The Weekly Town Crier (07/31/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (07/31/20).



We’ll Miss You:

Read “Fleetwood Mac blues guitarist Peter Green dies at 73” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Ronald L. Graham, Who Unlocked the Magic of Numbers, Dies at 84” at New York Times.

Read “Regis Philbin, TV Host With the Most Congenial Demeanor, Dies at 88” at The Hollywood Reporter.

Read “Olivia de Havilland, star of 'Gone With the Wind,' dies at 104” at CNN.

Read “Former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain dies of COVID-19” at MSNBC.

Read “Malik B. – Co-Founder of The Roots – Has Died” at Relix.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Multiracial Congregations May Not Bridge Racial Divide” at NPR.

Read “Evangelical, Midwestern, Southern churches most likely to be meeting in person again” at Religion News Service. “A new survey found that 7 out of 10 Protestant churches held an in-person service last week.”

Read “Supreme Court Rejects Nevada Church’s Appeal to Reopen Like Casinos” at Christianity Today.

Read “Sex Offenders Can Find Hope in Christ But Not Necessarily a Place at Church” at Christianity Today. “Most Christians believe offenders belong at worship. Most congregations aren’t prepared to welcome them.”

Read “Coronavirus, Conspiracy Theories, and the Ninth Commandment” at French Press. “A better political theology can make us less vulnerable to lies.”

Read “Rep. Ted Yoho removed from board of Christian charity over his comments about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez” at Washington Post.

Read “Faith in protest as young people find fervor on the street” at Associated Press.

Read “For Third-Party Christians, Some Things Are More Important Than Winning” at Christianity Today.

Read “Alabama Pastor Resigns After Praying at KKK Leader’s Birthday” at Christianity Today. “The pastor and state representative also posted a photo of himself standing in front of a portrait of the first KKK Grand Wizard and surrounded by Confederate flags.” “Baptist leaders said the controversy was not good for his church.”

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

Read “Sterilization abuse of Uighurs in China meets international legal criteria for genocide, experts say” at PRI.

Read “The World’s Most Technologically Sophisticated Genocide Is Happening in Xinjiang” at Foreign Policy.

Read “Alan Yang on anti-Asian bias: We're all 'fighting the same common enemy' at MSNBC.

Read “Confronting Racial Disparities in America, From Cradle to Grave: A Reading List” at Also A Carpenter.

Read “It's Time to Admit That the Department of Homeland Security Has to Go” at Esquire.

Read “‘Empowerment’ Selfies Are Burying a Turkish Women’s Rights Campaign” at KQED.

Read “LeBron James joins push to turn out ex-felon vote in Florida” at Politico.

Read “A Rare Look Inside Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Draws Legal Threats A new documentary peers inside the secretive world of immigration enforcement. The filmmakers faced demands to delete scenes and delay broadcast until after the election” at New York Times.

Read “The late Rep. John Lewis to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol next week” at News and Guts.

Read “US sued over expulsion of migrant children detained in Hampton Inns” at AZ Central.

Read “NBA players pick social justice jersey messaging” at Axios.

Read “Permission Required to Change Your Tampon” at ACLU.

Read “Bill by Sen. Tom Cotton targets curriculum on slavery” at Arkansas Online.

Read “Santa Clara County will no longer seek death penalty, DA says” at Palo Alto Online.

Read “Tom Cotton calls slavery 'necessary evil' in attack on New York Times' 1619 Project” at The Guardian.

Read “House passes legislation to create Smithsonian Latino museum” at The Hill.

Listen to “'Rednecks For Black Lives' Urges Southerners To Fight For Racial Justice” at WBUR.

Read “America Has Been Addicted To Whiteness For 400 Years” by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove at Sojourners.

Read “The Poison of Male Incivility When a woman dares respond to it, she’s seen as “disruptive” at The Cut.

Read “Switzerland opens criminal case against FIFA boss Infantino” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Judge blocks Trump administration's "public charge" rule on immigrants during pandemic” at Axios.

Read “Republican senator deletes ad that made Jewish opponent’s nose bigger” at Forward.

Read “10 Ways Good White People Can Help Black America (If 'Good White People' Exist)” at The Root.

Read “Census Door Knocking Cut A Month Short Amid Pressure To Finish Count” at NPR. “The change increases the odds of an undercount of hard to reach groups, such as people of color.”

Read “ICE Agents Complain About Nazi Comparisons, Say They're Only Enforcing the Laws” at Newsweek. In related news,

  • Read: “How the Nazi’s defense of ‘just following orders’ plays out in the mind” from PBS News Hour, originally posted in 2016.

  • Read “Ex-Nazi concentration camp guard, living in U.S. since 1959, faces deportation”” at Washington Post. “Reached by phone, Berger, now 94, said he was ordered to work in the camp . . . “

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

Read “Robert E. Lee high school in Virginia to be renamed for late Rep. John Lewis” at NBC News.

Read “Christopher Columbus statues taken down at 2 Chicago parks” at Yahoo.

Read “Virginia evicts Confederate monuments from its state Capitol” at The Black Wall Street Times.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Protesters March for Release of Fellow Demonstrator” at Nashville Scene. “A Black Lives Matter protester who is experiencing homelessness has been held by the Davidson County Sheriff's Office for a week.”

Read “Black Lives Matter Organizer in Florida Facing Felony Charges for Snatching Flags at Pro-Trump Event” at The Root.

Read “In Portland, this rabbi leads the clergy resistance” at Religion News Service.

Read “Portland Mayor Tear-Gassed By Federal Police After Joining Crowd Of Protesters Calling For His Resignation” at Comic Sands.

See “A literal tear gas tornado in downtown Portland” on Twitter and remember, kids: Tear gas is illegal in war but legal for police . . .

Read “The Lead Federal Agency Responding to Protesters in Portland Employs Thousands of Private Contractors” at Medium. “Congress needs to shine a light on the use of private security firms, including ‘Blackwater’ legacy companies, in Trump’s response to ongoing civil rights protests.”

Read “How One of America’s Whitest Cities Became The Center of B.L.M. Protests.”

Read “'The first step': Yankees, Nationals players all kneel before national anthem in MLB opener” at USA Today.

Read “Trump Expands Deployment Of Federal Agents To End 'Explosion Of Shootings'“ at NPR.

Read “Massive Protests in Portland Continue After Judge Denies State Request for Restraining Order Against Federal Agencies” at Common Dreams.

Read “Police declare a riot at Seattle protests” at Axios.

Read “Fatal shooting at Black Lives Matter protest in Austin, Texas” at Axios.

Read “Riot Ribs to Transfer Leadership to Don't Shoot PDX” at Portland Mercury.

Read “Black armed militia demands swift decision in Breonna Taylor case” at WLKY.

See “Videos Show How Federal Officers Escalated Violence in Portland” at New York Times.

Read “Police declare riots as protests turn violent in cities nationwide; 1 demonstrator dead in Austin” at Yahoo.

Read “Philadelphia DA on federal agents: Trump is acting like an ‘authoritarian dictator’ at MSNBC. “"My dad volunteered and fought in WWII to fight fascism. I wouldn't be doing my part for this country if I didn't say the obvious: We have a president who is acting like an authoritarian dictator."

Read “Anti-fascists linked to zero murders in the US in 25 years” at The Guardian. “As Trump rails against ‘far-left’ fascism, new database shows leftwing attacks have left far fewer people dead than violence by rightwing extremists.”

Read “'Umbrella Man' was a white supremacist trying to incite George Floyd rioting” at Star Tribune.

Read “What The 'Wall Of Moms' Protests Say About Motherhood, Race In America” at NPR.

Read ‘AG Barr agrees he ‘misspoke’ about FBI arrests in Kansas City under Operation LeGend” at Kansas City.

Read ‘Portland protesters released from jail on condition they no longer attend protests” at Boing Boing.

Read “Minnesota Twins hold moment of silence for George Floyd at 8:46” at AZ Central.

