The Weekly Town Crier (07/16/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (07/23/21).

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We’ll Miss You:

Read “Paul Orndorff Dies: Wrestling Legend Known As “Mr. Wonderful” Who Fought In 1st WrestleMania Was 71” at Yahoo.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “The Rapid Decline of White evangelical America?” at Washington Post.

• Read “What is a mainline Christian, anyway?” at Religion News Service.

• Read “Why It’s Unlikely US Mainline Protestants Outnumber Evangelicals” at Religion Unplugged.

• Read this 2020 piece “The Power Worshippers: A look inside the American religious right” at Al Jazeera.

Read “QAnon moves into the shadows but movement remains active” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Southern Baptist Convention sparks small COVID-19 cluster in Nashville” at Tennessean.

Read “Santa Fe Church Forgives Entire State of New Mexico Medical Debt” at Episcopal News.

Read “SBC President Ed Litton Announces Task Force to Review Mishandling of Abuse Allegations” at Roys Report.

Read “Family loses appeal in lawsuit over priest’s funeral remarks” at Religion News Service. “A priest who criticized a teenager's suicide during his funeral is protected by the First Amendment.”

Read “Atheist and humanist groups sue Mississippi over state’s ‘In God We Trust’ license plate” at Religion News Service. “The suit says car owners have to choose between displaying the state’s standard license tag, with the words ‘In God We Trust,’ on their vehicles or paying an additional fee to display a special tag of their choice.”

Read the opinion piece: “Why are White Evangelicals embracing an anti-democratic movement? Because they’re panicking” at Washington Post.

Read “Church leaders arrested on sex-related charges involving minors” at Baptist Press.

Read “MAGA Pastor Jackson Lahmeyer Discovers the Downside of QAnon” at Right Wing Watch.

Read “United Methodist Church Seizes Assets of Conservative Georgia Megachurch” at Roys Report.

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

Read “Biden administration bars ICE from detaining pregnant or nursing women” at CBS News.

Read “Police investigating child’s death at Maggie’s Farm in Manitou Springs” at KRDO. “Two Colorado parents were arrested and charged with "criminally negligent child abuse resulting in death" after their 4-year-old son unintentionally shot and killed himself while left unattended in a car in Manitou Springs.”

Read “Previous ACLU: Miami Correctional inmates lived in total darkness, frequently shocked” at Okaloosa.com.

Read “Federal court blocks Tennessee's anti-trans bathroom law from going into effect” at Business Insider.

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

Read “White nationalists prep for "physical" altercation with security at Dallas CPAC conference” at Salon.

Read “Charlottesville begins taking down Confederate statues” at CNN.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Officers sue California city over Black Lives Matter mural” at AZ Family.

Read “Cop Accused of Hiding Stepson’s Body in a Hole in the Wall of His Home” at Vice.

Read “All DPS Troopers To Get Body Cameras, But Arizona Limits Release Of Video” at KJZZ.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Arizona governor signs bill to prohibit critical race theory teaching” at The Hill.

• Read “What Is Critical Race Theory, and Why Is Everyone Talking About It?” at Columbia.edu.

• Read “Nikki Haley calls on 'every governor' in US to ban funding for critical race theory in public schools” at Yahoo.

Read “Tears, politics and money: School boards become battle zones” at Associated Press.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Rand Paul, Fellow GOPers Fighting Mask Mandate On Airplanes” at News and Guts.

Read “'Surprising amount of death' will soon occur in these US regions from increased Covid-19 cases, expert says” at CNN.

Read “Canada donating AstraZeneca doses to other countries” at The Hill.

Read “Anti-vaxx nurse dies from COVID-19 in Louisiana” at Raw Story.

Read “Tennessee abandons vaccine outreach to minors — not just for COVID-19” at Tennessean.

Read “Surgeon general warns of dangers of misinformation amid misleading vaccine claims” at CNN.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Tobacco group Philip Morris buys maker of inhalers” at Economic Times. “US cigarette giant Philip Morris said Friday that it has agreed to buy Vectura, a UK company making breathing inhalers, as part of a push into healthcare.”

Read the opinion piece “Only the Rich Could Love This Economic Recovery” at New York Times.

Read “Rachael Denhollander: Let's channel our anger over the FBI and Nassar and save the children” at USA Today.

Internationalities:

Read “US sanctions a Chinese facial recognition company with Silicon Valley funding” at The Verge.

Read “Biden Tells Putin Russia Must Crack Down On Cybercriminals” at Huff Post. “U.S. President Joe Biden warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that he must “take action” against criminals within his country.”

Read “Haitian police: Foreign hit squad killed President Moïse” at PRI The World.

Read “UK mom killed hubby with boiling water for allegedly sexually abusing her kids” at New York Post.

Read the opinion piece “Abolish the Olympics” at The New Republic. “They’ve long been a financial boondoggle that ruins lives and enriches the corporate class. This year, they might also spread a deadly Covid variant among a largely unvaccinated population.”

Read “World disgusted by racist abuse toward players” at The Hill.

Read “South Africa Deploys Army to Contain Unrest Over Former President Zuma’s Arrest” at Wall Street Journal.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Why Toyota's reversal on Republican financial support matters” at MSNBC News.

Read “Senate Democrats Announce $3.5 Trillion Budget Agreement” at NPR.

Read “Schumer: Marijuana legalization will be a Senate priority” at The Hill.

Read “Democratic Senators Call for Investigation of Tax Avoidance by the Ultrawealthy” at Pro Publica. “Calling ProPublica’s Secret IRS Files series a “bombshell,” Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Sheldon Whitehouse demanded an investigation into how the rich use “legal tax loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of income taxes.”

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Dissension in AZGOP as Trump dumps Ducey” at AZ Capitol Times.

Read Greg Abbott Says Fleeing Texas Democrats 'Will Be Arrested' When They Return to State” at Newsweek.

Read “Kremlin papers appear to show Putin’s plot to put Trump in White House” at The Guardian.

Read “USA Today Investigation Links Ducey With Efforts To Extract $100M In Tax Refunds” at KJZZ.

Read ‘Democratic Rep. Beatty arrested while calling for Senate action on voting rights” at Yahoo.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “The Creative Urge: John Coltrane on Perseverance Against Rejection, the Innovator’s Mindset, and How Hardship Fuels Art” at Brain Pickings.

Read “The Residents Announce 50th Anniversary Tour” at Consequence.

Read “Iggy Pop to Narrate King Tutankhamun Documentary” at Pitchfork.

Read “Grateful Dead’s best album is ‘In the Dark’ – even if Deadheads won't admit it” at Herald-Tribune.

Read “Why Are Independent Artists and Labels Turning Away From Vinyl?” at Pitchfork. “Faced with interminable manufacturing delays, some of music’s DIY players are giving up on the beloved format.”

Read “Heartbreakers Keyboardist Benmont Tench Talks ‘She’s the One,’ Life After Tom Petty” at Rolling Stone.

Read “UK Lawmakers Call for Sweeping Reform to Streaming Payouts” at Pitchfork.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Hannity tells fans to 'take their sports back' by singing national anthem” at The Hill.

Read “Lea Thompson is volunteering to direct a Howard The Duck reboot” at AV Club.

Read “Rob Schneider Unwilling to Take COVID-19 Vaccine, Is Willing to Shoot People” at Consequence.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “The battle for the public library” at Current. “It looks like some conservatives are running for local library boards so they can remove books on race and racism from the stacks.”

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “At least seven states report mosquitoes carrying disease that can paralyze humans” at The Hill.

Read “Meth Pollution in Waterways Turns Trout Into Addicts” at Smithsonian.

Read “Mass bird die-off in eastern US baffles scientists” at Live Science.

Read “EPA: 11,000 facilities illegally discharged pollutants into nearby waters in 2018” at The Hill.

Read “Wobbling’ moon will cause devastating worldwide flooding in 2030’s NASA warns” at Telegraph.

Read “Scientists are tracking the loneliest whale in the world” at The Hill.

Local:

Read “72% of Arizona taxpayers will save less than $45 per year under @dougducey ‘s tax cut. But he repeated again and again that the average taxpayer would save $300. There are two possible explanations: he was being dishonest or he didn’t check the math” at AZ Central.

Read “Phoenix Firefighters Union Asks City To Shutter Two Trails On Extreme Heat Days” at KJZZ.

Read “Arizona Supreme Court halts projected execution dates for 2 inmates” at KTAR.

Read “Arizona flood swept this Prius down a street, caught on video” at Boing Boing.

The Weekly Town Crier (07/09/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (07/09/21).

Religion and Stuff:

Read the opinion piece “Patriot games: CRT, Christian nationalism and a battle for the real truth of America” at Religion News Service.

• Read “Where Were They Radicalized? No Answer Is Complete Without Addressing Evangelical Churches and Schooling” at Religion Dispatches.

Read ‘Breaking the silence: Clergy address pandemic’s surge in domestic violence” at Religion News Service.

Read “Promise Keepers Tried to End Racism 25 Years Ago. It Almost Worked” at Christianity Today. “As new tensions divide the country, the men’s movement leaders wonders what they could have done differently.”

Read “Apocalypse Now And Then: How A Biblical Genre Shapes American Politics” at Religion Dispatches.

Read “The uncomfortable truth about the authoritarian Christian right's role in American politics” at AlterNet.

Read “Franklin bomb scare caused by fake TNT prop used for coal mining-themed church program” at Tennessean.

Read “White mainline Protestants outnumber white evangelicals, while ‘nones’ shrink” at Religion News Service.

Read “NDAs Kept These Christians Silent. Now They’re Speaking Out Against Them” at Christianity Today.

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

Read “Lethal Force Against Pipeline Protests? Documents Reveal Shocking South Dakota Plans for National Guard” at Democracy Now.

Read “12 Holdout States Haven't Expanded Medicaid, Leaving 2 Million People In Limbo” at NPR.

Read “At least 150 people fatally shot in more than 400 shootings over the Fourth of July weekend” at CNN.

Read “Tucson to ignore Arizona’s ‘Second Amendment sanctuary’ law” at AZ Capitol Times.

Read “Juan Williams: How the Supreme Court eroded voting rights” at The Hill.

Read “SCOTUS Is Finishing the Job on Financial Disclosure Requirements” at Slate. “Doing bad things in two steps several years apart is becoming something of a strategy for John Roberts.”

Read “Cuomo declares 'state emergency' on gun violence in New York” at The Hill.

Read “ACLU Lawsuit: MCAO ‘coerces’ guilty pleas by fast-tracking cases” at ABC 15.

Read “Trump files suit against Facebook, Twitter and YouTube” at Associated Press.

Read “An MLK Jr. Statue Was Vandalized With Graffiti, Prompting A Hate Crime Investigation” at NPR.

Read “Michigan Judge Refuses to Allow Sidney Powell, Lin Wood, and Other ‘Kraken’ Attorneys to Skip Sanctions Hearing” at Law and Crime.

Read “Ghoulish pall is cast over America by Alabama's plan to gas humans to death” at Montgomery Advertiser.

Read “An Appeals Court Has Suspended Rudy Giuliani's Ability To Practice Law In D.C.” at NPR.

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

Read ‘6 Months After Capitol Assault, Corporate Pledges Fall Flat” at NBC Los Angeles. “6 months later, many of those companies have resumed funneling cash to PACs that benefit the election efforts of lawmakers whether they objected to the election certification or not.”

Read “Covering up the insurrection is the Bigger Lie. And it’s worse.” at MSNBC.

Read “Virginia ‘Bible study’ group was cover for violent militia plans, prosecutors say” at Washington Post.

This Week With The Police:

Read “New video shows altercation between man and New Rochelle detective charged with assault” at Westchester 12 News.

Read “Judge Accepts Nashville Officer’s Voluntary Manslaughter Plea For 2018 Shooting, Leaving Daniel Hambrick’s Family ‘Disgusted’” at WPLN.

Read “Why Cops Are Driving a ‘Game Truck’ Around New York City” at Vice.

Read “Baltimore IG: Police officers allowed to take paid leave and overtime simultaneously” at Baltimore Brew.

Read “Darnella Frazier Filmed George Floyd’s Murder. The Minneapolis Police Just Killed Her Uncle” at Mother Jones.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Teaching critical race theory isn't happening in classrooms, teachers say in survey” at NBC News.

• Read “Anti-Critical Race Theory Laws Are Un-American” at New York Times.

• Read “Former Trump official’s God-and-country nonprofit calls CRT a threat to ‘colorblind society’” at Religion News Service. “Russ Vought, a former Trump official, blames woke pastors for promoting a dangerous and anti-Christian ideology.”

Read “Nikole Hannah-Jones Issues Statement on Decision to Decline Tenure Offer at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and to Accept Knight Chair Appointment at Howard University” at NAACPLDF.

• Read “Two Iconic American Writers Join Howard University to Create the Center for Journalism and Democracy” at MacArthur Foundation.

Read “How QAnon supporters work to spread ideas via school boards” at MSNBC.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Pandemic Pushes Millions of Small Thai Companies Into Crisis” at Bloomberg.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Reflect on 75 Years of Marriage” at New York Times.

Read “Wells Fargo tells customers it’s shuttering all personal lines of credit” at CNBC.

Internationalities:

Read “Haiti's president assassinated” at CNN.

• Read “What Is Happening in Haiti?” at Vice.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “VP Harris says DNC will pour $25M into voting rights protection” at AZ Mirror.

Read “How Democrats Lost the Courts” at The Atlantic.

Read “DeSantis won't commit to new review of Florida buildings after condo collapse” at The Hill.

This Week In Political Corruption:

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

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Explore Nikhil Banerjee’s music in Meeting Rivers’ latest Indian classical mix” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “Britney Spears’s Conservatorship Nightmare” at New Yorker.

• Read “Britney Spears: Mother says pop star should be allowed to choose her own lawyer” at BBC.

Read “How Lonnie Smith Found an Unlikely New Collaborator: Iggy Pop” at New York Times.

Read “King Tubby: A Beginner’s Guide To The Prolific Dub Innovator” at Treble.

Browse “M.C. Taylor’s 13 Spiritually Uplifting Songs” at Spirituality and Health.

Read “Vinyl Is More Popular Than Ever. Surprisingly, That's a Problem” at Vice.

Read “Sonic Youth Partner For Premium Running Apparel Collection Modeled By Walter Schreifels” at Stereogum.

Watch “the Chaos of Woodstock 99 Unfold in New Trailer for Upcoming Documentary” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Krist Novoselic on Nevermind’s impact: “So much was going on. And then it all just spectacularly blew up” at Uncut.

Read “MF DOOM Will Be Honored With His Own Street Sign In New York” at Okay Player.

Read “Fender to honour Kurt Cobain and Primal Scream with new guitar collection” at NME.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “On and off stage, Questlove’s Summer Of Soul is an invigorating and inspiring concert film” at AV Club.

Read “Fox News backs away from defending Tucker Carlson after NSA spying claims” at Salon.

• Read “Tucker Carlson sought Putin interview at time of spying claim” at Axios.

Read “Kyle MacLachlan Cast as Carole Baskin’s Husband in Joe Exotic Series” at The Hollywood Reporter.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “What Technology Could Reduce Heat Deaths? Trees.” at New York Times. “At a time when climate change is making heat waves more frequent and more severe, trees are stationary superheroes: They can lower urban temperatures 10 lifesaving degrees, scientists say.”

Read “Radioactive hybrid terror pigs have made themselves a home in Fukushima's exclusion zone” at The Register.

Read “Climate change: The craft brewery using algae to cut emissions” at BBC.

The Weekly Town Crier (07/02/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (07/02/21).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Blackalicious Rapper Gift of Gab Dead at 50” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Richard Altuna, Who Redesigned What Retail Looks Like, Dies At 70” at NPR.

Read “Jon Hassell, pioneering electronic musician, RIP” at Boing Boing.

Read “‘Cops’ Creator John Langley Dead at 78” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Former Skid Row Singer Johnny Solinger Dead at 55” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Donald Rumsfeld, former secretary of defense, dies at 88” at CNN.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “The American church needs to reckon with its legacy in Indigenous boarding schools” at Religion News Service. “The American church will not be able to hide from its history of complicity in the treatment of Indigenous peoples — and the ongoing colonization Indigenous peoples continue to face today.”

Read ‘Are We Attempting to Serve Two Masters, Jesus and Gun Rights?” at Christianity Today. “Reflections from a school shooting survivor.”

Read “White hysteria, Critical Race Theory, and eyes that dare not see” by David Gushee at Baptist News.

• Read “Where Did White Evangelicalism’s Hatred of Critical Race Theory Really Begin?” at Religion Dispatches.

• Read “Critical race theory is a gift to Christians” at Christian Century. “The good news about collective and institutional sin is that, like individual sin, it can be redeemed.”

Read “Who are the Catholic bishops drafting the controversial Communion document?” at Religion News Service. “A look at the clerics tasked with penning a document many see as a rebuke of President Joe Biden.”

Read “More churches burn down on Canada indigenous land” at BBC.

Read “How the Southern Baptist Convention Rejected Populist Fundamentalism” at The Bulwark.

• Read “As Southern Baptists Begin to Grapple with Sexual Abuse, Looming Challenges Remain” at Roys Report.

Read “Indian priest’s wife chops off his penis after he wanted to marry again” at New York Post.

Meet “the Theobros, who want you to know they’re right about everything” at Baptist News.

Read “Pope to meet with delegation of Indigenous People of Canada” at Vatican News.

Read “Behind Biden’s 2020 Victory” at Pew Research. “Trump’s support among white evangelicals rose from 77% in 2016 to 84% in 2020.”

Read “Catholic bishop of Syracuse decries Doctrine of Discovery, suggests pope do the same” at Religion News Service.

Read “UK Methodist Church Votes to Allow Same-Sex Marriages, While US Methodists Anticipate Split” at Roys Report.

Read “How Philadelphia’s reform DA is teaming with clergy to tackle rising gun violence” at Religion News Service.

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

Read “In Suing Georgia, Justice Department Says State's New Voting Law Targets Black Voters” at NPR.

Read “An Iowa County Chooses to Be Named for a Black Professor, Not a Slaveowner” at New York Times. “Johnson County selected Lulu Merle Johnson, a Black educator and historian, as its official eponym, replacing Richard Mentor Johnson, the ninth U.S. vice president.”

Read “How Did This Anti-Labor Lawyer Become One of Joe Biden’s First Judicial Nominees?” at Slate.

Read “Clarence Thomas says federal laws against marijuana may no longer be necessary” at NBC News. “The federal government's current approach is a half-in, half-out regime that simultaneously tolerates and forbids local use of marijuana,” the conservative Supreme Court justice wrote.”

Read “US Supreme Court rejects Virginia school board’s trans bathroom ban appeal” at AL.com.

Read “Supreme Court lets lawsuit continue in death of man detained in prone position” at NBC News.

Read “Bill Cosby to Be Freed as Court Overturns His Sex Assault Conviction” at New York Times.

Read ‘James Franco Agrees to Pay $2.2 Million in Sexual-Misconduct Lawsuit Settlement” at Vulture.

Read “Supreme Court Invalidates Key Part of Voting Rights Act” at New York Times.

Read “Adding to Trump's woes, grand jury indicts his core business” at MSBNC.

Read “NFL Levies $10 Million Fine, Biggest in League History, Against Washington Football Team for Workplace Culture” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “City sells former police academy to become a marijuana grow facility” at Boing Boing.

Read “Woman who falsely accused Black teen of stealing phone charged with hate crime” at The Hill.

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

Read “A Florida man admitted storming the Capitol, feds say. Then he told the FBI his pastor had come with him” at Washington Post.

Read ‘‘Castrate, kill, remove voting rights’: Ex-Marine, Georgia deputy was in extremist cell, feds say” at Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Read ‘Spurred By The Capitol Riot, Thousands Of Republicans Drop Out Of GOP” at NPR.

Read “California’s yoga, wellness and spirituality community has a QAnon problem” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Toyota under fire for giving $55K to 37 Republicans who objected to certifying election” at MSNBC News.

Read “Marine Corps officer pleads not guilty in Capitol riot” at The Hill.

Read “House Votes to Remove Confederate Statues from the Capitol” at Democracy Now.

Read “House Approves Creation of Select Committee to Probe Jan. 6 Attack” at Wall Street Journal.

Watch “Day of Rage: An In-Depth Look at How a Mob Stormed the Capitol” at New York Times.

Read “GOP Rep. Paul Gosar appears to ally with white nationalists — again” at Washington Post.

Read “Former cop who allegedly attacked police with flagpole during Capitol riots to be released from jail, placed on house arrest” at The Hill.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Ex-Cop Chauvin Gets 22 1/2 Years in Prison for Floyd Murder” at Bloomberg.

• Read “How Former Police Officers Are Treated in Prison” at Vice. “We spoke to some experts to find out what life is like for ex-cops behind bars.”

Read “Oakland to divert $17M from police budget” at The Hill.

Read “US Border Patrol launches new marine unit amid rise in maritime smuggling” at PRI.

Read ‘Proposed law making cell phone video of cops a crime moves forward by Ohio legislators” at News 5 Cleveland.

Read “Family demands justice after teen fatally shot by Lonoke County sheriff's deputy” at KATV.

Read “Fox News Sunday host asks GOP congressman why it's "the Republicans who are defunding the police"“ at Salon.

Read “Budget bill provision allows DPS to block release of all video records” at AZ Mirror.

Read “UN calls for US, others to end 'impunity' for police violence against Black people” at The Hill.

Read “Watch a police officer admit to playing Taylor Swift to keep a video off YouTube” at The Verge.

Read “Police group says ambush attacks on officers up 91 percent over past year” at The Hill.

Read “Ex-Nashville officer Andrew Delke takes plea deal in deadly shooting of Daniel Hambrick” at Fox17.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “The hypocrisy of cancel culture means young people can never learn anything” at The Telegraph.

Read “The Death of Gratitude in the American Classroom” at Public Discourse. “Encouraging people to be gracious, and to recognize what others have provided them through no merit of their own, is not about “guilt tripping” them. It is to encourage a particular way of existing in the world. Gratitude acknowledges the plenitude of goodness that surrounds us every moment of every day in millions of small acts of people we do not know.”

Read “Spanking can worsen a child’s behavior and do real harm, study finds” at CNN.

Read “UNC trustees approve tenure for journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones after students removed from meeting area” at CBS News.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Hundreds of PPP Loans Went to Fake Farms in Absurd Places” at Pro Publica.

Read “WHO Urges Vaccinated People to Keep Taking COVID Precautions as Delta Variant Spreads Across Globe” at Democracy Now.

Read “American carnage: What we are now learning about Trump's nightmarish mishandling of COVID” at Salon.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “The Meet-Cute That Made WrestleMania How a ponderous wrestler and a pop star from Queens formed an unlikely friendship that started it all” at Vulture.

Read “Kanye West sues Walmart for allegedly copying his foam runner shoes” at NME.

Read “The Teamsters Announce Coordinated Nationwide Project to Unionize Amazon” at Vice.

Read “Grief Is Another Word For Love” at Guernica Magazine.

Read “Well, now we know what happens when you swallow an AirPod” at AV Club.

Read “Leaving Conservatism Behind” at Dissent Magazine. “How I renounced the God-and-guns conservatism of my blue-collar roots and embraced class politics.”

Read “Nurse suspended for TikTok videos about mistreating her patients claims they were comedy skits” at The Independent.

Read “NCAA Votes To Let Athletes Earn Money Based On Their Names And Images” at NPR.

Read “Amazon Delivery Companies Revolt Against Amazon, Shut Down” at Vice.

Internationalities:

Read “The Dominican Republic Is Building a Wall to Keep Haitian Migrant Kids Out” at Vice. “Close to half a million Haitians are living undocumented in the Dominican Republic, and many of them are children.”

Read “Roughly 650 troops to stay in Afghanistan after withdrawal” at The Hill.

Read “Classified UK military documents found at bus stop” at The Hill.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Pence says it would have been 'un-American' to not certify results of 2020 election” at ABC 15.

Read “Ron Johnson calls for Republicans to run for local office and 'take back our culture'“ at The Hill.

• Read “Milwaukee newspaper blasts Ron Johnson as 'irresponsible representative of Wisconsin citizens'“ at The Hill.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “In Arizona, GOP Lawmakers Strip Power From a Democrat” at Yahoo.

Read “Audit leader Doug Logan appears in conspiracy theorist election film” at AZ Mirror.

Read “Trump Sought Justice Department Intervention to Stop SNL from Making Fun of Him” at Second Nexus.

Read “Documents Show Ivanka Trump Didn’t Testify Accurately in Inauguration Scandal Case” at Mother Jones.

Music-Related News and Such:

Browse “2021.5 : Our Favorite Albums + Songs From The First Half Of The Year” at Gorilla vs. Bear.

• Browse “Alt.Latino's Best Music of 2021 (So Far)” at NPR.

• Browse “The Best Of 2021 – Halftime Report” at Uncut.

Read “How Black People Created All Your Favorite Music” at HighSnobiety.

Read “Ed Sheeran turned to Bono for fatherhood advice: “We had a three-hour chat”” at NME.

Read “One Day the Music Goes Away” at Passion Weiss. “After Myspace lost over 50 million song uploads, Will Hagle ponders the fleeting shelf-life of digital music and the impermanence of a life lived online.”

Read “New Hawkwind book to be published in October” at Louder Sound.

Watch “The Ramones on Regis and Kathy Lee (1988)” at Boing Boing.

Read “Rich Robinson Rehashes Black Crowes Split, Calling Drummer Steve Gorman “Extremely Negative” and “Manipulative” at Jambands.com.

Read “Britney Spears’s Courtroom Plea Spurs Questions for Her Lawyer” at New York Times. “The singer said she had not known she needed to petition the court to be released from her conservatorship, placing a focus on the court-appointed counsel who has represented her for 13 years.”

• Read “Is It Legal to Prevent Britney Spears From Having a Baby and Removing Her IUD?” at Variety.

• Read “Britney Spears: ‘I Just Want My Life Back’” at New York Times.

• Read “Management Firm Pulls Out of Britney Spears Conservatorship” at Variety.

Read “Review: Hiss Golden Messenger’s ‘Quietly Blowing It’ Belies Its Title” at American Songwriter.

• Read “Hiss Golden Messenger's M.C. Taylor Processes His Pandemic Blues In Latest Album” at NPR.

