBC.

  • Read “Trump Organization Probe Becomes Criminal Investigation” at Time. “The investigation "is no longer purely civil in nature" a spokesman for the New York attorney general's office said.”

  • Read “New York AG's office opens criminal probe into Trump Organization” at NBC News.

  • Read “I think Donald Trump is going to flip on all of them’: Michael Cohen on the new NY State criminal investigation into the Trump Organization” at MSNBC.

Read “S.C. governor signs bill requiring death row inmates to choose firing squad or electric chair” at Axios.

Read “Giuliani asks judge to block review of records seized in raid of home, office” at The Hill.

Read “Hundreds of PPP Loans Went to Fake Farms in Absurd Places” at Pro Publica.

Read “‘I have lived through the massacre every day’: Tulsa massacre survivors testify before House committee” at MSNBC.

Read “In a Small Town, a Battle for Racial Justice Confronts a Bloody Past and an Uncertain Future” at Pro Publica. “A frustrated Black Lives Matter activist. A die-hard Confederate loyalist. A sheriff who won’t back down. In a place where protests are restricted and violence feels imminent, many cry: “We don’t want to die no more.”

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “Democrat moves to censure three Republicans for downplaying Jan. 6” at The Hill.

Read “Romney: Capitol riot was 'an insurrection against the Constitution'“ at The Hill.

Read “America’s Deadly Domestic Extremism Worst In 24 Years, Reveals New FBI Report” at Huff Post. “Most extremist killings in 2019 were committed by white supremacists.”

Read “Alleged Capitol Rioter On House Arrest After Killing Mountain Lion” at Huff Post.

Read “Arizona resident photographed with Proud Boys on day of Capitol riot is arrested in Phoenix” at AZ Central.

Read “Threats, videos and a recall: A California militia fuels civic revolt in a red county” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “FBI releases videos of 'horrifying assaults' on officers during Jan. 6 riot” at The Hill.

Read “House Votes To Establish Capitol Riot Commission Over Republican Opposition” at Huff Post.

Read “Trump calls for Jan. 6 commission debate to end 'immediately'“ at The Hill.

Read “Now the "QAnon Shaman" wants to use autism as an excuse: Hell no” at Salon.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “51 Years Later, Brother Of Kent State Victim Reflects On Iconic Photo — And One That Just Emerged” at WBUR.

This Week With The Police:

Read “The Enemy Within” at Rolling Stone. “Race and White Supremacy in American Policing.”

Read “The Ball Was Dropped by All”: How Cops Got More Than $400,000 in Unlawful Sick Day Payouts” at Pro Publica.

Read “Bodycams haven't lived up to promises of exposing police misconduct. One reason: The police decide what to release” at USA Today.

Read “There's a database whose mission is to stop problematic police officers from hopping between departments. But many agencies don't know it exists” at CNN.

Read “Police unions plan to update guidance on defending officers” at The Hill.

Read “Police in Cities Across U.S. Brace for a Violent Summer” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “How US police training compares with the rest of the world” at BBC.

Read “Can Police Be Taught To Intervene When Colleagues Violate Safety Rules? One Professor Says Yes” at WBUR.

Read “Monroe Louisiana Arrests: ‘I’m scared’: AP obtains video of deadly arrest of Black man” at Associated Press.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Texas GOP Passes Bill To Stop Teachers From Talking About Racism” at Huff Post.

Read “University of California system will no longer consider SAT, ACT scores in admissions process” at The Hill.

Read “Tech Companies Want Schools to Use COVID Relief Money on Surveillance Tools” at Vice.

Read “Arizona schools chief says GOP budget plan takes state in ‘negative direction’” at KTAR.

Read “UNC won’t offer tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones after wave of conservative criticism” at 19th News. “Despite approval from faculty and the tenure committee, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist will be the first Knight Chair professor at the university to be denied tenure by the board of trustees.”

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Ricky Schroder confronts Costco employee over mask requirement in viral video: 'You're just going to listen to their rules?'“ at Yahoo.

Read “Texas governor bans local governments, schools from requiring face masks” at The Hill. (EDITOR’S NOTE: As David Dark sometimes says: “There are so many ways to hate God.”)

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Meghan McCain Blasts Marjorie Taylor Greene For ‘Behaving Like An Animal’” at Huff Post.

Read “PETA Slams The Offspring For Chimpanzee Strip Club Video With John Stamos” at Stereogum.

Read “Apple locked users into its ecosystem. Tesla wants to do the same with its ‘iPhone on wheels.’” at Washington Post.

Read “We Found Joe Biden’s Secret Venmo. Here’s Why That’s A Privacy Nightmare For Everyone.” at Buzzfeed News.

Read “Nearly two dozen cities are handing out cash with no conditions” at The Hill. “Los Angeles is working on a plan that would offer $1,000 per month to 1,000 families using public funds.”

Read “The IRS Tried to Take on the Ultrawealthy. It Didn’t Go Well.” at Pro Publica.

Read “Chrissy Teigen Is a Cyberbully. Could It Sink Her Career?” at Slate. “The answer is a lot less obvious than you’d think—or is it?”

Read “Naked Homes: Nudist Architecture and Rethinking Domestic Space” at Wolfsonian.

Read “Woman says she accidentally put $26M winning lottery ticket in the washer” at The Hill.

Read “AT&T is reportedly in talks to merge its media business with Discovery” at The Verge.

Read “Long Before Divorce, Bill Gates Had Reputation for Questionable Behavior” at New York Times.

  • Read “Bill Gates's reputation reeling from affairs, 'uncomfortable' workplace behavior and ties to Jeffrey Epstein” at The Hill.

Read “Space Force commander fired after comments made on conservative podcast” at AZ Family.

Read “Your Electric Vehicle Can’t Get There from Here—At Least, Not Without a Charge” at New Yorker. “Why we need to build a national network of charging stations fast.”

Read “Seth Rogen Reveals How Beyonce's Bodyguard 'Humiliated' Him When He Tried to Meet Her” at Pop Culture.

Read “10 Celebrities Who Use Their Influence to Fight Injustice” at Global Citizen.

Read “The Mexican Mountain Town Feeding the International Crystal Market” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “The Sound of Silence: Have We Forgotten How to Be Quiet?” at The Millions.

Internationalities:

Read “Israel pounds Gaza with air raids, shelling” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Israel airstrikes kill 8 children, flatten building housing Associated Press, Al Jazeera offices” at NBC News.

Read the opinion piece: “Israel Doesn’t Have a “Right to Exist” — But Israelis and Palestinians Do” at Jacobin Magazine.

Read “Israel and Palestine: What Will it Take to Stop the Violence?” at Preemptive Love.

Read “Justin Trudeau Caught Using a Fake Apple MacBook” at Vice.

Read “Tayyip Erdogan Accuses Joe Biden of 'Bloody Hands' After Report of $735M Weapons Sale to Israel” at Newsweek.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “House Democrats moving to censure Rep. Paul Gosar, 2 others for Jan. 6 comments” at AZ Central.

Read “Democratic Congressman Wants To Censure Rep. Gosar, Other Republicans” at KJZZ.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Rep. Matt Gaetz Snorted Cocaine With Escort Who Had ‘No Show’ Gov’t Job” at Daily Beast.

  • Read “Troubles grow for Gaetz as former associate flips” at The Hill.

Read “Deleted video shows Greene taunting Ocasio-Cortez's office in 2019” at The Hill.

  • Read “Investigation: Marjorie Taylor Greene filed homestead exemptions on 2 homes, violating state law” at WSBTV. “A Channel 2 Action News investigation has found that Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her husband have two active homestead exemptions, which is against Georgia law.”

Read “Man charged with wife’s murder illegally cast her ballot for Trump, officials say: ‘I just thought, give him another vote’ at Washington Post.

Read “Former President Trump Accuses Maricopa County Of Deleting Voter Records; Recorder Responds” at KJZZ.

  • Read “Audit official says he ‘recovered’ files, undercutting claim county officials deleted them” at AZ Mirror.

Read “GOP leaders look to curtail ballot initiatives after red state voters opt for legal weed, expanded Medicaid” at Yahoo.

Read “Georgia Republicans oppose measure condemning Atlanta spa shootings” at Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Read “Feds investigating alleged illegal donations to Collins’ re-election bid” at Axios.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Shabaka Hutchings Goes Back to the Future” at Esquire. “The saxophonist and bandleader of Sons of Kemet is the most exciting voice in British jazz.”

