In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

MTV News has updated their list of How to Help Orlando. As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to leave additional suggestions in comments.

[Content Note: Pulse Shooting; domestic violence] "The wife of the Orlando gunman could face criminal charges if the FBI establishes that she knew in advance he was planning a deadly attack. Noor Zahi Salman has reportedly told agents that she tried to talk husband Omar Mateen out of the raid on the Pulse nightclub that became the deadliest gun massacre in US history." I have very mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, if she knew but didn't alert authorities, that sounds horrifyingly irresponsible. On the other hand, we have all heard from his ex-wife that he viciously abused her. Does anyone really imagine he wasn't doing the same to his current wife? And can we really hold someone who is also his victim accountable in the same way we would hold someone who didn't report him just because they were unethical? What a nightmare of harm he created all around him.

[CN: Rape culture; description of assault] In good news: "The judge who gave a lenient sentence to a former Stanford student convicted of sexual assault has been removed from a similar case due to prosecutors' concerns about his ability to 'fairly participate' in the proceeding. Judge Aaron Persky, who declined to send the former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner to prison for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, has been taken off a case involving a male nurse who sexually assaulted an anesthetized female patient, according to local prosecutors." Now get him off the bench altogether.

[CN: War on agency] As you probably recall, since I've written about it one biebillion times, one of my criticisms of President Obama has been his virtual silence (save for an appreciated speech to Planned Parenthood) on reproductive rights, while abortion access has eroded significantly and anti-choice terrorism has increased significantly on his watch. His failure to make use of the bully pulpit on behalf of abortion access is a major disappointment for me. As is his neglect to address the Helms Amendment. So this makes me very happy: "Reproductive health-care activists urged President Barack Obama to take executive action on the Helms Amendment early Tuesday morning during a demonstration outside the White House's United State of Women Summit. The two-day summit includes a variety of sessions across downtown Washington, D.C., around six main themes: economic empowerment; health and wellness; educational opportunity; violence against women; entrepreneurship and innovation; and leadership and civic engagement. However, none of the themes include abortion care. Even the description for the summit's focus on health and wellness merely touts the Affordable Care Act's coverage of preventive services, such as U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive coverage under the birth control benefit, and touches on maternal mortality and HIV prevention only as issues of global concern. The word 'abortion,' as Rewire previously reported, is nowhere to be found in any of the summit's materials." Come on, President Obama. You can do better than this. Much better. I expect more!

[CN: Guns] "Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) on Wednesday embarked on a talking filibuster in order to push the Senate to address gun control in the wake of the deadly mass shooting in Orlando, Florida." He tweeted: "I'm speaking on the Senate floor to honor the victims of the Orlando attack & demand the Senate address gun violence. #Enough." And: "I am prepared to stand on the Senate floor and talk about the need to prevent gun violence for as long as I can. I've had #Enough." Thank you, Senator Murphy. If this gives even one more Democrat the courage to take action, it will have been worth it.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll has found that "70 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Trump, including a 56 percent majority who feel this way 'strongly.'" Remind me again who it is that's supposed to have the "low enthuiasm" problem...?

Trump's tanking numbers will probably get even worse after voters hear that he said of the United States, the country of which he's running to be president: "Everntually, it's not going to survive, just so you understand." Cool.

[CN: Pulse shooting] Meanwhile, speaking elsewhere today, Hillary Clinton said: "A ban on Muslims would not have stopped this attack. Neither would a wall." HOW DOES ANY HUMAN BEING NOT SEE WHO THE BETTER OF THESE TWO CANDIDATES IS OMFG???

Neat! "An 'extinct' meteorite has been found in a Swedish limestone quarry that produces floor tiles, scientists reported Tuesday in Nature Communications. It may be the first of its kind—the remnant of an object long-destroyed, fragments of which once rained down on Earth but no longer exist in the heavens."

Cool! "Physicists have detected ripples in the fabric of spacetime that were set in motion by the collision of two black holes far across the universe more than a billion years ago. The event marks only the second time that scientists have spotted gravitational waves, the tenuous stretching and squeezing of spacetime predicted by Einstein more a century ago."

And finally! A husky enjoying an ice bath on a hot summer's day. LOL! Oh dogs.