Read “It’s like they’re testing it on us': Portland protesters say tear gas has caused irregularities with their periods” at Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Read “Federal Agents Will Begin Leaving Portland in a 'Phased Withdrawal,' Says Oregon's Governor” at Time.

Read “Analysts Say Armed Groups At Protests Raise Specter Of A 'Street War'“ at NPR.

Read “'It's About the Core Values of Black Lives Matter.' Portland Activists Are Trying to Remind People Why They Started Protesting to Begin With” at Time.

This Week With The Police:

Read “How the state uses “police morale” to divert from the violence inherent to policing” at Black Youth Project.

Read “NYPD admits it’s used unmarked vehicles to apprehend suspects for “decades” after “disturbing” video” at Slate.

Read “Federal encroachment on local police raises mission creep concern” at MSNBC.

Education and The Learnings:

Read “Chinese students who once set their sights on US schools now weigh other options” at PRI’s The World.

School Re-Openings:

Read “Many Arizona Grandparents Raising Grandkids Worried About Going Back To School” at KJZZ.

Read “CDC director concedes schools in ‘hot spots’ face tougher call on reopening” at Washington Post.

Read “GOP Senator Says They 'Can Kiss My A**' as Teachers, Unions Oppose School Reopenings Over COVID Concerns” at Newsweek.

Read “Ireland: Schools set to fully reopen before end of August” at BBC.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “As US passes 150,000 coronavirus deaths, experts at Johns Hopkins call for reset in national response” at CNN.

Read “Public health expert says ‘zero doubt’ most U.S. virus deaths were avoidable” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Fed chair warns path of the economy depends on path of coronavirus” at Axios.

Read “China Superspreader Gave COVID-19 to 71 People in a Single Elevator Trip” at Newsweek.

Read “A Doctor Who Specializes in Long-Term COVID-19 Effects Is Alarmed by What He Sees” at New York Magazine.

Read Fauci tells MarketWatch: I would not get on a plane or eat inside a restaurant” at Market Watch.

Read “McDonald’s to Require Face Masks in U.S. Restaurants” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “More than 60% disapprove of Ducey’s handling of pandemic, poll finds” at KTAR.

Read “Osteoporosis drug could be repurposed to fight Covid-19, say scientists” at The Telegraph.

Read “Would you like a side of glitter with that burger? Thanks to COVID-19, Houston is home to Texas’ first drive-thru strip club.” at CHRON.

Read “Fauci says family, including wife and daughters, receiving 'serious threats' at 12 News.

Read “Why casinos remain open despite experts saying gambling is a high risk activity during Arizona's COVID-19 spike” at AZ Central.'

Read “N.M. governor blasts Trump's virus response as "worst abdication" of duty” at Axios.

Read “Ex-CDC head: Total tests conducted is a "useless number" if results are delayed” at Axios.

Read ‘MLB faces its first coronavirus crisis with Marlins outbreak less than a week into season” at Washington Post.

  • Read “MLB Temporarily Suspends Miami Marlins' Season After 15 Players Test Positive for COVID-19” at Time.

Read “Florida surpasses New York to become the state with the second highest number of coronavirus cases” at CNN.

Read “White House, Senate GOP race to finalize coronavirus package ahead of Monday rollout” at The Hill.

Read “Study identifies six different "types" of COVID-19” at CBS News.

Read “Reality Winner, former NSA contractor who leaked classified intelligence, contracts coronavirus” at Washington Examiner.

Read “Senate GOP coronavirus bill includes $29.4B for Pentagon” at The Hill.

Read “Senators Introduce Bill to Fund Independent Venues Struggling During COVID-19” at Rolling Stone.

See “Video compares droplet sprays when wearing different masks -- and no mask at all” at Boing Boing.

Read “Why these retail chains won't require customers to wear masks” at CNN. “they aren't introducing mask mandates because they are difficult to enforce, and they don't want to put their workers in the position of having to tell shoppers to put on facial coverings.”

Read “Pandemic Is Overwhelming U.S. Public Health Capacity In Many States. What Now?” at NPR.

Read “How Airlines Are Changing the Flying Process” at AARP.

Read “Rep. Gohmert Tests Positive for COVID-19, Cancels Trump Trip An eight-term lawmaker, Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas is often seen without wearing a mask” at Snopes.

  • Watch “Kevin McCarthy accidentally calls Louie Gohmert "Congressman COVID" at Twitter.

Read “Can Masks Save Us From More Lockdowns? Here's What The Science Says” at NPR.

Read “Buddy, first dog to test positive for COVID-19 in the U.S., has died” at National Geographic.

Read “We Thought It Was Just a Respiratory Virus We were wrong” at University of California San Francisco.

Read “Retailers are canceling coronavirus hazard pay. That's a mistake” at CNN.

Read “Coronavirus pandemic pushes U.S. economy to worst-ever contraction” at Axios.

Read “How Jared Kushner’s Secret Testing Plan “Went Poof Into Thin Air” at Vanity Fair. “This spring, a team working under the president's son-in-law produced a plan for an aggressive, coordinated national COVID-19 response that could have brought the pandemic under control. So why did the White House spike it in favor of a shambolic 50-state response?” // “Most troubling of all, perhaps, was a sentiment the expert said a member of Kushner’s team expressed: that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. “The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy,” said the expert.”

Read “Three-quarters of adults with COVID-19 have heart damage after recovery” at UPI.

This Week in Hydroxychloroquine News:

Read “Misleading Virus Video, Pushed by the Trumps, Spreads Online” at New York Times. “Social media companies took down the video within hours. But by then, it had already been viewed tens of millions of times.”

  • Read “Trump’s New Favorite COVID Doctor Believes in Alien DNA, Demon Sperm, and Hydroxychloroquine” at Daily Beast.

  • Read “Madonnna Heralds Demon Semen Doctor As “My Hero” Following Bizarre COVID-19 Presser” at Consequence of Sound.

  • Read “Social media giants remove viral video with false coronavirus claims that Trump retweeted” at CNN.

  • Read “Trump is retweeting complaints of censorship after Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter take down hydroxychloroquine video” at Business Insider.

  • Read “No Evidence That Doctor Group in Viral Video Got Near COVID 'Front Lines' at Med Page Today.

  • Read “'America's Frontline Doctors' may be real doctors, but experts say they don't know what they're talking about” at USA Today.

  • Read “Who Are ‘America’s Frontline Doctors’ and Dr. Stella Immanuel?” at Snopes. “During the course of our investigation, we found a doctor who describes herself on Twitter as “God’s battle axe and weapon of war,” health care providers some of whose claimed credentials and affiliations could not be confirmed, and some questionable and outright dangerous claims regarding an unproven “cure” and preventative treatment for COVID-19.”

  • Read “Fauci: Trials have "consistently" shown hydroxychloroquine is "not effective" at Axios.

  • Read “Former FDA head Scott Gottlieb: "We can definitively say hydroxychloroquine doesn't work" at Axios.

  • Read “Ohio Board of Pharmacy bans sale of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus” at WKBN.

Miscellany Cultural Items:

Read “On Anthony Bourdain in a Tearing World” at The Millions.

Read “Culture, Claims ‘PAW Patrol’ Was Dropped, But It Wasn’t” at Deadline.

Read “Hi, my name is Karen. Embarrassed to meet you” at America Magazine.

Read “Former X-Factor Live star exposed as 'pure evil' serial rapist is jailed for life” at the Daily Record.

Read “A cyberpsychologist explains why you can't stop staring at yourself on Zoom calls (and everyone else is probably doing the same)” at Insider.

Read “Americans Aren’t Making Babies, and That’s Bad for the Economy” at Bloomberg.

Read “How America weaponizes motherhood” at Washington Post. “The experience of motherhood in America is a political question just as much as it is a question of flesh. We allow white mothers a sainthood not extended to other types of mothers.”

Read “Greta Thunberg Wins $1.15 Million Prize; Pledges to Donate All to Environmental Groups” at A Mighty Girl.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Fire at Arizona Democratic Party headquarters under investigation” at MSN.

