The Weekly Town Crier (12/04/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (12/04/20).



We’ll Miss You:

Read “Darth Vader actor David Prowse has died at 85” at The Verge.

Read ‘‘Mad Max’ villain Hugh Keays-Byrne has died” at NME.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Ruling Striking Down Limits on Religious Services Shows Trump Effect on Supreme Court” at Slate.

Read “Is Healing Even Possible?” at The Atlantic. “In an extended interview, the Reverend William J. Barber II explains why healing the soul of the nation will take more than returning to “normal.”

Read “Most ‘Fox News Republicans’ believe Christians face most discrimination” at Religion News Service.

Read (Russel) “Moore presented with Defending Religious Freedom Award” at Kentucky Today.

Read “Churches return land to Indigenous groups as part of #LandBack movement” at Religion News Service.

Read “Lawsuit: LDS Church officials, teacher knew of abuse but kept silent” at AZ Central.

Read “Seminary presidents reaffirm BFM, declare CRT incompatible” at Baptist Press.

  • Read “Southern Baptist seminary presidents reaffirm their commitment to whiteness” at The Witness.

Read “How Prison Ministry Inspired an All-Female Audio Bible” at Christianity Today.

Read “Faith takes the forefront as Georgia Senate runoffs heat up” at Associated Press.

Read “Eric Metaxas and the losing of the evangelical mind” at Religion News Service. “Christians can’t wait for the sociologists to sort out why our fellow congregants believe in ‘Q’ or that Trump won the election. We need a strategy to restore a few basic truths.”

  • Read “How Eric Metaxas went from Trump despiser to true believer” at Religion News Service. “How a one-time aspiring public intellectual and Trump doubter turned into a true believer in stolen elections.”

Read “Three ways to create sacred moments at home this Advent” at Christian Century.

Read “Why Some Evangelicals Refuse To Acknowledge That Trump Has Lost The Election” at Huff Post.

Read “In leaked call, Hillsong founder Brian Houston details ‘narcissistic’ Carl Lentz’s firing” at Religion News Service.

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

Read “New rule could allow gas, firing squads for US executions” at AP News.

Read “Man receives racist note after putting up Black Santa decoration” at The Hill.

Read “Restructuring A World Without Prisons” at Sojourners. “Making the impossible possible calls for an exercise in radical imagination.”

Read “Ex-Arizona Official Gets Six Years for Smuggling Pregnant Women Into U.S. to Sell Their Babies” at MSN.

Read “President Trump's war on immigration takes on political overtone at Supreme Court” at USA Today.

Read “Supreme Court skeptical of Trump's plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from census” at NBC News.

Read “French government drops draft law curbing filming of police” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Inside a Neo-Nazi Terror Cell as it Reckons with FBI Arrests” at Vice.

  • Read “How One Man Built a Neo-Nazi Insurgency in Trump's America” at Vice. “This is the inside story of how Rinaldo Nazzaro built the Base, a neo-Nazi terror organization—and how it all came apart.”

  • Read “For Some, Joining the Proud Boys Was a Stop on the Way to Neo-Nazi Terror” at Vice. “Several members and a recruit to the neo-Nazi terror group the Base described the Proud Boys as part of the journey into far-right extremism.”

Read “Bill that could help Black farmers reclaim millions of acres 'a step in the right direction'“ at ABC News.

Read “Hidden in Plain Sight: The Ghosts of Segregation” at New York Times.

Read “Harris County GOP chairman who made racist Facebook post resigns” at The Hill.

Read “DeSantis wants to make ‘Stand Your Ground’ a license to kill vandals in Florida” at Orlando Sentinel.

Read “'Tiger King' star Joe Exotic formally requests pardon, including handwritten letter to Trump” at USA Today.

Read “Black Children Are Six Times More Likely to Be Shot to Death by Police” at Equal Justice Initiative.

Read “The U.S. Spent $11.6B to Stop Cocaine Trafficking. It Was a Massive Failure” at Vice.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Kentucky cop slugs man livestreaming an arrest with ‘solid left hook’” at New York Post.

Read “How America’s deadliest serial killer went undetected for more than 40 years” at Washington Post.

Read “Phoenix approves $3 million payout to family of man fatally shot in the back by police” at AZ Central.

Read “US: No Justice 6 Months Since New York Police Assault” at Human Rights Watch.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Teaching in the Pandemic: This is not sustainable” at New York Times.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “The Unexpected Message Revealed by Long Lines for Virus Testing” at New York Times.

Read “Rhode Island is shutting bars and gyms But leaving schools open Because that's what the data suggests we should do” at Washington Post.

Read “The NFL’s Thanksgiving Weekend Has Become a Covid Crisis” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Larry Fitzgerald tests positive for COVID-19” at 12 News.

Read “In Europe’s Nursing Homes, a Soaring Covid-19 Death Toll and the Pain of Isolation” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “The Yankee Candle phenomenon” at Boing Boing.

Read “Coronavirus Hospitalizations Are at an All-Time High” at Vice.

Read ‘How The Coronavirus Has Affected Individual Members Of Congress” at NPR.

Read “Pope Blasts Those Who Criticize COVID Restrictions in the Name of “Personal Freedom”” at Slate.

Read “Moderna Chief Medical Officer: ‘Once there is marketing authorization, we stand ready to distribute our vaccine’” at MSNBC.

Read “Arizona School, Business Leaders Concerned About Spread Of COVID-19” at KJZZ.

Read “Articles of impeachment filed against GOP Ohio governor over coronavirus orders” at The Hill.

Read ‘Canada not ready to lift border restrictions with US as COVID-19 spikes” at The Hill.

Read “How Safe Is Eating At A Restaurant During The COVID-19 Pandemic?” at Huff Post.

Read “CDC urges Americans not to travel for Christmas” at The Hill.

Read “Why nursing home aides exposed to COVID-19 aren’t taking sick leave at The Conversation.

ReadCoronavirus: Here's how you can stop bad information from going viral” at BBC

Read “The Majority Of Children Who Die From COVID-19 Are Children Of Color” at NPR.

Read “Italy bans Christmas travel between regions” at BBC.

Read “Iowa Is What Happens When Government Does Nothing” at The Atlantic. “The story of the coronavirus in the state is one of government inaction in the name of freedom and personal responsibility.”

Read “What the CDC’s New Quarantine Guidelines Mean for You” at Slate.

Read “City of Phoenix halts sports facility reservations as coronavirus cases rise” at KTAR.

Read “Covid Shrinks the Labor Market, Pushing Out Women and Baby Boomers” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “COVID-19 Will Change How We Age, Where We Age And How We Pay For It” at WBUR.

Read “Fauci: 'I don't socialize. It's my wife and I and the federal agents'“ at The Hill.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Family Caregivers In Arizona Are Struggling With Burnout And Isolation During COVID-19” at KJZZ.

Read “Ikea Will Buy Back the Furniture You No Longer Want and Recycle or Resell It” at Global Citizen.

Read “OAN Is So Dangerous Because It Looks Like a Real News Channel” at Vice.

Read “Man caught with nearly 4 tons of stolen sewer lids in pickup truck, cops say” at CWB Chicago.

Read “The Crown Doesn't Fully Explain Why Princess Diana Was So Popular. Here's How She Became a Global Celebrity” at Time.

Read “‘Time For My Flag to Go Up’: How Anti-Trumpers Are Reclaiming the American Flag” at Politico.

Read “'The Real Looting in America Is the Walton Family': GAO Report Details How Taxpayers Subsidize Cruel Low Wages of Corporate Giants” at Common Dreams.

Read “IRS Says Its Own Error Sent $1,200 Stimulus Checks To Non-Americans Overseas” at NPR.

Read “Microsoft files patent to record and score meetings on body language” at BBC.

Read “Facial recognition is getting better at making matches around face masks’ at CNET.

Read “Facebook Content Review Board Chooses First Six Cases for Review” at Bloomberg. “Oversight Board has picked the first six cases it will review to determine whether the company took appropriate action with controversial content.”

Read “Airbnb Sets IPO Terms Sending Valuation as High as $35 Billion” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “UCLA Paid Student Workers With Amazon Gift Cards” at Vice.

Read I'm an 'LSD Specialist' Who Sells Acid to Oxford University Students” at Vice. "I’m not really in it for the money. If I was, I’d probably sell something like ketamine."

Read “Elliot Page Announces He is Transgender” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “How To Fix A Food System That Wasn’t Designed To Feed People” at Huff Post.

Read “The Justice Department is suing Facebook for side-stepping visa rules” at The Verge.

Read “This ‘Magical Bug’ Exposed Any iPhone in a Hacker's Wi-Fi Range” at Wired.

Read “The Latest OnlyFans Drama Involves a YouTuber Posting a Video of Herself As a Toddler” at Vulture.

Internationalities:

Read “Suspected North Korean Hackers Target COVID-19 Vaccine Maker AstraZeneca” at HuffPost.

Read “Israel, US planning ‘covert ops’ against Iran as Trump’s term ends, report says” at Times of Israel.

Read “How Iranian scientist’s killing could derail future US-Iran talks” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Government ready for 100 per cent increase in Hong Kong citizens coming to UK” at Telegraph.

Read “Canada bans mass exports of prescription drugs” at BBC.

Read “Assassination in Iran Could Limit Biden’s Options. Was That the Goal?” at New York Times.

Read “Eviction of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah part of Israeli policy” at Al Jazeera.

Read “US sanctions Chinese company for conducting business with Maduro regime” at The Hill.

Read “Japan Puts Its Post-Covid Tourism Hopes In Hands Of Giant Robot” at Huff Post.

Read “Homes raided after Germany bans far-right group” at The Hill.

Read “An anti-gay Hungarian politician has resigned after being caught by the police fleeing a 25-man orgy through a window” at Business Insider.

Read ‘Everyone Looks Terrible in the Grim China-Australia Twitter War” at Slate. “How a nation got trolled into publicizing its own war crimes.”

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Cuomo blames new conservative majority for high court's COVID-19 decision” at The Hill.

Read “NC donor wants millions returned after pro-Trump group drops election fraud cases” at News Observer.

Read “Joe Biden considering Cindy McCain for UK ambassador” at KTAR.

Read “Republicans ready to become deficit hawks again under a President Biden” at The Hill.

Read “Pennsylvania Supreme Court Throws Out Last Active Legal Challenge to State’s Election Results” at Slate.

Read “Carter Page sues over surveillance related to Russia probe” at The Hill.

Read “National Review Calls Out “Trump’s Disgraceful Endgame” at Hill Reporter.

Read “Biden hires all-female WH communications team” at MSNBC.

Read “Biden says he asked Fauci to be a chief medical adviser for incoming administration” at Boing Boing.

Read “Robert Lighthizer Blew Up 60 Years of Trade Policy. Nobody Knows What Happens Next.” at Pro Publica.

Read “The Pardon Power May Be Broad, But that Does Not Mean a Self-Pardon Would Be Legit” at Reason.

Read “More and More Republican Officials Are Standing Up to Trump and His Effort to Overturn the Election” at Slate.

Read “Barr: No evidence of fraud that’d change outcome of presidential election” at WUSA9.

Read “Trump to boycott Biden’s inauguration — and won’t even invite him for White House visit” at The Raw Story.

Read “McCaskill: 'Hypocrisy' for GOP to target Biden nominee's tweets after Trump” at The Hill.

Read “The MAGA Coalition Rallying Behind Trump’s Post-Election Mischief Is Already Cracking” at Daily Beast.

Read “Most Americans support raising taxes on those making at least $400,000” at The Hill.

Read “How Is Trump’s Lawyer Jenna Ellis ‘Elite Strike Force’ Material?” at New York Times.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Trump’s Disinformation Campaign Threatens to Undermine the Government” at Time.

Read “20 days of fantasy and failure: Inside Trump’s quest to overturn the election” at Washington Post.

Read “It's not the first time that an outgoing president refused to work with an incoming one” at Salon.

Read “Arizona Republicans Level More Allegations Of Election Fraud” at KJZZ.

Read “Kemp to Trump: Georgia law blocks him from ‘interfering’ with elections” at AJC.

Read “Trump and his allies won't drop claims of stolen election — because they're cashing in” at Salon.

Read “Trump blasts Ducey over election certification, says he betrayed Arizonans” at AZ Mirror.

Read “Bill Barr Hid Evidence Of A Bribery For Pardon Investigation During The Election” at Empty Wheel.

Read ‘Trump Has Discussed With Advisers Pardons for His 3 Eldest Children and Giuliani” at New York Times.

Read ‘'It has to stop': Georgia official calls on Trump to 'stop inspiring' death threats over election” at USA Today.

Read “Wisconsin Gov. Calls Trump Election Fraud Lawsuit An ‘Assault’” at Huff Post. “He is simply trying to seize Wisconsin’s electoral votes, even though he lost the statewide election,” attorneys say.

Read “Donald Trump’s Latest Grift May Be His Most Cynical Yet” at The New Yorker.

Read “White House liaison barred from DOJ after pressing for sensitive information” at The Hill.

Read “Wisconsin Supreme Court declines to hear Trump's "case"“ at Boing Boing.

Read “Ivanka Trump deposed Tuesday as part of inauguration fund lawsuit” at NBC News. “The suit claims the Inaugural Committee made improper payments to the president's hotel during his 2017 inauguration. Trump called the suit political.”

Read “David Perdue bought Pfizer stock — a week before company said it would develop a vaccine” at Salon.

Read “GOP Attorney Caught Illegally Registering to Vote in Georgia After Video of Him Urging Others to Do So Went Viral” at Second Nexus.

Read “Giuliani's witness draws audible laughter during testimony” at CNN.

Music-Related News and Such:

2020 Year-End Lists:

  • Browse “Brad's Top 50 Albums of 2020” at Amoeba Music.

  • Browse Crack’s picks for “The Top Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Ted Goia’s picks for “The One Hundred Best Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Gorilla Vs. Bear’s Albums of 2020.

  • Browse the New Yorker’s picks for “The Best Music of 2020” (topped by a 2018 album which I can get behind).'

  • Browse NPR’s picks for “The 100 Best Songs Of 2020.”

  • Browse NPR’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums Of 2020.”

  • Browse Paste’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Stereogum’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums Of 2020”.

  • Browse Time’s picks for “The 10 Best Albums of 2020.”

Read “Music Legends Eric Clapton, Van Morrison Team for Anti-Lockdown Single ‘Stand and Deliver’” at Variety.

Read “Erykah Badu & Summer Walker Discuss Stardom, Aliens And More” at Okay Player.

Read “When Home Recording Hit the San Francisco Rock Scene” at Reverb.

Read “In Praise of Phoebe Bridgers, a Thoroughly Good Celebrity” at Slate.

Read “AC/DC Debuts at No. 1, Powered by CD Sales” at New York Times.

Read “Phish Frontman Trey Anastasio Raises Over $1 Million For New Drug Treatment Center” at Vanity Fair.

Read “Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein to Write and Direct New Heart Biopic” at Pitchfork.

Browse “Elvis Costello on the Music of His Life” at Pitchfork.

Read ‘Rivers Cuomo is selling thousands of old demos while learning how to code. Here’s his final class assignment” at A Journal Of Musical Things.

Read “Phoenix producer Bob Hoag revisits a 'magical time' with the reissue of Pollen's 3rd album” at AZ Central.

Read “Warp Records Comes to Bandcamp” at Bandcamp.

Read ‘Why Arizona music icon Nils Lofgren's wife is 'not welcome' at this Scottsdale steakhouse” at AZ Central.

Read “Bob Dylan Just Released the Ultra-Rare 1970 ‘George Harrison Sessions’ Without Warning” at Rolling Stone. “The Bob Dylan – 50th Anniversary Collection 1970 was released as a super-limited set to avoid the recordings entering the public domain in Europe.”

Read “Justin Townes Earle’s Cause of Death Revealed” at Pitchfork.

Read ‘Deadicated: Trixie Garcia on Jerry’s Legacy, Garcia’s at The Cap and New Cannabis Brand” at Relix.

Listen to Neal Casal’s Final Solo Recordings” at Pitchfork. “The previously unfinished “Everything Is Moving” and “Green Moon” were completed by the late singer-songwriter’s friends and collaborators.”

Support the artists you listen to by buying their stuff” at Hype Machine. “Paste a link to a Spotify playlist (for ex. "Your Top Songs 2020"), and we’ll check what you can purchase directly from them on Bandcamp.”

Read “Pharrell Williams announces new charity Black Ambition to aid underrepresented entrepreneurs” at NME.

Read “Walt Disney Co. shutting down influential Radio Disney after two decades” at Los Angeles Times.

Browse “A Brief History of Cardigans in Music, From Kurt Cobain to Harry Styles and Taylor Swift” at Rolling Stone.

Read “The Origin Story of Carlos Santana’s Abraxas” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Iggy Pop & Elvis Costello” at Rolling Stone. “The old friends on surviving the Seventies, why most hard rock is overrated, and staying in touch with their iconoclastic inspiration.”

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “David Lynch To Start Shooting Netflix Series (Working Title: “Wisteria”) In 2021 at Welcome To Twin Peaks.

Read “New-Streaming-Service Alert: Discovery+ Coming in 2021” at Vulture.

ReadSuperstore Is Closing After Six Seasons” at Vulture.

Read “Actors File Age Discrimination Suit Over SAG-AFTRA Health Plan Cuts” at NPR.

Read “Did HBO Max Just Kill Movie Theaters?” at Okay Player.

Read “'Masked Singer' hits highest rating for entertainment show since April” at Los Angeles Times.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Toni Morrison’s 1,200 Volume Personal Library is Going on Sale: Get a Glimpse of the Books on Her Tribeca Condo Shelves” at Open Culture.

Browse “NPR books NPR’s Book Concierge”.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “Meet Congo the Chimp, London’s Sensational 1950s Abstract Painter” at Open Culture.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “For Rats That Coat Themselves In Poison, These Rodents Are Surprisingly Cuddly” at NPR.

Read “Scientists baffled by bizarre sea creature with dozens of legs found on beach” at Express.

Read “Wasps threaten airplane safety” at Boing Boing.

Read “New science tempers hope for life in Venus' clouds — but nothing is ruled out just yet” at Salon.

Read “Too Many Storms, Not Enough Names” at NPR.

Read “Huge Arecibo Observatory Radio Telescope In Puerto Rico Collapses” at Huff Post.

Read “Ginkgo trees nearly went extinct. Here’s how we saved these ‘living fossils.’” at National Geographic.

Read “Australia’s Great Barrier Reef ‘critical’ due to climate change” at Al Jazeera.

Food Cultures:



Misc. Oddities:

Read “A Massive Collection of Dead Insects Lives Inside Filing Cabinets in a Canadian Office” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “That Mysterious Monolith in the Utah Desert? It’s Gone, Officials Say” at New York Times.

  • Read “New Mysterious Monolith Appears in Romania” at Vice.

  • Read “Photographers captured removal of the mysterious Utah monolith. Here's why it vanished” at USA Today.

  • Read “New mysterious monolith appears on top of mountain in California” at Independent.

Read “Dallas Restaurant Owner Seems More Concerned With Twerking Patrons Than Covid In Viral Video” at Okay Player.

Read “How camp explains Trump” at Yahoo.

Local:

Read “Recreational Marijuana: Everything you need to know about Arizona going green” at 12 News.

Read “Remember these people who defended the integrity of Arizona's election” at AZ Central.

Read “GM Rethinks Planned Stake In Phoenix-Based Electric Vehicle Maker Nikola” at KJZZ.

Read “Petersen sentencing looms on federal charges, and Arizona says it isn't part of any deal to cut prison time” at AZ Central.

Read “Tempe's Marquee Theatre postpones reopening as COVID cases spike. What you need to know” at AZ Central.

The Weekly Town Crier (11/06/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (11/06/20).



We’ll Miss You:

Read “Sean Connery Has Died. Friends, Fans, and the Other James Bonds Are Saluting Him on Social Media” at Slate.

Read “Bob Biggs, Los Angeles Punk-Rock Entrepreneur, Dies at 74” at New York Times.

Read “Gospel legend Bishop Rance Allen dies at age 71” at CNN.

Read “Comedian and actor John Sessions has died” at NME.

Read ‘Jamie Coots, co-star of ‘Snake Salvation,’ dies of a snakebite” at Religion News Service. “Coots, whose father is also a serpent-handling preacher, was a legendary figure among a small group of Pentecostal believers who practiced the so-called “signs of the gospel” found in Mark 16; among them taking up serpents.”

Read “Baron Wolman, Rolling Stone Photographer Who Captured Rock Gods, Dead at 83” at Rolling Stone.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Waking the Witch: The Feminist History of Spiritualism” at Ms. Magazine.

Read “For a growing number of evangelical Christians, Trump is no longer the lesser of two evils” at The Conversation.

Read “Scholars call out Putin and the ‘escalation’ of persecution against Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia” at Religion News Service.

