The Weekly Town Crier (05/14/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (05/14/21).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Vans co-founder Paul Van Doren dies At 90” at PennLive.

Read ‘Pervis Staples, Co-Founder of the Staple Singers, Dies at 85” at Pitchfork.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “For some pastors, the past year was a sign from God it was time to quit” at Religion News Service.

Read “Why Nathan Cartagena Teaches Critical Race Theory To Evangelicals” at Sojourners.

Read “Saddleback Church Ordains 3 Women Pastors, Defying Southern Baptist Position” at Roys Report.

Read “How American Christendom Weakens American Christianity” at David French.

Read ‘German priests defy Pope Francis with blessings of same-sex unions” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Mark Driscoll Accused of Cult-Like Actions; 24/7 Surveillance, Mandated Loyalty” at Roys Report.

Read “Inside Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam’s Strange Ties to Scientology” at Daily Beast.

Read “Meet Kashmir’s ‘Midnight Drummers,’ keeping alive an age-old Ramadan tradition” at Religion News Service.

Read “Religion plays a role in the renewed conflict in Israel, but it may not be what you think” at Religion News Service.

Read “Former Members of Indiana Church Accuse Pastor of Sexual Abuse & Presbytery of Covering it Up” at Roys Report.

Read “The Eugenics Roots of Evangelical Family Values” at Religion and Politics.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “The War on Critical Race Theory” at Boston Review. “Turning a blind eye to the realities of racial injustice, the highly orchestrated right-wing attacks cast a body of scholarship about race in the law as a great threat to American society.”

Read “Two Asian women repeatedly attacked with cinder block as they closed Baltimore store” at NBC News.

Read “Maryland governor pardons 34 victims of racial lynching” at The Hill.

Read “Sub shop owner allegedly pays manager to kill employee to avoid back pay” at Crime Online.

Read “'Woke,' Leftist & Black: The Incomplete Glossary of White Slurs” at The Root.

Read “DA to seek death penalty, hate crime charges against 22-year-old spa shooting suspect” at 11 Alive.

Read “Bodycam video shows Andrew Brown Jr. didn't drive into deputies who shot him, lawyers say: "He did just the opposite"“ at CBS News.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “In Exclusive Jailhouse Letter, Capitol Riot Defendant Explains Motives, Remains Boastful” at Pro Publica. ”The material obtained by ProPublica sheds light on the radicalization of a Jan. 6 defendant whom prosecutors have characterized as a “serious danger ... not only to his family and Congress, but to the entire system of justice.”

Read “Rep. Paul Gosar defends the 'peaceful patriots' who rioted on Jan. 6” at AZ Central.

Watch “GQP reps claim Capitol riot was a "normal tourist visit" at Boing Boing.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Washington bans open carry of weapons at state capitol, public protests” at The Hill.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Two More Lawsuits Filed Against Williamson County Sheriff's Department For Its Use Of Force” at KUT. “Attorneys say Ramsey Mitchell was punched, kicked and tased by deputies multiple times, and that he was put in a chokehold before being rendered unconscious. The incident was captured on camera for the the now-canceled reality television show “Live PD.”

Read “Alabama officer convicted of murdering suicidal man while on duty” at The Hill.

Read “Federal grand jury charges 4 former Minneapolis cops with violating George Floyd’s civil rights — Chauvin also charged in teen arrest” at CNBC.

Read “KARE 11 Investigates: New data shows MPD searches Black drivers at 29 times the rate of whites after minor stops” at KARE11. “A KARE 11 analysis reveals huge racial disparities continue in Minneapolis for minor traffic stops and searches despite reforms promised after George Floyd’s death.”

Read “Virginia prosecutor says Black motorist should never have been pulled over, asks for investigation” at CNN.

Read “Witness: Man angered by Texas deputies in yard killed them” at Yahoo.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Schools Seeing Relief, Conflicts Since Arizona Lifted School Mask Mandate” at KJZZ.

Read “Dillard University Receives $1 Million From The Ray Charles Foundation” at Offbeat Magazine.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Nurses Honor 400 Colleagues Who Lost Their Lives to COVID-19, Call for More Protections” at Democracy Now.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Pro golfer arrested for attempting to meet with minor for sex” at ABC 15.

Read “Caitlyn Jenner tells Hannity friends are fleeing California because of homeless people” at The Hill.

Read ‘Logjam! A journey to the heart of the lumber shortage.” at Slate.

Read “Anyone can claim copyright to your videos - and YouTube stands by and watches” at My News Desk.

Read “Kintsugi: The Centuries-Old Japanese Craft of Repairing Pottery with Gold & Finding Beauty in Broken Things” at Open Culture.

Read “Called by God” at Slate. “In 2014, I went on a vigilante raid to “save” kids sold for sex. What we did haunts me now.”

Read “Diamond in the rough: Japanese Americans imprisoned at Arizona camps during WWII found solace in baseball” at Cronkite News.

Read “Who Should John Mulaney Be Now?” at Vulture.

Browse “Leonardo da Vinci’s Handwritten Resume (1482)” at Open Culture.

Read “Hummer destroyed by fire after driver stockpiles gas” at The Hill.

Read “The 1970s Fashion Designer Who Was Outlandishly Ahead of His Time” at The Atlantic. “Twenty years ago, fashion lost the visionary designer—and prophet—behind P-Funk and Kiss.”

Read “McDonald's-owned U.S. restaurants boost pay to lure new workers” at Reuters.

Internationalities:

Read ‘Man Trapped on Bridge After Glass Deck Blown Off By Strong Wind” at Vice.

Read “8 dead in Russia school shooting” at The Hill.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read the opinion piece “Republicans will never certify a Democratic win ever again” at Boing Boing.

Read “Liz Cheney removed from position as House GOP conference chair over anti-Trump stance” at New York Post.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Trump Justice Department secretly obtained Post reporters’ phone records” at Washington Post.

Read “Arizona Republicans to brush off DOJ concern about election audit” at The Hill.

Read “Are Donald Trump & Rudy Giuliani Sitting on Secret Pardons?” at News and Guts.

Read “Tennessee cuts off $300 federal unemployment supplement” at The Hill.

Read “Election security experts say giving Maricopa County routers to Arizona Senate's election auditors would be concerning” at AZ Central.

Read “Activists and Ex-Spy Said to Have Plotted to Discredit Trump ‘Enemies’ in Government” at New York Times.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Van Morrison: Latest Record Project Volume 1 review – depressing rants by tinfoil milliner” at Guardian. “The veteran bluesman loudly wakes up the sheeple with this boring and paranoid double album, reminiscent of a dinner party with a bitter divorcee.”

• Read as Pitchfork reviews Van Morrison’s newest album: “It’s a terrible night for a moondance: On this risible and intermittently lovely 28-song collection, Van indulges in some of his most cherished paranoid theories and deepest-held grudges.”

Read “Mac Miller’s Family Condemns Unauthorized Biography” at Pitchfork.

Read “Chrissie Hynde Details New Bob Dylan Covers Album Standing in the Doorway” at Consequence.

Read “David Lynch Directs New Music Video for Donovan’s “I Am the Shaman”” at Consequence.

Read “On maintaining creative relationships” at The Creative Independent.

Read “The Artist Impostors of Spotify” at Salon. “I tracked some down.”

Read “Rodney Crowell Previews New Album With Urgent ‘Something Has to Change’” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Listening to Hard Rock and Metal Can Lead to Unhealthy Food Choices” at Consequence.

Read “Dead & Company on Summer Tour: ‘You Couldn’t Turn Your Back on This Music’” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Archie Shepp’s 1974 Paris concert set for first vinyl release” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “JAY-Z, Foo Fighters, Tina Turner Inducted Into Rock Hall of Fame 2021” at Pitchfork.

Read “Kraftwerk FINALLY gets into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Oh, and the Foos made it, too)” at A Journal of Musical Things.

Read “Can’s Live Shows Will Be Heard at Last, Thanks to a Bootlegger in Big Pants” at New York Times.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “NBC Is Dropping Golden Globes After Criticism Over Diversity” at Bloomberg. “Musician Matt Sweeney discusses confidence, different types of collaboration, paying attention, and creating and sustaining your lane.”

Read “The "Ted Lasso" way is comforting – and a counter to the hollow nationalism Americans have embraced” at Salon.

Read “'American Idol' finalist Caleb Kennedy out after KKK-style hood video surfaces” at CNN.

Read “Bong Joon Ho working on animated film involving "deep-water sea creatures"“ at AV Club.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: 17,500 Entries on All Things Sci-Fi Are Now Free Online” at Open Culture.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “A Private Company Is About to Send the First Paying Crew to the International Space Station” at Time.

Read “The Psychedelic Miracle” at Rolling Stone. “How some doctors are risking everything to unleash the healing power of MDMA, ayahuasca and other hallucinogens.”

• Read “A New Study Points to MDMA as a Powerful Treatment for PTSD” at Time.

Read “The Soviet Doctor Who Cut Out His Own Appendix” at Flashback.

Food Cultures:

Read “Restaurants are running out of chicken wings” at ABC 15.

Local:

Read “21 and Over! Here are 21 New Craft Beer Releases from Arizona Breweries” at Phoenix Magazine.

Read “What were those strange lights in the Arizona sky?” at AZ Family.

Read “Arizona's Early Voting List Is No Longer Permanent” at KJZZ.

The Weekly Town Crier (04/30/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (04/30/21).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Michael Collins, command module pilot on Apollo 11, dies at 90” at 12 News.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Biden’s Armenian Genocide Stance Pleases Christians, Angers Turkey” at Christianity Today.

Read “Muslim Americans Reflect On Another Ramadan During The Pandemic” at NPR.

Read “Black and Asian Christian leaders discuss role of church in fighting racism” at Religion News Service.

Read “Dave Ramsey’s Bestseller Slips from Top 10 List” at Christianity Today.

Read “Mark Driscoll’s Elderless Church” at Throckmorton. “It should come as little surprise that Mark Driscoll’s new church apparently has solved the elder problem which led to his demise at Mars Hill. Just don’t have any.”

• Read “A Family is Allegedly Driven From Mark Driscoll’s The Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona” at Wondering Eagle.

Read “Virginia GOP reverses course, will let those with religious obligations cast absentee votes for Saturday convention” at The Hill.

Read “‘If you have eyes, plagiarize’: When borrowing a sermon goes too far” at Religion News Service.

Read “‘Beautiful’ Ramadan returns for Israeli Muslims as restrictions lift” at Religion News Service.

Read “US Catholic bishops may press Biden to stop taking Communion” at Religion News Service. “At issue is a document coming from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Doctrine clarifying the church’s stance on an issue that has repeatedly vexed the bishops.”

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Lindsay Lohan's father arrested for alleged 'patient brokering' in Florida” at The Hill.

Read “Maryland launches review of cases handled by ex-medical chief after Chauvin trial defense” at The Hill.

Read “Montana governor signs bill to protect Second Amendment from federal gun restrictions” at Fox Propaganda Network. “Republicans in the state passed the law amid President Biden’s push for federal gun reform measures.”

Read “NJ Man Charged with Sex Assault after Prior Case Dropped Amid Trooper Protests” at Newsweek. “A New Jersey man is facing new sexual assault charges after a prior case was dropped four years ago amid protests by state police that fueled a corruption probe with far-reaching ramifications, Newsweek has learned.”

Read “Five Myths About Red Flag Laws” at Washington Post.