Read “Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour Composes a Soundtrack to Arthur C. Clarke’s Documentary Fractals: The Colors of Infinity” at Open Culture.

Read “The Great American Songwriter Mr Bill Callahan Picks His Texas Playlist” at Mr Porter.

Read “David Byrne, Jonathan Demme, and 35 Years of ‘Stop Making Sense’” at The Ringer.

Browse Rolling Stone’s picks for “The 50 Greatest Concerts of the Last 50 Years.”

Read “The Green Album” Turns 20” at Stereogum. “After the release of Pinkerton in 1996, Rivers Cuomo decided that he needed to straighten some things out — so he got braces.”

Browse Vinyl Factory’s picks for “50 of the greatest Trojan Records".

Read “George Clinton, Robert Glasper Headline 2021 Blue Note Jazz Festival” at Okay Player.

Browse Far Out’s picks for “The 6 best songs written about disasters.”

Browse Pitchfork’s picks for “The 50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time.”

Read “James Taylor announces tour with Jackson Browne and new album” at Rock and Roll Garage.

Read “Guitarist Sin Quirin quits Ministry a year after allegations of sexual relationships with minors” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Punk Rock Priests Offer Up Their ‘Parallel Love’ in Music and Sacrament’ at Christianity Today. “There’s no other band quite like Luxury, the evangelical indie rockers from the ’90s who journeyed through tragedy and faith to Eastern Orthodoxy.”

Read “Apple announces lossless Apple Music is coming in June at no added cost” at The Verge.

Read “A famed folk singer won a presidential pardon after molesting a child. Did he prey on others?” at Union Leader.

Browse Vinyl Factory’s picks for “The essential Yusef Lateef in 10 records.”

Read “Sinead O’Connor Remembers Things Differently” at New York Times.

Read “Marilyn Manson Sued by Former Assistant for Sexual Assault, Battery, and Harassment” at Pitchfork.

Read “Times they are a-changing! Bob Dylan is seen in public for the first time in a DECADE while running errands in LA - just days before this 80th birthday” at Daily Mail.

Read ‘Alanis Morissette Releases Chester Bennington Tribute Song ‘Rest’” at Rolling Stone.

Read “The Future Now: An Interview With Black Monument Ensemble’s Damon Locks” at Ghetto Blaster.

Read “The World Outside of Tropicalia: A Survey of the Psychedelic Sounds of South America” at In Sheep’s Clothing Hi-Fi.

Read “The Guardian talk to The Necks' Tony Buck about improvising and bypassing the brain onstage” at Le Guess Who.

Read “Mdou Moctar’s Songs of Revolution and Love” at Rolling Stone. “The Tuareg guitar hero on his excellent new album and the ongoing fight for freedom and justice in neocolonial Niger.”

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “‘Wonder Years’ Reboot Among Four ABC Series Orders for 2021-2022 Broadcast Season” at Variety.

Read “Miley Cyrus Signs Overall Deal With NBCUniversal, Will Develop Programs and Star in Three Specials” at Variety.

Read “Wanna See Keegan-Michael Key and Kenan Thompson Beat Up Statler and Waldorf?” at Slate.

Books/Reading/Authors



Design/Artsy Things:

Read “Compliments of Chicago – Gang Business Cards from the 1970s and 1980s” at Flashback.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “When this octopus sees a threat it doesn't put up a fight – it just disappears” at Boing Boing.

Read “Freshly Made Plutonium From Outer Space Found On Ocean Floor” at NPR.

Read “This Moth Is Huge in Australia” at New York Times. “A giant wood moth, the heaviest of all known moths, appeared on the side of a school building in Queensland, Australia, enthralling students who are used to diverse wildlife.”

Read “'Extinct Fossil Fish' Dating Back 420 Million Years Found Alive in Madagascar” at Newsweek.

Read “Why can’t we remember our early childhood?” at Universal Sci.

Read “Explorer Details His 40 Days In French Cave Without Clocks Or Sunlight” at WBUR.

Read “Fungus full of psychedelic drugs could cause Indiana Brood X cicadas' butts to fall off” at Courier Press.

Read “Watch a Navy Pilot Explain His Encounter With a UFO” at Vice.

Read “Leaked Navy video appears to show UFO off California” at Yahoo.

Read “Skinwalker Ranch Owner Reveals UFO Moment That Struck Cow Dead, Made Him Believer” at Pop Culture.

Read “Scientists Shot Tardigrades from a Gun to See If Interplanetary Travel Is Survivable” at Vice.

Food Cultures:

Read “How Crowns & Hops is building a Black-owned craft beer brand — and a community” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Drinking any amount of alcohol causes damage to the brain, study finds” at AZ Family.

Read “‘Mindfreak’ Magician Criss Angel Dives Into the Restaurant Business in Overton” at Vegas Eater.

Misc. Oddities:



Local:

Read “Roundup: Chino Bandido Has a Food Truck, Tax Day Pizza Deals, and More Food News” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Chino Bandido opens food truck at new location in Phoenix” at KTAR.

Read “Pointing To Economic Harm, Arizona Communities Call For Border Reopening” at Fronteras Desk.

The Weekly Town Crier (05/14/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (05/14/21).






We’ll Miss You:

Read “Vans co-founder Paul Van Doren dies At 90” at PennLive.

Read ‘Pervis Staples, Co-Founder of the Staple Singers, Dies at 85” at Pitchfork.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “For some pastors, the past year was a sign from God it was time to quit” at Religion News Service.

Read “Why Nathan Cartagena Teaches Critical Race Theory To Evangelicals” at Sojourners.

Read “Saddleback Church Ordains 3 Women Pastors, Defying Southern Baptist Position” at Roys Report.

Read “How American Christendom Weakens American Christianity” at David French.

Read ‘German priests defy Pope Francis with blessings of same-sex unions” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Mark Driscoll Accused of Cult-Like Actions; 24/7 Surveillance, Mandated Loyalty” at Roys Report.

Read “Inside Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam’s Strange Ties to Scientology” at Daily Beast.

Read “Meet Kashmir’s ‘Midnight Drummers,’ keeping alive an age-old Ramadan tradition” at Religion News Service.

Read “Religion plays a role in the renewed conflict in Israel, but it may not be what you think” at Religion News Service.

Read “Former Members of Indiana Church Accuse Pastor of Sexual Abuse & Presbytery of Covering it Up” at Roys Report.

Read “The Eugenics Roots of Evangelical Family Values” at Religion and Politics.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “The War on Critical Race Theory” at Boston Review. “Turning a blind eye to the realities of racial injustice, the highly orchestrated right-wing attacks cast a body of scholarship about race in the law as a great threat to American society.”

Read “Two Asian women repeatedly attacked with cinder block as they closed Baltimore store” at NBC News.

Read “Maryland governor pardons 34 victims of racial lynching” at The Hill.

Read “Sub shop owner allegedly pays manager to kill employee to avoid back pay” at Crime Online.

Read “'Woke,' Leftist & Black: The Incomplete Glossary of White Slurs” at The Root.

Read “DA to seek death penalty, hate crime charges against 22-year-old spa shooting suspect” at 11 Alive.

Read “Bodycam video shows Andrew Brown Jr. didn't drive into deputies who shot him, lawyers say: "He did just the opposite"“ at CBS News.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “In Exclusive Jailhouse Letter, Capitol Riot Defendant Explains Motives, Remains Boastful” at Pro Publica. ”The material obtained by ProPublica sheds light on the radicalization of a Jan. 6 defendant whom prosecutors have characterized as a “serious danger ... not only to his family and Congress, but to the entire system of justice.”

Read “Rep. Paul Gosar defends the 'peaceful patriots' who rioted on Jan. 6” at AZ Central.

Watch “GQP reps claim Capitol riot was a "normal tourist visit" at Boing Boing.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Washington bans open carry of weapons at state capitol, public protests” at The Hill.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Two More Lawsuits Filed Against Williamson County Sheriff's Department For Its Use Of Force” at KUT. “Attorneys say Ramsey Mitchell was punched, kicked and tased by deputies multiple times, and that he was put in a chokehold before being rendered unconscious. The incident was captured on camera for the the now-canceled reality television show “Live PD.”

Read “Alabama officer convicted of murdering suicidal man while on duty” at The Hill.

Read “Federal grand jury charges 4 former Minneapolis cops with violating George Floyd’s civil rights — Chauvin also charged in teen arrest” at CNBC.