Read “Russia satellite: Kremlin accuses US and UK of 'distorting' truth” at BBC.

Read “Twitter Finally Cracked Down on QAnon—but There’s a Catch” at Slate.

Read “Down In The Polls, Trump Pitches Fear: 'They Want To Destroy Our Suburbs' at NPR.

Read “Reagan Foundation Calls on Trump Campaign to Stop Using Ex-President’s Image to Raise Money” at Slate.

Read “Ocasio-Cortez calls for end to federal funding for military recruitment in schools” at The Hill.

Read “How Shannon Watts Says You Can Be A Mom And Advocate During Coronavirus” at Forbes.

Read “Record number of Black women are running for U.S. Congress” at NBC News.

Read “Democrats seek to shame Barr over politics at the Justice Department” at Washington Post.

Read “Biden says he will pick running mate by end of next week” at Washington Post.

Read “Trump: Republicans who oppose funding FBI building in stimulus "should go back to school" at Axios.

Read “Former President Obama to speak at Rep. John Lewis’ funeral” at News and Guts.

  • Read “John Lewis’ Final Words Published” at News and Guts.

Read “Trump Tries To Appeal To 'Housewives' And White Suburbs, But His Views Seem Outdated” at NPR. “Whatever you call them, they're not in Trump's corner. Trump needs them back, and he's trying to use fear to do it.”

  • Read “Trump Plays on Racist Fears of Terrorized Suburbs to Court White Voters” at New York Times.

Read “Pending Postal Service Changes Could Delay Mail And Deliveries, Advocates Warn” at NPR.

Read “AOC Introduces Measure to Stop the Military from Recruiting on Twitch” at Vice.

Read “More Than Half Of Young People Lack Resources To Vote By Mail” at NPR.

Read “Yankees surprised by Trump announcing plans to throw first pitch without invite” at The Hill.

Read “Senate adjourns without extending expiring unemployment benefits” at Axios.

Read “Postal Service backlog sparks worries that ballot delivery could be delayed in November” at Washington Post.

Read “Trump-backed postmaster general plans to slow mail delivery” at Fortune.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Trump floats delaying November election” at Axios.

  • Read “2020 Election Live Updates: Republicans Reject Trump’s Suggestion to Delay Election, Something He Cannot Do” at New York Times

Read “Tax burden from the Pentagon budget authorized by the NDAA wipes out COVID stimulus payments” at Responsible StateCraft. “The new defense budget imposes a $4,711.11 cost on each tax filer. The average coronavirus stimulus check was $1,809.”

Read “White House Lies About Paw Patrol Being Cancelled While Criticizing So-Called 'Cancel Culture' for Cops” at The Root.

Read “Obese politicians signal corruption, study finds” at Eurasianet. “Post-Soviet nations with the biggest corruption problem have the biggest politicians.”

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “The Man Brian Eno Called ‘the Daddy of us all.” at New York Times.

Read “Grateful Dead, Dead & Company, Bob Weir and More To Be Featured on Rex Foundation and Jerry Garcia Family’s ‘Daze Between’ Livestream” at Relix.

Read “The Endurance of Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways” at Pitchfork.

Read “Marilyn Manson announces new album ‘We Are Chaos,’ shares video for title track” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Taylor Swift Has Been Working Toward ‘Folklore’ All Along” at Rolling Stone. “Her new album’s indie-folk touches fit into a career full of effortless reinvention.”

  • Read “5 Takeaways From Taylor Swift’s New Album, folklore” at Pitchfork. “The superstar singer-songwriter teams up with Bon Iver and members of the National for her quiet, personal eighth album.”

  • Read “Aaron Dessner Describes Keeping Taylor Swift Album Secret From His 8-Year-Old Daughter” at Stereogum.

  • Read “Black-Metal Legend Ihsahn Calls Out Taylor Swift Over Album Artwork” at Consequence of Sound.

Read/Listen to “Reclaiming Boogaloo” at NPR. “Boogaloo was a music developed in the 1960s by Nuyoricans who were listening to American pop music, James Brown, Tito Puente and Machito – young folks bringing together disparate sounds and cultures to make their own. But recently, an informal network of white supremacists and other hate groups have adopted the word "boogaloo" to signify an impending race war or some other form of mass violence.”

Read “Bloodshot co-founder responds following allegations of unpaid royalties and plans to sell label” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read as Pitchfork considers “Bad Brains I Against I”. Each Sunday, Pitchfork takes an in-depth look at a significant album from the past, and any record not in our archives is eligible. Today, we revisit the hard-fought third album by the D.C. hardcore icons who played faster and better than everyone else.”

Read “Lalo Guerrero: The Forgotten Father Of Chicano Music” at Daily Chela.

Read “Rilo Kiley Will Reissue And Finally Stream Their 1999 Debut” at Stereogum. “After attending Rilo Kiley's first show, comedian Dave Foley of 'Kids In The Hall' and 'NewsRadio' funded the recording sessions for the band's 1999 debut, soon to be streaming for the first time. He recalls, "I was in a full on, pop music fan swoon."

Read “The Killers respond to allegations of sexual misconduct against band & crew members” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Amid a Racial Justice Reckoning, Pioneers of Rap, Reggae, and R&B Recount Their Struggles to Get Paid” at Pitchfork.

Read “Jerry Garcia’s “Pretzel” Guitar Resurfaces” at Relix.

Read “A Neil Young Time Capsule” at the New Yorker.

Read “Yo La Tengo announce socially distant shows at MASS MoCA, share Matmos collab” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Trent Reznor, Kamasi Washington, RZA, More Nominated for 2020 Emmys” at Pitchfork.

Read “New Orleans Musician Offers Kids Trumpets In Exchange For Their Guns” at NPR.

Browse “10 Best Quarantine Concerts Online” at New York Times.

Read ‘Pop music is getting faster (and happier)” at BBC. “The average tempo of 2020's top 20 best-selling songs is a pulse-quickening 122 beats per minute. That's the highest it's been since 2009.’

Read “Phish Lyricist Tom Marshall Hospitalized for Bacterial Blood Infection” at Jambands.

Read “Merge Records cuts ties with Ian Svenonius” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Want live music back? Wear a mask and call Congress” at Reader.

Read “Trey Anastasio Announces New Album, ‘Lonely Trip’” at Relix.

Read “MTV VMAs 2020: See The Full List of Nominees Here” at Pitchfork.

Read “Spotify CEO Daniel Ek says working musicians may no longer be able to release music only “once every three to four years” at The Fader.

Movies/TV/Etc.:

Read “Disney is remaking its classic 1973 Robin Hood film as a CGI Disney Plus exclusive” at The Verge.

Read “Wes Anderson’s New Movie The French Dispatch Pushed to 2021” at Pitchfork.

Read “Dystopian series ‘Watchmen’ leads all Emmy nominees with 26” at Associated Press.

Read “IMAX has lost $26 million due to coronavirus closures” at NME.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Stuck in an imperial system that has outlived its promise Ross Douthat wonders what will get us beyond decadence” at Christian Century.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “33% of U.S. museums are "not confident" they will survive next fall”

See “Design Inspiration: Bailey Elder” at Raven Sings The Blues.

Movies/TV/Etc.:

Read “Disney is remaking its classic 1973 Robin Hood film as a CGI Disney Plus exclusive” at The Verge.

Read “Universal and AMC strike historic movie distribution deal” at Axios.

Books/Reading/Authors/Podcasts:

Read “Michelle Obama to "Explore Meaningful Topics" in New Spotify Podcast Launching This Month” at Pop Sugar.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “33% of U.S. museums are "not confident" they will survive next fall” at Axios.

Read “Is It Time to Repatriate Africa’s Looted Art?” at Foreign Policy.

Science/Animals/Technology/Environment/Etc.:

Read “No Longer in Shadows, Pentagon’s U.F.O. Unit Will Make Some Findings Public For over a decade, the program, now tucked inside the Office of Naval Intelligence, has discussed mysterious events in classified briefings” at New York Times.