Read “We all want something done.’ Peace Walk promotes end to gun violence in Lexington” at Lexington Herald Leader.

Read the opinion piece “Why I support reparations — and all conservatives should” at Washington Post.

Read “Erasing The Stain: 15,000 Pardoned Of Marijuana Possession Convictions” at WBHM.

Read “Parents Want Justice for Birth Injuries. Hospitals Want to Strip Them of the Right to Make That Decision” at Pro Publica.

Read “The Department of Homeland Security will undergo an internal review to root out white supremacy and combat extremist ideology in the federal government” at New York Times.

Read “Secret Court Reveals: FBI Hunted for Domestic Terrorists Without a Warrant” at Daily Beast.

Read “3 Indicted On Federal Hate Crime Charges In Ahmaud Arbery Death” at Huff Post.

Read “US Supreme Court hands victory to immigrants facing deportation” at Al Jazeera.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Watch ‘American Insurrection’ at PBS Frontline.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Oklahoma passes law protecting drivers who kill or hurt rioters” at NBC News.

This Week With The Police:

Read “1 Verdict, Then 6 Police Killings Across America in 24 Hours” at NBC Washington. “At least six people were fatally shot by officers across the United States in the 24 hours after jurors reached a verdict in the murder case against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.”

Read “Doorbell video captures police officer punching and throwing teen with autism to the ground” at CBS News.

Read “Yes, Black America Fears the Police. Here’s Why: at Pro Publica.

Read “Newark cops, with reform, didn’t fire a single shot in 2020” at NJ.com. “At the same time, crime is dropping, and police recovered almost 500 illegal guns from the street during the year.”

Read “Deputy Shoots Unarmed Man Repeatedly During 911 Call, Officials Say” at New York Times. “Isaiah Brown was on a cordless phone with an emergency dispatcher when he was shot, his lawyer said. His family said he was in intensive care.”

Read “Virginia deputy gave Black man a ride home, then shot him after 911 call” at NBC News. “Brown had a phone in his hand and was speaking to a dispatcher when he was shot, his law firm said.”

Read the opinion piece “The look in Derek Chauvin's eyes was something worse than hate” at CNN.

Read “Baltimore police commissioner expects Minneapolis PD to be placed under federal consent decree” at The Hill.

Read “Judge rules Andrew Brown Jr. bodycam videos will not be released, but will be disclosed to family” at MSNBC.

• Read “US judge: no immediate release of video of Andrew Brown shooting” at Al Jazeera.

Read “In North Carolina, a Familiar Pattern After the Police Killing of Andrew Brown Jr.” at Slate.

Read “Bodycam Video Released Of California Man Who Died After Police Knelt On Him” at News and Guts.

Read “Justice Department will investigate Louisville police department in aftermath of Breonna Taylor shooting” at NBC News.

Read “Report: Police treatment of African Americans in the US amounts to crimes against humanity” at PRI’s The World.

Read “The World Recognizes Police Violence Against Black Americans as Crimes Against Humanity.” at The North Star.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Miami private school won't employ teachers who get the Covid-19 vaccine” at NBC News.

Read “Embattled Florida superintendent pleads not guilty to perjury charge” at The Hill.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “How Bill Gates Impeded Global Access to Covid Vaccines” at The New Republic.

Read “U.S. defends restrictions on export of COVID-19 vaccine raw materials amid India's request to lift ban” at The Hindu.

• Read “U.S. to provide Covid vaccine components, medical supplies to India” at NBC News. “The White House said they will send raw materials required for India to manufacture the Covishield vaccine, as well as therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators and protective equipment.”

Read “Millions Appear to Be Skipping Second COVID-19 Vaccine Shot in the U.S.” at Slate.

Read “Airline Bans Alaska State Senator For Violating COVID-19 Mask Rules” at Huff Post.

Read “West Virginia will offer $100 savings bonds to young people who get vaccinated” at Axios.

Read “French Biotech Firm Has a Weapon for the Mutation War” at Bloomberg.

Read “Washington state poker night linked to nearly 100 COVID-19 cases” at The HillI.

Please Read “Fauci: Joe Rogan's COVID-19 comments 'incorrect” at The Hill.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “The Newest Status Symbol for High-Net Worth Homeowners: Trophy Trees” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “82-Year-Old NFL Alum Arrested, Found With Massive Amount of Cocaine” at Pop Culture.

Read “How Capicola Became Gabagool: The Italian New Jersey Accent, Explained” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “Prancer, The 'Haunted Victorian Child' Dog From Viral Ad, Has Been Adopted” at NPR.

Read “When Ayn Rand Collected Social Security & Medicare, After Years of Opposing Benefit Programs” at Open Culture.

Read “The Problem With Apple’s Plan to Stop Facebook’s Data Collection” at Slate.

Read “It Was Just Thrilling': 2 NPR Founders Remember The First Days, 50 Years Ago” at NPR.

Internationalities:

Read “Food pantries for hungry Filipinos get tagged as communist” at Al Jazeera. “People turn against the Duterte administration after a military-led agency accuses volunteers of a popular feeding initiative of being communist sympathisers.”

Read “Erdogan threatens to recognise killings of Native Americans as genocide in response to Armenia resolution” at Independent.

Read 'I Remember Them Screaming': Afghans Detail Alleged Killings By Australian Military” at NPR.

Read “Filipino investigative journalist to receive UN press freedom prize” at UN News.

Read “U.S. Contractors Are Still Helping Maintain Saudi Warplanes Used in Yemen War” at Democracy Now.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Caitlyn Jenner announces run for California governor in recall election” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Democrats warn Waters censure move opens floodgates” at The Hill.

Read “LinkedIn billionaire: Cut off funding for politicians who limit voting rights” at CNN.

Read “Kerry faces calls to step down over leaked Iran tapes” at The Hill.

Read “Newsom recall effort has enough signatures to make ballot” at The Hill.

Read “Biden to pitch sweeping ‘family plan’ in speech to Congress” at Associated Press.

Read “Biden nominates Texas sheriff to lead ICE” at NBC News.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “This family thought Biden would stop Trump's wall. Now his administration is plodding along to seize their land” at Business Insider.

Read “Documents Show Trump Officials Skirted Rules to Reward Politically Connected and Untested Firms With Huge Pandemic Contracts” at Pro Publica.

Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene Dragged After Announcing She'll File Resolution To Expel Maxine Waters From Congress” at Comic Sands.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “DMX's casket borne through streets of New York on a monster truck, which feels right” at AV Club.

Read “Why Boards of Canada’s Music Has the Right to Children Is the Greatest Psychedelic Album of the ’90s” at Pitchfork. “Unlocking the mysteries behind the Scottish electronic duo’s hallucinatory classic, which turns 20 this month.”

Read “25 Greatest Punk Rock Movies of All Time” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Van Morrison Blames ‘Freedom of Speech’ Over Negative Response to Anti-Lockdown Songs” at Spin.

Read “St. Vincent Told Me To Kill This Interview” by Emma Madden.

Read “Ryley Walker “Course In Fable” at Foxy Digitalis.

Read “Relive being in CBGB via this 360 VR tour” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Arts Coverage Commentary: A Conversation with Ted Gioia About New Approaches to Publishing” at Arts Fuse.

Read “Questlove’s Music Trivia Game at Oscars 2021 Ends With Glenn Close Doing “Da Butt” at Pitchfork.

Read “John Lydon Threatens to Sue Danny Boyle Over “Disrespectful” Sex Pistols TV Series” at Consequence of Sound. "They went to the point to hire an actor to play me but what's the actor working on? Certainly not my character"

Read “Charles Mingus’ Instructions For Toilet Training Your Cat, Read by The Wire’s Reg E. Cathey” at Open Culture.

Read “The Art of Japanese Portable Record Players” at In Sheep’s Clothing Hi Fi.

Read “Kurt Cobain’s ‘The Last Session’ Photoshoot Will Be Sold as an NFT” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Foo Fighters, Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem, and More Design Bikes for Fundraiser” at Pitchfork.

Read “Rig Rundown: Yasmin Williams” at Premier Guitar.

Listen: “The Lumineers And Gregory Alan Isakov Cover Each Other's Songs” at NPR.

Read “How Jamaica shaped the creative spirit and evolution of music production” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “A new Hollywood biopic movie detailing the life of late, great Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister – titled, Simply Lemmy is set to begin production early next year and stars American actor, director and narrator Morgan Freeman” at Vintage Heavy Metal.

Read “Julien Baker Triumphs Over Her Inner Demons” at Spin.

Read “Lady Gaga’s Alleged Dognappers Arrested For Attempted Murder And Robbery” at Huff Post.

Read “Bringin’ it Backwards: Interview with The Mother Hips” at American Songwriter.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Here’s what happens to the extra food in cooking competition shows” at Marketplace.

Read “China censoring reaction to Chloé Zhao's historic Oscar win” at The Hill.

Read “Josh Gad, Isla Fisher to Star in Romantic Comedy Series ‘Wolf Like Me’ at Peacock” at Variety.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Follow-up study finds a single dose of one drug can ease anxiety and depression for five years” at The HIll. “Participants “rated it among the most personally meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lives,” according to the study.”

Read “Mars helicopter Ingenuity snapped a fantastic aerial photo of the Perseverance rover” at Boing Boing.

Food Cultures:

Read “The Planet on the Plate: Why Epicurious Left Beef Behind” at Epicurious.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “The Josh Fight is Real and Delightfully Bizarre” at The Big Lead.

Read “Inside the multi-million dollar orgasm cult endorsed by Hollywood” at Cult News 101.

Read “Famed Scots UFO expert returns home after 23 years to crack Bonnybridge 'alien' mystery” at Daily Record.

Local:

Read “Security lapses plague Arizona Senate's election audit at State Fairgrounds” at AZ Family.

• Read “Experts raise concerns about processes, transparency as election audit begins” at AZ Mirror.

Read “Seller's market in Phoenix real estate is brutal for local buyers” at AZ Family.

The Weekly Town Crier (02/19/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (02/19/21).

We’ll Miss You (?):

Read “Chick Corea, Jazz Keyboardist and Innovator, Dies at 79” at New York Times.

Read “Influential jazz drummer Milford Graves has passed away at 79” at NME.

Read “Charles Boyer, Disney Legend and Master Illustrator, Passes Away” at Disney Information Station.

Read “Died: Carman, Christian Showman Who Topped Charts with Triumphant Faith” at Christianity Today.

Read “Rush Limbaugh, conservative media icon, dead at 70 following battle with cancer” at CNN.

Read “U-Roy, Reggae and Dancehall Innovator, Dies at 78” at Pitchfork.

Read “Prince Markie Dee, The Fat Boys Rapper, Dies at 52” at Spin.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Getting serious (and precise) about Christian nationalism” at Religion News Service.

Read “The Real Origins of the Religious Right” at Politico. “They’ll tell you it was abortion. Sorry, the historical record’s clear: It was segregation.”

Read “Christian Prophets Are on the Rise. What Happens When They’re Wrong?” at New York Times.

Read ‘On the Biblical and Historical Doctrine of the Trinity: A Response to Wayne Grudem” at Logos Academic.

Read “L.A. church to host indoor conference of 3,000 attendees, despite public health order” at Los Angeles Times.

• Read “John MacArthur’s Grace Community church postpones event after health officials balk” at Religion News Service.

Read/Listen to “Ravi Zacharias Pressured Me to Get an Abortion” at Roys Report.