Read “KARE 11 Investigates: New data shows MPD searches Black drivers at 29 times the rate of whites after minor stops” at KARE11. “A KARE 11 analysis reveals huge racial disparities continue in Minneapolis for minor traffic stops and searches despite reforms promised after George Floyd’s death.”

Read “Virginia prosecutor says Black motorist should never have been pulled over, asks for investigation” at CNN.

Read “Witness: Man angered by Texas deputies in yard killed them” at Yahoo.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Schools Seeing Relief, Conflicts Since Arizona Lifted School Mask Mandate” at KJZZ.

Read “Dillard University Receives $1 Million From The Ray Charles Foundation” at Offbeat Magazine.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Nurses Honor 400 Colleagues Who Lost Their Lives to COVID-19, Call for More Protections” at Democracy Now.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Pro golfer arrested for attempting to meet with minor for sex” at ABC 15.

Read “Caitlyn Jenner tells Hannity friends are fleeing California because of homeless people” at The Hill.

Read ‘Logjam! A journey to the heart of the lumber shortage.” at Slate.

Read “Anyone can claim copyright to your videos - and YouTube stands by and watches” at My News Desk.

Read “Kintsugi: The Centuries-Old Japanese Craft of Repairing Pottery with Gold & Finding Beauty in Broken Things” at Open Culture.

Read “Called by God” at Slate. “In 2014, I went on a vigilante raid to “save” kids sold for sex. What we did haunts me now.”

Read “Diamond in the rough: Japanese Americans imprisoned at Arizona camps during WWII found solace in baseball” at Cronkite News.

Read “Who Should John Mulaney Be Now?” at Vulture.

Browse “Leonardo da Vinci’s Handwritten Resume (1482)” at Open Culture.

Read “Hummer destroyed by fire after driver stockpiles gas” at The Hill.

Read “The 1970s Fashion Designer Who Was Outlandishly Ahead of His Time” at The Atlantic. “Twenty years ago, fashion lost the visionary designer—and prophet—behind P-Funk and Kiss.”

Read “McDonald's-owned U.S. restaurants boost pay to lure new workers” at Reuters.

Internationalities:

Read ‘Man Trapped on Bridge After Glass Deck Blown Off By Strong Wind” at Vice.

Read “8 dead in Russia school shooting” at The Hill.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read the opinion piece “Republicans will never certify a Democratic win ever again” at Boing Boing.

Read “Liz Cheney removed from position as House GOP conference chair over anti-Trump stance” at New York Post.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Trump Justice Department secretly obtained Post reporters’ phone records” at Washington Post.

Read “Arizona Republicans to brush off DOJ concern about election audit” at The Hill.

Read “Are Donald Trump & Rudy Giuliani Sitting on Secret Pardons?” at News and Guts.

Read “Tennessee cuts off $300 federal unemployment supplement” at The Hill.

Read “Election security experts say giving Maricopa County routers to Arizona Senate's election auditors would be concerning” at AZ Central.

Read “Activists and Ex-Spy Said to Have Plotted to Discredit Trump ‘Enemies’ in Government” at New York Times.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Van Morrison: Latest Record Project Volume 1 review – depressing rants by tinfoil milliner” at Guardian. “The veteran bluesman loudly wakes up the sheeple with this boring and paranoid double album, reminiscent of a dinner party with a bitter divorcee.”

  • Read as Pitchfork reviews Van Morrison’s newest album: “It’s a terrible night for a moondance: On this risible and intermittently lovely 28-song collection, Van indulges in some of his most cherished paranoid theories and deepest-held grudges.”

Read “Mac Miller’s Family Condemns Unauthorized Biography” at Pitchfork.

Read “Chrissie Hynde Details New Bob Dylan Covers Album Standing in the Doorway” at Consequence.

Read “David Lynch Directs New Music Video for Donovan’s “I Am the Shaman”” at Consequence.

Read “On maintaining creative relationships” at The Creative Independent.

Read “The Artist Impostors of Spotify” at Salon. “I tracked some down.”

Read “Rodney Crowell Previews New Album With Urgent ‘Something Has to Change’” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Listening to Hard Rock and Metal Can Lead to Unhealthy Food Choices” at Consequence.

Read “Dead & Company on Summer Tour: ‘You Couldn’t Turn Your Back on This Music’” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Archie Shepp’s 1974 Paris concert set for first vinyl release” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “JAY-Z, Foo Fighters, Tina Turner Inducted Into Rock Hall of Fame 2021” at Pitchfork.

Read “Kraftwerk FINALLY gets into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Oh, and the Foos made it, too)” at A Journal of Musical Things.

Read “Can’s Live Shows Will Be Heard at Last, Thanks to a Bootlegger in Big Pants” at New York Times.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “NBC Is Dropping Golden Globes After Criticism Over Diversity” at Bloomberg. “Musician Matt Sweeney discusses confidence, different types of collaboration, paying attention, and creating and sustaining your lane.”

Read “The "Ted Lasso" way is comforting – and a counter to the hollow nationalism Americans have embraced” at Salon.

Read “'American Idol' finalist Caleb Kennedy out after KKK-style hood video surfaces” at CNN.

Read “Bong Joon Ho working on animated film involving "deep-water sea creatures"“ at AV Club.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: 17,500 Entries on All Things Sci-Fi Are Now Free Online” at Open Culture.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “A Private Company Is About to Send the First Paying Crew to the International Space Station” at Time.

Read “The Psychedelic Miracle” at Rolling Stone. “How some doctors are risking everything to unleash the healing power of MDMA, ayahuasca and other hallucinogens.”

  • Read “A New Study Points to MDMA as a Powerful Treatment for PTSD” at Time.

Read “The Soviet Doctor Who Cut Out His Own Appendix” at Flashback.

Food Cultures:

Read “Restaurants are running out of chicken wings” at ABC 15.

Local:

Read “21 and Over! Here are 21 New Craft Beer Releases from Arizona Breweries” at Phoenix Magazine.

Read “What were those strange lights in the Arizona sky?” at AZ Family.

Read “Arizona's Early Voting List Is No Longer Permanent” at KJZZ.

The Weekly Town Crier (05/07/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (05/07/21.






We’ll Miss You:

Read “Nathan Jung, 'Star Trek' and 'The A-Team' Actor, Dead at 74” at Pop Culture.

Read “Paul Oscher, Blues Musician in Muddy Waters’s Band, Dies at 74” at New York Times.

Read “RIP: Bassist Tony Markellis” at Relix.

Read ‘Ed Ward, Rock Historian and Early ‘Rolling Stone’ Editor, Dead at 72” at Rolling Stone.

Religion and Stuff:

 Read “Ravi Zacharias’s Ministry Investigates Claims of Sexual Misconduct at Spas” at Christianity Today.

Read “Faith, Freedom, Fear: Rural America’s Covid Vaccine Skeptics” at New York Times.

Read “Faith, Freedom, Fear: Rural America’s Covid Vaccine Skeptics” at New York Times.

Read “How Eric Metaxas went from Trump despiser to true believer” at Religion News Service. “How a onetime aspiring public intellectual and Trump doubter turned into a true believer in stolen elections.”

Read “The evangelical sexual abuse crisis is the spiritual warfare of our time” by Karen Swallow Prior at Religion News Service.

Read “John Piper: Ravi Zacharias turned 'position of power' into 'neediness and woundedness'“ at Christian Post.

Read “Study: Trauma-Informed Bible Reading Reduces Depression, Anxiety, Anger” at Christianity Today.

Browse the list of “Ministries With an “F” Transparency Grade” at Ministry Watch.

Read ‘As COVID-19 swamps India, decision to allow Kumbh Mela’s crowds is scrutinized” at Religion News Service.

Read “Canadian Pastor Calls Lockdowns “Greatest Threat” to Health in First Day of Trial” at Roys Report.

Read “Inside The Evangelical Beliefs and Practices That Facilitate Abuse In Families Like The Duggars’ at Religion Dispatches.

Read “‘She didn’t deserve to die the way she did,’ says family of cult leader found dead and mummified” at Washington Post.

Read “Russell Moore had a crisis of faith, but it didn’t help him understand ex-evangelicals” at Flux.Community.

Read “LifeSiteNews removed from Facebook for violating COVID-19 misinformation policies” at Religion News Service.

