News Dump

3rd Democratic Debate Tonight, One Night Only, Really Wish Tulsi Made The Stage
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/12/759998766/your-guide-to-the-3rd-round-of-democratic-debates

Lions, tigers and bears no more: California lawmakers ban exotic animals at circuses
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-11/california-exotic-animals-circus-ban-bill

Brazil Registers More than 180 Rapes per Day, The Highest since 2009: More than half of the victims are less than 13 years old and 75% know the aggressor
https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/brazil/2019/09/brazil-registers-more-than-180-rapes-per-day-the-highest-since-2009.shtml

Education Department threatens to suspend employee who provided TheWashington Post with budget data
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/09/11/education-department-threatens-suspend-employee-who-provided-post-with-budget-data/#click=https://t.co/ycNmsmKnEH

The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee moved to intensify its investigation of Trump on Thursday, as lawmakers edged closer to deciding whether to recommend his impeachment. The 41-member panel met to debate a resolution allowing it to designate hearings as impeachment proceedings, subject witnesses to more aggressive questioning and quicken the pace of an investigation that is expanding into areas that could prove politically explosive for both Trump and Congress. Committee members also hope that approving the resolution will dispel lingering confusion within the House Democratic caucus about how to describe the investigation.
http://judiciary.house.gov/legislation/markups/resolution-investigative-procedures
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/impeachment-inquiry-ramps-judiciary-panel-adopts-procedural-guidelines-n1052431
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/house-votes-impeachment-inquiry-president-trump-today-2019-09-12/

But there’s another way of looking at how this tax would impact the country’s wealthiest families: The 15 largest fortunes in country would be, on average, half their current size if the tax had been in place since 1982, according to new figures published by a pair of economists who helped Warren write her wealth tax proposal. Instead of $97 billion, Microsoft founder Bill Gates would now have $36.4 billion, according to the figures. Rather than $44.9 billion, Walmart heiress Alice Walton would be sitting on $15 billion. Instead of $160 billion, Amazon founder (and Washington Post owner) Jeff Bezos would have $86.8 billion. Some economists, seizing on such numbers, say Warren’s tax could do more than just make the wealthy uncomfortable: It could erase great fortunes. “This is not some small little tax,” said Lawrence Summers, former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration and past Harvard University president. “If it was successfully enforced — and there are questions about whether it would be — this would be an extremely burdensome tax on wealth.” The dichotomy between Warren’s simple pitch for her platform and its potentially far-reaching impact reflects a certain duality in Warren’s message. She enthusiastically promises crowds she will bring “big, structural change” if elected president, and she revels in reports that she’s feared by the wealthy. But she also suggests that her plans would in fact require little sacrifice by the country’s rich. | If Warren is the nominee, Republicans have signaled they would portray her platform as a socialist threat to ordinary people and the American system. Former senator Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) co-wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday arguing that Warren’s plans would endanger Americans’ retirement savings.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/warren-says-her-tax-plan-asks-just-two-cents-of-the-super-rich-but-how-much-of-a-hit-would-gates-walton-and-their-peers-actually-take/2019/09/11/d279a84c-d495-11e9-9610-fb56c5522e1c_story.html

Brazil foreign minister says 'there is no climate change catastrophe'
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-environment-araujo-idUSKCN1VW2S2

Trump is considering a French plan to extend a $15 billion credit line to the Iranians if Tehran comes back into compliance with the Obama-era nuclear deal
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-flirts-with-dollar15-billion-bailout-for-iran-sources-say

Trump EPA set to officially roll back clean water regulation, after promising to "ensure that America is among the very cleanest air and cleanest water on the planet," earlier this summer
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/11/politics/epa-water-wotus/index.html

New York prosecutors are investigating whether the Trump Organization fabricated business records and broke state law
https://www.businessinsider.com/ny-prosecutors-investigating-trump-organization-falsified-business-records-2019-9

Trump Could Face 'Unpleasant' Jail Time in New York, Former U.S. Attorney Says After Cohen Interviewed for Probe
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-could-face-unpleasant-jail-time-new-york-former-us-attorney-says-after-cohen-1458859

