The Weekly Town Crier (04/16/21)
All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (04/16/21).
We’ll Miss You:
Read “DMX dead at 50, family confirms” at Fox 59.
Read “Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth's longtime consort, will be laid to rest in low-key ceremony” at CNN.
Read “Sonny Simmons, Fiercely Independent Alto Saxophonist, Dies At 87” at NPR.
Religion and Stuff:
Read “Proud Boys and other far-right groups raise millions via Christian funding site” at The Guardian.
Read “Pastor: Lawmakers Making Churches Obey COVID Rules Are “Non-Essential” to God!” at Friendly Atheist.
Read ‘High court halts Calif. virus rules limiting home worship” at Religion News Service.
Read “Former Moody Professor & Author for Desiring God Announces He’s No Longer a Christian” at Roys Report.
Read “Evangelical Pastor Faces Prison Time After Recording Child Changing Her Clothes” at Friendly Atheist.
Read “John Wayne, Jesus, and the Struggle to Define the Christian Man” by David French. “Would the Son of God slide into home with his cleats up?”
Read “Hillsong Shuts Down Dallas Campus Following Reports Pastors Misused Funds” at Roys Report.
Read “New York City's Next Mayor Could Be Decided in the Black Church” at Bloomberg.
Read “A Pastor’s Son Becomes a Critic of Religion on TikTok” at New York Times.
Read “Brazil building new Jesus statue even taller than Rio's Christ the Redeemer” at The Hill.
Read “The Supreme Court Broke Its Own Rules to Radically Redefine Religious Liberty” at Slate. “Even Chief Justice John Roberts dissented from the majority’s unusual move.”
Read “Head of Elite Catholic School Is Fired Over Sexual Misconduct Charges” at New York Times.
Read “Pope Francis asks Minnesota bishop to resign following Vatican probe” at The Hill.
Read the opinion piece “Why Democratic Socialism Isn’t Anti-Christian” at Sojourners.
Read “At online symposium, Pope Francis says religions can eradicate sexual abuse together” at Religion News Service.
Read ‘Why Pastors Should Read Literature” by Karen Swallow Prior at Pastor Theologians.
Read “'The Making Of Biblical Womanhood' Tackles Contradictions In Religious Practice” at NPR.
Read “Orlando sanctuary nurses largest cluster of Florida corals rescued from a devastating disease” at Orlando Sentinel.
Read “Pat Robertson slams policing in America” at MSBNC. "We cannot have a bunch of clowns running around who are underpaid and who really are not the best and brightest, we've got to have the best in there."
Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:
Read “Tucker Carlson, the face of Fox News, just gave his full endorsement to the white nationalist conspiracy theory that has motivated mass shootings” at Media Matters.
Read “Expert Witness Pinpoints the Exact Moment George Floyd Died Under Chauvin’s Weight” at Slate.
Read “The claim that drugs killed George Floyd relies on a racist trope” at VOX. “In the Derek Chauvin trial, the defense’s attempt to blame George Floyd’s death on drug use relies on retrograde and racist myths.”
Read “Medical Examiner Reaffirms George Floyd Homicide Ruling, Caused by Derek Chauvin’s Restraint” at Democracy Now.
Read “Alabama GOP Senate Candidate Is Extremely Outraged at Affair Allegations Before Being Presented With a 17-Minute Tape” at Slate.
Read “Matt Gaetz Reportedly Sent $900 on Venmo to Indicted Tax Collector Buddy, Who Then Paid Three Young Women for ‘Tuition’ and ‘School’ at Mediaite.
Read “Matt Gaetz Now Complains He’s A Victim Of The Deep State” at Huff Post.
Read “Indicted Gaetz Associate Is Said to Be Cooperating With Justice Dept.” at New York Times.
Read “Same, but different: Notes on Black Christian solidarity against anti-Asian racism” at Religion News Service.
Read “N.R.A. Chief Takes the Stand, With Cracks in His Armor” at New York Times.
Read “The first Southern state legalizes marijuana — what it means nationally” at The Hill.
Read “President Biden set to further regulate 'ghost guns'“ at PRI. “The Biden administration faces pushback from Republicans as it tries to pass legislation to further regulate "ghost guns" assembled with homemade parts.”
Read “South Dakota GOP Gov. Blasted For Telling Illegal Immigrants To 'Call Me When You're An American'“ at Comic Sands.
Read “Conservative Judges Are Manipulating the History of Eugenics to Overturn Roe v. Wade” at Slate.
Read “Illinois House passes bill mandating Asian American history in schools” at NBC News.
Read “At least 8 dead in shooting at Indianapolis FedEx facility” at The Hill.