Read “The First Church of Equivocation” at Christian Socialism. “One obvious reason is simply that well-connected people protect other well-connected people. However, another reason is bound up in the story “moderate” evangelicals tend to tell each other: a guy like Metaxas might be going a bit far, but hey, what about those softly totalitarian authors of picture books that humanize gay couples? Aren’t they just as bad?”

Read “They All Got Careless’: How Falwell Kept His Grip on Liberty Amid Sexual ‘Games,’ Self-Dealing” at Politico. “The deposed university president secured backing by ousting critics and hiring the family members and businesses of loyalists.”

Read “It’s time to rescue the ‘pro-life’ label from anti-abortion activists” at Religion News Service.

Read Black faith leaders call for nonviolent resistance, strikes if Trump refuses election results” at Religion News Service.

Read “John Piper’s Liberty Convocation Pulled After Election Post” at Christianity Today.

Read ‘Trump’s refugee policy is a miserable moral failure” at Christian Century. “So is our nation’s long history of choosing economic success over global equity, safety, and wellbeing.”

Read “It’s time to rescue the ‘pro-life’ label from anti-abortion activists” at Religion News Service.

Read “Yep, There’s a Second QAnon Supporter Heading To Congress” at Vice.

Read “Latino Evangelicals Boost Trump in Florida and Texas” at Christianity Today.

  • Read “Hispanics’ Support For Trump Tied To Faith” at NPR.

Read “A cemetery is desecrated, shaking Michigan’s Jewish community on Election Day” at Religion News Service.

Read “Carl Lentz, pastor of Hillsong East Coast and Justin Bieber, terminated for ‘moral failures’ says church” at Religion News Service.

Read “Election Civility Is Not Enough” at Christianity Today.

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

Read “2 Former Black Comics Editors Allege Years of Racial Discrimination at DC Comics” at The Root.

Read “Illinois authorities extradite Kyle Rittenhouse to Wisconsin” at USA Today.

Read “Study warns five states at high risk for election-related armed violence by militia groups” at The Hill.

Read “In 1868, Black suffrage was on the ballot” at American History.

Read “MLK's children fire back after McConnell invokes their father in victory speech” at The Hill.

Read “MSNBC’s Joy Reid Calls Clarence Thomas ‘Uncle Clarence’” at Free Beacon.

Read “Steve Bannon and his co-host discuss beheading Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray” at Media Matters.

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

Read “Mississippi Votes To Replace Confederate-Themed State Flag” at NPR.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Thai pro-democracy leader taken to hospital after ‘chokehold’” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Supreme Court sides with activist DeRay McKesson in lawsuit over officer injured at protest” at CNBC.

This Week With The Police:

Read “N.Y.P.D. Anti-Harassment Official Accused of Racist Rants” at New York Times. “The official was relieved of his command after City Council investigators amassed evidence that he posted vitriolic messages online under the name “Clouseau.”

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Trump Claims Doctors Make ‘More Money’ When They Lie About COVID-19 Deaths” at Huff Post.

  • Read “American Medical Association Blasts Trump’s Claim Doctors Inflate COVID Numbers for Cash” at Slate.

Read “Utah Department of Health Utah Department of Health building in Millcreek glass door shot out with pellet gun” at KSL.

Read “Idaho Republicans, including Lt. Gov. McGeachin, decry pandemic measures in new video” at Idaho Statesman.

Read “Trump said not to fear COVID-19. These people beg to differ” USA Today.

Read “German Study Finds Covid-19 Risk Is Low at Indoor Concerts With Safety Precautions” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Dubai Ruler Gets Covid Vaccine, Joining Other Top UAE Officials” at Bloomberg.

Read “Sweden’s Health-Care Workers Get $620 Bonus for Covid-19 Work” at Bloomberg.

Miscellany Cultural Items:

Read “Halloween in the pandemic: Costumes and candy, at a distance” at KTAR.

Read “What Happened to All Those 'Vote for Pedro' Shirts?” at Vice. “Just in time for the election, we tracked down owners of the 'Napoleon Dynamite' relic and asked them: Why? And then it got deep.”

Read “No One Fights QAnon Like the Global Army of K-Pop Superfans” at Bloomberg.

Read “Yes, nuclear war could still happen” at The Hill.

Read “Why Ivanka Trump Is Coming Out Against Abortion Now” at Slate. “The first daughter has realized that her self-presentation as a “moderating force” no longer makes sense.”

Read “Johnny Depp Loses Libel Case Against British Tabloid The Sun” at Vulture.

Read “Whale sculpture stops Dutch train crashing into water” at The Guardian.

Read “‘Freak Power’: what Hunter S. Thompson’s fight to fix America can teach us in 2020” at NME.

Read “Buying a Gun Ahead of the Election Won't Make You More Powerful. Here's What Americans Should Do to Deal With Crisis Instead” at Time.

Read “Jack Ma’s Fortune Slumps $3 Billion After Ant Group IPO Freeze” at Bloomberg.

Read “Fascism, Then and Now” at Bias Magazine.

Read “Oregon Decriminalizes All Drugs, While D.C. Decriminalizes Psychedelics” at Rolling Stone.

Internationalities:

Read “Russian oligarch nicknamed the 'Sausage King' killed in sauna with crossbow” at BBC News.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Woman in labor stops to vote on her way to the hospital” at The Hill.

Read “Federal Judge Rejects Bid to Toss Texas Drive-Through Votes” at Bloomberg.

Read “How Conservatism Failed Its Women” at Slate.

Read “So How Wrong Were the Polls This Year, Really?” at Wired. “Pollsters spent four years preparing to better capture Trump support and avoid a repeat of 2016. Somehow, they missed it again.”

Read “Kanye West Concedes Presidential Race, Looks Toward 2024” at Los Angeles CBS Local.

Read “Twitter and Facebook slap warning labels on Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud” at Salon.

  • Read “Wisconsin official scoffs at idea of voting irregularities: ‘There are no dark corners or locked doors’” at Washington Post.

Read “Networks pulled away from President Trump’s shocking press conference” at Poynter. “Then, even normally reserved news anchors responded swiftly and strongly to Trump’s false claims about the election.”

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Judges Are Already Testing How Far Amy Coney Barrett Will Go for Republicans” at Slate. “In a shocking opinion, two judges tried to hijack Minnesota’s election law to throw out mail ballots.”

Read “Biden camp cancels multiple Texas events after a "Trump Train" surrounded a campaign bus” at Texas Tribune.

  • Read “Trump Writes ‘I Love Texas!’ Over Video Of MAGA Truck Attack On Biden Caravan” at Huff Post.

Read “Special interest groups likely spent more than $13 million at Trump properties. They got what they paid for” at Citizens For Ethics.

Read “Attorney General Bill Barr Meets With Radical Right-Wing Activist Dave Daubenmire” at Right Wing Watch.

Read “Arizona elections official sees uptick in calls after Trump spreads false information to voters” at 12 News.

Read “MAGA Fanatics Descend on Detroit Vote-Counting Site As Biden Wins Michigan” at Daily Beast.

Read “AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s big distortions on mail-in voting” at Associated Press.

Music-Related News and Such:

Browse “100 essential Arizona records: The 1920s to 1950s” at AZ Central.

Read “When Music Becomes Political Protest” at Pitchfork. “A conversation about the long and complex relationship between music and social justice movements, on our podcast The Pitchfork Review.”

Read “The Deeply Meditative Electronic Music of Avant-Garde Composer Eliane Radigue” at Open Culture.

Read “Maynard James Keenan on “Arrogant” Pandemic Behavior: “There’s Logic Attached to Just Looking Out for Each Other” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Spotify to offer artists and labels the option to promote their music in your recommendations” at Fader. “In exchange for a lowered “promotional recording royalty rate.”

Browse “Treble Roundtable: Comfort Albums at Treble.

Read “The Rock Hall Figured 2020 Induction Performances Would Be Too ‘Boring,’ So There Aren’t Any” at Vulture.

Read “Musicians’ Union calls for government not to “abandon” self-employed artists” at NME.

Read “Grammys Rename World Music Category Over “Connotations of Colonialism” at Pitchfork. “The Recording Academy sought to name the award with a “more relevant, modern, and inclusive term”

Read “South Carolina Amphitheater to Be Renamed in Honor of Sharon Jones” at Rolling Stone.

Read “The Eyes of Shannon Hoon: Danny Clinch on Using Found Footage to Craft a Documentary” at Relix.

Read “Stevie Nicks On TikTok, Tom Petty And Claiming What's Yours” at NPR.

Read “Why Is ‘Saturday Night Live’ Suddenly Booking So Many Older Rock Bands?” at Variety.

Read “Justin Bieber & Chance the Rapper Are Dropping the Acoustic Version of 'Holy'“ at Billboard.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Marilyn Manson joins anthology series ‘Creepshow’ for second season” at NME.

Science/Animals/Technology/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Rare bright yellow turtle spotted for only second time” at CNet.

Read “Did You Know That Some People Can Create a Rumbling Sound in Their Ears?” at My Modern Net.

Food Cultures:

Read “Reviving America’s Forgotten Boozy, Fruity Election Cake” at Gastro Obscura.

Read “BevMo acquired in $350-million deal as booze deliveries surge” at Los Angeles Times.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Why There’s a Columbo Statue in the Middle of Budapest” at Atlas Obscura. “The American television character is memorialized in an unlikely locale.”

The Weekly Town Crier (09/11/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (09/11/20).

We’ll Miss You:

Read ‘Jazz Bassist Gary Peacock Dead at 85” at Pitchfork.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Christian Group Seeks Removal Of Dinosaur From Tucson McDonald's” (EDITOR’S NOTE: I have no idea if this is satire or not).

Read “Black Christians Play a Crucial Role in Athlete Activism” at Christianity Today.

Read “Falwell swipes at media: 'You got nothing'“ at The Hill.

  • Read “Trump's ex-lawyer Cohen links Falwell’s endorsement in 2016 to suppression of racy photos” at Reuters.

  • Read “Reforming Liberty University in the post-Falwell era should begin with the Falkirk Center” at Religion News Service.

  • Read my own piece on LIberty University idolatrous Falkirk Center: ‘We're All Biblical Literalists (Until We're Not)”

Read “The Manosphere and the Church” at Theopolis.

Read “Jen Hatmaker, Christian author and former reality TV star, files for divorce” at Religion News Service.

Read “Christian musician Sean Feucht held defiant Seattle worship protest after concert was banned” at Religion News Service.

Read “The Church of Individualism” at Mere Orthodoxy.

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

Read “I CANCEL MYSELF’ White professor Jessica A Krug reveals she pretended to be black during entire career teaching African history” at The Sun.

Read “Akon Says His Senegalese Smart-City Will Be a Safe Haven for African Americans. Some Locals Wonder If There’s Room for Them, Too” at The Root.

Read “We Need to Talk About the GOP’s ‘Black Friends’ at The Nation.

Read “The Inevitable Whitelash Against Racial Justice Has Started” at The Nation.

Read “'The Gotaway': Online video produced and posted by the Border Patrol spreads fear of migrants” at Yahoo.

Read “White House memo calls for ban on federal agencies conducting training on "critical race theory," "white privilege" with taxpayer dollars” at CBS News.

  • Read “Trump Bans Diversity Training, Claiming It’s Divisive, Anti-American Propaganda” at Forbes.

  • Read “More Than Ever, Trump Casts Himself as the Defender of White America” at Yahoo. “Sorry liberals! How to be Anti-White 101 is permanently cancelled!”

  • Read “Trump says schools teaching NY Times’ 1619 Project ‘will not be funded’” at New York Post.

Read “On Kenosha and the difficulty of recognising Nazism in the US” at Al Jazeera. “Nazis have not disappeared. They have simply said they are not Nazis.”

Read “Census Work Has Been Winding Down, But A Judge Says It Needs To Press On For Now” at NPR.

Read “History gives us reason for hope that inequality can be beaten” at Open Democracy.

Read “Appeals court agrees R&B singer R. Kelly should stay jailed” at 12 News.

Read “She Was Sued Over Rent She Didn’t Owe. It Took Seven Court Dates to Prove She Was Right.” at Pro Publica.

Read “ACLU Calls On Tech Companies to End Their Alliance with ICE and CBP” at ACLU.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Car drives through protesters in Times Square” at Bronx 12 News.

Read “Thomas Massie praises Kyle Rittenhouse, says he showed 'incredible restraint” at Louisville Courier-Journal. "He didn't empty a magazine into a crowd."

Read “Portland shooting suspect killed by officers” at Axios.

Read “Naomi Osaka Wears Face Mask with Breonna Taylor’s Name at U.S. Open” at Democracy Now.

Read “Alleged Boogaloo members face terrorism charges in Minnesota” at Yahoo.

Read “Michael Reinoehl appeared to target right-wing demonstrator before fatal shooting in Portland, police say” at The Oregonian.

Read “Kentucky Derby 2020: Empty stands and armed militias at America's most famous race” at The Guardian.

Read “Jacob Blake says from hospital bed it "hurts to breathe" following shooting” at Axios.

Read “93% of Black Lives Matter Protests Have Been Peaceful, New Report Finds” at Time.

Read “Proud Boys Seen in Video Attacking Protester With Bat at Oregon Rally” at Daily Beast.

Read “Across the Country, Protests Demand Release from Prisons, Jails, Detention Centers” at American Friends Service Committee.

Read “'Because I'm Scared': Jane Fonda's New Book Details Her Journey To Taking Climate Action” at WBUR.

Read “Michael Brown protest organizer suing Phoenix police, city for wrongful arrest” at 12 News.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Gilbert officer charged with falsifying arrest report, court records show” at ABC 15.

Read “From soldier to worker” at Reader. “Police unions were born of resistance to discipline for brutality. Do they belong in the labor movement?”

Read “A Black man was detained while jogging for fitting a suspect description and later offered a job with the sheriff's department” at CNN.

Read “Call police for a woman who is changing clothes in an alley? A new program in Denver sends mental health professionals instead.” at Denver Post.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “After Beirut Explosion, Lebanon Sees A Spike In Coronavirus Infections” at NPR.

Read “Fact check: No, the CDC has not reduced the death count related to COVID-19” at WFLA.

Read “Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was 'superspreading event' that cost public health $12.2 billion: analysis” at The Hill.

Read “Gatherings of more than six people banned in England from next Monday” at NME.

Read “Governor Ducey Issues Enhanced Surveillance Advisory To Track The Impact Of COVID-19 And Influenza On Health Care Capacity” at AZ Governor.

Read “U.S. closes in on grim pandemic milestone: the 200,000th COVID-19 death” at NBC News.

  • Read Trump told Bob Woodward he knew in February that COVID-19 was 'deadly stuff' but wanted to 'play it down' at NBC News.

  • See “32 times Trump said the coronavirus would go away” at Washington Post.

Read “We Need to Take Care of the Growing Number of Long-Term COVID-19 Patients” at Time.

Read “Union president: Grocery stores should kick out unmasked shoppers” at CBS News.

Read ‘AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine study put on hold due to suspected adverse reaction in participant in the U.K.” at Stat News.

Read “California’s GOP Senate leader was under quarantine. She spoke with no mask at a huge prayer event anyway” at Washington Post.

Miscellany Cultural Items:

Read “Jim Carrey Pens Striking Political Essay Urging Americans to Vote Out Trump” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Beyoncé Pledges Another Million for Black-Owned Small Businesses” at Teen Vogue.

Read “Are Your Texts Passive-Aggressive? The Answer May Lie In Your Punctuation” at NPR.

Read “California wildfires set record as more than 2 million acres are scorched” at San Francisco Chronicle.

  • Read “As Wildfires Ravage the State, the Dark Side of the California Dream Slinks Out of the Shadows” at Los Angeles Magazine. “Fires have always loomed large over the California landscape—both a cleansing promise and an obliterating threat. But like so much else these days, they suddenly seem out of control.”

  • Read “Shocking pics show blaze devastation at 'national treasure' Scots woodland” at Daily Record.

Read “Facebook engineer quits, accuses social network of 'profiting off hate' at CNET.

  • Read “Zuckerberg to "Axios on HBO": "Just wrong" to say Facebook driven by conservatives” at Axios.

Read “We Talked to the Host Accused of Doing “Satanic Rituals” In His Airbnb” at Vice.

Read “The Atlantic gained 20,000 subscribers after Trump dismissed it as a 'dying' magazine” at CNN.

Internationalities:

Read “The Ghost Towns Behind The Gates” at NPR.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Trump's Base Is Shrinking As Whites Without A College Degree Continue To Decline” at NPR.

Read “Trump Faces Fallout From Report He Calls Military 'Losers' And 'Suckers' at NPR.

Read “Trump Weighs Putting Up to $100 Million of His Cash Into Race” at Bloomberg.

Read “Kanye Loses Arizona Supreme Court Appeal, Off the Ballot In Key Swing State” at “AZ Law”.

Read “Schiff: Barr “Flat Out Lying to American People” About China Election Threat” at Slate.

Read “White House lawn, Rose Garden being re-sod after damages from GOP convention” at Washington Post.

Read “Polls show Biden lagging among Latinos in close Florida race” at Al Jazeera.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “'People Around The President Are Trying To Stop Him,' 'Times' Journalist Says” at NPR. “New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt says it's unusual for advisors to be so focused on preventing a president from breaking the law. "Trump's use of power is so unusual that we have a phenomenon here where the people around the president are trying to stop him," he says.”

Read “Trump Reportedly Spent $58 Million In Campaign Funds On Legal Fees And Compliance” at Huff Post.

Read “Strzok: Trump's financial involvement with Russia is very broad” at MSNBC. “"There are a variety of entanglements that he holds that ... are of great concern and present prime opportunities for leverage over the president."

Read “Whistleblower alleges briefings on Russian interference stopped because it made Trump look bad” at MSNBC.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Taylor Swift 'Shake It Off' lawsuit goes forward in Los Angeles” at Fox7 Austin.

Read ‘M.I.A. Shares New Song “CTRL” at Pitchfork.

Read “Slow music: Chord change in Germany of 639-year organ piece” at Associated Press.

Read “Foreign Artist Visa Fee To Increase By Over 50% In The US” at The Quietus.

Listen “to New Order’s First New Song in 5 Years” at Pitchfork.

Read “Holy Roar Records founder accused of rape, several bands respond” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Rush’s Geddy Lee Confirms He’s Alive After Trending on Twitter” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Netflix Announces BLACKPINK Documentary Light Up the Sky” at Pitchfork.

Movies/TV/Video GamesEtc.:

Read “Ellen Promises (Threatens?) to ‘Talk About It’ When Her Show Returns” at Vulture.

Read “'Keeping Up with the Kardashians' coming to an end on E!” at CNN.

Read “Peacock lands the gritty Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air reboot, gives it a 2-season order” at AV Club.

Read “Black-ish’ Spinoff ‘Old-ish’ Starring Laurence Fishburne, Jennifer Lewis in Development at ABC” at Vulture.

Read “The Return of Colin Kaepernick — To The Madden Franchise” at NPR.

Read “TMZ’s Newsroom Is A Hotbed For Racism, Misogyny, And Verbal Abuse, Ex-Employees Say” at Buzzfeed News.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Reed Hastings on New Book, Netflix’s Future — and Why He Fired His Last CFO” at Variety.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “Explore 1,100 Works of Art by Georgia O’Keeffe: They’re Now Digitized and Free to View Online” at Open Culture.

Food Cultures:

Read “The Egyptian Egg Ovens Considered More Wondrous Than the Pyramids” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “Fuddruckers, Luby’s Restaurant Chains to Be Sold in Liquidation Plan” at Wall Street Journal.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “When Botswana Farmers Paint Eyes on Their Cattle’s Butts, Everyone Wins” at Atlas Obscura.

The Weekly Town Crier (09/04/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (09/04/20).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “'Black Panther' star Chadwick Boseman has died” at CNN.

Read “Trail Blazers on the Passing of Blazers Great, Cliff Robinson” at NBA.com.

Read “Itaru Oki 1941–2020” at The Wire. “The Japanese free jazz trumpeter and instrument builder died on 25 August.”

Read “Original Freedom Rider, Bill Harbour, passes away at age 78” at CBS42.

Read “Tom Seaver, Hall of Fame pitcher, dies at 75” at CNN.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Former pool attendant details alleged relationship with Becki and Jerry Falwell Jr.” at ABC News. “The Falwells told him during that first encounter that they had visited a Miami swingers' club the previous night...”

  • Read “What Jerry Falwell Jr. Taught Me at Liberty University” at New York Times. "At Liberty, our minds may have been receiving correct content, but our hearts were being trained to love wrongly: to love political power, physical security and economic prosperity as higher goods than they are.”

  • Read “Trailer Park Boys Video Reveals Raunchy Falwell Family Culture With Many Ties to Liberty U” at Roys Report.

  • Read “Liberty trustees failed Falwell, too” at Alabama.com. ““You know who else was due some love and protection? The faithful and sincere members of the Liberty faculty who had to walk into the classroom each day and face students who were confused and angered by the brazen hypocrisy going on all around them.”

