"The center of Tropical Storm Elsa is just about to move over the south coast of Cuba. It will emerge into the Florida Straits tonight. The storm looks messy on the satellite, but the top wind speed has not changed much. The main feature of the storm is the band of strongest winds and heaviest rain well displaced from the center to the east – on the right side. That will come into play late tonight and early tomorrow when the storm center passes the Keys."
"Blasts of flashy pyrotechnics across the country marked something of a return to normal, a year after the coronavirus pandemic dampened most Fourth festivities… But on America's 245th birthday, there was perhaps even more reason to celebrate in the name of freedom. About half of Americans are fully vaccinated against the virus, lockdowns have been lifted and infections remain relatively low in the U.S."
"The 4th of July started with a bang in Ocean City. Sunday morning a truck transporting fireworks was unintentionally set off, causing an explosion that could be seen and heard from blocks away."
"Angel Carrizales, head of Mexico's oil safety regulator ASEA, wrote on Twitter that the incident 'did not generate any spill,' according to Reuters news agency, but did not explain what was burning on the water's surface." And instead of being focused on what actually happened, most news agencies instead gave a lot to the "eye of fire" or referenced Godzilla.
"'Everybody depends on the water in the Klamath River for their livelihood. That’s the blood that ties us all together. ... They want to have the opportunity to teach their kids to fish for salmon just like I want to have the opportunity to teach my kids how to farm,' DuVal said of the downriver Yurok and Karuk tribes. 'Nobody’s coming out ahead this year. Nobody’s winning.'"
"Since 1999 there have been a number of attempts to develop some kind of follow-up to Galaxy Quest. And in a new interview, Emmy-winning writer/producer Georgia Pritchett revealed to the UK’s Times she is working on a television spinoff, with Simon Pegg." (Grokked from Dan)
"Rescue workers dug through sludge and debris Monday looking for dozens of people who may be trapped after a a torrent of mud, trees and rocks ripped with a roar through a Japanese seaside resort town, killing at least four people."
"A new study disputes the prevailing hypothesis on why Mercury has a big core relative to its mantle (the layer between a planet's core and crust). For decades, scientists argued that hit-and-run collisions with other bodies during the formation of our solar system blew away much of Mercury's rocky mantle and left the big, dense, metal core inside. But new research reveals that collisions are not to blame—the sun's magnetism is."
"The sun erupted with a surprise solar flare on Saturday (July 3), the largest since 2017, in an early explosion of cosmic fireworks ahead of the Fourth of July."
"Ticks aren't known as beach-lovers, so ecologist Dan Salkeld and a colleague were surprised when they found 180 ticks in less than a mile on a coastal trail near Muir Beach in California one day in 2016."
"Anthony Fauci on Sunday lamented the 'avoidable and preventable' deaths among people who are unvaccinated against the coronavirus now that vaccines are widely available in the United States."
"Capitalism is an economic system, but it's also so much more than that. It's become a sort of ideology, this all-encompassing force that rules over our lives and our minds. It might seem like it's an inevitable force, but really, it's a construction project that took hundreds of years and no part of it is natural or just left to chance." A quick print story, but worth listening to the Throughline podcast to hear the whole discussion.
"Cybersecurity teams worked feverishly Sunday to stem the impact of the single biggest global ransomware attack on record, with some details emerging about how the Russia-linked gang responsible breached the company whose software was the conduit… An affiliate of the notorious REvil gang, best known for extorting $11 million from the meat-processor JBS after a Memorial Day attack, infected thousands of victims in at least 17 countries on Friday, largely through firms that remotely manage IT infrastructure for multiple customers, cybersecurity researchers said."
"'Amazon founder Jeff Bezos isn't a fan of the phrase "work-life balance.'… At an April 2018 event hosted by Insider's parent company, Bezos said new Amazon employees shouldn't view work and life as a balancing act. Instead, Bezos said that it's more productive to view them as two integrated parts." Said in the way only a billionaire workaholic could.
"A professional golfer and two other men were killed in a shooting at an Atlanta-area country club and the suspect is still at large, authorities said."
