"The tennis star, who competes for Japan, was the final carrier of the Olympic flame in a ceremony that was a long time coming… When the 2020 Olympic flame at last illuminated an enormous cauldron in Tokyo's Olympic Stadium, it was lit by Naomi Osaka, Japan's 23-year-old tennis superstar." What if we threw an Olympics where nobody could come.
"Cleveland's Major League Baseball team has changed its name to the Guardians, ridding itself of a previous name that many found highly offensive."
"But instead of going on NPR to discuss her memoir, which explores the history of women like herself debilitated by autoimmune diseases like chronic fatigue syndrome, Ramey is talking about the cosmically terrible timing of its release date: March 17, 2020. 'That's also essentially the same week that COVID-19 came out,' she observes. 'For it to come out that week, of all weeks, was really ... challenging.'" I've been hearing stories on the various writing podcasts about authors who had book debuts this last year.
"Boeing's Starliner spacecraft has been mated to its rocket ride ahead of its July 30 launch… The mission, called Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2), will be Boeing's second attempt at launching its new astronaut taxi to the International Space Station. The CST-100 Starliner spacecraft was stacked atop its United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on July 17 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, marking a key milestone ahead of the mission's launch next week."
"For the first time, astronomers have found a disk around a Jupiter-like planet outside of our solar system -- the kind of disk where moons could actively be forming."
"NASA's InSight lander arrived on Mars in 2018 to learn about its interior by monitoring "marsquakes," and now the project is starting to really pay off. NASA has announced that researchers have mapped the red planet's interior and discovered some big surprises and major differences with Earth. "
"Record-breaking rainstorms – which dumped a year’s worth of rain on and around the capital of Henan province, Zhengzhou, earlier this week – have since moved north, affecting outer cities and regional areas, trapping people without electricity or fresh water, including at hospitals."
"Just one week after Google's DeepMind AI group finally described its biology efforts in detail, the company is releasing a paper that explains how it analyzed nearly every protein encoded in the human genome and predicted its likely three-dimensional structure—a structure that can be critical for understanding disease and designing treatments. In the very near future, all of these structures will be released under a Creative Commons license via the European Bioinformatics Institute, which already hosts a major database of protein structures." Note that at the sizes we're discussing here and with the interaction with other proteins and molecules, physical shape is as important as valency.
"Thursday, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that an additional 275,000 low-income individuals in the state are again eligible for publicly-funded health care… Missouri voters successfully pushed through a state constitutional amendment on the ballot last August to adopt Medicaid expansion, but the Republican-dominated legislature refused to implement it, prompting Gov. Mike Parson, also a Republican, to pull the plug on plans to bolster the health care program."
"Thursday morning, Florida is one of about a dozen states seeing COVID-19 cases surge… Local health leaders say the majority of those testing positive for the virus are not vaccinated."
"Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued an impassioned plea for residents of her state to get vaccinated against Covid-19, arguing it was 'time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks' for the disease’s continued spread."
"People who are severely immune-compromised should consider getting a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, several members of a federal advisory committee said Thursday, and should definitely take other precautions like wearing masks and making sure those around them are vaccinated."
"'One of the last things they do before they're intubated is beg me for the vaccine,' she wrote. 'I hold their hand and tell them that I'm sorry, but it's too late'… In her post, Cobia wrote that when a patient dies, she hugs their family members and urges them to get vaccinated. She said they cry and tell her they thought the pandemic was a 'hoax,' or 'political,' or targeting some other age group or skin color." I've seen people online call her cruel and heartless, but once you've developed symptoms, it's too late for the vaccine.
"The lambda variant, first identified in Peru, is also making headlines as it has started to be identified in several states. Houston Methodist Hospital reported its first case of the variant this week. Scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina recently announced they had found the variant in a virus sample taken in April."
"New Zealand will pause its quarantine-free travel arrangement with Australia for at least eight weeks starting Friday night, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, as Australia fights an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant."
"Weekly jobless claims unexpected moved higher last week despite hopes that the U.S. labor market is poised for a strong recovery heading into the fall… Initial filings for unemployment insurance totaled 419,000 for the week ended July 17, well above the 350,000 Dow Jones estimate and more than the upwardly revised 368,000 from the previous period, the Labor Department reported Thursday."
"Come 2034, incoming revenues will be enough to pay about 76% of scheduled Social Security benefits, a 2020 Social Security Administration trustees report predicts." That's just before I reach full retirement. Time to eliminate the cap on what income is taxed for SSI. As to the admonition that younger people shouldn't worry about it, fuck that shit. They're just trying to keep your voices out of the struggle.
"Texas is beginning to arrest migrants on trespassing charges along the U.S.-Mexico border as part of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's actions that he says are needed to slow the number of border crossings, jailing at least 10 people so far with more on the way, authorities said Thursday."
"For Kimberly, an undocumented 20-year-old in Missouri, last week’s decision by a Texas judge to not allow immigrants to file new applications for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca), a program that shielded them against deportation and provided work permits and other benefits, could have immediate impacts."
"Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. is charged with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud through bribery or kickbacks under the deal, Acting U.S. Attorney Vipal J. Patel said at a press conference Thursday." I've had governmental dealings with First Energy, this isn't nearly enough.