Read “The Lament of the Christian Disney Dad: What Evangelicals Really Hate About ‘Wokeness’ at Disney World’” at Religion Dispatches.

Read “Remembering Marva Dawn, a Saint of Modern Worship” at Christianity Today.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Tests from 1993 killing reveal another man's DNA other than executed Arkansas inmate” at KATV.

Read “Five people charged after authorities find 97 migrants in Houston home” at The Hill.

Read “Derek Chauvin files motion for new trial in George Floyd case, alleging jury misconduct” at NBC News. “Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, filed the request alleging that the former officer's ability to have a fair trial was affected by pretrial publicity.”

Read “This Board Game Uses Vampires To Fight Anti-Asian Racism” at Huff Post.

Read “Lawyer for separated migrant families 'hopeful' they will soon be reunified, allowed to stay in U.S.” at NBC News.

Read “Josh Duggar Charged On 2 Federal Child Pornography Counts; Pleads “Not Guilty,” Requests Bail” at Deadline.

  • Read “Josh Duggar Hearing: Homeland Security Agent Details Timeline of Child Porn Case” at People.

  • Read “Josh Duggar allowed out of jail while awaiting trial on child porn charges” at Northwest Gazette.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “New "weapons of mass destruction" charges filed against accused Whitmer kidnap plotters” at Salon.

Read “Canadian chapter of the Proud Boys, designated a terrorist group by the government, says it has ‘dissolved’” at Washington Post.

Read ‘White Nationalism Is Far Worse Than a 'Disease'“ at Wired. “Most analogies for racism as a pathology oversimplify its blight. Better diagnosing it means knowing how to treat it.”

Read ‘Former Neo-Nazi Terror Leader Gets Three-Year Prison Term” at Vice.

Read “Wisconsin National Guard member charged in Capitol riot” at The Hill.

Read “FBI still after 'worst of the worst' in Capitol riot as new arrests come at steady pace” at NBC News.

Read “Lawyer blames 'Foxitis' for his US Capitol riot client's actions, as another defendant derails hearings with profane outbursts” at CNN.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Federal judge finds that Columbus police ran 'amok' during peaceful protests, restricts uses of force” at NBC News.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Georgia deputy said that beating Black man was 'sweet stress relief,' feds say” at The Hill.

Read “Watch: South Carolina cop harasses a man for being "suspicious" (as in Black)” at Boing Boing.

Read ‘How activists fought Joe Arpaio’s immigration roundups” at High Country News.

Read “Officers no longer at jobs after video showed them laughing at violent arrest of elderly woman” at The Hill.

Read “Recording the Police: What to Know, and How to Stay Safe Doing It” at KQED.

Read “Man killed himself after LAPD officer fired Taser during foot pursuit, officials say” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Atlanta police officer fired after fatally shooting Rayshard Brooks has been reinstated” at ABC News.

Read “Kansas City officials seek to end jaywalking penalties noting racial disparity in citations” at The Hill.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “College Coach Arrested, Accused of Tricking Student-Athletes Into Sending Nude Photos” at Pop Culture.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “The U.S. never had a shot at herd immunity” at Salon. “Hostility to scientific expertise plus rejection of the concept of the common good led to anti-vaxx conservatism.”

Read “Actor Arrested for Ignoring COVID-19 Protocols to Film Movie” at Pop Culture.

Read “Less than half of NYPD cops have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine” at New York Post.

Read “PPP is out of money for most businesses ahead of planned May 31 closure” at AZ Family.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “US Space Force scientist says military ‘human augmentation’ is necessary in next decade” at Metro.

Read “NPR Turns 50! Its Hosts and Stars Share Their Favorite NPR Moments, Memories and Near-Disasters” at People.

Read “German Gymnasts Cover Their Legs In Stand Against Sexualization” at NPR.

Read “Bill and Melinda Gates announce they are getting divorced” at Associated Press.

Read “‘MDMA cured my alcoholism’: Inside the remarkable ecstasy trial offering an escape from trauma” at The Telegraph.

Read “Verizon sells AOL, Yahoo for $5B” at The Hill.

Read “The FBI is breaking into corporate computers to remove malicious code” at Salon.

Read “Trump hypes new "communications platform": It's a blog — run with Big Tech's help” at Salon.

Read “Account tweeting Trump statements suspended by Twitter” at The HIll.

Read “How Video Games Are Saving Those Who Served” at Wired.

Internationalities:

Read “Mexico City rail overpass collapses onto road, killing at least 23” at Reuters.

Read “Belgian farmer moves border with France by mistake” at AZ Family.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Mitt Romney booed at raucous Utah GOP convention as speakers attack the Biden agenda” at Salt Lake Tribune.

Read “Mitch McConnell: 1619, American slavery starting point, not an important date in history” at Louisville Courier-Journal.

Read ‘DOJ slow to resolve Trump-era legal battles” at The Hill.

Read “Biden Raises Refugee Admissions Cap to 62,500” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “TheHill.com Bush: If Republican Party stands for 'white Anglo-Saxon Protestantism, then it's not going to win anything'“ at The Hill.

Read “The first 100 days can define a president. Here’s how the internet saw Biden and Trump” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Cheney hits 'Trump cult of personality,' says she'll keep speaking out” at The Hill.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Iowa governor signs law allowing landlords to refuse Section 8 vouchers” at The Hill.

Read “Former FBI director represented Russian firm at center of major money-laundering probe” at Business Insider.

Read “Judge orders release of Trump obstruction memo, accuses Barr of deception” at The Hill.

Read “'Do it right or don't do it': Arizona's top elections officer warns of serious problems with ballot recount” at 12 News.

Read “Former Ukrainian prosecutor says he was fired for not investigating Hunter Biden” at The Hill.

Read “Despite GOP rhetoric, there have been fewer than two dozen charged cases of voter fraud since the election” at Washington Post.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read ‘Marilyn Manson Sued for Sexual Assault, Sex Trafficking by ‘Game of Thrones’ Actress Esmé Bianco” at Rolling Stones.

Read “Ex-Cannibal Corpse Guitarist Pat O’Brien Finally Sentenced for Bizarre Headline-Making Incident” at Consequence of Sound. “The metal musician's case involved assault, burglary, a house fire, 80 firearms, and three skulls.”

Read “Young The Giant’s Sameer Gadhia: Rock Music Must Unearth Its Diverse Roots” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Esme Bianco Sues Marilyn Manson for Sexual Assault” at Consequence of Sound. “The Game of Thrones actress also accuses the disgraced rocker of assault and human trafficking.”

Read “Catholic Group Calls for Shutdown of Influential College Radio Station WSOU over “Satanic” Music” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “The Story of the Rolling Stones: A Selection of Documentaries on the Quintessential Rock-and-Roll Band” at Open Culture.

Read “Lucinda Williams Is Recovering From a Stroke” at Consequence.

Listen “to Phife Dawg’s New Posthumous Song “French Kiss Deux” at Pitchfork.

Read “José González Announces Tour With Rufus Wainwright, Shares New “Visions” Video” at Pitchfork.

Read “Over 180 Musicians Protest Spotify’s Speech Monitoring Patent in Open Letter” at Pitchfork.

Read “Bad Brains :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “NOFX’s Fat Mike gives a presentation on NFTs–and it’s really good!” at A Journal Of Musical Things.

Browse “10 Unbelievable Performances by Saxophone Virtuoso Rahsaan Roland Kirk” at In Sheep’s Clothing Hi Fi.

Read “Digging in the Mags: Hi-fidelity Illustrations from the 1970s” at In Sheep’s Clothing Hi Fi.

Read “Bruce Springsteen Receives 2021 Woody Guthrie Prize” at Consequence.

Read “Tokyo Flashback: An essential guide to Japanese label PSF Records” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “Los Lobos Detail New Covers Album ‘Native Sons’ & Share Singles” at JamBase.

Read “Willow Smith Reunites and Fronts Mom Jada Pinkett Smith’s Metal Band Wicked Wisdom for Mother’s Day Surprise: Watch” at Consequence.

Read “Sons of Kemet’s Journey of the World of the Artist” at Treble.

Read “Live Nation Weathers Rough Quarter as Concert Business Slowly Rumbles Back to Life” at Variety.

Read “UK vinyl sales surpassed 1 million units in early 2021” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “You Can Buy Six Strands of Kurt Cobain’s Hair at a Music Auction If You’re Into That Sort of Thing” at Spin.