"Pope Francis 'reacted well' to planned intestinal surgery Sunday evening at a Rome hospital, the Vatican said, without giving much detail about the pontiff's condition."
"The Vatican on Saturday announced that is charging 10 people with financial crimes, including a prominent Italian cardinal. The charges included embezzlement, money laundering, fraud, extortion and abuse of office relating to financial investments the financial arm of the Vatican made in London in 2018."
"Any foreign troops left in Afghanistan after Nato's September withdrawal deadline will be at risk as occupiers, the Taliban has told the BBC… It comes amid reports that 1,000 mainly US troops could remain on the ground to protect diplomatic missions and Kabul's international airport." Because of course they would.
"The Democrats write that they believe Greene's conduct has reached an 'unacceptable level,' referring to several incidents from her short tenure in Congress, including Greene's posting of an anti-transgender sign outside of her office, directly across the hall from another lawmaker who has a transgender child… 'Rep. Greene's conduct does not comport with what we expect from a member of the House of Representatives,' the letter reads. 'Moreover, we are extremely concerned that her conduct is creating an unsafe work environment for members, and that her actions could lead to violence against members of Congress.'"
"The group of heavily armed men refused to comply with police Saturday morning north of Boston, prompting I-95 to be closed and shelter-in-place orders for residents of Wakefield and Reading. Police lifted the shelter-in-place orders shortly after the suspects were taken into custody… 'We have several armed persons accounted for at this scene on Rt 95. They are refusing to comply with orders to provide their information and put down their weapons,' state police said on Twitter." Waits for the NRA to start talking about the need for gun control, like they did in the late 60s and early 70s.
"Surveillance video from the Sheffield Lake Police Department in Ohio shows the longtime chief printing a note reading 'Ku Klux Klan' and placing it on a Black officer's raincoat, according to the city's mayor." Yeah, the quote from the mayor is about how I would have played it as well. Talk to the hand, leave everything that is the city's, take your shit and get gone. Of course, ya know, it was meant to be a joke, he says. Yeah, that's the problem with humor, sometimes people don't see it that way. And also, nobody jokes like that. Plus I have a feeling this wasn't the first incident. And finally, the chief had to know there are cameras there.
"Americans are hitting the road in droves for the long Fourth of July weekend and Republicans are turning to another tried-and-true tradition: blaming the president for high gasoline prices… Prices at the pump have climbed to a national average of $3.126 per gallon, nearly $1 higher than a year ago when the nation was cooped up at home as the pandemic raged. But AAA is predicting a record 44 million people will take road trips this weekend, and Republicans hope they'll think of President Joe Biden when they fill up." And they're hoping you forget that most of that climb was when Trump was president.
"Former President Donald Trump said he was the one who told Gov. Ron DeSantis not to attend his July Fourth weekend rally in Sarasota, Florida… The pair had a conversation, during which both sides stressed they agreed the governor should stay in Surfside, where a condominium building partially collapsed over a week ago that left at least 24 dead and 121 missing."
"Nancy Pelosi’s creation of a House select committee to investigate the 6 January insurrection reopens the possibility of a comprehensive inquiry into myriad security failures and the causes of the deadly attack on Congress by a pro-Trump mob… The committee will have subpoena power and a broad mandate to examine the facts, circumstances and causes of the Capitol attack against the seat of modern American democracy."
"Six months later, many of those companies have resumed funneling cash to political action committees that benefit the election efforts of lawmakers whether they objected to the election certification or not. When it comes to seeking political influence through corporate giving, business as usual is back, if it ever left." Because of course they have. and they think you've stopped caring or looking at what they've done.
"On the campaign trail and while he was in the White House, former President Donald Trump repeatedly said he was smart for paying as little taxes as possible. And he often bragged about knowing the tax code so well that he could use it to his advantage. In a 2017 interview with the New York Times, for example, Trump bragged: 'I know the details of taxes better than anybody. Better than the greatest C.P.A.' It was quite a different story Saturday night in Florida, where Trump held his second rally since leaving office."
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