Read “It’s Still Not Aliens The latest report on military study of UFOs is just as tantalizing—and unilluminating—as all the ones before” at Slate.

Read “Baboons 'carrying knives and chainsaw' spotted in safari park” at Yahoo.

Food Cultures:

Read “The 19th-Century Swill Milk Scandal That Poisoned Infants With Whiskey Runoff” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “Coca-Cola Entering Hard Seltzer Market With Topo Chico Hard Seltzer” at Paste.

Browse “The Best Burger in Every State” at The Daily Meal. What do you think of their picks?

Misc. Oddities:

Read “How to Outrun a Dinosaur” at Wired. “If, through some scientific malfunction, you found yourself transported 70 million years into the past, you might be safer from certain hungry reptiles than you think.”

Local:

The Weekly Town Crier (07/17/20)

HappyDooDeeCrier.jpg

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (07/17/20)


We’ll Miss You:

Read “Judy Dyble 1949-2020 at DGM Live.

Read “R.I.P. Kelly Preston” at A.V. Club.

Read “Zindzi Mandela, Daughter of Nelson and Winnie Mandela, Dies at 59” at The Root.

Read “Grant Imahara, Host of 'MythBusters' and 'White Rabbit Project,' Dies at 49” at Hollywood Reporter.

Read “'The Magic School Bus' Series Author Joanna Cole Has Died” at NPR.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Moore, others ask Trump not to rescind DACA” at Baptist Press.

Read “Why Black Christians are bracing for a 'whitelash' at CNN.

Read “Andy Stanley Explains Why His Megachurch Won’t Gather on Sundays Until 2021” at Christianity Today.

Read “Re-Anarchizing Christianity Justice, The Politics of Scripture” at Political Theology Network.

Read “The Redemption of Interfaith Dialogue Three evangelicals wrestle with faithful witness in conversations with Muslims” at Christianity Today.

Read “Do I consider myself a Christian? I know one thing: there is holiness” at Christian Century.

Read “The “Purity” Hoax Elisabeth Elliot was the Evangelical sex guru because of a love story. Did it happen?” at Medium.

Read “Sudan Drops Death Penalty for Apostasy, Alcohol Ban for Christians” at Christianity Today.

Read the opinion piece “Roger Stone is saved” at Washington Post.

Read “The God of Good Manners? It’s easy to forget that God is both kingly and courteous” at Christianity Today.

Read “Finding God outside the church walls The Spirit is God’s wild card, played over and over again when old forms fail” by Barbara Brown Taylor at The Christian Century.

Read “What the Ministerial Exception Will Mean for Religious Employers” at Christianity Today.

Read “Social Justice, Critical Race Theory, Marxism, and Biblical Ethics Looking at Marxism and Critical Race Theory in light of the problem of racism in America” at Christianity Today.

Read “The church has no need to apologize for Paycheck Protection Program loans” at America Magazine.

Read “Comedian John Crist: ‘The Biggest Hypocrite Was Me’ The Christian viral video-maker is back online after confessing his “sexual sin and addiction” and seeking treatment” at Vox. “Local church leaders look to educate themselves and their congregations on racial injustice in the church and how Biblical teachings relate to the Black Lives Matter movement.”

Read “Columbia churches reflect on racial injustice and religion” at Vox. “Local church leaders look to educate themselves and their congregations on racial injustice in the church and how Biblical teachings relate to the Black Lives Matter movement.”

The Section for Considering “Justice”/Race/Social Justice/Immigration and somewhere in the middle:

Meet “Queen Nzinga, The West African Leader Who Fought Off Slave Traders” at All That’s Interesting.

Read “Young Asian American Christians Are Finding Their Voice on Racial Justice” at Christianity Today.

Read “A Liberal North Carolina Town Has Unanimously Voted to Give Its Black Residents Reparations” at The Root.

Read “Hispanic figures slam Goya Foods after CEO praises Trump” at Axios.

Read “What’s Behind Neil Gorsuch’s Stunning Win for Indigenous People” at Slate.

Read “Poetic Justice Is The Exonerated 5 Helping Paint The BLM Mural Outside Of Trump Tower” at Blavity.

Read “Green Berets add first woman to their ranks” at Axios.

Read “The 'Best of Nextdoor' Account Is Trying to Make the Site Less Racist” at Vice.

Read “ICE is offering a six-week course on how to arrest immigrants - including 'firearms and defensive training' - as critics warns they are using private citizens as their eyes and ears” at Daily Mail.

Learn about “Mary Bowser: The Former Slave Who Helped Bring Down The Confederacy” All That’s Interesting.

Read “Appeals court: 1st federal execution in 17 years can proceed” at 12 News.

Read “Redskins to retire team name Monday; new name to be revealed later” at Washington Post.

Read “George Soros' foundation to invest $220 million in racial justice efforts” at Axios.

Read “After Years of Advocacy, the House of Representatives Finally Cuts Funding to Trump’s Deportation Force” at ACLU.

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

Read “Is the destruction of monuments a rewriting of history? Holding in tension our achievements and failures as a nation” at Christian Century.

Read “American History Is Not Canceled While Christians can’t erase the church’s slaveholding past, we can change the symbols, statues, and namesakes we celebrate” at Christianity Today.

Read “Statue of Black protester replaces toppled U.K. slave trader” at PBS News Hour.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “History Shows That Sustained, Disruptive Protests Work” at Yes!

Read “Over 600,000 Hong Kongers cast 'protest' vote against new security laws” at Reuters.

Read “Trump Dismisses Police Killing Outrage, Saying 'More White People' Killed Than Blacks” at NPR.

  • Read “Trump says 'more white people' are killed by police, while studies show Black people are more likely to be killed” at AZ Central. “A Harvard analysis of deaths by police from 2013-2017 and published last month found Black men are more than three times more likely than white men to be killed by police.”

Read “Who are these federal officers sent to Portland to deal with protesters?” at KGW.

  • See these “federal officers” disappear someone in Portland.

  • Read “Trump Sent Cops to Portland and They're ‘Kidnapping People Off the Streets’ Camouflaged federal officers have been patrolling the streets, pulling protesters into unmarked cars and arresting them” at Vice.

  • Read “Federal Law Enforcement Use Unmarked Vehicles To Grab Protesters Off Portland Streets” at Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Read “Leaked Documents Show Police Knew Far-Right Extremists Were The Real Threat At Protests, Not ‘Antifa’” at The Intercept.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Police Viewed Less Favorably, But Few Want To 'Defund' Them, Survey Finds” at NPR. “A Pew survey finds two-thirds of respondents think officers should be held legally accountable for using excessive force — but few say they would support cutting police budgets. The results were skewed by respondents' race and political persuasion.”

Read “LA Coroner Defies Sheriff, Releases Andres Guardado Autopsy Results” at Los Angeles CBS Local.

Read “Florida Cop Fired and Charged With Assault After Pointing Gun to Handcuffed Black Man’s Head for Not Giving His Name” at The Root.

Education and The Learnings:

Read “Los Angeles and San Diego Schools to Go Online-Only in The Fall California’s two largest districts made the joint call amid a White House push to get children back into classrooms” at New York Times.

Read “New York will use formula to determine if it's safe to reopen schools” at Axios.

Read “A Teenager Didn’t Do Her Online Schoolwork. So a Judge Sent Her to Juvenile Detention” at Pro Publica.

Read “Is School Safe? Will Districts Test For COVID-19? Answering Back-To-School Questions” at NPR.

Read “White House vows not to 'let the science stand in the way' of reopening schools as poll shows three-fourths of parents DON'T back Donald Trump's reopening demands” at Daily Mail.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Merkel says pandemic reveals limits of 'fact-denying populism'.

Read “3 things the U.S. can do to stop coronavirus” at PBS.

Read “Gov. Doug Ducey says Arizona seeing signs coronavirus is flattening” at KTAR.