  • Read “Liberty University launches investigation into Jerry Falwell Jr.’s tenure as president” at WFXRTV.

  • Read “Larry Flynt: My Final Farewell to the Falwells” at Daily Beast. “The Hustler publisher, who won a landmark First Amendment legal battle against Jerry Falwell Sr., writes about Jerry Falwell Jr.’s fall from grace—and the Trump of it all.”

Read “As Billy Graham's granddaughter and a proud evangelical, I worry for our country under Trump” at Independent. “Where is the fight for the marginalized communities Jesus exemplified? The church has been quicker to condemn an NFL player peacefully protesting than they are the racism that brought the protestor to his knees in the first place.”

Read “One-third of evangelicals believe Jesus was a “good teacher," but "not God”” at Disrn.

Read “Christian Dandy Throws A Punch” in which Rod Dreher defends Eric Metaxas for punching someone: “You just get so sick of these people and their filthy mouths, and their berserk screaming at people. ... Sometimes you have to use violence to preserve order.”

  • Read “Rod Dreher: “I don’t care that Eric threw a punch at that guy. He had it coming.” at The Way of Improvement.

  • Read “Eric Metaxas says a protester on a bike menaced him, ducks questions about punch” at Religion News Service.

Read “John MacArthur: There is No Pandemic” by Warren Throckmorton. "In truth, 6% of the deaths that have occured can be directly attributable to COVID, 94% cannot. Of the 160,000 people who have died, 9,210 actually died from COVID. There is no pandemic."

  • Read “Los Angeles County Evicts Grace Community Church From Parking Lot” at Todd Starnes. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is not persecution.

  • Read “John MacArthur claimed there is 'no pandemic.' He was politicizing science, experts say” at Religion News Service.

Read “What ‘Black Panther’ Means for Christians” at Christianity Today.

Read “On the Front Lines, Some Pro-Life Activists Think Twice About Supporting Trump” at Christianity Today. “A pro-life spokeswoman quit her job rather than endorse Donald Trump for another term in the White House.”

Read “More than 350 faith leaders endorse Biden, citing 'need of moral leadership'“ at The Hill.

Read “American Christianity’s White-Supremacy Problem” at The New Yorker. “History, theology, and culture all contribute to the racist attitudes embedded in the white church.”

Read ‘Can Christians Justify the Violence on America’s Streets?” at Christianity Today.

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

Read “Authorities find 123 missing children in just ONE day during a Michigan sex trafficking operation” at MSN.

  • Read “U.S. Marshals find 39 missing children in Georgia” at My Fox 8.

  • Read “U.S. Marshals rescue another 25 missing and sex-trafficked children” at DISRN.

Read “Banksy bought a refugee rescue boat and its crew is saving lives” at Boing Boing.

Read the opinion piece “RNC Spectacle Revealed Sheer Hypocrisy of Trump's Immigration Policy” at Newsweek.

Read “NBA to resume games after player protest, turn stadiums into voting sites” at Reuters.

  • Read “NBA Players Urge Activism but Only 20 Percent Are Registered to Vote” at Mediaite.

Read “Why You Should Think Twice Before Sharing Your ‘Blackout Tuesday’ Post on Instagram” at W Magazine.

Read “Billionaire T. Denny Sanford Was Under Investigation for Child Pornography” at Pro Publica. “The richest man in South Dakota, T. Denny Sanford, was investigated for possible possession of child pornography, according to four people familiar with the matter. Sanford is a major donor to children’s charities and Republican politicians.”

Read “Activist Shaun King Accused of Profiting off Chadwick Boseman's Death” at Newsweek.

Read “California bans flavored tobacco sales in response to a surge in teen use” at Yahoo.

Read “King James' Profanity Prayer” by David Dark at Paste.

Read “Why is the Border Patrol undermining humanitarian aid efforts at the southern border?” at Christian Century.

Read “Ron Jeremy Charged With 20 More Counts of Sexual Assault” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Trump's latest weird theory involves a 'plane loaded with thugs' at MSNBC. “People lurking "in the dark shadows" controlling American streets? A plane full of black-uniformed "thugs"? What on earth is Trump talking about?”

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

Read ‘Mississippi to vote in November on new state flag featuring magnolia” at CNN.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Amazon protesters outside Jeff Bezos' home construct guillotine” at Fox Business.

Read “Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, faces first-degree intentional homicide, five other charges in Kenosha protest shootings” at AZ Central.

  • Read “ASU conservatives raising funds for Kenosha protest shooter Kyle Rittenhouse” at AZ Central.

  • Read “Vigilante? Militia? Confusion And Politics Shape How Shooting Suspect Is Labeled” at NPR.

  • Read “Militias, Armed Vigilantes Encouraged Online to Head to Kenosha Before Deadly Attack” at NBC Chicago.

  • Read “Christian fundraising site has raised over $220,000 for accused Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse” at Raw Story.

  • Read “Trump Defends Kenosha Shooting Suspect” at NPR.

  • Read “Kenosha Protests, Violence Expose Racial Disparities Among The Worst In The Country” at NPR.

Read “One Author's Argument 'In Defense Of Looting' at NPR.

Read “Rand Paul recounts confrontation with protesters after RNC” at Axios.

Read “1 killed in Portland amid clashes between Trump supporters and counterprotesters” at Axios.

  • Read “Wolf says "all options" on the table for ending violent protests in Portland” at Axios.

  • Read “Oregon State Police deploying to Portland after fatal shooting” at Axios.

  • Read “Oregon State Police troopers deputized by feds” at KATU.

Read “Athlete Activism Against Police Violence Reminds Ken Shropshire Of '85's 'Sun City' at WBUR.

  • Read “NBA playoffs to resume after agreement on social justice initiatives” at Axios.

Read “New Jersey teen behind Black Lives Matter rally receives bill for thousands of dollars for police overtime” at CBS News.

Read “Mark Meadows: "Most of Donald Trump's America is peaceful" at Axios.

Read “Kentucky AG says he has received ballistics report in Breonna Taylor probe” at Axios.

  • Read “Court Records Show Drug Suspect Offered Plea Deal to Name Breonna Taylor as Part of 'Organized Crime Syndicate' at The Root.

Read “Arrest of Tampa protesters under scrutiny; lawyer calls it a ‘joke charge’” at Tampa Bay Weekly.

Read “ACLU Demands Resignation of Top Cops in Kenosha for Racism & Brutal Response to Jacob Blake Protests” at Democracy Now!

Read “Trump Moves to Cut Federal Funding From Democratic Cities” at New York Times. “The president directed officials to identify “anarchist jurisdictions” and move to withhold funds as he tries to build his campaign around the unrest that has accompanied racial justice protests.”

This Week With The Police:

Read “Police reforms face defeat as California Democrats block George Floyd-inspired bills” at The Sacramento Bee.

Read “The FBI warned for years that police are cozy with the far right. Is no one listening?” at The Guardian.

Read “NYPD to adopt guidelines for disciplining officer misconduct” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Los Angeles sheriff’s office says Black bicyclist fatally shot by police had dropped a gun” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Whistleblower Testifies Deputy Who Shot Gardena Teen Was “Chasing Ink” at Spectrum1 News.

Read “Ex-Boston Police Union Pres. Charged With Raping 4 More Children” at NBC Boston.

Read “The Little Cards That Tell Police 'Let's Forget This Ever Happened' at Vice. “Some cops give their friends and family union-issued "courtesy cards" to help get them out of minor infractions. The cards embody everything wrong with modern policing.”

Education and The Learnings:

Read “Photo of children using Taco Bell's free WiFi to do schoolwork sheds light on digital divide” at KCTV5.

Read “Man, 21, busted for posing as 14-year-old and enrolling in high school” at Boing Boing.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Sen. Thom Tillis says he “fell short” by not wearing mask at Trump's RNC speech” at Axios.

Read “Iowa was reporting false COVID-19 information for months, until this nurse blew the whistle” at The Gazette. “State epidimiologist knew about the problem since July.”

Read “Far right using coronavirus as excuse to attack Asians, say police” at The Guardian.

Read “Rise in coronavirus cases as 123 positive tests overnight in Scotland” at The Daily Record.

Read “The U.S. Can Fix Its COVID Testing Failures” at Slate. “We need more rapid results tests, and we need them now.”

Read “Can you be evicted during the pandemic? It depends on your ZIP code” at CNBC.

Read “White Man in Alaska Demonically Screams in the Face of Walmart Worker, 'You Have No Authority Over Me' at Raw Story.

Read “'Small events add up to a lot': Limited gatherings quietly emerge as source of coronavirus infections” at AZ Central.

Read “Northern California church accrues $25,000 in fees for violating public health orders” at Religion News Service. “"If I get COVID, God bless you," Rev. Jack Trieber, the church's pastor said. "It's going to be a great funeral."

Read “Herman Cain account tweets coronavirus 'not as deadly' as claimed after his death from COVID-19” at The Hill.

Read “Ducey's maskless photos came as Arizona has spent $3M on 'mask up' campaign” at Tucson.com.

Read “Uber to require that passengers provide face-mask selfies” at 12 News.

Read “The Trump Administration Is Backing Out of a $647 Million Ventilator Deal After ProPublica Investigated the Price” at Pro Publica.

Read “Making Gyms Safer: Why The Virus Is Less Likely To Spread There Than In A Bar” at NPR.

Read “CDC requests states ready COVID-19 vaccine distribution by November” at Axios.

Read “Three Phoenix-Area Bars Shut Down By State Officials Over COVID-19 Violations” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Surly Brewing Co. to close its destination beer hall in Minneapolis” at Star Tribune. ““This space is built for a lot of people, for socializing and getting together with friends,” said Surly owner Omar Ansari. “That’s not the way the world is working right now. There’s a pandemic going on, and there’s just no way for places like ours to make it in a COVID world.”

School Re-Openings:

Read “Utah coronavirus case numbers spike to 458 on Saturday, with another hospitalization tied to a school outbreak” at Salt Lake Tribune.

Miscellany Cultural Items:

Read “Study says Oklahoma ranked No. 1 in states with the most despair” at KFOR.

Read “FDA removes top spokesperson after 11 days on the job” at Axios.

Read “The Furious Hunt for the MAGA Bomber” at Wired. “Scarred by trauma and devoted to Trump, a man began mailing explosives to the president’s critics on the eve of an election. Inside the race to catch him.”

Internationalities:

Read “EU warns Turkey of sanctions as east Mediterranean crisis worsens” at Al Jazeera.

Read “French spying: Senior army officer investigated” at BBC.

Read “Russiagate Was Not a Hoax” at The Atlantic. “The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence confirmed what the Mueller report could not.”

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Rival Themes Emerge as Race Enters Final Weeks: Covid vs. Law and Order” at New York Times. “Mr. Trump’s aides said he enjoyed the frustration and anger he caused by holding a political event on the South Lawn of the White House, shattering conventional norms and raising questions about ethics law violations. He relished the fact that no one could do anything to stop him, said the aides, who spoke anonymously to discuss internal conversation.”

  • Read “The GOP’s norm-shattering convention showed how the two parties are worlds apart” at PBS News Hour.

  • Read “Here Is How RNC Speakers Addressed Two of the Most Pressing Issues in America Today” at Slate.

Read “Mitch McConnell’s campaign hires Covington teen Nick Sandmann” at New York Post.

Read “Top general says no role for military in presidential vote” at Associated Press. “The comments from Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, underscore the extraordinary political environment in America, where the president has declared without evidence that the expected surge in mail-in ballots will make the vote “inaccurate and fraudulent,” and has suggested he might not accept the election results if he loses.”

Read “Donald Trump’s pathology of victimhood: It's dangerous for his own party — and the rest of us” at Salon. “As a clinical psychologist, what I see in Donald Trump is a classic and destructive pattern of malignant narcissism.”

Read “The Ford Administration Rolled Out a Vaccine Program Right Before the 1976 Election. It Backfired—And Not Just Politically” at Time.

Read “Kanye West Is Trying Hard to Get on Arizona’s Presidential Ballot This Fall” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Steve Scalise draws fire and then doubles down over doctored video of a disabled activist” at NOLA.com.

Read “Fact Check: Trump's Address To The Republican Convention, Annotated” at NPR.

Read “Joe Biden call for 'lawless' rioters to be prosecuted in push back to Donald Trump's criticism” at The Telegraph. “'Does anyone believe there will be less violence if Trump is re-elected?'

Read “The Payroll Tax Delay Is Here, But So Is Confusion About It” at NPR.

Read “Facebook And Twitter Remove Russia-Backed Accounts Targeting Left-Leaning Voters” at NPR.

Read “U.S. Debt Is Set to Exceed Size of the Economy Next Year, a First Since World War II” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Generation Z In The GOP: Young Republicans Reflect On The Future Of Their Party” at NPR.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Justice Dept. Never Fully Examined Trump’s Ties to Russia, Ex-Officials Say” at New York Times. “The former deputy attorney general maneuvered to keep investigators from completing an inquiry into whether the president’s personal and financial links to Russia posed a national security threat.”

Read “Oklahoma Governor Asked EPA to Strip Tribes of Environmental Authority” at TYT. “GOP Leaders Quietly Working to Circumvent Supreme Court Ruling Giving Tribes Control of Half the State.”

Read “The USPS Is Actively Being Destroyed By Trump—Here's How to Help” at Yahoo.

Read “Trump encourages North Carolina residents to vote twice to test mail-in system” at CNBC. EDITOR’S NOTE: It is illegal to vote more than once in an election, meaning the president urged people to break the law. And he did it publicly.

Read “Postal Service Has Paid DeJoy’s Former Company $286 Million Since 2013” at New York Times. “Documents obtained through a public records request showed the degree to which XPO Logistics, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s former employer, is intertwined with the agency he now oversees.”

Read “House Democrats launch probe into Postmaster General Dejoy” at Al Jazeera. “The investigation comes amid reports that Dejoy illegally reimbursed former employees for political campaign donations.”

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Public Enemy Announce New Album, Return to Def Jam” at Pitchfork.

Read “Turntable Lab’s NYC store has closed” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Leonard Cohen Estate Considering Legal Action After RNC Plays “Halleujah” at Slate.

Read “Taylor Swift Spends a Fourth Week at No. 1 Thanks to Full Album Sales” at New York Times.

Read “Justin Townes Earle and the Burden of Names” at Paste.

Watch “Dave Grohl and 10-Year-Old Nandi Bushell Face Off in Drum Battle” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Getting To Know Sundressed” at Something You Said.

Read “David Byrne addresses wearing Blackface in ‘Stop Making Sense’ promo video” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Public Enemy’s New Album to Feature Beastie Boys, George Clinton, Cypress Hill, Run-DMC, More” at Pitchfork.

Read “Toots Hibbert Hospitalized in Intensive Care Unit” at Pitchfork.

Read “Soul Coughing’s Mike Doughty On His New EP Ghost Of Vroom 2” at Stereogum.

Read “Master P launches “Uncle P’s” line of food products as alternative to Aunt Jemima & Uncle Ben’s” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “H.C. McEntire :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “Devandra Banhart Honors the Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah Anniversary With Cover” at Spin.

Movies/TV/Etc.:

Read “Owen Teague Playing Tommy Stinson In Replacements Biopic” at Stereogum.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Douglas County Library Board of Trustees will investigate library director, staff over support for BLM movement” at Sierra Nevada Ally.

Read “Everything We Know About Stephen King’s New The Stand Miniseries” at Rotten Tomatoes.

Read “Donald Trump Jr. wants to use his social media power to disrupt publishing” at Axios.

Science/Animals/Technology/Environment/Etc.:

Read “The science of stoking fear” at Axios. “Academics codified it as the "fear drive" method in the 1950s, referring to the idea that engaging with fear can be the motivation for people to buy into anything that would make the feeling of fear go away.”

Read “NASA data shows glacial lakes swelling 50% due to climate change” at CNET.

Read “Musk Says It Will Be Possible For Owners To Telepathically Summon Their Tesla With Neuralink Implant” at Yahoo.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Heart of Belgian city mayor found entombed in fountain” at BBC.

Read “Airline pilots reported seeing 'a guy in a jetpack' flying 3,000 feet over Los Angeles” at NBC News.

Local:

Read “'Black Lives Matter' could be painted on a street in downtown Phoenix” at AZ Central.

The Weekly Town Crier (08/21/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (08/21/20).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “R.I.P. Todd Nance, Founding Drummer of Widespread Panic” at Relix.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Why Jerry Falwell Jr.'s social media 'yacht' posts were problematic for Liberty University” at Religion News Service. “Religion News Service verified that Jerry Falwell has liked a handful of images posted on Instagram showing young women—some who are Liberty students—in swimsuits and scantily clad outfits.”

  • Read “Liberty Alumni Pastors Urge University Board to 'Permanently Remove' Jerry Falwell Jr. as President” at CBN News. “"The students of Liberty University need a chancellor and president that embraces the responsibility to live out their faith with integrity and passion both publicly and privately.”

  • See Jerry Falwell Jr.’s workout routine to deal with all the stress he’s under.

Read “How Megachurches Spent Coronavirus Relief Funds” at Christianity Today. “Religious groups got $7.3B in forgivable loans. That financial security helped ministry teams focus.”

Read “The California Court of Appeal today set aside a lower court order that would have allowed indoor services to take place at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley” at Yubanet.

Read “Joe Biden Campaigns on Faith” at Christianity Today. ““He may not be the conservative Catholic that a lot of evangelicals would like him to be, but when he talks about his faith, it rings true,” said Richard Mouw, former president of Fuller Seminary.”

  • Read “Joe Biden’s Catholic politics are complicated—but deeply American” at America Magazine.

  • Read “By embracing faith, Joe Biden and the Democrats have the potential to transform American politics” at Religion News Service.

Read “QAnon: The alternative religion that’s coming to your church” at Religion News Service.

Read “It’s Not Enough to Broadcast a Service. Churches Need to Foster Community” at Christianity Today.

Read “Is the White Church Inherently Racist?” at New York Times. “White Christianity has not merely been a passive bystander in the construction of this nation’s racial caste system, it has been the primary cultural and religious institution creating, promoting and preserving it.”

Read “A New Face for Canadian Social Conservatism” at Christianity Today.

Read “Compassion begins in the eyes” at Christian Century.

Read “Americans want churches open but aren’t attending when they are open” at Baptist News.

Read “Evangelicals Call for Police and Criminal Justice Reform” at Christianity Today.

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


Read “President Donald Trump calls NBA players 'very nasty' and 'very dumb' for kneeling during anthem” at AZ Central.

Read “Facebook goes after Apple” at Axios. “Facebook is seeking to force a face-off with Apple over its 30% in-app purchase commission fee, which Facebook suggests hurts small businesses struggling to get by during the pandemic.”

Read “8 Years After Proving Racism Affected His Trial, North Carolina Inmate Taken Off Death Row” at Time.

Read “What we know about the killing of 5-year-old Cannon Hinnant” at Washington Post.

Read “Federal Appeals Court Throws Out California Ban On Large-Capacity Gun Magazines” at NPR.

Read “Portland Is Still Protesting. Where Is the Church?” at Christianity Today. “Christian leaders weigh when and how to engage in the city’s mounting clash over racial justice.”

Read “Dolly Parton Talks Black Lives Matter, Says 'Do We Think Our Little White Asses Are the Only Ones That Matter?' at The Root.

Read “Greece secretly sent away more than 1,000 migrants, abandoning them on the open sea” at Business Insider.

Read “President Trump's suburbs” at Axios. “President Trump cast an outdated vision of "the 'suburban housewife'" as he swiped this week at Joe Biden's newly minted running mate Kamala Harris — building on his months-long play to drive a wedge through battleground-state suburbs by reframing white voters' expectations.”

Read “Who Wrote The Pledge Of Allegiance — And Why Its History Is Controversial” at All That’s Interesting.

Read “Antifa crackdown is the new red scare” at The Real News.

Read “Jordan: Escalating Repression of Journalists” at Human Rights Watch.

Read “Russian opposition figure Navalny in coma after poisoning” at Politico.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Far-right groups clash with anti-racism protesters in U.S. cities” at Axios.”Far-right and anti-racism groups have clashed in several U.S. cities — including in Portland, where Black Lives Matter protesters were targeted with paintball from a paintball gun as they marked their 80th straight day of protests, per local media.”

  • Read “Proud Boys, antifa clash in downtown Kalamazoo” at The Detroit News.

Read “Maker of tear gas used on Washington, D.C., protesters will exit business” at CBS News.

This Week With The Police:

Read “FL Sheriff Who Threatened to Hunt Down Godless BLM Looters Faces Felony Charges” at Patheos.

Read “Millions in lawsuit settlements are another hidden cost of police misconduct, legal experts say” at ABC News.

Read ‘Cops Who Shot and Killed a Queer Black Man Won’t Be Charged’ at New, Now, Next. “Kawaski Trawick accidentally got locked out of his apartment while cooking and called 911 because he thought he may have accidentally started a fire. Fire Dept arrived & let him in. Police arrived & killed him in his doorway. They will not be charged.”

