“Many a time freedom has been rolled back—and always for the same sorry reason: fear.” — Molly Ivins
Deaths
US: 619,980
World: 3,953,788
Cases
US: 34,527,493
Deaths: 182,578,616
House GOP leaders won’t support probe of Jan. 6 Capitol riot. House Republican leaders say they will oppose the creation of a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol — and have so far declined to say whether they will even participate in the probe.
What if the government got it wrong on masks again? The Delta variant is also taking off in the US -- and is surging in particular in places with low vaccination rates. So the question is whether the CDC will be forced to reassess its guidance.
Threat of delta variant looms large in unvaccinated South. That could be worrisome for many states, particularly in rural parts of the Southeast, where areas with low vaccine uptake remain vulnerable to delta and potential future variants like it. The country’s patchwork recovery, with uneven vaccination rates between states and sometimes even bigger discrepancies at the local level, could mean the U.S. is on the cusp of a new wave of infections — one punctuated by local surges that disproportionately affect rural communities and pockets of the country where vaccinations have lagged.
Study finds sign of long-lasting protection from COVID-19 vaccines.
As federal voting legislation falters, state Republicans push to exert new powers over elections. "This should be terrifying to anyone who cares about democracy.”
Arizona's Maricopa County to replace all voting machines after GOP audit.
While Kyrsten Sinema defends the filibuster, Arizona Republicans strip Democrats of power.
Toyota is the no. 1 donor to Republicans who objected to certifying the 2020 election results — by far. “We do not believe it is appropriate to judge members of Congress solely based on their votes on the electoral certification," a Toyota spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Axios. — Wow.
Madison Cawthorn, self-described 'big history buff,' keeps getting historical facts wrong.
California bans state-funded travel to five new states over anti-LGBTQ laws. The new travel restrictions target Arkansas, Florida, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia over what the attorney general's office called "dangerous" new laws that "directly work to ban transgender youth from playing sports, block access to life-saving care, or otherwise limit the rights of members of the LGBTQ+ community."
Security robots expand across U.S., with few tangible results. As more government agencies and private sector companies resort to robots to help fight crime, the verdict is out about how effective they are in actually reducing it.
Dangerous Heat Wave Is Literally Melting Critical Infrastructure in Pacific Northwest. Power cables are melting. School districts are closing. Asphalt is too hot to touch. The heat wave roasting the Pacific Northwest is putting infrastructure at risk, and temperatures are expected to continue to rise on Monday. The failures show the staggering toll the climate crisis is already taking—and they’re a stark warning for the future if we don’t shore up roads, buildings, and other infrastructure central to modern life.
All time records fall as heat wave builds in Pacific Northwest. Stores sold out of portable air conditioners and fans, hospitals canceled outdoor vaccination clinics, baseball teams canceled or moved up weekend games, and utilities braced for possible power outages, according to the Associated Press. Many cities have opened cooling centers. The forecast for the next week is for even hotter temperatures, and more all-time heat records are set to be hit, the National Weather Service tweeted about the Pacific Northwest — a region accustomed to mild weather where many don't have air conditioning.
As part of a civil lawsuit settlement, the New Jersey Department of Corrections will now make it customary for prisoners who are transgender to be assigned a jail stay that's in line with their gender identity.
How Porn's Racist Metadata Hurts Adult Performers of Color. Pornography aesthetics may have shifted since the ’70s, but the hurdles performers of color have had to endure onscreen and off haven’t actually changed much at all—and the data-driven conveniences of the digital age are partially to blame…The data that governs online porn is not neutral, and these platforms can no longer pretend it is. Instead, they must account for the ways racist categorization and tagging standards influence their internal datasets, as well as people’s interaction with the industry. Nonwhite content is popular on these sites, and performers of color should experience the recognition they deserve for creating it. The industry has come a long way since Johnny Keyes’ days, but not far enough.
Oregon Bill Would Require Colleges to Hire Staff to Help Students Find Food and Housing Aid. The Oregon Senate on Monday passed a bill that would require the state’s public colleges to hire “benefits navigators” — a measure that advocates said would be key in fighting food and housing insecurity on campus.
Clarence Thomas says federal laws against marijuana may no longer be necessary. "A prohibition on interstate use or cultivation of marijuana may no longer be necessary or proper to support the federal government's piecemeal approach," he wrote. His views came as the court declined to hear the appeal of a Colorado medical marijuana dispensary that was denied federal tax breaks that other businesses are allowed.
Researchers Made a Free Online Calculator for Dementia Risk. Though it’s based on scientific evidence, this calculator (and really any predictive algorithm) shouldn’t be interpreted as a sure thing. At best, it may provide a rough sense of general dementia risk, not a precise prediction, and it’s most accurate for the average person with no other hidden risk factors like family history or genetics.
New weight-loss tool prevents mouth from opening more than 2mm. A weight-loss tool that uses magnets to stop people from opening their mouths wide enough to eat solid food has been developed by scientists in order to tackle obesity. The device, developed by medical professionals from the University of Otago in New Zealand and scientists from Leeds in the UK, can be fitted by dentists and uses magnetic components with locking bolts. It has been criticised online, however, with people likening it to a medieval torture device.
For the first time, astronomers have evidence of gravitational waves that were created when black holes devoured dense neutron stars. The gravitational waves were created nearly a billion years ago but just reached Earth in January 2020.
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
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