Read “The Toll That Isolation Takes on Kids During the Coronavirus Era” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: "Please wear a mask to save lives" at Axios.

Read “Bill Gates calls for COVID-19 meds to go to people who need them, not 'highest bidder'“ at Reuters.

Read “How can we grieve with funerals on hold?” at The Atlantic.

Read “Dozens of Arizona bar owners suing Governor Ducey over executive order keeping bars closed” at 12 News. “Bar owners from Prescott to Phoenix to Tucson filed a lawsuit claiming that Executive Order keeping them closed isn't fair or constitutional.”

Read “CDC director: U.S. could get coronavirus "under control" in 4–8 weeks if all wear masks” at Axios.

Read “Missouri school district asks parents to sign COVID-19 ‘death’ waiver for children” at Raw Story.

Read “California orders sweeping rollback of open businesses as virus cases surge” at Axios.

Read “‘Don’t be a sheep’: Washington sheriff urges residents to defy mask order”at New York Post.

Read “New Zealand lifts all Covid restrictions, declaring the nation virus-free” at BBC.

Read “White House tells hospitals to bypass CDC on coronavirus data” at Axios.

Read “White House Strips CDC Of Data Collection Role For COVID-19 Hospitalizations” at NPR.

Read “A dangerous new chapter of the outbreak: Every state for itself” at Politico.

Read “Fauci is sidelined by the White House as he steps up blunt talk on pandemic” at Washington Post.

  • Read “Fauci on who to trust amid coronavirus: "Stick with respected medical authorities" at Axios.

Read “'We Still Face Much Uncertainty': Pandemic Hammers Big Banks” at NPR.

Read “First COVID-19 vaccine tested in US poised for final testing” at Associated Press.

Read “8 world leaders demand equal access to coronavirus vaccine” at Axios.

Read “NPR Radio Ratings Collapse As Pandemic Ends Listeners' Commutes” at NPR.

Read “Why is There a Coin Shortage in the U.S.?” at Newsweek.

Read “These States’ Leaders Claim to Be ‘Pro-Life.’ So Why Are So Many of Their Citizens Dying of COVID-19?” at Time.

Miscellany:

Read “Notre Dame to be restored as closely to original structure as possible” at Axios.

Read “Record Numbers Have Lost Their Health Insurance the Moment They Need It Most” at Slate.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “The Fair Labor Standards Act: What to Know and Why the U.S. Needs New Labor Laws” at Teen Vogue.

Read “Facebook considering political ad blackout ahead of election” at Axios.

Read “Fox host's writer quits after racist and sexist online comments revealed” at The Guardian.

Read “Trump Reportedly Suggested Selling Puerto Rico After Hurricane Maria” at Slate.

Read “Trump's failing culture wars” at Axios “Google search trends for “Crooked Hillary” and “Sleepy Joe” in the U.S.”

Read “Kanye West Reportedly Drops Out Of 2020 Presidential Race” at Hot New Hip Hop.

  • Read “A ‘Kanye 2020’ Committee Just Filed With the FEC, But Is It Legit? Hours after rapper’s presidential run is rumored to be over, a supposedly Wyoming-based PAC files Statement of Organization” at Rolling Stone.

  • Read “Kanye West Is Maybe Still Running for President After All” at Exclaim.

Read “Hamilton, In Fiction And History, Is Key To Understanding The Electoral College” at NPR.

Read “The once-mocked ‘Never Trump’ movement becomes a sudden campaign force” at Washington Post.

Read “What Are 2019’s Tax Brackets, and Who Gets Audited the Most?” at Pro Publica.

Read “In a Death, Details of More Russian Murder-for-Hire Plots” at New York Times. “In 2006, Russia legalized the targeted killing of 'terrorist' suspects abroad under authorizations that Russian officials like to compare to the legal justifications for American drone strikes."

Read “A Senate Takeover Is Very Much A Possibility For Democrats. Just Follow The Money” at NPR.

Read “Trump administration rescinds foreign student visa guidance” at Axios.

Read “Signed, Sealed, Undelivered: Thousands Of Mail-In Ballots Rejected For Tardiness” at NPR.

Read “'It was only done to make me look bad': Trump denounces border wall section funded by supporters” at AZ Central.

Read “Biden unveils $2 trillion clean energy and infrastructure plan” at Axios.

Read “South Dakota Is Sharing Driver's License Info To Help Find Out Who's A Citizen” at NPR.

Read “Jeff Sessions loses Alabama Senate primary runoff” at Axios.

Read “Pelosi calls for Trump to invoke Defense Production Act” at PBS News Hour.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Trump commutes Roger Stone's sentence” at Axios.”President Trump has commuted the sentence of his longtime associate Roger Stone. Stone was sentenced in February to 40 months in prison for crimes including obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements to Congress.”

Read “Schiff: Trump commuting Stone an appalling attack on rule of law” at MSNBC

Read “Robert Mueller speaks out on Roger Stone commutation” at Axios.

Read “The Roger Stone Case Shows Why Trump Is Worse Than Nixon” at New Yorker.

Read “Roger Stone Clemency Latest Example Of Trump Rewarding His Friends, Scholars Say” at NPR.

Read “President Trump has made more than 20,000 false or misleading claims” at Washington Post.

Read “Kansas Rep. Steve Watkins charged with voter fraud” at Axios.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “The Revolution Will Be TikTok’d” at Pitchfork.

Read “Blues Singer Lady A: ‘I Should Not Have to Bend to Band’s Will Because They’ve Got Money’” at Rolling Stone.

  • Read “Lady A Explains Why Co-Existence With Country Band Will Not Work: “Lady Antebellum Has Erased Me From Every Platform” at Stereogum.

Read “The Many Electronic Surprises To Be Found In The Nation's Vast Archive Of Folk Music” at NPR.

Read “Jerry Garcia’s Army Record Uncovered, Describing the Guitarist as “Willfully Disobedient,” An “Irresponsible, Immature” Soldier” at Relix.

Read “Bob Geldof Reflects On Live Aid, 35 Years Later” at NPR.

Read “Billy Martin Discusses Unorthodox Route To New Album, ‘G U I L T Y’” at Live For Live Music.

Read “Canadian Vinyl Sales Are Down in 2020 — and It's Not Just Because of COVID-19” at Exclaim.

Read “How Avant-Garde Legend Cecil Taylor Inspired Idris Ackamoor’s Psychedelic Jazz” at Bandcamp.

Read “Arcade Fire’s Will Butler Announces New Album Generations, Shares Song” at Pitchfork.

Read “Oumou Sangaré Proves Why She's the Songbird of Wassoulou” at Okay Africa.

Read “Nike Confirms Grateful Dead Sneaker Collaboration, Sets Release Date” at Jambands.

Read “A Band Like Us Doesn’t Have Deep Pockets”: Galactic’s Robert Mercurio Explains Uncertain Future of NOLA’s Famed Tipitina’s Club” at Jambands.

Read “An interview with Ian Curtis | Fully transcribed for the first time—Says he’s a fan of Bauhaus” at Post-Punk.

Read “Vinyl Nick Cave figure with a glowing red right hand is being released” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Movies/TV/Etc.:

Read “Robert De Niro's Lawyer Says He "Will Be Lucky If He Makes $7.5 Million This Year" at Exclaim.

Read “Richard Linklater's making an animated movie about the moon landing for Netflix” at AV Club.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Flannery O’Connor’s Grotesque Grace” by Karen Swallow Prior at Think Christian.

Design/Artsy Things:

Watch “Banksy paint COVID-19 art on London Underground system” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Science/Animals/Technology/

Books/Reading/Authors

Design/Artsy Things:

Science/Animals/Technology/Environment/Etc.:


Food Cultures:

Read “A Pirate Botanist Helped Bring Hot Chocolate to England” at Gastro Obscura.