"Pacific Gas & Electric plans to bury 10,000 miles of its power lines in an effort to prevent its fraying grid from sparking wildfires when electrical equipment collides with millions of trees and other vegetation across drought-stricken California… The daunting project announced Wednesday aims to bury about 10% of PG&E's distribution and transmission lines at a projected cost of $15 billion to as much as $30 billion, based on how much the process currently costs. The utility believes it will find ways to keep the final bill at the lower end of those estimates. Most of the costs will likely be shouldered by PG&E customers, whose electricity rates are already among the highest in the U.S." I'm sure they'll find a way to go over the $30B top estimate. Or, ya know, this is a ploy to go back to the days where they wouldn't be liable for the fires their equipment starts. Because… "After previous leaders allowed its equipment to fall into disrepair in a apparent attempt to boost profits and management bonuses, the utility's grid was blamed for igniting a series of devastating wildfires in 2017 and 2018 that prompted the company to file for bankruptcy in 2019."
"Tax authorities in India raided several offices of one of the world's biggest-selling newspapers on Thursday, a move journalists and leading opposition politicians described as an attack on press freedom… The paper shocked India with its reporting of dead bodies in the river Ganges during the brutal second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic this spring. It criticized authorities for under-reporting Covid-19 deaths and challenged state officials and the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over their handling of the crisis."
"Another hearing was held Wednesday as Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman considers the future of the site and compensation for the survivors and victims’ families… Hanzman said the families will get a minimum of $150 million in compensation initially. That includes insurance on the condo building and the expected proceeds from a sale of the property where the structure once stood."
"Lara, along with six more residents, is a plaintiff in a class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for Maryland this week against their landlord, Arbor Realty Trust Inc., and its subsidiaries. The complaint alleges violations of the Fair Housing Act, including intentional discrimination based on race and national origin. The company's business strategy, the complaint alleges, involves the 'intentional targeting of these low-income communities of color.'"
"The Justice Department is launching an effort in five cities in the U.S. to reduce spiking gun violence by addressing illegal trafficking and prosecuting offenses that help put guns in the hands of criminals."
"Mississippi's attorney general told the Supreme Court on Thursday that Roe v. Wade was 'egregiously wrong' and should be overturned as she urged the justices to allow a controversial law that bars most abortions after 15 weeks to go into effect." The whole thing on the Right-to-Life side has not been to find reasonable accommodation, it has been to roll back the sexual revolution.
"The FBI disclosed that it received more than 4,500 tips on a phone line in 2018 as part of a background investigation into then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and provided 'relevant' ones to former President Donald Trump's White House counsel… The exact number of tips was disclosed in a June 30 letter released by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse on Thursday. The letter was in response to a two-year-old request from Senate Democrats seeking more information about the handling of the investigation."
Just a reminder… "The commanding general of the Washington, DC, National Guard testified (in February) that he did not need authorization from Pentagon leaders before deploying troops in response to protests at the nation's capital last summer but that changed in the days before the January 6 insurrection… The shift in guidance, according to DC National Guard Commanding Maj. Gen. William Walker, was communicated in a January 5 memo that stated he was required to seek approval from the Secretary of the Army and Defense before preparing troops to respond to a civil disturbance."
"A federal judge forced a US Capitol rioter to unlock his laptop Wednesday after prosecutors argued that it likely contained footage of the January 6 insurrection from his helmet-worn camera… The judge granted the Justice Department's request to place Capitol riot defendant Guy Reffitt in front of his laptop so they could use facial recognition to unlock the device. The maneuver happened after the hearing ended and Reffitt's lawyer confirmed to CNN that the laptop was unlocked."
"Fox News host Tucker Carlson called a Black police officer who said he was called the N-word while defending the Capitol on Jan. 6 an 'angry, left-wing political activist' on Wednesday… In April, Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn told MSNBC's 'The ReidOut' host Joy Reid that Black officers fought a "different" battle than everybody else as they endured both physical trauma and racist slurs while fending off supporters of former President Donald Trump who stormed the Capitol." Tucker once asked to be shown what a white-supremacist looks like. Just take a look in the mirror, Tucker.
Sometimes the article titles are the best summary of the story, and then there are these kinds of titles… "Pelosi Kicks Kooks Off Coup Committee." This story is mostly about people lining up the chess pieces for future arguments.
"Pelosi's decision to reject the two Republicans -- and McCarthy's response to pull the rest his members -- injected new fuel into the partisan fight over the select committee that's been raging since Democrats created the panel last month to investigate the circumstances surrounding the January 6 attack on the Capitol."
"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is considering naming GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger to join the select committee investigating the deadly January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol… During a news conference on Capitol Hill on Thursday morning, Pelosi said, 'We'll see,' when asked about the potential appointment." He would join Liz Cheney as the only Republicans on the panel.
It's the Daily Beast, so take this as it is… "At the height of the controversy surrounding Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and the revelations that he’s under investigation for sex trafficking, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) bet big on a nationwide joint fundraising tour with her embattled colleague. But new campaign filings show that not only did the gamble not pay off, but that the much-maligned Republicans actually spent four times as much as they raised." But don't feel so bad for them just yet… "In fact, the big winner from the Gaetz and Greene barnstorming appears to be Gaetz’s PR firm… The Logan Circle Group, which the campaign hired in early April, made off with more than a million dollars in the second quarter of 2021." And that's money in pocket, to the debt of the joint campaign. Grifters gonna grift.
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