Read “A Race ‘Report Card’ Measures Whether the Music Industry Changed” at New York Times.

Read “Courtney Love Demands ‘Rude’ Olivia Rodrigo Send Her Flowers For Copying Album Cover” at Huff Post.

• Read “Courtney Love and Olivia Rodrigo Spark Debate About Creative Homage vs. Theft” at Flood.

Read “Sharp Ascent: In Conversation with Six Organs Of Admittance’s Ben Chasny” at Sun-13.

Read “Antifa Defeats Mumford & Sons” at Slate.

Read “Avril Lavigne partners with real-life 'Sk8er boi' Tony Hawk in TikTok debut” at CNN.

Read “Add to Your Record Collection With Amazon’s New Monthly Vinyl Subscription Service” at Variety.

Read/Listen to “Talkhouse Weekend Playlist: Inside the World of Jaubi” at Talkhouse. “The bandleader behind Jaubi shares up-and-coming artists and some influences behind the new record, Nafs at Peace.”

• Read “Jaubi | Interview | Spiritual Journey from Pakistan” at Psychedelic Baby.

Read “Wanda Jackson Announces Final Album ‘Encore’ With Joan Jett” at Rolling Stone.

Read “How Japanese Breakfast Builds An Album, Sound By Sound” at NPR.

Read “How Sun Ra Taught Us to Believe in the Impossible” at New Yorker. “The visionary jazz artist sketched an “Astro-Black mythology” that aligned ancient Egyptian history with a future human exodus “beyond the stars.”

Browse Americana-UK’s picks for “Essentials: The top ten Howe Gelb albums.”

Read “Supreme Partners with Butthole Surfers for Clothing Collection” at Consequence.

Browse “Ishmael Butler On The 10 Best Shabazz Palaces Songs” at Treble.

Read “Biz Markie Is Still Alive, Manager Confirms Amid Death Rumors on Social Media” at Pitchfork.

Read “Ryley Walker Talks Moving to Vermont and His New Album” at Seven Days VT.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Browse “37 Hitchcock Cameo Appearances Over 50 Years: All in One Video” at Open Culture.

Read “‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ at 25: ‘The Most R-Rated G You Will Ever See’” at New York Times.

Read “Apple TV+ Shortening Its Free One-Year Trials” at Pop Culture.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “David Bowie art from Ontario landfill sets $50K auction record, but some locals aren't happy with the fame” at CBC. “Some from the small community of South River fear an influx of treasure hunters following rare find.”

Read “Picasso Painting Hidden In Maine Closet For 50 Years Sold” at Huff Post.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Discovery of ‘Dragon Man’ Skull in China May Add Species to Human Family Tree” at New York Times.

Read “'Important first step': Highly anticipated UFO report released with no firm conclusions” at AZ Central.

• Read “For UFO enthusiasts at Oregon festival, ‘it’s all extraterrestrial’” at Religion News Service.

• Read “U.S. Has No Explanation for Unidentified Objects and Stops Short of Ruling Out Aliens” at New York Times.

• Read “How the Pentagon learned to start worrying and investigate UFOs” at National Geographic.]

• Read “New video shows unidentified glowing objects near US Navy ship” at Mystery Wire.

Read “This Is My Brain on Salvia” at Wired. “I loaned my head to the world’s first fMRI study on the effects of salvinorin A, a potent psychedelic. Here’s what it revealed.”

Read “Does drinking hot tea in summer really cool you down?” at Universal-Sci.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Uncover the (actually not very mysterious) origins of Massachusetts' toy horse graveyard, Ponyhenge” at AV Club.

Local:

Read “Phoenix firefighters union pushing for change after 2 firefighters hospitalized from back to back trail rescues” at 12 News.

The Weekly Town Crier (06/25/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (06/25/21).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Antivirus pioneer John McAfee found dead in Spanish prison” at Miami Herald.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Albert Mohler’s darkest hour” at Religion News Service. “In his bid to lead America’s largest denomination, he was his own worst enemy.”

Read “After politically charged debate, bishops vote to draft controversial Communion document” at Religion News Service.

• Read “Targeting Biden, Catholic Bishops Advance Controversial Communion Plan” at New York Times.

• Read “AOC, other Catholic Democrats urge bishops against ‘weaponization’ of Communion” at Religion News Service.

• Read “Biden dismisses Catholic bishops potentially banning him from communion” at The HIll. “That’s a private matter.”

• Read “Lieu calls Catholic bishops 'hypocrites' for move to deny Biden communion” at The Hill.

• Read “Weaponizing the wafer: Why San Francisco Archbishop opposes communion for Biden” at San Fransisco Examiner.

Read “Black Mountain pastor makes first court appearance on child sexual offense charges” at WLOS.

• Read “Members of The Ridge Church defend pastor charged with child sex offenses” at WLOS.

Read “Critical Race Theory, Sex Abuse, and Southern Baptists” at Christianity Today.

• Read “How Critical Race Theory Overran the Southern Baptist Convention” at NY Mag.

• Read ‘Christian Opponents of CRT Peddle A Hollow Salvation” at Sojourners.

Read “Under Attack from Fundamentalist Pirates, Evangelical Baptists Refused to Give Up the Ship” by David French. “In Nashville, Evangelicals clashed with toxic fundamentalists—and Evangelicals prevailed.”

• Read “America’s largest evangelical denomination is at war with itself” at Vox. “Why the Southern Baptist Convention is in turmoil — and why you should care.”

• Read “When Southern Baptists Share the Gospel with Democrats, You May Get Christian Democrats! Can You Handle That?” at Southern Baptist Voices.

• Read “Southern Baptist Convention Calls for ‘Immediate Abolition of Abortion Without Exception or Compromise’” at FaithWire.

• Read “Christian Nationalist Leader Attacks SBC Election, New President” at Roys Report.

Read/Listen to “The Fight Over Evangelicals’ Future” at Slate. “Conservatives are divided. So are their churches.”

Read “‘An excuse for the feast’: Witches celebrate the summer solstice with cakes, mead — and salsa” at Religion News Service. “For many pagans, spirituality is tied to nature, and eating local seasonal foods connects them to the earth and with a specific time and place.”

Read ‘Religion 'ISN'T the secret to happiness': Global study claims atheists are just as happy as those with a faith” at Daily Mail.

Read “Braveheart’s Warped History Keeps Suckering Evangelicals” at Daly Beast. “Mel Gibson’s sadomasochistic fantasy is beloved by evangelical Christians (and William Wallace wannabes like Ted Cruz), who wallow in its exaltation of violent, macho religion.”

Read “How 'Modest Is Hottest' Is Hurting Christian Women” at Christianity Today. “What the phrase communicates about female sexuality and bodies.”

Read “DeSantis gets standing ovation by promising to put on the 'full armor of God' to fight against leftism” at Washington Examiner.

Read “The Nigerian priest saving Igbo deities from the bonfires” at BBC.

Read “Former Megachurch Pastor & Presidential Adviser Kirbyjon Caldwell Enters Prison” at Roys Report.

Read “Whitewashing Evangelical Scripture: The Case of Slavery and Antisemitism in the English Standard Version” at Oxford Academic.

Read “Can a tender-hearted president solve the Southern Baptists’ trust problem?” at Religion News Service. “The nation's largest Protestant denomination is based on voluntary cooperation by more than 40,000 churches. That cooperation is threatened by growing distrust of national leaders.”

Read “My Farewell to Sojourners” by Jim Wallis at Sojourners.

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

Read “Much of our slang comes from the Black community. Not acknowledging that perpetuates racism.” at USA Today.

Read “How TV Dramas Informed And Misinformed Perceptions Of The War On Drugs” at NPR.

Read “DOJ warns Missouri officials state can't ignore federal gun laws” at The Hill.

Read “14 Votes Against Juneteenth: A Racist Act In The Halls Of Congress” at The Uprising.

• Read “As Juneteenth marks the end of slavery, lawmakers turn their focus to forced prison labor” at Washington Post.

Read “North Carolina death row inmate freed after newly discovered evidence” at The Hill.

Read “Connecticut Becomes First State to Provide Free Calls from Prison” at Equal Justice Initiative.

Read ‘DOJ Asks SCOTUS to Reinstate Death Penalty for Boston Marathon Bomber” at Democracy Now.

Read “John Roberts Just Pulled Off His Greatest Judicial Magic Trick” at Slate.

Read “Idaho Republican candidate for governor claims US is under attack from 'invasive species'“ at American Independent.

Read “Jesse Jackson, William Barber arrested protesting filibuster and Manchin” at Religion News Service.

Read “Rudy Giuliani suspended from practicing law in New York state” at AZ Family.

• Read “With Giuliani’s Law License Suspended, Here Are The Other Trump Lawyers Who May Face Discipline Next” at Forbes.

Read “Parkland parents trick former NRA president into speaking in anti-gun violence video” at Salon. “Empty chairs were placed in a stadium to represent seniors who didn't graduate this year because of gun violence.”

Read “Connecticut Legalizes Recreational Marijuana” at Democracy Now.

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

Read “Tucker Carlson And The Far Right Want To Recast Jan. 6 As A False Flag By The Deep State” at Huff Post.

Read “Charlottesville Neo-Nazi Trial Won’t Move Over Violence Fear” at Bloomberg.

Read “Pelosi announces a select committee will investigate Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob” at Washington Post.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “A Group of White Cops Beat a Black Undercover Officer at a BLM Protest” at Vice.

Read “Portland riots: Police crowd-control team resigns after officer indicted” at BBC.

Read “Charges dismissed against trucker who drove into George Floyd protest” at The Hill.

This Week With The Police:

Read “North Carolina sheriff's office settles for $6M in excessive force lawsuit” at The Hill.

Read “Black students pulled from car by Atlanta police sue city” at NBC. “Video of the May 2020 confrontation — shared widely online — shows officers shouting at the students, firing Tasers at them and dragging them from the car.”

Read “Baltimore May Soon Ban Facial Recognition For Everyone But Cops” at Wired.

Read “The history of the US police” at Al Jazeera. “From slave patrols to the criminalisation of Black communities, racism has been a feature of US policing for centuries.’

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Ted Cruz says critical race theory is as racist as 'Klansmen in white sheets'“ at The Hill.

• Read “How a Conservative Activist Invented the Conflict Over Critical Race Theory” at New Yorker. “To Christopher Rufo, a term for a school of legal scholarship looked like “the perfect weapon.”

• Read “'The Tea Party to the 10th power': Trumpworld bets big on critical race theory” at Politico.

• Read “Partisan war over teaching history and racism stokes tensions in U.S. schools” at Reuters.

• Read “Teachers Say GOP’s Critical Race Theory Bills ‘Whitewash American History’ at Huff Post. “Republicans are pushing laws to prevent teaching about systemic racism and white privilege in schools. Teachers say they just want to teach the truth.”

Read “Why Juneteenth Isn't Taught In Schools — And What That Means For Our Understanding Of Slavery” at WBUR.

Read “Top U.S. military leader: ‘I want to understand White rage. And I’m White.’” at Washington Post.

Read “How the media's helping GOP fuel critical race theory hysteria” at Press Run.

Read “US sees record school shootings since March as students struggle with return from pandemic” at The Hill.

Read “DeSantis signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with state” at Salon.

Read “Supreme Court Sides With Teen Who Was Punished By School Over Expletive-Laden Snapchat Rant” at Comic Sands.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “‘We want them infected’: Trump appointee demanded ‘herd immunity’ strategy, emails reveal” at Politico. “Then-HHS science adviser Paul Alexander called for millions of Americans to be infected as means of fighting Covid-19.”

Read “Unvaccinated Arizonans made up 95% of COVID-19 cases in May” at AZ Mirror.

Read “The Spectacular Failure of the MyPillow Guy’s Mask Operation” at Daily Beast.

Read “More than 150 Houston Methodist employees resign or are fired over COVID vaccine mandate” at Houston Chronicle.

Read “NYC offering in-home vaccinations to all residents” at The Hill.

Read “Jim Bakker, his church settle lawsuit over COVID-19 claims” at Religion News Service.

Read “Nearly all COVID deaths in US are now among unvaccinated” at Associated Press.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Lessons from California’s Pot Industry Bailout” at Bloomberg. ‘California’s 15% tax on legal marijuana has pushed consumers to the illicit market, it’s clear that much more has gone wrong with legalization in the state.”

Read “French software engineer may have cracked the Zodiac killer's code” at Boing Boing.

Read “Retail workers are quitting at record rates for higher-paying work: ‘My life isn’t worth a dead-end job’” at Washington Post.

Read “Michael B. Jordan to rename his rum brand after appropriation accusations” at The Hill.

Internationalities:

Read “UN assembly condemns military coup in Myanmar” at The Hill.

Read “Hungary's anti-gay law threatens programming of TV favourites” at Vox.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Joe Biden Is Confirming Judges Faster Than Decades Of Past Presidents” at Huff Post.

Read “Biden announces bipartisan deal on infrastructure” at The Hill.

Read “States Have Cut Off Unemployment. So Why Aren’t More People Looking for Jobs?” at Slate.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “At Long Last, Donald T$&mp Finally Admits: 'We Didn't Win'“ at Yahoo.

Read “Arizona election audit takes wild turn: Voter data is transported to a "secret" lab in another state” at Salon. “Arizona voter data hits the road, and the location it's being sent to is apparently a secret.”

Read “Led by Trump's old doctor, over a dozen GOP lawmakers demand Biden take a cognitive test” at Salon.

Read “As Gaetz investigation ramps up, feds mount sweeping probe into Central Florida political scene” at Yahoo.

Read “Georgia releases names of over 100K people at risk of having voter registration canceled” at The Hill.

Read “Trump-inspired death threats are terrorizing election workers” at Reuters.

Read “House Republicans Are Still Pushing Trump’s Election Conspiracy Theories” at Slate.

Read “Corporations like Amazon pay big bucks for "union avoidance" — and it all happens in the dark” at Salon.

Read “What would America be like if Trump's coup had succeeded? Suppressing SNL is only the start” at Salon.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “The Horrors of Bull Island, “the Worst Music Festival of All Time” (1972)” at Open Culture.

Read “Billie Eilish Apologizes for Mouthing Racist Slur in Surfaced Video: “I Am Appalled and Embarrassed at Pitchfork.

Read “A Little Less Lonely: Joni Mitchell’s Blue at 50” at Treble Zine.

Read “Untangling MF DOOM’s Lifelong Struggle With the U.S. Immigration System” at Pitchfork.

Browse Treble’s picks for “The 33 Best Albums of 2021 So Far.

Read “Inner Ear Studios’ Original Location Shutting Down” at Pitchfork.

Read “Go Spelunking in Mark E. Smith’s Mind With This Collection of the Fall Ephemera” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Factory Records co-founder and Joy Division album cover designer Peter Saville honoured with CBE” at Manchester Evening News.

Browse Rolling Stone’s picks for “The 50 Greatest Pop-Punk Albums.”

Read “Britney Spears Has Wanted Out of Her Conservatorship for Years. Why Is She Still in It?” at Vice.

Read/Listen to “Ripley Johnson of Rose City Band” at Petal Motel.

Read “Photos of New York's explosive 80s music scene” at I-D Vice.

Read “Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus Reveals Cancer Diagnosis” at Pitchfork.

Read “Talking Heads’ David Byrne buys $5.5M Toluca Lake mansion” at New York Post.

Read “Winston Marshall Leaves Mumford and Sons After Endorsing Andy Ngo’s Book” at Spin.

Read “Behind the Music Returning to Paramount+ with New Episodes: Watch the Trailer” at Consequence.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Chris Cuomo calls Fox News a 'disgrace' for not informing viewers that Tucker Carlson shouldn't be taken seriously” at Yahoo.

Read “Diamond and Silk suggest Fox News is racist for dumping them over COVID-19 conspiracies that were also embraced by white hosts like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity” at Business Insider.

Books/Reading/Authors

Browse “Umberto Eco’s 36 Rules for Writing Well (in English or Italian)” at Open Culture.

Read “Enter an Archive of 6,000 Historical Children’s Books, All Digitized and Free to Read Online” at Open Culture.

Read “What We Can Learn from Studying UFOs” at Scientific American.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “New type of ancient human discovered in Israel” at BBC.

Read “The Truth Has Not Always Been Out There” at New York Times.

Food And Drink Cultures:

Read “Pepsi Seeks Trademark for Rockstar-Branded Beer, Hard Seltzer” at Bloomberg.

Read “California man arrested over theft of 42,000lbs of pistachios” at BBC.

Read “The Horrifying Legacy of the Victorian Tapeworm Diet” at Atlas Obscura.

Misc. Oddities:

Read ‘Yes, There Really is a Softball Field at Area 51” at Vice.

Local:

Read “Before she embraced Donald Trump, Kari Lake signed on with Democrats as Barack Obama's fortunes soared” at 12 News.

Read “Lake Mead's decline points to scary water future in West” at The Hill.

Read “New Mattel-inspired theme park finds a home in Glendale” at 12 News.

Read “Flat Tax Exacerbates Inequalities for Households of Color” at AZ Center For Economic Progress.

The Weekly Town Crier (06/11/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (07/11/21).

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Russell Moore’s Warnings Should Bring a Reckoning” by David French. “How much more evidence do we need that the church needs reform?”

Read “Godless grifters: How the New Atheists merged with the far right” at Salon. “What once seemed like a bracing intellectual movement has degenerated into a pack of abusive, small-minded bigots.”

Read “A refugee agency rebuilds its pipeline after Trump: ‘We’re starting from scratch’” at Religion News Service.

Read “Keep COVID-19 restrictions during in-person worship, ecumenical guide suggests” at Religion News Service.

Read: “A Chronicle Invesigation: Abuse of Faith” at Houston Chronicle. “In the past 20 years, a disturbing number of Southern Baptists with formal church roles have engaged in sexual misconduct, a new investigation by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News reveals. They were pastors. Deacons. Youth pastors. They left behind more than 700 victims. Read and hear the stories of those victims, and learn the depths of the crimes and misconduct of the church leaders they trusted.”

Read “PTL! Andrew Garfield, Jessica Chastain to star as Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker in biopic” at Religion News Service.

Read “Biden DOJ updates court filing after LGBTQ advocates blast its stance in religious schools case” at CNN.

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

Read “Judge overturns California’s 32-year ban on assault weapons” at Associated Press.

Read “Supreme Court Will Hear Case Of FBI Allegedly Surveilling Some Muslim Californians” at Huff Post.

Read “Why Arizona May Resume Gas Chamber Executions” at KJZZ.

Read “America’s gun obsession is rooted in slavery” at The Guardian.

Read “The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax” at Pro Publica. “ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing.”

• Read “Wealthiest Executives Paid Little to Nothing in Federal Income Taxes, Report Says” at New York Times.

Read “Michael Cohen on Trump criminal probe: Everyone in the company lied for Donald” at MSNBC.

Read “America’s Dangerous Obsession With Innocence” at The Atlantic. “Most people on death row are guilty. That doesn’t mean they deserve their fate.”

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

Read “"It's now or never": Bipartisan congressional report finds Capitol police ignored Jan. 6 warnings” at Salon.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Could Brain Training Help Address Police Brutality?” at Wired. “New neuroscience-based technologies aim to improve decisionmaking under pressure. But solving systemic problems will take a lot more than that.”

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Judge orders reinstatement of Virginia teacher who opposed transgender rules” at The Hill.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Fauci calls on China to release medical records of Wuhan researchers” at The Hill.

Read “Washington state to allow free pot with vaccines” at The Hill.

Read “Experts Knew a Pandemic Was Coming. Here’s What They’re Worried About Next” at Politico. “Nine disasters we still aren’t ready for.”

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Bill Gates' affairs were an open secret, and someone in Melinda's inner circle hired a private investigator before she filed for divorce, report says” at Business Insider.

Read “Why Is Growing Pot So Energy-Intensive?” at Slate. “Federal regulations, budtender preferences, and a weird trick with carbon dioxide.”

Internationalities:

Read “Nigerian gov’t says it ‘indefinitely’ suspends Twitter” at Al Jazeera.

Read “The world has gained a brand new ocean” at CNet. “On World Ocean Day, the Southern Ocean was officially recognized by National Geographic's mapmakers.”

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “There are already 19 QAnon candidates running for Congress in 2022” at Mic.

Read “Bye-bye Miss American Pie — whatever happened to the Republican Party and conservatism?” at The Hill.

Read “Our Welfare Puritanism” at Democracy Journal.

Read “Trump Spawned a New Group of Mega-Donors Who Now Hold Sway Over the GOP’s Future” at Pro Publica.

Read “3 in 10 Republicans believe Trump will be reinstated as president” at The Hill.

Read “Bipartisan Senate group rules out tax hikes on infrastructure” at The Hill.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Iowa GOP advances bills to shorten early voting, restrict absentee ballots” at The Hill.

Read “Arizona's ballot audit could spread to other states. Here's what to know” at AZ Central.

Read “Giuliani Audio Proves Trump’s Team Was Lying About Ukraine” at Rolling Stone. “A new recording confirms that Trump and his allies were full of shit when they claimed “there was no quid pro quo” in Ukraine.”

Read “Joe Manchin Cares More About ‘Bipartisanship’ Than Fighting Jim Crow” at The Nation.

Read “Joe Manchin is opposing big parts of Biden’s agenda as the Koch network pressures him” at CNBC.

Read “OAN correspondent who is covering the Arizona election audit has been aiding the effort since at least December, documents show” at Business Insider.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Spotify Facing House Judiciary Committee Probe Over “Discovery Mode”” at Pitchfork.

Read “Reservoir Acquires Iconic Tommy Boy Music, Groundbreaking Hip-Hop Label, for $100 Million” at Variety.

• Read “De La Soul's Catalogue Could Be Coming To Streaming Services” at Clash Music.

Read “Home Is Where My Record Collection Is” at Apartment Therapy.

Read “Sinead O'Connor Says She Is Retiring From Music” at Clash Music.

Read “Kid Rock Screams Homophobic Slur During Performance at Tennessee Bar” at Consequence.

Read “Foo Fighters to Play Madison Square Garden’s First Full-Capacity Show Since Start of the Pandemic” at Pitchfork.

Read “Moby on Making ‘Reprise’ and ‘Moby Doc,’ His Rise to Fame, and Living Sober” at Ozy.

Read “Dreamers Wait No Longer—An Expanded Crowded House Returns After A Decade Away” at American Songwriter.

• Read “Neil Finn On Working With His Sons On New Crowded House Album, Canada Memories & Future Of Fleetwood Mac” at ET Canada.

Browse Stereogum’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums Of 2021 So Far.”

Read “Danny Elfman Is Here to Remind Listeners "It's Always Been About Politics"“ at Exclaim.

Read “East Meets West In Anoushka Shankar's Latest Album” at NPR.

Browse “The Strange World Of… Don Cherry” at The Quietus.

Read “Jimmy Eat World’s Zach Lind: Suns are special in ‘The Middle’ of playoff ride” at KTAR.

Read “YouTube Is Poised to Overtake Spotify as Music’s Biggest Bankroller” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Dancing With The Noise: A Conversation with Ben Chasny” at Record Crates United.

Read “The Enduring Appeal of Italian Composers’ Dramatic ‘Library Music’” at New York Times.

Read “Uncovering the Rich History of Spanish Experimental Music” at Bandcamp.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Enjoy these surreal "One Minute Movies" by The Residents” at Boing Boing.

Read “Carole Baskin to “bring bad guys to justice” in new ITV show” at NME.

Read “Cowboy Bebop Composer Yoko Kanno Returns to Score Netflix’s Live-Action Series” at Consequence.

Read ‘Elizabeth Olsen was “frustrated” watching her ‘WandaVision’ performance” at NME. "I can see my 10-year-old theatre-kid self playing out to the audience.”

Read “Anthony Bourdain Didn’t Just Travel the World, He Let It Speak for Itself” at Variety.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Those times the US military hoaxed the public about extraterrestrial contact” at Boing Boing.

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 (05/07/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (05/07/21.

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Nathan Jung, 'Star Trek' and 'The A-Team' Actor, Dead at 74” at Pop Culture.

Read “Paul Oscher, Blues Musician in Muddy Waters’s Band, Dies at 74” at New York Times.

Read “RIP: Bassist Tony Markellis” at Relix.

Read ‘Ed Ward, Rock Historian and Early ‘Rolling Stone’ Editor, Dead at 72” at Rolling Stone.

Religion and Stuff:

 Read “Ravi Zacharias’s Ministry Investigates Claims of Sexual Misconduct at Spas” at Christianity Today.

Read “Faith, Freedom, Fear: Rural America’s Covid Vaccine Skeptics” at New York Times.

Read “Faith, Freedom, Fear: Rural America’s Covid Vaccine Skeptics” at New York Times.

Read “How Eric Metaxas went from Trump despiser to true believer” at Religion News Service. “How a onetime aspiring public intellectual and Trump doubter turned into a true believer in stolen elections.”

Read “The evangelical sexual abuse crisis is the spiritual warfare of our time” by Karen Swallow Prior at Religion News Service.

Read “John Piper: Ravi Zacharias turned 'position of power' into 'neediness and woundedness'“ at Christian Post.

Read “Study: Trauma-Informed Bible Reading Reduces Depression, Anxiety, Anger” at Christianity Today.

Browse the list of “Ministries With an “F” Transparency Grade” at Ministry Watch.

Read ‘As COVID-19 swamps India, decision to allow Kumbh Mela’s crowds is scrutinized” at Religion News Service.

Read “Canadian Pastor Calls Lockdowns “Greatest Threat” to Health in First Day of Trial” at Roys Report.

Read “Inside The Evangelical Beliefs and Practices That Facilitate Abuse In Families Like The Duggars’ at Religion Dispatches.

Read “‘She didn’t deserve to die the way she did,’ says family of cult leader found dead and mummified” at Washington Post.

Read “Russell Moore had a crisis of faith, but it didn’t help him understand ex-evangelicals” at Flux.Community.

Read “LifeSiteNews removed from Facebook for violating COVID-19 misinformation policies” at Religion News Service.

Read “The Lament of the Christian Disney Dad: What Evangelicals Really Hate About ‘Wokeness’ at Disney World’” at Religion Dispatches.

