August 4, 2022

After Kansas smackdown, anti-abortion right in denial: Either it didn't happen or it doesn't matter

(Salon) Amid the array of primary election results on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, one stood out in boldface type: Nearly 60% of voters in Kansas, typically a deep-red state that Donald Trump easily carried two years ago, rejected a ballot referendum that would have amended the state constitution to remove the right to abortion.

The amendment, artfully entitled "Value Them Both," represented the first ballot initiative on abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June. Abortion opponents described it as a corrective to a 2019 state Supreme Court ruling which found that the Kansas constitution protects abortion rights, while pro-choice groups warned it would swiftly allow Republican lawmakers to enact a total abortion ban.

Republicans never exactly admitted that, repeatedly casting pro-choice warnings about a potential ban as lies and disinformation, even after the Kansas Reflector obtained audio recordings in mid-July of a Value Them Both Coalition staffer telling Republican officials they had abortion-ban legislation waiting in the wings once the amendment passed.

The ballot initiative seemed designed to disadvantage abortion rights supporters from the get-go. It was scheduled for a vote not in the general election in November but in the August primary, which in Kansas traditionally draws few Democrats (since many Democratic candidates run unopposed) or unaffiliated voters, who cannot vote in either party's primaries. Pro-choice advocates also charged that the ballot initiative's language was intentionally misleading, designed to confuse voters about what a "yes" or "no" vote meant and including irrelevant provisions, such as public funding for abortion, that don't actually exist in the state. ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/08/04/after-kansas-smackdown-anti-abortion-right-in-denial-either-it-didnt-happen-or-it-doesnt-matter/

August 4, 2022

Trevor Noah Has Best Explanation Yet For What Just Happened To Alex Jones' Face

(HuffPost) Trevor Noah can’t get over Alex Jones’ reaction in court on Wednesday after he learned his own attorneys had accidentally turned over evidence that prosecutors say is proof he lied under oath.

Jones, who was found liable for defamation last year, is on trial to determine how much he must pay in damages to two Sandy Hook parents he smeared for years. Then, this happened:

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1554875445253812225

“Oh, shit that was funny!” Noah said after playing the footage. “I like how he was so shocked he started turning into every emoji.” .............(more)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trevor-noah-alex-jones-face_n_62eb3688e4b00f4cf2373ddd

August 3, 2022

Naked Florida man hurls urn full of ashes during argument

SEBASTIAN, Fla. (CBS12) — After throwing an urn containing a family member's ashes at someone, a naked man from Sebastian was arrested early Saturday morning.

According to the Sebastian Police Department, 46-year-old Scott Cornwell got into a heated argument with the victim—which escalated when Cornwell threw a glass-style urn at their head.

As officers arrived on scene, they found the victim at a neighbor's house—their face had multiple swollen bloody masses bursting open. The victim was transported to the Sebastian Hospital, where it was later discovered they had a fractured nasal cavity. ..............(more)

https://cbs12.com/news/local/scott-cornwell-46-naked-man-throws-urn-leaving-vicitm-bloody-and-battered-aggravated-battery-sebastian-police-department-august-08-02-2022

August 3, 2022

Man trying to burn spider with lighter sparked Utah wildfire, police say

(Guardian UK) A Utah man has been arrested on suspicion of starting a wildfire while trying to burn a spider with his lighter.

Cory Martin, 26, told police that he spotted the spider on Monday while he was in a hiking area in the foothills south of Salt Lake City near the city of Springville. He acknowledged starting the fire, but did not explain why he was trying to burn the spider.

Deputies found a jar of marijuana in his belongings, but he did not appear to be high, said Sgt Spencer Cannon of Utah county sheriff’s department.

There is no evidence to suggest Martin intentionally started the blaze, said Cannon, but he called it a reckless and puzzling decision. This area and most of Utah are bone dry amid extreme drought conditions. ..........(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/02/utah-wildfire-police-man-burn-spider-lighter

August 3, 2022

By Attacking Brittney Griner, Trump Signals to His Base: "I'm Still Racist"

By Attacking Brittney Griner, Trump Signals to His Base: “I’m Still Racist”
The former president is reconnecting with his fans by using an old playbook: demonize a Black athlete, lie about who they are, and reap the benefits.

By Dave Zirin


(The Nation) Donald Trump, contrary to widespread belief, does in fact have a core set of values and has lived by this moral code for 50 years. It’s not love of country, family, religion, or business ethics. He has treated these pillars of right-wing morality like a frat treats a freshly cleaned bathroom.