Read “The Infuriating History of Why Police Unions Have So Much Power” at Mother Jones.

Read “Campus cop whines after she’s fired for putting ‘KKK member’ in her Twitter bio: ‘Not one person had my back’ at Raw Story.

Education and The Learnings/School Re-Openings:

Read “Less Than A Week After Starting Classes, UNC-Chapel Hill Reports 4 COVID-19 Clusters” at NPR.

Read “UNC reverses plans for in-person classes after 130 students test positive for Covid-19” at CNN.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read ‘CDC director says U.S. could have "worst fall" ever if public health measures are not followed” at CBS News.

Read “One in three Americans say they won't get coronavirus vaccine” at The Hill.

Read “The cardiac threat coronavirus poses to athletes” at Axios. “Cardiologists are increasingly concerned that coronavirus infections could cause heart complications that lead to sudden cardiac death in athletes.”

Read “Trump eyes new unproven coronavirus "cure" at Axios. “A senior official told Axios, "The involvement of the Secretary of HUD and http://MyPillow.com in pushing a dubious product at the highest levels should give Americans no comfort at night about their health and safety during a raging pandemic."

Read “Sweden’s disease expert says just wearing face masks could be ‘very dangerous’” at New York Post. In case you, like me, do not like this headline, the full context is that he argues: “it’s “very dangerous” if people believe the coverings alone will stop the spread of the coronavirus.”

Miscellany Cultural Items:

Read “American Passports Are Useless Now” at The Atlantic.

Read “Cultural Marxism” at Hedgehog Review (from 2018).

Read “Facebook begins merging WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger infrastructures” at Axios.

Read “Japan’s Been Proudly Pacifist for 75 Years. A Missile Proposal Challenges That.” at New York Times.

Read “The Company Behind Fortnite Is Waging a Righteous War Against Apple” at Slate.

Read “Snapchat adds in-app voter registration targeted at young people” at Axios.

Read “750 million genetically engineered mosquitoes approved for release in Florida Keys” at CNN.

Read “Uber and Lyft get reprieve from court, won't shut down in California for now” at CNN.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Biden hits Trump for vow to block USPS funding: "He doesn't want an election"“ at Axios.

Read “Biden on track to beat Trump with Harris, as Dems eye the "next AOC" at MSNBC. “As Biden continues to beat Trump in the polls, Sen. Kamala Harris sparks a record-breaking $48 million in donations for Biden.”

  • Read “Could Kamala Harris’s Presence on the Ticket Help Usher in a Third Reconstruction?” at The Nation.

Read “Iran foreign minister accuses Western countries of using Beirut blast to dictate policies” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Poll: Biden Expands Lead; A Third Of Country Says It Won't Get Vaccinated” at NPR.

  • Read “Poll: 58% of Biden voters say vote is more "against" Trump than "for" Biden” at Axios.

Read “Trump tightens screws on ByteDance to sell Tiktok” at Axios.

Read “Trump administration looks to ease showerhead water flow rules” at PBS News Hours.

Read “Rep. Ilhan Omar Wins Congressional Primary” at NPR.

Read “Trump campaign to flood the web with ads during Democratic convention” at Axios.

Read “Mike Pompeo signs deal to send U.S. troops from Germany to Poland” at Axios.

Read “Trump says ‘No one will be safe in Biden’s America’ at NYPD event” at PBS News Hour.

Read “House Republicans Get Cranked Up” at Slate. “QAnon is headed for Capitol Hill.”

Read “Biden Faces A Convention Test, To Offer A Vision Beyond Beating Trump” at NPR.

Read “Puerto Rico governor loses primary” at Axios.

Read “O'Brien on deterring Russian meddling: "There’s almost nothing left to sanction" at Axios.

Read “Here are five questions to ask when analyzing political polls” at NBC News. “Not all political polls are created equally so here are five key questions to ask when reading them.”

Read “The ‘Rage Moms’ Democrats Are Counting On” at New York Times.

Read “Trump announces he'll posthumously pardon Susan B. Anthony, convicted of voting illegally as a woman in 1872” at ABC News.

Read “The Senate Intelligence Committee’s new Russia report, explained” at Vox.

Read “Bernie Sanders Becomes The “Party Unifier” at News and Guts.

Read “Effort appears to be underway to qualify Kanye West for the presidential ballot in Arizona” at AZ Central.

This Week In Political Corruption:


Read ‘U.S. Postal Service Confirms It Has Removed Mailboxes in Portland and Eugene” at Willamette Week.

  • Read “USPS removes mail collection boxes and reduces post office hours as critics accuse Trump administration of voter suppression” at CNN.

  • Read “Obama: Americans could be "collateral damage" in Trump's war on mail-in voting” at Axios.

  • Read “"He needs to cheat to win": Dems condemn Trump's USPS attacks” at Axios.

  • Read “Postal service inspector general reviewing DeJoy's policy changes and potential ethics conflicts” at CNN.

  • Read “Postal workers' union endorses Biden” at Axios.

  • Read “Mail sorting machines across the country being removed, multiple reports say” at 12 News.

  • Read “New Postmaster Hasn't Yet Met Election Officials About Mail-In Ballot Concerns” at NPR.

  • Read “Postal Service Warns States – No Guarantee Ballots Will Arrive In Time To Be Counted” at News and Guts.

  • Read “Trump says postmaster general wants to make USPS "great again” at Axios.

  • Read “Phoenix Mayor Gallego stresses importance for Postal Service funding” at KTAR. “Absentee ballots have been an important part of voting in Arizona. We were one of the first states where anyone could vote by mail without an excuse."

    • Read “Katie Hobbs asks Arizona AG to investigate Trump administration over USPS” at 12 News. “The timing of the changes prior to a major election where most will be mail-in voting is conspicuous, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said.”

  • Read “Romney rebukes Trump on mail-in voting” at Axios. “Sen. Mitt Romney said on Friday that he's unaware of "any evidence that voting by mail would increase voter fraud," countering repeated claims from President Trump that mail-in voting will lead to rampant fraud.”

  • Read “President Trump requests mail-in ballot for upcoming Florida primary, despite rhetoric” at News and Guts.

  • Read “Pelosi Calls House Back From August Recess To Act On “Postal Sabotage” at News and Guts.

    • Read “Postmaster general to testify before Senate committee on Friday” at Axios.

  • Read “USPS to Suspend Changes Until After Election” at Wall Street Journal. “Postmaster General Louis DeJoy says agency won’t remove equipment or cut hours amid congressional scrutiny ahead of an expected surge in mail-in voting.”

Read “Senate committee sought investigation of Bannon, raised concerns about Trump family testimony” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Trump And His Campaign Amplify Untrue 'Birther' Conspiracy Against Kamala Harris” at NPR.

  • Read “AP Fact Check: Harris meets constitutional requirements” at Associated Press.

Read “One Tough Question For DOJ If Biden Is Elected: Whether To Prosecute Trump” at NPR.

Read “Feds Ignored Warnings of Border Wall Construction Impacts, Emails Show” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon arrested on fraud charges in border wall fundraising scheme”

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Elvis Costello Announces New Album Hello Clockface, Shares Latest Single” at Spin.

Read “Billie Eilish to Perform at 2020 Democratic National Convention” at Pitchfork. “The Chicks, Maggie Rogers, John Legend, Leon Bridges, and others are also set for the virtual DNC.”

Read “Kathleen Edwards Left Behind Roots-Music Stardom to Sell Coffee. Now She’s Back” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Two Men Charged with Murder of Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay” at Consequence of Sound. “Indictments come 18 years following the death of the iconic DJ.”

Read “A History of North American Death Metal in 30 Albums” at Treble.

Read “Student gets a D in art, picks up report card in amazing homemade GWAR costume” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Sun Kil Moon’s UK tour cancelled following allegations against Mark Kozelek” at Brooklyn Vegan.

  • Read “Mark Kozelek: “I reject the false allegations and innuendo in the recent press” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Watch “Fiona Apple Narrates Video About ICE Arrests” at Pitchfork.

Read “Bruce Springsteen, Bob Weir, Lucinda Williams Set for Massive Joe Strummer Tribute Livestream” at Consequence of Sound. “Josh Homme, Beto O'Rourke, Jim Jarmusch, and Steve Buscemi are also expected to appear.”

Read “How the U.S. Postal Service Gave Us John Prine” at Rolling Stone. “Delivering the mail provided a steady job at a crucial time for one of America’s greatest songwriters.”

Read “Mariah Carey Announces Rarities Album, New Song Out This Week” at Pitchfork.

Read “Non-verbal teenager Tyler Hartfield writes music inspired by Nick Cave” at ABC.

Read “Tom Petty Estate Announces ‘Wildflowers & All The Rest’ Collection, Shares Video for “Wildflowers (Home Recording)” at Relix.

Movies/TV/Etc.:

Read “George Orwell's Animal Farm Is Becoming a Videogame” at Paste.

Read “The Ellen DeGeneres Show Fires 3 Producers Amid "Toxic" Work Environment Allegations” at Yahoo.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “How ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ Saved My Life” at The Millions.

Science/Animals/Technology/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua could still be alien technology, new study hints” at Live Science.

Read “Pentagon unveils Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force” at Axios.

Food Cultures:

Read “How Former Samurai and Farmers Cultivated the First Japanese Apples” at Gastro Obscura.

Read “Krispy Kreme to open NYC flagship location next month with world’s largest 'Hot Light' after COVID-19 delay” at USA Today.

The Weekly Town Crier (08/14/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (08/14/20).


We’ll Miss You:

Read “Lorenzo Wilson Milam, Guru of Community Radio, Is Dead at 86” at New York Times.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “What white evangelical Christians can't see when they see racism” at Religion News Service.

Read “GOP lawmaker calls on Falwell Jr. to resign over photo” at CNN.

Read ‘Virtual worship has become the people’s work” at Christian Century. “Discovering the limits—and possibilities—of common prayer via Zoom.”

Read “Democrats plan interfaith service to kick off convention” at Religion News Service.

Read “The Importance of "And" by Diana Butler Bass. “The Forgotten Political Message of Christianity.”

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

Browse “Children’s Books by Black Authors” at the Conscious Kid.

Read “It's Time for American Leaders to Wake Up to the Threat of Climate Change for the Good of the Planet and Business” at Time.

Read “Louisiana man serving life for $30 drug sale set to be freed” at 12 News.

Read “Dallas Doctor Reflects on Being Treated as a 'Hero' in His Scrubs But 'Hated in a Hoodie'“ at People.

Read “Performative masculinity is making American men sick” at Vox. “The coronavirus has issued an undeniable taunt to American men on their home turf, and some have chosen to prove their virility through risk with no foreseeable reward. It’s a narrow vision of manhood that ignores other tropes like self-sacrifice and being a protector; performative masculinity for an audience of one that puts many more people at risk. And the solution would be so easy, if it weren’t left in the hands of the manliest men in the country.”

Read “New reports find Arizona at the top for kids testing positive for COVID-19” at 12 News.

Read “Russia’s approval of a COVID-19 vaccine is less than meets the press release” at Science.

Read “The Case for Abolishing the Department of Homeland Security” at Teen Vogue.

Read “Murder rate surges in big cities” at Axios.

Read “Trump: Biden, Booker would allow low-income housing to "invade" suburbia” at Axios. (RACiST)

Read “Trump says men may be "insulted" by Biden picking a woman for VP” at Axios. (SEXIST)

Read “Facebook steps up hate speech crackdown, removing 22.5 million posts in Q2” at Axios.

Read “Feds accuse Yale of discriminating against some applicants’ at Associated Press. “A Justice Department investigation has found Yale University is illegally discriminating against Asian-American and white applications.”

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

Read Georgia city votes to remove pavilion where slaves were sold” at Al Jazeera.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “N.Y.P.D. Besieges a Protest Leader as He Broadcasts Live” at New York Times.

Read “Winfrey demanding justice for Breonna Taylor with billboards” at SF Gate.

Read “Phoenix records prove that police officers disproportionately use force against minorites.”

Read “‘I felt like my chest was on fire’: Photo shows Dallas police officer shooting protester with pepper-ball gun” at Dallas News.

Read “'Unprecedented' protests erupt in Belarus following election” at CNN.

Read “Viral Video Seemed To Show BLM Storming A Church. The Real Story Is Much Darker” at Buzzfeed News. “What people need to know is we’re not protesting churches. We’re protesting this church.”

This Week With The Police:

Read “Abolish the Police? Those Who Survived the Chaos in Seattle Aren’t So Sure” at New York Times.

Read “Police face new lawsuit, probes after Elijah McClain’s death” at Associated Press.

Read ‘Marion County deputies ordered not to wear masks” at OCALA.

Read “How police can use Brady lists to discredit whistleblowers” at ABC News 15.

School Re-Openings:

Read “I cannot lose another teacher’: Ariz. superintendent terrified over school reopening’ at MSNBC.

Read “Covid-19 Cases Among U.S. Children Jumped 40% in Late July” at Bloomberg.

Read “The Coronavirus Seems to Spare Most Kids From Illness, but Its Effect on Their Mental Health Is Deepening” at Time.

Read “Coronavirus prompts closing of Georgia high school in district with over 1K in quarantine” at NBC News.

Read “Florida's GOP governor compares reopening schools to the raid that killed bin Laden” at Business Insider.

Read “Ventilation should be part of the conversation on school reopening. Why isn’t it?” at PBS News Hour.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Antarctica is the last continent without COVID-19. Scientists want to keep it that way” at National Geographic.

Read “The Unique U.S. Failure to Control the Virus” at New York Times. “Slowing the coronavirus has been especially difficult for the United States because of its tradition of prioritizing individualism and missteps by the Trump administration.”

Read “Bill Gates on Covid: Most US Tests Are ‘Completely Garbage’” at Wired.

Read “Europeans Say COVID-19 Revealed America as 'Fragile,' Inconsiderate” at Newsweek.

Read “US tops 5 million coronavirus cases, continues to lead world in infections and deaths” at Fox News.

Read “Heart condition linked with COVID-19 fuels Power 5 concern about season's viability” at ESPN.

Read “Your View by Bethlehem heart transplant recipient: ‘I am in danger. Please wear a face covering.' at The Morning Call.

Read “Big Ten Votes to Call Off Football Season: Reports” at WCCO Radio.

Read “Fauci ‘seriously doubts’ the Russia vaccine is ready for widespread use” at National Geographic.

Read “Employees need masks even for at-home Zoom calls, Wisconsin agency says. Here’s why'“ at Kansas City Star.

Read “What Will It Take to Pass More COVID Relief Now?” at Slate.

  • Read “Pelosi says Mnuchin told her White House is "not budging" on stimulus position” at Axios.

Read ‘Face masks with valves, vents banned from most US airlines” at 12 News.

Miscellany Cultural Items:

Read “LEGO is launching braille bricks for students across the US” at CNN.

Read “Lebanon PM Hassan Diab resigns amid anger over Beirut blast” at Al Jazeera.

  • Read “Lebanon's government resigns as public anger mounts” at BBC.

Read “Twitter, George Soros, and Porn Subjective and Objective Realities” at The Margins. "A terrifying part of pandemic life is thinking about how, for so many of us, our understanding of reality is increasingly being shaped by algorithmically-curated, ad-funded digital representations."

Browse “17 Maps Of The United States That Made Us Say "Whoa" at Ranker.

Read “China's days as 'the world's factory' are over says iPhone manufacturer” at The Telegraph.

Read “The Strange Costumes of the Plague Doctors Who Treated 17th Century Victims of the Bubonic Plague” at Open Culture.

Read “CDC director warns high-school-age suicides and overdoses outpacing teen COVID deaths” at WND.

Read “Jake Paul says FBI raid on his home was ‘entirely related to the Arizona looting situation’ at The Verge.

Read “QAnon Followers Are Hijacking the #SaveTheChildren Movement” at New York Times.

Read “Why the Mauritius oil spill is so serious” at BBC.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “A ‘radical’ leftist who is ‘against God’? Trump paints Biden in a picture many don’t recognize” at Washington Post. “President Trump is increasingly trying to run against a Joe Biden of his own making. Rather than look for campaign ammunition in the former vice president’s long track record of politically vulnerable votes and policy proposals, Trump has instead chosen to describe Biden as a godless Marxist bent on destroying the country with a radical agenda that would make Che Guevara blanch.”

Read “Aides walk back Trump’s vow to "permanently" cut Social Security tax if he’s re-elected” at Salon.

Read ‘Trump says 1918 flu pandemic ‘probably ended the Second World War,’ which ended in 1945” at Military Times.

Read “U.S. Intelligence: China Opposes Trump Reelection; Russia Works Against Biden” at NPR.

Read “Trump signs executive orders enacting $400 unemployment benefit, payroll tax cut after coronavirus stimulus talks stall” at AZ Central.

  • Read “Payroll Tax Delay To Boost Take-Home Pay, But Don't Spend It Yet” at NPR. “Critics say this particular relief measure is misguided since it benefits only people who are lucky enough to have a job still. What's more, because the tax relief is only temporary, workers are expected to repay the taxes next year.”

Read “In Historic Pick, Joe Biden Taps Kamala Harris To Be His Running Mate” at NPR.

  • Read “If Kamala Harris is also of Asian descent, why does the press only label her ‘Black?’” at Poynter.

  • Read “At least 11 women have vied for U.S. vice president. Here’s what happened to them” at National Geographic.

Read “U.S. budget deficit swells to $2.81 trillion” at Axios.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Trump gets millions from golf members. CEOs and lobbyists get access to president” at USA Today.

Read “New York Times: White House reached out to South Dakota governor about adding Trump to Mount Rushmore” at CNN.

Read “I Worked at a Polling Place for the Michigan Primary” at Slate. “There wasn’t much concern about masks. There was plenty about voter fraud.”

Read “DeVos: 'Yes,' Trump's leaked tape comments describe sexual assault” at CNN (from January 2017).

Read “'Friday Night Massacre' at US Postal Service as Postmaster General—a Major Trump Donor—Ousts Top Officials” at Common Dreams.

  • Read “Postal Workers Decry Changes And Cost-Cutting Measures” at NPR. “"Mail is beginning to pile up in our offices, and we're seeing equipment being removed," said one postal worker.

  • Read “We Cannot Hold an Election Without a Functional Post Office” at Slate. “Trump’s refusal to save the U.S. Postal Service is an attack on voting rights.”

  • Read “The Post Office Is Deactivating Mail Sorting Machines Ahead of the Election” at Vice. “Good thing nobody's predicting a huge surge in mail any time soon.”

  • Read “Trump says he’s blocking Postal Service funding because Democrats want to expand mail-in voting.”

Music-Related News and Such:

Browse “The Aquarium Drunkard Guide To Three Lobed Recordings”.

Read/watch “25 Years After Jerry Garcia’s Death, the Grateful Dead’s Popularity Endures” at San Francisco CBS.

Read “Bruce Hornsby Looks Back on Jerry Garcia’s Last Days: ‘I Miss Him So Much’ at Rolling Stone. “The sometime Grateful Dead pianist recalls his final shows with the group and what made Garcia “a great hang”

Read “The Scientific Benefits of Listening to New Music” at Pitchfork.

Read “Burna Boy Details New Album Twice as Tall Featuring Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Stormzy, More” at Pitchfork.

Read “Coronavirus Won’t Kill Independent Record Stores” at Vice.

Read “Mark Kozelek of Sun Kil Moon Accused of Sexual Misconduct by Three Women” at Pitchfork.

Read “How mid-2000s emo groomed underage girls and poisoned teen boys” at Medium.

Read “Peter Capaldi picks his 5 favorite punk songs of all time” at AV Club.

Read ‘Beck Teams With NASA for New Hyperspace Visual Album” at Pitchfork.

See “Patti Smith Shares Performance of “Grateful” In Honor of Jerry Garcia” at Jambands.

Read “The Stooges' most infamous performance comes back to life, thanks to unearthed tapes” at Detroit Free Press.

Read “John Legend, Variety’s Music Mogul of the Year: Big Business, Bigger Love” at Variety.

Read “Watch Trey Anastasio and The Roots Perform “I Never Needed You Like This Before” on ‘The Tonight Show’ at Relix.

Watch Sufjan Stevens’ Video for New Song “Video Game” at Pitchfork.

Read “Neil Young Makes Stand Against Google and Facebook” at Jambands.

Read “Bob Mould Announces Career-Spanning Box Set” at Pitchfork.

Read “Herding Cats: Harlem 1958” at Downbeat. "Many jazz fans have seen the iconic image, but few know its complete backstory. On Aug. 12, 1958, graphic designer and fledgling photographer Art Kane took a 35mm photograph of 57 jazz musicians on the doorstep of a Harlem brownstone at 17 E. 126th St.”

Read “Why do people keep risking their lives to see shit bands?” at NME. “In the past few months, punters have put it all on the line to see – *checks notes* – The Chainsmokers, Static X and Smash Mouth. Wait, what?”