Read “Remembering Marva Dawn, a Saint of Modern Worship” at Christianity Today.

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

Read “Tests from 1993 killing reveal another man's DNA other than executed Arkansas inmate” at KATV.

Read “Five people charged after authorities find 97 migrants in Houston home” at The Hill.

Read “Derek Chauvin files motion for new trial in George Floyd case, alleging jury misconduct” at NBC News. “Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, filed the request alleging that the former officer's ability to have a fair trial was affected by pretrial publicity.”

Read “This Board Game Uses Vampires To Fight Anti-Asian Racism” at Huff Post.

Read “Lawyer for separated migrant families 'hopeful' they will soon be reunified, allowed to stay in U.S.” at NBC News.

Read “Josh Duggar Charged On 2 Federal Child Pornography Counts; Pleads “Not Guilty,” Requests Bail” at Deadline.

• Read “Josh Duggar Hearing: Homeland Security Agent Details Timeline of Child Porn Case” at People.

• Read “Josh Duggar allowed out of jail while awaiting trial on child porn charges” at Northwest Gazette.
  
  

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

Read “New "weapons of mass destruction" charges filed against accused Whitmer kidnap plotters” at Salon.

Read “Canadian chapter of the Proud Boys, designated a terrorist group by the government, says it has ‘dissolved’” at Washington Post.

Read ‘White Nationalism Is Far Worse Than a 'Disease'“ at Wired. “Most analogies for racism as a pathology oversimplify its blight. Better diagnosing it means knowing how to treat it.”

Read ‘Former Neo-Nazi Terror Leader Gets Three-Year Prison Term” at Vice.

Read “Wisconsin National Guard member charged in Capitol riot” at The Hill.

Read “FBI still after 'worst of the worst' in Capitol riot as new arrests come at steady pace” at NBC News.

Read “Lawyer blames 'Foxitis' for his US Capitol riot client's actions, as another defendant derails hearings with profane outbursts” at CNN.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Federal judge finds that Columbus police ran 'amok' during peaceful protests, restricts uses of force” at NBC News.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Georgia deputy said that beating Black man was 'sweet stress relief,' feds say” at The Hill.

Read “Watch: South Carolina cop harasses a man for being "suspicious" (as in Black)” at Boing Boing.

Read ‘How activists fought Joe Arpaio’s immigration roundups” at High Country News.

Read “Officers no longer at jobs after video showed them laughing at violent arrest of elderly woman” at The Hill.

Read “Recording the Police: What to Know, and How to Stay Safe Doing It” at KQED.

Read “Man killed himself after LAPD officer fired Taser during foot pursuit, officials say” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Atlanta police officer fired after fatally shooting Rayshard Brooks has been reinstated” at ABC News.

Read “Kansas City officials seek to end jaywalking penalties noting racial disparity in citations” at The Hill.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “College Coach Arrested, Accused of Tricking Student-Athletes Into Sending Nude Photos” at Pop Culture.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “The U.S. never had a shot at herd immunity” at Salon. “Hostility to scientific expertise plus rejection of the concept of the common good led to anti-vaxx conservatism.”

Read “Actor Arrested for Ignoring COVID-19 Protocols to Film Movie” at Pop Culture.

Read “Less than half of NYPD cops have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine” at New York Post.

Read “PPP is out of money for most businesses ahead of planned May 31 closure” at AZ Family.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “US Space Force scientist says military ‘human augmentation’ is necessary in next decade” at Metro.

Read “NPR Turns 50! Its Hosts and Stars Share Their Favorite NPR Moments, Memories and Near-Disasters” at People.

Read “German Gymnasts Cover Their Legs In Stand Against Sexualization” at NPR.

Read “Bill and Melinda Gates announce they are getting divorced” at Associated Press.

Read “‘MDMA cured my alcoholism’: Inside the remarkable ecstasy trial offering an escape from trauma” at The Telegraph.

Read “Verizon sells AOL, Yahoo for $5B” at The Hill.

Read “The FBI is breaking into corporate computers to remove malicious code” at Salon.

Read “Trump hypes new "communications platform": It's a blog — run with Big Tech's help” at Salon.

Read “Account tweeting Trump statements suspended by Twitter” at The HIll.

Read “How Video Games Are Saving Those Who Served” at Wired.

Internationalities:

Read “Mexico City rail overpass collapses onto road, killing at least 23” at Reuters.

Read “Belgian farmer moves border with France by mistake” at AZ Family.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Mitt Romney booed at raucous Utah GOP convention as speakers attack the Biden agenda” at Salt Lake Tribune.

Read “Mitch McConnell: 1619, American slavery starting point, not an important date in history” at Louisville Courier-Journal.

Read ‘DOJ slow to resolve Trump-era legal battles” at The Hill.

Read “Biden Raises Refugee Admissions Cap to 62,500” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “TheHill.com Bush: If Republican Party stands for 'white Anglo-Saxon Protestantism, then it's not going to win anything'“ at The Hill.

Read “The first 100 days can define a president. Here’s how the internet saw Biden and Trump” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Cheney hits 'Trump cult of personality,' says she'll keep speaking out” at The Hill.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Iowa governor signs law allowing landlords to refuse Section 8 vouchers” at The Hill.

Read “Former FBI director represented Russian firm at center of major money-laundering probe” at Business Insider.

Read “Judge orders release of Trump obstruction memo, accuses Barr of deception” at The Hill.

Read “'Do it right or don't do it': Arizona's top elections officer warns of serious problems with ballot recount” at 12 News.

Read “Former Ukrainian prosecutor says he was fired for not investigating Hunter Biden” at The Hill.

Read “Despite GOP rhetoric, there have been fewer than two dozen charged cases of voter fraud since the election” at Washington Post.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read ‘Marilyn Manson Sued for Sexual Assault, Sex Trafficking by ‘Game of Thrones’ Actress Esmé Bianco” at Rolling Stones.

Read “Ex-Cannibal Corpse Guitarist Pat O’Brien Finally Sentenced for Bizarre Headline-Making Incident” at Consequence of Sound. “The metal musician's case involved assault, burglary, a house fire, 80 firearms, and three skulls.”

Read “Young The Giant’s Sameer Gadhia: Rock Music Must Unearth Its Diverse Roots” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Esme Bianco Sues Marilyn Manson for Sexual Assault” at Consequence of Sound. “The Game of Thrones actress also accuses the disgraced rocker of assault and human trafficking.”

Read “Catholic Group Calls for Shutdown of Influential College Radio Station WSOU over “Satanic” Music” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “The Story of the Rolling Stones: A Selection of Documentaries on the Quintessential Rock-and-Roll Band” at Open Culture.

Read “Lucinda Williams Is Recovering From a Stroke” at Consequence.

Listen “to Phife Dawg’s New Posthumous Song “French Kiss Deux” at Pitchfork.

Read “José González Announces Tour With Rufus Wainwright, Shares New “Visions” Video” at Pitchfork.

Read “Over 180 Musicians Protest Spotify’s Speech Monitoring Patent in Open Letter” at Pitchfork.

Read “Bad Brains :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “NOFX’s Fat Mike gives a presentation on NFTs–and it’s really good!” at A Journal Of Musical Things.

Browse “10 Unbelievable Performances by Saxophone Virtuoso Rahsaan Roland Kirk” at In Sheep’s Clothing Hi Fi.

Read “Digging in the Mags: Hi-fidelity Illustrations from the 1970s” at In Sheep’s Clothing Hi Fi.

Read “Bruce Springsteen Receives 2021 Woody Guthrie Prize” at Consequence.

Read “Tokyo Flashback: An essential guide to Japanese label PSF Records” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “Los Lobos Detail New Covers Album ‘Native Sons’ & Share Singles” at JamBase.

Read “Willow Smith Reunites and Fronts Mom Jada Pinkett Smith’s Metal Band Wicked Wisdom for Mother’s Day Surprise: Watch” at Consequence.

Read “Sons of Kemet’s Journey of the World of the Artist” at Treble.

Read “Live Nation Weathers Rough Quarter as Concert Business Slowly Rumbles Back to Life” at Variety.

Read “UK vinyl sales surpassed 1 million units in early 2021” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “You Can Buy Six Strands of Kurt Cobain’s Hair at a Music Auction If You’re Into That Sort of Thing” at Spin.

Read “J Mascis :: Transmissions” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “Red Hot Chili Peppers Sell Publishing Rights to Song Catalog for $140 million” at Jambands.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “The Strange Bipartisan Appeal of Ted Lasso” at Politico. “It's an apolitical show. So why do politicians keep talking about it?”

Read “Fox Staffers Hate Tucker Carlson But They Say He’ll Never Be Fired” at Politics USA.

Read “What’s A Wrinkle in Time Doing in Ted Lasso?” at Madeleine L’Engle.

Read “You Won’t Live to See the Final Star Wars Movie” at Wired.

Read “George A. Romero’s final zombie film is being finished by his widow” at NME.

Read “Inside Netflix’s Quest to End Scrolling” at Vulture.

Read “New Stranger Things 4 Teaser Reminds Us Eleven Is Not Alone” at Consequence.

Read “‘Tiger King’ Subject Jeff Lowe Reveals Federal Authorities Are Seizing Animals at Joe Exotic’s Former Zoo” at Pop Culture.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “The Pentagon Inspector General Is Investigating the Military's UFO Program” at Vice.

The Weekly Town Crier (04/23/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (04/23/21).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “R.I.P. Felix Silla, Actor Who Played Cousin Itt on The Addams Family Dead at 84” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “World reacts to death of Chad President Idriss Deby” at Al Jazeera.

Read ‘Ole Anthony, longtime critic of prosperity gospel televangelists and head of Trinity Foundation, dies at 82” at Religion News Service.

Read “Walter Mondale, former US vice-president and celebrated liberal, dies aged 93” at The Guardian.

Read “Jim Steinman, bombastic hitmaker for Meat Loaf and Celine Dion, dies at 73” at Los Angeles Times.

Read ‘Bay City Rollers frontman Les McKeown, dead at 65” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Rapper Shock G Of Digital Underground Dies at 57” at WBLS.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Liberty University Sues Jerry Falwell Jr. for $10 Million” at New York Times. “he lawsuit claims that Mr. Falwell, the university’s former president, withheld scandalous and potentially damaging information.”

• Read “Apparently Jerry Falwell Jr.’s pool boy has a “cache of compromising photos” he’s willing to leak” at Queerty.

Read “The Greatest Christian Novel” at First Things.

Read “Meet Mercy Haub: The 16-year-old cancer survivor and preacher’s kid who inspired Ellen” at Religion News Service.

Read “Biden reverses course on refugee cap after faith groups express outrage” at Religion News Service.

Read “America Without God” at The Atlantic. “As religious faith has declined, ideological intensity has risen. Will the quest for redemption through politics doom the American idea?”

Read “D.C. Pastor Used $3.5 Million in Fraudulent PPP Loans to Buy Himself a Tesla, FBI Says” at Daily Beast.

Read “Dostoyevsky, Just After His Death Sentence Was Repealed, on the Meaning of Life” at Brain Pickings.

Read “Religious unaffiliation is growing in the US. Why isn’t it in Congress?” at Religion News Service.

Read “Sex discrimination suit against Florida church tests ‘ministerial exception’ rulings” at Religion News Service. “A woman’s lawsuit alleging gender discrimination may reconcile unanswered questions about the so-called ministerial exception.”

Read “The Splintering of the Evangelical Soul” at Christianity Today. “Why we’re coming apart, and how we might come together again.”

Read “Why Defining Gossip Matters in the Church’s Response to Abuse” at Christianity Today.

Read “Christian peacemaking and the role of forgiveness” at Christian Century. “Seeking justice is critical. Is it enough?”

Read “General Baptist pastor who criticized wives’ weight ‘deeply sorry’ for sermon” at Religion News Service. “‘In the sermon, I made insensitive remarks about women and made statements deemed unbiblical,’ said Pastor Stewart-Allen Clark in a statement.”

Read “Margie Zacharias Breaks Silence, Defends Ravi” at Roys Report.

Read “White Evangelical Racism: An Interview with Anthea Butler” at Religion and Politics.

Read “Remembering Prince: A Pop Music Priest in a Secular World” at Christianity Today.

Read “Religious Identities and the Race Against the Virus: Engaging Faith Communities on COVID-19 Vaccination” at PRRI.

Read “AI unlocks ancient Dead Sea Scrolls mystery” at BBC.

Read “Algerian scholar gets three years in jail for ‘offending Islam’” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Amy Coney Barrett was a “paid speaker 5 times, starting in 2011, at the Blackstone Legal Fellowship, a summer program established to inspire a ‘distinctly Christian worldview in every area of law...’ at Washington Post.

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

Read “Officer in George Floyd case found guilty of murder” at NME.

• Read “Chauvin being held in solitary confinement for his own safety” at The Hill.

Read “Maybe America Is Racist” at The Root.

Read “Justice Dept. sues Trump ally Roger Stone for unpaid taxes” at The Hill.

Read “Ethics committee finds probable cause in sexual misconduct allegation against Idaho lawmaker” at The Hill.

Read “Freedom Caucus member condemns GOP group pushing 'Anglo-Saxon political traditions'“ at The Hill.

Read “Florida woman charged for allegedly threatening to kill Kamala Harris” at AZ Family.

Read “13 investigations, no court-martials: Here's how the US Navy and Marine Corps quietly discharged white supremacists” at Yahoo.

Read the opinion piece “GOP's new 'America First Caucus' follows in some blatantly white nationalist footsteps” at MSNBC. “The ‘America First Caucus’ continues the country’s long history of white nationalism.”

Read “Mass Shooting In Austin Leaves At Least Three Dead” at News and Guts.

Read “Most Americans want to end lifetime Supreme Court appointments for justices” at NBC News.

Read “A National Policy Blueprint To End White Supremacist Violence” at Center For American Progress.

Read “Indiana's Red Flag Law Was Designed To Prevent Mass Shootings Like The FedEx Facility Rampage. Prosecutors Never Tried To Use It” at Buzzfeed News.

Read “Virginia governor signs bill legalizing marijuana possession” at The Hill.

Read “Ben Carson defends op-ed arguing racial equity is 'another kind of racism'“ at The Hill.

Read “I’m Actually Glad Nancy Pelosi Thanked George Floyd for “Sacrificing” Himself” at Slate.

Read “Governments That Are Occupying Land Are Criminalizing Indigenous Peoples for Occupying Land” at Vice.

Read “Florida Supreme Court rules against effort to legalize recreational marijuana” at The Hill.

Read “US Supreme Court rejects limits on life sentences for juveniles” at The HIll.

• Read “Brett Kavanaugh Rules Children Deserve Life In Prison With No Chance of Parole” at Vanity Fair. “Kavanaugh, who said it was absurd to judge him based on who he was in high school, thinks children convicted of crimes should die in prison.”

• Read “Sotomayor blasts Kavanaugh's decision on juvenile life sentences” at The Hill.

Read “State Foster Care Agencies Take Millions Of Dollars Owed To Children In Their Care” at NPR.

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

Read “Heavy metal guitarist with ties to Oath Keepers is first US Capitol rioter to plead guilty” at CNN.

Read “The Radicalization of Kevin Greeson” at Pro Publica. “How one man went from attending President Barack Obama’s inauguration to dying in the mob protesting Donald Trump’s election loss during the Capitol insurrection.”

Watch “American Insurrection” at PBS Frontline. “Over the last three years, FRONTLINE has collaborated with ProPublica to investigate the rise of extremism in America. In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, FRONTLINE, ProPublica and Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program team up to examine how far-right extremist groups have evolved in the wake of the deadly 2017 Charlottesville rally — and the threat they pose today.”

Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls Off America First Caucus Following Backlash” at Forbes.

Read “Oath Keepers: How a militia group mobilized in plain sight for the assault on the Capitol” at 60 Minutes.

Read “The Hybridity of Rural Fascism” at Society for Cultural Anthropology. “The community praised patriarchy as God-ordained, employing apocalyptic language to decry what they saw as the Marxist LGBTQ+ agenda disrupting traditional Christian family values in America.”

Read “Capitol Police officer allegedly told units to only monitor for 'anti-Trump' protesters on Jan. 6” at The Hill.

Read “Jan. 6 commission must focus only on insurrection” at The HIll.

Read “17 Requests for Backup in 78 Minutes” at Washington Post.

Read “Kevin McCarthy Says Capitol Riot Commission Should Look At Unrelated Riots’ at Huff Post. “The top House Republican doesn’t want too much focus on that time Donald Trump and his supporters tried to overturn the 2020 election.”

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “How the G.O.P. Is Creating Harsher Penalties for Protesters” at New York Times.

Read ‘GOP Lawmakers in Iowa and Oklahoma Pass Anti-Protest Bills” at Democracy Now.

This Week With The Police:

Read “US police and public officials donated to Kyle Rittenhouse, data breach reveals” at The Guardian. “That donation also carried a comment, reading: ‘God bless. Thank you for your courage. Keep your head up. You’ve done nothing wrong.’” “Officers and officials also donated to fundraisers for far-right activists and fellow officers accused of shooting black Americans.”

• Read “The Fraternal Order of White Supremacy” at North Star. “Murderer Kyle Rittenhouse is being financially supported by various law enforcement agencies. It's the latest in several cases in which systemic racism protects boots-on-the-grounds supremacists.”

Read “A pair of 'pro-police' GOP bills in Missouri draw scrutiny from free speech advocates” at Yahoo.

Read “Detroit police restrained man and beat him for 2 minutes after he tried to help protesters, lawsuit claims” at Yahoo.

Read “Colorado police accused of injuring elderly woman with dementia during arrest” at NBC News.

Read “Man accused of throwing bleach in NYPD officer's face, hurling Molotov cocktail at others” at The Hill.

Read “Louisville officer punches protester during arrest” at Chron.

Read “Fear and Paranoia in American Policing” at Slate. “Everything around police officers tells them that they should be scared.”

Read “No convictions for St Louis officers who beat Black undercover colleague at protest” at Guardian. “Officer Luther Hall, who was recording criminal activity during protests, required multiple surgeries after the attack.”

Read “Chris Cuomo: Police reform won't happen until 'white people's kids start getting killed'“ at The Hill.

Read “Florida Sheriff Tells People Moving to State Not to 'Vote the Stupid Way You Did Up North'“ at Newsweek.

Read “‘Defund the Police’ Actually Means Defunding the Police” at Vice.

Read “The police officer who fatally shot 13-year-old Adam Toledo was listed as a victim on an incident report. One law-enforcement expert said it's 'an old cop trick meant to muddy the murky waters.'“ at Yahoo.

Read “'I'm also a police officer': Arizona deputy uses racial slur, pleads for release after being pulled over for DUI” at Yahoo.

Read “Bravery of witnesses made the difference in Chauvin trial” at MSNBC.

• Read “Police across U.S. respond to Derek Chauvin trial: 'Our American way of policing is on trial'“ at NBC News. “While some officers see the trial as an example of a rogue officer being held accountable, others see it as a sign that the country has turned against them.”

Read “Columbus Police release body cam footage of officer shooting, killing girl, 16” at NBCi.

• Read “Columbus cop shouts "blue lives matter" at the scene of deadly police shooting of Ohio teen” at Salon.

Read “Cops Killed a Black Man in North Carolina. Protesters Are Demanding Answers” at Vice.

Read “One of America's most popular police trainers is teaching officers how to kill” at Insider. (NOTE: Article from 2020 but highly relevant today).

Read “Most officers never fire their guns. But some kill multiple people — and are still on the job” at NBC News. “In Seattle, one officer's multiple deadly encounters offer a window into this little understood corner of American policing.”

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Arizona Supreme Court hears case about legality of education tax” at KTAR. “Reformist initiatives like '8 Can't Wait' have already failed. Here's what you need to know about defunding and abolishing the police.”

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “The Grief Crisis Is Coming” at New York Times.

Read “A Vaccine Is Not a Personality” at Slate. “The memes and merch inspired by Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson are not helping the fight against COVID.”

Read “Pfizer Says COVID-19 Booster Vaccines Likely Needed Within a Year” at Democracy Now.

Read ‘India Reports Record 217,000 New Cases as Millions Gather for World’s Largest Pilgrimage” at Democracy Now.

Read “Coronavirus: 'Double mutant' Covid variant found in India” at BBC.

Read “Proud Boy charged in Capitol riot gets coronavirus while jailed” at The Hill.

Read “3 million COVID-19 deaths recorded around the world” at ABC News.

Read “The Pandemic Proved That Our Toilets Are Crap” at Wired.

Read “Has outdoor masking turned into 'meaningless political theater'?” at The Week.

Read “More Than Half Of U.S. Adults Have Gotten At Least One COVID-19 Vaccine Dose” at NPR.

Read “Ted Nugent tests positive for COVID-19 after claiming outbreak is 'not a real pandemic'“ at ABC 15.

Read “New Data Shows How Much COVID-19 Has Disrupted Life For The Youngest Americans” at Huff Post.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Apple reinstates Parler app, stands by initial ban” at NBC News.

Read “‘No One Was Driving’ Tesla in Crash That Killed Two People, Police Say” at Vice.

Read “The United States of Weed” at Rolling Stone. “Curious about the status of cannabis? Here’s where legalization stands, state by state.”

Read “Gretchen Carlson Says the 'Pain' of Being Body Shamed 'Stays with You for Life'“ at People.

Read “What Is Triller Fight Club, Snoop Dogg's Weird Celebrity Boxing League?” at Vice.

Read “Mike Lindell's new social platform crashes — and MyPillow guy didn't even notice” at Salon.

Read “Company Behind Krysten Sinema’s F*** Off’ Ring To Donate All Proceeds To Fight For Increased Minimum Wage” at Independent.

Read “Influencer Boxing Is the Circus-Sport America Deserves” at Vice.

Read “Right-Wing Trend of Buying or Not Buying Things to Own the Libs Reaches Nadir With Accidental Boycott of Semen” at Slate.

Internationalities:

Read “Raul Castro to Stand Down as Head of Cuba’s Communist Party” at Bloomberg.

Read ‘China posts record economic growth after plunge 12 months ago” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Harvard’s Digital Giza Project Lets You Access the Largest Online Archive on the Egyptian Pyramids (Including a 3D Giza Tour)” at Open Culture.

Read “At least 97 injured in Egypt as train derails” at CNN.

Read “Afghans who fled to Turkey are worried — and hopeful — about the prospect of peace at home” at The World.

Read “Biden Preparing to Declare That Atrocities Against Armenia Were Genocide” at New York Times.

Read “UK Parliament declares China's treatment of Uighurs a genocide” at The Hill.

Read “The Thrilling Collapse of the European Super League” at Slate.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Greta Thunberg will testify in Congress on Earth Day” at The Hill.

Read “GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene were the only 'no' votes on a bill reauthorizing the National Marrow Donor Program” at Business Insider.

Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert Invent Reasons to Vote Against Bone Marrow Bill” at Daily Beast.

Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls Off America First Caucus Following Backlash” at Forbes.

Read “Kinzinger Says GOPers Who Join Nativist Caucus Should Be Stripped Of Committees” at Talking Points Memo.

Read “House rejects GOP resolution to censure Waters” at The Hill.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “How Josh Hawley and Marjorie Taylor Greene Juiced Their Fundraising Numbers” at Pro Publica.

Read “The Postal Service is running a 'covert operations program' that monitors Americans' social media posts” at Yahoo.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “The world’s biggest music companies are scrambling to sign African artists” at Quartz Africa.

Read “Sun Ra’s musical poetry — and how it began in Chicago — captured in new gallery exhibit” at Chicago Tribune.

Read “Apple Music, in Contrast With Rival Spotify, Says It Pays a Penny-Per-Stream Average” at Pitchfork.

Read “This Youtube Channel Has Been Uploading J Dilla Rarities for Months” at Okay Player.

Read “Gillian Welch Talks Tom Jones, John Prine and John Steinbeck” at Relix.

Read “Van Morrison Confirms First-Ever Livestream Special” at Jambase.

Read “Man 'stalking' Taylor Swift arrested in New York” at BBC.

Read “Mt. Westmore (Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, E-40, Too $hort) Deliver Debut Performance at Triller Fight Club” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Star Songwriter Ali Tamposi Sells Catalog to New Female-Focused Music Fund” at Rolling Stone.

Read “The Mountain Goats Announce New Album Dark in Here, Share New Song “Mobile'“ at Pitchfork.

Read “Ryley Walker – ‘Course In Fable’” at Ears to Feed.

Read “Morrissey Says He’d Sue The Simpsons for Slander, But “It Requires More Funding Than I Could Possibly Muster” at Consequence of Sound. “I've had enough horror thrown at me that would kill off a herd of bison"

• Read “The Simpsons Releases Morrissey Episode Music Video” at Den of Geek.

Read “South by Southwest Stake Is Sold to Owner of Rolling Stone in Effort to Keep Festival Alive” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Frank “Poncho” Sampedro :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “Kurt Vile Signs With Legendary Jazz Label Verve Records” at Pitchfork.

Read “Igloo Launches Beatles Yellow Submarine-Inspired Collection of Coolers” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Don Cherry on creativity and “the mysticism of sound” at Vinyl Factory.

Read the story behind “Here Comes The Flood, by Robert Fripp and Peter Gabriel” at Music Afficianado.

Read “Louis Armstrong Plays Trumpet at the Egyptian Pyramids; Dizzy Gillespie Charms a Snake in Pakistan” at Open Culture. “During the Cold War, the United States made the case for the American way of life by sending its best ambassadors abroad — jazz musicians.”

Read “Eric Andre Says He Was Racially Profiled at Atlanta Airport” at Pitchfork.

Read “Chvrches share powerful video for new single ‘He Said She Said’” at NME.

Read “The Best and Most Misunderstood of Green Day, According to Billie Joe Armstrong” at Vulture.

Read “Yo La Tengo’s ‘I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One’ Set A Benchmark In Indie Rock” at Treble.

Read “Cardi B snaps back after GOP congressman blames her for “the moral decline of America" at Salon.

Read “I Get Around: The Oral History of 2Pac’s Digital Underground Years” at Rolling Stone.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Sharon Osbourne gives Bill Maher first interview since leaving 'The Talk': 'I’m angry. I’m hurt.'“ at USA Today.

Read “‘Community’ Star Yvette Nicole Brown Says Reunion Movie ‘Is Coming’” at Variety.