Read “The Lost Art of Growing Blueberries With Fire” at Gastro Obscura.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “FAA Documents Offer Unprecedented Look Into Colorado Drone Mystery Hundreds of pages of documents provide consistent detailed descriptions of the drones and conclude the military wasn't behind the operation” at The Drive.

Read “Inside Lenin’s Mausoleum And The Best-Preserved Corpse On Earth” at All That’s Interesting.

Local:

Read “This Underground Hike In Arizona Will Take You Through A Lava Tube” at When In Your State.

Read “Arizona Minimum Wage Earners Would Need To Work 70 Hours A Week To Afford Housing” at KJZZ. “To afford a two-bedroom home, Arizonans now need to earn at least $21.10 per hour. That’s up more than $1.50 from last year.”

The Weekly Town Crier (03/13/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (03/13/20).

Read “Jazz Pianist McCoy Tyner 1938 – 2020” at Jam Base.

Read “Rosalind P. Walter, the first 'Rosie the Riveter', dies at 95” at Upworthy.

Read “Rolls-Royce promotes exclusive Mass with pope — for $155,000” at Religion News Service.

  • Read “Rolls-Royce offer for private Pope Francis meeting ‘does not exist anymore’” at Catholic News Agency.

Read “All Non-Consensual Sex Will Be Considered Rape Under Spain’s New Law The "only yes means yes" law aims to ban all sexual violence in the country” at Global Citizen.

Read “‘This is absolutely abhorrent’: Nazi flag at Sanders rally sparks outcry, concerns about safety” at Washington Post.

Read “Gender study finds 90% of people are biased against women” at BBC News.

Read/Watch “Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 23 years in prison” at Yahoo.

Read “Chelsea Manning Is Freed” at Common Dreams.

Read “Child homelessness highest in more than decade, feds say” at New York Post.

Read/Listen to “When Xenophobia Spreads Like A Virus” at NPR.

  • Read/watch “Costco Will Stop Offering Free Samples & Our Shopping Trips Will Not Be the Same” at Yahoo.

  • Read “Televangelist Jim Bakker Ordered to Stop Selling Fake Coronavirus Cure” at Consequence of Sound.

  • Read “Italy suspends mortgage payments during coronavirus shutdown” at The HIll.

  • Read “Austin’s South by Southwest Festival Canceled Due to Coronavirus” at The Wall Street Journal.

  • Read “Coachella Moved to October 2020 Due to Coronavirus” at Consequence of Sound.

  • Read “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Postponed” at Spin.

  • Browse “Coronavirus: Cancellations and Postponements” at Relix.

  • Read “Trump's mismanagement helped fuel coronavirus crisis” at Politico.

  • Read “Arizona Governor Declares State of Emergency on Coronavirus, With Nine Cases So Far” at Phoenix New Times.

  • Read “Tom Hanks Tests Positive for Coronavirus While Working on Elvis Presley Movie” at Pitchfork.

Read “Mandatory vasectomy at 50 or after 3 kids? Alabama bill proposes it” at 12 News.

Read “Virginia General Assembly passes bill capping monthly costs of insulin to $50” at 12 News.

Read “Trump administration quietly cuts funding to the nation’s poorest schools” at Yahoo News.

Read “GOP-appointed judge orders unredacted copy of Mueller report as he questions Barr’s “credibility” A federal judge calls out Barr for making “distorted” and “misleading” statements about Robert Mueller’s findings” at Salon.

Read “Michael Bloomberg Drops Out Of Primary After Reportedly Spending More Than $500 Million” at Forbes.

Read/Listen to “What Democratic Socialism Means In The U.S.” at WBUR.

Read “The Body Politic Electric: Walt Whitman on Women’s Centrality to Democracy” at Brain Pickings.

Read “Federal Court Sides With House In Fight Over Mueller Grand Jury Materials” at NPR.

Read “Wu-Tang Clan Are for the Infants: New Wu-Tang Lullaby Album Coming in April It's the 100th album by Rockabye Baby” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Woman-Owned Record Shop Sonidos! Wants To Build An Inclusive Corner In The Region’s Vinyl Scene” at DCist.

Read “Remembering Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous 10 Years Later A look at the unlikely triumphs of the Virginia singer/songwriter's eerily beautiful music” at Spin.

Read “When We Celebrate John Coltrane, We Celebrate McCoy Tyner, Too” at Rolling Stone.

Read “After 25 Years, Jimmy Eat World Isn’t Just Surviving” at Christ and Pop Culture.

Read “On hobbies, habits, and creative work Musician Stephen Malkmus on the value of chill music in crazy times, the pleasures of falling into old man mode, and understanding the ways your creative process evolves over time” at The Creative Independent.

Read “My father said I should be looking after the cows': the first female Tuareg guitarist” at The Guardian.

Read “Tony Iommi Says Michael Bolton Once Auditioned for Black Sabbath Bolton has consistently dismissed the story as a rumour” at Exclaim.

Read “Stephen Malkmus on His New Folk Album, Pavement Reunion, Bernie Sanders, And More” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Wilco and Sleater-Kinney Announce Tour The rock giants will play shows together this summer” at Pitchfork.

Read “How does Nationals closer Sean Doolittle stay calm in big moments? The Grateful Dead” at NBC Sports.

Watch “Dawes Covers Grateful Dead Live at Relix” at Youtube.

Read “The Kids in the Hall Revived by Amazon for New Season Lorne Michaels will return as executive producer for an eight-episode run” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “The Substance Summit: A Previously Unseen Fax From Hunter S. Thompson To Keith Richards” at Ranker.

Read “Mister Rogers Thought Farts Were Hilarious — And Often ‘Ripped One’ To Amuse His Wife” at All That’s Interesting.

Read “How a Potato Is Fueling the Fight to Protect a National Monument Indigenous farmers in Utah are championing an ancient spud” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “The Origins of GORP” at REI.

Read “This Brave Man Protests Annoying Everyday Things With Funny Signs” at Sad and Useless.

Read “In Palestine, Protecting One of the World’s Oldest Olive Trees Is a 24/7 Job Salah Abu Ali often sleeps beneath his ancient charge” at Atlas Obscura.

The Weekly Town Crier (12/06/19)

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All the week’s News that’s fit to cry about (12/06/19).

Browse all the Weekly Town Crier posts so far.

Listen to all 52 episodes of The Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow.

Listen to a mix of artists who have performed Habañero Collective house shows.

Browse the Musical Worldview posts.

Stream/download an introductory mix of Sacred Steel music.

R.I.P. Irving Burgie, Songwriter Who Helped Bring Calypso To America, Dies At 95 (NPR)

Read “Thankful for the Bad: Upside Down Gratitude This Thanksgiving Upside down gratitude is the ability to give thanks even for the parts of our lives which lead us to sadness and struggle and suffer” at Christianity Today.

Read “Will Worship for Likes To build their celeb-approved megachurch, Churchome, pastors Judah and Chelsea Smith preach community, love, acceptance, and inclusion. Is their Instagrammable message truly reframing Christianity or simply helping their church rake in millions?” at Marie Claire.

Read “What Pastors Can Learn From a Converted Musician: He’s a tremendously famous musician. Some people even use the word genius to describe him. His music moves people, as it has for a long time. He changed the industry. By all accounts, he’s a legend in popular music. But then something happened. It’s make sense if you thought I was talking about Kanye West. No, I’m talking about Bob Dylan.”

Read “The Christian Roots of the Fair Trade Movement” at Christianity Today.

Read “False Idol — Why the Christian Right Worships Donald Trump: White evangelics have their presidential strongman in Donald Trump.” at Rolling Stone.

Read “This Advent, Listen to those who feel unwelcome in the church” at Sojourners.

Read “The Crisis of American Christianity, Viewed From Great Britain The theologian N. T. Wright is unfazed by the faith’s politicization in the U.S.” at The Atlantic.

Read “Jesus’ risen, mutilated body In Luke’s postresurrection appearances, the disciples have to reckon with the traumatic somatic” at Christian Century.