Read “The Black Music Action Coalition Wants to Hold the Industry Accountable” at Pitchfork.

Movies/TV/Etc.:

Read “High Fidelity Reboot Canceled By Hulu” at Pitchfork.

Read “Layoffs Start at WarnerMedia” at Variety.

Read “Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek Movie Was a 1930s Gangster Film Set on Earth” at The Film Stage.

Books/Reading/Authors

Pre-order Jeff Tweedy’s newest book 'How To Write One Song’.

Read “The ‘Cancelling’ of Flannery O’Connor?” at Commonweal Magazine.

Read “Bob Woodward's new book details letters between Trump and Kim Jong-un” at Axios.

Design/Artsy Things:

See “Milton Glaser’s Stylish Album Covers for Bob Dylan, The Band, Nina Simone, John Cage & Many More” at Open Culture.

Meet “Morten Viskum: The Artist Who Paints With Severed Hands” at Cult of Weird.

Food Cultures:

Read “For Sale: Shipwrecked Whisky That Spent Decades Underwater” at Gastro Obscura. “Winning bidder take note: It is not safe to drink.”

Read “Postponement of weddings and other celebrations leads to a crash in champagne sales” at Boing Boing.

Local AZ:

Read “Statement from Mayor Jenn Daniels Regarding Resignation” at Gilbert.gov.

Read “It's official: This is Phoenix's hottest summer ever recorded” at AZ Central.

The Weekly Town Crier (07/24/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (07/24/20).



We’ll Miss You:

Read “Rev. C.T. Vivian, key civil rights leader, has died at 95” at Associated Press.

Read “Rep. John Lewis, who 'risked his life and his blood' as a giant of the civil rights movement, dies of cancer at 80” at USA Today.

  • Read “When John Lewis Cosplayed at Comic-Con as His Younger Self” at New York Times. “For several years, Mr. Lewis would lead a group of children in a march across the San Diego Convention Center.”

  • Read “Patience Is a Dirty Word “We do not want our freedom gradually,” John Lewis said, “but we want to be free now!” by Ibram X. Kendi at The Atlantic.

Read “J. I. Packer, ‘Knowing God’ Author, Dies at 93” at Christianity Today.

Read “Charles Evers, Businessman and Civil Rights Leader, Dies at 97” at New York Times.

Read “R.I.P. Emitt Rhodes, Power Pop Icon and Home Recording Pioneer Dies at 70” at Consequence of Sound.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Atlanta Church Splits With SBC for Downplaying Racial Issues” at Christianity Today.

Read ‘Biden’s bid touts faith, courts even religious conservatives” at PBS News Hour.

Read “A Gospel reading for those who feel rejected by a broken world” at America Magazine.

Read “The pandemic calls for closed hymnals Forgoing congregational singing as a spiritual discipline” at Christian Century.

Read “I’m Awash in Christian ‘Content.’ But Am I Living Like Christ?” at Christianity Today.

Justice/Social Justice/Race/Equality and Such Related Stuff:

Read “GOP senator stops bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) claimed the new holiday would come at the expense of the American taxpayer, suggesting federal employee's lose a day of paid leave” at 12 News.

Read “This land is my land For generations, my family has owned a piece of untold Black history in Boley, Oklahoma. This year, I finally got to see it” at Chicago Reader.

Read “Rev. Dr. William Barber II: A Multi-Racial Coalition Is Necessary For This Moment” at Real News.

Read “GOP senator: Hispanics show 'less consistent adherence' to social distancing, mask-wearing” at The Hill.

Read “East Texas Town Removes Fence Between White, Black Cemeteries” at NBCDFW.

Read “Federal court rules DACA must be restored fully after Supreme Court ruling”

Read “Roger Stone calls Black radio host a racial slur on air” at NBC News. “"I did not. You're out of your mind," Stone replied when Morris W. O'Kelly questioned him about it.”

Read “Supreme Court deals blow to felons in Florida seeking to regain the right to vote” at Washington Post.

Read “No, The Civil War Wasn’t About “States’ Rights” — Just Slavery” at All That’s Interesting.

Read “Americans support Black Lives Matter but resist shifts of police funds or removal of statues of Confederate generals or presidents who were enslavers” at Washington Post.

Read “NBA debuts 'Black Lives Matter' painted on game court” at 12 News.

Read “Red Sox hang Black Lives Matter banner outside Fenway Park” at 12 News.

Read “Texas School Board Doubles Down on Hair Policy That Pushed Two Black Male Students Out of School” at The Root.

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

Read “Pentagon effectively bans Confederate flag from military installations” at Axios.

Read “Confederate monument outside Arizona Capitol to be moved, returned to donor” at AZ Central.

Read “Confederate monuments removed from Arizona Capitol as United Daughters of the Confederacy take action” at AZ Central.

Read “House Votes to Remove Confederate Statues From the Capitol' at The Root.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

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

  • Read “The Authoritarian Operation in Portland Is Only a Dress Rehearsal” at Esquire.

  • Read “Federal officers Trump sent to Portland teargassed protesters despite being told to leave by the mayor and the governor” at Business Insider.

  • Read “What the Heck Are Federal Law Enforcement Officers Doing in Portland?” at Lawfare Blog.

  • Read “Federal Agents Unleash Militarized Crackdown on Portland” at New York Times. “Federal authorities said they would bring order to Portland, Ore., after weeks of protests there. Local leaders believe the federal presence is making things worse.”

  • Read “Oregon will sue federal police agencies, open criminal investigation into use of force” at Oregon Live.

    • Read “Oregon Attorney General sues DHS amid reports of unlawful detainment of Portland protesters” at NBC. “Ellen Rosenblum is asking for a restraining order to prevent officers with Homeland Security and other federal agencies from making any further arrests.”

  • Read “Federal Officers Deployed in Portland Didn’t Have Proper Training, D.H.S. Memo Said” at New York Times.

  • See “Federal police strike protester with baton, use pepper spray and tear gas outside courthouse in Portland” at Zane Sparling’s at Twitter.

    • Read “‘They just started whaling on me’: Veteran speaks out after video of federal officers beating him at Portland protests goes viral” at The Independent.

  • Read “Presence, tactics of federal agents in Portland, Oregon, prompt questions and criticism” at PBS News Hour.

  • Read “Portland Protests Grow Despite Violent Crackdown from Militarized Federal Agents & Local Police” at The Root.

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

  • Read “Portland and the Paramilitarization of the Border Patrol” at Cato Institute.

  • Read “Portland’s Wall of Moms Joined by Dads With Leaf Blowers Against Trump’s Police” at Truthout.

  • Read “In Portland, A 'Wall Of Moms' And Leaf Blowers Against Tear Gas” at NPR.

    • Read “‘What choice do we have?’: Portland’s ‘Wall of Moms’ faces off with federal officers at tense protests’.

    • Read “'Wall Of Moms' Organizer Calls On Fellow Suburban Mothers, People In Power To Fight For Black Lives” at WBUR.

  • Read “Portland’s Pretext: Barr’s Long History Manipulating Law to Put Federal Forces on U.S. Streets” at Just Security.

  • Read “U.S. Homeland Security confirms three units sent paramilitary officers to Portland” at Reuters

  • See Sergio Olmos’ Tweet: “It appears that federal officers, during dispersal, pepper sprayed the medical supplies in the tents”

    • Read “Portland Federal Agents Accused of War Crimes for Destroying Medical Supplies” at Newsweek.

  • Read “A Photographer Says He's Traumatized By What He's Captured In Portland’ at Buzzfeed News. "Last night was the most horrifying thing I have ever experienced in my life."

  • Read “Oregon officials decry arrests by federal agents in Portland” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Homeland Security sending 150 agents to Chicago this week” at The Hill.

  • Read “Activists, officials slam Chicago police for alleged brutality in Columbus statue standoff” at Chicago Sun Times.

Read “I don't need invitations': Homeland Security chief says he has authority to deploy more feds to shut down protests across the US” at Business Insider.

Read Barr calls reaction to George Floyd's death 'extreme' at CNN.

Read ‘Men Charged With Murder Of Ahmaud Arbery Plead Not Guilty” at NPR.

Read “Police arrest 4, including organizers, at downtown Phoenix protest” at AZ Central.

Read “St. Louis couple charged for pulling, waving guns at protest” at Associated Press.

Read “In emerging role, chaplains are providing spiritual care for activists in movements across the nation” at Religion News Service.

Read “Trump Is the Problem. The Organizational Chart Doesn’t Matter. Federal agents are confronting protesters in Portland because voters chose a president with authoritarian instincts” at The Atlantic.

This Week With The Police:

Read “The Honolulu Cop Who Forced a Homeless Man to Lick a Urinal Is Going to Prison” at Vice.

Read “Why We Should Be Alarmed That Israeli Forces And U.S. Police Are Training Together” at Common Dreams.

Read “Portland protesters tear gassed as DHS head calls them 'violent'“ at Al Jazeera.

Read “‘They just started whaling on me’: Veteran speaks out after video of federal officers beating him at Portland protests goes viral” at The Independent.

Read “DPS trooper who killed Dion Johnson previously reprimanded for using stun gun on puppy, threatening ex-partner” at AZ Central.

Read “Pennsylvania Approves Police Reform Bill Requiring Employment Records From Officers Seeking New Jobs” at The Root.

Read “The Invention Of The Police” at The New Yorker.

Read “Phoenix police fired an officer charged with sexually assaulting handcuffed woman” at AZ Central.

Education and The Learnings:

School Re-opening news:

  • Read “CDC Won't Release School Guidance This Week As Anticipated” at NPR.

  • Read “Health Kim Reynolds Virus Outbreak Iowa General News Iowa governor overrides schools, requires in-person classes” at Associated Press.

  • Read “Kids Get Coronavirus, But Do They Spread It? We'll Find Out When Schools Reopen”

  • Read “Teachers Are Ready To Quit Rather Than Put Their Lives At Risk” at Buzzfeed.

  • Read “Missouri governor’s comments on coronavirus, McCloskeys raise eyebrows” at St. Louis Dispatch. “These kids have got to get back to school.... And if they do get COVID-19, which they will — and they will when they go to school — they’re not going to the hospitals.... They’re going to go home and they’re going to get over it.”

  • Read “Florida teachers union sues DeSantis, Corcoran over schools’ ‘reckless, unsafe reopening’ at Miami Herald.

  • Read “Health care professionals and school board members warn Arizona governor returning to school isn't safe” at CNN.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “We’re Learning More About How COVID Spreads. What You Need to Know Now. Transmission by aerosols helps explain why the virus spreads so much more indoors than it does outside” at The Dispatch.

Read “Georgia's Governor Issues Order Rescinding Local Mask Mandates” at NPR.

Read “Tom Hanks Decals Are Popping Up in Toronto to Mark Your Social Distancing” at Exclaim.

Read “Woman who refused to wear mask wants half of $100,000 donated to Starbucks barista” at NBC4I.

Read “Banner Health utilizing 1,000 out-of-state workers for coronavirus response” (Arizona).

Read “Studies provide glimpse at efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines from Oxford-AstraZeneca and CanSino” at STAT News.

Read “As cases surge and poll numbers drop, Trump to resume White House coronavirus briefings” at ABC News. "Never been anything like it," he said, calling them "very successful."

Read “India coronavirus: Amarnath pilgrimage cancelled due to Covid-19” at BBC.

Read “Outbreak at Iowa pork plant was larger than state reported” at Associated Press.

Read “'Worse before it gets better.' Trump delivers sober warning in return to coronavirus briefings” at USA Today.

Read “Ohio, Minnesota Governors Issue Statewide Mask Mandates” at Daily Beast.

Read “Coronavirus Has Raged Inside American Prisons At A Higher Rate Than Rest Of Nation” At The Appeal.

Read “US surpasses 4 million reported coronavirus cases as hospitalizations near record” at CNN.

Miscellany Cultural Items:

Read “Queen knights 100-year-old who raised more than $40 million for U.K.'s National Health Service'“ at Axios.

Read “Near and Present Anarchy America’s death tango with state failure” at The Baffler.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Has Cancer Again, Says She Will Remain On The Court” at NPR.

Read ‘Mary Trump Describes Abusive Trump Family Home, Says She Will Vote For Biden” at NPR.

Read “DeSantis and Rubio Brutally Fumble Their Responses to Lewis’ Death” at Rolling Stone.

Read “White House portraits of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush moved from prominent space to rarely used room” at News and Guts.

Read “Pandemic surge damages Trump, boosting Biden's White House bid” at ABC News.

Read ‘Everytown Applauds House Democrats for Including Key Gun Safety Measures in Appropriations Package” at Everytown.

Read “Presidential Nominees Rarely Speak To Muslim Audiences. Biden Did Monday” at NPR.

Read “In unusual arrangement, deputy HHS secretary’s wife has been lobbying the agency on behalf of health care companies” at STAT News.

Read “With No Final Say, Trump Wants To Change Who Counts For Dividing Up Congress' Seats” at NPR.

Read “US accuses China of hacking coronavirus researchers, others” at Al Jazeera.

Read “The Billionaire Behind Efforts to Kill the U.S. Postal Service” at In The Public Interest.

Read “More than two dozen DC Bar members urge disciplinary probe of AG Barr” at The Hill.

Read “Ted Yoho apologizes after reportedly verbally accosting Ocasio-Cortez over stance on unemployment, crime in New York” at CNN. In case you’re wondering, this, fine upstanding Republican who protects “family values” called her "f**king bitch". Watch Ocasio-Cortez’s response here and here and here. “Mr. Yoho mentioned that he has a wife and two daughters. I am two years younger than Mr. Yoho's youngest daughter. I am someone's daughter, too. My father, thankfully, is not alive to see how Mr. Yoho treated his daughter."

Read “White House aware of Russian bounties in 2019” at Associated Press.

Read “President Trump Cancels Jacksonville Component Of Republican National Convention” at NPR.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Two Trump Judges Broke Ethics Rules to Stop Up to 1 Million Floridians From Voting in November” at Slate.

Read 'Rep. Matt Gaetz Had a TV Studio Installed in His Father’s Home With Taxpayer Money and Other Possible Violations” at The Root.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Senators Introduce ‘Save Our Stages Act’ to Support Struggling Venues” at Jambands.

Read “The Stranger-Than-Fiction Secret History of Prog-Rock Icon Rick Wakeman” at Vanity Fair.

Read “Live music won’t return until 2022, Lollapalooza co-founder says” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Gillian Welch Announces Archival Collection, Shares New Songs” at Pitchfork.

Read “Mike Watt says he reunited with Porno For Pyros for first time in 24 years & filmed 4 songs” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Barns, breaks and barebones production: Recording Khruangbin’s Mordechai” at Music Tech.

Read “Laraaji’s music has emphasized stillness and calm for decades. Now the world is trying to get on his level” at Washington Post.

Read ‘US rockers REM to stream documentary of Stirling gigs to mark 21st anniversary” at The Daily Record.

Read “A Music Manager Suggested New Artists Should Only Release Singles and Everyone Is Pissed” at Exclaim.

Read “Why Do So Many People Love The Grateful Dead Now?” at Uproxx. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Genius is often ahead of its time).

  • Read Pitchfork’s “The Grateful Dead: A Guide to Their Essential Live Songs” from 2017.

Read “Pavement joins Bandcamp (all five studio albums streaming)” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Kanye West Says New Album Is Out This Week The follow-up to Jesus Is King and Jesus Is Born arrives July 24” at Pitchfork.

Read “Kim Kardashian West Releases Statement on Kanye’s Mental Health” at Pitchfork.

Read “Burger Records Shuts Down Completely” at Pitchfork. “Following misconduct allegations, the tape label’s plan to rebrand and establish new leadership has reportedly fallen apart.” at Pitchfork.

Read “The Growlers’ keyboardist leaves band following sexual misconduct allegations against other members” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “The Cure say new LP will be their “most intense, saddest” yet…when they finish it” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Lady A Discusses Lady Antebellum Controversy on Desus & Mero” at Pitchfork.

Read “I Don't Want This Sullied by These Foul-mouthed Youngsters": An Interview With Old 97's” at Pop Matters.

Read “Howe Gelb :: Surrounded By Sound And Washed In Color” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Movies/TV/Etc.:

Browse “Every Episode of Psych, Ranked Eight seasons, two movies, and a whole bunch of cases” at Vulture.

Read “How Psych Evolved Through the Character of Carlton Lassiter” at Den of Geek.

Read “Ukraine President Ends Hostage Situation by Endorsing Joaquin Phoenix Film” at The Guardian.

Read “Blocked Busters: Disney Pushes 17 Movie Release Dates” at NPR.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Colson Whitehead Awarded 2020 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction” at Publisher’s Weekly.

Science/Animals/Technology/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Something Weird Happened to Men 7,000 Years Ago, And We Finally Know Why” at Science Alert.

Food Cultures:

Read “To Evade Pre-Prohibition Drinking Laws, New Yorkers Created the World’s Worst Sandwich” at Atlas Obscura. “It was everywhere at the turn of the 20th century. It was also inedible.”

Local:

Read “Phoenix May Use CARES Act Funds to Keep Homeless People Out of Alleys” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Florida coronavirus cases surge for fifth day as Trump pledges outbreak will be under control” at Reuters.

The Weekly Town Crier (07/17/20)

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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 (07/03/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (07/03/20).





Read ‘Milton Glaser, Master Designer of ‘I ♥ NY’ Logo, Is Dead at 91” at New York Times.

Read “Marc Orleans of Sunburned Hand of the Man Has Died” at Pitchfork.

Read “Carl Reiner, longtime comedy legend, dies at 98” at CNN.

Read “Controversy and Coronavirus Keep Church Plants Out of Schools” at Christianity Today.

Read “I’m Not Hateful, You Are Judge me? You don’t even know me!” by David French at The Dispatch.

Read “Israel Orders Christian TV Channel to Stop Broadcasting GOD TV argues application for new Shelanu channel in Hebrew was forthright, decries decision as political” at Christianity Today.

Read “This is a moment of reckoning on race for White Christians” at CNN.

Read “Will International Religious Freedom Survive the Trump Administration? The president’s executive order elevates its priority in US foreign policy. Nine experts assess the strategy’s longevity” at Christianity Today.

Read “White Supremacist Ideas Have Historical Roots In U.S. Christianity” at NPR.

Read “Black Lives Matter in the Bible From Genesis to Revelation, racism runs counter to everything Scripture teaches” at Christianity Today.

Read “White, Black, and Blue: Christians Disagree Over Policing Black Christians overwhelmingly say police treatment is biased against them. Why don’t white evangelicals believe them?” at Christianity Today.

Read “87 Percent of Practicing Christians See the U.S. as a Leader to the World” at Barna.

Read “Supreme Court Dismisses State Ban on Public Funding for Religious Schools” at Christianity Today.

  • Read “Taxpayers Shouldn’t Have to Fund Religious Education: How Today’s Supreme Court Decision Further Erodes the Separation of Church and State” at ACLU.

Read “Pastors Worry About Patriotism But Still Favor July 4th Displays”at Facts and Trends. “53% of Protestant pastors say their congregation sometimes seems to love America more than God.”

  • Read Mark Noll on “Christian Patriotism” for Christianity Today in 1986. “Is This Land God’s Land?”

Read “Researcher: Most Evangelicals Support Women in Church Leadership” at Christianity Today.

Read “Why Evangelicals Support Trump—and Why They Shouldn’t Worry about ‘Christianophobia’ is understandable. But Trump is no true ally—and his immorality, race-baiting, and sexism give his Christian supporters a bad name” at The Bulwark.

Learn about “The Sand Creek Massacre: When U.S. Forces Slaughtered As Many As 200 Unsuspecting Native Americans” at All That’s Interesting.

Read “CBP Is Using Pandemic As Cover For Deportations, Advocates Say” at Sojourners.

Read “Trump Retweets Video Of Apparent Supporter Saying 'White Power' at NPR.

  • Read “'Indefensible': Trump slammed for sharing video where supporter yells 'white power' at protesters” at AZ Central.

  • Read “It Took 3 Hours to Delete the President’s ‘White Power’ Tweet Because No One Could Reach Him. He Was Out Golfing...During a Pandemic” at The Root.

  • Browse “How Trump talks about race” at PBS.

  • Read “Black Lives Matter mural in front of Trump Tower a 'symbol of hate,' Trump tweets” at 12 News.

Read “US soldier accused of sending information to neo-Nazi group as part of plot to attack his unit” at The Hill.

Read “Disguised Sacha Baron Cohen Crashes Far-Right Rally With “Inject Obama With The Wuhan Flu” Sing-Along” at Stereogum.

Read “Hair weaves from Chinese prison camps seized” at AP.

Read “3 States Abruptly Make Protesting Fossil Fuel Pipelines a Felony” at Green Matters.

Read “We have been through this before.’ Why anti-Asian hate crimes are rising amid coronavirus” at PBS News Hour.

  • Read “Asian American churches hold march through Chinatown, calling for unity with Black communities” at Chicago Sun Times.