Read “The MCU's Relationship With the Military, From Iron Man to Captain Marvel” at CBR.

Read “Tom Hopper Gives an Update on ‘The Umbrella Academy’ Season 3 Filming: “We've Got a Long Way to Go” at Collider.

Read “You may have to actually pay for Apple TV Plus to watch Ted Lasso’s second season” at The Verge.

Read “LeVar Burton Will Fly Twice As High As Jeopardy!’s Next Guest Host” at Vulture.

Read ‘Disney to Get Online, TV Access to Sony Films After Netflix” at Bloomberg.

Read “Major Update on 'Stranger Things' Season 4 Premiere Date” at Pop Culture.

Read ‘The CW Released The First Official Photo From The Live-Action "Powerpuff Girls" After Their Costumes Caused Controversy” at Buzzfeed News. “The cartoon-accurate dresses are nowhere in sight.”

Read “Jonah Hill was going to star in ‘Transformers’ but Seth Rogen made him turn it down” at NME.

Books/Reading/Authors

Browse “The Golden Guide to Hallucinogenic Plants: Discover the 1977 Illustrated Guide Created by Harvard’s Groundbreaking Ethnobotanist Richard Evan Schultes” at Open Culture.

Read “A Beautiful 1897 Illustrated Book Shows How Flowers Become Art Nouveau Designs” at Open Culture.

Read “Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s place in San Francisco literary history” at Datebook.

Read “The Faulty Lines in Voddie Baucham’s “Thought Line” at Bradley Mason.

Read “Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language” at Open Culture.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Pentagon confirms legitimacy of Navy pilot's unidentified aerial phenomena video” at The Hill.

Read “NASA selects SpaceX to land first woman, next man on Moon” at 12 News.

Read “How America’s most endangered cat could help save Florida” at National Geographic.

Read “A Song of Spider Silk” at The Scientist. “Scientists from MIT reveal the hidden music in spiderwebs.”

Read “Mars Perseverance rover successfully inhaled carbon dioxide and exhaled oxygen” at Boing Boing.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Why a Vancouver Cemetery Is Planting Squash, Kale, and Corn” at Gastro Obscura.

Read “What about those flying pyramids?” at Mystery Wire. “Former Pentagon UFO investigator responds to questions about leaked images.”

Local:

Read “Governor signs tribal gaming compact, legalizes sports gambling in Arizona” at Cronkite News.

Read “SanTan Brewing closes its Phoenix taproom and restaurant” at ABC 15.

Read “Supporters Of Changes To AZ Voting Laws Pushing To Move Them Forward” at KJZZ.

Read ‘Ducey to station troops on the border” at AZ Capitol Times.

Read “Arizona Is Rolling Back Voting Rights, and Kyrsten Sinema Is Refusing to Stop It” at Mother Jones.

Read “Arizona governor vetoes strict sex education legislation” at NBC News.

The Weekly Town Crier (04/09/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (04/09/21).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “War Bassist B.B. Dickerson Has Died at 71” at Pitchfork.

Read “Küng, original celebrity theologian and liberal muse, dead at 93” at Crux.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “At second Easter under pandemic rules, Christians glimpse church’s future” at Religion News Service. 

Read “Beth Moore left the SBC after the SBC left women to fend for themselves” at Religion News Service.

• Read “Beth Moore apologizes for her role in elevating ‘complementarian’ theology that limits women leaders” at Religion News Service. “In an email to Religion News Service, Moore didn’t go quite so far as to say she has entirely abandoned complementarianism. But she no longer sees it as essential.”

Read “White Evangelical Resistance Is Obstacle in Vaccination Effort” at New York Times. “Millions of white evangelical adults in the U.S. do not intend to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Tenets of faith and mistrust of science play a role; so does politics.”

Read “Saudi Arabia to Reopen Mecca Holy Site to “Immunized” Pilgrims” at Democracy Now.

Consider “10 Reasons Why Men Should Not be Ordained for Ministry” with Eugene Cho.

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

Read “Is the evangelical view of sex at the root of our sex scandals?” at Religion News Service. “It was not celebrity culture that taught Ravi Zacharias, Carl Lentz and countless other pastors to objectify women. Our evangelical culture primed them for it.”

Read “White Evangelical Racism Has Always Been a Political Power Grab” at Medium. “Anthea Butler explains how racism has been essential to growing the power of white evangelical Christians.”

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

Read “A spokesman for Matt Gaetz quits, as the Justice Dept. investigates whether his boss violated sex trafficking laws” at New York Times.

Read “Georgia Law Could Seal Trump's and Rudy's Fate in Election Interference Investigation” at Second Nexus.

Read “Elderly Asian woman stabbed in California while walking dogs” at The Hill.

Read “The myth about smart black kids and “acting white” that won’t die” at Vox. “Nerds come in all colors.”

Read “Virginia Latest to Strike ‘Trans Panic’ Defense of Violent Crime” at Bloomberg Law.

Read “Amazon Admits Drivers Sometimes Have to Pee in Bottles While on the Job” at Slate.

Read “Justices dismiss suit over Trump's blocking of critics on Twitter” at The Hill.

Read “Supreme Court nixes Alex Jones' appeal in Newtown shooting case” at NBC News. “Jones was fighting a Connecticut court sanction in a defamation lawsuit brought by relatives of some of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.”

Read “Utah Will Require Fathers to Help With Pregnancy Bills” at New York Times.

Read “Biden to unveil long-awaited executive action on guns” at Politico.

Read “NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre Faces Grilling During Highly Anticipated Bankruptcy Trial Testimony” at Law and Crime.

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

Read “Fears of White People Losing Out Permeate Capitol Rioters’ Towns, Study Finds” at New York Times.

This Week With The Police:

Read “U.S. Capitol locked down after a vehicle plows into officers, police say” at Yahoo.

• Read “Officer dead after suspect rammed car into police at US Capitol barricade” at Yahoo.

Read “Video Of Chicago Police Killing 13-Year-Old Adam Toledo Will Be Released, Agency Says After Public Pressure” at Book Club Chicago.

Read “DA wants to dismiss 90 convictions tied to ex-NYPD detective accused of perjury” at NBC News.

Read “NYPD ‘Goon Squad’ Manual Teaches Officers To Violate Protesters’ Rights” at The Intercept.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Tennessee lawmaker proposes bill to ban LGBTQ history and issues from state curriculum” at UT Daily Beacon.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “White Evangelical Resistance Is Obstacle in Vaccination Effort” at New York Times. “Millions of white evangelical adults in the U.S. do not intend to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Tenets of faith and mistrust of science play a role; so does politics.”

Read “Montana Governor Who Rescinded Mask Mandate Now Has COVID” at Daily Beast.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “The Cause of Tiger Woods’ Car Wreck Is No Longer a Mystery” at Yahoo.

Read “Amazon apologizes for tweet denying some workers urinate in bottles” at The Hill.

Read “How Adults with ADHD Can "Manufacture" Motivation” at Psychology Today.

Read “California man sues after father dies during taco eating contest” at The Hill.

Read “Pageant winner has title revoked for twerking” at The Hill.

Read “Pfizer CEO says Trump told him vaccine 'will help me' with election” at The Hill.

Internationalities:

Read “MLB signs deal with China's largest tech company” at CNN.

Read “New Zealand raises minimum wage to $20 an hour” at Independent.

Read “Flash floods in Indonesia and Timor Leste kill more than 50” at BBC.

Read “Unrest in Northern Ireland: 27 police officers injured as riots occur in Belfast and Derry” at Independent.ie

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Stimulus checks and COVID optimism raise Biden's approval rating to highest level yet” at Yahoo.

Read “Laura Ingraham Warns Corporations of 'Wrath of GOP' Over Georgia Voting Law” at Newsweek.

Read “Democrats Look at Lowering Medicare Eligibility Age in Healthcare Package” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “MLB Moves All-Star Game from Atlanta to Protest Georgia Voter Suppression Law” at Democracy Now.

• Read “Georgia Governor Criticizes MLB For Buying Into Liberal 'Lies' About New Election Law” at NPR. “Major League Baseball announced it would pull this year's All-Star Game and its draft out of Atlanta after Georgia revamped its voting rules. Gov. Brian Kemp says it's an example of "cancel culture."

Read “Arkansas Governor Vetoes Ban On Gender-Affirming Care For Trans Youth” at NPR.

Read “Republicans rediscover their concern for the national debt” at Washington Post.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “How Trump Steered Supporters Into Unwitting Donations” at New York Times. “Online donors were guided into weekly recurring contributions. Demands for refunds spiked.”

Read “Trump May Be Gone, but His Biggest Scam Is Still With Us” at Slate.”There’s a frustrating connection between the Derek Chauvin defense and the Matt Gaetz scandal.”

• Read “NYT: Matt Gaetz said to have sought blanket pardon” at MSNBC.

• Read “Matt Gaetz Spent 4 Years Sucking Up to Trump — and Trump Just Abandoned Him” at Vice.

• Read “Congressman Matt Gaetz to speak at conservative women's summit amid federal investigation into sex trafficking allegations” at CBS News.

Read “Republicans trumpet elements of Covid-19 relief bill they voted against” at NBC News.

Read “Former Trump HUD official fined and barred from federal work over Hatch Act violation” at CNN.

Read “Ethics watchdog group accuses Cruz of using campaign funds to promote book” at The Hill.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “DMX hospitalised and in critical state after suffering overdose” at NME.

Read “Ever wonder why drums sound the same on many of today’s recordings?” at a Journal of Musical Things.

Read “36 of America’s Best Independent Music Venues on Surviving and What’s Next” at Pitchfork.

Read “Paul Simon Sells His Entire Songwriting Catalog to Sony” at New York Times.

Browse Treble’s picks for “The Best Albums of March 2021.”

Read “Tedeschi Trucks Band Postpone Wheels of Soul Tour to 2022” at Relix.

Read “Ryley Walker: 'Going two days sober was impossible since I was a kid” at The Guardian.

Read “The 49 Most Anticipated Albums of Spring 2021: Taylor Swift, Japanese Breakfast, J Balvin, and More” at Pitchfork.

Read “Brandi Carlile Has Always Seen Herself Clearly. Now It’s Our Turn.” at New York Times.

Read “Hugh Masekela: The Politics Of South Africa’s Famed Trumpeter” at U Discover Music.

Read “Page McConnell Announces Ambient Electronic Solo Record ‘Maybe We’re The Visitors,’ Shares First Single” at Relix.

Listen “to Taylor Swift’s New “From the Vault” Song “Mr. Perfectly Fine” at Pitchfork.

Read “Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson to star in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Despite Quarantine, Beauty Pill Find New Artistic Paths” at Bandcamp.

Read “So the singers of Led Zeppelin and AC/DC went for a walk in the woods…” at A Journal Of Musical Things.

Read “RSD Drops 2021: Lady Gaga, Oneohtrix Point Never, Freddie Gibbs and Madlib, Shrek, and More” at Pitchfork.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Top CBS Local Station Executives Exit Amid Probe of Racism Allegations” at Variety.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “NASA prepares Mars helicopter for first flight on another planet” at The Hill.

Read “Finding From Particle Research Could Break Known Laws of Physics” at New York Times.

Misc. Oddities:

Visit “Cryptozoology & Paranormal Museum Littleton, North Carolina” with Atlas Obscura.

Local:

Read “First Friday Unofficially Reopens On Phoenix's Roosevelt Row” at KJZZ.

The Weekly Town Crier (03/26/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (03/26/21).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “George Segal: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? actor dies aged 87” at BBC.

Read “Jessica Walter Dies: Emmy-Winning ‘Arrested Development’, ‘Archer’ Actress Was 80” at Deadline.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Church removes Atlanta shooting suspect from membership, urges ‘no blame’ on victims” at Religion News Service.

• Read “What an Expert on Evangelicals and Sex Says About the Atlanta Shooter's Claim He Had a Sex Addiction” at Time. 

Read “With Beth Moore’s exit, more evangelical women are challenging strict gender norms” at Religion News Service.

Read “Who Owns John MacArthur’s Sermons?” at Roys Report.

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

Read “Biden White House Sandbags Staffers, Sidelines Dozens for Pot Use” at Daily Beast.

Read “Maggots, Rape and Yet Five Stars: How U.S. Ratings of Nursing Homes Mislead the Public” at New York Times.

Read “Immigration Is Not a “Crisis” at Slate.

Read “Stop telling women to just keep yourselves safe, without addressing misogyny': How women bear the burden of safety when men can't control themselves” at MSNBC.

Read “College students are falling in love with white supremacy. Rep. Paul Gosar is helping” at MSNBC.

Read “Supreme Court to consider reinstating death sentence for Boston bomber” at The Hill.

Read “Lawyers Who Were Ineligible to Handle Serious Criminal Charges Were Given Thousands of These Cases Anyway” at Pro Publica.

Read “Tennessee Senate passes permitless gun carry bill” at Local Memphis.

Read “Virginia becomes 1st Southern state to abolish death penalty as governor signs law” at NBC News.

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

Read “This Is War”: Inside the Secret Chat Where Far-Right Extremists Devised Their Post-Capitol Plans” at Pro Publica. “Chats from a private Telegram group obtained by ProPublica show how a suspect tied to the Jan. 6 insurrection tried to organize a self-styled militia. The hidden proliferation of such groups worries experts.”

This Week With The Police:

Read “George Takei: Law enforcement throughout American history has manipulated Asian Americans” at MSNBC.

Read “North Carolina police seize gun in drug bust altered to look like Nerf toy” at The Hill.

Read “In City After City, Police Mishandled Black Lives Matter Protests” at New York Times. “Inquiries into law enforcement’s handling of the George Floyd protests last summer found insufficient training and militarized responses — a widespread failure in policing nationwide.”

Read “The Solution to Violence Against Women Will Never Be 'More Police'“ at Vice.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “US Secretary of Education cancels $1B of student loan debt” at The Hill. “The Department of Education implemented a new strategy focused on helping students defrauded by colleges and universities.”

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club Partially Closed After Coronavirus Outbreak” at Slate.

Read “Maskless Trump Supporter Who Coughed on Protesters Donates $3k to NAACP Scholarship Fund as Punishment” at Second Nexus.

Read “Michigan pizzeria owner arrested for 'willfully' violating 'public health orders'“ at The Hill.

Read “Miami Beach official recommending curfew through end of spring break” at The Hill.

Read “Working from home is causing breakdowns. Ignoring the problem and blaming the pandemic is no longer an option” at Globe and Mail.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Donald Trump is creating his own social media network that will be live in a few months” at AZ Family.

Read “'Sad day for Boulder': Gunman kills 10 at Colorado supermarket, including police officer, in second US mass shooting in a week” at USA Today.

• Read “Someone Livestreamed the Boulder Shooting. YouTube Isn't Taking It Down.” at Vice.

Read “The People Issue 2021: Author David Dark” at Nashville Scene.

Read ‘The Flawed Premise of Statements Like 'Love Our People Like You Love Our Food'“ at Vice.

Read “Trump Shrugs Off Twitter Ban Because His Press Releases Are 'Much More Elegant' Anyway” at Comic Sands.

Read “Documents Show Amazon Is Aware Drivers Pee In Bottles and Even Defecate en Route, Despite Company Denial” at The Intercept.

Browse “Fabulous Snapshots From A Florida Hair Salon in the 1980s” at Flashbak.

Read “Social Media CEOs Can’t Defend Their Business Model” at Wired

Read “Missing Florida woman rescued after found naked in storm drain” at We Are TV. “The Florida woman says she accidentally got lost in a sewer system while swimming in a canal. She then wandered around in the sewer system for the past 3 weeks before being rescued Tuesday from a storm drain.”

Internationalities:

Read “A Volcano Erupted in Iceland. Björk Was ‘Sooo Excited.’” at New York Times.

Read “Magnitude 6.9 quake rocks northeastern Japan” at The Japan Times.

Read “Afghanistan: The women killed for working at a TV station” at BBC.

Read “Fire At Rohingya Refugee Camp Destroys Hundreds Of Shelters” at HuffPost.

Read “Shipping container crisis could spark another toilet paper shortage” at The Hill.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Russian company 'suspending its investments' in Kentucky project pushed by McConnell” at Raw Story.

Read “Rep. Tom Reed Says He Won’t Run for Re-Election in 2022” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “QAnon Rep. Spouts Conspiracy About Dems Trying To 'Silence' Her After Brief Twitter Suspension” at Comic Sands.

Read “Sidney Powell argues in new court filing that no reasonable people would believe her election fraud claims” at CNN.

Read “Georgia Governor Signs Election Overhaul, Including Changes To Absentee Voting” at NPR.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Newport Folk Festival Confirms July 2021 Event” at Jambase.

Browse Treble’s picks for “A History of Alt-Country In 40 Essential Tracks.”

Read “Ringo Starr Says New Beatles Film Brings Back ‘Fun’ “ at Ultimate Classic Rock.

Hear “Radiohead’s "Creep" Played on the Gayageum, a Korean Instrument Dating Back to the 6th Century” at Open Culture.

Read “Slowdive and Flaming Lips Members Form Beachy Head, Announce Debut Album” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “A Point of Congregation :: Daniel Lanois on the Sacred Space of Heavy Sun” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “Lemmy’s Ashes Were Placed in Bullets and Given to His Closest Friends” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “A Beginner’s Guide To Can’s Avant-Garde Rock” at Treble.

Read “Loren Connors: A Sound That’s “Almost Not There” at Premier Guitar.

Read/Watch/Listen to “John Fahey :: Live in 1967” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “Secretly Group Employees Form Union” at Pitchfork.

Browse “10 Essential Albums Featuring Bass Great Pino Palladino” at Discogs.

Read “Prince’s Ashes to Be Displayed at Paisley Park on 5th Anniversary of His Death” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Listen to The Very Last Beat J Dilla Ever Made” at Okay Player.

Read “Paul McCartney and Beck Share New Version of “Find My Way” at Pitchfork.

Read “Morgan Wallen Tops Chart for a 10th Week” at New York Times.

Read “Janet Jackson’s Classic ‘Rhythm Nation 1814’ Added To National Recording Registry” at Huff Post.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Inside COVID-Safe Movie Theaters: Sanitization Foggers, Plexiglass and New Popcorn Rules” at Variety.

Books/Reading/Authors

Browse “Spring books guide: 20 books we can’t wait to read by Brandi Carlile, Seth Rogen and more” at USA Today.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “Creator who sold NFT house for $500,000: We’ll be ‘living in an augmented reality lifestyle’ soon” at CNBC.

Read “Salvador Dalí & Walt Disney’s Short Animated Film, Destino, Set to the Music of Pink Floyd” at Open Culture.

Food Cultures:

Read “When Life Gave Pennsylvania Spotted Lanternflies, Its Bees Made Spotted Lanternfly Honey” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “Popeyes Plots to Become Global Power” at Bloomberg. “An afterthought until its fried chicken sandwich went viral in 2019, Popeyes is challenging KFC’s supremacy, including its U.K. debut this year.”

Local:

Read “Ducey talks disdain for new education tax, vows fast fix” at Associated Press.

Read “2 Arizona House Measures Allowing Loaded Guns In More Places Head To Full Senate” at KjZZ.

Read “The Museum Club Flagstaff, Arizona” at Atlas Obscura. “This 1930s log cabin began as a taxidermy museum but is now a popular country music venue.”

Read “Texas burger chain wants to open 20 locations in Phoenix” at ABC 15 News.

Read “Five dads open a driveway pizza joint and deliver money for charity” at AZ Central.

Read “Phoenix women turn to Airbnb, making up for income lost during pandemic” at AZ Central.

The Weekly Town Crier (03/19/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (03/19/21).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Died: Larry Walker, NIV Translator Who Loved Bible Details” at Christianity Today.

Read “Henry Goldrich, Gear Guru to Rock Stars, Is Dead at 88” at New York Times.

Read “Boxing Legend Marvin Hagler Dies At Age 66” at Huff Post.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “RZIM will end apologetics ministry” at Christianity Today. “Ravi Zacharias International Ministries will become a grant-making organization, CEO Sarah Davis tells employees.”

Read “Faith leaders push back against proposed ‘Souls to the Polls’ voting restrictions” at Religion News Service.

Read “My Mom Believes In QAnon. I’ve Been Trying To Get Her Out” at Buzzfeed.

Read ‘Cruelty Is Apostasy” by David French. “Reflections on Beth Moore’s departure from the Southern Baptist Convention.”

Read “Conservative Activist Charlie Kirk Leaves Liberty University Think Tank” at New York Times. “Liberty University opted not to renew Charlie Kirk's contract at the Falkirk Center. The unconventional think tank, which is now missing both halves of its portmanteau (Falwell + Kirk), will be renamed the Standing for Freedom Center.”

Read “A Kentucky Church’s Secret to Handling Abuse Allegations: Humility” at Christianity Today.

Read “Atlanta suspect blamed women for ‘tempting’ him. Purity culture does the same” at Religion News Service. “Christian communities must reexamine attitudes that blame women for men’s sexual problems.”

Read “LifeWay Research: U.S. Protestant Pastors See Gender Change as Immoral” at Christianity Today. “As gender fluidity grows more accepted in wider culture, most Protestant pastors remain traditional.”

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

Read “George Floyd Family Reaches $27 Million Settlement With City of Minneapolis” at Wall Street Journal.

• Read “What It’s Like Inside the Now ‘Cop-Free’ Zone Where George Floyd Was Killed” at Vice.

Read “Breonna Taylor’s Killing Forced Black High School Girls To Grapple With Uncertainty” at WFPL.

Read “Restoring Pell Grants—And Possibilities—for Prisoners” at The Atlantic. “Classes inside prison give people a sense of community, a sense of purpose, a sense of identity, and a sense of hope.”

Read ‘Racists attack Asian American chef who criticized Texas over mask mandate” at The Hill.

• Read “Asian American community on edge after deadly shooting in Atlanta” at The World.

• Read “Elderly Asian woman fights off attacker in San Francisco” at The Hill.

Read “Georgia massage parlor shootings leave 8 dead; man captured” at Associated Press.

• Read “Massage Parlor Massacres Suspect Said He Loved Guns & God” at Daily Beast.

Read “Is Critical Race Theory Racist?” by Brad Mason.

Read “Immigration Is Not a “Crisis”” at Slate. “What would our laws look like if we stopped treating migration as a problem to be solved?”

Read “Sentenced to death, but innocent: These are stories of justice gone wrong” at National Geographic.

Read “Man Wanted by Police Arrested Near Residence of Vice President Kamala Harris, Gun and Ammo Found in Car” at NBC Washington.

Read “Dem Rep. Plays Some Of The Racist Voicemails She Was Hit With For Condemning Anti-Asian Hate” at Comic Sands.

Read “Judge Rules Some Ghislaine Maxwell Details Are Too ‘Sensational and Impure’ to Be Revealed to the Public” at Law and Crime.

Read “Armie Hammer under investigation by LAPD sex crime detectives” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Teen Vogue’s New Top Editor Out After Backlash Over Old Racist Tweets” at Daily Beast.

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

Read “Two Men Have Been Charged With Assaulting The Officer Who Died After The Capitol Riot” at Buzzfeed News.

Read “George W. Bush on US Capitol insurrection: 'I'm still disturbed when I think about it'“ at CNN.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Essential California: LAPD’s handling of summer protests sharply criticized in report” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Retired Gila County sergeant wins PTSD workers’ compensation claim” at KTAR.

Read “Kentucky Senate votes to criminalize insulting police in way that could cause ‘violent response’” at Washington Post.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “How Google's New Career Certificates Could Disrupt the College Degree” at Inc.

Read “DeSantis: Civics curriculum proposal will 'expressly exclude' critical race theory” at The Hill.

Read “Education Dept. Begins Rolling Back Trump-Era Policies On Defrauded Students” at NPR.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “How anti-vax rhetoric sneaks past Instagram’s content moderation system” at Salon.

Read “Passenger on flight from Seattle to Denver accused of refusing mask, urinating in cabin” at Oregon Live.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Seth Rogen’s new cannabis site temporarily shut down due to high demand” at NME.

Read “Michigan State announces basketball team will now be called 'MSU Spartans Presented by Rocket Mortgage' at Yahoo.

Read “Why the GameStop story is far from over” at BBC.

Read “Don’t Trust Civilization”: ‘Soldier of Fortune’ Magazine and the Masculine Myth” at We Are The Mutants.

Read “Serial stowaway Marilyn Hartman arrested yet again, at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport” at CBS News.

Read “Goldman Sachs Commits $1 Billion to Fund Diverse-Led Businesses” at Forbes. “Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said it’s doubling a commitment to investing in companies run by women and people of color to $1 billion.”

Read “No One Has Ever Wanted Anything More Than This City Wants a RoboCop Statue” at Vice.

Read “San Antonio Tussaud’s Pulls Wax Donald Trump Because People Keep Punching It” at Consequence of Sound. “The former president has been moved to a storage closet for his own protection.”

Internationalities:

Read “Myanmar’s Suu Kyi Charged With Bribery, Faces 15 Years In Prison” at Bloomberg.

Read “Kenya's High Court Upholds Crucial Ban on FGM in Much-Needed 'Boost' for Activists” at Global Citizen.

Read “China: 'Furious and sad' about violence against Asian Americans in US” at The Hill.

Read “Sri Lanka Mulls Banning Burqas and Closing 1,000 Madrassas” at Christianity Today.

Read “Japan’s Pot Laws Are Harsh, But Its Pensioners Invest in Growers” at Bloomberg.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Sen. Marco Rubio endorses Amazon warehouse union drive in surprise op-ed” at The Verge.

Read “A survey of Republicans shows 5 ‘tribes’ have emerged following Trump’s presidency” at New York Times.'

Read “GOP Rep. Suggests Gun Control Isn't Needed Because Bible Characters Killed Each Other Without Guns” at Comic Sands.

Read “How Mean Tweets—And Bad Predictions—Threaten to Derail Another Biden Nominee” at The Dispatch.

Read “Effort to recall Newsom gathers over 2M signatures, enough for possible ballot measure” at The Hill.

Read “Harry Reid calls for killing the filibuster: ‘60% is not a real democracy’” at MSNBC.

Read “Why Attacking ‘Cancel Culture’ And ‘Woke’ People Is Becoming The GOP’s New Political Strategy” at Five Thirty Eight.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Cuomo Says He Will Not Resign Despite Calls From Prominent New York Democrats” at NPR.