Booker introduces bill requiring gun owners get a federal license
https://www.nj.com/politics/2019/09/booker-introduces-bill-requiring-gun-owners-get-a-federal-license.html

'If I’m Sent Back, I Will Die': Sick Immigrants Tell Their Life Situations to Congress
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/11/us/politics/immigrant-deportation-illnesses.html

Trump's poll numbers are so bad the GOP is hiding them from local candidates | Republican Party no longer shares advanced data with candidates: The only question is, "Do you support Trump?"
https://www.salon.com/2019/09/12/trumps-poll-numbers-are-so-bad-the-gop-is-hiding-them-from-local-candidates/

Reminder: A Brazilian government official who spent more than a decade working to protect indigenous people in the Amazon from loggers, miners and other threats to their way of life has been killed. Maxciel Pereira dos Santos was shot twice in the head in front of his family in an apparent execution, according to a union that represents such workers.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/09/brazilian-official-protects-amazon-indigenous-tribes-shot-dead/

From june 2016. After the Orlando nightclub shooting, democrats held a sit-in in the House chamber, demanding a vote on gun safety legislation. Beto O'Rourke streamed the whole thing on Facebook
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McJaDGlIRlg

THANKS JENNY MCCARTHY: The anti-vax movement is effectively reversing decades of progress in disease prevention: WHO no longer consider measles to be eradicated in the UK. Albania, the Czech Republic, and Greece have also lost their measles-free status. (qz.com)
https://qz.com/1706261/the-anti-vax-movement-is-reversing-decades-of-scientific-progress/

Boris Johnson has been warned he could face a “citizen’s arrest” by a senior union boss after the prime minister's decision to suspend parliament was ruled unlawful by Scotland's highest court. The prime minister's Brexit strategy was plunged into crisis when three senior judges at the Court of Session in Edinburgh said the order to close the doors of Westminster to MPs was "null and of no effect". Labour Sir Keir Starmer said the ruling was "huge" and vowed to try to reopen parliament to hold Mr Johnson to account, as he addressed trade unionists at the TUC in Brighton. Speaking afterwards, Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union, told Sky News: "It is quite extraordinary what the Scottish courts have ruled.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-suspend-parliament-brexit-citizens-arrest-len-mccluskey-a9100761.html

The chief executives of 145 U.S. companies pressed Senate leaders to expand background checks to all firearms sales and implement stronger “red flag” laws, marking the latest push by corporate America to pressure Congress to take meaningful action on gun violence. Signatories to a letter sent Thursday include the heads of major retailers, tech firms, financial institutions, including Levi Strauss, Twitter, Uber, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Yelp, Bain Capital and Reddit. The letter pointed to mass shootings in recent weeks — including those in El Paso; Dayton, Ohio; and Gilroy, Calif. — but also called out a broader epidemic of gun violence that kills 100 Americans each day and wounds hundreds more.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/09/12/ceos-implore-senate-act-gun-violence-saying-doing-nothing-is-simply-unacceptable/
https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/1699-gun-control-letter-to-the-sena/3258ed616a016f80dfa3/optimized/full.pdf#page=1

More than 100,000 men have been sexually assaulted in the U.S. military in recent decades. Shame and stigma have kept the vast majority from coming forward to report the attacks. Sex Men Are Speaking Out To Break The Silence.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/09/10/us/men-military-sexual-assault.html

The OxyContin maker & it’s owners, the Sackler family, have been fighting some 2,500 lawsuits brought by virtually every state, thousands of local governments, Native American tribes and others accusing the company of fueling opioid addiction. | Purdue Pharma Reaches Deal With Cities, 23 States Over Opioid Crisis
https://www.wsj.com/articles/purdue-pharma-close-to-settlement-with-cities-and-half-of-states-over-opioid-crisis-11568224310

Republicans said this week that they plan on building between 450 and 500 miles (724 and 806 kilometers) of fencing along the nearly 2,000-mile (3,218-kilometer) border by the end of 2020
https://apnews.com/a619922781f441c9adaa494f47001429

