Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Interceptor7, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Besame. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular 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 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
We start of tonight with one of the most shocking upsets of the Democratic primary season in Florida...and there’s a storm hovering over the Chicago-area that is wreaking havoc right now...so this OND will be uncharacteristically short.
Tallahassee Democrat: 'THIS IS OUR MOMENT': Andrew Gillum grabs Democratic nomination after spectacular upset by James Call
In a spectacular upset, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum came from the back of the pack to take the Democratic nomination for Florida Governor.
In a last minute surge to victory, he surpassed former Congresswoman Gwen Graham to historic win to face Ron DeSantis in November.
As primary night unfolded and the results moved in favor of Gillumr, his longtime Tallahassee supporters were effusive in their praise of the one-term mayor.
Gillum told a sea of supporters he was simply a vessel to carry out the wishes that represent the entire state.
He said, “Are you ready to flip Florida blue?”
Gillum delivered a hopeful speech riding on the electric energy felt in the room and among thousands watching in a Facebook live broadcast moments after several news outlets declared him the Democratic nominee for governor.
Congratulations to Mayor Gillum and just...wow!
Chicago Sun-Times: Police videos of teen who officials say shot himself ‘inconclusive,’ family says by Michael Armentout
Family members of Steven Rosenthal said Tuesday that Chicago police have shown them body camera recordings of the 15-year-old boy’s run-in with officers earlier this month in Lawndale, but they still aren’t convinced the boy fatally shot himself in the head as authorities have insisted.
“The videos are inconclusive. The family has more questions than they do answers,” attorney Andrew Stroth said during a press conference outside Crane High School, where Rosenthal played guard for the boys basketball team.
Relatives saw three body camera feeds that captured the moments before and after the Aug. 17 encounter near Rosenthal’s home in the 1500 block of South Keeler, according to Stroth. But the controversial gunshot that has spurred several protest marches — and highlighted the deep-seated mistrust between the community and the police department — is not visible.
Philly.com: For Archbishop Chaput and Pope Francis, envoy’s letter a reminder of past tensions by Jeremy Roebuck and David Gambacorta
It's a rare papal slight that receives a public airing — and this one was aimed directly at Philadelphia's Archbishop Charles J. Chaput.
But Pope Francis' purported reproach of the region's top Catholic as too "right-wing" — as stated this weekend in a public letter penned by one of the pontiff's most vocal critics — offered more than just an unusual glimpse into the Vatican's dirty laundry.
It underscored a widening rift between the church hierarchy's conservative and liberal wings, and suggested evidence of a flinty relationship between two men who may best epitomize both sides.
In public, Chaput, an unswerving traditionalist, and Francis, embraced by liberals as a Vatican "change agent," have professed mutual admiration — most notably as the two stood side by side during the pope's visit to Philadelphia in 2015.
Denver Post: Country clubs and assassin wasps: Fighting the Japanese beetle’s spread out of the Denver metro area by Elizabeth Hernandez
The most action-packed summer blockbuster in Colorado isn’t playing out on the silver screen, but around a rosebud’s roots: predatory wasp versus invasive Japanese beetle.
The unwelcome beetle — a six-legged, flying insect no bigger than a fingernail — haunts gardeners’ psyches with its ability to make healthy leaves look like Swiss cheese. Its chilling presence on plants across Colorado’s Front Range has been felt, and seen, particularly hard this year, prompting drastic measures from local horticulturists and entomologists who just want the beetle to croak.
With that in mind, shipments of live predatory wasps were mailed this year from North Carolina to Colorado researchers, who released them into the wild with an assassin’s mission: Sniff out Japanese beetle larvae known as white grubs, burrow underground and lay eggs on the grubs that will eventually hatch, eating the infant beetles.
Buzzfeed: California Just Became The First State To End Cash Bail For People Awaiting Trial by Claudia Koerner
California became the first state to end its cash bail system on Tuesday with a law that some criminal justice activists fear may do more harm than good.
The California Money Bail Reform Act, which will end the practice of releasing suspects from jail as they await trial if they put up money as a surety they'll return for their court dates, was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown and takes effect in October 2019. Under the new law, people awaiting trial will be jailed only if they are considered a risk to public safety or likely to miss their future court dates.
"Today, California reforms its bail system so that rich and poor alike are treated fairly," Brown said in a statement.