Read “J Mascis :: Transmissions” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “Red Hot Chili Peppers Sell Publishing Rights to Song Catalog for $140 million” at Jambands.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “The Strange Bipartisan Appeal of Ted Lasso” at Politico. “It's an apolitical show. So why do politicians keep talking about it?”

Read “Fox Staffers Hate Tucker Carlson But They Say He’ll Never Be Fired” at Politics USA.

Read “What’s A Wrinkle in Time Doing in Ted Lasso?” at Madeleine L’Engle.

Read “You Won’t Live to See the Final Star Wars Movie” at Wired.

Read “George A. Romero’s final zombie film is being finished by his widow” at NME.

Read “Inside Netflix’s Quest to End Scrolling” at Vulture.

Read “New Stranger Things 4 Teaser Reminds Us Eleven Is Not Alone” at Consequence.

Read “‘Tiger King’ Subject Jeff Lowe Reveals Federal Authorities Are Seizing Animals at Joe Exotic’s Former Zoo” at Pop Culture.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “The Pentagon Inspector General Is Investigating the Military's UFO Program” at Vice.

The Weekly Town Crier (04/30/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (04/30/21).






We’ll Miss You:

Read “Michael Collins, command module pilot on Apollo 11, dies at 90” at 12 News.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Biden’s Armenian Genocide Stance Pleases Christians, Angers Turkey” at Christianity Today.

Read “Muslim Americans Reflect On Another Ramadan During The Pandemic” at NPR.

Read “Black and Asian Christian leaders discuss role of church in fighting racism” at Religion News Service.

Read “Dave Ramsey’s Bestseller Slips from Top 10 List” at Christianity Today.

Read “Mark Driscoll’s Elderless Church” at Throckmorton. “It should come as little surprise that Mark Driscoll’s new church apparently has solved the elder problem which led to his demise at Mars Hill. Just don’t have any.”

  • Read “A Family is Allegedly Driven From Mark Driscoll’s The Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona” at Wondering Eagle.

Read “Virginia GOP reverses course, will let those with religious obligations cast absentee votes for Saturday convention” at The Hill.

Read “‘If you have eyes, plagiarize’: When borrowing a sermon goes too far” at Religion News Service.

Read “‘Beautiful’ Ramadan returns for Israeli Muslims as restrictions lift” at Religion News Service.

Read “US Catholic bishops may press Biden to stop taking Communion” at Religion News Service. “At issue is a document coming from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Doctrine clarifying the church’s stance on an issue that has repeatedly vexed the bishops.”

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Lindsay Lohan's father arrested for alleged 'patient brokering' in Florida” at The Hill.

Read “Maryland launches review of cases handled by ex-medical chief after Chauvin trial defense” at The Hill.

Read “Montana governor signs bill to protect Second Amendment from federal gun restrictions” at Fox Propaganda Network. “Republicans in the state passed the law amid President Biden’s push for federal gun reform measures.”

Read “NJ Man Charged with Sex Assault after Prior Case Dropped Amid Trooper Protests” at Newsweek. “A New Jersey man is facing new sexual assault charges after a prior case was dropped four years ago amid protests by state police that fueled a corruption probe with far-reaching ramifications, Newsweek has learned.”

Read “Five Myths About Red Flag Laws” at Washington Post.

Read “We all want something done.’ Peace Walk promotes end to gun violence in Lexington” at Lexington Herald Leader.

Read the opinion piece “Why I support reparations — and all conservatives should” at Washington Post.

Read “Erasing The Stain: 15,000 Pardoned Of Marijuana Possession Convictions” at WBHM.

Read “Parents Want Justice for Birth Injuries. Hospitals Want to Strip Them of the Right to Make That Decision” at Pro Publica.

Read “The Department of Homeland Security will undergo an internal review to root out white supremacy and combat extremist ideology in the federal government” at New York Times.

Read “Secret Court Reveals: FBI Hunted for Domestic Terrorists Without a Warrant” at Daily Beast.

Read “3 Indicted On Federal Hate Crime Charges In Ahmaud Arbery Death” at Huff Post.

Read “US Supreme Court hands victory to immigrants facing deportation” at Al Jazeera.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Watch ‘American Insurrection’ at PBS Frontline.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Oklahoma passes law protecting drivers who kill or hurt rioters” at NBC News.

This Week With The Police:

Read “1 Verdict, Then 6 Police Killings Across America in 24 Hours” at NBC Washington. “At least six people were fatally shot by officers across the United States in the 24 hours after jurors reached a verdict in the murder case against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.”

Read “Doorbell video captures police officer punching and throwing teen with autism to the ground” at CBS News.

Read “Yes, Black America Fears the Police. Here’s Why: at Pro Publica.

Read “Newark cops, with reform, didn’t fire a single shot in 2020” at NJ.com. “At the same time, crime is dropping, and police recovered almost 500 illegal guns from the street during the year.”

Read “Deputy Shoots Unarmed Man Repeatedly During 911 Call, Officials Say” at New York Times. “Isaiah Brown was on a cordless phone with an emergency dispatcher when he was shot, his lawyer said. His family said he was in intensive care.”

Read “Virginia deputy gave Black man a ride home, then shot him after 911 call” at NBC News. “Brown had a phone in his hand and was speaking to a dispatcher when he was shot, his law firm said.”

Read the opinion piece “The look in Derek Chauvin's eyes was something worse than hate” at CNN.

Read “Baltimore police commissioner expects Minneapolis PD to be placed under federal consent decree” at The Hill.

Read “Judge rules Andrew Brown Jr. bodycam videos will not be released, but will be disclosed to family” at MSNBC.

  • Read “US judge: no immediate release of video of Andrew Brown shooting” at Al Jazeera.

Read “In North Carolina, a Familiar Pattern After the Police Killing of Andrew Brown Jr.” at Slate.

Read “Bodycam Video Released Of California Man Who Died After Police Knelt On Him” at News and Guts.

Read “Justice Department will investigate Louisville police department in aftermath of Breonna Taylor shooting” at NBC News.

Read “Report: Police treatment of African Americans in the US amounts to crimes against humanity” at PRI’s The World.

Read “The World Recognizes Police Violence Against Black Americans as Crimes Against Humanity.” at The North Star.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Miami private school won't employ teachers who get the Covid-19 vaccine” at NBC News.

Read “Embattled Florida superintendent pleads not guilty to perjury charge” at The Hill.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “How Bill Gates Impeded Global Access to Covid Vaccines” at The New Republic.

Read “U.S. defends restrictions on export of COVID-19 vaccine raw materials amid India's request to lift ban” at The Hindu.

  • Read “U.S. to provide Covid vaccine components, medical supplies to India” at NBC News. “The White House said they will send raw materials required for India to manufacture the Covishield vaccine, as well as therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators and protective equipment.”

Read “Millions Appear to Be Skipping Second COVID-19 Vaccine Shot in the U.S.” at Slate.

Read “Airline Bans Alaska State Senator For Violating COVID-19 Mask Rules” at Huff Post.

Read “West Virginia will offer $100 savings bonds to young people who get vaccinated” at Axios.

Read “French Biotech Firm Has a Weapon for the Mutation War” at Bloomberg.

Read “Washington state poker night linked to nearly 100 COVID-19 cases” at The HillI.

Please Read “Fauci: Joe Rogan's COVID-19 comments 'incorrect” at The Hill.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “The Newest Status Symbol for High-Net Worth Homeowners: Trophy Trees” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “82-Year-Old NFL Alum Arrested, Found With Massive Amount of Cocaine” at Pop Culture.

Read “How Capicola Became Gabagool: The Italian New Jersey Accent, Explained” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “Prancer, The 'Haunted Victorian Child' Dog From Viral Ad, Has Been Adopted” at NPR.

Read “When Ayn Rand Collected Social Security & Medicare, After Years of Opposing Benefit Programs” at Open Culture.

Read “The Problem With Apple’s Plan to Stop Facebook’s Data Collection” at Slate.

Read “It Was Just Thrilling': 2 NPR Founders Remember The First Days, 50 Years Ago” at NPR.

Internationalities:

Read “Food pantries for hungry Filipinos get tagged as communist” at Al Jazeera. “People turn against the Duterte administration after a military-led agency accuses volunteers of a popular feeding initiative of being communist sympathisers.”

Read “Erdogan threatens to recognise killings of Native Americans as genocide in response to Armenia resolution” at Independent.