Read “'Dangerous for democracy': Why these GOP state legislatures want to restrict voting rights” at Go Erie.

Read “McCaskill: 'Treasonous' Giuliani played into Putin's hand” at MSNBC.

Read “Republicans who tried to overturn election vote against medals for Capitol, D.C. police at Salon.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “The Weeknd 'will no longer submit music to Grammy Awards' after snub” at BBC.

Read “Genre Is Disappearing. What Comes Next?” at New Yorker.

Read “Why Spotify’s Ex-Global Head Of Music Publishing Thinks Streaming Services Should Be Paying Songwriters More Money” at Music Business Worldwide.

Read “R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe and Mike Mills Look Back at Out of Time at 30” at Spin.

Read “Grammys 2021 Winners: See The Full List Here” at Pitchfork.

• Read ‘Taylor Swift Wins Album of the Year at 2021 Grammys for folklore” at Pitchfork.

• Read “Billie Eilish Wins Record of the Year at 2021 Grammys, Says Megan Thee Stallion Should Have Won” at Pitchfork.

Browse all the covers the Grateful Dead performed.

Read “Henry Rollins on Some of His Favorite Crate-Digging Experiences” at Discogs.

Read “The Many Lives of Judee Sill” at Rolling Stone. “After an abusive childhood and run-ins with the law, she grew into one of the most captivating singer-songwriters of the Seventies. More than 40 years after her death, could the world finally be ready to appreciate her?”

Read “Garth Brooks Lays Plans For Chris Gaines Album Reissue With Unreleased Songs” at American Songwriter.

Read “Justice Send Cease-and-Desist to Justin Bieber Over New Album” at Pitchfork.

Browse “A Guide to 25 Years of Mogwai” at Bandcamp.

Read “What the Spotify/K-Pop Showdown Underscores About the Future of Streaming” at Ptichfork.

Read “Artists Earned $21 Million on Bandcamp in the Last 30 Days” at Microchip Substack.

Read “Britney Spears Is Reportedly Considering a Tell-All Interview with Oprah Winfrey” at Harper’s Bazaar.

Read “Sunburned Hand of the Man merges woe and joy on Pick a Day to Die” at Chicago Reader.

Read “Sun Kil Moon’s Mark Kozelek Accused of Sexual Misconduct by Seven More Women” at Pitchfork.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “'The Talk' extends hiatus; Sharon Osbourne says she's 'been set up' after heated exchange” at USA Today.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “The 69 Pages of Writing Advice Denis Johnson Collected from Flannery O’Connor, Jack Kerouac, Stephen King, Hunter Thompson, Werner Herzog & Many Others” at Open Culture.

Read “Atwood, Grisham among contributors to pandemic novel” at WOKV.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “Halsey to sell her art for the first time in NFT auction” at NME.

Read “Visit the Largest Collection of Frida Kahlo’s Work Ever Assembled: 800 Artifacts from 33 Museums, All Free Online” at Open Culture.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Scientists created human tear glands in a dish — and then made them cry” at Salon.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Trying To Explain Aliens To Your Kids” at WPDH.

Read “Mysterious UFO above Phoenix remains a mystery 24 years later” at 12 News.

Read “It started flying towards us’: Mysterious fireball ignites blaze in Peachland” at Global News.

Local:

Read “Mountainside Fitness founder leaves CEO role, considers run for governor” at KTAR.

The Weekly Town Crier (03/05/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (03/05/27)

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Bunny Wailer, Reggae Legend and Wailers Co-Founder, Dies at 73” at Pitchfork.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “After Sermon Criticizing Wives’ Weight, Pastor Resigns as Moderator of General Baptist Meeting” at Roys Report.

Read “Spectacular Politics On the Culture of Trumpism” at The Bias Magazine. 

• Read “The Golden Trump Statue Is the Talk of CPAC. It Was Made in Mexico.” at Slate.

Read “White evangelicals' dominance of the GOP has turned it into the party of resistance” at CNN.

Read “First Jehovah’s Witness woman sentenced in Russia after faith declared ‘extremist’” at Religion News Service. “The faith group’s spokesman called the ruling ‘a mockery of the rule of law — both international human rights law as well as Russia’s constitution.’”

Read the opinion piece “Phil Johnson’s Defense of MacArthur’s Salaries & Nepotism Raises More Red Flags” at Roys Report.

Read “Meet the spouses whose marriages were destroyed by QAnon” at Salon. “A therapist who specializes in cult recovery says he's "never seen anything like this before"

Read “Appeals court decision allows sex abuse lawsuit against SBC's Paul Pressler to proceed” at Houston Chronicle.

Read “More than 500 evangelicals, other faith leaders condemn religion at insurrection as ‘heretical’” at Religion News Service.

Read “Major Evangelical Adoption Agency Will Now Serve Gay Parents Nationwide” at New York Times. “The decision comes as more cities and states require organizations to accept applications from L.G.B.T.Q. couples or risk losing government contracts.”

Read “Stryper’s Michael Sweet Fears It’s “Just a Matter of Time” Before the Bible Is Canceled” at Newsbreak.

Read “Shame, grace and #STOPtheSTEAL” at Religion News Service. “How we read the world depends on the kinds of stories we traffic in.”

Read “Sam Horn Resigns as President of The Master’s University and Seminary, Capping Three Years of Tumult” at Roys Report.

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

Read “Second Former Aide Accuses New York Gov. Cuomo of Sexual Harassment” at Slate.

Read “Bruce Springsteen’s Drunken-Driving Charges Are Dismissed” at New York Times.

Read “Rep. Gosar denounces 'white racism' after controversial appearance” at The Hill.

Read “Cuomo Is Accused of Sexual Harassment by a 2nd Former Aide” at New York Times. “The woman, 25, said that when they were alone in his office, Gov. Andrew Cuomo asked if she “had ever been with an older man.”

Read “Marijuana use no longer automatic disqualification for Biden appointees” at The Hill.

Read “How Jane Fonda Convinces Her Famous Friends to Get Arrested” at Vulture.

Read “Supreme Court Seems Ready To Uphold Restrictive Voting Laws” at NPR.

Read “House fight for Trump's financial records poised to stretch into the summer” at Politico. “The House Oversight Committee reissued a subpoena for the former president’s accounting firm, Mazars USA.”

Read “D’Elia faces child-porn lawsuit from woman who says he had sex with her at 17” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “South Carolina Senate adds firing squad as alternative execution method” at The Hill.

Read “Nadria Tucker On Being Fired From ‘Superman & Lois’: ‘Toxicity’ Is Pervasive” at Huff Post. “The TV writer says she was dropped from the new CW show after pushing back on racist and sexist storylines and tropes.”

Read “Hours After an Employee Accused Him of Sexual Misconduct, Prominent Alaska Executive Resigns” at Pro Publica.

Read “Threats to lawmakers up 93.5 percent in last two months” at The Hill.

Read “DoD Report Describes Trump Doctor Ronny Jackson as a Lecherous Boozehound and All-Around Terrible Colleague” at Slate.

Read “Wray says no evidence of 'antifa' involvement in Jan. 6 attack” at The Hill.

Read ‘Refugees are being removed from flights to the US as they await Biden's signature” at CNN.

Read “Right-Wing Social Network Parler Files New Lawsuit Against Amazon” at Variety.

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

Read “The Boogaloo Bois Have Guns, Criminal Records and Military Training. Now They Want to Overthrow the Government” at Pro Publica.

• Read “U.S. alleges Proud Boys planned to break into Capitol on Jan. 6 from many different points” at Washington Post.

Read “‘Q Shaman’ Deeply ‘Wounded’ And Disappointed That Trump Didn’t Pardon Him” at Forbes.

Read “Rioter who broke into Pelosi's office: Not 'fair' I'm still in jail” at The Hill.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “CPAC attendees boo, yell 'freedom' when asked to wear masks” at The Hill.

Read “Fauci Worried That U.S. Virus Cases Will Stick at 70,000 a Day” at Bloomberg.

Read “Trump Got Vaccinated Secretly, Because Otherwise He Might Have Helped the Country” at Rolling Stone. “Getting vaccinated publicly could have gone a long way toward dispelling Republican doubts about the Covid vaccine — so of course Trump didn’t do it.”

Read “Texas becomes biggest US state to lift COVID-19 mask mandate” at Associated Press.

Read “Texas and Other States Ease COVID-19 Rules Despite Warnings” at Time.

Read “Covid-19 Variant in Brazil Overwhelms Local Hospitals, Hits Younger Patients’ at Wall Street Journal.

Read “U.K. Extends COVID Insurance Scheme for Film and TV Industry, Renews Furlough” at Variety.

Read “Alamo Drafthouse files for Chapter 11, keeping COVID safety measures amid TX reopening” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “When Did the Pandemic Become Real for You?” at New York Times. “The World Health Organization declared the spread of the coronavirus a pandemic on March 11, 2020. But when was the instant you knew your life would change?”

Read “New York Music Venues Can Reopen at 33% Capacity in April, Governor Says” at Pitchfork.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Atlanta Has Created the Largest Free Food Forest in the Country” at Modern Farmer.

Read “Michaels to Go Private in Apollo Deal” at Wall Street Journal. “Private-equity firm Apollo Global Management’s acquisition offer values crafts retailer at $3.3 billion.”

Read “The Growing Threat Of Disinformation And How To 'Deprogram' People Who Believe It” at NPR.

Read “CPAC, conservatives and the culture war: Why Republicans will become more extreme in Trump's absence” at Salon.

Read ‘'The Sinking City' Developer Uses DMCA to Remove Its Own Game From Steam” at Vice.

Read “Keith Gill Drove the GameStop Reddit Mania. He Talked to the Journal” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Jeff Grosso: The life and death of skateboarding’s soul” at Los Angeles Times. “To best understand skateboarding — its counter-culture roots, its rise to the Olympics, its helter-skelter tale of competing styles, clashing customs and self-sabotaging plot twists — you need to understand Jeff Grosso.”

Read “Clubhouse Is Recording Your Conversations. That's Not Even Its Worst Privacy Problem” at Inc.

Internationalities:

Read “US intel: Saudi crown prince approved Khashoggi killing” at The Hill.

Read “How Europe Became the World’s Biggest Electric-Car Market—and Why It Might Not Last” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “US Missile Strike in Syria: What You Should Know” at Preemptive Love.

Read “Medics risk lives to treat injured in Myanmar anti-coup protests” at Al Jazeera.

Read “At Least 18 Killed In Another Bloody Day For Myanmar” at NPR.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Biden hails House passage of $1.9T virus bill, now to Senate” at KTAR.

Read “CPAC stage is shaped like a Nordic rune used on some Nazi uniforms” at Business Insider.

Read “Rep. Karen Bass: $10 and $12 are not livable wages, we need to have a $15 minimum wage” at MSNBC.

Read “Another New York Democrat Calls on Cuomo to Resign” at Bloomberg.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “McConnell says he'll 'absolutely' support Trump in 2024 if he's the GOP nominee” at CNN.

Read “Postmaster General DeJoy introduces plans to overhaul USPS, draws criticism” at MSNBC.

Read “Hawley gets boisterous ovation at CPAC for Electoral College objection” at The Hill.

Read “Rep. Ronny Jackson made sexual comments, drank alcohol and took Ambien while working as White House physician, Pentagon watchdog finds” at CNN.

Read “Biden administration still hasn't briefed top senators on Syria strike” at Politico.

Read “"This has gone beyond the messiah of President Trump": Former GOP congressman on why parts of the GOP can't let go” at MSNBC.

Read “Texas grid manager responsible for $16B in overcharges, says watchdog” at The Hill.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Justin Bieber Announces New Album Justice” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Freddie Gibbs Covers Gil Scott-Heron’s “Winter in America” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Spotify just unveiled “lossless” CD-quality music. Your move, Apple” at Fast Company.

Read “Primavera Sound 2021 Cancelled” at Pitchfork.

Read “Bigger Black: 5 Easy Pieces w/Steve Albini” at Eugene Robinson. “Five questions, not a single one about music, that's the deal.”

Read “Biggie Smalls, the Human Behind the Legend” at New York Times. “The new Netflix documentary “Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell” captures the rapper before fame, and history, got hold of him.”

Read “Council says “nothing has been agreed” on Reading Festival 2021 go-ahead” at NME.

Read “The Mighty Mighty Bosstones announce new album ‘When God Was Great,’ share new song” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “David Crosby on dinner with Joni, Phoebe Bridgers and the 50th anniversary of his haunted solo debut” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “A Guide to the Music of John Lurie” at Pitchfork.

Read “Tyler, the Creator Releases Song Used in Coca-Cola Commercial: Listen” at Pitchfork.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Inside Joss Whedon’s ‘Cutting’ and ‘Toxic’ World of ‘Buffy’ and ‘Angel’ (EXCLUSIVE)” at Variety.

Read “Billy Ocean's Loverboy video is way weirder than you remember” at Boing Boing.

Read “Schitt’s Creek Mansion Returns to Market With Price Reduction” at Bloomberg.

Read “Meet the Songwriters Behind the ‘Wandavision’ Hit ‘Agatha All Along’” at New York Times. “It isn’t the first time the songwriting power couple has created an ear worm, having written the Oscar- and Grammy-winning “Let It Go” for the Disney animated movie “Frozen” and the Oscar-winning ballad “Remember Me” for the Pixar animated film “Coco.”

Read ‘Golden Globes org says it will recruit Black members after outcry’ at 11 Alive.

Read “Soul Is Pixar at Its Most Unpredictably Weird” at Vulture.

Read “Common to Produce Biopic of Voting Rights Activist Fannie Lou Hamer” at The Hollywood Reporter.

Read “Rachel Maddow Is Most-Watched In February, As MSNBC Leads All Cable Networks” at Forbes.

• Read “‘We are lost’: Fox News suffers worst ratings in 20 years” at The Independent.

Read “Former Trump spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany joining Fox News” at The Hill.

Read “Spate of awards-season films track FBI tactics against Black activists” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “The Comics History Behind that WandaVision Credits Reveal” at Vulture.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “So you want to start reading comics?” at The Verge. “A guide to figuring out the best and most cost-effective methods.”

Read “Black Panther Comic Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates To Reboot Superman for DC, And More Movie News” at Rotten Tomatoes.

Read “Dr Seuss: Six books withdrawn over 'hurtful and wrong' imagery” at BBC.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read ‘YInMn Blue, the First Shade of Blue Discovered in 200 Years, Is Now Available for Artists” at Open Culture.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Cuttlefish show self-control, pass 'marshmallow test' at Live Science.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Rooster with blade kills man during cockfight in Telangana” at New Indianan Express. “Accidentally, the knife that was tied to the rooster's leg, got pierced into Satish's groin, injuring him grievously.”

Read “Inside the Gently Competitive World of Giant Vegetable Growing” at Atlas Obscura.

Local:

Read “Judge sides with Senate, says Maricopa must turn over election materials for audit” at AZ Mirror.

Read “Wildlife, rights coalition asks Biden to remove miles of Arizona's border wall” at Tucson.com.

Read “Apple and Google lobbyists are swarming Arizona over a bill that would reform the app store” at Protocol.

Read “Bill purging Arizona early voting list clears state Senate’ at KTAR.

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 (02/05/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (02/05/21).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Sophie, Grammy-nominated artist, dies aged 34” at CNN.

Read “People Under The Stairs Co-Founder, Double K, Dead at 43” at Okay Player.

Read “Dustin Diamond: Saved by the Bell star dies aged 44” at BBC.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Christianity on Display at Capitol Riot Sparks New Debate” at Roys Report. 

Read “Archbishop Justin Welby prays 'in tongues' every day” at BBC.

Read “Black clergy offer churches as COVID-19 vaccination sites, roll up their sleeves” at Religion News Service.

Read “Discerning the Difference Between Christian Nationalism and Christian Patriotism” by David French.

Read “How Jesus became white — and why it’s time to cancel that” at Religion News Service.

Read “Meet the Republican Congressman Who Says His Faith Led Him to Vote for Impeachment” at Christianity Today.

Read “Racist letter sent to Black pastor condemned as ‘vile, sick and disgusting’” at Baptist Press.

Read “QAnon Congresswoman Demanded Muslim Lawmakers Retake Oaths On Bible Instead Of Quran In Resurfaced Video” at Comic Sands.

Read “ERLC-focused task force releases report” at Baptist Press.

Read “Missouri church leaders call for Hawley's resignation over election claims” at The Hill.

Read “Critical Race Theory Isn’t a Threat for Presbyterians” at Mere Orthodoxy.

Read “SBC report calls never-Trumper Russell Moore’s agency a ‘significant distraction’” at Religion News Service.

Read ‘She was stunned by Biden's inauguration. How this South Carolina mom escaped QAnon” at CNN.

• Read “Why QAnon Survives After Trump” at NPR.

Read “The Prosperous Lifestyle of America’s Anti-Prosperity Gospel Preacher” at Roys Report.

Read “Biden, former presidents urge Americans to forgive and unite at National Prayer Breakfast” at Religion News Service.

• Read “The National Prayer Breakfast Isn’t the Only Time Politicians Pray Together” at Christianity Today. “The Christian calls for unity by President Biden and members of Congress continue at weekly bipartisan gatherings.”

Read “Black History Month: 20 Stories Christians Should Know” at Christianity Today.

Read “Secular groups praise Biden’s agenda but express concerns about religious rhetoric” at Religion News Service.

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

Read “How did Nazi references get on Alaska license plates?” at Alaska Public Media.

Read “Black patients were losing limbs at triple the rate of others” a Pro Publica.

Read “Louisiana cemetery declines to bury black deputy sheriff due to 'whites only' policy” at The Hill.

Read ‘ICE Guards “Systematically” Sexually Assault Detainees in an El Paso Detention Center, Lawyers Say” at Pro Publica.

Read “Biden Is Reversing Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Acts. Will He Repair Harm from Deportations Under Obama?” at Democracy Now.

Read “House Democrat demands U.S. military screen troops' social media for links to extremist groups” at NBC News.

Read “Evan Rachel Wood makes abuse allegations against musician Marilyn Manson” at Slate.

• Read “Tracing Marilyn Manson’s Blurred Lines Between Shock Rock and Alleged Abuse” at Pitchfork.

• Read “Phoebe Bridgers Recalls “Horrible” Experience in Marilyn Manson’s House” at Consequence of Sound. “The label knew, management knew, the band knew"

Read “Putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 Bill Is Not a Sign of Progress. It's a Sign of Disrespect” at Time.

Read “'A Sledgehammer To The War On Drugs': Oregon Decriminalizes Illegal Drugs” at WBUR.

Read “GOP senator joins rally to oppose stand your ground legislation” at Arkansas Times.

Read “Deported with their children separated, mothers hope to be reunited years later” at PBS News Hour.

Read “House Oversight leaders request Secret Service briefing amid domestic violence concerns” at The Hill.

Read “Biden to sign memo on protecting LGBTQ rights worldwide” at The Hill.

Read “U.S. military vows to cleanse armed forces of extremists and white supremacists” at Boing Boing.

Read “Movie at the Ellipse: A Study in Fascist Propaganda” at Just Security.

Read “The Charleston loophole": Purchases by people barred from buying guns skyrocketed in 2020” at CBS News.

Read “Gaming Sites Are Still Letting Streamers Profit From Hate” at Wired. “WIRED has found dozens of far-right and white supremacist figures monetizing their livestreams through “donation management services” Streamlabs and StreamElements.”

Read “Fox News sued by Smartmatic for $2.7 billion over rigged election claims” at NBC News.

Read “How a Hacker's Mom Broke Into a Prison—and the Warden's Computer” at Wired.

Read “What Biden can learn from Obama’s immigration mistakes” at Vox.

Read “Ex-Attorney General Sessions needs to answer questions on zero tolerance, says DOJ inspector general” at NBC News.

Read “Judge blocks Texas effort to remove Planned Parenthood from Medicaid” 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):

Read “Pipe bombs found near Capitol on January 6 were placed the night before, FBI says” at CNN.

Read “Man in Pelosi’s office kept in jail as Capitol riot arrests go on” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Stop the Steal” Organizer Called for “Execution” of Trump’s Foes” at Mother Jones.

Read “Tracking the Oath Keepers Who Attacked the Capitol” at New York Times.

Read “Video Investigation: Proud Boys Were Key Instigators in Capitol Riot” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “GOP congressman deletes tweet saying he met with 'Stop the Steal' and told them to 'keep fighting'“ at Raw Story.

Read “Jacob Chansley: QAnon ‘Shaman’ offers to testify against Donald Trump” at Independent.

• Read “'QAnon Shaman' from Capitol riot hasn't eaten in a week due to lack of organic food in jail, lawyer says” at The Hill.

Read “One of Two Proud Boys Charged With Conspiracy in Capitol Riots Had Bomb-Making Manuals” at Slate.

Read “Woman who said she wanted to shoot Pelosi during Capitol riot arrested” at NBC News.

Read “Disproportionate number of current and former military personnel arrested in Capitol attack, CNN analysis shows” at CNN.

• Read “The Boogaloo Bois Have Guns, Criminal Records and Military Training. Now They Want to Overthrow the Government” at Pro Publica. “ProPublica and FRONTLINE have identified more than twenty members with ties to the armed forces.”

Read “They stormed the Capitol to overturn the results of an election they didn't vote in” at CNN.

Read “Police arrest man who wore jacket with company name, number during Capitol riot” at The Hill.

Read “Capitol riot suspect asks court's permission to vacation in Mexico” at USA Today.

Read “The Capitol Rioters Aren’t Like Other Extremists” at The Atlantic. “We analyzed 193 people arrested in connection with the January 6 riot—and found a new kind of American radicalism.”

Read “Prosecutors seek new arrest warrant for Kyle Rittenhouse, $200,000 increase to his bail” at The Hill.

Read “Militia alliance in Georgia signals new phase for extremist paramilitaries” at AJC.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

This Week With The Police:

Read “UW Madison Police chief bans use of 'thin blue line' imagery” at The Hill.

Read “Police pepper spray 9-year-old girl in Rochester, N.Y.” at NBC News.

Read “Former police officer Adam Coy charged with murder in death of Andre Hill” at ABC News.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “The Illusion of School Choice” at Men Yell At Me. “It’s not a free market if it’s based on discrimination.”

Read “Fauci backs CDC's school reopening plan: 'We need to try and get the children back to school'“ at NBC News.

Read “What impact is ‘the COVID slide’ having on students?” at PBS News Hour.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read ‘Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Is 66% Effective In Preventing Moderate To Severe COVID-19” at NPR.

• Read “Why Even a 66 Percent Effective Vaccine Is Such Good News” at Slate. “The exact efficacy might not matter as much as the increased ease of distribution.”

Read “Racism and COVID-19: Why are Black Americans getting vaccinated at much lower rates?” at The Hill.

Read “Legislators go after governors to rein in COVID-19 powers” at The Hill.

Read “New virus cases at U.S. nursing homes have fallen steadily since vaccination began” at New York Times.

Read “Biden coronavirus adviser says we 'have to call an audible' on vaccine distribution” at The Hill.

Read “Anti-vaccine protest briefly shuts down Dodger Stadium vaccination site” at NBC News.

Read “What went wrong with America’s $44 million vaccine data system?” at Technology Review. “The CDC ordered software that was meant to manage the vaccine rollout. Instead, it has been plagued by problems and abandoned by most states.”

Read “Covid vaccines: Rollout in disarray in U.S. and abroad” at NBC News.

Read “The Pandemic Has Erased Entire Categories of Friendship” at Atlantic. “There’s a reason you miss the people you didn’t even know that well.”

Read “Anti-Vaxxers Won’t Stop Harassing Nurse They’re Convinced Is Dead” at Daily Beast.

Read “FBI: Pharmacist who sought to spoil vaccines also believes Earth is flat” at The Hill.

Read “White House awards $230M for over-the-counter, rapid COVID-19 tests” at The Hill.

Read “Line cooks are at the highest risk of dying from COVID, says UCSF study” at SF Gate.

Read “81-person French orgy broken up for violating COVID-19 curfew” at New York Post.

Read “Exclusive: indigenous Americans dying from Covid at twice the rate of white Americans” at The Guardian.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Grape-Nuts, Supermarket Mainstay, Is No Longer So Easy to Find” at New York Times.

Read “No tuna in Subway's tuna sandwiches and wraps, lawsuit claims” at CBS News.

Read ‘Melania Trump 'told move fast and divorce Donald while he still has millions'“ at Daly Record.

Read “The Black Lives Matter Movement Could Win The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize” at Okay Player.

Read “The Dyatlov Pass incident, one of the most famous missing hiker mysteries, may have just been solved” at Slate.

Read “CNN President to Exit Cable Channel at End of 2021” at Wall Street Journal.

Browse “The LSD Archive at The Institute of Illegal Images” at Flashback.

Read “Yet another study says Uber and Lyft are worse for traffic congestion” at CNet.

Read “Gaming the System” at Slate. “The GameStop surge was just one of the ways Americans have renewed their love of gamblng.”

Read “New Age Jocks: Superstar Athletes Are Getting Very Mystical” at GQ.

Read “How Rob Lowe Embraced Sobriety to Become the Person He Always Wanted to Be” at Variety.

Read “David Hogg to launch pillow company to compete with MyPillow” at The Hill.

Internationalities:

Read “30 Stunning Photographs Show Everyday Life in Glasgow in 1980” at The Mind Circle.

Read “Thousands detained in Russia amid rallies for Alexey Navalny” at CNN.

Read “Kazakhstan's 'Qazaq-pop' boy band Ninety One challenges gender norms” at Public Radio International.

Read “Myanmar’s military stages coup d’etat: Live news” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Myanmar Coup: With Aung San Suu Kyi Detained, Military Takes Over Government” at NPR.

Read “Mexican Police Accused of Slaying Over a Dozen Guatemalan Migrants” at Vice.

Read “Israel and Kosovo Establish Diplomatic Ties, Kosovo to Open Embassy in Jerusalem” at Democracy Now.

Read “New Uighur abuse claims spark call for UN investigation” at The Hill.

Read “China promotes education drive to make boys more 'manly'“ at BBC.

