Join us today at 5 PM Pacific Time for live coverage of the 47th Democratic National Convention. |
Today’s comic by Matt Bors is The Outer Limits of Criticism:
• Would-be Reagan assassin John Hinckley Jr. to be released to live with mom:
John W. Hinckley, Jr., will be released from a government psychiatric hospital more than 35 years after he attempted to assassinate president Ronald Reagan and shot three others outside the Washington Hilton on March 30, 1981, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
Hinckley, 61, no longer poses a danger to himself or others and will be freed to live full-time with his mother in Williamsburg, Va., effective as soon as Aug. 5 subject to dozens of temporary treatment and monitoring conditions, U.S. District Judge Paul L Friedman of Washington wrote.
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• Copycat mass shooters on the rise:
As a string of gun rampages continues in America and beyond, more evidence is emerging that copycat mass shooters are on the rise—a danger amplified and accelerated by social media. Two mass shootings this month build on disturbing patterns seen in other recent cases: an attack on police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and another on mallgoers in Munich, Germany, whose perpetrator displayed a host of behaviors underscoring this troubling phenomenon.
• It’s day 165 of the GOP’s stubborn refusal to hold a hearing on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland: It's Wednesday, July 27, and Day 165 since Justice Antonin Scalia died and Mitch McConnell decided no nominee to replace him on the Supreme Court would get Senate attention: No meetings, no hearings, no votes. It's also Day 128 since President Obama named Merrick Garland to be Scalia's replacement. What's the Senate doing today instead of considering the Supreme Court nominee? They’re on recess.
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• New study shows how harmful repeated racially discriminatory attacks are on mental and physical health:
Several studies have already linked racial discrimination to poor mental and physical health but no study has ever studied the impact numerous attacks over time have on a person's mental health.
The study, published by Dr Laia Becares and colleagues in the American Journal of Public Health, was looking at the accumulation of experiences of racial attacks over time including being shouted at, being physically attacked, avoiding a place, or feeling unsafe because of one's ethnicity.
• Workers who feed Congress to get a million dollars in back pay:
Two companies that run food service at the U.S. Capitol will pay a million dollars in back wages to almost 700 workers who they cheated out of their pay, the Department of Labor announced Tuesday.
The men and women who serve Congress its food clawed their way into Washington’s conscience over the past couple of years with a series of strikes and walkouts as part of a campaign for higher wages and union rights. The strikes at the Capitol and in other federal buildings in the Washington, D.C. area helped persuade President Obama to issue three executive orders mandating higher wages and stronger workplace protections for workers hired by federal contractors.
• Some historic firsts for American Indians at Democratic National Convention.
• Could giant toilet plungers make some off-shore wind power installations cheaper?
The toilet plunger method (more formally known as the “Mono Bucket”) is an example of how a technological game-changer can often be incredibly low tech. Imagine a bunch of giant plungers in a lake. When the plungers descend, the water trapped in the bottom is pushed out, creating a vacuum. The vacuum pulls the plunger down to the lake bed and anchors it. This provides a solid base for a wind turbine and takes much less time than the standard method of using pile drivers to push concrete-filled steel pipes into the ground. It’s also less environmentally destructive.
• On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: A very KITM look at Day 2 of the Dem convention. President Clinton I speaks. Bernie holdouts take a walk. When fallout from righteous action rains down on the heads of others. Trump jams a foot in the door of the Russia story. (Then later, in his mouth.)
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