Read “Why We Never Talk About Black-on-Black Crime: An Answer to White America’s Most Pressing Question” at The Root.

Read “Mike Pence explains why he refuses to say "Black lives matter" at Axios. “Vice President Mike Pence told CBS that he won't say the words "Black lives matter" because he believes the leadership of the BLM movement is pushing a "radical-left agenda."

  • Read "Trump: Painting 'Black Lives Matter' On 5th Avenue Would Be 'Symbol Of Hate' at NPR.

  • Read “'Black Lives Matter' to be painted on NBA courts” at 5 News Online.

George Floyd:

  • Read “New Jersey Corrections Officer Seen Mocking George Floyd's Death on Track to be Fired” at The Root.

Elijah McClain:

  • Read “Cops in Riot Gear Stormed a Violin Vigil for Elijah McClain” at The Cut.

  • Read “Colorado Police Officers Under Investigation For Photos At Elijah McClain Memorial” at NPR.

This Week In Protest News:

  • Read “On Stonewall anniversary, the NYPD launched a brutal unprovoked attack on LGBTQ people As Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted about honoring Stonewall, the NYPD was unleashing pepper spray on LGBTQ people dancing in celebration” at LGBTQ Nation.

  • Read “Couple points guns at protesters marching to call for St. Louis mayor to resign” at 12 News.

  • Read “Troops were issued bayonets in DC unrest” at Associated Press.

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

  • Read “Native Americans protesting Trump July 3 trip to Mount Rushmore Many Indigenous American activists say the Rushmore memorial is as reprehensible as the many Confederate monuments being toppled around the nation” at 12 News.

  • Read “Meet The Confederados, The Confederate Loyalists Who Fled To Brazil After The Civil War” at All That’s Interesting.

  • Read “Mississippi lawmakers vote to remove rebel emblem from flag” at Fox 4 News.

  • Read “Mississippi governor signs bill into law removing Confederate symbol from state flag” at NBC News.

  • Read “Trump’s Message to African-Americans Unhappy With Monuments to Slave Owners: ‘You Have to Learn’ History” at Media-Ite.

  • Read “Boston to remove statue of slave kneeling before Lincoln” at Associated Press.

  • Read “Homeland Security sets up task force to protect monuments, statues” at 12 News.

  • Read “President Trump says he'll veto defense bill to keep Confederate base names” at 12 News.

  • Read “Columbus, Ohio, Takes Down Statue Of Christopher Columbus” at NPR

  • Read “Some Arizona Veterans Call On Ducey To Remove Confederate Monument.”

Read “Read "Three Words. 70 Cases. The Tragic History of ‘I Can’t Breathe.’ The deaths of Eric Garner in New York and George Floyd in Minnesota created national outrage over the use of deadly police restraints at New York Times.

This Week With The Police:

  • Read “House approves sweeping police reform package that would ban chokeholds, end qualified immunity after George Floyd death at AZ Central.

  • Read "City Council OKs charter amendment to remove Minneapolis Police Department. “The Minneapolis City Council on Friday unanimously approved a proposed amendment would remove requirements for the city to maintain a police department from the city’s charter. The 12-0 vote is step toward putting the issue in front of Minneapolis voters on the November ballot.”

  • Read “Miami Cop Arrested And Charged After Tasing A Pregnant Woman On Her Stomach And Lying On The Police Report” at Blavity.

  • Read/Watch “How the Philadelphia Police Tear-Gassed a Group of Trapped Protesters” at New York Times.

  • Read “Landlords Use Police to Stop Tenants From Organizing” at Jacobin Magazine.

  • Read “Police Unions: What to Know and Why They Don’t Belong in the Labor Movement” at Teen Vogue.

  • Watch “How Cop Shows Lie to You | The Daily Social Distancing Show” by Trevor Noah at Youtube.

  • Read “Two San Jose School Districts End Contracts with Local Police” at San Jose Inside.

  • Read “ACLU of Oregon files class-action suit against PPB, city” at KOIN.

  • Read “Philadelphia officials announce moratorium on tear gas following NYT investigation” at The Hill.

  • See an interactive map of police violence in the United States. So far, “Police have killed 576 people in 2020.”

  • Read “Hoover police officer fired over Facebook photo of protester in crosshairs” at Al.com

  • Read “‘We are just gonna go out and start slaughtering them’: Three cops fired after racist talk of killing black residents” at Washington Post.

  • Read “L.A. council advances plan to replace LAPD officers with social workers on non-violent police calls” at KTLA.

  • Read “L.A. cuts LAPD spending, taking police staffing to its lowest level in 12 years” at Los Angeles Times.

  • Read “Congress Urged to Repeal Program That Transfers 'Weapons of War' to Local Police” at Common Dreams.

Read “NFL to play Black anthem before national anthem” at Associated Press.

Read “Was It All for This? The Failure of the Conservative Legal Movement” at The Public Discourse.

  • Read “Supreme Court strikes down restrictive Louisiana abortion law that would have closed clinics” at Washington Post.

  • Visit “The Louisiana Clinic At The Center Of Abortion Case Before Supreme Court” with NPR.

  • Read “Have Pro-Lifers Lost the Supreme Court Fight? What's ahead for abortion opponents after another frustrating decision” at Christianity Today.

Read ““Reality” is constructed by your brain. Here’s what that means, and why it matters. What the science of visual illusions can teach us about our polarized world” at Vox.

Weekly Coronavirus Roundup

  • Read “Scottsdale nightclub Riot House charged for failing to enforce social distancing, mask requirements Several other Old Town Scottsdale businesses are under investigation and may be charged for similar violations, a Scottsdale police spokesman said” at AZ Central.

  • Read “How Arizona ‘lost control of the epidemic’” at Washington Post.

    • Read “Inside the COVID-19 ICU: Valley nurses share what they see as cases rise in Arizona” at 12 News.

    • Read “Tempe mayor-elect tests positive for coronavirus” at 12 News.

  • Read “If president, Biden would make Americans wear face coverings in public during pandemic The presumptive Democratic nominee's comments came amid a surge of coronavirus cases in several states” at 12 News.

  • Read “CDC says coronavirus cases in U.S. may be 10 times higher than reported” at MSNBC.

  • Read “Judge Orders ICE To Free Detained Immigrant Children Because Of COVID-19” at NPR.

  • Read “In Mexico City, the Coronavirus Is Bringing Back Aztec-Era ‘Floating Gardens’” at Atlas Obscura.

  • Read “Parties — Not Protests — Are Causing Spikes In Coronavirus” at NPR.

    • Read “Black Lives Matter protests have not led to a spike in coronavirus cases, research says’ at CNN.

    • Read “Little Evidence That George Floyd Protests Spread Coronavirus in U.S., Experts Say” at ABC7.

    • Read “Why researchers say protests have not contributed to rise in COVID-19 cases” at 12 News.

  • Read “Workers removed thousands of social distancing stickers before Trump’s Tulsa rally, according to video and a person familiar with the set-up” at Washington Post.

  • Read “Revived Mount Rushmore Fireworks Will Feature Trump But No Social Distancing” at NPR.

  • Read “This chart shows the link between restaurant spending and new cases of coronavirus” at CNBC.

  • Read “Tennessee Concert Attracts Packed Crowd With No Masks Or Social Distancing” at Stereogum.

    • Read “Festival organizer defends packed, maskless crowd at Chris Janson show” at Brooklyn Vegan.

    • Read “The Pandemic Is Still Killing People. Why Is Country Music Putting on Concerts?” at Rolling Stone.

    • Read “Chase Rice responds to criticism over his TN show with packed, maskless crowd” at Brooklyn Vegan.

    • Read “Jason Isbell Blasts Chase Rice & Other “Country Stars”: “Some Are So Broke They’ve Decided To Do Shows This Weekend” at Whiskey Riff.

    • Read “Vanilla Ice Cancels 4th of July Concert: “I Didn’t Know the Numbers Were So Crazy!” at Consequence of Sound.

  • Read “Global coronavirus death toll exceeds 500,000” at Axios.

  • Read “Fake News and the Politicization Of Science Could Cost Lives” at Sojourners.

  • Read “U.S. Pediatricians Call For In-Person School This Fall” at NPR.

  • Read “Poll: 30% of Americans say they trust Trump to get facts right on coronavirus” at Axios.

  • Read “Kansas becomes latest state to make wearing masks in public mandatory” at Axios.

  • Read “Sen. McConnell Says Americans Must Have 'No Stigma' In Wearing Face Masks” at NPR.

  • Read “Fauci warns U.S. could see 100,000 new coronavirus cases per day” at Axios.

  • Read “Goldman Sachs says a national mask mandate could slash infections and save economy from a 5% hit” at CNBC.

  • Read “South Dakota governor: "We will not be social distancing" at July 3 event with Trump” at Axios. "We will have a large event on July 3. We told those folks that have concerns that they can stay home, but those who want to come and join us, we'll be giving out free face masks, if they choose to wear one. But we won't be social distancing."

  • Read “European Union formally bars U.S. travelers due to coronavirus threat” at MSNBC.

  • Read “CDC expert warns U.S. has "way too much virus" to contain outbreak” at Axios.

  • Read “Model Predicts Tens of Thousands of Lives Could be Saved if Almost Everyone Uses Masks” at US News.

  • Read “Young people of color more likely to be hospitalized for coronavirus” at Axios.

  • Read “Florida is "not going back" on reopening, governor says” at Axios.

  • Read “Coronavirus ‘Incarnates’ Biblical Teachings in French Evangelical Leader President of CNEF and COVID-19 survivor explains his renewed confidence to defend the faith and French evangelical churches, as well as why his mother now calls him “Lazarus” at Christianity Today.

  • Read “A's join Giants and offer MLB fans option to buy cardboard cutouts of themselves for empty stadiums” at CBS Sports.

  • Read “Army Halts SERE Course after 90 Students Test Positive for Coronavirus” at Military.

  • Read “The US Public Paid to Develop This COVID-19 Drug. It Will Cost $3,000 a Dose” at Jacobin Magazine.

  • Read “This fall, going back to school will be a luxury few families can afford” at The Gazette.

  • Read “Texas governor mandates face masks in public spaces” at Axios.

  • Read “White House to 'seriously consider' second stimulus check, Treasury Secretary says” at 12 News.

  • Read “The gift of nurturing small things during isolation” at Christian Century.

  • Read “More than 40 Bay Area school principals exposed to coronavirus during in-person meeting” at San Fransisco Chronicle.

  • Read “Closing bars to stop coronavirus spread is backed by science” at Associated Press.

Read “Attorney General Barr Says DOJ Acts Independent Of Trump's Interests” at NPR.

Read “Atlanta Hawks Arena To Host Voting Site, Team Challenges Rest Of NBA To Follow” at NPR.

Read “Oklahoma Votes For Medicaid Expansion Over Objections Of Republican State Leaders” at NPR.

Read “Judges rule Donald Trump CANNOT use $2.5 billion in military cash to build his border wall - days after he signed a new section” at Daily Mail.

  • Read “Appeals court rules funding for Trump border wall construction ‘unlawful’” at NBC News.

Read “Trump’s Latest Comments About Blacks Thanking Him for His ‘Law and Order’ Approach Is Right Out of the Slave Master’s Playbook” at The Root.

Read “Trump renews vow on preexisting conditions after urging court to overturn ObamaCare” at The HIll.

Read “Spies and Commandos Warned Months Ago of Russian Bounties on U.S. Troops The recovery of large amounts of American cash at a Taliban outpost in Afghanistan helped tip off U.S. officials” “Spies and Commandos Warned Months Ago of Russian Bounties on U.S. Troops The recovery of large amounts of American cash at a Taliban outpost in Afghanistan helped tip off U.S. officials” New York Times

  • Read “Russian spy unit paid Taliban to attack US troops, US intelligence says It couldn’t be determined whether Russian bounties paid to Taliban fighters resulted in any American combat deaths in Afghanistan” at Fox News.

  • Read “Top Republican demands answers from White House over reports of Russian bounties” at Axios.

  • Read “GOP senator demands accountability over reports of Russian bounties on U.S. troops” at Axios.

  • Read “White House briefs Republicans on Russian bounties Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are calling for all lawmakers to be briefed, not just GOP members” at Politico.

  • Read “AP sources: White House aware of Russian bounties in 2019” at Associated Press.

  • Read "President Trump tweets that Russia bounty allegations are 'Fake News'“ at 12 News.

  • Read “Top Democrat introduces amendment to sanction Putin for alleged Russian bounties” at News Break.

Read “Russians back reforms that could let Putin rule through 2036, officials say” at Axios.

Read “Veterans Group Accuses Donald Trump Of Acting Like A Traitor” at News and Guts.

Read “House approves statehood for DC in 232-180 vote” at The Hill.

Read “Tribes, environmentalists sue to stop rollback of Clean Water Act protections” at AZ Central.

Read “r/The_Donald banned from Reddit as Trump suspended from Twitch” at Brooklyn Vegan.

  • Read “Reddit Bans The_Donald, Forum Of Nearly 800,000 Trump Fans, Over Abusive Posts” at NPR.

Read “From pandering to Putin to abusing allies and ignoring his own advisers, Trump’s phone calls alarm US officials” at CNN.

Read “Amy McGrath wins Kentucky Democratic Senate primary” at Axios.

Read “Colorado Supreme Court upholds state’s ban on large-capacity gun magazines State’s prohibition on magazines that hold more than 15 rounds adopted after Aurora theater shooting” at Denver Post.

Read “Biden calls on Trump to wear a mask, limit rallies amid coronavirus surge” at Axios. "The crisis is real and it’s surging, Mr. President. America knows that this crisis isn’t behind us, even if you don’t."

  • Read “Hundreds Of Former Bush Officials Unite To Endorse Joe Biden” at NPR.

  • Read “Biden Faces Pressure To Pick A Black Running Mate. But Warren Remains A Top Contender” at NPR.

Read “McConnell warns Democrats not to change filibuster rule” at The Hill.

Read “Judge temporarily blocks publication of tell-all book by Trump's niece” at Axios.

Read “AOC’s brand was groundbreaking. Now it’s inspiring copycats around the world” at Fast Company.

Read “GOP Candidates Open To QAnon Conspiracy Theory Advance In Congressional Races” at NPR.

Read “A 10% cut to the US military budget would help support struggling American” by Bernie Sanders at The Guardian.

Read “Wave Of Young Judges Pushed By McConnell Will Be 'Ruling For Decades To Come' at NPR.

Read “Starbucks stops advertising on ALL social media while Pepsi joins the growing list of companies boycotting Facebook as pressure grows on sites to crack down on 'hate speech'“ at Daily Mail.

Read “Zuckerberg Loses $7 Billion as Firms Boycott Facebook Ads” at Bloomberg.

  • Read “Mark Zuckerberg reportedly said Facebook is 'not gonna change' in response to a boycott by more than 500 advertisers over the company's hate-speech policies” at Business Insider.

Read “The Indebted Dead Tracing the history of the Grateful Dead folktale and the evolving obligations of being alive” at Lapham’s Quarterly.

Read “The cost of giving birth in America is now more than an average month’s salary” at Motherly.

Half-year-end Half-lists:

  • Browse “The 33 Best Albums of 2020 So Far” at Treble.

  • Browse “The Best Of 2020 – Halftime Report A list of 72 Albums we've enjoyed from January to June” at Uncut.

  • Browse “Exclaim!'s 33 Best Albums of 2020 So Far”.

  • Browse “NPR Music's 25 Favorite Albums Of 2020 (So Far)” at NPR.

  • Browse “Post-Trash's Best of 2020: A Mid-Year Report”.

  • Browse “The 50 Best Albums of 2020 So Far” at PopMatters.

Read “Trey Anastasio on the Power of Live” at Relix.

Read “Dean Wareham interviews Pete Kember, aka Sonic Boom The Luna/Galaxie 500 singer chats with his old friend, Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3 and Spectrum” at Talk House.

Read “Sufjan Stevens Announces New Solo Album 'The Ascension'“ at NPR.

Read “New True Crime Podcast to Explore Deaths and Disappearances of Deadheads” at Jambands.

Read “With New Albums, Bob Dylan, Neil Young And Willie Nelson Are As Relevant As Ever” at NPR.

Read “Rolling Stones Threaten Trump With Lawsuit Over Rally Music “This could be the last time Trump uses any Jagger/ Richards songs on his campaigns,” band’s rep says” at Rolling Stone.

Browse “The 50 Greatest Bassists of All Time From funk masters to prog prodigies and beyond, we count down the players who have shaped our idea of the low-end theory” at Rolling Stone.

Browse “40 Years of Experimental Dub Label On-U Sound Records: Nine Essential LPs” at Bandcamp.

Read “John Prine Named Illinois’ First Honorary Poet Laureate” at PItchfork.

Read ‘Roland and Korg fined £5.5 million” for price fixing at Wire.

Read “Back-stabbing, bullying, busking: how The Clash disintegrated” at Louder Sound.

Read “One Eleven Heavy interview” at It’s Psychedelic, Baby. “Transatlantic psychedelic rock resurrecting the joyful, altered reminiscence of the first wave of Cosmic American Music.

Read “Radio Is Quietly Scrubbing the Word ‘Urban,’ Sources Say Insiders say radio giant iHeartMedia and radio analytics company Mediabase are poised to remove the word, which has been controversial in industry-wide discussions around systemic racism” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Ford-Wyoming Drive-In was top-grossing movie theater in nation over weekend” at Freep.

Read “Beavis and Butt-Head Are Returning With New Episodes Mike Judge is resurrecting his beloved Gen X cartoon as part of a new deal with Comedy Central” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Drawing on Walls: An Wondrous Illustrated Homage to Keith Haring, His Irrepressible Art of Hope, and His Beautiful Bond with Children” at Brain Pickings.

Read “The Origins of Warhol’s Brillo Boxes” at Warholiana.

Browse “5 Best Routes for a Cross-Country Road Trip” at The Discoverer.

Read “Arizona reps. Debbie Lesko, Paul Gosar push for Peoria to be home base of Space Force” at 12 News.

The Weekly Town Crier (06/26/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (06/26/20).

Read “Complementarians in Closed Rooms Aimee Byrd, Beth Moore, and private words that reveal a pressing problem” at Christianity Today. “When we see the words of some complementarians outed from a Facebook group, it reminds us we all have a responsibility to root out misogyny.” (EDITOR’S NOTE: What is the difference between Complementarianism and Patriarchy?)

Read “Leaving Liberty After a decade of declining black enrollment on campus, a tweet set off several recent departures among black students and staff” at Christianity Today.

  • Read “I Suppressed So Much of My Humanity in Being Here” What it’s like to be black at Liberty University” at Slate.

Read “Why are so many white Christians suddenly standing up for racial justice? It might help that our pews aren’t available to sit in and pray” at Christian Century.

Read “Dozens of Christian College Faculty Eliminated in Spring Budget Cuts” at Christianity Today.

Read “In an interview with EWTN, Trump hails ‘tremendous letter of support from the Catholic Church’” at America Magazine.

Read “The ‘Over There’ Era of Missions Is Over Nowadays, the Western church needs to send ambassadors to its own culture” at Christianity Today.

Read “We reversed Trump’s immigration policy once. We’re back to fight ‘Remain in Mexico.’ at Religion News Service.

Read “Black Practicing Christians Are Twice as Likely as Their White Peers to See a Race Problem” at Barna.

Read “Brazil’s massive replica of the Temple of Solomon The Pentecostals of the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus have a mighty vision” at Christian Central.

Read “Did Race and Racism Exist in the Middle Ages?” at Not Even Past.

Read “Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben deserve retirement. They're racist myths of happy Black servitude. The mascots were intended to let white consumers indulge in a fantasy of enslaved people as submissive, self-effacing, loyal and contentedly pacified” at NBC News.

Read “Fact check: Father of modern gynecology performed experiments on enslaved Black women” at USA Today.

Read “Who Wrote ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’? Inside The Little-Known True Story” at All That’s Interesting.

  • Read “Tulsa Athletic to no longer play “The Star-Spangled Banner” at The Black Wall Street Times. “Tulsa Athletic, an American soccer team based in Tulsa and part of the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL), announces the club will no longer play the “The Star-Spangled Banner” and will play a new song of that's more inclusive and representative of today's America, “This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie, at all home matches.”

  • Read “Pro Softball Players Quit After Manager Brags To Trump About Her Team Standing For The National Anthem” at PercoLately.

Read “Why some people are willing to challenge behavior they see as wrong despite personal risk” at PBS. “Psychologists describe those who are willing to defend their principles in the face of potentially negative social consequences such as disapproval, ostracism and career setbacks as “moral rebels.”

Read “Never Forget, America’s Mass Lynching: 237 Black Sharecroppers Were Murdered In Arkansas” at Black Westchester.

Read “'World should know what is happening' to children in ICE detention: Mother testifies "It is painful for me to relive this experience and remember that suffering." at ABC News.