Read “Al Qaeda leader in Yemen in custody, U.N. confirms” at NBC News.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Ousted Fox News editor: Reaction to Trump's loss a result of 'informational malnourishment'“ at The Hill.

Read “Republicans Can’t Believe Democrats Don’t Want To Work With Them Just Because Of The Guns And The Death Threats And The Crackpot Conspiracy Theories” at Vanity Fair. “What gives, honestly? Who wouldn’t want to work alongside such well-adjusted, not at all dangerous people?”

Read “Republican governor: I would not vote for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene” at The Hill.

Read “Portman says Republican leadership 'ought to stand up' against Greene's comments” at The Hill.

Read “Parkland victim's mother says she spoke with Marjorie Taylor Greene about school shooting conspiracies” at NBC News. “Republicans politicians were pressed about how the party should respond to Greene, who faces calls for expulsion from Congress.”

Read “On the Trail: GOP divided over growing anti-democratic drift in party” at The Hill.

Read “Republicans are overwhelmingly sticking with Trump, yet again” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Biden Should Defend the Right to Call for a Boycott” at Human Rights Watch.

Read “With 28 Executive Orders Signed, President Biden Is Off To A Record Start” at NPR.

Read “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she's a survivor of sexual assault while describing trauma of Capitol insurrection” at CNN.

• Read “What a picture of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a bikini tells us about the disturbing future of AI” at The Guardian.

Read “No Biden family members will have a role in government or foreign policy, President Biden says” at Market Watch.

Read “Both Parties Envision a Short Senate Impeachment Trial for Trump” at Bloomberg.

Read “Mitt Romney has a plan to give parents up to $15,000 a year” at Vox.

Read “Senate Agrees to Power-Sharing Deal That Leaves Democrats in Control of Committees” at Democracy Now.

Read “Sanders Taps Budget-Rules Expert to Push Bill: Stimulus Update” at Bloomberg.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “GOP ignored its early fears about Marjorie Taylor Greene” at Axios.

• Read “McConnell says Taylor Greene's embrace of conspiracy theories a 'cancer' to GOP, country” at The Hill.

• Read “Greene vows to 'never back down' in face of criticism over past remarks” at The Hill.”

• Read “'I'm here to do a job': Cori Bush recounts how Marjorie Taylor Greene berated her” at at MSNBC.

• Read “Democrats to Oust Marjorie Taylor Greene From Committees If GOP Won’t” at Bloomberg.

• Read “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — and her conspiracy theories — won't get expelled from Congress” at MSNBC.

• Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene Was a Moderator of a Facebook Group Featuring Death Threats and Racist Memes” at Mother Jones.

• Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene Says She Regrets QAnon Comments” at Wall Street Journal. “Freshman Republican lawmaker is set to be removed from committees in House vote.”

• Read “How Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Became a Leadership Test for Kevin McCarthy” at Time.

• Read “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Has Been Kicked Off Her Committees by the Democratic-Led House” at Time.

Read “Jack Posobiec Central in Spreading Russian Intelligence-Led #MacronLeaks Hack” at Southern Poverty Law Center.

Read “Republican Ties to Extremist Groups Are Under Scrutiny” at New York Times.

Read “Five of Trump's impeachment defense attorneys leave team less than two weeks before trial” at CNN.

Read “Arizona GOP rep introduces bill to give Legislature power to throw out election results” at MSNBC.

Read “Law Firm Ad Touting Biden Brother’s Political Connections Raises Ethics Questions” at Huff Post.

Read “Kelli Ward demanded an audit of a local GOP leadership election before refusing one of her election” at AZ Mirror.

• Read “Uh-oh. Now Kelli Ward's own peeps are calling out her election audit hypocrisy” at AZ Central.

Read “Trump's Senate impeachment conviction is unlikely. Voters will have to stop him (again).” at MSNBC.

Read “GOP Rep. Nancy Mace said that Trump 'put all of our lives at risk' during the Capitol riots, but rejected impeachment, calling the process 'rushed'“ at Business Insider.

Read “After Trump Failed to Overturn 2020 Election, Republicans Are Trying to Steal the Next One” at Mother Jones. “This is the most concerted effort to roll back voting rights in decades.”

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Beastie Boys’ Mike D Auctioning Memorabilia for Charity” at Pitchfork.

Read “Coachella postponed for the third time in twelve months” at NME. “Organisers are yet to announce new dates for the Californian festival.”

Read “Foo Fighters Unveil New Sneaker Collaboration With Vans” at Rolling Stone.

Read ‘NuMetal is the reason ‘90s alternative music died out. Agree? Disagree?” at A Journal Of Musical Things.

Read “Jimmy Page Tells the Story of “Kashmir”” at Open Culture.

Read “Coachella Is Canceled Again” at New York Times.

Read “Neil Young announces release of “lost” album ‘Johnny’s Island’” at NME.

Read ‘Tony Bennett has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease” at NME.

Listen to “A Manifesto For Better Song Lyrics” at KQED.

Read “The Obsessive Beat-Making of Madlib” at New Yorker.

Read “The tortured, touching love saga of Cicely Tyson and Miles Davis” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Record by near-unknown producer sells for $41,000 to become most expensive on Discogs” at The Guardian.

Read “This 1969 Music Fest Has Been Called ‘Black Woodstock.’ Why Doesn’t Anyone Remember?” at Rolling Stone. “The Harlem Cultural Festival attracted everyone from Stevie Wonder and Nina Simone to Jesse Jackson and Marcus Garvey Jr., but quickly faded into obscurity. Fifty years later, a rediscovery is finally underway.”

Read “Morgan Wallen Suspended by Label, Removed from Radio After Using Racial Slur in Video” at Paste.

• Read “Morgan Wallen Is Exactly What Country Music Wanted … Now What?” at Vulture.

Read “The Band Shares Previously-Unreleased “The Weight” From Royal Albert Hall, 1971” at Live for Live Music.

Read “The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson & Beatles Producer George Martin Break Down “God Only Knows,” the “Greatest Song Ever Written” at Open Culture.

Read “Jane Birkin On Grief, Jealousy, And Her Most Personal Album Ever” at Stereogum.

Read “Artists like me are being censored in Germany – because we support Palestinian rights” by Brian Eno at The Guardian.

Read “Alice Cooper Celebrates His Birthday With New Single ‘Social Debris’” at Rolling Stone.

Read “FOCUS: Trouble In Mind Records” at Ears To Feed.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Vintage Movies: “Grosse Pointe Blanke” at Magnet Magazine.

Read “The Best Result of the Streaming Boom? America Finally Loves Foreign-Language TV” The Best Result of the Streaming Boom? America Finally Loves Foreign-Language TV” at Time.

Read “A ‘Black Panther’-Inspired Show Is Coming To Disney Because It’s Wakanda Forever” at Huff Post.

Read “Questlove’s Summer of Soul Documentary Wins Sundance 2021 Grand Jury Prize” at Pitchfork.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “It Takes A Village To Keep A Book In Print: A Chat With The Collins Crime Club” at Crime Reads.

Read “Amanda Gorman — And Poetry — Will Be Part Of Super Bowl LV” at NPR.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “Russian Artist Brings Baba Yaga Lego Set to Life” at Moscow Times.

Read “The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Puts Online 90,000 Works of Modern Art” at Open Culture.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Why you're more likely to cry on an airplane” at Popular Science.

Read ‘Psychedelics as Antidepressants” at Scientific American.”The treatments of the future may arise from a long-stigmatized class of drugs.”

Read “U.S. Navy Has Patents on Tech It Says Will ‘Engineer the Fabric of Reality’” at Vice. “he U.S. Navy's “UFO patents” sound like they've been ripped from a science fiction novel.”

Food Cultures:

Misc. Oddities:

See “Wooden Quilt Doors” at Atlas Obscura. “An artist weaves "wooden quilts" with scraps salvaged from his Katrina-damaged home in Tremé.”

Local:

Read “Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey Sees a ‘Fever’ in the State GOP. Others See the Future” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Phoenix's FilmBar Adapting To Pandemic Pressures With New Outdoor Location” at KJZZ.

Read “Kelli Ward rejects request for Arizona GOP race audit” at The Hill.

Read “Heat killed a record number of people in Arizona last year, 'a staggering increase'“ at AZ Central.

Read ‘State Farm Stadium passes 100K vaccinations as Phoenix Muni opens” at KTAR.

Read “School voucher expansion is back despite 1.5 million Arizona voters who already said no” at AZ Central.

Read “Politically Charged: Officials create ‘fictional’ gang to punish Phoenix protesters” at ABC 15.

The Weekly Town Crier (01/29/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (01/29/21)

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Hank Aaron, Home Run King Who Defied Racism, Dies at 86” at New York Times.

Read “Larry King, legendary talk show host, dies at 87” at CNN.

Read “Gregory Sierra, ‘Sanford and Son’ and ‘Barney Miller’ actor, dies at 83” at Wish TV.

Read “Cicely Tyson, an Actress Who Shattered Stereotypes, Dies at 96” at New York Times.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “The Disgraced Preacher and the Songwriter” at The Atlantic. “The man who wrote one of the most popular worship songs is linked to the leader of an organization hit with allegations of sexual abuse.”

Read “Five myths about evangelicals” at Washington Post. “They aren’t all conservative.”

Read “COVID-Spreading Preacher: Joe Biden is Promoting an “Anti-Christ Agenda”” at Patheos.

Read “Franklin Graham Defends Former Tennis Star Who Compares LGBTs To Hitler: She’s Quoting Biblical Truth” at Joe My God.

Read “SBC president JD Greear’s church launches inquiry into past actions of Bryan Loritts” at Religion News Service.

Read “SBC pastor calls Vice President Kamala Harris a ‘Jezebel’ two days after inauguration” at Baptist News (EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’ve ever wondered why I no longer affiliate with the SBC, you could start here).

Read “John MacArthur Returns to Pulpit after Apparent, Undisclosed Illness” at Roys Report.

Read “Biden’s first 100 days: What’s not for evangelicals to like?” at Religion News Service.

Read “Jesus Plus Masculinity for America’s Sake: Replying to “Jesus and John Wayne”” at Mere Orthodoxy.

Read “A group of Catholic bishops issues statement condemning bullying of LGBTQ youth” at Religion News Service.

Read “Some Black Southern Baptists Feel Shut Out by White Leaders” at U.S. News.

Read “A Baptist, a Catholic, and a Neo-Pagan Shaman Walk Into a Bar...” by Diana Butler Bass.

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

Read ‘Texas Supreme Court Silently Denies Alex Jones All Forms of Relief: Sandy Hook Families and Others Can Now Sue Conspiracy Theorist and InfoWars into the Ground” at Law and Crime.

Read ‘Supreme Court wipes out lower court rulings in Texas abortion battle” at NBC News. “The governor ordered a halt to nonessential medical procedures last year, which the attorney general then said applied to "any type of abortions."

Read “When White Extremism Seeps Into The Mainstream” at NPR.

Read “Biden lifting Trump's transgender military ban” at The Hill.

Read “Judge: Kenosha shooter can’t associate with supremacists” at Associated Press.

Read “Fatal Police Shootings Of Unarmed Black People Reveal Troubling Patterns” at NPR.

Read “States eye allowing concealed carry of guns without a permit” at Associated Press.

Read “It’s about freedom from fear’: Deportations loom despite Biden executive order” at MSNBC.

Read “Biden to order DOJ to end private prison contracts as part of racial equity push” at CNBC.

Read “In major new move, Disney to erase 'negative depictions of native peoples' from famous 'Jungle Cruise' ride” at The Hill.

Read “Lawmakers in 14 states have proposed anti-LGBTQ bills, many of which target trans youth” at CNN.

Read “DHS issues warning on 'violent domestic extremists'“ at PRI.

Read “Leader of Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, Was a Government Informer” at Democracy Now.

Read “South Carolina Senate votes to outlaw most abortions in state” at The Hill.

Read “Poland to implement near-total ban on abortion imminently” at The Guardian.

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

Read “A Total Failure’: The Proud Boys Now Mock Trump” at New York Times.

Read “U.S. files conspiracy charge against Oath Keeper” at Washington Post.

Read “Supporters’ words may haunt Trump at impeachment trial at Associated Press. “The words of Trump’s supporters who are accused of participating in the deadly U.S. Capitol riot may end up being used against him in his Senate impeachment trial. At least five supporters facing federal charges claim they were taking orders from him.”

Read “Capitol rioter charged with threatening to 'assassinate' Rep. Ocasio-Cortez” at CNN.

Read “Calls grow for 9/11-style panel to probe Capitol attack” at The Hill.

Read “Strange costumes of Capitol rioters echo the early days of the Ku Klux Klan - before the white sheets” at The Conversation.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “AZ Board Of Education Sees Dramatic Increase In Discipline Cases Against Educators” at KJZZ.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “A Vaccine Road Trip And what else you need to know today” at New York Times.

Read “Undercounting of Covid-19 deaths is greatest in pro-Trump areas, analysis shows” at Stat News.

Read “Cactus League asks the MLB to delay the start of spring training due to COVID-19” at AZ Family.

Read “California Lifts State Stay-at-Home Order as Virus Spread Slows” at Variety.

Read “Charges still stand against pastor Tony Spell for violating COVID-19 crowd limits” at WJTV.

Read “South Carolina detects first US cases of coronavirus strain first seen in South Africa” at CNN.

Read “America's botched vaccine rollout puts its broken health care system on full display” at MSNBC.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Microsoft Files Patent to Create Chatbots That Imitate Dead People” at IGN.

Read “Fauci Refutes Biden Admin Claim that Trump Left ‘No Plan’ for Vaccine Distribution” at Yahoo.

Read Newsweek’s opinion piece: “Student Debt is a Curse Upon America's Future. Biden Must Wipe It Out—All Of It.”

Read “K-Pop Fans Who Hijacked ‘ImpeachBidenNow’ Hashtag May Have Violated Twitter Rules” at Variety.

Read “A look at Michelle Wolf’s most “controversial” WHCD jokes, one year later” at Fast Company.

Read “I Think My Gmail Has Crashed”: The Teacher Who Made Bernie Sanders’ Mittens on Watching Them Go Viral” at Slate.

Read “Mar-a-Lago is a 'sad place' since Trump moved in as members begin quitting” at Raw Story.

Read “Twitter launches 'Birdwatch' community forum to combat misinformation” at CNET.

Read “Budweiser to skip Super Bowl ads, donate to coronavirus vaccination awareness instead” at The Hill.

Read “Robinhood faces backlash from both parties for limiting trades” at The Hill.

Read “Toxic ‘Black Mayonnaise’ Seeps Into Gowanus Bay After Barge Accident” at New York Times.

Read “Healing the Imagination: Art Lessons from James Baldwin” at Image Journal.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Dem’s New Bill Aims to Bar QAnon Followers From Security Clearances” at Daily Beast.

Read “Biden replaces controversial White House physician” at CNN.

Read “GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert and husband racked up arrests in home district” a New York Post.

Read “Leahy, not Roberts, to preside over impeachment trial” at The Hill.

Read “Biden wants to unite America. Republicans have a different idea of what that means.” at NBC News. “Republican pleas for unity focus on urging Biden not to take actions that upset their voters. But that's incompatible with the new president's agenda.”

Read “Sarah Huckabee Sanders to Run for Arkansas Governor” at New York Times.

Read “Sen. Sinema Opposes Eliminating the Filibuster, ‘Not Open to Changing Her Mind’” at National Review.

Read “Democrats reintroduce $15 minimum wage bill” at The Hill.

Read “McConnell Relents On Senate Filibuster Stalemate” at NPR.

Read “Senate committee advances Biden's DHS pick despite Republican pushback” at The Hill.

Read “Giuliani election witness who testified at Michigan hearing says she's running for state house seat” at The Hill.

Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene indicated support for executing prominent Democrats in 2018 and 2019 before running for Congress” at CNN.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “The Ignominious Deceits of Congressman Cawthorn” at The Nation. “Representative Madison Cawthorn has misled the public about training for the Paralympics, just as he misrepresented his education and business history.”

Read “Kevin McCarthy: ‘Everybody Across This Country’ Is To Blame For Capitol Attack” at Huff Post.

Read “Sen. Tom Cotton campaigned on his "experience as an Army Ranger" — but he didn't have any” at Salon.

Read “Trump Reportedly Pressured DOJ to File Case in Supreme Court to Overturn Election” at Slate.

• Read “Internal watchdog to investigate whether DOJ officials sought to interfere with 2020 election” at The Hill.

Read “Madison Cawthorn is trying to use ableist stereotypes to exploit America” at MSNBC.

Read “Resurfaced Videos Of QAnon Congresswoman Harassing Parkland Survivor David Hogg Spark Outrage” at Comic Sands.

• Read “Reporter Tossed Out of Marjorie Taylor Greene's Town Hall by Cops for Trying to Ask Question” at Newsweek.

Read “GOP bill would allow lawmakers to override electoral votes” at Arizona Capitol Times.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read ‘Yasmin Williams puts a fresh spin on finger-style guitar” at Washington Post.

Read “What to Know About Music’s Copyright Gold Rush” at Pitchfork.

Read “The Art of Kinda Fittin’ In: ZZ Top Begins” at Tidal.

Read “Black musicians, led by Alicia Keys, ask Biden to create racial justice commission” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Lucinda Williams Looks Back on Every Album She’s Ever Made” at Spin.

Read “Venues Offer COVID-19 Vaccine Spaces and Assistance in Open Letter to Biden” at Pitchfork.

Read “Kris Kristofferson Retires from Stage and Screen” at No Depression.

Read “DistroKid Announces New “Upstream” Program to Share Streaming Data With Record Labels” at Pitchfork.

Read “‘Meaningless’ at 20: Jon Brion Looks Back on His Obscure Solo Masterpiece” at Rolling Stone.

Browse “Unlocked Recordings” at the Internet Archive. “Recordings made available under the Music Modernization Act. A reasonable search has been conducted to determine that these items are not commercially available.”

Read “Every Issue of Punk Planet Is Available on the Internet Archive” at Pitchfork.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Browse Time’s picks for “The 20 Best Anime Series to Watch on Netflix Right Now.”

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Rolling Stone seeks 'thought leaders' willing to pay $2,000 to write for them” at The Guardian.

Read “He dreamed of creating his own African superhero universe. Now it’s finally paying off.” at Washington Post.

Read “The old gods died” at Abraham Joseph (Substack).

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “This 392-Year-Old Bonsai Tree Survived the Hiroshima Atomic Blast & Still Flourishes Today: The Power of Resilience” at Open Culture.

Read “Harvard’s top astronomer says our solar system may be teeming with alien technology” at New Statesman.

Food Cultures:

Read “How Orange (the Fruit) Inspired Orange (the Color)” at Atlas Obscura.

Local:

Read “Nearly 4,000 Maricopa, Pima County Republicans Switched Parties Within 1 Week Of U.S. Capitol Insurrection” at KJZZ.

Read “For a local reporter in Arizona, Trump’s collapse in the state was a longer story going back years.” at Slate. “For a longtime local reporter in Arizona, Trump’s collapse in the state was several narratives finally colliding.”

Read “2 Arizona fugitives captured 5 days after prison escape” at KTAR.

The Weekly Town Crier (01/22/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (01/22/21)

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Phil Spector Dead at 81” at Pitchfork. “The producer, who was in prison for murder, reportedly died of “natural causes”.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Is Dave Ramsey’s empire the ‘best place to work in America’? Say no and you’re out” at Religion News Service. “For years, Dave Ramsey has boasted that his company is the best place to work in the country. COVID-19 and a failure by a high-profile leader put that to the test.”

• Read ‘Full Ramsey Solutions Response” at Religion News Service. “We are horrible people," the financial advice and media company told RNS in a sarcastic email.”

Read ‘Insisting on Healing May be the Death of Us” at Red Letter Christians.

Read "Where Does the South End and Christianity Begin?” by David French. “Understanding the role of shame/honor culture in the roots of Christian rage.”

Read “The Mandalorian’ is an indictment of holy wars, and a celebration of pluralism” at Religion News Service. “Religion is a constant in the galaxy far, far away....”

Read “Why Is It Difficult to Get Christians to Care About the Earth?” at Sojo.net.

Read “QAnon believers grapple with doubt, spin new theories as Trump era ends: 'We all got played'“ at Chron.

• Read “It’s Over’: Devastated QAnon Believers Grapple With President Joe Biden’s Inauguration” at Huff Post.

Read “In rare rebuke, Cardinal Cupich criticizes USCCB president’s letter to President Biden” at America Magazine.

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

Read “Man Arrested in D.C. With Unauthorized Inauguration Credentials, a Loaded Gun, and Lots of Ammo” at Slate.

Read “Biden will sign executive order to reunite migrant families separated at the border” at MSNBC.

Read ‘Two Guard members removed from Biden inauguration over ties to far-right groups” at The HIll.

Read “The 'Racial Caste System' At The U.S. Capitol” at NPR.

Read “Wayfair workers, supporters protest furniture sale to U.S. immigrant camp” at Reuters.

Read “Supreme Court faces bomb threat during Biden's inauguration” at Business Insider.

Read “NRA can’t dodge accountability by moving to Texas: N.Y. AG James” at NY Daily News.

Read “The DEA May Have Botched a Mexican Cartel Case Over Slang for ‘Balls’” at Vice.

Read “House leader calls for FBI investigation into Parler” at The Verge.

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

Read “The Whole Story In A Single Photo” at The Atlantic. ‘An image from the Capitol captures the distance between who we purport to be and who we have actually been.”

Read ‘Capitol rioters included highly trained ex-military and cops” at Associated Press.

Read “Capitol riots: Police describe a 'medieval battle'“ at BBC.

Read ‘Criminal charges filed against Jenna Ryan, Frisco real estate broker who was part of Capitol mob” at Dallas News.

Read “I think this is a wake-up call”: Seeing a familiar face in the Capitol riot” at Vox. “Some are grappling with the prevalence of extremism in America, after seeing co-workers and fellow churchgoers in the riot.”

Read “Capitol Police intelligence report warned three days before attack that ‘Congress itself’ could be targeted” at Washington Post.

Read “Selfie-Snapping Rioters Leave FBI a Trail of Over 140,000 Images” at Bloomberg.

• Read “Dating apps are using Capitol images to ban rioters’ accounts” at Washington Post.

Read “Sasse: Capitol rioters 'came dangerously close to starting a bloody constitutional crisis'“ at The Hill.

Read “Pelosi suggests criminal charges for any lawmaker who helped with Capitol riot” at The Hill.

• Read “Colorado officials pen letter requesting probe into Boebert's actions” at The Hill.

• Read “Lauren Boebert vowed to shake things up in Congress. She has delivered in her first week” at Colorado Sun.

• Read “Comms director for gun-toting congresswoman quits” at Axios.

Read the opinion piece “Congress Is Still Littered With Insurrectionists” at Slate. “It’s time to remove the busts of these traitors from Statuary Hall.”

Read “The January 6 insurrection was a last gasp for white supremacy” at MSNBC.

Read “Experts say Trump, Congress members could be targets of Capitol invasion investigation” at MSNBC.

Read “A Former Marine Stormed the Capitol as Part of a Far-Right Militia” at New Yorker.

Read “Online far-right movements fracture in wake of Capitol riot” at NBC News.

Read “Former US attorney general William Barr tells ITV News questioning election legitimacy 'precipitated Capitol riots'“ at ITV.

Read “The Confederate battle flag: Longtime symbol of white insurrection” at Salon.

Read “The FBI is tracing a digital trail to Capitol rioters” at Axios.

Read “Mitch McConnell Says Capitol Rioters Were ‘Provoked’ By Trump” at Huff Post.

Read “MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Says Bed Bath And Beyond, Kohl’s To Drop His Products; Dominion Voting Systems Threatens To Sue” at Minnesota CBS Local.

Read “An apparent leader of Oath Keepers charged with planning and coordinating breach at US Capitol” at CNN.

Read “Scottsdale Prosecutors Seek to Revoke Baked Alaska's Release Due to Capitol Livestream” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Nearly 1 In 5 Defendants In Capitol Riot Cases Served In The Military” at NPR.

This Week With The Police:

Read Sheriffs Helped Lead This Insurrection” at Slate. “Sheriffs play a key role in right-wing white supremacist movements.”

Read “The Cops at the Captiol” at The Appeal. “Law enforcement officers from around the country attended and supported last week’s rally in support of President Trump that sparked a riot.” “At least 32 members of law enforcement agencies from 15 states have been identified as having participating in the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally.”

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Europe’s Schools Are Closing Again on Concerns They Spread Covid-19” at Wall Street Journal. “Countries are abandoning pledges to keep classrooms open as concerns mount over children’s capacity to pass on the virus.”

Read “‘A hack job,’ ‘outright lies’: Trump commission’s ‘1776 Report’ outrages historians” at Washington Post.

• Read “Biden to rescind 1776 commission via executive order” at CNN.
  
  

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read, “Yes, the Pandemic Is Ruining Your Body” at The Atlantic. “Quarantine is turning you into a stiff, hunched-over, itchy, sore, headachy husk.”

Read “Vaccine reserve was already exhausted when Trump administration vowed to release it, dashing hopes of expanded” at Washington Post.

Read ‘COVID-19 exposure on flights is more common than you think. The US doesn't share details, but Canada does” at USA Today.

Read ‘There have now been over two million virus-related deaths worldwide” at New York Times.

Read “Arizona has highest rate of COVID-19 in world, data shows” at ABC 15.

Read “Charles Barkley: Athletes pay more in taxes, 'deserve some preferential treatment' for COVID-19 vaccine” at The Hill.

Read “This Coronavirus Is Unlike Anything in Our Lifetime, and We Have to Stop Comparing It to the Flu” at Pro Publica.

Read “Dallas County axes plan to prioritize vaccinating communities of color after state threatens to slash allocation” at Texas Tribune.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read The Importance, and Incoherence, of Twitter’s Trump Ban” at The New Yorker. ““It’s coherent—and in my view absolutely appropriate—to believe both that (i) the social media companies were right to suspend Trump’s accounts last week; and (ii) the companies’ immense power over public discourse is a problem for democracy.”

Read “NRA files for bankruptcy” at CNN.

Read ‘Biden plans early legislation to offer legal status to 11 million immigrants without it” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Pepsi, Coca-Cola will not run ads during Super Bowl” at The Hill.