Read 'I Remember Them Screaming': Afghans Detail Alleged Killings By Australian Military” at NPR.

Read “Filipino investigative journalist to receive UN press freedom prize” at UN News.

Read “U.S. Contractors Are Still Helping Maintain Saudi Warplanes Used in Yemen War” at Democracy Now.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Caitlyn Jenner announces run for California governor in recall election” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Democrats warn Waters censure move opens floodgates” at The Hill.

Read “LinkedIn billionaire: Cut off funding for politicians who limit voting rights” at CNN.

Read “Kerry faces calls to step down over leaked Iran tapes” at The Hill.

Read “Newsom recall effort has enough signatures to make ballot” at The Hill.

Read “Biden to pitch sweeping ‘family plan’ in speech to Congress” at Associated Press.

Read “Biden nominates Texas sheriff to lead ICE” at NBC News.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “This family thought Biden would stop Trump's wall. Now his administration is plodding along to seize their land” at Business Insider.

Read “Documents Show Trump Officials Skirted Rules to Reward Politically Connected and Untested Firms With Huge Pandemic Contracts” at Pro Publica.

Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene Dragged After Announcing She'll File Resolution To Expel Maxine Waters From Congress” at Comic Sands.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “DMX's casket borne through streets of New York on a monster truck, which feels right” at AV Club.

Read “Why Boards of Canada’s Music Has the Right to Children Is the Greatest Psychedelic Album of the ’90s” at Pitchfork. “Unlocking the mysteries behind the Scottish electronic duo’s hallucinatory classic, which turns 20 this month.”

Read “25 Greatest Punk Rock Movies of All Time” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Van Morrison Blames ‘Freedom of Speech’ Over Negative Response to Anti-Lockdown Songs” at Spin.

Read “St. Vincent Told Me To Kill This Interview” by Emma Madden.

Read “Ryley Walker “Course In Fable” at Foxy Digitalis.

Read “Relive being in CBGB via this 360 VR tour” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Arts Coverage Commentary: A Conversation with Ted Gioia About New Approaches to Publishing” at Arts Fuse.

Read “Questlove’s Music Trivia Game at Oscars 2021 Ends With Glenn Close Doing “Da Butt” at Pitchfork.

Read “John Lydon Threatens to Sue Danny Boyle Over “Disrespectful” Sex Pistols TV Series” at Consequence of Sound. "They went to the point to hire an actor to play me but what's the actor working on? Certainly not my character"

Read “Charles Mingus’ Instructions For Toilet Training Your Cat, Read by The Wire’s Reg E. Cathey” at Open Culture.

Read “The Art of Japanese Portable Record Players” at In Sheep’s Clothing Hi Fi.

Read “Kurt Cobain’s ‘The Last Session’ Photoshoot Will Be Sold as an NFT” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Foo Fighters, Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem, and More Design Bikes for Fundraiser” at Pitchfork.

Read “Rig Rundown: Yasmin Williams” at Premier Guitar.

Listen: “The Lumineers And Gregory Alan Isakov Cover Each Other's Songs” at NPR.

Read “How Jamaica shaped the creative spirit and evolution of music production” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “A new Hollywood biopic movie detailing the life of late, great Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister – titled, Simply Lemmy is set to begin production early next year and stars American actor, director and narrator Morgan Freeman” at Vintage Heavy Metal.

Read “Julien Baker Triumphs Over Her Inner Demons” at Spin.

Read “Lady Gaga’s Alleged Dognappers Arrested For Attempted Murder And Robbery” at Huff Post.

Read “Bringin’ it Backwards: Interview with The Mother Hips” at American Songwriter.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Here’s what happens to the extra food in cooking competition shows” at Marketplace.

Read “China censoring reaction to Chloé Zhao's historic Oscar win” at The Hill.

Read “Josh Gad, Isla Fisher to Star in Romantic Comedy Series ‘Wolf Like Me’ at Peacock” at Variety.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Follow-up study finds a single dose of one drug can ease anxiety and depression for five years” at The HIll. “Participants “rated it among the most personally meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lives,” according to the study.”

Read “Mars helicopter Ingenuity snapped a fantastic aerial photo of the Perseverance rover” at Boing Boing.

Food Cultures:

Read “The Planet on the Plate: Why Epicurious Left Beef Behind” at Epicurious.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “The Josh Fight is Real and Delightfully Bizarre” at The Big Lead.

Read “Inside the multi-million dollar orgasm cult endorsed by Hollywood” at Cult News 101.

Read “Famed Scots UFO expert returns home after 23 years to crack Bonnybridge 'alien' mystery” at Daily Record.

Local:

Read “Security lapses plague Arizona Senate's election audit at State Fairgrounds” at AZ Family.

  • Read “Experts raise concerns about processes, transparency as election audit begins” at AZ Mirror.

Read “Seller's market in Phoenix real estate is brutal for local buyers” at AZ Family.

The Weekly Town Crier (04/23/21)

newesterester.jpg

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (04/23/21).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “R.I.P. Felix Silla, Actor Who Played Cousin Itt on The Addams Family Dead at 84” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “World reacts to death of Chad President Idriss Deby” at Al Jazeera.

Read ‘Ole Anthony, longtime critic of prosperity gospel televangelists and head of Trinity Foundation, dies at 82” at Religion News Service.

Read “Walter Mondale, former US vice-president and celebrated liberal, dies aged 93” at The Guardian.

Read “Jim Steinman, bombastic hitmaker for Meat Loaf and Celine Dion, dies at 73” at Los Angeles Times.

Read ‘Bay City Rollers frontman Les McKeown, dead at 65” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Rapper Shock G Of Digital Underground Dies at 57” at WBLS.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Liberty University Sues Jerry Falwell Jr. for $10 Million” at New York Times. “he lawsuit claims that Mr. Falwell, the university’s former president, withheld scandalous and potentially damaging information.”

  • Read “Apparently Jerry Falwell Jr.’s pool boy has a “cache of compromising photos” he’s willing to leak” at Queerty.

Read “The Greatest Christian Novel” at First Things.

Read “Meet Mercy Haub: The 16-year-old cancer survivor and preacher’s kid who inspired Ellen” at Religion News Service.

Read “Biden reverses course on refugee cap after faith groups express outrage” at Religion News Service.

Read “America Without God” at The Atlantic. “As religious faith has declined, ideological intensity has risen. Will the quest for redemption through politics doom the American idea?”

Read “D.C. Pastor Used $3.5 Million in Fraudulent PPP Loans to Buy Himself a Tesla, FBI Says” at Daily Beast.

Read “Dostoyevsky, Just After His Death Sentence Was Repealed, on the Meaning of Life” at Brain Pickings.

Read “Religious unaffiliation is growing in the US. Why isn’t it in Congress?” at Religion News Service.

Read “Sex discrimination suit against Florida church tests ‘ministerial exception’ rulings” at Religion News Service. “A woman’s lawsuit alleging gender discrimination may reconcile unanswered questions about the so-called ministerial exception.”

Read “The Splintering of the Evangelical Soul” at Christianity Today. “Why we’re coming apart, and how we might come together again.”

Read “Why Defining Gossip Matters in the Church’s Response to Abuse” at Christianity Today.

Read “Christian peacemaking and the role of forgiveness” at Christian Century. “Seeking justice is critical. Is it enough?”

Read “General Baptist pastor who criticized wives’ weight ‘deeply sorry’ for sermon” at Religion News Service. “‘In the sermon, I made insensitive remarks about women and made statements deemed unbiblical,’ said Pastor Stewart-Allen Clark in a statement.”

Read “Margie Zacharias Breaks Silence, Defends Ravi” at Roys Report.

Read “White Evangelical Racism: An Interview with Anthea Butler” at Religion and Politics.

Read “Remembering Prince: A Pop Music Priest in a Secular World” at Christianity Today.

Read “Religious Identities and the Race Against the Virus: Engaging Faith Communities on COVID-19 Vaccination” at PRRI.

Read “AI unlocks ancient Dead Sea Scrolls mystery” at BBC.

Read “Algerian scholar gets three years in jail for ‘offending Islam’” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Amy Coney Barrett was a “paid speaker 5 times, starting in 2011, at the Blackstone Legal Fellowship, a summer program established to inspire a ‘distinctly Christian worldview in every area of law...’ at Washington Post.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Officer in George Floyd case found guilty of murder” at NME.