Read “We still don’t know just how much was lost in the Tulsa massacre of 1921” at QZ.

Read “The History of Racism Is Not Past” at Sojourners.

Read “'Black Lives Matter' is About More than the Police” at ACLU.

Read “A Call For Reparations: How America Might Narrow The Racial Wealth Gap” at NPR.

Juneteenth:

  • Read “Why Juneteenth is a holiday every American should celebrate” at Denison Forum.

  • Read “On Juneteenth, look to the biblical prophets and the Black Lives Matter movement” at America Magazine.

  • Read “Juneteenth and the Meaning of Freedom Emancipation is a marker of progress for white Americans, not black ones” at New Yorker.

  • Read “Honoring the 'Mother of Juneteenth' in Portland, Clara Peoples” at KGW.

  • Read “Senators propose bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday Juneteenth is currently recognized by 47 states and the District of Columbia as a state holiday or observance” at NBC News.

Read “How Did We Get Here? 163 years of The Atlantic’s writing on race and racism in America” at The Atlantic.

Read/Listen to “'An Extraordinary Moment': Angela Davis Says Protests Recognize Long Overdue Anti-Racist Work” at WBUR.

Read “Black Lives Matter is inspiring demonstrations all over Latin America” at America Magazine.

Read “13 Microaggressions Black People Deal With All The Time” at Huff Post.

Read “Bubba Wallace responds after FBI says noose found in stall there as early as Oct. 2019” at 12 News. “"The image that I have, that I have seen hanging from my garage is not a garage pull," Bubba Wallace said in an interview with CNN. "From the evidence that we have, that I have, it's a straight-up noose."

Read “High court justices press attorneys over high-capacity magazine ban” at VT Digger.

Read “Mark Taylor: Black men are hanging themselves to start ‘civil war’ that will stop Trump’s reelection” at Dead State.

Read “Antisemitic incidents in Colorado continue to rise as attacks against American Jews reach all-time highs, new report shows” at MSN.

Read “Supreme Court blocks Trump from ending DACA in big win for Dreamers” at NBC News.

Read “NASA names headquarters after first Black female engineer Mary W. Jackson” at Axios.

Read “The US Government Kills Black People with Impunity Both at Home and Abroad” at The Nation.

Read “U.S. Soldier Charged With Plotting to Let Neo-Nazis Ambush Read “NASA names headquarters after first Black female engineer Mary W. JacksonHis Army Unit” at Time.

Read “Tennessee Tennessee Republicans approve six-week abortion ban in surprise vote Ban beginning at six weeks, which is before most women know they are pregnant, is blatantly unconstitutional” at The Guardian.

Read “Looking for black-owned restaurants in Arizona? Here are more than 50 around metro Phoenix” at AZ Central.

Read “What We Know About the Killing of Elijah McClain” at The Cut.

Ahmaud Arbery:

  • Read “Ahmaud Arbery murder suspects indicted on murder charges” at Axios.

George Floyd:

  • Read “Opinion Why Did Cup Foods Call the Cops on George Floyd?” at New York Times.

  • Read "Scottsdale Councilman Apologizes to George Floyd's Family for Mocking 'I Can't Breathe' at Phoenix New Times.

Breonna Taylor:

  • Read “One of the officers involved in the shooting of Breonna Taylor is being fired, Louisville mayor says Interim Police Chief Robert Schroeder calls actions of Brett Hankison a "shock to the conscience" at Salon.

  • Read “Mayor Fischer announces initiation of termination procedures against LMPD Officer Brett Hankison” at LouisvilleKY.gov.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments):

  • Read “SEC tells Mississippi it has to change its flag, or risk losing host rights for championship events” at CBS News.

  • Read “Mayor Fischer announces initiation of termination procedures against LMPD Officer Brett Hankison” at LouisvilleKY.gov.

  • Read/Listen to “Confederate Monuments Continue To Come Down In Racial Justice Protests” at WBUR.

  • Read “Washington, D.C.'s only Confederate statue sacked during protest” at Axios.

  • Read “Confederate Speaker Portraits To Be Removed From The U.S. Capitol On Juneteenth” at NPR.

  • Read “President Trump tries to tie statue destruction to Democrats” at 12 News.

    • Read “President Trump says 'learn from history' instead of removing statues President Trump spoke out after an attempt Monday night to bring down a statue near the White House of Andrew Jackson, one of Trump's favorite presidents” at 12 News.

    • Read “President Trump threatens anyone destroying statues could face 10 years in prison” at 12 News. “President Trump said he's 'authorized' the arrest of anyone 'who vandalizes or destroys' monuments or statues.”

      • Read "Twitter flags ANOTHER Donald Trump tweet for 'abusive language' after he threatened protesters trying to topple Andrew Jackson statute outside the White House with 'serious force' at The Daily Mail.

  • Read “'I did the right thing:' Man arrested on suspicion of painting Arizona Confederate memorial speaks out” at AZ Central.

  • Read “We need to do more than topple (some) statues” at America Magazine.

  • Read “Miss. Baptists ask for removal of Confederate symbol from state flag” at Kentucky Today.

    • Read “Walmart bans Mississippi state flag due to Confederate symbol” at Axios.

  • Read “Minnesotans Petition To Replace St. Paul’s Columbus Statue With A Prince Monument” at Live For Live Music.

  • Read “Slavery advocate’s statue removed in South Carolina” at PBS News Hour.

  • Read “Dixie Chicks Change Name to The Chicks” at Pitchfork.

This Week in Protest News:

  • Read “Armed Vigilantes Antagonizing Protestors Have Received A Warm Reception From Police” at The Intercept.

  • Read “Phoenix church leads 'White Silence is Violence' march” at 12 News.

  • Read “Over 3,500 people take part in Tokyo’s first official Black Lives Matter march” at Time Out.

  • Read “Police Turned Richmond, Virginia Into a War Zone Last Night” at Vice.

  • Read “Chicago Police Illegally Denied Protesters Right To Attorney, Phone Call, Top Public Defender Says” at Block Club Chicago.

  • Read “Police shoot flash-bang grenades, pepper balls at protesters outside Phoenix Trump rally” at AZ Central.

This Week With the Police:

  • Read “NYC's 1975 Nightmarish Cop Propaganda Pamphlet” at Cracked.

  • Read “Nextdoor Ends Its Program for Forwarding Suspicions to Police” at Bloomberg. “Forward to Police,” one of several Nextdoor programs to strengthen law enforcement relations, has been criticized for elevating racial profiling.

  • Read “Hundreds of Police Officers Belong to Racist Facebook Groups” at The Root.

  • Read “The ‘Warrior Cop’ Is a Toxic Mentality. And a Lucrative Industry. Police are paying firms that preach extreme vigilance and deadly force.” at The Trace.

  • Read “Why Are Cops Putting Kids in Cuffs? Federal funding, zero tolerance, and lack of choice encourage the creeping criminalization of student misbehavior” at Reason.

  • Read “Shake Shack, "poisoned" cops, and how the press falls for police propaganda Break the dependence on police information” at Press Run.

  • Read “APA Urges Closer Partnerships Between Police, Behavioral Experts To Stem Racial Incidents” at American Psychological Association.

  • Read “Six lessons for police reform from the Catholic Church" at America Magazine.

  • Read “Who caused the violence at protests? It wasn’t antifa’ at Washington Post.

  • Read “Lawmakers in New Mexico back mandatory police body cameras” at 12 News.

  • Read “Beyond Reform The Senate stalls out before doing anything about police abuse.” at Slate.

  • Read “Above the Law: The Data Are In on Police, Killing, and Race” at The Public Discourse.

  • Read “Minneapolis Council members draft charter amendment to replace existing police department” at Minneapolis Reformer.

  • Read “National Teachers Union Wants Police Out Of Schools” at Cap Con.

  • Read “Should cops who shoot someone be tested for drugs and alcohol? Metro Council may demand it” at Louisville Courier-Journal.

  • Read “Demilitarization of Police Means Disrupting the Army-to-Police Pipeline” at Jacobin Magazine.

  • Read “Democrats Vow To Block GOP Police Reform Bill Unless Republicans Agree To Negotiate” at NPR.

  • Read “Florida police caught using mug shots of black men for target practice” at MSNBC.

  • Read “Anonymous digs up vast tranche of U.S. police documents” at Axios.

  • Read “The urgent need for deep changes in American policing Are the police meant to protect people? Or to fight them?” at Christian Century.

  • Read “How the Phoenix Police Department Spends Its $745 Million Budget. “The city wants to give the force an additional $24 million. But the department is still failing to solve crimes, and officers have shot 212 people between 2011 and 2018, killing about half” at The Appeal.

Read “Wrongfully Arrested Because Face Recognition Can’t Tell Black People Apart” at ACLU.

Read “Minneapolis Park Board declares parks are ‘refuge’ for homeless” at Minnesota Reformer.

Read “Brett Favre says Colin Kaepernick will be considered a hero like Pat Tillman” at TMZ.

Read “Boston Lawmakers Vote To Ban Use Of Facial Recognition Technology By The City” at NPR.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup

  • Read “Apple Closes Retail Stores in Four States as Coronavirus Cases Rise Apple said it would close stores near Naples, Fla; Charlotte, N.C.; in Greenville, S.C.; and in Arizona” at Wall Street Journal.

  • Read “Ducey will let Arizona cities decide on mandating mask wearing, announces new rules for businesses” at AZ Central.

  • Read “Phoenix will require masks starting Saturday. Refusing to wear a face covering could bring a $250 fine” at AZ Central.

  • Read “The Karens Are Giving Us a Hard Time Now” A waiter at a reopened restaurant explains how dining works in a pandemic” at Slate.

  • Read “Maricopa County sends mandate to every resident in the county: Wear a mask no matter what city, town or area you live in” at AZ Central.

  • Read “Treasury to release names of some businesses that received PPP loans” at Axios.

  • Read “Yes, Wearing Masks Helps. Here's Why” at NPR.

  • Read “Six Trump campaign staffers test positive for coronavirus ahead of Tulsa rally” at Axios.

  • Read “Rep Andy Biggs believes mandatory face masks are tyranny. Yeah, he said that, tyranny” at AZ Central.

  • Read “Phoenix Megachurch Hosting Trump Rally Says It Has Special Coronavirus-Killing Air System” at Phoenix New Times.

  • Read “Phoenix Mayor Gallego: Mask policy won’t be enforced at Trump event” at KTAR.

  • Read “Spain opens border to tourists; Trump wants less testing” at AP News.

  • Read “President Trump suggests he urged slowing of coronavirus testing” at 12 News.

  • Read “White House Defends Trump's Use Of Racist Term To Describe Coronavirus” at NPR.

  • Read “German Federal Government Pledges $169 Million For Live Events Industry With “Restart Culture” Initiative” at Live FOr Live Music.

  • Read “Amid threats and political pushback, public health officials are leaving their posts” at Washington Post.

  • Read “Why Native Americans took Covid-19 seriously: 'It's our reality' Coronavirus is novel to the world, but the impact on native communities is anything but a new experience” at The Guardian.

  • Read “The pandemic has deepened my insomnia—and my prayers As I lie awake, it seems right to join those who address God with different names than I use” at Christian Century.

  • Read “Young people in the US South and West are increasingly getting coronavirus” at CNN.

  • Read “Years of potential life lost” is the most sobering and sad Covid-19 statistic I’ve seen” at Vox.

  • Read “EU prepares to ban American travelers as borders reopen on July 1” at Axios.

  • Read “Coronavirus has brought US 'to its knees', says CDC director” at The Guardian.

  • Read “You Can Order A Face Mask Customized With The Rest Of Your Face On It” at Crafty.diply.

  • Read "We Still Don't Fully Understand The Label 'Asymptomatic'

  • Read “Protest against mask mandates, led by Scottsdale councilman, underway in Old Town” at AZ Central.

  • Love your neighbor, wear a mask.

  • Read “Hospitals issue joint call to wear masks in public: ‘Wearing a mask is not a political statement’” at News Break.

  • Read “Rubio: 'Everyone should just wear a damn mask' at The Hill.

  • Read “Nike Turned Away a Public Health Official From Its Warehouse Days After a Worker With COVID-19 Died” at Pro Publica.

  • Read “Study Finds Black Lives Matter Protests Didn't Lead to Growth in Coronavirus Cases” at The Root.

  • Read “The U.S. divide on coronavirus masks” at Axios. “Mask-wearing has become the latest partisan division in an increasingly politically divided pandemic.”

  • Read “Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro was ordered by a federal judge on Tuesday to wear a face mask outside or be fined” at Axios.

  • Read “What Parents Can Learn From Child Care Centers That Stayed Open During Lockdowns” at NPR.

  • Read “Texas family shaken after 18 relatives test positive for COVID-19 following surprise birthday party.” at KSDK. “Three are now hospitalized, including two elderly family members and one woman battling breast cancer.”

  • Read “With COVID-19 Cases Rising, Some States Slow Their Reopening Plans” at NPR.

Read “CBS Reporter Becomes Internet Hero After Asking Trump Why He Keeps Hiring 'Wackos And Liars'“ at ComicSands.

  • Read ““William Barr Poses The Greatest Threat… To Our Rule Of Law” at News and Guts.

    • Read “Powerful US attorney who investigated Trump associates refuses to step down after Barr pushes him out” at CNN.

    • Read “House Judiciary panel preparing to subpoena Barr” at Politico.

  • Read “Politics Influenced Justice Department In Roger Stone Case, DOJ Lawyer Tells Hill” at NPR.

  • Read “Prosecutor to tell Congress of pressure from ‘highest levels’ of Justice Dept. to cut Roger Stone ‘a break’” at Washington Post.

  • Read “Judge says Bolton can publish book despite efforts to block it” at 12 News.

  • Read “Stephen Colbert To John Bolton: “How Could You Be Naive?” at News and Guts.

  • Read “Appeals court orders dismissal of Michael Flynn's criminal case The decision was made, even though Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to prosecutors in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation” at 12 News.

Read “In Arizona, Republicans worry about losing traction with independent voters In a state that could prove pivotal in both the presidential race and the fight for Senate control, Republicans are concerned about a shrinking base” at NBC News.

Read “A new Trump proclamation will block foreign workers It could affect hundreds of thousands of foreigners stranded abroad” at Vox.

Read "Trumps lose attempt to gag Mary Trump from publishing tell-all book as a judge dismisses petition for a protective order saying their claims are 'fatally defective' at NPR.

Read “Biden to accept nomination at pared-down Milwaukee convention” at Axios.

  • Read “Biden Takes Dominant Lead as Voters Reject Trump on Virus and Race” at New York Times.

  • Read “Trump Is Struggling To Run Against A White Guy” at The Atlantic.

Read “Devin Nunes can’t sue Twitter over statements by fake cow, judge rules’ at Fresno Bee.

Read “Black Progressives Appear To Surge In Primaries, While Trump-Backed Candidates Lose” at NPR.

Read “More Than 100 Veterans Sign Letter Condemning Sen. McSally” at KJZZ.

Read “24-Year-Old Easily Tops President Trump's Pick In N.C. Republican Primary” at NPR.

Read “Zuckerberg says he’s ‘disgusted’ by Trump’s rhetoric. It’s just crocodile tears” at Washington Post.

Read “Alaska's 'Into the Wild' bus, known as a deadly tourist lure, has been removed by air” at CNN.

Read “Philly shuts down dumpster pools: 'We are not screwing around' at USA Today.

Read “Bill Cosby’s appeal of sex-crime conviction accepted by state supreme court” at USA Today.

Read “Okayplayer CEO Abiola Oke Resigns, Company Cites Recent Allegations” at Exclaim.

Read “Tom Petty’s Family Blasts Trump For Using His Music At Tulsa Rally” at Stereogum.

Read “K-Pop Stans Take Credit For Ruining Trump’s Tulsa Rally” at Stereogum.

Read “Jefferson Airplane to Receive Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2021” at Jambands.

Read “There is Now An Official Grateful Dead Deodorant” at Relix.

Half-year-end Half-lists:

  • Browse “The 33 Best Albums of 2020 So Far” at Treble.

  • Browse “The Best Of 2020 – Halftime Report A list of 72 Albums we've enjoyed from January to June” at Uncut.

  • Browse “Exclaim!'s 33 Best Albums of 2020 So Far”.

Read “Toil and Trouble: Uncle Tupelo’s ‘No Depression’ Turns 30” at No Depression.

Read “'I Have Had No Prouder Moment in Music': Run the Jewels On Capturing the Sound of American Rage” at Esquire.

Read “Sammy Hagar Is Willing to “Get Sick and Even Die” to Kickstart the Concert Industry Again” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Barcelona opera house reopens with performance to 2,292 plants” at CNN.

Read “More Than 50 Years Ago Thelonious Monk Played A High School In California. Now The Album’s On Vinyl Everything You Need To Know About The Newly Discovered Lost Monk Album” at Vinyl Me Please.

Read “John Prine Scores First No. 1 Single with Final Recording “I Remember Everything” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Nick Cave Explains Why He Doesn’t Write Protest Songs” at Stereogum.

Read “Paul McCartney Calls on Schools to Cease Serving Meat-Only Lunches "No one needs to eat meat, so it shouldn't be mandatory to serve it in schools" at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Warren Haynes Pens Op-Ed ‘A Change Is Gonna Come—Oh, Yes It Will’, Shares Accompanying Playlist” at Jambands.

Read “Dixie Chicks Change Name to The Chicks” at Pitchfork.

Browse “The Story of ’80s Texas Punk in 9 Photographs” at Pitchfork.

Read “'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' Creators Scrap Season 8, Plan to Start over Amid Police Brutality Protests” at Exclaim.

Read “Large iguana found in freezer of pizza restaurant in Florida.

Read “Large iguana found in freezer of pizza restaurant in Florida” at Boing Boing.

Read “An exploitative digital cult born from Facebook meme groups is imploding” at AV Club.

Read “Tourist's photo showing creature rising from water sparks online claims that it could be 'one of the best ever' pictures of Loch Ness Monster” at The Daily Mail.

The Weekly Town Crier (05/29/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (05/29/20).

Read “Jimmy Cobb, The Pulse Of 'Kind Of Blue,' Dies At 91” at NPR.

Read “William H. Lamar IV: It's not just the coronavirus -- bad theology is killing us” at Faith and Leadership.

Read “White Woman Calls Cops On Black Man Over Dog Leash Dispute In Viral Footage The man said he’d asked her to leash her dog. The woman is heard saying she would tell police “there’s an African American man threatening my life” at HuffPost.

Read “4 Minneapolis Police Officers Fired Over George Floyd Death The move comes after a video showed an officer kneeling on the neck of Floyd, an unarmed Black man, on Monday” at HuffPost.

  • Read “We must confront the inconsistent laws that allow black lives to be taken with impunity” at Washington Post.

  • Read “Chaotic Minneapolis protests spread amid emotional calls for justice, peace” at Washington Post.

  • Read as the current president calls protesters “thugs” and threatens to shoot them, prompting Twitter to put a warning label on his public communications. This is America.

Read "Angélique Kidjo on Africa Day: 'We demand not to be at the mercy of our circumstances anymore.' at Okay Africa.

Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

  • Read “The Price of American Arrogance It’s not just Trump. We need to overhaul our approach to foreign policy to avoid another disaster like the coronavirus” at Slate.

  • Read “Trump Suggests Virus Death Count Is Inflated. Most Experts Doubt It” at New York Times.

  • Read “Trump ordered states to open churches. Can he do that? The Justice Department's own actions show just how little power the president has to force the outcome he wants” at Politico.

  • Read “Nearly half of Twitter accounts pushing to reopen America may be bots” at Technology Review.

  • Read/Watch “Calif. Design Firm Working on Protective Suit for Concerts and Clubbing The suit includes a N95 filter as well as snap-in canisters for drinking and vaping” at NBC Washington.

  • Read “An Incalculable Loss” at New York Times.

  • Read “'We All Feel At Risk': 100,000 People Dead From COVID-19 In The U.S.” at NPR.

  • Read “This Is So Unfair to Me”: Trump Whines About His COVID-19 Victimhood as Campaign Flails” at Vanity Fair.

  • Read “Our Daily Breather: Steve Reich Composes During The Coronavirus Crisis” at NPR.

  • Read “As Covid-19 cases rise in 17 states, Americans still divided on whether masks should be mandated” at CNN.

  • Read “WHO Halts Hydroxychloroquine Trial Over Safety Concerns” at NPR.

  • Read “Coronavirus may never go away, even with a vaccine Embracing that reality is crucial to the next phase of America’s pandemic response, experts say” at Washington Post.

Read “On weekend dedicated to war dead, Trump tweets insults, promotes baseless claims and plays golf” at Washington Post.

Read “Twitter adds label to Trump's misleading tweets about mail-in-ballots It's the first time Twitter has slapped a warning label on the president's tweets” at CNET.

  • Read “Stung By Twitter, Trump Signs Executive Order To Weaken Social Media Companies” at NPR.

Read “How Hitler Controlled the Press” at University of North Texas.