• Read “You Are One Step Away from Complete and Total Insanity'“ by David French. “The inside story of how Ravi Zacharias’s ministry concealed and enabled his abuse.”

• Read “How should we respond to the Ravi Zacharias scandal?” at Christian Post.

• Read “Enraged by Ravi (Part 1): The wreckage of Ravi Zacharias” by Russell Moore.

Read “Biden relaunches faith-based White House office” at The Hill.

• Read “Moore welcomes White House faith-based office” at Baptist Press.

Read “Love The Sinner, Hate The Sin? A Look At Bigotry From The Pulpit” at Armchair Philosopher.

Read “Will religious progressives have real political impact?” at New Catholic Reporter.

Read “When religion was present — and notably absent — at the impeachment trial” at Religion News Service.

Read “Celebrating Ash Wednesday in a pandemic? There’s an app for that” at Religion News Service. “Catholic prayer and meditation app Hallow also has taken the day's most visible tradition online with an 'AshTag' filter on both Facebook and Instagram.”

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “ND House passes bill barring trans youth from teams that match their gender identity” at The Hill.

Read “Violence against elderly Asian Americans in the Bay Area is rising” at SF Gate.

• Read “A Year of Anti-Asian Violence” at Slate.

Read “Judge denies request to increase Kyle Rittenhouse's bail, won't allow prosecutors to see new address” at NBC News.

Read “White House press aide suspended for threatening Politico reporter” at The Hill.

Read “Rep. Cori Bush Demands Answers on Treatment of BLM Protesters vs. Trump Insurrectionists” at Rolling Stone. “We couldn’t scale a wall to try to get in — we would have been shot down off of that wall.”

Read ‘Biden calls for 'commonsense gun law reforms' on anniversary of Parkland shooting” at The Hill.

Read Juveniles Part Of A Huge Increase In Carjackings Across The Country” at NPR.

Read “Georgia state bar sends disciplinary complaint to pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood” at The Hill.

Read “As Biden Reopens ACA Enrollment, Are You Eligible To Sign Up Or Switch Health Plans?” at NPR.

Read “Georgia GOP legislator introduces bill to increase penalties for crimes committed during protests” at The Hill.

Read ‘Push For Greater Arizona Prison Oversight Led By Formerly Incarcerated People, Families” at KJZZ.

Read “Arizona bill would charge those who sell, share drugs linked to overdoses with murder” at AZ Central.

Read “South Carolina governor signs bill banning most abortions” at The Hill.

Read “New Zealand Will Offer Free Sanitary Products At Schools To Fight Period Poverty” at NPR.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “Trump 'made no attempt' to reach the National Guard to help overwhelmed Capitol Police, Rep. Castro says” at Yahoo.

Read “Nikki Haley breaks with Trump: 'We shouldn't have followed him'“ at MSN.

Read “Mark Finchem cleared of 82 ethics complaints related to the Jan. 6 riot” at AZ Mirror.

Read “Six people who guarded Roger Stone entered Capitol during attack” at The Hill.

Read “FBI Informant Panic Is Ruining Friendships All Over the Far Right” at Daily Beast.

Read “The last straw’: the US families ending love affair with grocery chain after Capitol riot” at The Guardian. “Families are boycotting Publix after a member of founding family donated $300,000 to the Donald Trump rally that preceded January’s deadly Capitol attack.”

Read “Pelosi says 9/11-style commission to investigate Capitol breach is 'next step'“ at The Hill.

Read “New Video Appears to Show Iced Earth’s Jon Schaffer Charging at Officers During Capitol Insurrection” at Consequence of Sound. “The metal guitarist faces six federal charges for his role in the January 6th riot.”

Read “Department of Homeland Security Confirms Neo-Nazi Leader Used to Work For It” at Vice. “The leader of terror group the Base once worked for an agency tasked with coordinating the U.S. government’s counterterrorism efforts.”

Read “Two Infamous White Nationalists Still Have a Platform for Their Podcast Somehow” at Vice. “The MMA fighters, one Russian and one American, are dispensing 'real world' advice on starting hate groups, on a podcast hosted by a San Francisco-based platform. Anti-extremism groups are calling for it to be taken down.”

Read “Federal prosecutors investigated Proud Boys ties to Roger Stone in 2019 case” at The Hill.

This Week With The Police:

Read “The Troubling New Practice of Police Livestreaming Protests” at Slate.

Read “Police pepper-spray 9-year-old Black girl; New video captures her distressed wait for EMTs” at ABC 7.

Read “LAPD Investigating Valentine-Like Post of George Floyd: “You Take My Breath Away” at Slate.

Read “What It Looks Like When the New York City Police Commissioner Has “Unchecked Power” Over Officer Discipline” at Pro Publica.

Read ‘Why Were Portland Police Guarding a Dumpster of Discarded Food?” at Vice. “People tried to salvage the perishable food a grocery story was throwing away during a power outage. Then the cops arrived.”

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Fauci: Stimulus bill needs to be passed for schools to reopen” at The Hill.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “ICE has no plan to vaccinate 13,860 immigrants in its custody against COVID-19. Here's how one of the US's most at-risk groups is falling through the cracks” at Business Insider.

Read “D.C.-Area Churches Encourage Community To Have ‘Faith In The Vaccine’” at Sojourners.

Read “How billions in pandemic aid was swindled by con artists and crime syndicates” at NBC News.

Read “Rep. Lesko: Hispanic people are 'very good workers' — but shouldn't get vaccines” at American Independent.

Read “The Vaccine Had to Be Used. He Used It. He Was Fired.” at New York Times.

Read ‘I wouldn’t be complaining.’ Gov. DeSantis threatens to pull coronavirus vaccine from communities that criticize distribution” at Sun Sentinel.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Kevin Hart’s personal shopper has been charged with stealing $1million from the actor” at NME.

Read “Is the GameStop saga a sign of a stock market bubble?” at MarketPlace.

Read “The Four-Sentence Philosophy Paper” at Daily Nous. “Some philosophy professors have been assigning their students four-sentence papers to write.”

Read “Myth debunked: Blowing in your Nintendo games never actually fixed anything” at Geek Wire.

Read ‘The Last Duel Took Place in France in 1967, and It’s Caught on Film” at Open Culture.

Read “The Real Origins of the Religious Right” at Politico. “They’ll tell you it was abortion. Sorry, the historical record’s clear: It was segregation.”

Read “The fight over Larry King's estate centers around a handwritten will” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Ford says it will go all-electric in Europe by 2030” at The Verge.

Read “Facebook Blocks News In Australia Over Government Plan To Force Payment To Publishers” at NPR.

Read “Why Do We Ever Play the National Anthem at Sports Games?” at Slate. “The Dallas Mavericks’ failed attempt to cancel it begs the question of why we do this in the first place.”

Read “2 million Texas households without power as massive winter storm drives demand for electricity” at Texas Tribune.

• Read “No, frozen wind turbines aren’t the main culprit for Texas’ power outages” at Texas Tribune.

• Read “Texas grid got crushed because its operators didn’t see the need to prepare for cold weather” at Washington Post.

• Read “Texas Mayor Resigns After Fallout From Facebook Post Telling Town to 'Get Off Your A**' During Blackout” at Second Nexus.

• Read “Beto: ‘We are nearing a failed state in Texas’ thanks to GOP leadership” at MSNBC.

• Read “Texas Is a Failed State” at Discourse.

• Read “Sen. Ted Cruz confirms he flew to Mexico as Texas grapples with power outages caused by severe weather” at Washington Post.
  
  

Internationalities:

Read “New Ebola outbreak declared in Guinea” at The Hill.

Read “Indian Climate Activist Arrested After Sharing Information on Supporting Farmworkers’ Protest” at Democracy Now.

Read “Federal prosecutors charge three North Korean hackers accused of conspiring to steal more than $1.3 billion” at CNN.

Read “DR Congo's mysterious metal monolith destroyed by mob” at BBC.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read ‘Anti-Trump Republicans Are in Talks to Form a Center Right Third Party and People Are So Here for It” at Second Nexus.

Read “Adam Kinzinger’s Lonely Mission” at New York Times. “Censured by his party and shunned by family members, Mr. Kinzinger, a six-term Illinois congressman, is pressing Republicans to leave Donald Trump behind — and risking his career doing so.”

Read “62 percent say third political party is needed in US” at The Hill.

Read “Joe Biden: 'I will not make that happen': Biden declines Democrats' call to cancel $50K in student debt” at NBC News. “Biden said he was prepared to cancel $10,000 in debt and the interest but anything more than that would require congressional action.”

Read “Joy Reid: Rush Limbaugh hardened ‘rural white listeners and weaponized white male grievance’” at MSNBC.

Read “The Real Origins of the Religious Right” at Politico. “They’ll tell you it was abortion. Sorry, the historical record’s clear: It was segregation.”

Read “Is It Time for the Republican Party to Split Apart?” by David French. “It's far from likely, but the Whig Party's demise in the 1850s could serve as precedent.”

Read “More people say Greene representative of Republican Party than Cheney” at The Hill.

Read “How History Will Remember Trump” at Slate. “Trump will be judged for a myriad of sins, but not all will be remembered.”

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Opinion: How Rush Limbaugh made the Trump presidency possible” at Washington Post.

Read “Donald Trump reportedly called Mark Zuckerberg and asked him to make changes to the panel that's now responsible for reviewing Trump's ban from the platform” at Yahoo.

Read “Senate acquits Trump in historic second impeachment trial over Capitol riot” at USA Today.

Read “Watch Senators Laugh at Trump Lawyer During Impeachment Trial” at Slate.

Read “Graham's call with Georgia's secretary of State will be investigated: report” at The Hill.

Read “Louisiana GOP votes to censure Cassidy over impeachment vote” at The Hill.

Read “Party leaders rip Republicans who voted to convict Trump” at Politico.

Read “Raskin: Trump found guilty in 'the court of public opinion and the court of history'“ at NBC News. “The lead House impeachment manager called the vote a "dramatic success in historical terms."

Read “No Regrets': House Managers Defend Their Decision Not To Call Witnesses” at NPR.

Read “Trump's actions during the Capitol riot put Pence in danger — and national security at risk” at MSNBC.

Read “Lin Wood Doxed Georgia Officials to Hundreds of Thousands of QAnon Supporters” at Vice. “The pro-Trump lawyer asked an ‘Army of Patriots’ on Telegram to dig up dirt on officials who will decide whether he is disbarred or not.”

Read “US sells $200m in weapons to Egypt despite human rights abuses” at Al Jazeera.”The $197m sale of Raytheon-made Rolling Airframe Missiles was requested by the Egyptian navy to improve coastal defences.”

Read “Josh Hawley dipped into campaign funds to help bankroll family trip to Universal Studios” at Salon.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “When Chick Corea and Jazz-Fusion Acts Were Rock Stars” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Ex-Nirvana Members Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear Still Jam Together” at Spin.

Read “A New Generation Pushes Nashville to Address Racism in Its Ranks” at New York Times. “A small contingent of country artists and industry players have been speaking up in a business that likes to shut down dissent.”

Read “European festivals speak out on their return as Dutch government set date and allow trials” at NME. "We have to have an outlook that there will be events this summer. They will be safe and we can work with extra restrictions, but we can do that"

Read “Taylor Swift’s Rerecorded Album Releases Begin With ‘Fearless’ in April” at New York Times.