‘They are barbaric’: Turkey prepares to flood 12,000-year-old city to build dam | The ancient settlement of Hasankeyf will soon be submerged as part of a controversial dam project – despite residents’ protests
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/sep/12/they-are-barbaric-turkey-prepares-to-flood-12000-year-old-city-to-build-dam

Justice Sonia Sotomayor Pens Powerful Dissent On New Asylum Policy
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/justice-sotomayor-dissent-asylum-rule_n_5d79a596e4b0fc715341d629

Elizabeth Warren’s Social Security Plan: Raise Benefits by $200 a Month
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/us/politics/elizabeth-warren-social-security.html?module=inline
https://medium.com/@teamwarren/expanding-social-security-4db2f3617ca9
________________________

Schiff: During the course of this Russian interference in the election, the Russians made outreach to the Trump campaign, did they not?

Mueller: That occurred. [. . .]

Schiff: The campaign welcomed the Russian help, did they not?

Mueller: We report indications that that occurred, yes. [. . .]

Schiff: The president himself called on the Russians to hack [Hillary Clinton’s] emails?

Mueller: There was a statement by the president on those general lines.

Schiff: Numerous times during the campaign, the president praised the releases of the Russian-hacked emails through WikiLeaks?

Mueller: That did occur. [. . .]

Schiff: Apart from the Russians wanting to help Trump win . . . Donald Trump was trying to make millions from a real estate deal in Moscow?

Mueller: You’re talking about the hotel in Moscow? Yes.

Schiff: When your investigation looked into these matters, numerous Trump associates lied to your team, the grand jury and to Congress?

Mueller: A number of people we interviewed in our investigation, it turns out, did lie. . . .

Schiff: When the president said the Russian interference was a “hoax,” that was false, wasn’t it?

Mueller: True. [. . .]

Schiff: In short, your investigation found evidence that Russia wanted to help Trump win the election, right?

Mueller: I think, generally, that would be accurate. [. . .]

Schiff: Russia committed federal crimes in order to help Donald Trump?

Mueller: You’re talking about the computer crimes charged in our case? Absolutely.

Schiff: Trump campaign officials built their strategy, their messaging strategy, around those stolen documents?

Mueller: Generally, that’s true.

Schiff: And then they lied to cover it up?

Mueller: Generally, that’s true.

________________________

Africa's Three Richest Billionaires Hold 40% Africa’s Wealth
https://www.africanexponent.com/post/10901-three-african-billionaires-today-have-more-wealth-than-the-poorest-50-or-650-million-people

A vegan company buys 15,000 acres of the Amazon Rainforest to protect it
https://www.livekindly.co/vegan-company-15000-acres-amazon/

Sen. Mike Lee Discussed Loosening Sanctions Against Russia During Moscow Visit
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2019/09/06/report-sen-mike-lee/

Electric vehicle owners in some states are paying higher annual fees for driving zero-emissions cars than their gas-guzzling friends, according to new analysis by Consumer Reports. Of the 26 states that impose fees on electric vehicles, 11 charge more for an EV than an owner of a traditional gas-powered car ends up paying in gasoline taxes every year. Three of those 11 states charge more than twice the amount. Trends for the fees, generally paid through annual registration renewals, don’t look promising either. Another 12 states are considering their own EV fee proposals — seven of which would double over time. “The trend over the last year has been to adopt more fees, there may be a backlash against that in the near future and I hope that there would be, but the trend right now seems to be adding fees,” said Shannon Baker-Branstetter, a Consumer Reports analyst who co-wrote the study. The fees are used to fund highway projects and transportation infrastructure, which is generally financed through gas taxes collected at the pump. As more consumers go electric, lawmakers worry they won’t generate enough funding to keep roads repaired. States also argue that the batteries for the electric cars make them heavier than gas-powered vehicles, causing more wear and tear on the road.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/11/states-hit-electric-vehicle-owners-with-high-fees-consumer-reports-says.html