  • Read “Chauvin being held in solitary confinement for his own safety” at The Hill.

Read “Maybe America Is Racist” at The Root.

Read “Justice Dept. sues Trump ally Roger Stone for unpaid taxes” at The Hill.

Read “Ethics committee finds probable cause in sexual misconduct allegation against Idaho lawmaker” at The Hill.

Read “Freedom Caucus member condemns GOP group pushing 'Anglo-Saxon political traditions'“ at The Hill.

Read “Florida woman charged for allegedly threatening to kill Kamala Harris” at AZ Family.

Read “13 investigations, no court-martials: Here's how the US Navy and Marine Corps quietly discharged white supremacists” at Yahoo.

Read the opinion piece “GOP's new 'America First Caucus' follows in some blatantly white nationalist footsteps” at MSNBC. “The ‘America First Caucus’ continues the country’s long history of white nationalism.”

Read “Mass Shooting In Austin Leaves At Least Three Dead” at News and Guts.

Read “Most Americans want to end lifetime Supreme Court appointments for justices” at NBC News.

Read “A National Policy Blueprint To End White Supremacist Violence” at Center For American Progress.

Read “Indiana's Red Flag Law Was Designed To Prevent Mass Shootings Like The FedEx Facility Rampage. Prosecutors Never Tried To Use It” at Buzzfeed News.

Read “Virginia governor signs bill legalizing marijuana possession” at The Hill.

Read “Ben Carson defends op-ed arguing racial equity is 'another kind of racism'“ at The Hill.

Read “I’m Actually Glad Nancy Pelosi Thanked George Floyd for “Sacrificing” Himself” at Slate.

Read “Governments That Are Occupying Land Are Criminalizing Indigenous Peoples for Occupying Land” at Vice.

Read “Florida Supreme Court rules against effort to legalize recreational marijuana” at The Hill.

Read “US Supreme Court rejects limits on life sentences for juveniles” at The HIll.

  • Read “Brett Kavanaugh Rules Children Deserve Life In Prison With No Chance of Parole” at Vanity Fair. “Kavanaugh, who said it was absurd to judge him based on who he was in high school, thinks children convicted of crimes should die in prison.”

  • Read “Sotomayor blasts Kavanaugh's decision on juvenile life sentences” at The Hill.

Read “State Foster Care Agencies Take Millions Of Dollars Owed To Children In Their Care” at NPR.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “Heavy metal guitarist with ties to Oath Keepers is first US Capitol rioter to plead guilty” at CNN.

Read “The Radicalization of Kevin Greeson” at Pro Publica. “How one man went from attending President Barack Obama’s inauguration to dying in the mob protesting Donald Trump’s election loss during the Capitol insurrection.”

Watch “American Insurrection” at PBS Frontline. “Over the last three years, FRONTLINE has collaborated with ProPublica to investigate the rise of extremism in America. In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, FRONTLINE, ProPublica and Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program team up to examine how far-right extremist groups have evolved in the wake of the deadly 2017 Charlottesville rally — and the threat they pose today.”

Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls Off America First Caucus Following Backlash” at Forbes.

Read “Oath Keepers: How a militia group mobilized in plain sight for the assault on the Capitol” at 60 Minutes.

Read “The Hybridity of Rural Fascism” at Society for Cultural Anthropology. “The community praised patriarchy as God-ordained, employing apocalyptic language to decry what they saw as the Marxist LGBTQ+ agenda disrupting traditional Christian family values in America.”

Read “Capitol Police officer allegedly told units to only monitor for 'anti-Trump' protesters on Jan. 6” at The Hill.

Read “Jan. 6 commission must focus only on insurrection” at The HIll.

Read “17 Requests for Backup in 78 Minutes” at Washington Post.

Read “Kevin McCarthy Says Capitol Riot Commission Should Look At Unrelated Riots’ at Huff Post. “The top House Republican doesn’t want too much focus on that time Donald Trump and his supporters tried to overturn the 2020 election.”

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “How the G.O.P. Is Creating Harsher Penalties for Protesters” at New York Times.

Read ‘GOP Lawmakers in Iowa and Oklahoma Pass Anti-Protest Bills” at Democracy Now.

This Week With The Police:

Read “US police and public officials donated to Kyle Rittenhouse, data breach reveals” at The Guardian. “That donation also carried a comment, reading: ‘God bless. Thank you for your courage. Keep your head up. You’ve done nothing wrong.’” “Officers and officials also donated to fundraisers for far-right activists and fellow officers accused of shooting black Americans.”

  • Read “The Fraternal Order of White Supremacy” at North Star. “Murderer Kyle Rittenhouse is being financially supported by various law enforcement agencies. It's the latest in several cases in which systemic racism protects boots-on-the-grounds supremacists.”

Read “A pair of 'pro-police' GOP bills in Missouri draw scrutiny from free speech advocates” at Yahoo.

Read “Detroit police restrained man and beat him for 2 minutes after he tried to help protesters, lawsuit claims” at Yahoo.

Read “Colorado police accused of injuring elderly woman with dementia during arrest” at NBC News.

Read “Man accused of throwing bleach in NYPD officer's face, hurling Molotov cocktail at others” at The Hill.

Read “Louisville officer punches protester during arrest” at Chron.

Read “Fear and Paranoia in American Policing” at Slate. “Everything around police officers tells them that they should be scared.”

Read “No convictions for St Louis officers who beat Black undercover colleague at protest” at Guardian. “Officer Luther Hall, who was recording criminal activity during protests, required multiple surgeries after the attack.”

Read “Chris Cuomo: Police reform won't happen until 'white people's kids start getting killed'“ at The Hill.

Read “Florida Sheriff Tells People Moving to State Not to 'Vote the Stupid Way You Did Up North'“ at Newsweek.

Read “‘Defund the Police’ Actually Means Defunding the Police” at Vice.

Read “The police officer who fatally shot 13-year-old Adam Toledo was listed as a victim on an incident report. One law-enforcement expert said it's 'an old cop trick meant to muddy the murky waters.'“ at Yahoo.

Read “'I'm also a police officer': Arizona deputy uses racial slur, pleads for release after being pulled over for DUI” at Yahoo.

Read “Bravery of witnesses made the difference in Chauvin trial” at MSNBC.

  • Read “Police across U.S. respond to Derek Chauvin trial: 'Our American way of policing is on trial'“ at NBC News. “While some officers see the trial as an example of a rogue officer being held accountable, others see it as a sign that the country has turned against them.”

Read “Columbus Police release body cam footage of officer shooting, killing girl, 16” at NBCi.

  • Read “Columbus cop shouts "blue lives matter" at the scene of deadly police shooting of Ohio teen” at Salon.

Read “Cops Killed a Black Man in North Carolina. Protesters Are Demanding Answers” at Vice.

Read “One of America's most popular police trainers is teaching officers how to kill” at Insider. (NOTE: Article from 2020 but highly relevant today).

Read “Most officers never fire their guns. But some kill multiple people — and are still on the job” at NBC News. “In Seattle, one officer's multiple deadly encounters offer a window into this little understood corner of American policing.”

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Arizona Supreme Court hears case about legality of education tax” at KTAR. “Reformist initiatives like '8 Can't Wait' have already failed. Here's what you need to know about defunding and abolishing the police.”

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “The Grief Crisis Is Coming” at New York Times.

Read “A Vaccine Is Not a Personality” at Slate. “The memes and merch inspired by Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson are not helping the fight against COVID.”

Read “Pfizer Says COVID-19 Booster Vaccines Likely Needed Within a Year” at Democracy Now.

Read ‘India Reports Record 217,000 New Cases as Millions Gather for World’s Largest Pilgrimage” at Democracy Now.

Read “Coronavirus: 'Double mutant' Covid variant found in India” at BBC.

Read “Proud Boy charged in Capitol riot gets coronavirus while jailed” at The Hill.

Read “3 million COVID-19 deaths recorded around the world” at ABC News.

Read “The Pandemic Proved That Our Toilets Are Crap” at Wired.

Read “Has outdoor masking turned into 'meaningless political theater'?” at The Week.

Read “More Than Half Of U.S. Adults Have Gotten At Least One COVID-19 Vaccine Dose” at NPR.

Read “Ted Nugent tests positive for COVID-19 after claiming outbreak is 'not a real pandemic'“ at ABC 15.