Read “Feed My Frankenstein: Alice Cooper Isn’t Slowing Down” at Spin. “50 years into his career, Cooper still wants more.”

Read “Nothing Is Flattening Music Like TikTok” at Vulture.

Read “Messin’ With the Hook: Our 1986 John Lee Hooker Feature” at Spin.

Read “Glorious Mistakes: A Conversation With Mogwai” at Treble.

Read ‘Springsteen ‘Visibly Swaying’ Before Drunken-Driving Arrest, Police Say” at New York Times.

Read “Pharrell Williams Cleared of Perjury Charges in “Blurred Lines” Lawsuit” at Okay Player.

Read “Streaming Services Pay $424 Million in Unmatched Royalties to Mechanical Licensing Collective” at Pitchfork.

Read “Chuck Johnson’s Ode to What’s Been Lost in California’s Fires” at New York Times.

Read ‘British musicians warn of devastating impact of new Brexit rules” at PRI.

Read “We’ve Got A File On You: Craig Finn” at Stereogum.

Read “Chris Cornell’s Wife Vicky Cornell Sues Soundgarden Over Proposed Buyout Offer” at Pitchfork.

Read “De La Soul Will Fight to “Save Their Music” in the Latest Episode of ‘Teen Titans GO!’” at Okay Player.

Listen: “Bill Mackay and Nathan Bowles - I See God” at Folk Radio.

Read “Haim on Their Lifelong Love of Joni Mitchell” at Rolling Stone.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read ‘‘WandaVision’ Breaks Into Nielsen Top 10 Streaming Rankings” at Variety.

Read “Gina Carano, Ben Shapiro Team Up for Film After ‘Mandalorian’ Firing” at Variety.

Read “Dave Chappelle on why Chappelle's Show is back on Netflix: "I got my name back"“ at AV Club.

Read “Chris Harrison: Bachelor host to step aside over racism row” at BBC.

Read “David Boreanaz joins chorus of Buffy cast supporting Charisma Carpenter after Joss Whedon allegations” at AV Club.

Read “You can now stay at Buffalo Bill’s house from ‘Silence Of The Lambs’” at NME. “The house inhabited by Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs is now open for overnight stays.”

Read “Tim Burton is making a live-action Addams Family spinoff about Wednesday for Netflix” at The Verge.

Read “‘Paddington 3’ Officially in the Works” at Variety.

Read “Danny Elfman Reuniting with Sam Raimi for Doctor Strange 2 Score” at Consequence of Sound.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read about “The Instagram Account Sharing The Most Beautiful Libraries In The World” at The Mind Circle.

The Weekly Town Crier (01/15/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (01/15/21).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Hall of Fame Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda dies at 93” at ESPN.

Read “Joanne Rogers, Widow of Fred Rogers and Classical Pianist, Dies at 92” at People.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “A Christian Insurrection” at The Atlantic. “Many of those who mobbed the Capitol on Wednesday claimed to be enacting God’s will.”

• Read “Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States” at Dallas Seminary.

• Read “Truth over power: It is past time for the church to speak plainly about the election” at Religion News Service.

• Read “Taking the white Christian nationalist symbols at the Capitol riot seriously” at Religion News Service. “The attack exposed the comfortable juxtaposition of Christianity and white supremacy.”

• Read “About 60 the 138 House members who objected to the Electoral College count were evangelical Christians” at The Way of Improvement.

• Read “SBC leader Russell Moore to Trump: Time to leave. ‘People are dead’” at Religion News Service.

• Read “How White Evangelical Christians Fused With Trump Extremism” at New York Times. “A potent mix of grievance and religious fervor has turbocharged the support among Trump loyalists, many of whom describe themselves as participants in a kind of holy war.”

• Read “Statement signed by 223 faculty and staff at evangelical Wheaton College condemns the "vicious lies, deplorable violence, white supremacy" and "blasphemous abuses of Christian symbols" on display in Washington last week” (via Ruth Graham).

• Read “The Roman Road from Insurrection” by Russell Moore. ‘You cannot stand for “law and order” while waving away lawlessness. You cannot champion the pro-life cause while waving away murder. You cannot support police by the murder of police officers. You cannot support religious liberty by trashing the United States Constitution.”

• Read “For insurrectionists, a violent faith brewed from nationalism, conspiracies and Jesus” at Religion News Service.

• Read “Political and religious violence at the US Capitol” at KCRW.

• Read “Scholars of Religion and Politics Respond to the Capitol Insurrection” at Religion and Politics.

• Read “Christian Nationalism Is Worse Than You Think” at Christianity Today. “Millions of Americans believe in this political ideology. What church leaders need to know—and how they can help those under its influence.”

• Read “'How Did We Get Here?' A Call For An Evangelical Reckoning On Trump” at NPR.

• Read “QAnon is the Perfect Evangelical Conspiracy” at Christian Socialism.

Read “Southern Baptist leaders meet after critical race theory document caused controversy” at Religion News Service.

Read “Evangelicals face a reckoning: Donald Trump and the future of our faith” at USA Today.

Read

“Capitol Hill Trump rally organizer Ali Alexander goes into hiding, raises $20k on Christian crowdfunding site” at Occupy Democrats.

Read “Only the Church Can Truly Defeat a Christian Insurrection” by David French. “It’s time to combat the right’s enabling lies.”

Read “Life or Debt Dave Ramsey's Capitalist Theology” at Christian Socialism.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender//Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Domestic Terrorism: A More Urgent Threat, but Weaker Laws” at Pro Publica. “Authorities dissuaded some extremists from traveling to Washington, and shared intelligence with Capitol Police, but could not stop the mob that stormed the Capitol, a senior FBI official says.”

• Read “Proud Boys member arrested after allegedly threatening to kill Warnock” at The Hill.

Read “For Black Americans, The White Terror In D.C. Looks Familiar” at Huff Post.

Read “Illinois GOP Rep. Mary Miller apologizes for Hitler remark at pro-Trump rally: Calls remain for her to resign” at Chicago Sun Times.

Read “The US economy lost 140,000 jobs in December. All of them were held by women” at CNN. (EDITOR’S NOTE: “ALL OF THEM were held by women.” This is not OK.)

Read “Woman who accused Black teen of stealing her phone charged with attempted assault” at The HIll.

Read “Michigan Capitol Commission bans open carry of guns inside state Capitol” at Detroit Free Press.

Read “FBI bulletin warns of nationwide armed protests” at The Hill.

Read ‘Credit card companies need to help stop the spread of untraceable 'ghost guns'“ at Business Insider.

Read “The Lies We Tell Ourselves About Race” at NPR. “Pro-Trump extremists breached the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. The insurrection was just the latest chapter in America's ongoing battle over race, writes NPR host Sam Sanders.”

Read “New York State Bar Association Weighs Stripping Giuliani of Membership” at Wall Street Journal.

• Read “Nearly 6,000 lawyers and law students call for disbarment proceedings against Cruz and Hawley” at The Hill.

• Read “New York State Bar Association moves to oust Rudy Giuliani” at NBC News.

Read “Democrats Unveil Legislation To Abolish The Federal Death Penalty” at NPR.

Read “Rittenhouse seen out on bail drinking with members of Proud Boys, prosecutors say” 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 // and or Sedition, Treason and That Kind of Stuff):

Read “US Capitol police officer is dead after injured during pro-Trump riots” at Yahoo.

• Read “Experts: Arizona's far-right extremism "getting worse," DC rioters on-the-run” at ABC15.

• Read “‘Senate Being Locked Down’: Inside a Harrowing Day at the Capitol” at New York Times. “Three New York Times journalists were at the Capitol when it was breached. Here’s how they experienced it.”

• Read “If the mob’s attack on the Capitol surprised you, you weren’t paying attention” at Religion News Service. “The truth is, this is precisely who we are. White supremacy is at the foundation of this country.”

• Read “Donald Trump's Ex-AG Bill Barr Calls President's Conduct During Capitol Mob a 'Betrayal'“ at Newsweek.

• Read “Capitol Rioters Planned for Weeks in Plain Sight. The Police Weren’t Ready” at Pro Publica.

• Read ‘NAE Denounces Insurrection at the U.S. Capitol” at National Association of Evangelicals.

• Read “LeBron James on Capitol riots: 'We live in two Americas'“ at The Hill.

• Read “Pro-Trump rioters smeared poop in U.S. Capitol hallways during belligerent attack” at Orlando Sentinel.

• Read “Sen. Mark Warner Says FBI Assured Him Prior to Rioting Situation Would Be Under Control” at Wall Street Journal.

• Read “The Police’s Tepid Response To The Capitol Breach Wasn’t An Aberration” at Five Thirty Eight.

• Read ‘Will the riot in Washington deter foreign investment in the U.S.?” at MarketPlace.

• Read “Some state legislators face calls for resignation after taking part in Capitol turmoil” at MSN.

  • Read “Video surfaces of Oregon GOP Rep holding state Capitol door open, allowing protestors to enter” at The Hill.

  • Read “Republican lawmakers caught helping pro-Trump mobs at U.S. Capitol, Oregon statehouse” at Salon.

  • Read “Republican AGs group sent robocalls urging march to the Capitol” at NBC News. ““At 1 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal,” said the voice on the recording, which was obtained by NBC News.”

  • Read “Mikie Sherrill claims Congress members gave 'reconnaissance' tours day before Capitol raid” at North Jersey.

  • Read “Law enforcement and the military probing whether members took part in Capitol riot” at NBC.

  • Read “Rep. Jim Clyburn Says Mob Knew Where His Unmarked Office Was Suggesting A Coordinated Attack” at PoliticusUSA.

• Read “U.S. Diplomats Draft Dissent Cable Following Storming of Capitol by Pro-Trump Mob” at Foreign Policy.

• Read “Alabama man had 11 Molotov cocktails 'ready to go' at U.S. Capitol riot” at Montgomery Advertiser.

• Read “Fallout intensifies over Trump's response to Capitol riot” at CNN.

• Read “An 18-Year-Old Saw Her Mom, Aunt, And Uncle In DC In A Video — So She Named Them” at Buzzfeed.

  • Read “Capitol Rioter Seen in Horned Hat, Carrying Spear Arrested: US Attorney” at NBC Washington.

    • Read “Arizona man wearing horns during U.S. Capitol riots, 'Q Shaman,' now faces felony indictment” at ABC 15.

  • Read “Capitol Rioter Spotted in Chamber with Zip Ties Is Arrested After Ex-Wife Calls FBI” at People.

  • Read “Man in 'Camp Auschwitz' sweatshirt during Capitol riot identified” at CNN.

• Read “Georgia attorney among those who broke into U.S. Capitol” at AJC.

  • Read “West Virginia lawmaker, charged after filming himself storming U.S. Capitol, resigns” at CBS News.

  • Read “Republican lawmaker resigns after arrest for storming US Capitol” at Ars Technica.

  • Read “Oregon state lawmaker who opened door for armed protesters kicked off committees, billed for damages” at The Hill.

• Read “It Was No Accident’ Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal on surviving the siege” at The Cut.

  • Read “Capitol Police Officers Said They Wouldn’t Be Surprised If Members Of Congress Helped Plan The Attack” at Buzzfeed.

• Read “The Inaction of Capitol Police Was by Design” at The Atlantic. “The spectacle of Wednesday’s tepid police response to riotous mobs shocked many. But the passivity is not some surprising anomaly—it is the status quo.”

