In the News

Here's some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Guns; shooting; death] There was a shooting at Penn Station in NYC this morning: "A 43-year-old man was killed and two men, aged 45 and 48, were wounded in a shooting early Monday at an entrance to New York City's Penn Station transportation hub in Manhattan, police said. Police said they were searching for the shooting suspect, a heavy-set man wearing a hooded sweatshirt, and two other men who were possibly connected to the incident. An altercation began at about 6 a.m. ET in a McDonald's restaurant near Penn Station, where the gunshot victims were drinking coffee together, New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told reporters. The shooting suspect entered the restaurant and briefly spoke with the group before leaving, Boyce said. When the victims left the restaurant and entered a stairwell leading to a nearby subway station, the suspect followed them and opened fire, police said. Investigators did not know what prompted the gunfire at the intersection of West 35th Street and 8th Avenue, New York police officer Christopher Pisano said." Fucking hell.

[CN: Racism; hunger strike] University of Missouri president Tim Wolfe resigned this morning, following a student hunger strike and a football team walkout protesting the administration's failure to meaningfully address racist incidents on campus: "Wolfe announced Monday morning at a special meeting called by the Board of Curators, the university system's governing body, that he would step down immediately."

[CN: Homophobia; transphobia] Andy Towle has the video and transcript of Hillary Clinton's keynote address at a gala for South Carolina Equality, during which she "laid out her plans to continue fighting for LGBT equality nationwide while pointing out some of the incidents locally in which South Carolina's LGBT citizens have faced discrimination. ...Clinton said she'll work to make sure Congress passes the Federal Equality Act, secure better health care for the LGBT community, work to persuade Republican governors to extend Medicaid, update the service records of military veterans who were discharged dishonorably for being gay, ensure transgender people can serve in the military, and address the growing threat of violence trans people face across the nation."

[CN: Class warfare; criminalization of need; war on drugs] This is what class warfare looks like: "On Monday, many Wisconsin residents who apply for food stamps, unemployment benefits, jobs training, or benefits and training from a handful of other state programs will have to be screened and potentially tested for drug use. Applicants will have to fill out a questionnaire about drug use, and depending on their answers, may have to submit to an actual test." Fuck off, Scott Walker, and take your reprehensible party with you.

[CN: Climate crisis] This is a pretty decent article on how El Niño will disproportionately harm people in developing countries and underlining the need to engage in prevention, where we can predict what calamities the weather will cause, rather than wait for clean-up. Naturally, it includes the argument that prevention is less costly than clean-up, but I'm a lot more concerned with the whole saving lives part of it.

[CN: War on agency] Awwwww too bad! "The Center for Medical Progress' (CMP) streak of bad legal luck continued last week, as the anti-choice front group lost its latest bid to avoid providing information to the National Abortion Federation (NAF) about the names and identities of the people involved in CMP's smear campaign against Planned Parenthood." Imani's continuing coverage of these legal wranglings is terrific.

Whoa! "NASA just saw something come out of a black hole for the first time ever: Two of NASA's space telescopes, including the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), miraculously observed a black hole's corona 'launched' away from the supermassive black hole. Then a massive pulse of X-ray energy spewed out. So, what exactly happened? That's what scientists are trying to figure out now."

Loooooooove: "Meet Shedd Aquarium's Latest Rescue Pup: Peach!" This is such a great program. What a lucky doggie!

[CN: Video autoplays at link] And finally! This video is a year old, but I only just saw it, so here it is for anyone else who hasn't seen it and everyone who wants to see it again: A pitbull and a deer play on either side of a fence. Too cute!