I'm Chitown Kev and I'm substituting for regular OND editor maggiejean tonight.
OND is a community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, JML9999 and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw.
Feel free to share some articles and stories of your own in the comments.
Chicago Sun-Times: Walker stumps in Illinois — wild about Rauner, mild about rivals by Jordyn Holman
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker brought his Republican presidential bid to Chicago on Monday, declining to attack GOP rivals Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee — while heaping praise on Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget policies.
“I hope he stays firms and gets the people, the state of Illinois, on his side,” Walker said of Rauner and his budget-cutting strategy.
“I think people in this state, be they Democrat or Republican, understand that you’ve got to get your finances under control to be able to support your schools, which critically need reform here in Chicago.
“If you want to be able to care for needy families and seniors and others you’ve got to have a state where the finances are under control.”
Rauner cited Walker as one his role models when running for governor last year. Both Republicans are known for taking on unions.
Associated Press: AP Exclusive: AP tracks slave boats to Papua New Guinea by Robin McDowell, Martha Mendoza, and Margie Mason
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — From space, the fishing boats are just little white specks floating in a vast stretch of blue water off Papua New Guinea. But zoom in and there's the critical evidence: Two trawlers loading slave-caught seafood onto a massive refrigerated cargo ship.
The trawlers fled a slave island in Indonesia with captives of a brutal Southeast Asian trafficking ring whose catch reaches the United States. Hundreds of men were freed after they were discovered there earlier this year, but 34 boats loaded with workers left for new fishing grounds before help arrived — they remain missing.
After a four-month investigation, The Associated Press has found that at least some of them ended up in a narrow, dangerous strait nearly 1,000 miles away. The proof comes from accounts from recently returned slaves, satellite beacon tracking, government records, interviews with business insiders and fishing licenses. The location is also confirmed in images from space taken by one of the world's highest resolution satellite cameras, upon the AP's request.
The skippers have changed their ships' names and flags to evade authorities, but hiding is easy in the world's broad oceans. Traffickers operate with impunity across boundaries as fluid as the waters. Laws are few and hardly enforced. And depleted fish stocks have pushed boats farther out into seas that are seldom even glimpsed, let alone governed.
This lack of regulation means that even with the men located, bringing them to safety may prove elusive.
Officials from Papua New Guinea working with the International Organization for Migration said they were not aware of human trafficking cases in the area but are investigating. Numerous other agencies — including Interpol, the United Nations and the U.S. State and Defense departments — told the AP they don't have the authority to get involved.
A handful of former slaves who recently made it home to Myanmar said hundreds of men remain unaccounted for.
Boston Globe: Boston’s bid for Olympics is withdrawn by Mark Arsenault
There will be no Boston Olympics in 2024.
Due to continued low public support, the United States Olympic Committee and officials from the local bid group, Boston 2024, “have reached a mutual agreement to withdraw Boston’s bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” the organizations said in a joint statement Monday.
The USOC will now explore alternative cities, which many experts believe would be two-time Olympic host Los Angeles.
“The USOC would very much like to see an American city host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024,” said USOC chief executive officer Scott Blackmun, in a statement. “We will immediately begin to explore whether we can do so on a basis consistent with our guiding principles, to which we remain firmly committed.
“We understand the reality of the timeline that is before us,” he said.
Local bid chairman Steve Pagliuca said in the statement that the “Boston 2024 Partnership will offer our support and the extensive knowledge we have gained in developing our Bid 2.0 to any American city that may choose to participate in the 2024 bidding process going forward.”
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti expressed interest in resuming a bid for the Games.
“I continue to believe that Los Angeles is the ideal Olympic city and we have always supported the USOC in their effort to return the Games to the United States,” he said in a statement. “I would be happy to engage in discussions with the USOC about how to present the strongest and most fiscally responsible bid on behalf of our city and nation.”
The Guardian: 'You cannot rape your spouse': Donald Trump's lawyer threatens reporter over ex-wife's claim by Ben Jacobs
A lawyer and spokesman for current Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump issued a series of vulgar threats to a reporter on Monday, while falsely claiming that it was legal for a husband to rape his wife in New York.