  • Read “Seattle police investigating officers who were in DC amid Capitol riot” at The Hill.

  • Read “An Air Force Combat Veteran Breached the Senate” at The New Yorker.

• Read “Members of Several Well-Known Hate Groups Identified at Capitol Riot” at Pro Publica.

  • Read “For Black Americans, The White Terror In D.C. Looks Familiar” at Huff Post.

• Read “Ivanka Calls Mob of Trump Supporters 'American Patriots' in Now Deleted Tweet and People Are Calling Her Out” at Second Nexus.

• Read “Gold medalist Olympic swimmer recognized amid Capitol mob” at The Hill.

• Read “Now it's sinking in: Wednesday's Capitol Hill riot was even more violent than it first appeared” at CNN.

• Read “These Black Capitol Police Officers Describe Fighting Off "Racist Ass Terrorists"“ at Buzzfeed. “Two Black officers told BuzzFeed News that their chief and other upper management left them totally unprepared and were nowhere to be found on the day.”

• Read “Fox News Host Dragged for Calling Siege on the Capitol 'a Huge Victory for These Protesters'“ at Second Nexus.

• Read “A Christian Insurrection” at The Atlantic. “Many of those who mobbed the Capitol on Wednesday claimed to be enacting God’s will.”

  • Read “Read “For insurrectionists, a violent faith brewed from nationalism, conspiracies and Jesus” at Religion News Service” at Religion News Service.

• Read “‘The storm is here’: Ashli Babbitt’s journey from capital ‘guardian’ to invad” at Washington Post.

• Read “Arizona Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar implicated by activist in Capitol insurrection” at AZ Central.

• Read “One Trump Fan’s Descent Into the U.S. Capitol Mob” at Wall Street Journal. “Doug Sweet joined rioters who breached the Capitol, where he was eventually arrested.”

• Read “GOP Congressman Who Investigated Benghazi Calls Trump Inciting Riot ‘A Misstep’” at Huff Post.

• Read “Rep. Meijer: I experienced the heinous assault on Capitol; now, time to face reality” at Detroit News.

• Read “The FBI Says There's No Evidence Of Antifa Involvement In The Capitol Mob” at Buzzfeed.

• Read “Ex-Capitol Police Chief Says Requests For National Guard Denied 6 Times In Riots” at NPR.

• Read “Six hours of paralysis: Inside Trump’s failure to act after a mob stormed the Capitol” at Washington Post.

• Read “'Hate in their heart': Lawmakers fear more violence after Capitol attacks” at Politico.

• Read “Before Capitol Riot, Republican Lawmakers Fanned the Flames” at New York Times. “A “1776 moment”: Several of the president’s closest allies in Congress used bellicose language to urge their supporters to attend the Jan. 6 rally that turned into a deadly riot.”

• Read “A Federalist Society Star Helped Foment the Capitol Riot” at Slate. “The Federalist Society has no comment.”

Read “Trump Rallies Were a Preview of the Capitol Attack” at The Atlantic. “Those following the president’s events around the country for the past four years were not surprised by the mob violence that unfolded in Washington.”

• Read “Pro-Trump Rally Organizer Name-Checks Theory Pushed by Violent Extremists” at Vice. “Ali Alexander denies that he was agreeing with advocates for violent social collapse, saying the statement was made in the "context of technology."
  

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read ‘NAE Denounces Insurrection at the U.S. Capitol” at National Association of Evangelicals.

Read “Protesters, many armed, gather for a 'patriot rally' outside Kentucky state Capitol” at Courier-Journal.

Read “Police three times more likely to use force against left-wing protests” at The Hill.

This Week With The Police:

Read “The Inaction of Capitol Police Was by Design” at The Atlantic. “The spectacle of Wednesday’s tepid police response to riotous mobs shocked many. But the passivity is not some surprising anomaly—it is the status quo.”

• Read “Seattle police investigating officers who were in DC amid Capitol riot” at The Hill.

• Read “Capitol Police Chief Sund has stepped down, leaving earlier than expected” at Washington Post.
  
  

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read ‘Pandemic Pricetag: U.S. Employers Cut 140,000 Jobs In December” at NPR.

Read “State Farm Stadium To Operate As 24/7 Vaccine Site As Maricopa County Enters Phase 1B” at KJZZ.

Read “Arizona again ranks No. 1 for weekly COVID-19 case rate as state reports nearly 9K new cases, rising hospitalizations” at AZ Central.

Read “Idaho Lawmakers Sue Saying Returning To State Capitol Amid COVID-19 Violates ADA” at NPR.

Read “Disneyland Resort in Anaheim to house COVID-19 vaccination ‘super’ site” at KTLA.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Letter to Jack Dorsey from Twitter employees asking to permanently suspend Donald Trump's account” at Washington Post.

• Read “Twitter bans President Trump permanently” at CNN.

Read “Google Pulls Parler as Apple Threatens the Same in Wake of Capitol Riot” at Wall Street Journal.

• Read “Pro-Trump Lawyer Lin Wood Calls For Pence to Be Executed, Parler Removed Posts” at Media-ite.

• Read “Amazon Is Booting Parler Off Of Its Web Hosting Service” at Buzzfeed.

• Read Parler CEO Says Service Dropped By “Every Vendor” And Could End His Business” at Deadline.

• Read “PGA pulls 2022 tournament from Trump's Bedminster after Capitol riot” at MSNBC.

• Read “Conspiracy theories collide online as Parler goes dark” at CNET.

Read “Platforms Must Pay for Their Role in the Insurrection” at Wired. “Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have spent years fomenting and enabling yesterday’s violence at the Capitol. Policymakers need to do something about it.”

Read “A Truth Reckoning: Why We’re Holding Those Who Lied For Trump Accountable” at Forbes.

Read ‘American Airlines pilot says he'll divert plane and strand Trump supporters in Kansas if they don't 'behave'“ at Business Insider.

Read “4 in 5 say US is falling apart” at The Hill.

Internationalities:

Read “Treasury Department sanctions inner circle of Russian agent Derkach for election interference” at The Hill.

Read “China plans further Hong Kong crackdown after mass arrest” at Reuters.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Lawmakers, governor condemn Rep. Mary Miller’s ‘Hitler was right on one thing’ comment” at WCIA.

Read “Sidney Powell Sued by Dominion for $1.3 Billion Over Vote-Fraud Claims” at Bloomberg.

Read “Senior Trump Official: We Were Wrong, He’s a ‘Fascist’” at New York Magazine.

Read “Multiple Democratic senators call for Cruz and Hawley to resign” at The Hill.

Read “Blue Cross Blue Shield Association suspends donations to lawmakers who opposed Electoral College count” at The Hill.

• Read “Marriott Suspends Donations to Senators Who Opposed Vote Result” at Bloomberg.

• Read “Stripe Stops Processing Payments for Trump Campaign Website” at Wall Street Journal.

• Read ‘Major corporations say they will stop donating to members of Congress who tried to overturn the election” at Popular Info.

Read “Mayor Demands Tighter Security in D.C. for Biden Inauguration” at Bloomberg.

Read “House GOP leader tells members to quit spreading lies on riot, antifa” at The Hill.

Read “Pence letter to Pelosi rejecting calls to invoke 25th Amendment” at The Hill.

Read “John McCain movie in the works with support from family” at The Hill.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “The Republicans Have an Insurrectionist Caucus” at Slate.

Read “Amash's Successor Peter Meijer: Trump's Deceptions Are 'Rankly Unfit'“ at Reason. The rookie GOP congressman describes Capitol Hill chaos, says that some Republicans who knew better voted against election certification out of physical fear, and explains how serving in Iraq and Afghanistan made him want to "end the endless wars."

Read “Bankrolling the Disenfranchisers” at Citizen.Org. “Since 2016, Corporate and Trade Association PACs Have Given $170 Million to Lawmakers Who Voted to Challenge the Presidential Election.”

Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene says she will introduce impeachment articles against Biden” at The Hill.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Why So Many Pop Stars Are Trying to Be Working-Class Heroes Now” at Pitchfork. “Artists including Justin Bieber, Drake, and Travis Scott are making clumsy plays at humble relatability during an era of deepening economic inequality.”

Read ‘Nicki Minaj to Pay Tracy Chapman $450,000 in Copyright Infringement Lawsuit” at Pitchfork.

Read “R.E.M. For The People” at Oxford American.

Browse “Rare and Stunning Photographs of Iggy Pop Taken by His Girlfriend Esther Friedman” at The Mind Circle.

Read “See Devo Perform Live for the Very First Time (Kent State University, 1973)” at Open Culture.

Read “Sex Pistols biopic series from ‘Trainspotting’ director Danny Boyle coming to FX” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Ariel Pink Dropped by Record Label Mexican Summer After Attending Pro-Trump White House Rally” at Pitchfork.

Read “Dr. Fauci Believes Venues Could Reopen For Live Music This Fall” at Jambase.

Read “When Punk Got the Funk” at Pop Matters. “As punks were looking for some potential pathways out of the cul-de-sacs of their limited soundscapes, they saw in funk a way to expand the punk palette without sacrificing either their ethos or idea(l)s.”

Read “New Billie Holiday Film Gets First Trailer: Watch” at Pitchfork.

Read “Why Are the Backstreet Boys Tweeting About QAnon?” at Vulture.

Read “Joan Baez to Receive Kennedy Center Honor” at Pitchfork.

Read ‘Hiss Golden Messenger’s First New Song In Over A Year Is The Breezy ‘Sanctuary’” at Uproxx.

Read “Donald Trump Reportedly Presents Toby Keith & Ricky Skaggs With National Medal of the Arts” at Billboard.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “The Evolution of Ted Danson, Mr. Mayor of Television” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Katie Couric, Aaron Rodgers, Bill Whitaker and Mayim Bialik to Guest Host ‘Jeopardy!’” at Variety.

Read “Chris Evans Reportedly In Talks to Reprise Role as Captain America in the MCU” at IGN.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “The Painter Subverting Art-World Economics, $100 at a Time” at New York Times.

Science/Health/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Study identifies first potential treatment for meth addiction” at The Hill.

Read “A Guy Tried Mainlining Shrooms. Then They Grew in His Blood” at Vice.

Local:

Read ‘Arizona State Senators Prepping Another 'Skinny' Budget Option Amid The Pandemic” at KJZZ.

Read “U.S. Supreme Court REJECTS Efforts to Expedite Remaining AZGOP/Ward's Election Appeals” at Arizona Politics.

Read “Arizona state GOP moves to censure Cindy McCain, Jeff Flake” at The Hill.

The Weekly Town Crier (01/01/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (01/01/21).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Guitarist Tony Rice Dead at 69” at Pitchfork.

Read “In Memoriam: Leslie West (1945-2020)” at Jambands.

Read “Pierre Cardin, iconic Space Age fashion designer, dead at 98” at New York Post.

Read “MF DOOM, Elusive Bard of Hip-Hop, Dead at 49” at Rolling Stone.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “From cruise ships to Trump’s hotel, Calvinist Christian nationalism is making moves” at Religion News Service. “Michael O'Fallon argues that America's Judeo-Christian heritage and 'the right of self governance' are under attack by the Open Society Foundation and society at large.”

Read “The Nationalist Roots of White Evangelical Politics” at Dissent. “From its origins, white evangelicalism has been marked by a vision of a Christian America, driven to overcome its perceived enemies.”