Justin Trudeau has called a general election in Canada and dissolved the country’s parliament. The Canadian prime minister met with Governor General Julie Payette, the acting head of state, who formally gave her blessing for the launch of a six-week federal election campaign. “Canadians will head to the polls on 21 October,” Mr Trudeau said outside Ms Payette’s official residence in Ottawa.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/canada-election-federal-general-justin-trudeau-news-latest-a9101286.html

Trump's flip-flopping approach to Afghanistan has left him looking foolish and empowered the Taliban
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-afghanistan-spat-weak-taliban-resolve-2019-9

Germany: Neo-Nazi politician to be voted out of post after outcry - The news spread like wildfire across Germany: a far-right extremist politician was elected to a local post by representatives of mainstream parties. After days of outrage, the council now says it wants to undo the vote.
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-neo-nazi-politician-to-be-voted-out-of-post-after-outcry/a-50362620

After fire, Philadelphia refinery paid executives $4,591,500 in bonuses while hundreds were laid off
https://www.inquirer.com/business/bankrupt-philly-refinery-paid-big-executive-bonuses-after-fire-20190910.html


Pro-Trump Republican Federal prosecutors recommend that Andrew McCabe, former FBI second-in-command, be indicted | DOJ just lost a trial involving similar charges against former WH Counsel Greg Craig.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/09/12/andrew-mccabe-prosecutors-recommend-charges-former-fbi-official/2301473001/

It seems like only yesterday that McCabe authorized an investigation into Sessions for his "lack of candor" regarding his contacts with the Russians during the campaign. And now here we are where Trump's DOJ has decided not to prosecute Sessions for a "lack of candor" but has instead decided to prosecute McCabe for the very same thing.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/exclusive-fired-fbi-official-authorized-criminal-probe-sessions/story?id=53914006

Supreme Court ruling caused mass polling place closures across the southern U.S. | Nearly 1,700 voting precincts in 13 states have been shut down since 2012, many  in black or Latino communities, after a landmark court decision that removed federal oversight of local voting practices, according to a new report. The report, released this week by the Leadership Conference Education Fund, showed a surge in poll closures after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2013 that gutted a section of the Voting Rights Act requiring certain states and cities obtain federal approval before changing voting laws or practices.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/09/12/report-court-ruling-caused-mass-voting-place-closures-southern-u-s/2272866001/

The private prison industry is set to be upended after California lawmakers passed a bill on Wednesday banning the facilities from operating in the state. The move will probably also close down four large immigration detention facilities that can hold up to 4,500 people at a time.  The legislation is being hailed as a major victory for criminal justice reform because it removes the profit motive from incarceration. It also marks a dramatic departure from California’s past, when private prisons were relied on to reduce crowding in state-run facilities.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/12/california-private-prison-ban-immigration-ice

Michael Cohen, the attorney who spent many years working as President Donald Trump's personal "fixer," has entered into an agreement with New York City prosecutors as part of their investigation into the Trump Organization's handling of hush money payments, CNN and NBC News reported Wednesday.
https://www.salon.com/2019/09/12/michael-cohen-enters-into-agreement-with-prosecutors-probing-trump-organization-reports/

At least 20 states reject settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/least-16-states-reject-settlement-oxycontin-maker-purdue-pharma-n1052601

'Decades of Progress Are at Stake' as Trump Reaches 150 Lifetime Judicial Appointments and Right-Wing Court Takeover Accelerates
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/09/12/decades-progress-are-stake-trump-reaches-150-lifetime-judicial-appointments-and

Budget deficit smashes $1 trillion mark, the highest in seven years
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/12/budget-deficit-smashes-1-trillion-mark-the-highest-in-seven-years.html

House to vote again to block Trump's border emergency
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/12/house-vote-trump-border-wall-1492380