Michael Cohen, special counsel for the Trump Organization, threatened Canadian-American reporter Tim Mak of the Daily Beast with untold legal consequences in response to an article that resurfaced allegations that Trump had raped his then-wife Ivana.
The statements from the real-estate tycoon’s long-time attorney may, campaign watchers said, prove to undermine a campaign that officially began with Trump’s incendiary remarks about migrants from Mexico whom he called “rapists” and has survived a series of increasingly controversial remarks over the following six weeks.
The Daily Beast story repeated details of a deposition relayed by a Trump biographer, who described the mogul as forcing himself on his then-wife as revenge for her encouraging him to undergo a painful and unsuccessful scalp reduction surgery in the late 1980s.
The 1993 book, by author Harry Hurt III, includes a statement from Ivana Trump stating that she referred to the sexual encounter in question “as a ‘rape’, but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense”. Donald Trump has long insisted that the assertion of assault was “false”.
AlJazeera: Citizens United loses New York ruling over donors
A federal judge on Monday rejected Citizens United's effort to block New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman from demanding that the conservative nonprofit disclose more information about its major donors.
U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan refused to impose a preliminary injunction that would stop Schneiderman from requiring charities to reveal names, addresses and total contributions of big donors in order to solicit funds in the state.
Citizens United argued that Schneiderman's interpretation of a 2006 state regulation on donor disclosures violated its First Amendment free speech and association rights and invaded the privacy of donors who wished to remain anonymous.
But the judge said Schneiderman's policy was substantially related to the important government interests of enforcing charitable solicitation laws and protecting residents from illegitimate charities.
He also said Citizens United did not make the required "clear showing" that it would ultimately prevail and fell "decidedly short" in attempting to show it would suffer irreparable harm absent an injunction.
"The court cannot find a specific future threat that the Attorney General will prohibit plaintiffs from soliciting in New York as a result of their refusal to disclose their major donor information," Stein wrote.
Citizens United President David Bossie and the group's lawyers were not immediately available for comment.
(The following story is dated Monday July 20 so it is a week old but I do want to show some love for the hard-working student journalists in America's colleges and universities)
The Michigan Daily: Obama nominates University professor to Federal Reserve Board by Alyssa Brandon
President Barack Obama announced his nomination of School of Public Policy and economics professor Kathryn M. Dominguez to serve on the Federal Reserve Board Monday afternoon.
In his announcement, Obama said Dominguez’s expertise with foreign exchange policy would prove beneficial in addressing issues within the global market.
"Dr. Dominguez has the proven experience, judgment, and deep knowledge of the financial system, monetary policy, and international capital markets to serve at the Federal Reserve during this important time for our economy,” he said.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Dominguez will become the second faculty member of both the Ford School and Department of Economics to serve on the Board of Governors. Former Public Policy and economics professor Edward Gramlich served on the board from 1997 to 2005 and also chaired the Committee on Consumer and Community Affairs.
In a statement, University President Mark Schlissel lauded Dominguez for her reputation and expertise in global finances.
"Professor Dominguez is a renowned scholar and teacher with a well-deserved reputation as one of the world's leading experts on global financial markets,” Schlissel said. “I am pleased and proud that she's been invited to join the nation's top monetary policymaking body. Kathryn joins a long tradition of University of Michigan faculty lending their expertise at the highest levels of service in Washington, D.C., shaping public policy and strengthening communities."
Kathryn Dominguez
BBC News: Sex worker in West Virginia shoots dead 'serial killer'
She told police that Neal Falls, 45, had answered her online escort ad, but the encounter turned violent after he arrived at her West Virginia home.
During a struggle, the woman got hold of Falls' gun and shot him.
A "kill list" was found in his pocket, leading police to believe that he was targeting local sex workers.
"I knew he was there to kill me," the woman - who was not identified- told local news station KPTV.
"I could tell that he had already done something because he said that he was going to prison for a long time. And that's when I knew he was gonna kill me."
Police in Charleston, West Virginia, found weapons and tools - including knives, a bulletproof vest, a machete, rubbish bags and bleach - inside the boot of his car.
Neal Falls was found with weapons, cleaning supplies and a "kill list".