Read ‘‘Guardians’ Star Offers $20,000 Reward in’TRUMP’ Manatee Case” at Huff Post.

Read “Social media has been radicalizing people for years” at Marketplace.

Read “Technologists Use Facial Recognition on Parler Videos” at Vice.

Read “One of President Biden's first orders of business: Following Chrissy Teigen on Twitter” at AV Club.

Internationalities:

Read “Japan Virus Surge Makes Suga More Look Like Short-Term Premier” at Bloomberg.

Read “Saudi Arabia Curbs Death Penalty in Move to Soften Image” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Joe Biden to Cancel Keystone Pipeline, Another Blow to Canadian Oil Industry” at Vice.

Read “US calls China's abuses of Muslim minorities 'genocide' and 'crimes against humanity” at ABC News.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Josh Hawley, who led Senate efforts to overturn the election results, is being targeted by a super PAC” at New York Times.

Read “Conservative Website Admits Its Stories About Dominion Were ‘Completely False’ in Massive Retraction” at Media-ite.

Read “Biden Covid-19 Relief Plan Aims to Ease Poverty, Advance Democratic Priorities” at Wall Street Journal.

• Read “How Joe Biden’s $1.9 Trillion COVID-19 Relief Proposal Helps Women” at Huff Post.

Read “Three days after President Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Rep. Andy Biggs threatened to sue former political rival Joan Greene for defamation in a letter” at AZ Central. “Greene's lawyer said the letter "has all of the strength of a sloppy Kleenex."

Read “Former GOP congressman says he's leaving party: 'This has become a cult'“ (EDITOR’S NOTE: “AMEN”).

Read “Manchin: Removing Hawley, Cruz with 14th Amendment 'should be a consideration'“ at The HIll.

Read “The 15 most notable lies of Donald Trump's presidency” at CNN.

Read “FBI vetting service members ahead of inauguration amid reported fears of insider attack” at NBC News.

Read “Dominion threatens MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell with lawsuit over ‘false and conspiratorial’ claims” at Washington Post.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read ‘Newly sworn-in GOP senator suggests delaying inauguration” at The Hill.

Read “Limbaugh falsely says Biden didn't win legitimately while reacting to inauguration” at The Hill.

Read “At This Trump-Favored Charity, Financial Reporting Is Questionable and Insiders Are Cashing In” at Pro Publica.

Read “Giuliani associate told ex-CIA officer a Trump pardon would 'cost $2m’” at The Guardian.

Read the opinion piece “What Does Josh Hawley Think He’s Doing?” at Washington Post.

Read “Trump Does His Part in Scandalizing the Presidential Pardon Power” at National Review.

• Read “Trump commutes 40-year sentence of Clearwater Ponzi scheme operator” at Tampa Bay Times.

• Read “Joe Exotic says he was ‘too gay’ to be pardoned by Trump” at New York Post.
  
  

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Bruce Springsteen and Foo Fighters to Play at Biden-Harris Inauguration Event” at Pitchfork.

• Read “Lady Gaga to Sing National Anthem at Biden-Harris Inauguration” at New Now Next.

• Read “MF DOOM, Kendrick Lamar Highlight Joe Biden Official Inauguration Playlist’ at OkayPlayer.

• Read “New Radicals Reuniting After 22 Years to Perform at Biden Inauguration Event” at Pitchfork.

Read “Ariel Pink and Tucker Carlson Are Both Parasites” at Vice. “Pink played the victim on Fox News Thursday night, and Carlson gladly let him do it. No one mentioned that Pink is facing allegations of abuse.”

• Read “Ariel Pink Accused of Sexual Abuse and Misconduct” at Spin.

Read “Marianne Faithfull: 'I was in a dark place. Presumably it was death'“ at The Guardian. “After battling Covid-19 for three weeks in hospital, Faithfull went on to finish her 21st solo album – and possibly her last. She reflects on how she might never sing again, her hatred of being a 60s muse and why she still believes in miracles.”

Read “Dr. Dre Released from Hospital Following Brain Aneurysm Scare” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Mozart apparently liked to imitate cats. Here’s the tail as we know it” at Classic.fm.

Read “Rough Trade Closing Current Brooklyn Location” at Stereogum.

Read “Gary Numan: 'One of my songs got over a million streams - I got £37'“ at Sky News.

Read “With COVID-19 Transmissions Under Control, New Zealand Hosts 20,000-Person Concert” at Relix.

Read “A Probably Futile Attempt To Figure Out What Happened To Mark Kozelek” at Uproxx.

Read “Trump Pardons Lil Wayne and Kodak Black” at Pitchfork.

Read “Van Morrison to start legal action over Northern Ireland Covid ban on live music” at The Guardian.

Read “An Update From The Wrens On The Most Delayed Indie Album In History” at Uproxx.

• Read “Charles Bissell Details New Wrens Album And Teases 2021 Release: “Plans Are Afoot”” at Stereogum.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Historian Dr. Ibram X. Kendi to Produce Three Netflix Projects Based on His Anti-Racism Books” at People.

Read “Ken Burns Says U.S. Has 3 Viruses: COVID-19, White Supremacy And Misinformation” at NPR.

Read “‘The Muppet Show’ Heads To Disney+” at Deadline.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen to pen foreword for impeachment book” at The Hill.

Read “Why Should You Read Toni Morrison’s Beloved? An Animated Video Makes the Case” at Open Culture.

Read “'Wow, you're awesome': Cooper left speechless by youth poet laureate” at CNN.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “The most expensive comic art in the world was folded up in a drawer for decades” at Boing Boing.

Read “Wanna buy a Botticelli? The masterpiece coming to auction, and who might nab it” at Los Angeles Times.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Mice may ‘catch’ each other’s pain — and pain relief” at Science News.

Food Cultures:

Read “Oscar Mayer Is Hiring Wienermobile Drivers for Road Trips Across the U.S.” at Thrill List.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Hanging Pillar of Lepakshi Veerabhadra Temple Lepakshi, India” at Atlas Obscura.

Local:

Read “Bill aims to disallow Sharpies to be used on ballots” at AZ Mirror.

Read “Oatman Ghost Town Oatman, Arizona” at Atlas Obscura. “This Wild West ghost town on Route 66 is filled with wild burros.”

The Weekly Town Crier (01/08/21)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (01/08/21).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Gerry Marsden of Gerry & the Pacemakers Dead at 78” at Pitchfork.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Meet Shane Vaughn, Mississippi pastor and star of viral ‘if Trump does not concede’ video” at Religion News Service. “A small-town Mississippi preacher’s video claims President Trump could still win the election.”

Read “The (so-called) "Traditional" Argument is not Traditional” at Christianity Today. “The claim to have a traditional argument ag: women's ordination is far from traditional.” “First, the church’s traditional view is that women were ontologically inferior to men. Second, the church’s traditional view is not that women and men were essentially equal. Third, the view that women and men were essentially equal emerges widespread in the church in about the middle of the Twentieth Century.”

Read ‘Six white men shouldn’t decide Southern Baptist position on race” at Religion News Service. “Last week’s statement from the presidents of six SBC seminaries opposing critical race theory isn’t good for the denomination or evangelism.”

Read “Priesthood of All Professors? Court to Consider ‘Ministerial Exception’ for Gordon College” at Christianity Today. “Decision could impact freedom of faculty, ability of evangelical institutions to hire and fire.”

Read “Biden DHS nominee has ‘refreshing’ meeting with faith groups about immigration, refugees” at Religion News Service. “One attendee described the meeting as 'a 180 degree change from what we've been enduring for the last four years.'

Read “Democrat lawmaker’s gender inclusive ‘amen and awoman’ congressional prayer causes stir” at Independent.

Read ‘Historic Black church in DC sues Proud Boys for destroying Black Lives Matter sign” at Religion News Service. “'We, the descendants of these extraordinary women and men of God, will not allow white supremacist violence to go unchecked by the laws of the land,' said Metropolitan AME pastor the Rev. William H. Lamar IV.”

Read “The SBC, Whiteness, and an Exodus of Black Pastors” by Raymond Chang at Christianity Today.

Read “How the shofar emerged as a weapon of spiritual warfare for some evangelicals” at Religion News Service. “Shofar blowing, as in today's Jericho March, has become commonplace in many political demonstrations far removed from any Jewish or Israel-related themes.”

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 “Trump’s evangelicals were complicit in the desecration of our democracy” at Washington Post.

Read “Faith groups among those calling for Trump’s impeachment after US Capitol occupation” at Religion News Service. ““The political and religious costs of a tight evangelical alliance with violent bigots and crackpots were easily foreseen. I and many others foresaw and foresaw until our fingers ached at the keyboard.”

Read “We Worship with the Magi, Not MAGA” at Christianity Today.”Epiphany reminds us that faith is not a prop for political power.”

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

Read “Indiana law going into effect Jan. 1 will require women to have ultrasound before abortion” at The Hill.

Read “Spying Before Stonewall: How the FBI Secretly Tracked Gay Activists in the 60s” at Vice.

Read “On Kenosha and the difficulty of recognising Nazism in the US” at Al Jazeera. “Nazis have not disappeared. They have simply said they are not Nazis.”

Read “Texas loosens firearm laws hours after the state’s latest mass shooting left five dead” at CNN.

Read “UK judge denies US request to extradite Julian Assange” at CNN.

Read “Kelly Loeffler's new Facebook ad darkens skin of Raphael Warnock, her Black opponent” at Salon.

Read “Illinois teen pleads not guilty in Kenosha protest slayings” at 12 News.

Read “Black Lives Matter in 2021: Where the movement might go” at KCRW.

Read “Ohio governor signs controversial gun bill expanding "stand your ground" right” at CBS News.

Read “Hack of federal agencies 'likely Russian in origin,' U.S. says” at Los Angeles Times.

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

Read “Madness on Capitol Hill” at Newsweek. “Part insurrection, part happy hour, Trump supporters lost their minds, and I watched a man urinate on the Capitol steps. The nation, ashamed, was left to mourn.”

Read “State capitals come under siege by pro-Trump mobs” at The Hill.

• Read “State employees told to avoid Arizona Capitol, work from home after certification chaos” at AZ Central.

Read “Arizona Democratic Party Chair: Trump To Blame For Mob At U.S. Capitol” at KJZZ.

Read “The U.S. Capitol was built to inspire awe. But that's all gone now” at Salon. “If those had been Black Lives Matter protesters storming the Capitol, half of them would be dead by now — and the other half would have been tear-gassed, beaten and arrested within minutes.”

Read “Tracking the White Extremists Involved in Insurrection at the Capitol” at The Takeaway.

Read “Police Response to Far-Right Insurrection Draws Comparisons to Last Summer's Black Lives Matter Protests” at The Takeaway. “Black activists and allies were repeatedly targeted by law enforcement, at times with tear gas and physical violence. Though police were present at the Capitol yesterday, far-right insurrectionists faced little resistance from them, as they stormed the building.”

Read “How To Talk To Kids About The Riots At The U.S. Capitol” at NPR.

Read “How To Process A Scary Day For The Nation With Your Kids” at LA-ist.

Read “Antisemites Implicate Jews, Zionists in DC Violence” at Anti Defamation League.

Read “Alabama AG leads nonprofit that helped organize march at Capitol” at Alabama Political Reporter.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “National security law: Mass arrests in Hong Kong 'over primary vote'“ at BBC.

Read “Trump supporters protesting the election begin demonstrating in D.C.” at Washington Post. ‘“I’m going to give everyone three action steps … turn to the person next to you and give them a hug,” one speaker exhorted the crowd. “Someone you don’t know … it’s a mass-spreader event! It’s a mass-spreader event!”

Read “Police: Protesters outside Sen. Josh Hawley’s home were peaceful” at St. Louis Dispatch.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Columbus’ Policing Problem Goes Deeper Than the Shooting of Andre Hill” at Slate.

Read ‘Kenosha: Negligence Claims Filed Against City And County Over Fatal Shootings” at NPR.

Read “2 detectives involved in Breonna Taylor raid are fired” at WLLWT5.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Simple Justice: Kids Deserve School Choice” at Public Discourse.

Read “Betsy DeVos urges Congress to reject student loan forgiveness in apparent farewell letter” at CBS News.

• Read “Betsy DeVos resigns as Education Secretary” at The Hill.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Prison Guards Without PPE Are Endangering Lives At Yuma Hospital, Nurses Say” at KJZZ.

Read “Belgian retirement home records 26 COVID-19 deaths after visiting Santa tests positive” at The Hill.

Read “Romney: Lack of comprehensive vaccine distribution plan is 'inexcusable'“ at The Hill.

Read “U.S. Surpasses 20 Million Confirmed Coronavirus Cases” at NPR.

Read “North Korea asks for COVID-19 vaccines from international alliance” at The Hill.

Read (Contradicting the president) “Surgeon General says 'no reason to doubt' COVID-19 death toll number” at The Hill.

Read “Coronavirus latest news: Watch live as Boris Johnson makes announcement on new lockdown rules” at Telegraph.

Read “Federal Data Reveal Which Hospitals Are Dangerously Full This Week. Is Yours?” at NPR.

Read “Georgia's First Reported Case Of COVID-19 Variant Detected In 18-Year-Old” at GPB.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “The tale of two Americas. The S&P 500 gained more than 16 percent in 2020 in a year of steep job losses and widespread financial pain” at Washington Post.

Read “'Steamrolled Us In Every Direction' : The Year Grief Hit From All Sides” at NPR.

Read “Wall Street minted 56 new billionaires since the pandemic began — but many families are left behind” at NBC News.

Read “One dead, several injured in Texas church shooting” at NBC News.

Read “Sherlock Holmes and the case of toxic masculinity: what is behind the detective’s appeal?” at Salon.

Read “U.S. government checks constituted 40% of farmers’ income in 2020: USDA” at Market Watch (EDITOR’S NOTE: I thought the U.S. was against Socialism?)

Read “Google Workers Publicly Launch Union” at Vice.

Read “Grief’s Anatomy” by Hanif Abdurraqib at The Baffler. “Hope awaits organizers like a trap.”

Read ‘How Memorial Tattoos Can Help With The Grieving Process” at Huff Post. “Remembrance tattoos can aid people dealing with loss in more ways than you might realize, according to mental health experts.”

Read “Exporting the U.S. Shale Boom Has Changed Oil Markets Forever” at Bloomberg.

Read The modern US army: unfit for service?” at The Guardian. “Gone are the days of the all-American army hero. These days, the US military is more like a sanctuary for racists, gang members and the chronically unfit.”

Internationalities:

Read “White House announces $3.7bn aid grant for Puerto Rico” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Protests Erupt Again in Senegal Over COVID-19 Curfew” at Okay Africa.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Corporate group urges officials consider Trump's removal 'to preserve democracy'“ at Reuters.

Read “Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward fails (again) to destroy America” at AZ Central.

Read “What we forget about Jimmy Carter's legacy” at CNN.

Read “Trump leaves mark on immigration policy, some of it lasting” at KTAR.

Read “Nancy Pelosi narrowly re-elected as US House speaker” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Fed Returns Money to Treasury for Terminated Emergency Programs” at Bloomberg.

Read ‘We must impeach Trump and bar him from holding office again. Now” at The Guardian.

Read ‘NPR Had The Leaked Trump Tape, Too. Here's What The Newsroom Did With It” at NPR.

Read “After latest failure, Trump legacy to be defined by conduct since election loss” at KTAR.

Read “D.C. Police to contact GOP Rep. Boebert about plans to bring Glock to work” at Politico.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “On Tuesday, an offer of hot chocolate to a shivering voter could become a crime” at AJC.

Read “I just want to find 11,780 votes’: In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor” at Washington Post.

• Read “More Republicans Reject Effort to Disrupt Biden’s Certification” at Bloomberg.

• Read “Wall Street Journal: GOP Electoral College 'stunt' will hurt US, Republican Party” at The Hill.

• Read “‘Questioning’ Is Over: All Living Former Defense Secretaries Decry Election Attacks” at Huff Post. “Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts."

  Read “Chip Roy challenges seating of House members from six presidential battleground states” at The Hill.

• Read ‘Perdue and Loeffler Are Abetting Trump’s Coup Attempt” at Slate. “Their response to the leaked phone call shows how far they’re willing to go.”

• Read “Judge floats sanctions for attorneys who sought to block Congress from counting electoral votes” at The Hill.

• Read “Trump pressures Pence to throw out election results — even though he can't” at Politico.

• Read “Cori Bush introduces legislation to sanction, remove all House members who supported election challenges” at The Hill.

• Read “Trump publicly acknowledges he won't serve a second term a day after inciting mob” at CNN.

• Read “Justice Department warns of national security fallout from Capitol Hill insurrection” at Politico.

• Read “Capitol Attack Leads Democrats to Demand That Trump Leave Office” at New York Times.

• Read “Maryland company terminates employee who wore badge during Capitol rioting” at The Hill.

• Read “Jake Angeli: The Psychedelic Guru Who Stormed The Capitol” at Psymposia.

• Read ‘These Are the Rioters Who Stormed the Nation’s Capitol” at New York Times. “The mob that rampaged the halls of Congress included infamous white supremacists and conspiracy theorists.”

• Read “Some among America's military allies believe Trump deliberately attempted a coup and may have had help from federal law-enforcement officials” at Business Insider.

Read “GOP leaders in Pa. Senate will refuse to seat Democrat certified by state as winner” at Inquirer.

• Read “PA Legislature Descends Into Chaos After Republicans Refuse to Seat Certified Democratic State Senate Winner” at Second Nexus.

• Read “Pa. governor calls GOP refusal to seat Democrat a 'shameful power grab'“ at The Hill.

Read “Sen. David Perdue Sold His Home to a Finance Industry Official Whose Organization Was Lobbying the Senate” at Pro Publica.

Read “Forty Fort man applied for a ballot for his deceased mother, detectives allege” at Citizen’s Voice.

Read “U.S. Capitol In Chaos As Pro-Trump Extremists Breach Building” at NPR.

• Read “4 people died as Trump supporters occupied Capitol; 1 woman shot by police, 3 in medical emergencies” at WWay.

• Read “Back In July, Trump Demanded Capitol Protesters Serve 10 Years In Prison” at Huff Post.

Read “If Trump pardons himself now, he’ll be walking into a trap” at Washington Post.

Music-Related News and Such:

Watch “Five minutes of a mushroom playing a synthesizer” at Boing Boing.

Read “Coltrane, Kamasi and the art of looking both directions at once” at VInyl Factory (from 2018).

Read “Radio-Friendly Unit Shifters” at Slate. “Chris Molanphy talks to veteran Billboard analyst Geoff Mayfield about the Billboard charts in the early SoundScan era.”

Read “You will never forget the music you loved as a 14-year-old. Here’s why.” at A Journal Of Musical Things.

Read “Tens of thousands attend New Zealand festivals without having to socially distance” at NME.

Read “Bad Religion reflects on their 40 years in punk rock, from underground to mainstream” at KCRW.

Read “Bruce Springsteen says he has a “big surprise” coming in 2021” at NME.

Read “'The beauty and the tragedy': Gin Blossoms' founder Doug Hopkins' story being told in film” at AZ Central.

Read “Grammy Awards Postponed as Covid-19 Rages in Los Angeles” at New York Times.

Read “Dr. Dre Suffers Brain Aneurysm. In ICU at L.A. Hospital” at TMZ.

Read “Neil Young Sells 50% Stake of Songwriting Catalog to Hipgnosis” at Pitchfork.

Read “What To Do When A New Record Is Skipping” at Discogs.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “How a Fictional Soccer Coach Showed What the World Should Be” by David French. “Ted Lasso and the simple power of forgiveness.”

• Read “Yes, Ted Lasso Really Is as Delightful as You’ve Heard” at Opus Zine. ‘This endearing Apple TV+ series about an American coaching an English soccer team is one of 2020’s true pop culture highlights.”

Read “Soul Is Pixar at Its Most Unpredictably Weird” at Vulture.

Read “Parents rejoice as Caillou finally meets its long-overdue demise” at AV Club.

Books/Reading/Authors

Browse “Hayao Miyazaki Picks His 50 Favorite Children’s Books” at Open Culture.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “Inside the U.S. Army’s Warehouse Full of Nazi Art” at New Yorker.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Scientists Are Fighting Fire (Ants) With Wasabi” at Atlas Obscura.

Read ‘The Milky Way is probably full of dead civilizations” at Space.

Read “Earth is whipping around quicker than it has in a half-century” at Live Science.

Food Cultures:

Read “'I'm 72 and I Grow Giant Vegetables'“ at Newsweek.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “10 Secure Places to Wait Out the Zombie Apocalypse” at Atlas Obscura.

Local:

Read “Arizona Drivers Get Extra Year To Renew Licenses” at KJZZ. “Arizona is giving drivers an extra year to renew their licenses to minimize in-person visits to Arizona Motor Vehicle Division offices during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Read “Tonto Forest Begins Thinning Project To Reduce Wildfire Risk” at KJZZ.

Read “As Arizona becomes world hot spot, focus put on governor” at Washington Post.

• Read “Video taken by Arizona governor's son at packed party prompts criticism of Ducey” at AZ Central.
  

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 (12/04/20)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (12/04/20).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Darth Vader actor David Prowse has died at 85” at The Verge.

Read ‘‘Mad Max’ villain Hugh Keays-Byrne has died” at NME.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Ruling Striking Down Limits on Religious Services Shows Trump Effect on Supreme Court” at Slate.

Read “Is Healing Even Possible?” at The Atlantic. “In an extended interview, the Reverend William J. Barber II explains why healing the soul of the nation will take more than returning to “normal.”

Read “Most ‘Fox News Republicans’ believe Christians face most discrimination” at Religion News Service.

Read (Russel) “Moore presented with Defending Religious Freedom Award” at Kentucky Today.

Read “Churches return land to Indigenous groups as part of #LandBack movement” at Religion News Service.

Read “Lawsuit: LDS Church officials, teacher knew of abuse but kept silent” at AZ Central.

Read “Seminary presidents reaffirm BFM, declare CRT incompatible” at Baptist Press.

• Read “Southern Baptist seminary presidents reaffirm their commitment to whiteness” at The Witness.

Read “How Prison Ministry Inspired an All-Female Audio Bible” at Christianity Today.

Read “Faith takes the forefront as Georgia Senate runoffs heat up” at Associated Press.

Read “Eric Metaxas and the losing of the evangelical mind” at Religion News Service. “Christians can’t wait for the sociologists to sort out why our fellow congregants believe in ‘Q’ or that Trump won the election. We need a strategy to restore a few basic truths.”

• Read “How Eric Metaxas went from Trump despiser to true believer” at Religion News Service. “How a one-time aspiring public intellectual and Trump doubter turned into a true believer in stolen elections.”

Read “Three ways to create sacred moments at home this Advent” at Christian Century.

Read “Why Some Evangelicals Refuse To Acknowledge That Trump Has Lost The Election” at Huff Post.

Read “In leaked call, Hillsong founder Brian Houston details ‘narcissistic’ Carl Lentz’s firing” at Religion News Service.

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

Read “New rule could allow gas, firing squads for US executions” at AP News.

Read “Man receives racist note after putting up Black Santa decoration” at The Hill.

Read “Restructuring A World Without Prisons” at Sojourners. “Making the impossible possible calls for an exercise in radical imagination.”

Read “Ex-Arizona Official Gets Six Years for Smuggling Pregnant Women Into U.S. to Sell Their Babies” at MSN.

Read “President Trump's war on immigration takes on political overtone at Supreme Court” at USA Today.

Read “Supreme Court skeptical of Trump's plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from census” at NBC News.

Read “French government drops draft law curbing filming of police” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Inside a Neo-Nazi Terror Cell as it Reckons with FBI Arrests” at Vice.

• Read “How One Man Built a Neo-Nazi Insurgency in Trump's America” at Vice. “This is the inside story of how Rinaldo Nazzaro built the Base, a neo-Nazi terror organization—and how it all came apart.”

• Read “For Some, Joining the Proud Boys Was a Stop on the Way to Neo-Nazi Terror” at Vice. “Several members and a recruit to the neo-Nazi terror group the Base described the Proud Boys as part of the journey into far-right extremism.”

Read “Bill that could help Black farmers reclaim millions of acres 'a step in the right direction'“ at ABC News.

Read “Hidden in Plain Sight: The Ghosts of Segregation” at New York Times.

Read “Harris County GOP chairman who made racist Facebook post resigns” at The Hill.

Read “DeSantis wants to make ‘Stand Your Ground’ a license to kill vandals in Florida” at Orlando Sentinel.

Read “'Tiger King' star Joe Exotic formally requests pardon, including handwritten letter to Trump” at USA Today.

Read “Black Children Are Six Times More Likely to Be Shot to Death by Police” at Equal Justice Initiative.

Read “The U.S. Spent $11.6B to Stop Cocaine Trafficking. It Was a Massive Failure” at Vice.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Kentucky cop slugs man livestreaming an arrest with ‘solid left hook’” at New York Post.

Read “How America’s deadliest serial killer went undetected for more than 40 years” at Washington Post.

Read “Phoenix approves $3 million payout to family of man fatally shot in the back by police” at AZ Central.

Read “US: No Justice 6 Months Since New York Police Assault” at Human Rights Watch.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Teaching in the Pandemic: This is not sustainable” at New York Times.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “The Unexpected Message Revealed by Long Lines for Virus Testing” at New York Times.

Read “Rhode Island is shutting bars and gyms But leaving schools open Because that's what the data suggests we should do” at Washington Post.

Read “The NFL’s Thanksgiving Weekend Has Become a Covid Crisis” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Larry Fitzgerald tests positive for COVID-19” at 12 News.

Read “In Europe’s Nursing Homes, a Soaring Covid-19 Death Toll and the Pain of Isolation” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “The Yankee Candle phenomenon” at Boing Boing.

Read “Coronavirus Hospitalizations Are at an All-Time High” at Vice.

Read ‘How The Coronavirus Has Affected Individual Members Of Congress” at NPR.

Read “Pope Blasts Those Who Criticize COVID Restrictions in the Name of “Personal Freedom”” at Slate.

Read “Moderna Chief Medical Officer: ‘Once there is marketing authorization, we stand ready to distribute our vaccine’” at MSNBC.

Read “Arizona School, Business Leaders Concerned About Spread Of COVID-19” at KJZZ.