Read “Were They Real? See Which Historical Figures May Not Have Existed” at Definition.com.

Read “The Countermelodies That Changed Us: A Lifetime Of Loving Indigo Girls” NPR.

Read “Kendrick Lamar Thinks Like A Jazz Musician” at NPR.

Read “13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History” at Aquarium Drunkard.

See “Bob Dylan’s 1974 Classic “Forever Young,” Illustrated” at Brain Pickings.

Read “Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids announce new album Shaman” at Pan-African Music.

Read “The Black Crowes to Kick Off ‘Budweiser Stage At Home’ Series” at Jambands.

Read “Nike SB Preps New Grateful Dead “Dancing Bear” Collection” at Relix.

Read “Grimes Is Selling a “Fraction of Her Soul” at Online Art Exhibition” at Pitchfork.

Read “The Remaking of Steve Buscemi” at GQ. “In 2019, Buscemi lost his wife of over 30 years. In a rare interview, Hollywood's most beloved misfit opens up about anxiety, loss, and the hard work of getting through it all.”

Read “Thanks to Bookshop, There Is No Reason to Buy Books on Amazon Anymore Independent bookstores, and booksellers, get a lifeline just when they need it most” at Inside Hook.

Read “Herd Of Fuzzy Green 'Glacier Mice' Baffles Scientists” at NPR.

Read “Controversial study shows rats prefer jazz to classical music, when on drugs” at Classic FM.

Read “Necco Wafers candies make a sweet comeback after 2-year absence” at Today.

Read “Under Pandemic Prohibition, South Africans Resort to Pineapples A strict lockdown has meant a spike in homebrewing” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “Why Supporters Are Working to Save Palabras Bilingual Bookstore” at Phoenix New Times.

The Weekly Town Crier (05/22/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (05/22/20).

Read “Jorge Santana (of Malo and brother of Carlos), RIP” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Fred Willard, Comic Actor Who Thrived in Ensembles, Dies at 86” at New York Times.

Read “Ravi Zacharias Dies of Cancer The famous apologist was 74” at Christianity Today.

Read “Carlos Santana's brother, guitarist Jorge Santana, dead at 68” at Fox News.

Read “Al Mohler, Southern Baptist leader, says he was ‘stupid’ to defend slavery in 1998 CNN interview” at Religion News Service.

Read “When States Don't Talk with Churches about Covid Timetables, Tensions Increase” at Christianity Today.

Read “Despite Bad News, Evangelical Philosophy Is Flourishing” at Christianity Today.

Read “‘Laudato Si’’ was not enough. The Vatican needs to prioritize climate change” at America Magazine.

Read “Churches obsessed with their right to reopen are missing the point Genuine Christian faith is larger than the US Constitution” at Christian Century.

Read “We’re all monks now” at America Magazine.

Read “At New York hospital, a friar watches over those dying: ‘The miracle is to let go’” at Washington Post.

Read “Jane Roe’s Deathbed Confession: Anti-Abortion Conversion ‘All an Act’ Paid for by the Christian Right” at Daily Beast.

Read “Writer Anne Rice: 'Today I Quit Being A Christian'“ at NPR.

Read “'Sleeping While Black': Louisville Police Kill Unarmed Black Woman” at NPR. #BreonnaTaylor

Read “Ahmaud Arbery’s lynching begs America to respond What would it take to stop seeing neighbors as intruders and threats?” at Christian Century. #AhmaudArbery

Read “Meet The Woman Who Led Denmark to Cut Food Waste By 25% in 5 Years Selina Juul isn’t a politician. But she’s leading Denmark’s food waste revolution” at Global Citizen.

Read “Hacker Group Leaks Confidential Lady Gaga Files, Threatens to Next Take Down Donald Trump” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “After My Wife Died I Was Consumed by Both Grief and Paperwork. We Must Work Together to Change the Medical System” at Time.

Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

  • Read “Obama team left pandemic playbook for Trump administration, officials confirm” at PBS News Hour.

  • Read “Replace Trump And Bolster The CDC, A Leading Medical Journal Urges” at NPR.

  • Read “Defying all odds, the world's last Blockbuster thinks it can outlast the pandemic” at AV Club.

  • Read “Michigan Coronavirus Cases Jump By Over 1,000 As Armed Anti-Lockdown Protesters Shut Down Capitol.”

  • Read “'A Lot To Be Hopeful For': Crisis Seen As Historic, Not Another Great Depression” at NPR.

  • Read “The Pandemic as God’s Judgment Does the biblical pattern of disaster and discipline with a call to repent apply to COVID-19?” at Christianity Today.

  • Read “'Us Vs. Them' In A Pandemic: Researchers Warn Divisions Could Get Dangerous” at NPR.

  • Read “Coronavirus Brings Beer Drinkers Back to Bud Light Craft brewers face a reckoning as Americans opt for value and familiarity with brands like Miller Lite and Coors Light” at Wall Street Journal.

  • Read/Watch “US coronavirus death toll passes 90,000 but influential model lowers its prediction” at CNN.

  • Read the AZ Central opinion piece: “State won't name nursing homes where seniors are dying because it's .... bad publicity?”

  • Read “Where Do White Evangelicals Get Their Coronavirus News? The White House While most agree with the response from public health officials, confidence in the Trump administration outweighs the news media” at Christianity Today.

  • Read “Reports: Inexperience and cronyism slowed Kushner-led efforts to procure medical supplies” at CNN. “The volunteer group was also told to prioritize leads from "VIPs," including political allies, conservative journalists and associates of Trump, outlets reported.”

  • Read “Trump threatens to halt WHO funding, review U.S. membership” at Reuters.

  • Read “Covid-19 lockdowns could drop carbon emissions to their lowest level since World War II. But the change may be temporary” at CNN.

  • Read “Aiming for novelty in coronavirus coverage, journalists end up sensationalizing the trivial and untrue” at The Conversation.

  • Read “Pakistan Is Giving Tree-Planting Jobs to Workers Unemployed Due to COVID-19” Global Citizen.

  • Read “U.S. Could Have Saved 36,000 Lives If Social Distancing Started 1 Week Earlier: Study” at NPR.

Read “Send Nudes": A New Study Shows How Often Boys Pressure Girls For Explicit Photos” at A Mighty Girl.

Read “Social, Political Animals: Embodied Learning and the Limits of Online Education” at Public Discourse.

Read “Tell Me How This Is Not Terrorism People with firearms forced the civil government of the state of Michigan to shut itself down” at Esquire.

Read “Trump, Unveiling Space Force Flag, Touts What He Calls New 'Super-Duper Missile' at NPR.

As we move into campaign season, let’s not forget:

  • Read “How Donald Trump Shifted Kids-Cancer Charity Money Into His Business” at Forbes (from 2017).

Read “The Prophecies of Q American conspiracy theories are entering a dangerous new phase.” at The Atlantic.

Read “Democrats Bet Health Care Will Deliver 2020 Victories” at NPR. “"Democrats are betting that Americans will vote for the party of health care over the party of drinking bleach.

Read “Trump says administration will continue legal fight to eliminate Obamacare” at CNN.

Read “Trump wants payroll tax holiday to mitigate coronavirus economic pain” at Reuters.

Read “Texas mayor says women can't pray at city council meetings in email to fellow councilmember” at WFAA.

Read “Monopoly was invented to demonstrate the evils of capitalism” at Aeon.

Read “Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2 remaster soundtrack revealed - and it's missing a few classics” at EuroGamer.

Read “Live Nation to trial socially distanced shows in New Zealand” at NME.

Read “This Is What America’s First Socially Distanced Concert Looked Like” at Stereogum.

Read “Jeff Tweedy, Sharon Van Etten Join Daniel Johnston-Inspired Mental-Health Initiative Hi, How Are You Project asks people to spread awareness of mental health by simply asking others ‘Hi, how are you?’ at Rolling Stone.

Read “Dirty Projectors’ David Longstreth Reflects on ‘Workingman’s Dead’” at Relix.

Read “Americana ‘Wunderkind’ Sammy Brue Opens Up About Balancing Fame And Youth” at American Songwriter.

Read “Neil Young’s Lost 1975 Album ‘Homegrown’ To Be Released in June” at Relix.

Read “The Complicated Legacy of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis We honor the life of the tortured frontman by living and enduring as long as possible” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Jason Molina's 'Eight Gates' To Get A Posthumous Release In August” at NPR.

Read “Massive Attack's 3D raises £106,000 for Bristol food banks with art print fire sale” at The Guardian.

Read “Wu-Tang Clan Selling “Protect Ya Hands” Sanitizer For every purchase, a bottle will be donated to a homeless shelter in Canada” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “He Thinks He is Pink Floyd”: Roger Waters Calls Out David Gilmour Over Use of Pink Floyd Website” Jambands.

Read “A 3,350-Song Playlist of Music from Haruki Murakami’s Personal Record Collection” at Open Culture.

Read “How the Coronavirus Is Affecting America’s Vinyl Record Industry” at Pitchfork

Read “Grab a book. It’s good for your health. That’s one good thing about sheltering in place” about Christian Century.

Watch “Missouri Penguins Enjoy 'Morning Of Fine Art' At Local Museum” at NPR.

Read “Antidepressant Microbes In Soil: How Dirt Makes You Happy” Gardening Know How.

Read “Are Creative People Crazier? Yes, being "a little bit" bipolar or schizophrenic is linked to creativity” at Psychology Today.

Read “Peyton Manning, Drew Holcomb and others launch top-shelf Tennessee bourbon whiskey” at Tennesean.

Read “Ducey Asks Businesses To Self-Police On Safety Protocols” at KJZZ.

Read “From the Grand Canyon to Stevie Nicks, here are 130 reasons why The Republic loves Arizona” at AZ Central.

The Weekly Town Crier (05/01/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (05/01/20).

Read “BREAKING: Fela's Ex-drummer, Tony Allen, Dies In France” at Sahara Reporters.

Read “Knock Knock. It's Weird Evangelical Twitter. Online, millennial Christians embrace the absurd” at Christianity Today.

Read “Can Staying Home Help Us Regain a Sense of Place? How rediscovering creation around us can deepen our connection with God” at Christianity Today.

Read “America's billionaires have become even richer since Donald Trump became president, and it says a lot about the country's record-high wealth gap” at Business Insider.

Read “Microsoft Word now flags double spaces as errors, ending the great space debate” at The Verge.

Read Pentagon Officially Publishes Tom DeLonge’s UFO Videos Confirming what DeLonge's known since Enema of the State -- that "Aliens Exist" at Consequence of Sound.

Read “'This is no damn hobby': the 'gangsta gardener' transforming Los Angeles” at The Guardian.

Read “The Great Gatsby and Catch-22 among classic books banned from Alaska classrooms Works from Maya Angelou, Joseph Heller, Tim O'Brien, Ralph Ellison and F Scott Fitzgerald erased from curriculum” at The Independent.

Read “Land O’Lakes quietly gets rid of iconic Indian maiden mascot” at Minnesota Reformer.

Read “We are living in an apocalypse” by David Dark at American Magazine.

Your Weekly Coronavirus News Roundup:

  • Read “Tom Cotton: Ban Chinese students from learning science so they can’t ‘steal’ coronavirus vaccine” at Raw Story.

  • Read “Miami goes seven weeks without a homicide for first time since 1957” at CBS News.

  • Read the opinion piece “Lysol and UV Rays: Running A Pandemic Like A Reality TV Show” at Empty Wheel.

  • Read “Tennessee Restaurants Reopen As State Sees Biggest 1-Day Jump In COVID-19 Cases” at NPR.

  • Read “How Some Phoenix Record Labels Are Surviving the Coronavirus” at Phoenix New Times.

  • Read “States Warn That Workers Will Lose Unemployment If They Refuse To Return To Jobs” at The Intellectualist.

  • Read/Watch “The dangerous global flood of misinformation surrounding COVID-19” at PBS News Hour.

  • Read “How Are Rich People Getting Richer During the Coronavirus Pandemic? Jeff Bezos has reportedly made another $25 billion since the beginning of the year” at GQ.

  • Read/Listen to “Grief is Everywhere in the Age of COVID-19” at WNYC.

  • Read “King Crimson’s Robert Fripp Launches “Music for Quiet Moments” Quarantine Series” at Consequence of Sound.

  • Read “THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS 'I Am Mourning The Loss': Two-Thirds Of Artists Report They're Now Unemployed” at NPR.

    • BUY MUSIC, SUPPORT ARTISTS (Listen to music. Love Your Neighbor): Beginning this Friday, May 01, Bandcamp will again waive their revenue share for everything sold. Until otherwise stated, they will be doing this on the first Friday of each month. Please use these chances to support artists during this difficult time.

Read/Listen to “How Will Chief Justice And Supreme Court Conservative Majority Affect 2020 Election?” at NPR. “Chief Justice John Roberts has worked hard to persuade the public that the Supreme Court justices are fair-minded legal umpires — not politicians in robes. But that image was tarnished by the Court's decision on Wisconsin's election earlier this month.”

Read “Here are the largest public companies taking payroll loans meant for small businesses” at MSNBC.

  • Read “U.S. Citizens Married To Immigrants Are Blocked From Getting Stimulus Checks” at Yahoo.

Read “Trump’s History With the Word Sarcasm Is Littered with Excuses and Ignorance When Trump uses the sarcasm excuse, it’s because he knows he’s gone too far but can’t bring himself to admit it” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Nancy Pelosi Endorses Joe Biden: “The Personification Of Hope And Courage, Values, Authenticity And Integrity” at News and Guts.

Read “Hillary Clinton Endorses Joe Biden” at News and Guts.

Browse the 2017 piece “11 Warning Signs of Gaslighting Gaslighting is a manipulation tactic used to gain power. And it works too well” at Psychology Today.

Read “I Love Phish Concerts, and I Can’t Wait for Them to Come Back”: Trey Anastasio Speaks About Quarantine, Tour Plans and ‘Sigma Oasis’ in New Interview” at Jambands.

Watch “Post Malone Performs Nirvana Covers With Travis Barker” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Quarantine Creativity Interview Series: Ethan Miller” at Savage Henry.

Read “Library of Congress Launches Open-Source Hip-Hop Sampling Tool Producers will have access to the library's vast audio collection, which dates back more than a hundred years” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “This Is Heartbreaking For Us": Amoeba Music's Original Hollywood Location Permanently Closed” at Okay Player.

Read “Tori Amos Believes the Muses Can Help A conversation about music, politics, and what you learn about America from being on the road” at New Yorker.

Read “How Do You Sell Concert Tees Without Concerts? Merch Companies Are Up Against a Wall “I was thinking this is a bulletproof business,” says one of many merch execs who have lost their biggest revenue stream” at Rolling Stone.

Read “PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, More Sign Letter Calling for Creative Industry Funding From UK Government” at Pitchfork.

Read “It Has to Be About Need :: The Mysteries of Lucinda Williams’ Good Souls Better Angels” at Aquarium Drunkard.

  • Read “Lucinda Williams on the Music That Made Her The venerable singer-songwriter talks about the artists and albums that have meant the most to her—Sade, Audioslave, Tricky—five years at a time” at Pitchfork.

Read “Live Nation Updates Ticket Refund Policy” at Jambands.

Read “Stephen Malkmus on Traditional Techniques :: We’re Just Going To Wing It” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “Charlie Parker's Story to Be Told in Graphic Novel 'Chasin' the Bird' at The Hollywood Reporter.

Read “European Cities Launch Drive-In Concert Series With Great Success” at Live For Live Music.

Read “Watch Fiona Apple Give a Rare TV Interview on Democracy Now!” at Pitchfork.

BUY MUSIC, SUPPORT ARTISTS (Listen to music. Love Your Neighbor): Beginning this Friday, May 01, Bandcamp will again waive their revenue share for everything sold. Until otherwise stated, they will be doing this on the first Friday of each month. Please use these chances to support artists during this difficult time.

Read “For this year only, movies that had to go streaming will still be eligible for Oscars” at AV Club.

Read “AMC Theatres Refuses to Show Universal Films Following VOD Release of Trolls World Tour Universal seemed to imply that the commercial success of Trolls was proof that VOD was the way of the future” at Consequence of Sound

Read “Museums are sharing their creepiest objects in apparent attempt to digitize ancient curses” at AV Club.

Read “In Thailand, Funeral Cookbooks Preserve Recipes and Memories Though their origins are tragic, the books provide invaluable inspiration” at Atlas Obscura.

The Weekly Town Crier (04/03/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (04/03/20).

Read “Remembering Doug Clark, a mysterious icon of the Phoenix punk music underground” at AZ Central.

Read “Ellis Marsalis, New Orleans jazz piano legend hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms, dies” at Nola.

Read “R.I.P. Bill Withers, “Lean on Me” and “Lovely Day” Singer, Dies at 81 The legendary crooner passed away from heart complications” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger Dead at 52 From COVID-19” at PitchforkI.

Consider “Should Christians Participate in Boycotts?” with Alan Noble at Christian Research Institute.

Coronavirus Weekly Roundup:Education:

  • Read “A coronavirus outbreak in jails or prisons could turn into a nightmare Experts warn prisons and jails aren’t ready for a pandemic — and that could hurt everyone else too” at Vox.

  • Read “Rodney Howard-Browne, Megachurch Pastor Who Flouted Virus Rules, Arrested” at The Daily Beast.

  • Read “Liberty University Brings Back Its Students, and Coronavirus Fears, Too The decision by the school’s president, Jerry Falwell Jr., to partly reopen his evangelical university enraged residents of Lynchburg, Va. Then students started getting sick” at the New York Times.

  • Read “Hobby Lobby Closes Stores, Slashes Salaries Following 'God Is in Control' Remarks and Social Media Has Thoughts” at PopCulture.

  • Read “Over 1,200 people attend Louisiana church service, defying coronavirus ban: "We will continue" at CBS News.

  • Read “Roy Moore, ex-Alabama chief justice, to aid Central church defying coronavirus order” at The Advocate.

  • Read “Some evangelicals deny the coronavirus threat. It’s because they love tough guys. White evangelical conservatives don’t take the novel coronavirus seriously because they believe in a muscular Christianity” at Washington Post.

  • Read “Christianity Offers No Answers About the Coronavirus. It's Not Supposed To” at Time

  • Read “John Prine Hospitalized With COVID-19 Symptoms” at Jambands.

  • Read “I'm a Doctor Recovering From COVID-19. I Can't Get Over the Government's Callousness for Human Life” at Time.

  • Read “General Electric Workers Launch Protest, Demand to Make Ventilators GE workers who normally make jet engines say their facilities are sitting idle while the country faces a dire ventilator shortage” at Vice.

  • Read “Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey issues statewide stay-at-home order” at KTAR.

  • Read “ Honeywell Hiring 500 in Phoenix to Make Millions of N-95 Masks Each Month” at Phoenix.gov.

  • Read “Netflix's Tiger King star Joe Exotic hospitalised after contracting coronavirus in prison” at The Mirror.

  • Read “Brian Kemp Is What You Get When Allegiance to Trump Is All That Matters Georgia’s Republican governor announced his reversal on social distancing policies with a stunning admission” at The Esquire.

  • Read “Florida officials: Arrested pastor not exonerated by new order listing religious services as ‘essential’ at Religion News Service.

Read “Bernie Sanders says he’s staying in the presidential race. Many Democrats fear a reprise of their 2016 defeat” at Washington Post.

Read “Last Call: Neal Casal and the Dangerous Thing We’re Afraid to Talk About” at Premier Guitar.

Read “Robert Plant interview: my life after Led Zeppelin. It's been a long time since Robert Plant fronted the biggest band in the world, and now, at 71, he’s enjoying the fourth decade of a successful solo career” at Louder Sound.

Read “The My Generation: An Oral History Of Myspace Music Myspace changed the way we discovered music and fell apart after conquering the world” at Stereogum.

Read “Miles Davis’ ‘Bitches Brew’ At 50” at Tidal.

Check out “Stevie Wonder :: @ The Rainbow Theatre — London, 01/31/74” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Listen and Download “Herbie Hancock & the Headhunters :: 1974 – Bremen, Germany” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “Chuck D Says Flavor Flav’s Public Enemy Firing Was a Hoax to Promote New Album” at Pitchfork.

Read “Hasbro releases every episode of 80’s G.I. Joe animated series on YouTube” at Arrow In The Head.

Read “You Can Now Binge-Watch Every Single Episode of The French Chef with Julia Child” at Taste Of Home.

See “20+ People Who Discovered Their Art History Doppelgängers at Museums” at My Modern Net.

See “Incredibly Realistic Paintings Look Like They’re Wrapped in Plastic Film” at My Modern Net.

See “Museum Asks People To Recreate Paintings With Stuff They Can Find at Home, Here Are The Results” at Sad and Useless.

Read “Gannett, publisher of The Arizona Republic, announces unpaid furloughs” at AZ Central.

Read “Arizona arts telethon has tons of content for all ages. Here's how to stream it this week” at AZ Central.