Read “New Data Shows How Much COVID-19 Has Disrupted Life For The Youngest Americans” at Huff Post.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Apple reinstates Parler app, stands by initial ban” at NBC News.

Read “‘No One Was Driving’ Tesla in Crash That Killed Two People, Police Say” at Vice.

Read “The United States of Weed” at Rolling Stone. “Curious about the status of cannabis? Here’s where legalization stands, state by state.”

Read “Gretchen Carlson Says the 'Pain' of Being Body Shamed 'Stays with You for Life'“ at People.

Read “What Is Triller Fight Club, Snoop Dogg's Weird Celebrity Boxing League?” at Vice.

Read “Mike Lindell's new social platform crashes — and MyPillow guy didn't even notice” at Salon.

Read “Company Behind Krysten Sinema’s F*** Off’ Ring To Donate All Proceeds To Fight For Increased Minimum Wage” at Independent.

Read “Influencer Boxing Is the Circus-Sport America Deserves” at Vice.

Read “Right-Wing Trend of Buying or Not Buying Things to Own the Libs Reaches Nadir With Accidental Boycott of Semen” at Slate.

Internationalities:

Read “Raul Castro to Stand Down as Head of Cuba’s Communist Party” at Bloomberg.

Read ‘China posts record economic growth after plunge 12 months ago” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Harvard’s Digital Giza Project Lets You Access the Largest Online Archive on the Egyptian Pyramids (Including a 3D Giza Tour)” at Open Culture.

Read “At least 97 injured in Egypt as train derails” at CNN.

Read “Afghans who fled to Turkey are worried — and hopeful — about the prospect of peace at home” at The World.

Read “Biden Preparing to Declare That Atrocities Against Armenia Were Genocide” at New York Times.

Read “UK Parliament declares China's treatment of Uighurs a genocide” at The Hill.

Read “The Thrilling Collapse of the European Super League” at Slate.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Greta Thunberg will testify in Congress on Earth Day” at The Hill.

Read “GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene were the only 'no' votes on a bill reauthorizing the National Marrow Donor Program” at Business Insider.

Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert Invent Reasons to Vote Against Bone Marrow Bill” at Daily Beast.

Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls Off America First Caucus Following Backlash” at Forbes.

Read “Kinzinger Says GOPers Who Join Nativist Caucus Should Be Stripped Of Committees” at Talking Points Memo.

Read “House rejects GOP resolution to censure Waters” at The Hill.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “How Josh Hawley and Marjorie Taylor Greene Juiced Their Fundraising Numbers” at Pro Publica.

Read “The Postal Service is running a 'covert operations program' that monitors Americans' social media posts” at Yahoo.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “The world’s biggest music companies are scrambling to sign African artists” at Quartz Africa.

Read “Sun Ra’s musical poetry — and how it began in Chicago — captured in new gallery exhibit” at Chicago Tribune.

Read “Apple Music, in Contrast With Rival Spotify, Says It Pays a Penny-Per-Stream Average” at Pitchfork.

Read “This Youtube Channel Has Been Uploading J Dilla Rarities for Months” at Okay Player.

Read “Gillian Welch Talks Tom Jones, John Prine and John Steinbeck” at Relix.

Read “Van Morrison Confirms First-Ever Livestream Special” at Jambase.

Read “Man 'stalking' Taylor Swift arrested in New York” at BBC.

Read “Mt. Westmore (Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, E-40, Too $hort) Deliver Debut Performance at Triller Fight Club” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Star Songwriter Ali Tamposi Sells Catalog to New Female-Focused Music Fund” at Rolling Stone.

Read “The Mountain Goats Announce New Album Dark in Here, Share New Song “Mobile'“ at Pitchfork.

Read “Ryley Walker – ‘Course In Fable’” at Ears to Feed.

Read “Morrissey Says He’d Sue The Simpsons for Slander, But “It Requires More Funding Than I Could Possibly Muster” at Consequence of Sound. “I've had enough horror thrown at me that would kill off a herd of bison"

  • Read “The Simpsons Releases Morrissey Episode Music Video” at Den of Geek.

Read “South by Southwest Stake Is Sold to Owner of Rolling Stone in Effort to Keep Festival Alive” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Frank “Poncho” Sampedro :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “Kurt Vile Signs With Legendary Jazz Label Verve Records” at Pitchfork.

Read “Igloo Launches Beatles Yellow Submarine-Inspired Collection of Coolers” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Don Cherry on creativity and “the mysticism of sound” at Vinyl Factory.

Read the story behind “Here Comes The Flood, by Robert Fripp and Peter Gabriel” at Music Afficianado.

Read “Louis Armstrong Plays Trumpet at the Egyptian Pyramids; Dizzy Gillespie Charms a Snake in Pakistan” at Open Culture. “During the Cold War, the United States made the case for the American way of life by sending its best ambassadors abroad — jazz musicians.”

Read “Eric Andre Says He Was Racially Profiled at Atlanta Airport” at Pitchfork.

Read “Chvrches share powerful video for new single ‘He Said She Said’” at NME.

Read “The Best and Most Misunderstood of Green Day, According to Billie Joe Armstrong” at Vulture.

Read “Yo La Tengo’s ‘I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One’ Set A Benchmark In Indie Rock” at Treble.

Read “Cardi B snaps back after GOP congressman blames her for “the moral decline of America" at Salon.

Read “I Get Around: The Oral History of 2Pac’s Digital Underground Years” at Rolling Stone.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Sharon Osbourne gives Bill Maher first interview since leaving 'The Talk': 'I’m angry. I’m hurt.'“ at USA Today.

Read “‘Community’ Star Yvette Nicole Brown Says Reunion Movie ‘Is Coming’” at Variety.

Read “The MCU's Relationship With the Military, From Iron Man to Captain Marvel” at CBR.

Read “Tom Hopper Gives an Update on ‘The Umbrella Academy’ Season 3 Filming: “We've Got a Long Way to Go” at Collider.

Read “You may have to actually pay for Apple TV Plus to watch Ted Lasso’s second season” at The Verge.

Read “LeVar Burton Will Fly Twice As High As Jeopardy!’s Next Guest Host” at Vulture.

Read ‘Disney to Get Online, TV Access to Sony Films After Netflix” at Bloomberg.

Read “Major Update on 'Stranger Things' Season 4 Premiere Date” at Pop Culture.

Read ‘The CW Released The First Official Photo From The Live-Action "Powerpuff Girls" After Their Costumes Caused Controversy” at Buzzfeed News. “The cartoon-accurate dresses are nowhere in sight.”

Read “Jonah Hill was going to star in ‘Transformers’ but Seth Rogen made him turn it down” at NME.

Books/Reading/Authors

Browse “The Golden Guide to Hallucinogenic Plants: Discover the 1977 Illustrated Guide Created by Harvard’s Groundbreaking Ethnobotanist Richard Evan Schultes” at Open Culture.

Read “A Beautiful 1897 Illustrated Book Shows How Flowers Become Art Nouveau Designs” at Open Culture.

Read “Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s place in San Francisco literary history” at Datebook.

Read “The Faulty Lines in Voddie Baucham’s “Thought Line” at Bradley Mason.

Read “Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language” at Open Culture.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Pentagon confirms legitimacy of Navy pilot's unidentified aerial phenomena video” at The Hill.

Read “NASA selects SpaceX to land first woman, next man on Moon” at 12 News.

Read “How America’s most endangered cat could help save Florida” at National Geographic.

Read “A Song of Spider Silk” at The Scientist. “Scientists from MIT reveal the hidden music in spiderwebs.”

Read “Mars Perseverance rover successfully inhaled carbon dioxide and exhaled oxygen” at Boing Boing.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Why a Vancouver Cemetery Is Planting Squash, Kale, and Corn” at Gastro Obscura.

Read “What about those flying pyramids?” at Mystery Wire. “Former Pentagon UFO investigator responds to questions about leaked images.”

Local:

Read “Governor signs tribal gaming compact, legalizes sports gambling in Arizona” at Cronkite News.

Read “SanTan Brewing closes its Phoenix taproom and restaurant” at ABC 15.

Read “Supporters Of Changes To AZ Voting Laws Pushing To Move Them Forward” at KJZZ.

Read ‘Ducey to station troops on the border” at AZ Capitol Times.

Read “Arizona Is Rolling Back Voting Rights, and Kyrsten Sinema Is Refusing to Stop It” at Mother Jones.

Read “Arizona governor vetoes strict sex education legislation” at NBC News.