Abolishing cash bail is a revolutionary change to the criminal justice system, and an issue activists have worked on for years. Supporters of the change say cash bail keeps too many poor people behind bars who pose no risk to the public, and that the bail industry engages in predatory lending, particularly toward poor communities of color.
Guardian: Puerto Rico raises official Hurricane Maria death toll from 64 to 2,975 by Amanda Holpuch and the Associated Press
Puerto Rico on Tuesday raised the official death toll from Hurricane Maria to 2,975 people – a dramatic increase on the previous official figure of 64 – almost a year after the devastating storm struck the island.
The death toll was changed for the first time since December, following the publication of new research by George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health.
“We never anticipated a scenario of zero communication, zero energy, zero highway access,” Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rosselló, told reporters. “I think the lesson is to anticipate the worst.”
This is the first official change to the death toll following efforts by journalists, activists and academics to get the government to officially acknowledge the scale of devastation.
Rosselló told reporters the island could have been better prepared for the hurricane, which hit on 20 September 2017, causing an island-wide electricity outage and telecommunications failures that made it nearly impossible for people to contact loved ones and get help for weeks after the storm.
“Yes, I made mistakes,” Rosselló said. “Yes, in hindsight, things could have been handled differently.”
AlJazeera: War of words between US-Russia as Syria attack looms
Russia has deployed a dozen warships to the Mediterranean Sea in what a Russian newspaper on Tuesday called Moscow's largest naval buildup since it entered the Syrian conflict in 2015.
The reinforcement comes as Russia's ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is believed to be considering a major assault on the last rebel-held enclave in northern Idlib province.
Russia has accused the United States of building up its own forces in the Middle East in preparation for a possible strike on Syrian government forces.
On Saturday, the Admiral Grigorovich and Admiral Essen frigates sailed through Turkey's Bosphorus towards the Mediterranean, Reuters news agency images showed.
BBC: Hong Kong woman marries stranger after being 'tricked' by work
A 21-year-old Hong Kong woman has said she was tricked into marrying a complete stranger on the mainland while taking part in a "mock" wedding.
The woman has said she was told that she had to play the role of a bride in a simulated wedding as part of her training to be a wedding planner.
During the ceremony she and the man signed a genuine marriage document.
She only realised she was actually married after returning to Hong Kong, where she sought legal help.
Local police were unable to help due to a lack of evidence that a crime had taken place, so she approached the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU).
"It's a new form of marriage scam," Tong Kamgyiu, director of the Rights and Benefits Committee of FTU, told the BBC.
"I feel disappointed and cannot believe it's even happening in modern Hong Kong."
DW: South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar agrees to sign final peace deal
After initially refusing to do so, rebel leader Riek Machar said he would sign the deal to end the country's brutal civil war. Machar will return to government as one of South Sudan's vice presidents.
President Salva Kiir had been in talks with his former, and returning vice president Riek Machar for several weeks in Khartoum, under the Sudanese government's mediation, trying to find a comprehensive peace deal to end the civil war.
Tens of thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced since Kiir and Machar fell out in 2013 and fighting between state troops and fighters loyal to Machar broke out.
A series of draft agreements around a ceasefire had been drawn up and some were signed but the comprehensive end to fighting and power-sharing accord still eluded them.
On Tuesday, Machar balked again as his SPLM-IO and another rebel group said that issues over power sharing and a new constitution had been left out of the text.
However, later on Tuesday, Sudanese Foreign Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohamed said intensive negotiations with Machar had led to him "agreeing to initial the final peace agreement the day after tomorrow, on Thursday, August 30."
Detroit News: Thousands pay respect to the Queen of Soul by James David Dickson and Candace Williams
Detroit — For hours Tuesday, thousands fixed their eyes on the singer whose name alone commanded global attention.
And to many mourners who paid their respects to Aretha Franklin at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, glimpsing a beloved icon with legions of fans also meant reliving countless memories, musical or otherwise.
Some queuing up for the viewing were as emotional as Tommy Kraus, who admits that after the Queen of Soul died from pancreatic cancer Aug. 16 at age 76, hearing her single “Freeway of Love” was no longer the same.
“I’ve been listening to her since I was a baby,” said Kraus of Detroit, who attended with his girlfriend, Christine Zim. “My mom would drive around listening to it in the station wagon… Aretha, to me, transcended many generations.”
That influence was evident throughout the 12-hour public viewing at the museum, the first of two in which Franklin lies in repose there.
Don’t forget that Meteor Blades is hosting an open thread for night owls tonight.
Everyone have a great evening!