Read “The Church Needs Prophets, But It Wants Lawyers” by David French. “It’s time to listen to men and women who tell us what we need to hear.”

Read “RZIM Confirms Ravi Zacharias’s Sexual Misconduct” at Christianity Today.

• Read “RZIM Branch in UK Calls on U.S. Board to “Reform Radically”” at Roys Report.

Read “Several Black pastors break with the Southern Baptist Convention over a statement on race” at Washington Post.

Read “If You Want to Understand White Evangelicals, Tour a Hobby Lobby Store” at Daily Beast. “The merch illustrates a cultural identity that is clearly Christian but less about loving thy neighbor and more about loving thy guns and a militant white masculine ideal.”

Read “How Jesus became white — and why it’s time to cancel that” at Religion News Service. “Nearly a century later, both ‘Head of Christ’ and criticism of its role in enshrining Jesus as white endure.”

Read “CT’s Top 20 Stories of 2020” at Christianity Today.

Read “Mormon church sued for alleged role in Boy Scouts sex abuse” at KBTX.

Read “The path to enlightenment is an ego trip: Meditation and mindfulness linked to narcissism and feelings of 'spiritual superiority', study finds” at Daily Mail.

Read “There’s no theological education pipeline anymore” by Justo L. González at Christian Century. “It’s been replaced by a thriving irrigation hose.”

Read “Los Angeles activists say Sean Feucht is ‘waging biological warfare’ ahead of homeless outreach events” at Religion News Service. “Activists are holding car caravans on Wednesday and New Year’s Eve to block Christian recording artist Sean Feucht from holding outreach events in two homeless communities in Los Angeles.”

• Read “Christian Singer Sean Feucht Moves Ahead With New Year's Eve Concerts in LA Despite COVID-19 Rules” at Billboard.

Read “Justin Bieber reportedly studying to be a minister for Hillsong church” at Page Six.

Read “Jericho March plans DC return in the new year to pray Pence will overturn election” at Religion News Service.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Possible human remains found near Nashville explosion site, police chief says” at CNN.

• Read “These six Nashville police officers evacuated residents moments before motor home exploded” at CNN.

• Read “Authorities probing whether Nashville bomber Anthony Warner blew up dogs” at New York Post.

• Read “Investigators reportedly looking into whether Nashville bombing suspect believed in alien lizards” at Task and Purpose.

• Read “Nashville Bomber's Girlfriend Warned Police About Him In 2019” at NPR.

Read “The Economy Isn’t Working. That’s Exactly the Plan.” at Common Dreams. “Inequality is reaching feudal proportions, where very few own almost everything, and everyone else is crushed under the wheel of engineered destitution.”

Read “Longtime Anti-Nuclear Activists Face Prison, Again, After Breaking Into Naval Base” at NPR.

Read “A Woman Attacked a 14-Year-Old Black Boy on Video After She Falsely Accused Him of Stealing Her Phone” at Vice.

Read “Ghislaine Maxwell denied $28.5m bail in sex crime case” at BBC.

Read “Religion, Abortion, Guns And Race. Just The Start Of A New Supreme Court Menu” at NPR.

Read “Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signs bill requiring fetal remains be buried or cremated” at Cincinnati.com.

This Week With The Police:

Read “What we know about the fatal shooting of Andre Hill, a Black man, by Columbus police” at Columbia Dispatch.

• Read “Ohio police officer fired in fatal shooting of Black man” at AP News.

Read “Phoenix police officer said, 'If the mayor defunds the police, I'm going to shoot her'“ at AZ Central.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Betsy DeVos tells Education Department employees to 'resist' Biden administration, report says” at USA Today.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Covid-19 Aid Bill Remains in Doubt as Congress Braces for Showdown With Trump” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan jailed for 'provoking trouble' with Wuhan reporting” at NBC News.

Read “L.A. County is probing whether a new, more contagious COVID strain is spreading locally” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Still Disinfecting Surfaces? It Might Not Be Worth It” at NPR.

Read “Small Number of Covid Patients Develop Severe Psychotic Symptoms” at New York Times.

Read “If you want to travel next year, you may need a vaccine passport” at CNN.

Read “COVID-19 is taking a heavy toll in America’s mental health-care deserts” at National Geographic.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology and/or “Celebrities”):

Read “Shia LaBeouf to Enter Rehab for Addiction and Psychological Issues” at Consequence of Sound.

Internationalities:

Read “US begins labelling illegal settlement products as 'Made in Israel'“ at Middle East Eye.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Growing number of GOP lawmakers back Electoral College challenge” at The Hill.

Read “Senate filibuster designed to oust Mitch McConnell over $2000 survival aid” at Raw Story.

Read “Georgia signature audit finds no fraud in presidential election” at The Hill.

Read “Ossoff slams Loeffler criticism of Warnock: She's 'been campaigning with a Klansman'“ at The Hill.

Read “Graham calls for stand-alone vote on $2K checks” at The Hill.

Read “Biden's Incoming Press Secretary: Briefings Won't Be A Platform For Right-Wing Spin” at NPR.

Read “Republicans Propping Up the Fossil Fuel Industry Is Borderline Socialist” at Slate.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Trump's final days try to turn the military into a political pawn” at The Hill.

Read “GOP lawmaker sues Pence in bid to overturn Biden win” at The Hill.

• Read “Pence asks judge to toss GOP lawmaker's bid to overturn election results” at The Hill.

Read “Trump Races to Weaken Environmental and Worker Protections, and Implement Other Last-Minute Policies, Before Jan. 20” at Pro Publica.

Read “Sen. Josh Hawley Will Contest the Electoral College Vote Count” at Slate.

Music-Related News and Such:

Browse The Allmusic 2020 Year In Review.

Read “Interview: Jeff Tweedy on Creativity and Catharsis” at Relix.

Read “How Music Persisted During the Pandemic” at Pitchfork. “From Bandcamp Fridays to Verzuz battles, these were our silver linings from a strange, stuck year in music.”

Browse “Lee Ranaldo lists his favorite guitarists of all time” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Vinyl Just Had Its Best Sales Week in History” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Ticketmaster To Pay $10 Million Fine Following Songkick Legal Dispute” at Relix.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Nadine Labaki to Star in Arabic ‘Perfect Strangers’ Remake” at Variety.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “Photographer Crafts Special Camera To Capture Delicate Snowflakes in the Highest Resolution Ever” at My Modern Net.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

National Geographic has chosen their favorite photographs of the year:

• Browse “The best science pictures of 2020.”

• Browse “our best animal photos of 2020.”

• Browse “Family Life 2020—in photos.”
  

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Wanted: albino python thieves in Massachusetts” at Boing Boing.

The Weekly Town Crier (12/25/20)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (12/25/20).

Religion and Stuff:

Read “The Darker Side of Christmas” at Wall Street Journal. “In many times and places, the joyful holiday has been a time for melancholy reflections and ghostly visitations.”

Read “Luter, Greear latest Southern Baptist leaders to weigh in as turmoil over race theory grows” at Religion News Service.

Read “Yule traditions new and old wish good riddance to 2020 at the winter solstice” at Religion News Service.

Read “Members of John MacArthur’s Church Say They’re Being Pressured Not to Report New COVID Outbreak” at Julie Roys.

• Read “GCC Pastor Accuses Journalist of Lying About Outbreak Reporting” at Church Leaders.

Read “Homeless advocates organize against Sean Feucht’s upcoming outreach in Skid Row” at Religion News Service. “Pastor Stephen ‘Cue’ Jn-Marie said the area’s homeless community doesn’t need ‘people to come in for a photo op.’”

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “France charges Epstein ex-associate over sex crime claims” at Al Jazeera.

Read “The Proud Boys are using YouTube to organize violence at Joe Biden’s inauguration” at Daily Dot.

Read “Bar complaint filed against Trump attorneys in Arizona” at 12 News.

Read “The truth in Black and white: An apology from The Kansas City Star” at Kansas City Star. “Today we are telling the story of a powerful local business that has done wrong.”

Read “White Drug Crime? What’s That?” at Ozy. “Justice is not nearly as blind as it should be.”

Read “The Coronavirus Bill is Also ‘The Most Significant Climate Legislation’ Ever” at NY Mag

Read “Militias Are Getting Fired Up About Gun Control Under Biden” at Vice.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “Robert E. Lee statue removed from US Capitol” at The Hill.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Videos Show Boston Police Shove, Pepper-Spray Protesters” at Huff Post.

Read “Far-right protesters storm Oregon Capitol calling for end of COVID-19 restrictions” at The Hill.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Lori Lightfoot Tried To Block Video Of Cops Raiding Wrong Home, Cuffing Naked Woman” at Huff Post.

Read “Texas governor announces proposal to take control of Austin police department” at The Hill.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Texas passes 1 million COVID cases, and experts warn of a surge ‘unlike anything we have seen’” at Dallas News.

Read “Valley healthcare workers say they haven't been able to get appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine” at 12 News.

Read “Wuhan scientist would 'welcome' visit probing lab leak theory” at BBC.

Read “Did Covid Lockdowns Really Clear the Air?” at

Read “Epidemiologists Urge A Cautious Christmas, After Thanksgiving Surge in Some States” at NPR.

Read “Republican club whose maskless conga line went viral responds: Adults have the right to make their own decisions” at The Hill.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “New virus strain found in Australia for first time” at The Hill.

Read “John Mulaney in rehab for cocaine and alcohol abuse” at Page Six.

Read “The Radical Act of Letting Things Hurt: How (Not) to Help a Friend in Sorrow” at Brain Pickings.

Read “U.S. Household Spending Slipped in November” at Wall Street Journal.

Internationalities:

Read “The U.S. missed its window to prevent Russia's huge cyberattack” at MSNBC.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Pence announces that Space Force personnel will be called guardians” at CNN.

Read “GOP senator blocks bill to provide $1,200 stimulus checks” at The Hill.

Read “Barr: No need for special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden, election fraud” at The Hill.

Read “Is Trump Cracking Under the Weight of Losing?” at Politico.

Read “House plans Dec. 28 vote to override Trump's possible defense bill veto” at The Hill.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Michael Flynn tells Newsmax that Georgia runoffs are 'fake elections'“ at The Hill.

Read “Officials increasingly alarmed about Trump’s power grab” AT Axios.

Read “AZ Trump Electors Join Suit To Force County To Comply with Subpoenas for Dominion Voting Machines” at Patriot Project.

Read “Pro-Trump network Newsmax airs 2-minute video admitting it has 'no evidence' of outlandish fraud claims against 2 voting-machine companies” at Business Insider.

Read “5,000-Page Funding Bill Including COVID Relief Also Has Section Detailing Reincarnation of Dalai Lama” at Newsweek.

• Read “Funding deal includes $696B for Pentagon” at The Hill.

• Read “Congress to approve $1.375 billion for border wall in 2021” at The Hill.

Read “Trump pardons Blackwater contractors jailed for massacre of Iraq civilians” at Guardian.

Music-Related News and Such:

• Browse Record Crates United’s picks for “100 Records We Loved in 2020.”

Read “David Byrne tells us why there “probably won’t” be a Talking Heads reunion” at NME. “"There’s a lot of differences that haven’t entirely gone away"

Read “Jackson Browne and Bruce Springsteen Added To Steve Van Zandt’s ‘Stand With Teachers’ Benefit” at American Songwriter.

Read “R. Kelly Has New Date Set for Federal Trial in Chicago” at Pitchfork.

