And another day of searching for classified nuclear documents, unsealing warrants, changes to CDC Covid recommendations, teachers told not to talk about racism, beauty companies still offering to ‘whiten’ skin, and banning library books comes to a close:
“Republicans must live in constant fear.” — Michael McDonald
Deaths
US: 1,061,346 (+591)
World: 6,448,316 (+3530)
Cases
US: 94,479,779 (+131,272)
World: 593,104,840 (+975,754)
FBI searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence for classified nuclear documents. The FBI sought to locate classified documents related to nuclear weapons, among other items, when agents searched former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, this week, people familiar with the investigation told The Washington Post. The people did not offer additional details to the Post about "what type of information the agents were seeking" or whether any such documents were recovered, according to the paper. The revelation adds key context to the Justice Department's extraordinary decision to search the home of a former president.
Garland asks court to unseal warrant for Mar-a-Lago search. The Justice Department is asking a federal court to unseal the warrant the FBI used to search the Mar-a-Lago estate of former President Donald Trump, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday, acknowledging extraordinary public interest in the case about classified records. The request is striking because such documents traditionally remain sealed during a pending investigation. But the Justice Department appeared to recognize that its silence since the search had created a vacuum for bitter verbal attacks by Trump and his allies, and that the public was entitled to the FBI’s side about what prompted Monday’s action at the former president’s home.
“Just think: if someone had stood up to Donald Trump 50-60 years ago the way Merrick Garland just did, we all could have been saved a lot of grief. Lesson: kick bullies in the nuts, if not literally, at least figuratively.” -- Tim Wise
FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home followed tip classified records were there – report. Federal investigators searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach after an informant told them he might be storing classified records at his private club, the Wall Street Journal has reported. The search on Monday reportedly came two months after federal law enforcement officials came to Mar-a-Lago to talk about boxes of government documents that were being stored there.
CDC drops quarantine, distancing recommendations for COVID. The nation’s top public health agency relaxed its COVID-19 guidelines Thursday, dropping the recommendation that Americans quarantine themselves if they come into close contact with an infected person. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said people no longer need to stay at least 6 feet away from others. The changes, which come more than 2 1/2 years after the start of the pandemic, are driven by a recognition that an estimated 95% of Americans 16 and older have acquired some level of immunity, either from being vaccinated or infected, agency officials said.
Man who fired nail gun at FBI building called for violence on Truth Social in days after Mar-a-Lago search. A man identified by two law enforcement sources as Ricky Shiffer, who died in a confrontation with police after he fired a nail gun at a Cincinnati FBI building, appeared to post online in recent days about his desire to kill FBI agents shortly after former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was searched. -- The Trump cult wants violence, death, and anarchy.
DRIED UP: Lakes Mead and Powell are at the epicenter of the biggest Western drought in history. Nowhere is the Southwest’s worst drought since the year 800 more evident than Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the pair of artificial Colorado River reservoirs whose plunging levels threaten major water and power sources for tens of millions of people…Hoover Dam is already seeing reduced electricity production from Lake Mead’s shrinking size, and the reservoir is projected to fall to approximately 150 feet above “dead pool” status, or the point at which the levels are too low to flow downstream, endangering both power and drinking water.
African wildlife parks face climate, infrastructure threats. Africa’s national parks, home to thousands of wildlife species such as lions, elephants and buffaloes, are increasingly threatened by below-average rainfall and new infrastructure projects. A prolonged drought in much of the continent’s east, exacerbated by climate change, and large-scale developments, including oil drilling and livestock grazing, are hampering conservation efforts in protected areas, several environmental experts say.
Gas prices tumble below $4 for the first time in months. Drivers in the United States can breathe a small sigh of relief — average gas prices have dropped below $4 a gallon for the first time since March.
Teachers say in new survey they’re being told not to talk about racism and race. One in 4 teachers report being told by school officials or district leaders to limit their classroom conversations about race, racism or bias, a new survey shows, even as research published this week illustrates the potential benefits of learning about the historical and political roots of racial inequality...The data provides one of the first comprehensive looks at how efforts to restrict classroom conversations about race in many states and districts have affected educators and school administrators. “It’s heartbreaking for our youth, who won’t be getting the high-caliber education that they could be getting from a multimedia, multicultural, global era.” -- Republicans are racist, and as long as we allow them to control the levers of government, this shit will continue, and even get worse.
Staff allegedly took down an Escambia County [FL] teacher's posters of Black heroes. He quit. The teacher, Michael James, emailed a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Escambia County Superintendent Tim Smith in which he wrote that a district employee removed pictures of historic Black American heroes from his classroom walls, citing the images as being "age inappropriate." Images that were removed from the bulletin board at O.J. Semmes Elementary School included depictions of Martin Luther King Jr., Harriett Tubman, Colin Powell and George Washington Carver, James said.
After rebranding in the West, many beauty companies are still offering to 'whiten' skin elsewhere. During the Black Lives Matter movement, many skincare giants, including Nivea, Pond's, Unilever and L'Oreal, promised to abandon terms like "whitening" and "fairness." While the companies lived up to this promise in the West, customers elsewhere are still being sold products equating beauty with whiteness.
Conservative dating site backed by Peter Thiel announces launch next month. A dating app for conservatives called The Right Stuff will launch next month, seeking to open up a new door for the political right who hope to find more like-minded people in the romantic world…McEnany added, however, that “male” and “female” would be the only gender identity options users can select on the app, meaning those who identify as transgender, nonbinary or another gender identification would not be accepted. “The Right Stuff is all about getting into the right dating pool with people who share the same values as you,” McEnany said in the announcement video. “We’re sorry that you’ve had to endure years of bad dates and wasted time with people who don’t see the world our way. The right way.” — A hateful site for hateful people who just want to hate everyone else in the world.
Man gets 12 years in case that tested broad search warrants. A Virginia man has been sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison on federal bank robbery charges in a case that tested the constitutionality of broad search warrants that use Google location history to identify people who were near the scene of a crime.
A mom’s campaign to ban library books divided a Texas town — and her own family. At a board meeting last month, Monica tried to explain why she’s fought so hard to remove books from a school district that her kids do not attend. She’s doing it, she said, for all the other children. -- This story is nuts, anger inducing, and sad. It’s Christianity run amok. From trying to get librarians arrested, to baking brownies for her son with dog shit as one of the ingredients. Christianity like this is literally child abuse. It’s indoctrination. It’s fucking bullshit. We must fight against these people in their never ending quest to force their beliefs onto the rest of us.
The IRS is set to get billions for audit enforcement. Here’s what it means for taxpayers. The Treasury Department did estimate in 2021 that a nearly $80 billion investment in the IRS could allow the agency to hire 86,852 full-time employees over the course of a decade. But that figure accounts for all workers, not solely enforcement agents. Still, hiring more than 86,000 workers over 10 years could be a huge increase for the IRS, which currently has nearly 80,000 employees. But the number of IRS staff has declined over the past decade, currently standing at 1970s levels, and the agency is expected to keep losing people.
Inmate wages not ‘slave labor,’ Nevada high court rules in dismissal. The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled the state does not have to pay inmates minimum wages, upholding a lower court decision to dismiss a lawsuit brought by an inmate.
Russell’s No. 6 being retired across NBA, a 1st for league. The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association announced Thursday that the number worn by the 11-time champion, civil rights activist and person good enough to be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach was being permanently retired by all 30 teams.
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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