This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // and/or weird Confederacy stuff) // Insurrectionists // Far-Right Extremism:
Read “‘Clear the Capitol,’ Pence pleaded, timeline of riot shows” at Associated Press.
Read “Far-Right Extremist Planned to Blow Up Amazon Data Center, Feds Allege” at Variety.
Read “White supremacists plan nationwide rallies on April 11” at The Hill.
Read ‘Huntington Beach braces for yet another demonstration — a White Lives Matter rally on Sunday” at Los Angeles Times.
Read “‘Darn’ Tootin’ It Is!’: Gov. Tate Reeves Again Declares Confederate Heritage Month, SCV Says” at Mississippi Free Press.
Read “Heritage Versus Hate: Assessing Opinions in the Debate over Confederate Monuments and Memorials” at Wiley Public Library. “When it comes to wanting to leave Confederate monuments alone, it’s racial resentment, not southern identity.”
This Week In Protest-Related News:
Read “Protests erupt after death of Daunte Wright, 20-year-old Black man shot by police during traffic stop: What we know” at USA Today.
Read ‘Second night of unrest after fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright outside Minneapolis” at CBS News.
This Week With The Police:
Read “Cops Caught on Video Holding a Black Army Lieutenant at Gunpoint, Then Pepper-Spraying Him” at Vice.
Read “Army officer sues police for pepper-spraying him, drawing guns during traffic stop” at The Hill.
Read “Police officer with connection to Proud Boys fired” at The Hill.
Read “Protests erupt after death of Daunte Wright, 20-year-old Black man shot by police during traffic stop: What we know” at USA Today.
Read “Minnesota officer meant to draw Taser, not handgun” at Associated Press.
Read “Medical examiner declares Daunte Wright death a homicide” at KTSP.
Read “Brooklyn Center city manager fired following police shooting of Daunte Wright” at The Hill.
Read “Rev. Al Sharpton on the police killing of Daunte Wright: ‘You can die for having expired tags’” at MSNBC.
Read “How Could the Police Have Mistaken a Gun for a Taser?” at Yahoo.
Read “Brooklyn Center officer in Daunte Wright shooting, police chief submit resignation” at KSTP.
Read “The Minnesota officer who killed Daunte Wright will be charged with manslaughter.” at New York Times.
Read “Minnesota Police Officer Kimberly Potter Charged with Manslaughter for Shooting Daunte Wright” at Democracy Now.
Read “Daunte Wright's death proves a more interracial America can't protect us” at MSNBC.
Read “Cincinnati police raise ‘Blue Lives Matter’ flag outside justice center” at Guardian.
Read “Legal experts on whether police testifying against Derek Chauvin portends real change” at MSNBC.
Read “Bill to give Arizona troopers body cameras would also restrict video release” at ABC 15.
Read “Maryland state trooper fatally shoots 16-year-old after responding to reports of an armed man” at ABC News. “Peyton Ham was allegedly carrying an airsoft gun and a knife.”
Read “Daunte and the Debt Collectors: How the Cops Became Robbers” at The Root.
Read “For years, the Boston Police kept a secret: the union president was an alleged child molester” at Boston Globe.
Read “Video of fatal Chicago police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo released” at NBC News.
Read “Three Georgia officers injured after suspect opened fire with AK-47 during chase” at The Hill.
Read “Pat Robertson slams policing in America” at MSBNC. "We cannot have a bunch of clowns running around who are underpaid and who really are not the best and brightest, we've got to have the best in there."
Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings
Read “Teen student arrested for having gun at Sandra Day O'Connor High School in north Phoenix” at ABC 15.
Read “One person dead, officer wounded in shooting confrontation at a Tennessee high school, officials say” at Click 2 Houston.
Read “Florida education official tells school districts to make masks optional next year” at The HIll.
Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:
Read “You Can’t Trust Anyone’: Russia’s Hidden Covid Toll Is an Open Secret” at New York Times.
Read “Nearly 40% of Marines have declined Covid-19 vaccine” at CNN.
Read “WHO chief laments 'shocking imbalance' in vaccines for poor countries” at The Hill.
Read “Meat-packing plants were the earliest COVID hotspots, but vaccinating workers isn’t easy” at PBS News Hour.
Read “Loneliness, Anxiety and Loss: the Covid Pandemic’s Terrible Toll on Kids” at Wall Street Journal.
Read “Covid vaccine hesitancy among men is its own public health issue” at MSNBC.
Read “Wisconsin Supreme Court rules against restaurant, bar capacity limits” at The Hill.
Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):
Read “Nike Settles With Lil Nas X 'Satan Shoes' Manufacturer” at Pop Culture.
Read “Under Capitalism, the Deck Is Always Stacked Against Unionizing at Companies Like Amazon” at Jacobin Magazine.