Read “American Jesus, Stay Away from Me: The Jesus of the Bible looks nothing like American Jesus.” at Red Letter Christians.”

Read “The New Math of Church Mergers An option once seen as a failed strategy is now giving many congregations a new lease on life” at Christianity Today.

Read “Why we need religion Stephen Asma, an agnostic, argues powerfully that religion is natural and beneficial. Is it such a leap to believe that it is grounded in truth?” at Prospect Magazine.

Read “Florida Bill Protects Black Hairstyles in School, Workplace” at My Spectrum 13 (Orlando).

Read/watch “Michael Eric Dyson: 'black voters are sick and tired of being taken for granted'“ at MSNBC.

Read “The Night Doesn’t Stop the Stars” On the 50th anniversary of the killing of Fred Hampton, poet Haki R. Madhubuti pays tribute to the leader of Chicago’s Black Panthers with a new work” at Chicago Magazine.

Read “George Zimmerman Sues Trayvon Martin’s Family, Others for $100 Million The new suit is helmed by conservative lawyer Larry Klayman, based on allegations in new book and film by conspiracy theorist Joel Gilbert” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Sick and Alone Most of America’s county jails escape lawsuits seeking reforms for inmates with serious mental illness. Now Arizona’s Cochise County has joined hundreds of other small counties innovating ways to keep people with serious mental illness out of their jails. But it comes too late for Adrian Perez, who has spent the past 13 years cycling in and out of jail, and solitary confinement, which only makes him sicker.: Our jails and prisons have become our new asylums because there is nowhere else for the mentally ill to go” at Arizona Center For Investigative Reporting.”

Read “Rev. William Barber on the Political Power of Poor People: ‘We Have to Change Our Whole Narrative’” at New York Magazine.

Read/Watch “Young boy invites entire kindergarten class to his adoption hearing” at 12 News.

Read “North Korea warns Japan's Abe may soon see 'real ballistic missile' Pyongyang lashes out at Japanese leader stepping up rhetoric against close US ally in the region as nuclear talks stall” at Al Jazeera.

Read The Guardian’s opinion piece: “America is not the land of the free but one of monopolies so predatory they imperil the nation.”

Read “Not So OK, Boomers They‘re attacking the seat of millennial pleasure — the body. It’s high time we contemplated the possibility Boomers want to kill us all” at Medium.

Read “Defiant Mark Zuckerberg defends Facebook policy to allow false ads Zuckerberg says ‘people should be able to judge for themselves the character of politicians’ and compares alternative to censorship” at The Guardian.

Read “Researchers Find A Remarkable Ripple Effect When You Give Cash To Poor Families: A new major study finds that for every dollar in cash aid given to Kenyan families living in poverty, the total economic activity in the area increased by $2.60.” at NPR.

Read “TikTok accused of secretly gathering user data and sending it to China A proposed class-action lawsuit alleges the app "includes Chinese surveillance software” at CNet.

Read “His Company Makes Speakers. Now He's Speaking Out, Opposing Tariffs: Since last fall, this 70-year-old speaker company in Minnesota has had to pay tariffs on some components imported from China. "A surprising number of people I talk to … think that somehow China is paying the tariffs," the company's president says. It's a claim that President Trump has repeatedly made.” at NPR.

Read “Half of all homeless people may have had traumatic brain injury” at The Guardian.

Read “This is the World’s First Beer Taproom That Also Houses Foster Dogs Rescued From Kill Shelters” at Good News Network.

Read “Hedy Lamarr: The Incredible Mind Behind Secure WiFi, GPS And Bluetooth” at Forbes.

Read/watch “What newly released emails reveal about OxyContin, Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family” at PBS News Hour.

Read “The False Promise of Morning Routines Why everyone’s mornings seem more productive than yours” at The Atlantic.

Read “Google faces $50 million lawsuit from Genius for stealing lyrics They've been accused of "misappropriating content".” at NME.

Read “You may be required to get your picture taken when leaving, entering US” at 12 News.

Read “Millennials weren’t the only ones gutted by the recession. Gen X has never recovered. By Austin Channing Brown Dec 4, 2019, 8:00am EST Share this story” by Austin Channing Brown at Vox.

Watch/Read “You Won't Live Comfortably In the U.S. Working 40hrs a Week” at 12 News.

Read “Schools teach refugee, migrant kids skills to succeed in US: This year's students at Valencia Newcomer School feature kids from 21 countries and speak 15 languages” at KTAR.

Read as PBS wonders “What If We Let Kids Get Bored? Give kids space to get bored — you will be amazed by the creative ways they fill their time.”

Read “A Silent Epidemic: Our public schools are struggling to handle millions of students with mental health problems. Here’s why” from 2016 at NPR.

Browse “6 Books for Kids about the Civil Rights Movement” at the New York Public Library website.

Read “Majority Of Republicans Say Trump Is A Better President Than Lincoln” at Politics USA.

  • Read “Trump Has Spent $115 Million On Golf Trips ― Or 287 Years Of Presidential Salary Trump often boasts of donating his White House pay, but taxpayers are shelling out much larger sums for his hobby” at Huff Post.

  • Read “Trump to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist groups” at KTAR.

  • Read “Trump campaign will deny press credentials to Bloomberg News Trump’s campaign manager accuses agency of ‘declaring their bias openly’ after choice to not cover Democratic candidates critically" at The Guardian.

  • Read “Trump, Who Slashed Taxes by $1.5 Trillion, Is Pushing Cuts to Food Stamps Self-declared man of the people proposes to take food from poor people” at Rolling Stone.

  • Read “Trump loses appeal to block Deutsche Bank, Capital One from handing his financial records to Congress” at CNBC.

  • Read “Trump Is Waging War on America’s Diplomats: And the impeachment inquiry is only making things worse. With new figures and fresh horror stories, Julia Ioffe reports on how the president is politicizing our embassies, alienating our allies, and decimating the ranks of the foreign service.” at GQ.

  • Read “the House Intelligence Committee’s Impeachment Report” at Rolling Stone.

  • Read “Rep. Adam Schiff: 'The Uncontested Facts Show This President Solicited A Bribe'“ at NPR.

  • Read “Report reveals frequent contact between Giuliani, Nunes and the White House” at PBS News Hour.

  • Read “Trump Hands $400 Million Border Wall Contract to Republican Donor Who Touted Construction Firm on Fox News” at Second Nexus.

Read “US seeks high court permission to resume federal executions” at KTAR.

Read “Trump nominee who is anti-IVF and surrogacy was deemed unqualified. She just got confirmed” at Washington Post and then just remind yourself that the Trump administration is appointing judges to lifetime appointments who have previous been deemed “unqualified.”

Read “William Barr says "communities" that protest cops could lose "the police protection they need" at Washington Post.

Read “We should hang’ Ilhan Omar, GOP House candidate says while seeking donations” at Washington Post.

Read “Romney Saw “No Evidence” of Ukraine Meddling in 2016 U.S. Election” at News and Guts.

Read/watch “Student loan forgiveness emerges as key 2020 issue” at MSNBC.

Read “Kamala Harris Has Dropped Out of the Presidential Race” at Rolling Stone.

  • Read/Watch “Why Kamala Harris’ campaign failed to gain traction” at PBS News Hour.

  • Read “Kamala Harris’s Criminal Justice Record Killed Her Presidential Run: Harris’s record as a prosecutor was representative of a politics of the past. The nation has moved on” at The Appeal.

  • Read “Kamala Harris Mattered, and Still Does She made the boldest and (ultimately) most quixotic argument of any candidate, and her failure is a sign of these Trumpian times” at Rolling Stone.

Read “It’s Not Just A ‘Fictional Narrative,’ It’s Russian Propaganda: Republicans are not following Fiona Hill's warnings to ignore the Russian propaganda about Ukraine, in fact they're doubling down. Contributor Steven J. Harper puts in all in context and perspective.” at News and Guts.