The evidence found in West Virginia on 18 July has authorities investigating whether Falls is connected to a series of unsolved murders in Ohio and Nevada.
"The stuff that we found is so alarming that we want law enforcement across the country to be aware of it," Lt Steve Cooper of the Charleston Police Department said.
Falls, whose most recently address was in Oregon, lived in Henderson, Nevada from 2000 to 2007.
During that time, the bodies of three prostitutes were found dismembered along highways. A fourth sex worker was reported missing, but never found.
AlJazeera: The Little Führer: A day in the life of the newest leader of white nationalists by Vegas Tenold
Heimbach is the leader and founder of the Traditionalist Youth Network, a nationalist high school and college organization that, according to its website, aims to speak against “the united voices of decadence, individualism, Marxism and modernity.” While the group claims to accept members from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds, he and his comrades have been called Nazi sympathizers and white supremacists. The Southern Poverty Law Center once labeled him the Little Fuhrer, a charge he found ridiculous because he is not a National Socialist. This, presumably, was why, when a white supremacist gunned down nine congregants in a historically black church in Charleston, the FBI called him.
In the days after the massacre, everyone was trying to figure out why no one had heard of Roof before. The incident sent shockwaves through American far right communities, in which everyone seemed completely baffled as to who Roof was. To many, that fact alone was proof enough of a false flag operation: an operation orchestrated by the federal government to either — depending on whom you ask — malign and break the far right movement in America or provide an excuse to disarm American patriots in order to bring about a Barack Obama–led socialist Islamic police state. Heimbach wondered how he could have missed Roof’s online presence and, had he known about him, if there was something he could have done to channel his violent impulses into political action.
“We need to use the tools that we have,” he says from behind the wheel of his silver 2001 Toyota Corolla, which he named Serenity after the spaceship in the sci-fi TV show “Firefly.” It was mid-July, a couple of weeks after he returned from Charleston, where he laid down flowers at the site of the massacre. “We live in a political system, and if you want to effect change, the way to go about that needs to be political. Violence is never right.”
Associated Press: NATO holding rare emergency meeting at Turkey's request by John-Thor Dahlberg
BRUSSELS (AP) -- For just the fifth time in its 66-year history, NATO ambassadors will meet in emergency session Tuesday to gauge the threat the Islamic State extremist group poses to Turkey, and the debated actions Turkish authorities are taking in response.
The extraordinary meeting at NATO headquarters was requested by Turkey under Article 4 of the treaty that founded the U.S.-led alliance, which empowers its 28 member states to seek such consultations when they consider their "territorial integrity, political independence or security" to be in jeopardy.
It comes as Turkey's security situation "has deteriorated dramatically," Bruno Lete, senior officer for foreign and security policy at the German Marshall Fund, a Brussels think tank, said.
"The rise of Islamic State in northern Iraq, in northern Syria, has effectively destabilized the southern border of Turkey. But also domestically, the threat of terrorism has become very real," Lete told The Associated Press.
The Guardian: Obama meets Lucy, 'the grandmother of humanity,' during Ethiopia visit by David Smith
She had never heard of Barack Obama, or the United States for that matter, and did not say a word when she met the president before a state dinner in Ethiopia.
Lucy, a 3.2 million-year-old member of Australopithecus afarensis, is the most complete skeleton of an early human ancestor ever discovered. The fossil, normally housed in Ethiopia’s national museum, was brought to the national palace on Monday for Obama’s visit and helped put the ephemera of politics in perspective.
The US president even touched a vertebra from Lucy’s torso after being encouraged by Dr Zeresenay Alemseged, senior curator of anthropology at the California Academy of Sciences.
Alemseged said Lucy demonstrated how all human beings are connected, joking: “Every single person, even Donald Trump.”
Obama, the first sitting US president to visit Ethiopia, commented: “That’s amazing. So Lucy was on the chain to homo sapiens.” He asked “how many jumps” there were between Lucy and homo sapiens.
Alemseged said there were multiple generations in between. Referring to later discoveries, he added, “we have the evidence that homo sapiens indeed emerged in Ethiopia”.
President Barack Obama and aides with fossilized remains of "Lucy" in Ethiopia on Monday