Watch “The Tony Alva Story” at Open Culture.
Read “Nike’s idea of ‘woke’ is to kill the small businesses, in Philly and elsewhere, that made its sneakers popular” at Inquirer.
Read “Staying Home Gave Some Black Women the Chance to Take Care of Their Own Hair” at Slate. “Some aren’t sure they’ll go back to salons at all.”
Read “'You Can't Escape the Gravitational Pull of Jeff Bezos.' How Amazon Won the Preliminary Union Vote in Alabama” at Time.
Read “‘Huge’ Explosion Rocks St. Vincent As Volcano Keeps Erupting” at Huff Post.
Read “Steak-Umm Twitter Beef with Neil DeGrasse Tyson Explained” at HITC.
Read “Meet the Ransomware Gang Behind One of the Biggest Supply Chain Hacks Ever” at Vice.
Read “Apple might not release an iPhone Mini in 2022, analyst predicts” at CNet.
Read “There Will Be No Swearing or Taking God’s Name in Vain on Mike Lindell’s New ‘Free Speech’ Platform” at Right Wing Watch.
Read “A 23-Year-Old Coder Kept QAnon Online When No One Else Would” at Bloomberg.
Internationalities:
Read “What About China?” Is No Defense of American Injustice” at Slate.
Read “Iran Blames Israel for Attack on Nuclear Facility, Vows to Retaliate” at Wall Street Journal.
Read “China sends 25 warplanes into Taiwan's air defense zone, Taipei says” at CNN.
Read “How Biden’s team overrode the brass on Afghanistan” at Politico.
Read “Japan announces it will release treated radioactive water from Fukushima nuclear plant into sea” at South China Morning Press.
Read “Forthcoming Russia sanctions won't include Nord Stream 2” at Politico.
Read “Biden administration sanctions Russia for SolarWinds hack, election interference” at the Hill.
Read “Biden Administration Says Russian Intelligence Obtained Trump Campaign Data” at New York Times.
Read “Intel chiefs sound alarm on China in global threats hearing” at Politico.
Read “Russian Troops Amass on Eastern Border as U.S. and NATO Pledge Support for Ukraine” at Democracy Now.
Read “UK facing garden gnome shortage following the Suez Canal fiasco” at Indy 100.
Politics And Sucheries:
Read ‘The GOP Is Voting Against Its Base” at The Atlantic. “Republicans are making a risky bet by opposing Biden’s infrastructure plan.”
Read “High number of Trump political appointees sought permanent jobs in final year” at NBC News.
Read “Can America's 'Civil Religion' Still Unite The Country?” at WPR.
Read “Dwayne Johnson says he’ll run for President “if this is what the people want”” at NME. “46 per cent of poll respondents would welcome him in the Oval Office.”
Read “Stephanie Murphy: Let Florida voters know which election systems were hacked by Russians” at Orlando Sentinel.
Read “Congressional Black Caucus members post selfie celebrating first WH visit in four years” at The Hill.
Read “Mitt Romney And Kyrsten Sinema Team Up On Bipartisan Bill To Increase Minimum Wage” at Huff Post.
Read “Biden Administration Moves To Undo Trump Abortion Rules For Title X” at NPR.
This Week In Political Corruption:
Read “Republicans Accused Of Election Rigging Conspiracy As Congress Demands DOJ Probe” at Politicus USA.
Read “McConnell versus the First Amendment” at Popular Info.
Read “Gaetz was denied meeting with Trump” at The Hill.
Read “Senate Report: Former Trump Aide Paul Manafort Shared Campaign Info With Russia” at NPR.
Music-Related News and Such:
Read “Prince’s ‘Welcome 2 America,’ an Unreleased Album, Is Due Out in July” at New York Times.
Read “Penn Jillette Tells the Most Amazing David Allan Coe Story” at GQ.
Read “From the Eagle Mall to Terrapin Station: A Skeleton Key to Robert Hunter” at Aquarium Drunkard.
Read “How The Wrecking Crew Secretly Recorded Some of the Biggest Hits of the 1960s & 70s” at Open Culture.
Read “The Spiritual Power of Pharoah Sanders” by Shabaka Hutchings” at Vinyl Factory.
Read “Kelly Clarkson's Onstage Bathroom Disaster Will Forever Change the Way We Think About Trash Cans” at Yahoo.
Browse Bandcamp’s picks for “The Best Albums of Winter 2021.”
Read “Phoebe Bridgers’ Smashed Guitar from SNL Sells for $100k in Auction” at Consequence of Sound.
Read “We All Get To Benefit From Taylor Swift’s Sweet Revenge” at Stereogum.