Rule #3: Institutions will not save you. It took Putin a year to take over the Russian media and four years to dismantle its electoral system; the judiciary collapsed unnoticed. The capture of institutions in Turkey has been carried out even faster, by a man once celebrated as the democrat to lead Turkey into the EU. Poland has in less than a year undone half of a quarter century’s accomplishments in building a constitutional democracy.    Of course, the United States has much stronger institutions than Germany did in the 1930s, or Russia does today. Both Clinton and Obama in their speeches stressed the importance and strength of these institutions. The problem, however, is that many of these institutions are enshrined in political culture rather than in law, and all of them—including the ones enshrined in law—depend on the good faith of all actors to fulfill their purpose and uphold the Constitution.    The national press is likely to be among the first institutional victims of Trumpism. There is no law that requires the presidential administration to hold daily briefings, none that guarantees media access to the White House. Many journalists may soon face a dilemma long familiar to those of us who have worked under autocracies: fall in line or forfeit access. There is no good solution (even if there is a right answer), for journalism is difficult and sometimes impossible without access to information.
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/11/10/trump-election-autocracy-rules-for-survival/

AOC Slams Gavel To Cut Off Former ICE Director As He Rants About ICE Critics
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/aoc-ice-director-tom-homan-gavel
Credit cards have enabled many of America’s mass shootings in the last decade—and with Washington unwilling to act, they need to cut off the sales of weapons of war today.
https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1172135111304896512

Banks and credit card companies must:
1⃣Refuse to take part in the sale of assault weapons.
2⃣Stop processing transactions for gun sales online & at gun shows without background checks.
3⃣Stop doing business with gun & ammo manufacturers who produce or sell assault weapons
https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1172135112563146756

If enough of us make our voices heard now, we will force banks and credit card companies to act. Add your name to this petition we’re sending Visa, Mastercard, and the big banks:
https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1172135113515327488
https://act.betoorourke.com/signup/stop-selling-weapons-of-war/

A federal jury found two longtime Democratic operatives guilty Thursday of funneling illegal corporate campaign contributions into Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes’ 2014 U.S. Senate campaign, delivering another blow to a significantly weakened Kentucky Democratic Party. The jury convicted former Kentucky Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Lundergan, the father of Grimes, on 10 charges and Democratic political consultant Dale Emmons on 6 charges after federal prosecutors alleged they had a “concerted scheme” to funnel more than $200,000 into Grimes’ election efforts without seeking reimbursement from the campaign.
https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article235005227.html

Hillary Clinton took to Twitter on Thursday to share a surreal photo: It showed her seated at a mock Resolute Desk reading emails that she sent from a private server that became a target of congressional Republicans and Trump.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hillary-clinton-seated-at-a-mock-resolute-desk-reads-her-once-controversial-emails-at-a-venice-art-exhibit/2019/09/12/2dd2b91a-d561-11e9-9343-40db57cf6abd_story.html

Beyond the commas and clauses of government rules, Mr. Miller and Mr. Trump are trying to change something deeper: America’s self-conception as a land of immigrants. Mr. Trump is the son of an immigrant. Two of the three women he married are immigrants. Four of his five children have an immigrant parent. Yet his immigration agency rewrote its mission statement to remove the phrase “nation of immigrants.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/17/us/politics/stephen-miller-immigration-trump.html

A long line of people waiting in the heat and humidity to get into the Democratic debate at Texas Southern University. The incessant hum of the small plane carrying the Trump campaign ad is the dominant sound here.
https://twitter.com/PhilipinDC/status/1172258526670000156

@SteveScully: "15 House Republicans retiring next year. What's that all about?"
@SpeakerPelosi: "I think it's an indication that Republicans know that they'll probably be serving in the minority in the next Congress and most likely with a Democrat in the White House."
https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1172254377274433536