Read “Calexico Connected With Friends on Their First Holiday Album” at Phoenix New Times.

Read BrooklynVegan’s “Top 55 Albums of 2020.”

Read “The Tunnel Reflections on a life in motion by Kevin Morby” at We Present We Transfer.

Read “12-Year-Old DJ Has Equipment Confiscated After School Bathroom Rave” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Independent Venues, Movie Theaters to Get $15 Billion in Federal Aid” at Pitchfork.

Read “An Interview With Willie Nelson at 87: “I Didn’t Ever Think I’d Get This Old”” at Slate.

Read “Listening to the Joy in James Baldwin’s Record Collection” at Hyperallergic.

Read “Josh Kaufman Launched 2 Indie Supergroups And Worked On 2 Surprise Taylor Swift Albums This Year” at Stereogum.

Read “King Khan and Saba Lou Suing Rihanna for Copyright Infringement” at Pitchfork.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “How Marvel Studios Is Reassembling for 2021 and Beyond” at Variety.

Books/Reading/Authors

Browse Brain Pickings’ picks for their “Favorite Books of 2020.”

The Weekly Town Crier (11/13/20)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (11/13/20).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Alex Trebek, long-running 'Jeopardy!' host, dead at 80” at CNN.

Read “Bishop Harry Jackson Jr., Trump’s Evangelical Adviser, Dies At 66” at Black Enterprise.

Religion and Stuff:

Read ‘Sexy swingers club or ‘church’: Who gets to decide?” at Religion News Service. “Rooms labeled as dungeons in remodeling plans for The Social Club have been renamed as "choir" and "handbell" space in the revamped United Fellowship Center. Courts may decide the sincerity of that conversion.”

Read “Evangelical asylum-seekers stuck in Mexico hold prayer vigil for the US election” at Religion News Service. “'Their lives and the lives of the children depend on the outcome of the election,' said Alma Ruth, founder of the Texas-based Practice Mercy Foundation.”

Read “Stressed by COVID, online seekers discover Buddhism’s calming practice” at Religion News Service. “Buddhist teachings about suffering and the impermanence of all things, many find, have particular relevance in this moment.”

Read “Conservatives value personal stories more than liberals do when evaluating scientific evidence” at The Conversation.

Read “Worse than bungling, McCarrick report shows Vatican failed to take abuse seriously” at Religion News Service.

Read “Is the Pastor Carl Lentz Fallout Just Beginning?” at Vanity Fair.

Read “Amid cries for church unity post-election, some Christians say ‘Not so fast’” at Religion News Service.

Read “Evangelical Advisers Back Trump’s Challenges of Election, but Stop Short of Alleging Fraud” at Roys Report.

Read “In a less religious country, Biden gained ground with religious voters” at Religion News Service.

Read “On Evangelical Masculinities” at The Revealer. “A review of Jesus and John Wayne and a reflection on evangelicals, masculinity, and race.”

Read “Joe Biden, president-elect at last, was shaped by a very American Catholic faith” at Religion News Service.

Read “Biden pledges to raise refugee ceiling to 125,000 in address to Jesuit group” at Religion News Service.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “'Remain in Mexico' policy: My foster daughter was separated from her family at the border” at USA Today.

Read “Would a Former President Get Secret Service Protection in Prison?” at Slate.

Read “Digital misogyny: Online abuse of women surges during COVID” at Al Jazeera.

Read “NASCAR Driver Indefinitely Suspended Over Swastika Tweet” at The Algemeiner.

Read “Judge dismisses Trump's libel lawsuit against CNN” at The Hill.

Read “White House press secretary refers question to the White House” at MSNBC.

Read “An Engineer Gets 9 Years for Stealing $10M From Microsoft” at Wired.

Read “Appeals Court Rules Harvard Doesn't Discriminate Against Asian American Applicants” at NPR.

Read “Zuckerberg defends not suspending ex-Trump aide Bannon from Facebook: recording” at Reuters.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Arkansas police chief resigns after threatening to abuse Democrats” at USA Today.

Read “Police, county attorney's office hide 738,000 records in Kentucky sex abuse case” at Tennessean.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “How Are We Going to Get Through the Next Two Months of COVID?” at Slate. “Even if Biden wins, we still have two months of Trump’s pandemic.”

Read “Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Infected With Coronavirus” at Bloomberg.

Read “After COVID-19 Diagnosis, Nearly 1 In 5 Are Diagnosed With Mental Disorder” at NPR. “1 in 5 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 is diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder within 3 months, a new study finds. But the link goes further: people with psychiatric diagnoses were about 65% more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19. It's unclear why.”

Read “Biden’s ready to start his pandemic response immediately” at Stat News.

Read “Trump adviser overseeing campaign legal challenges gets coronavirus, sources say” at CNN.

Read “Two White House Aides, Guest of Giuliani Test Positive for Virus” at Bloomberg.

Read “Wear Masks To Protect Yourself From The Coronavirus, Not Only Others, CDC Stresses” at NPR.

Read “Ukraine's President Hospitalized With COVID-19” at NPR.

Read “At dinner parties and game nights, casual American life is fueling the coronavirus surge" at Washington Post.

Read “Nicola Sturgeon says Scots could get coronavirus vaccine 'by end of 2020'“ at Daily Record.

Read “Some Chicago Cops Still Won’t Wear Masks Despite 1,200 COVID Infections — Will A New PSA Actually Help?” at Block Club Chicago.

Miscellany Cultural Items:

Read “Douglas Emhoff to become America's first second gentleman” at CNN.

Read “Mississippi legislator apparently floats secession after Biden victory” at The Hill.

Read “Today’s Authoritarian Leaders Aren’t Fascists—But They Are Part of the Same Story” at Time.

Read “I Put My Baby’s Urine In It” – Mike Tyson Pleads Guilty to Cheating” at Essentially Sports.

Read ‘Zoom Will Increase Its Security After FTC Alleges It Misled Its Users” at Slate.

Read “Jon Voight says fighting 'lie' Biden won is 'greatest fight since the Civil War'“ at The Hill.

Read ‘Trump’s Defeat Didn’t Stop His ‘Ban’ on Modern Architecture” at Bloomberg. “The president never signed a controversial “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” executive order. But a neoclassical-only building mandate is still happening.”

Read “Cannabis farms struggle to survive California wildfires without insurance” at Cronkite News.

Read “These companies are helping working parents navigate an impossible situation” at Fast Company.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read ‘Joe Biden Wins The 2020 Presidential Election” at Okay Player.

• Read “Donald Trump’s statement in full after Joe Biden declared winner Trump says presidential race is far from over, accuses Biden’s ‘media allies’ of hiding the truth” at Al Jazeera.

Read “The Green New Deal Didn't Sink Democrats” at Gizmodo.

Read “Trump commission did not find widespread voter fraud” at Associated Press.

Read “The Slow-Motion Humiliation of an Empty Demagogue” at Slate. “The president’s sadism ends in his own agony.”

Read “Congress’ first gay Afro-Latino on his historic election” at MSNBC.

Read “'We're not some demonic cult': Democrats fume over faulty messaging” at Politico.

Read “Slim majority support adding more seats to Supreme Court” at The Hill.

Read “Claims that dead people voted went viral. These are the facts” at CNN.

Read “Trump campaign wins case on voter ID deadline” at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Election Day Failing Puts DeJoy at Risk of Contempt Order” at Courthouse News.

Read “Pompeo on election results: 'There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration'“ at The Hill.

• Watch “Republican senators refuse to say Biden won the election” at MSNBC.

• Read “White House attorney dispatched to agency blocking Biden transition” at Yahoo.

• Read “White House tells federal agencies to proceed with plans for Trump’s February budget in latest sign of election defiance” at Washington Post. “Directive is latest sign that Trump aides are acting as if he won the election and won’t leave office on Jan. 20.”

• Read “Why the GOP Is Keeping Trump’s Voter-Fraud Fantasy Alive” at Vice. “The crucial importance of the two Senate runoff races in Georgia gives GOP leaders a powerful incentive to entertain Trump’s ludicrous claims.”

• Read “Trump may accept results but never concede, aides say” at Yahoo.

• Read “Math doesn’t care about your baseless allegations,’ Pennsylvania Lt. Gov Fetterman says about Trump lawsuits” at Yahoo.

  • Read “Few legal wins so far as Trump team hunts for proof of fraud” at Yahoo.

Read “Senate panel proposes $696B Pentagon spending bill” at The Hill.

Read “Trump weakens U.S. security with installation of unqualified loyalists at Pentagon” at MSNBC.

Read “Mark Esper fired as Pentagon chief after contradicting Trump” at The Guardian.

Read “Why are Republicans sticking with Trump? Peer pressure—and we’re all susceptible to it.” at America Magazine.

Read ‘Top official on U.S. election cybersecurity tells associates he expects to be fired” at Reuters.

Read “Donations under $8K to Trump ‘election defense’ instead go to president, RNC” at Reuters.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Here's What Kamala Harris Is Jamming To In Between Campaign Stops This Summer” at Bustle.

Read “The Red Hand Files Issue #123”. “If there are others all moving in the same direction, and they look like you, and they move like you, and they all like the same things, and they hate the same things, and they are angry about the same things, and they are screaming about the same things, chances are you are on the wrong path.”

Read “Transmissions :: John Darnielle of Mountain Goats” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “Brian Eno’s Music for Anxious Times” at New York Times.

Read “An Architect of Americana, Lucinda Williams, Talks with ‘Songcraft’ Podcast” at American Songwriter.

Read “How 200 Musicians Joined Forces to Complete Sufjan Stevens’ Unfulfilled 50 States Project” at Pitchfork.

Watch “Sturgill Simpson Chat, Play “Breakers Roar” on Colbert” at Pitchfork.

Read “Lambchop :: The AD Interview” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “Fighting to Be Heard: The Story of the Black Country Music Association” at Rolling Stone.

Listen to “Neil Young & Crazy Horse :: Danger Birds (A 40-Minute Live Megamix)” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “The Troubled Afterlife Of The Cranberries’ “Zombie” at Stereogum.

Browse Rolling Stone’s picks for “Neil Young’s Essential Albums”.

Read “The Weeknd to headline Super Bowl halftime show” at The Hill.

Browse “Decibel’s Top 40 Albums of 2020”.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Concrete Jungle: Forthcoming U.K. TV Show Celebrates 2 Tone Ska Scene” at Flood Magazine.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “DC Comics Promotes Marie Javins to Editor-in-Chief” at Variety.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “Botched Restoration of Spanish Sculpture Draws Scrutiny” at Art News.

Science/Animals/Technology/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Early Hackers Used Whistles From Cap’n Crunch Cereal Boxes” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “What was the Carrington Event?” at Universal-Sci.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Exploding whale film gloriously restored in 4K” at Boing Boing.

Read “Inside a Domed Pyramid With Astounding Acoustics and a History of Miracles” at Atlas Obscura.

The Weekly Town Crier (10/16/20)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (10/16/20).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Morgan dies at 77” at ESPN.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “5 Ways Your Predominantly White Church Can Work for Racial Justice and Reconciliation” at Missio Alliance.

Read “I was in the pro-life movement. But then, widowed with 6 kids, I prepared for an abortion” at USA Today. “The pro-life movement's caricatures make for good propaganda but terrible policy. People, real people, become pregnant.”

Read “One Jehovah’s Witness acquitted in Russia as others get months of restrictions” at Religion News Service.