Trump’s one constant has been his racism and bigotry. Even when it seemingly makes no political sense, his unerring instinct moves him toward his happy place: hating others. Never underestimating the racism that lives in this country’s marrow has been his greatest political survival skill, and his survival has never felt more precarious. This is the best way to understand why Trump would look at the political landscape, see Brittney Griner rotting in a Russian prison, and say she should be buried under the cell. Instead of defending a US citizen, an Olympian, and a symbol of wrongful political detentions, Trump piled on. On some godforsaken fascistic podcast that I wouldn’t link to on a dare, Trump called Griner “potentially spoiled” (not sure what that means) and said she deserved to be behind bars.

He described her Kafkaesque situation as follows: “She went in there loaded up with drugs into a hostile territory where they’re very vigilant about drugs. They don’t like drugs. And she got caught. And now we’re supposed to get her out—and she makes, you know, a lot of money, I guess. We’re supposed to get her out for an absolute killer and one of the biggest arms dealers in the world.”

....(snip)....

It has largely been a given that everyone wants Griner to come home and be reunited with her family. But Trump doesn’t see the world in terms of easing human suffering. He sees Griner, and you can imagine the neon-blood-red words flashing in his brain—“Black,” “lesbian,” “WNBA”—and Trump immediately deducing that he can use her as a political piñata to bond himself to a frenzied base. It comes from his Colin Kaepernick playbook: demonize a Black athlete, lie about who they are and what they stand for, and reap the benefits.

But there is a difference. Back in those innocent days of 2016 when Trump profanely belched that kneeling during the anthem should get a person fired and deported, he was singing the song and his people would dance. He moved racism and demonization away from the province of political operatives and dark-money TV ads and bellowed it onstage as news cameras rolled. Today, the mob is playing the tune, and Trump is scrambling to keep up. By attacking Griner, Trump is like an aging musician hoping that a cover of a greatest hit will land him back on the charts. And as a bonus, by siding with Russia and their drug laws, Trump sends a wink to white nationalists whose fetish of Putin and “tough on crime” laws (as long as the crimes aren’t their own) has long been a part of his political calculus. ..............(more)

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/brittney-griner-trump-racism/

August 2, 2022

Investigation debunks bogus 'audit' claiming 300 dead people voted in Arizona in 2020

(Guardian UK) After spending months reviewing the 2020 election in Arizona last year, Cyber Ninjas, the firm overseeing the so-called audit said it believed nearly 300 dead people may have voted. It was one of a series of allegations the company made as part of an effort to sow doubt about the election results in Arizona.

It turned out not to be true. After investigating the allegations thoroughly, analysts found just one person who was actually dead at the time of the election.

“After spending hundreds of hours reviewing these allegations, our investigators were able to determine that only one of the 282 individuals on the list was deceased at the time of the election. All other persons listed as deceased were found to be current voters,” Arizona’s attorney general, Mark Brnovich, a Republican, wrote in a letter on Monday to state senate president, Karen Fann, who authorized the review.

Brnovich added: “Our agents investigated all individuals that Cyber Ninjas reported as dead, and many were very surprised to learn they were allegedly deceased.”

Experts have long said the review and Cyber Ninjas’ conclusion were misleading and untrue. Election officials in Maricopa county, the location of the review, released an extensive report earlier this year debunking the claims. ............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/02/investigation-finds-claim-300-dead-people-voted-arizona-2020-election-false

August 2, 2022

Man arrested on DUI charge after driving scooter into Walmart shelves, police say

MELBOURNE, Fla. – A 39-year-old man was arrested on allegations of driving a motorized scooter while drunk and crashing into shelves Sunday at a Walmart in Melbourne, police said.

According to Melbourne police, the man was driving a Walmart scooter and had his open backpack sitting in the scooter basket, where an opened bottle of Smirnoff vodka could be seen.

Police said the man was seen swaying in the scooter and running into shelves and he nearly stuck other customers. Police said the man had “glassy eyes” and smelled like alcohol.

The scooter driver was unresponsive when he was asked to show his ID and had to be taken to a patrol vehicle on a stretcher, police said. The man refused a breath test when he was taken into custody, according to police. ............(more)

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/07/26/florida-man-arrested-on-dui-charge-after-driving-scooter-into-walmart-shelves-police-say/

August 2, 2022

A day with America's only dedicated heat team in the US's hottest city

A day with America’s only dedicated heat team in the US’s hottest city

The pioneering team was created last year amid pressure from activists, faith groups and experts to make Phoenix, Arizona, more livable
by Nina Lakhani in Phoenix. Photography by Caitlin O'Hara


(Guardian UK) Phoenix is America’s hottest city, and it’s getting hotter. The global climate crisis and decades of sprawling urban growth has turned this desert city into a hazardous heat island with dwindling water supplies and inadequate shade.