Canada Tries a Forceful Message for Flood Victims: Live Someplace Else | GATINEAU, Quebec — Along the coast of the United States, people who lost homes to Hurricane Dorian are preparing to rebuild. But Canada — which has faced devastating flooding of its own — is testing a very different idea of disaster recovery: Forcing people to move. Unlike the United States, which will repeatedly help pay for people to rebuild in place, Canada has responded to the escalating costs of climate change by limiting aid after disasters, and even telling people to leave their homes. It is an experiment that has exposed a complex mix of relief, anger and loss as entire neighborhoods are removed, house by house. “Canadians are stubbornly beginning to reconsider the wisdom of building near flood-prone areas,” said Jason Thistlethwaite, a professor of environment and business at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. “It’s taking government action to obligate people to make better decisions.” The real-world consequences of that philosophy are playing out in Gatineau, a city across the river from Ottawa that has been hit by two 100-year-floods since 2017. Residents here are waiting for officials to tell them if the damage from the latest flood, in April, exceeded 50 percent of the value of those homes. Those who get that notice will be offered some money and told to leave. In many cases, residents are fine with that. “I’m very happy,” said Louise David, who just learned that the government will force her to take a buyout. “I don’t want to live this again.” Canada’s approach offers lessons for the United States, where the quickening tempo and growing force of storms such as Dorian has strained government budgets. Dorian is the third hurricane to strike North Carolina in four years. Many of the places inundated this time, such as Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks, had been hit by one of the earlier storms as well, only to rebuild and then flood again. The cost of that approach is growing. As of last year, the United States had 36,774 houses and other buildings the government describes as “severe repetitive loss properties,” homes that have flooded and repaired at least twice, according to data from the Natural Resources Defense Council. More than 1,100 of those are in North Carolina; the average such home has been flooded five times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/climate/canada-flood-homes-buyout.html

I would like to install solar panels on my roof, but first I need to go in person to a DC Historic Preservation Review Board meeting to beg for permission to do this and it seems like bullshit to me.
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1172255220723802112

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma made plans to launch a foundation to fund opioid-addiction treatment and research, then scrapped the project amid hundreds of lawsuits and a possible bankruptcy filing
https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1172261140111462404

Jon Ossoff: "My message for folks who are watching across the country is, if removing Mitch McConnell from power, if restoring integrity to Washington, if rooting out corruption is your highest priority, then your eyes need to be on Georgia."
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1172268715745972226
http://www.msnbc.com/hallie-jackson/watch/ga-senate-candidate-ossoff-lays-out-platform-68764229619

Facing Jewish Protest, ICE Detention Center Moves Public Meeting To Shabbat
https://forward.com/fast-forward/431281/ice-jewish-protest-never-again-immigration/

The judge who was recalled after Brock Turner case is fired from new job as a high school tennis coach | Just one day later, the school district announced that his employment as a tennis coach at Lynbrook High School has ended. His connection to the Turner case was brought to the school district's attention late last week, said the district, which referred to the former jurist as "Michael Persky." His full name is Michael Aaron Persky, public records show.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/12/us/brock-turner-case-judge-fired-coaching-job/index.html

Man hailed by Trump for El Paso shooting bravery was "inaccurate" about his actions, police say | Chris Grant was honored for his "courage" in a ceremony at the White House, but police say video evidence "does not support Mr. Grant’s assertions." | Carrillo said that hours of surveillance footage reviewed by detectives "does not support Mr. Grant’s assertions." "We are not demeaning his reaction, which are of basic human instincts, but they amount to an act of self-preservation and nothing above that," Carrillo said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-hailed-trump-el-paso-shooting-bravery-was-inaccurate-about-n1053191

Justice Anne Burke, whose husband faces federal public corruption charges in sweeping City Hall probe, tapped as next Illinois Supreme Court chief justice
https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-illinois-supreme-court-chief-justice-anne-burke-20190911-vzdq62baknhrdgbuy3uljtw2om-story.html

ICE Deports Man With Lung Tumor to Cuba Despite Doctor's Demands
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/cuban-yoel-alono-leal-deported-despite-lung-cancer-11265246