Read “How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music” at Pitchfork. “An in-depth history of the most important pop innovation of the last 20 years, from Cher’s “Believe” to Kanye West to Migos.”
Read “Madonna Buys The Weeknd's Hidden Hills Estate for $19 Million” at Pop Culture.
Read “Grateful Dead’s ‘Wall of Sound’ Lives Again in Some Dude’s Basement” at Wall Street Journal. “Anthony Coscia spent two months building a working one-sixth replica of the legendary system, to the delight of Deadheads everywhere.”
Read “Liz Phair Details New Album Soberish, Shares New Song” at Pitchfork.
Read “Mudhoney Is No Longer Just the Name of a Band in Seattle: 'This Is Anything But Boring'“ at Billboard. “Seattle Public Utilities announced on Monday (April 12) that it has named its tunnel boring machine after local grunge band Mudhoney after a public vote.”
Read “M.I.A. Launches Fundraiser for Saint Vincent Volcano Relief” at Pitchfork.
Read “CD of the Month: Ryley Walker - "Course In Fable” at WYSO.
Read “Queens of vinyl: 6 female record store owners share the secrets to their success and the struggles that became strengths” at Jumble and Flow. (Featuring Phoenix’s own Kimber Lanning!!)
Read “60 U.S. Music Venues Are Getting ‘Turnkey Livestreaming’ Abilities” at Rolling Stone. “As the live music industry weighs its post-pandemic future, Live Nation and Veeps will outfit venues including The Wiltern, The Fillmore, and House of Blues with livestreaming tech.”
Read “What the Hell Is Spotify’s Tragically Named “Car Thing”?” at Pitchfork.
Read “Morgan Wallen Says He Won’t Play Shows This Summer, Is Still Working on Himself Following Scandal” at Variety.
Read “José González Announces New Album Local Valley, Shares New Song” at Pitchfork.
Read “Inside Sun Ra’s 1971 trip to Egypt” at Vinyl Factory.
Read “Screamers, a Missing Link of Los Angeles Punk, Is Missing No More” at New York Times.
Read “Low Cover Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” at Pitchfork.
Read “Arcade Fire Share New 45-Minute Song for Headspace Meditation App” at Pitchfork.
Read “Alan Vega Left a Robust Vault. The Excavation Begins With a New Album” at New York Times.
Read “Angel Bat Dawid :: Transmissions” at Aquarium Drunkard.
Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:
Read “TV Is Having a Talking-Head Crisis, From Sharon Osbourne to Dr. Oz to Meghan McCain” at Time.
Read “Bill Hader Talks Overcoming Anxiety and ‘Barry’ Season 3 as He Receives USC’s Master of Comedy Award” at Variety.
Read “The Problem With ‘The Problem With Jon Stewart’” at Vice. “Can the beloved former host of ‘The Daily Show’ be relevant in 2021 without copying the work of his former staff?”
Read “Melissa McCarthy, Please Stop Making Bad Movies With Your Husband” at Slate.
Read “ArcLight Cinemas and Pacific Theatres to Close” at The Hollywood Reporter.
Browse “Ronin Roundup” at Burning Shore.
Books/Reading/Authors
Read ‘The Strangest Books in the World: Discover The Madman’s Library, a Captivating Compendium of Peculiar Books & Manuscripts’ at Open Culture.
Design/Artsy Things:
Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:
Read “4 Gray Whales Found Dead In San Francisco Bay Area In 9 Days” at Huff Post.
Read “How far does light travel in a year?” at Universal-Sci.
Read “When a Mantis Shrimp Fights a Disco Clam, It Meets Its Match” at Wired.
Read “Woman gets pregnant while already pregnant, gives birth to twins” at The Hill.
Read “The Sand Octopus Was Hiding in Plain Sight” at The Atlantic. “And yet it took a 19th-century naturalist, a 21st-century grad student, and some Brazilian fishers to crack the mystery.”
Read “The Carnivore Paradise That Keeps Changing the Story of Human Evolution” at Atlas Obscura. “New research at Dmanisi continues to challenge what we think we know about our deep past.”
Read “Scientists Create Early Embryos That Are Part Human, Part Monkey” at NPR.
Read “How scientists found 'Nemo,' Australia's newest dancing spider” at National Geographic.
Food Cultures:
Read “How India’s ‘Mango Man’ Grew a Tree With 300 Flavors” at Atlas Obscura.
Read “The Sandwich Scandal at the Heart of the World’s Greatest Golfing Event” at Atlas Obscura.
Misc. Oddities:
Local:
Read “Queens of vinyl: 6 female record store owners share the secrets to their success and the struggles that became strengths” at Jumble and Flow. (Featuring Phoenix’s own Kimber Lanning!!)