Today’s comic by Ruben Bolling is A tax plan for Lucky Ducky:
• U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan underwent triple-bypass surgery: The Wisconsin Democrat, who has has represented Wisconsin's 2nd Congressional District since 2013 had the procedure as "a preemptive measure to a cardiac issue," according to a statement from his office. "The surgery went well and Mark is looking forward to a speedy recovery so he can return to Washington soon to continue fighting for the people of Wisconsin.
• Clinton aides form new Super PAC:
Former aides to Bill and Hillary Clinton are launching a new super PAC to upgrade Democratic organizing and fundraising in support of the party's candidates around the country, NBC News has learned.
The new group, called Party Majority, would act as a parallel structure to Democratic party committees at the national and state levels while coordinating with them. Its creation comes at a time when party committees are struggling to maintain their relevance as donors increasingly push money to political organizations that can raise and spend money with less regulation.
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• Assault on Sen. Rand Paul could bring a federal charge, lawyer for attacker says.
• If Chicxulub asteroid had struck elsewhere, dinosaurs might be running things now:
The massive asteroid that slammed into Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs might never have triggered a mass extinction had it struck almost any other part of the planet, scientists claim.
In work that reveals just how unlucky the prehistoric beasts were, researchers calculate that the odds of the enormous space rock wreaking such havoc were low across 87% of the Earth’s surface.
Unfortunately for the dinosaurs, the 9km-wide asteroid thumped into the ground in what is now Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, where the concentration of hydrocarbons in the rocks was so high that the soot and sulphate aerosols sent into the sky caused global cooling and drought. The impact crater near the town of Chicxulub is 180km wide and 20km deep.
• In study, cockatoos pick right key to access a nut as reward:
The Goffin's cockatoo is not a specialised tool user in the wild but has shown the capacity to invent and use different types of tools in captivity. Now cognitive biologists from the University of Vienna and the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna tested these parrots in a tool use task, requiring the birds to move objects in relation to a surface. The animals had to choose the correct "key" to insert into a "keyhole" in a box, aligning its shape to the shape of a surface cutout inside the box during insertion. The parrots were not only able to select the correct key but also required fewer placement attempts to align simple shapes than primates in a similar study.
• Seventh Circuit Court rejects animal activist’s plea:
The Seventh Circuit on Wednesday upheld the prosecution of an animal-rights activist who freed 2,000 minks and foxes from a fur factory as a terrorist.
In 2013, Californians Tyler Lang and Kevin Johnson freed 2,000 minks and foxes, and left the words “Liberation in Love” spray-painted on a barn at a fur factory in Morris, Ill., roughly 60 miles from Chicago.
They were prosecuted for their actions under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, or AETA, a statute that has raised controversy since its passage in 2006.
• On Veterans Day, we should remember how veterans are affected by unions:
1 out of every 5 veterans would benefit from raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024. In addition to raising the minimum wage, Congress should ensure that workers who have fought to preserve our freedoms return to workplaces where they have the freedom to join together to bargain for better wages and working conditions. On average, a worker covered by a union contract earns 13.2 percent more in wages and is much more likely to have health and retirement benefits than a peer with similar education, occupation, and experience in a non-unionized workplace in the same sector. A testament to the importance of union for wages and working conditions, veterans are disproportionately more likely to work in a unionized workplace. Compared to a 12 percent coverage rate overall, 16 percent of veterans—or 1.2 million veterans—are in a union or covered by a union contract.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin rounded up the headlines from the day after The Day After, and it’s almost as if Republicans were in disarray. Will it really matter if the Gop tax bill is never enacted? Is Trump hollowing out the State Department like W. did with the DOJ?
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