Pelosi Statement on Supreme Court Decision on Trump Administration’s Cruel Asylum Rule | “The Supreme Court’s decision to allow the Trump Administration to inflict its cruel new asylum policy on the world’s most vulnerable populations at the southern border is deeply disappointing, profoundly dangerous and a clear departure from both U.S. and international law. “In its extreme deference to the Executive Branch, the Court is looking the other way as the White House effectively imposes a death sentence on asylum seekers.  Make no mistake: the Court has chosen to fast-track the enforcement of a rule that is purpose-built to destroy the lifeline of asylum in America and turn America’s back on our values and ‘the least of us.’ “As the world saw after the disgraceful Korematsu v. U.S. decision, the moral judgment of history will not look kindly on the Supreme Court’s complicity as the Executive tramples over America’s bedrock value of protecting human rights.”
https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/91219

3D-printable guns will require us to rethink our approach on gun safety
https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/lawmaker-news/461166-3d-printable-guns-will-require-us-to-rethink-our-approach

Retirees across the country are feeling the effects of underfunded pensions from religious organizations. | At issue is a law passed by Congress in 1974 that exempted religious organizations from federal laws that regulated and guaranteed pensions. Decades later, the effects of that lack of oversight are surfacing. The number of pensioners at risk is unknown, but the potential count could be substantial. The law affects more than just pastors and church organists — religious organizations own vast numbers of businesses, including shopping malls and media companies, and are best known for hospitals, schools and universities. “It’s estimated to be about a million,” said Dara Smith, senior attorney for the AARP Foundation, which advocates for older Americans, and “that one million figure’s estimated to just be Catholic-affiliated organizations.” Ms. Smith said the religious exemption waives funding requirements and the mandate for insurance from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which pays retirees when there is a shortfall. | On Tuesday, the AARP Foundation and other legal advocates filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Albany and its agents on behalf of more than 100 former St. Clare’s employees seeking damages for failing to pay promised pensions. | Many St. Joseph pensioners said that during their careers they accepted lower paychecks relative to others in their fields because of their religious beliefs — they were doing G'd’s work. “They told us that because we were a Catholic institution, we received less money,” said Carol Faufaw, 75, a laboratory technician for 45 years. The promise of the pension was an enticement to accept that. Six St. Joseph retirees interviewed for this article each talked about an identical phrase they said managers used to describe the pension: “hidden paycheck.” | The St. Joseph pension needs an estimated $125 million to pay beneficiaries. Absent a solution, the fund will be drained in five years, by some estimates. Pensioners have placed their hopes in a lawsuit against the diocese and other parties. It is a battle that involves the state’s highest-ranking Catholic, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence, versus Arlene Violet, a former nun of the Sisters of Mercy who was elected Rhode Island’s attorney general in 1984 — the first woman elected attorney general in the United States.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/business/retirement/faith-in-a-hidden-paycheck-that-could-vanish-for-good.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/photo-essays/2012-07-12/the-mormon-global-business-empire
https://www.pbgc.gov/
https://www.golocalprov.com/news/as-st.-joseph-pension-fund-legal-cases-drags-on-58-retirees-have-died-and-f

Sandy Hook kids who were killed would be in 8th grade now.

The decline in teen smoking was one of the great #publichealth success stories. Then came vaping and #Juul. Vaping is now so pervasive among high school students that federal health officials say its use has fueled a sharp reversal in what had been a celebrated two-decade decline in overall tobacco use by teenagers. via @HattieRowan https://khn.org/OTk1MjUz
https://twitter.com/KHNews/status/1172183871175180293

Preliminary results of the Air Force’s review of its use of Trump Turnberry shows that the service has lodged crews at the resort up to 40 times since 2015, a figure far higher than previously known.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/12/air-force-trump-scottish-resort-1493624

Shohei Ohtani to undergo season-ending knee surgery.
https://twitter.com/FantasyLabsMLB/status/1172250257448738816?s=19

Harvard is conducting a review of all gifts made to the University by billionaire and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, University President Lawrence S. Bacow announced in an email to Harvard affiliates Thursday evening
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2019/9/13/harvard-reviews-epstein-gifts/

‘Half Wit’ And ‘Social Misfits’: Emails Show Falwell Mocked Students, Staff For Years
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/falwell-emails-mock-liberty-university-students-staff