Read “Lisa Page Speaks: ‘There’s No Fathomable Way I Have Committed Any Crime at All: “The former FBI lawyer and ongoing Trump target breaks two years of silence in this exclusive interview. And she has quite a lot to say.” at Daily Beast.

Read “Fox News host Tucker Carlson: Putin does not hate America like liberals do” at The Guardian.

Read “Inside the ‘extraordinary’ campaign to put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court” at PBS News Hour.

Read “A New Online Archive Lets You Listen to 40 Years Worth of Terry Gross’ Fresh Air Interviews: Stream 22,000 Segment Online” at Open Culture.

Read “Mahna Mahna at 50: fascinating facts about the unforgettable Muppets song” at CBC.

Browse “Best of 2019” Lists:

  • Browse Stereogum’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums Of 2019.”

  • Browse Consequence of Sound’s picks for “Top 50 Albums of 2019.”

  • Browse Gorilla Vs. Bear’s Albums of 2019.

  • Browse Paste’s picks.

  • Browse Rolling Stone’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums of 2019.”

Read “Samana Give Listeners a Map to Locate an Obelisk Hidden in Wales” at Bandcamp.

Read “Taylor Swift, Lizzo, Lana Del Rey: Pop Stars (and Their Fans) Clap Back: This year has seen a spike in pop stars using social media to push back against music critics. Their fans fell in line, swarming the offending writers with hate” at New York Times.

Read “Khruangbin and Leon Bridges Team Up for New Texas Sun EP” at Pitchfork.

Read “Massive Attack commission research into touring’s impact on climate The research aims to create a "roadmap to decarbonisation" at Consequence of Sound.

Read “U2 Are Getting Their Own SiriusXM Channel “Generally when I open my mouth, people prefer if I’m singing,” Bono said. “But on U2X RADIO, maybe they’ll forgive me the odd interruption” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Frozen Fingers :: An American Primitive Holiday Meditation” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read as NPR wonders “Is It OK To Bootleg Concerts?”

Read “Justin Vernon Tells Aaron Rodgers What “Holocene” Is About” at Stereogum.

Read “Kid Rock is shutting down his Detroit restaurant amid protest over his recent Oprah rant. "I may be guilty of being a loud mouth jerk at times, but trying to label me racist is a joke" at Consequence of Sound.

Read as “Lana Del Rey Interviews Grimes” at Pitchfork.

Read “Garcia Peoples’ One Step Behind Is Clear-Eyed and Ambitious Chris Forsyth on how the Brooklyn band successfully does “whatever the f&*k they want” on their new album” at TalkHouse.

Read “Chet Baker’s Tale of Woe” at Downbeat.

Read “Alice Cooper on Returning to His Detroit Roots Legendary rocker details his new covers album, Breadcrumbs” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “A Look Inside Japan’s Listening Bars For Audiophiles” at Vinyl of the Day.

Read “Jimmy Eat World share playlist of music they listened to on tour in the ’90s Read More: Jimmy Eat World share playlist of music they listened to on tour in the ’90s” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “10 Lessons Learned From Attending Concerts Sober For A Month” at Live For Live Music.

Read “A New Tool From Spotify Walks the Line Between Advertising and Pay-For-Play” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Talking Heads’ Jerry Harrison, Adrian Belew to Tour “40 Years of ‘Remain in Light'” with Turkuaz” at Jambands.com.

Read “The Go-Betweens' Perfect Pop Cracked Open Stream rarities and live tracks from volume two of 'G Stands For Go-Betweens'“ at NPR.

Read “Jimmy Eat World's Jim Adkins: "I used to study classical and jazz... then I was suddenly sleeping on floors and playing punk-rock" at Guitar World.

Read “DC Comics Comes Under Fire for Deleting Batman Poster That Sparked Chinese Backlash: DC Comics came under fire for pulling a Batman poster after Chinese commenters said it appeared to support pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong” at Variety.

Browse “Top 100 TV Shows of the 2010s” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Questlove to Direct New Movie Black Woodstock A documentary about 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival, which featured performances from Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, and more” at Pitchfork.

Read “Oprah Producing Documentary About Sexual Assault in the Music Industry” at Exclaim.

Read “Johnny Depp producing musical starring Michael Jackson’s glove In which the King of Pop's iconic sequin glove "is actually an alien from outer space [and] feeds on virgin boy blood" at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Brazil President Blames Leonardo DiCaprio for Funding Amazon Wildfires Without evidence, Jair Bolsonaro says actor is “giving money to torch the Amazon” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Willie Nelson quits smoking marijuana due to breathing issues "I have abused my lungs quite a bit in the past" at Consequence of Sound.

Read “The Travel Diaries of Allen Ginsberg in South America” at LitHub.

Read “'We Wanted Our Patrons Back' — Public Libraries Scrap Late Fines To Alleviate Inequity” at NPR.

Read “Reading Toni Morrison in Advent A seasonal practice: cultivate the patient gaze to describe life as we find it” at Christian Century.

Read “Cry, Heart, But Never Break: A Remarkable Illustrated Meditation on Loss and Life “Who would enjoy the sun if it never rained? Who would yearn for the day if there were no night?” at Brain Pickings.

Read “How did renowned novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr. wind up in Iowa City? Two years in Iowa were turning point in novelist's career at The Gazette.

Read/Listen to “What Bestseller Lists Really Tell Us About A Book's Popularity: The appearance of Donald Trump Jr.'s TRIGGERED on the bestseller lists prompted us to dig into how those lists work -- and how they can be manipulated.” at NPR.

See “Winged Insects Made From Old Computer Circuit Boards And Electronics” at Bored Panda.

Read “Researchers Have Found That Visiting Art Museums Can Offer Significant Relief for People Living With Dementia” at Artnet.

See “Photographer Spends Eternity Waiting For Museum Visitors To Match Artworks And The Result Is Worth The Wait” at Bored Panda.

Read “Were the Mexican Muralists America’s Greatest Street Artists? A New Whitney Show Will Examine Their Too-Long-Ignored Legacy” at Artnet.

Read “Just A Reminder That Gorillas Hum ‘Little Food Songs’ To Themselves While They Eat” at Live For Live Music.

Read “Cats Domesticated Themselves, Ancient DNA Shows” at National Geographic.

Read “Scientists Resume Efforts To Create Deadly Flu Virus, With US Government's Blessing” at Forbes.

Read “Scientists Discover Psychedelic DMT Creates Waking Dream State In Brain: ‘It’s Like Dreaming But With Your Eyes Open’ at Newsweek.

Read “Hoag's Object Is a Galaxy Within a Galaxy Within a Galaxy (and Nobody Knows Why)” at Live Science.

Read “China gene-edited baby experiment 'may have created unintended mutations'“ at The Guardian.

Read “Probe Gets Close To The Sun — Finds Rogue Plasma Waves And Flipping Magnetic Fields” at NPR.

Read “New drug curbs delusions in dementia patients, study finds If approved, it could not only help people with Parkinson's but also Alzheimer's” at 12 News.

Read “Ballast Point sold to tiny suburban Chicago brewery Kings and Convicts in beer industry stunner” at Chicago Tribune.

Read “The World’s Most Valuable Whisky Collection Is Worth Nearly $17 Million A Vietnamese man's 20-year obsession with Scotch yields a world record” at Inside Hook.

See “Vale Street England's steepest street has such a drastic incline that locals tie their parked cars to lampposts when it gets icy” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “Bill would require Arizona students to say the Pledge of Allegiance: The bill would strike an existing law that allows time for "those students who wish" to recite the pledge and instead require a parent to excuse the student” at AZ Central, and remember kids, forced patriotism is fascism.

Read “Arizona 19-year-old suing Juul for getting him addicted to nicotine” at 12 News.

Read “Whistleblower says contractors failing to fix locks at Phoenix-area prison” at KTAR.

Read “Why the devil is the Scottsdale City Council fighting Satanists?” at AZ Central.

Read “20 Years of Modified Arts: How the Gallery Changed Roosevelt Row” at Phoenix New Times.