An assortment of programs to cool down Phoenix and help people survive the heat have not been working: in Maricopa county, which includes Phoenix, record high temperatures contributed to at least 662 deaths between 2020 and 2021, while thousands more people needed emergency medical treatment.

That’s where the city’s new Office of Heat Response and Mitigation comes in. The pioneering heat team was created last September amid pressure from activists, researchers, faith groups and health experts for a dedicated team responsible – and accountable – for making Phoenix more livable.

David Hondula, a climate and health researcher at Arizona State University, was hired to lead the four-person team and coordinate the city’s immediate efforts to cut heat deaths and illness, and come up with ways to cool the city and make it more comfortable in the long term. It’s the first local government funded heat team in North America, possibly the world. “It’s a long game – we’re fighting for small wins that we hope will accumulate into larger wins,” said Hondula. “We need to prepare for and recover from every summer, not occasional heatwaves.”

The Guardian spent a day with the Phoenix heat team during one of the hottest spells of the year so far.

....(snip)....

The number of unsheltered people in the city has more than tripled since 2016, and the homeless population accounts for about 40% of heat deaths. Reaching unsheltered people when it’s very hot is critical to reducing the city’s death toll.

Four times a week, every Tuesday and Thursday morning and afternoon, a city outreach team hands out essential supplies – cold water, cooling towels, hats and sunscreen – to anyone struggling outside. (They also provide supplies to faith groups and concerned citizens who have been doing this work for years.) .............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/02/phoenix-heat-team-hottest-city-us

August 1, 2022

Metro St. Louis estimates flood damage between $18-$20 million

Metro St. Louis estimates flood damage between $18-$20 million
July 29, 2022

The July 26 storms brought heavy rains and flash flooding to the St. Louis region resulting in reduced rail service.
Mischa Wanek-Libman




St. Louis Metro Transit is working with its teams and contractors to assess and repair damage done to its light-rail system during record-setting rainfall and flash flooding that occurred July 26. The MetroLink system is currently operating at 20-minute service intervals between Central West End and Shiloh-Scott Stations on the Red Line and between Shrewsbury-Lansdowne I-44 and Skinker Stations on the Blue Line.

Preliminary estimates of damage range between $18-$20 million with MetroLink equipment between Forest Park-DeBaliviere and Delmar Loop Stations sustaining the most significant flood damage. Light-rail track beds are damaged, as are light-rail communications, fiber optics and signal system. St. Louis Metro is expecting to have two vehicles declared a total loss: a Metro Call-A-Ride vehicle that was caught in flash flooding and a MetroLink train, which is valued at $10 million.

Bi-State Development President and CEO Taulby Roach explained the 46-mile MetroLink system had not experienced the levels of flash flooding since it opened in 1993.

“What occurred on July 26 was beyond our control and we ask for our riders to be patient in the days and weeks to come as we work through these unprecedented challenges to fully restore MetroLink service,” Roach said. “In the meantime, we are transporting our MetroLink riders by bus shuttles between stations where the trains are unable to operate. We recognize it is not as convenient for our customers and their commutes are taking longer than normal because traveling by bus is not as fast or efficient as taking MetroLink. Many of these operators are working long days and overtime so please thank them when you see them. Our team has made tremendous efforts during the past 48 hours to restore partial service and will continue these extraordinary efforts. Some of our employees are flood victims themselves and have damage to their homes and personal vehicles but are on the job to help keep the region moving.” ...............(more)

https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/article/21275796/metro-st-louis-estimates-flood-damage-between-1820-million

August 1, 2022

Michigan secretary of state: Attempts to block election certification will be 'futile'

(Detroit News) Lansing — Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson says her office will not tolerate any effort to obstruct the certification of Tuesday's primary election based on "partisan games" or "baseless lies."

"Any attempts to block the certification of our elections, regardless of the results, will be futile," Benson said during an interview with The Detroit News. "We are confident that the courts will swiftly enforce the law and that at the end of the day, the will of the people will stand."

Benson, a Democrat, made the comments just days before the first statewide vote since November 2020, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump attempted to overturn Michigan's results based on unproven claims of widespread fraud.

About 5.5 million ballots were cast in Michigan's November 2020 presidential election. In the last gubernatorial primary in August 2018, about 2.1 million voters participated when there were contested Republican and Democratic primaries for governor. .............(more)

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2022/08/01/secretary-state-benson-attempts-block-michigans-election-certification-futile/10188165002/