In The News

Deeky W. Gashlycrumb, MD is currently filling his phone dictionary with absurd and/or dirty words, so you're stuck with me today.

[Content Note: Worker exploitation; gun violence; racism; appropriations; homophobia; death penalty.]

You should definitely read this article about US "temp towns." Temporary blue-collar workers are one of the most exploited employee demographics, and one of the least visible.

In totally unrelated (ahem) news, average CEO compensation in the US last year was $14.1 million, or 272.9 times that of a typical worker.

Rachel Jeantel, the last person to speak to her friend Trayvon Martin, testified at George Zimmerman's trial yesterday, telling the court the last thing she heard was Martin yelling "Get off," before the phone went dead. Blub.

Johnny Depp says of his (supercool) role in The Lone Ranger that "It's my small contribution to righting the wrongs committed in the past. It was very important to me to represent the American Indians and it's really the only reason I made the movie." Oh cool. I guess we can expect Depp, who made $50,000,000 for Alice in Wonderland and $55,500,000 for the last Pirates of the Caribbean film, to donate whatever enormous paycheck he earned for The Lone Ranger to First Nations charities. Since he didn't make the movie for the money and all.

Justice Antonin Scalia is the worst, and lifetime appointments are terrible.

Nate Silver crunches the numbers on same-sex marriage and finds that, by August 1, "the availability of same-sex marriage in the United States as a percentage of population will have more than doubled within the year... By August, about 95 million Americans out of a population of 314 million—about 30 percent—will live in states where same-sex marriage is legal." Neat! Also: That is not enough! 100% OR BUST.

In Australia, Julia Gillard (who gave that great speech on misogyny) is out as Prime Minister and Kevin Rudd is in. Australia loses its first female PM, but Rudd is the first sitting Australian PM to support same-sex marriage.

Texas executed its 500th inmate last night. What a grim and horrible record.

Hillary Clinton will run for president whether she likes it or not!

And finally: Oprah once again tops Forbes' list of Most Powerful people. You know what that means! Everyone is getting a brand new caaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr! (No, they're not. Sorry!)

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