Read “God intended it as a disposable planet’: meet the US pastor preaching climate change denial” at The Conversation. “Every so often you come across a piece of writing so extraordinary that you cannot help but share it. One such piece is a sermon on global warming by American pastor John MacArthur. Full of beautifully constructed rhetorical flourishes, it is forcefully delivered by an experienced and impassioned preacher to a large and appreciative audience.”

Read “Jesus Christ, Superspreader?” at Rolling Stone. “Preacher-musician Sean Feucht stages Nashville concert, ignoring Covid-19 precautions.”

Read “Vatican takes step toward making teen youngest contemporary person declared a saint” at The Hill.

Read “How will the post-pandemic church pay the bills?” at Religion News Service.

Read “The Fundamentalist War on Wokeness is a War on Christian Love” at Patheos.

Read “CRT: conservative evangelicalism’s latest Marxist chimaera” at Faith, Philosophy, and Politics.

Read “Investigation into Allegations Against Chris Rice” at Tates Creek Presbyterian Church.

Read “Trump refuses to disavow QAnon conspiracy theory” at Financial Times.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Militia group plan to kidnap Whitmer was part of attempt to start civil war” at The Hill.

• Read “13 charged by state, feds in plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer” at WXYZ.

Read “Graham says SC people of color can go anywhere in the state but 'need to be conservative, not liberal' at The Hill. “I care about everybody, if you’re a young African American or an immigrant, you can go anywhere in this country,” Graham said. “You just need to be conservative, not liberal.”

Read “In this LA neighborhood, residents unite to bless one of its most sacred murals” at Religion News Service. “On a recent Sunday afternoon, more than 100 people gathered at a northeast Los Angeles intersection to honor what some refer to as the neighborhood’s most sacred mural.”

Read “We have a story to tell: Indigenous scholars, activists speak up amid toppling of Serra statues” at Religion News Service.

Read “The All-American Mind of a Militia Member” at The New Republic. “I’ve spent years with men like the ones charged in a Michigan plot to kidnap the governor. They aren’t outsiders—they’re intimate products of American democracy.”

Read “Early voting begins in Georgia with long lines, high turnout” at NBC News. “Race is one of the strongest predictors of how long a person waits in line to vote, research shows.”

Listen to “No Compromise” at NPR. “Discover a social media empire with an unapologetic vision of gun rights—generating millions of likes, follows, and dollars. From Guns & America, reporters Lisa Hagen of WABE and Chris Haxel of KCUR expose how three brothers from the most uncompromising corner of the gun debate are turning hot-button issues into donations and controversy.”

Read “Mexico says 2 women may have had nonconsensual surgery in ICE detention” at NBC News. “Mexico said it has identified two women who may have been operated on without their consent while they were detained by U.S. immigration authorities.”

Read “Giffords launches national Gun Owners for Safety group to combat the NRA” at The Hill.

• Read “I’m a Teenage Biathlete Who Grew Up Shooting. Here’s Why I Support Gun Safety Laws.” at Giffords.Org.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “SBTS trustees retain building names, address history, establish $5 million scholarship for African American students” at SBTS.

• Read “Al Mohler Needs to Say Their Names” at Word and Way.

This Week With The Police:

Read “11-Year Old Boy Busted For Jacking School Bus . . . Went on JoyRide, Cops Say” at TMZ.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Despite a Strong COVID-19 Rebound, China Isn't Going Back to Normal Anytime Soon” at Time.

Read “Harris Says Covid Aid Should Be Senate Priority” at Bloomberg.

Read “Maynard James Keenan Had COVID-19” at Spin. "It was ugly," Tool/A Perfect Circle/Puscifer frontman says.

Read ‘Chris Christie has been hospitalized with COVID-19 for a week. That’s not unusual for this disease, doctors say” at NJ.com.

Read “Fox News Doctor To Examine Trump, And Twitter Users Jokingly ‘Leak’ Footage” at Huff Post. “Trump’s televised medical exam will be as honest and transparent as Trump’s taxes,” one Twitter user promised.”

Read “As a pandemic presses on, waves of grief follow its path” at Associated Press. “In a strong voice tinged with her Irish homeland, Fiona Prine talks hauntingly about loss. From her COVID-19 infection and isolation — self-imposed in hopes of sparing her husband, folk-country legend John Prine — to his own devastating illness and death, she’s had more than her share in this year like no other.”

Read “Is There a Safe Way to Be Home for the Holidays?” at The Atlantic. “Throughout the pandemic, Americans have been tempted to violate public-health experts’ recommendations. The winter holidays might be the strongest temptation yet.”

Read “A Redding Megachurch Leader Came to Humboldt and Flouted Mask Rules. Her Ministry is Now the Source of a Major COVID Outbreak.” at Lost Coast Outpost.

Read “CDC optimistic coronavirus vaccines will be released by end of the year” at CNN.

Read “Alabama Coach Nick Saban Tests Positive for Covid-19 as Virus Disrupts SEC” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Putin Announces Approval Of A Second Unproven Coronavirus Vaccine” at NPR.

Read “Oxford researchers develop rapid COVID-19 test capable of producing results in under five minutes” at The Hill.

Read “Jetliner Cabins Are Quickly Cleared of Virus, Pentagon Says” at Bloomberg.

Read “OSHA Doesn’t Expect Employers To Report COVID-19 Hospitalizations Anymore” at Huff Post.

Miscellany Cultural Items:

Read “California Will Keep Burning. But Housing Policy Is Making It Worse.” at Pro Publica.

Read “How Airbnb Pulled Back From the Brink” at Wall Street Journal. “Lessons from the home-sharing giant’s near-death experience: Focus on the core business, keep expenses low and listen to customers.”

Read “Facebook removes hundreds of fake profiles tied to pro-Trump group” at The Guardian.

Read “Removing Holocaust Denial Content” at Facebook.

Read “An Ethical Computer-Repair Shop Wouldn’t Do That to Hunter Biden” at Slate. “The New York Post’s controversial “scoop” involves some shady behavior by a laptop repairman.’

Read “NBC Actors, Producers Protest Network’s Decision to Host Trump Town Hall at Same Time as Biden’s ABC Event” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Twitter Changes Course After Republicans Claim ‘Election Interference’” at New York Times.

Internationalities:

Read “Vietnam flood death toll rises as storm Nangka dumps more rain” at Al Jazeera.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Biden Campaign Continues To Deflect On Court-Packing” at NPR.

Read “Biden Affirms: “I Will Eliminate Your Student Debt” at Forbes.

Read “Why the Affordable Care Act Is Such a Hot Topic” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “'Courts Are Not Designed To Solve Every Problem,' Barrett To Say In Opening Statement” at NPR.

Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene spars with GOP lawmaker over QAnon, antifa” at The Hill.

Read “The battle over a Texas order limiting ballot drop-off locations, explained” at Vox.

Read “Texas surpassed 1 million votes on first day of early voting” at Houston Chronicle.

Read “Ice Cube Clarifies Role in Helping Trump Admin Develop ‘Platinum Plan’” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Senate committee sets Oct 22 confirmation vote” at Al Jazeera.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Williamson nurse charged after shooting woman in abdomen” at WCHSTV.

Read “White House Refuses to Say if Trump Still Contagious Before First Event Since Diagnosis” at Slate.

Read “Trump Told Supporters to ‘Watch’ Voting. His Staff Is More Than Watching" at New York Times.

Read “Mike Pompeo: Clinton emails could be released before election” at New York Post.

Read “California elections officials order GOP to immediately remove unofficial ballot boxes” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Supreme Court allows Trump administration to end census count” at Politico. “A federal judge had ordered the Census Bureau to continue enumeration until Oct. 31.”

Read “As Virus Spread, Reports of Trump Administration’s Private Briefings Fueled Sell-Off” at New York Times. “On Feb. 24, Trump's economic team privately addressed the Hoover Institution and implied that a COVID outbreak could prove worse than advisers were signaling to the public. Aides appeared to be giving wealthy party donors an early warning.”

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Juice WRLD’s Mother Pens Open Letter About Son’s Struggles for World Mental Health Day” at Rolling Stone.

Read “The Haunting of Slint’s “Good Morning, Captain” at Treble.

Read “Anatomy of a Sound: Garcia Peoples” at Inside Hook. “These are the songs fueling one of the best new jam bands around.”

Read “The Best Tenor Player In the World; Pharaoh Sanders at 80” at Los Angeles Times. “Just let the music come, and spend as much time as you can listening.”

Read “Crass Walks Us Through Their Entire Bandcamp Discography” at Bandcamp.

Watch “Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires Cover John Prine’s ‘Storm Windows’” at Rolling Stone.

See “‘In My Room’ With Thurston Moore” at Rolling Stone. “Musician performs mostly instrumental versions of songs off his latest solo effort, By the Fire.”

Read “Jeff Tweedy Wants To Teach You How To Write One Song” at Uproxx.

Read “The Mountain Goats Post New Song Picture Of My Dress” at StereoBoard.

Browse “From Brian Eno to Sufjan Stevens: A playlist of chill out music to keep you calm” at Far Out Magazine.

Read “The Flaming Lips: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert” at NPR.

Watch “Bill Callahan & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy cover Hank Williams Jr w/ Matt Sweeney” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “The Age Of Adz Turns 10” at Stereogum.

Read “On Leaders And Leadership - A Conversation With Chuck D” at The Quietus.

Read “Jerry David DeCicca — The Unlikely Optimist and His Domestic Adventures (This Is a Self-Release)” at Dusted.

Read “How to Handle the Hate in America’s Musical Heritage” at New York Times.

Read “David Crosby apologizes for “not cool” Eddie Van Halen tweet” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Sturgill Simpson to Release First Bluegrass Album ‘Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1′” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Jimmy Page says he “reconnected with guitar” during lockdown” at Guitar World.

Read “Texas Punk Rock, Straight From the Pit” at New York Times.

Read “Yo La Tengo :: We Have Amnesia Sometimes/Sleepless Night” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “An Oral History Of Tom Petty’s Landmark 1994 Album, ‘Wildflowers’” at Uproxx.

Read “Remembering the Original Knitting Factory” at JazzTimes. “Owners and musicians tell the story of the New York jazz club that defined "downtown".

Read “Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill Musical Leads Tony Awards with 15 Nominations” at Consequence of Sound.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “HBO to Develop Scripted Series About Elon Musk’s SpaceX” at Variety.

Read “C-SPAN's Steve Scully suspended after admitting to lying about Twitter hack” at The Hill.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Five Indigenous SFF Authors You Should Be Reading” at TOR.com.

• Browse “Honoring Indigenous Peoples: 20 Recommended Reads” at New York Public Library.

• Browse “10 Native North American Women Writers To Read This Fall” at Book Riot.

• Read “Bookworms, How Many Of These Classic Books By Indian Authors Have You Read?” at BuzzFeed.

Read “Alan Moore Gives Rare Interview: ‘Watchmen’ Creator Talks New Project ‘The Show’, How Superhero Movies Have “Blighted Culture” & Why He Wants Nothing To Do With Comics” at Deadline.

Browse “5 books not to miss: 'Culture Warlords' by Talia Lavin, P. Djèlí Clark's 'Ring Shout'“ at USA Today.

Read “Every page makes you hungry': 20 chefs pick their favourite starter cookbooks” at The Guardian.

Local:

Read “Interim Tempe Police Chief Glover to be sworn in at city council meeting” at KTAR.