Read “Articles of impeachment filed against GOP Ohio governor over coronavirus orders” at The Hill.

Read ‘Canada not ready to lift border restrictions with US as COVID-19 spikes” at The Hill.

Read “How Safe Is Eating At A Restaurant During The COVID-19 Pandemic?” at Huff Post.

Read “CDC urges Americans not to travel for Christmas” at The Hill.

Read “Why nursing home aides exposed to COVID-19 aren’t taking sick leave at The Conversation.

Read ‘Coronavirus: Here's how you can stop bad information from going viral” at BBC

Read “The Majority Of Children Who Die From COVID-19 Are Children Of Color” at NPR.

Read “Italy bans Christmas travel between regions” at BBC.

Read “Iowa Is What Happens When Government Does Nothing” at The Atlantic. “The story of the coronavirus in the state is one of government inaction in the name of freedom and personal responsibility.”

Read “What the CDC’s New Quarantine Guidelines Mean for You” at Slate.

Read “City of Phoenix halts sports facility reservations as coronavirus cases rise” at KTAR.

Read “Covid Shrinks the Labor Market, Pushing Out Women and Baby Boomers” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “COVID-19 Will Change How We Age, Where We Age And How We Pay For It” at WBUR.

Read “Fauci: 'I don't socialize. It's my wife and I and the federal agents'“ at The Hill.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Family Caregivers In Arizona Are Struggling With Burnout And Isolation During COVID-19” at KJZZ.

Read “Ikea Will Buy Back the Furniture You No Longer Want and Recycle or Resell It” at Global Citizen.

Read “OAN Is So Dangerous Because It Looks Like a Real News Channel” at Vice.

Read “Man caught with nearly 4 tons of stolen sewer lids in pickup truck, cops say” at CWB Chicago.

Read “The Crown Doesn't Fully Explain Why Princess Diana Was So Popular. Here's How She Became a Global Celebrity” at Time.

Read “‘Time For My Flag to Go Up’: How Anti-Trumpers Are Reclaiming the American Flag” at Politico.

Read “'The Real Looting in America Is the Walton Family': GAO Report Details How Taxpayers Subsidize Cruel Low Wages of Corporate Giants” at Common Dreams.

Read “IRS Says Its Own Error Sent $1,200 Stimulus Checks To Non-Americans Overseas” at NPR.

Read “Microsoft files patent to record and score meetings on body language” at BBC.

Read “Facial recognition is getting better at making matches around face masks’ at CNET.

Read “Facebook Content Review Board Chooses First Six Cases for Review” at Bloomberg. “Oversight Board has picked the first six cases it will review to determine whether the company took appropriate action with controversial content.”

Read “Airbnb Sets IPO Terms Sending Valuation as High as $35 Billion” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “UCLA Paid Student Workers With Amazon Gift Cards” at Vice.

Read I'm an 'LSD Specialist' Who Sells Acid to Oxford University Students” at Vice. "I’m not really in it for the money. If I was, I’d probably sell something like ketamine."

Read “Elliot Page Announces He is Transgender” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “How To Fix A Food System That Wasn’t Designed To Feed People” at Huff Post.

Read “The Justice Department is suing Facebook for side-stepping visa rules” at The Verge.

Read “This ‘Magical Bug’ Exposed Any iPhone in a Hacker's Wi-Fi Range” at Wired.

Read “The Latest OnlyFans Drama Involves a YouTuber Posting a Video of Herself As a Toddler” at Vulture.

Internationalities:

Read “Suspected North Korean Hackers Target COVID-19 Vaccine Maker AstraZeneca” at HuffPost.

Read “Israel, US planning ‘covert ops’ against Iran as Trump’s term ends, report says” at Times of Israel.

Read “How Iranian scientist’s killing could derail future US-Iran talks” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Government ready for 100 per cent increase in Hong Kong citizens coming to UK” at Telegraph.

Read “Canada bans mass exports of prescription drugs” at BBC.

Read “Assassination in Iran Could Limit Biden’s Options. Was That the Goal?” at New York Times.

Read “Eviction of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah part of Israeli policy” at Al Jazeera.

Read “US sanctions Chinese company for conducting business with Maduro regime” at The Hill.

Read “Japan Puts Its Post-Covid Tourism Hopes In Hands Of Giant Robot” at Huff Post.

Read “Homes raided after Germany bans far-right group” at The Hill.

Read “An anti-gay Hungarian politician has resigned after being caught by the police fleeing a 25-man orgy through a window” at Business Insider.

Read ‘Everyone Looks Terrible in the Grim China-Australia Twitter War” at Slate. “How a nation got trolled into publicizing its own war crimes.”

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Cuomo blames new conservative majority for high court's COVID-19 decision” at The Hill.

Read “NC donor wants millions returned after pro-Trump group drops election fraud cases” at News Observer.

Read “Joe Biden considering Cindy McCain for UK ambassador” at KTAR.

Read “Republicans ready to become deficit hawks again under a President Biden” at The Hill.

Read “Pennsylvania Supreme Court Throws Out Last Active Legal Challenge to State’s Election Results” at Slate.

Read “Carter Page sues over surveillance related to Russia probe” at The Hill.

Read “National Review Calls Out “Trump’s Disgraceful Endgame” at Hill Reporter.

Read “Biden hires all-female WH communications team” at MSNBC.

Read “Biden says he asked Fauci to be a chief medical adviser for incoming administration” at Boing Boing.

Read “Robert Lighthizer Blew Up 60 Years of Trade Policy. Nobody Knows What Happens Next.” at Pro Publica.

Read “The Pardon Power May Be Broad, But that Does Not Mean a Self-Pardon Would Be Legit” at Reason.

Read “More and More Republican Officials Are Standing Up to Trump and His Effort to Overturn the Election” at Slate.

Read “Barr: No evidence of fraud that’d change outcome of presidential election” at WUSA9.

Read “Trump to boycott Biden’s inauguration — and won’t even invite him for White House visit” at The Raw Story.

Read “McCaskill: 'Hypocrisy' for GOP to target Biden nominee's tweets after Trump” at The Hill.

Read “The MAGA Coalition Rallying Behind Trump’s Post-Election Mischief Is Already Cracking” at Daily Beast.

Read “Most Americans support raising taxes on those making at least $400,000” at The Hill.

Read “How Is Trump’s Lawyer Jenna Ellis ‘Elite Strike Force’ Material?” at New York Times.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Trump’s Disinformation Campaign Threatens to Undermine the Government” at Time.

Read “20 days of fantasy and failure: Inside Trump’s quest to overturn the election” at Washington Post.

Read “It's not the first time that an outgoing president refused to work with an incoming one” at Salon.

Read “Arizona Republicans Level More Allegations Of Election Fraud” at KJZZ.

Read “Kemp to Trump: Georgia law blocks him from ‘interfering’ with elections” at AJC.

Read “Trump and his allies won't drop claims of stolen election — because they're cashing in” at Salon.

Read “Trump blasts Ducey over election certification, says he betrayed Arizonans” at AZ Mirror.

Read “Bill Barr Hid Evidence Of A Bribery For Pardon Investigation During The Election” at Empty Wheel.

Read ‘Trump Has Discussed With Advisers Pardons for His 3 Eldest Children and Giuliani” at New York Times.

Read ‘'It has to stop': Georgia official calls on Trump to 'stop inspiring' death threats over election” at USA Today.

Read “Wisconsin Gov. Calls Trump Election Fraud Lawsuit An ‘Assault’” at Huff Post. “He is simply trying to seize Wisconsin’s electoral votes, even though he lost the statewide election,” attorneys say.

Read “Donald Trump’s Latest Grift May Be His Most Cynical Yet” at The New Yorker.

Read “White House liaison barred from DOJ after pressing for sensitive information” at The Hill.

Read “Wisconsin Supreme Court declines to hear Trump's "case"“ at Boing Boing.

Read “Ivanka Trump deposed Tuesday as part of inauguration fund lawsuit” at NBC News. “The suit claims the Inaugural Committee made improper payments to the president's hotel during his 2017 inauguration. Trump called the suit political.”

Read “David Perdue bought Pfizer stock — a week before company said it would develop a vaccine” at Salon.

Read “GOP Attorney Caught Illegally Registering to Vote in Georgia After Video of Him Urging Others to Do So Went Viral” at Second Nexus.

Read “Giuliani's witness draws audible laughter during testimony” at CNN.

Music-Related News and Such:

2020 Year-End Lists:

• Browse “Brad's Top 50 Albums of 2020” at Amoeba Music.

• Browse Crack’s picks for “The Top Albums of 2020.”

• Browse Ted Goia’s picks for “The One Hundred Best Albums of 2020.”

• Browse Gorilla Vs. Bear’s Albums of 2020.

• Browse the New Yorker’s picks for “The Best Music of 2020” (topped by a 2018 album which I can get behind).'

• Browse NPR’s picks for “The 100 Best Songs Of 2020.”

• Browse NPR’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums Of 2020.”

• Browse Paste’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums of 2020.”

• Browse Stereogum’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums Of 2020”.

• Browse Time’s picks for “The 10 Best Albums of 2020.”

Read “Music Legends Eric Clapton, Van Morrison Team for Anti-Lockdown Single ‘Stand and Deliver’” at Variety.

Read “Erykah Badu & Summer Walker Discuss Stardom, Aliens And More” at Okay Player.

Read “When Home Recording Hit the San Francisco Rock Scene” at Reverb.

Read “In Praise of Phoebe Bridgers, a Thoroughly Good Celebrity” at Slate.

Read “AC/DC Debuts at No. 1, Powered by CD Sales” at New York Times.

Read “Phish Frontman Trey Anastasio Raises Over $1 Million For New Drug Treatment Center” at Vanity Fair.

Read “Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein to Write and Direct New Heart Biopic” at Pitchfork.

Browse “Elvis Costello on the Music of His Life” at Pitchfork.

Read ‘Rivers Cuomo is selling thousands of old demos while learning how to code. Here’s his final class assignment” at A Journal Of Musical Things.

Read “Phoenix producer Bob Hoag revisits a 'magical time' with the reissue of Pollen's 3rd album” at AZ Central.

Read “Warp Records Comes to Bandcamp” at Bandcamp.

Read ‘Why Arizona music icon Nils Lofgren's wife is 'not welcome' at this Scottsdale steakhouse” at AZ Central.

Read “Bob Dylan Just Released the Ultra-Rare 1970 ‘George Harrison Sessions’ Without Warning” at Rolling Stone. “The Bob Dylan – 50th Anniversary Collection 1970 was released as a super-limited set to avoid the recordings entering the public domain in Europe.”

Read “Justin Townes Earle’s Cause of Death Revealed” at Pitchfork.

Read ‘Deadicated: Trixie Garcia on Jerry’s Legacy, Garcia’s at The Cap and New Cannabis Brand” at Relix.

“Listen to Neal Casal’s Final Solo Recordings” at Pitchfork. “The previously unfinished “Everything Is Moving” and “Green Moon” were completed by the late singer-songwriter’s friends and collaborators.”

“Support the artists you listen to by buying their stuff” at Hype Machine. “Paste a link to a Spotify playlist (for ex. "Your Top Songs 2020"), and we’ll check what you can purchase directly from them on Bandcamp.”

Read “Pharrell Williams announces new charity Black Ambition to aid underrepresented entrepreneurs” at NME.

Read “Walt Disney Co. shutting down influential Radio Disney after two decades” at Los Angeles Times.

Browse “A Brief History of Cardigans in Music, From Kurt Cobain to Harry Styles and Taylor Swift” at Rolling Stone.

Read “The Origin Story of Carlos Santana’s Abraxas” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Iggy Pop & Elvis Costello” at Rolling Stone. “The old friends on surviving the Seventies, why most hard rock is overrated, and staying in touch with their iconoclastic inspiration.”

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “David Lynch To Start Shooting Netflix Series (Working Title: “Wisteria”) In 2021 at Welcome To Twin Peaks.

Read “New-Streaming-Service Alert: Discovery+ Coming in 2021” at Vulture.

Read “Superstore Is Closing After Six Seasons” at Vulture.

Read “Actors File Age Discrimination Suit Over SAG-AFTRA Health Plan Cuts” at NPR.

Read “Did HBO Max Just Kill Movie Theaters?” at Okay Player.

Read “'Masked Singer' hits highest rating for entertainment show since April” at Los Angeles Times.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Toni Morrison’s 1,200 Volume Personal Library is Going on Sale: Get a Glimpse of the Books on Her Tribeca Condo Shelves” at Open Culture.

Browse “NPR books NPR’s Book Concierge”.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “Meet Congo the Chimp, London’s Sensational 1950s Abstract Painter” at Open Culture.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “For Rats That Coat Themselves In Poison, These Rodents Are Surprisingly Cuddly” at NPR.

Read “Scientists baffled by bizarre sea creature with dozens of legs found on beach” at Express.

Read “Wasps threaten airplane safety” at Boing Boing.

Read “New science tempers hope for life in Venus' clouds — but nothing is ruled out just yet” at Salon.

Read “Too Many Storms, Not Enough Names” at NPR.

Read “Huge Arecibo Observatory Radio Telescope In Puerto Rico Collapses” at Huff Post.

Read “Ginkgo trees nearly went extinct. Here’s how we saved these ‘living fossils.’” at National Geographic.

Read “Australia’s Great Barrier Reef ‘critical’ due to climate change” at Al Jazeera.

Food Cultures:

Misc. Oddities:

Read “A Massive Collection of Dead Insects Lives Inside Filing Cabinets in a Canadian Office” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “That Mysterious Monolith in the Utah Desert? It’s Gone, Officials Say” at New York Times.

• Read “New Mysterious Monolith Appears in Romania” at Vice.

• Read “Photographers captured removal of the mysterious Utah monolith. Here's why it vanished” at USA Today.

• Read “New mysterious monolith appears on top of mountain in California” at Independent.

Read “Dallas Restaurant Owner Seems More Concerned With Twerking Patrons Than Covid In Viral Video” at Okay Player.

Read “How camp explains Trump” at Yahoo.

Local:

Read “Recreational Marijuana: Everything you need to know about Arizona going green” at 12 News.

Read “Remember these people who defended the integrity of Arizona's election” at AZ Central.

Read “GM Rethinks Planned Stake In Phoenix-Based Electric Vehicle Maker Nikola” at KJZZ.

Read “Petersen sentencing looms on federal charges, and Arizona says it isn't part of any deal to cut prison time” at AZ Central.

Read “Tempe's Marquee Theatre postpones reopening as COVID cases spike. What you need to know” at AZ Central.

The Weekly Town Crier (11/20/20)

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

Religion and Stuff:

Read ‘The Evangelical Reckoning Begins” at The Atlantic. “Andy Stanley, the pastor of one of the largest megachurches in the country, ponders the future of an influential corner of American Christianity.”

Read “How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps” at Vice. “A Muslim prayer app with over 98 million downloads is one of the apps connected to a wide-ranging supply chain that sends ordinary people's personal data to brokers, contractors, and the military.”

Read “What the Study of Religion Can Teach Us About Psychedelics” at Harvard’s Bill of Health website.

Read as Christian Century wonders “How do we grieve the hundreds of thousands of people the COVID-19 pandemic has killed?”

Read “William Barr and the politics of death” at Religion News Service. “We are not executing the ‘worst of the worst,’ as some may believe, but the poorest of the poor, and disproportionately people of color.”

Read “Never the Same Twice: Grace and the (Divinely) Inspired World of Jazz” at Mockingbird.

Read “Vatican Launches Probe After Pope’s Insta Account Likes Very Risqué ‘School Girl’ Pic” at Daily Beast.

Read “Five faith facts about former President Barack Obama’s new book: ‘A Promised Land’ at Religion News Service.

Read “Pastors Launch Church-Planting Network for ‘Black and Brown Neighborhoods’” at Christianity Today.

Read “Chicago church releases a beer for Advent — and the end of the world” at Religion News Service.

Read “Carl Lentz and the ‘hot pastor’ problem” at Religion News Service. “Maybe the problem isn’t hot pastors like Lentz but a toxic megachurch culture that makes narcissism a prerequisite.”

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

Read “The far right is cracking up, as their violent fantasies of Trump's fascist takeover evaporate” at Salon.

Read “University of California agrees to $73M sex abuse settlement over former UCLA gynecologist” at NBC News.

Read “Trump's legal adviser Jenna Ellis in 2016 called him an 'idiot' and said his supporters didn't care about 'facts or logic'“ at CNN.

Read “Rudy Giuliani Isn’t Even Trying to Make Coherent Legal Arguments Anymore” at Slate.

Read “Disturbing new details in alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer” at ABC7 Chicago. “Disturbing new details in alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer reveal their Plan B was to takeover the Michigan capitol building with 200 combatants, who would stage a week-long series of televised executions of public officials.”

Read “7 Ways Biden Could Go It Alone on Gun Violence Prevention” at The Trace.

Read “Make fun of the "Million MAGA March" all you want — white supremacy has not been defeated” at Salon.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Prosecutors say Chauvin kept his knee on teenager’s back for 17 minutes in 2017, while the boy said ‘I can’t breathe’” at Minnesota Reformer.

Read “ACLU, Activist Groups Denounce Prosecutions of Anti Police Brutality Protesters” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Suburban Milwaukee Police Officer Who Has Killed 3 People Since 2015 Set To Resign” at NPR.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “When Schools Closed, Americans Turned to Their Usual Backup Plan: Mothers” at New York Times.

Read “Nicola Sturgeon insists schools in Scotland must stay open even in level 4 lockdown areas” at Daily Record.

Read “Mississippi governor calls for spending $3 million on 'Patriotic Education Fund'“ at The Hill.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “More than 130 Secret Service officers are said to be infected with coronavirus or quarantining in wake of Trump’s campaign travel” at Washington Post.

Read “Super-spreading wedding party demonstrates COVID-19 risk posed by holiday gatherings” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Denver bar owner dies after second battle with COVID-19, cancer” at 9News.

Read “‘No One Is Listening to Us’” at The Atlantic. “More people than ever are hospitalized with COVID-19. Health-care workers can’t go on like this.”

Read ‘Utah Valley Hospital strained by conspiracy theorists trying to enter ICU” at KSL.

Read “Billionaire Medadoners Who Fought Wisconsin’s Plans To Contain Pandemic Get Infected At White House” at Milwaukee Independent.

Read “On Fox News, Dr. Scott Atlas encourages large holiday gatherings: “For many people this is their last Thanksgiving” at Media Matters.

Read as Marketplace wonders “How might COVID-19 vaccine makers compete in the marketplace?”

Read “Alabama Sorority Gets Official Blessing for 600-Person Farm Party Just in Time for Holidays” at Daily Beast.

Read “Dolly Parton partly funded Moderna Covid vaccine research” at The Guardian.

Read “GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa tests positive for Covid-19” at CNN.

Read “Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Trump’s response to the pandemic: ‘Frankly, he hasn’t been any help’” at MSNBC.

Read “Trump’s post-election tantrum is holding up federal vaccine planning” at The Verge.

Read “What we know about face masks has changed. Here's what experts say and which states mandate masks” at USA Today.

Read “FDA Approves First At-Home Coronavirus Test” at KCRW.

Read “McEnany calls state coronavirus restrictions for Thanksgiving 'Orwellian'“ at The Hill.

Read “Tyson managers bet money on how many workers would contract COVID-19” at Iowa Capital Dispatch.

Read “CDC urges Americans against traveling for Thanksgiving as coronavirus outbreak worsens” at CNBC.

Read “U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Surpasses 250,000” at National Review.

Read “Ben Carson says he used unproven COVID-19 treatment recommended by MyPillow CEO” at The Hill.

Read “Biden calls for national mask mandate to fight COVID-19” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Reporters Blow Up at Covid Task Force For Ducking Questions at End of” at Mediaite.

Read “Tennessee mayor won’t require COVID masks until Holy Spirit says so” at Alabama.

Miscellany Cultural Items:

Read “Trump's next move might be even more dangerous than his presidency” at MSNBC. “Trump's term is ending, but the fight against the extremism he stirred up is far from over.”

Read “The invention of mirrors and why they matter” at Boing Boing.

Read “BuzzFeed to Acquire HuffPost in Stock Deal With Verizon Media” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Big Retailers Made Nearly $15 Billion During the Pandemic, But Most Halted Hazard Pay” at Public Citizen.

Read “Now More Than Ever, Brandon Stanton Makes People Feel Less Alone” at New York Times.

Internationalities:

Read “Russia moves to protect Putin from prosecution” at BBC. “The Russian parliament's lower house - the Duma - has backed a bill granting Russian presidents and their families immunity from criminal prosecution after they leave office.”

Read “Israel scrambles to expand settlement in anticipation of changing U.S. policy under Biden” at Globe and Mail.

Read “Pompeo makes unprecedented visits to Israeli settlement in West Bank and Golan” at BBC.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “The Troubling Reason the Electoral College Exists’ at Time.

Read “The End of Trump? Biden & Harris Claim Victory in Historic Election, Vowing to Heal Divided Nation” at Democracy Now.

Read “Trump Sought Options for Attacking Iran to Stop Its Growing Nuclear Program” at New York Times.

Read the opinion piece “Republicans are letting Trump wage war on democracy” at Washington Post.

Read “Joe Biden wins Georgia, flipping the state for Democrats” at AP News.

Read “Rahm Emanuel under consideration to become Biden's transportation secretary” at CNN.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Evidence suggests several state Senate candidates were plants funded by dark money” at Local 10.

Read “Sore loser or victim? Trump voters struggle with president’s role in defeat” at Washington Post. "A majority of Republican voters — 70 percent — say the election was unfair, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll"

Read “Trump Administration Ending Like It Began: Lying About Crowd Size” at Slate.

Read “Ga. secretary of state says fellow Republicans are pressuring him to find ways to exclude legal ballots” at Washington Post. “Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says he has come under increasing pressure from fellow Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, to question the validity of legally cast absentee ballots in an effort to reverse Trump's loss.”

• Read “Graham says he's talked to officials in two states about election” at The Hill. “After Graham told reporters that he spoke with election officials, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) said on Twitter that Graham had not spoken with her.”

  • Read “Graham faces questions for reaching out to GA election official” at MSNBC.

  • Read “Lindsey Graham’s Alleged Attempt to Toss Georgia Ballots Is Felony Election Fraud” at Slate.

• Read “Trump Fires Election Security Director Who Corrected Voter Fraud Disinformation” at NPR. “President Trump has fired Christopher Krebs, a top cybersecurity official who affirmed the security of the election and rebutted rumors and baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud that Trump promoted.”

• Read “Trump Doesn't Have To Win In Court To Erode Trust In Voting” at NPR.

  • Read “'People will stop believing in the process.' Why Donald Trump's Legal Strategy Is Dangerous Even If It's Likely to Fail” at Time. “Rudy Giuliani, to the chagrin of many, is candidly telling associates the goal of the campaign's lawsuits is sow enough doubt among GOP that legislatures in swing states punt and appoint their own electors”

• Read “Trump Supporters Echo False Claims of Fraud: Election Update” at Bloomberg.

• Read “Trump Campaign Attorneys Admit ‘There Is No Evidence’ of ‘Any Fraud’ in Connection with Challenged Ballots in Bucks County, Pa” at Law and Crime.

• Read “Trump’s Strategy for Contesting the Election: Throw Out Black People’s Votes” at Mother Jones.

• Read “Michigan Republican leaders going to White House Friday; Trump calls GOP canvassers” at Chicago Tribune.

• Read “Illinois Sen. Duckworth says 'silence is deafening' from Republicans on Trump's election maneuvers” at Yahoo News.

• Read “Inside Rudy Giuliani's attempt to sow chaos on behalf of Trump and steal the election” at CNN.

• Read “'Did you all watch My Cousin Vinny?' Sweating Rudy Giuliani presents 'evidence' for 'massive voting fraud' as hair dye runs down his face - alongside 'elite legal strike force' who claim Joe Biden's win is a Venezuelan plot they uncovered on the internet” at Daily Mail.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires Exit Country Music Association After 2020 CMAs Didn’t Honor John Prine” at Pitchfork.

Read ‘Melvins Announce New Album Working With God, Share “I F**k Around” and “Bouncing Rick” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Morrissey and BMG Part Ways” at Pitchfork. “Morrissey accused the label of dictating “how their artists should behave”.

Read “Run The Jewels Release “No Save Point” Video, Announce Craft Beer Collaboration” at Treble.

Read “Electrosoul's SAULT Center Themselves Around Blackness on 'UNTITLED (Black Is)'“ at Pop Matters.

Read “Guitar Center Is Officially Filing for Bankruptcy” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Bandcamp Launches New Livestreaming Service for Artists” at Pitchfork.

Read “Lo-Fi Hip-Hop Has Become One Of The Internet’s Most Popular Subgenres; Is Slowed & Reverb Next?” at Okay Player.

Read “Anti-Flag release vol. 2 of new protest/benefit single ft. Tom Morello, Marcia of The Skints & more” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Why Is The Obscure B-Side “Harness Your Hopes” Pavement’s Top Song On Spotify? It’s Complicated” at Stereogum.

Read “How Elektra Records ushered in the alternative music revolution—and then helped kill it” at AV Club.

Read “It Is Time For The Youth To Wake Up!" Songhoy Blues Interviewed” at Clash Music.

Read “Steve Earle Covers Justin Townes Earle’s “Harlem River Blues” for Upcoming Memorial Record” at Jambands.

Read “How Leonard Cohen Haunted the Trump Era” at Pitchfork.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “John Mulaney joins Seth Meyers’ ‘Late Night’ writing staff” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Nelly Cast as Chuck Berry in New Buddy Holly Biopic” at Pitchfork.

Design/Artsy Things:

Watch “this expert apple sculptor create juicy delights” at Boing Boing.

Read “Art Yard publishes Sun Ra inspired photography book” at The Wire.

Science/Animals/Technology/Environment/Public Health/Etc.:

Read “Vaccine Group Hits $2 Billion 2020 Goal for Low, Middle Income Nations” at Bloomberg.

Read “World's only known white giraffe fitted with tracker to deter poachers” at BBC.

Read “Japanese town enlists terrifying robot wolves to protect them from bears” at Boing Boing.

Read “Technology Promises Connection, but Gen Z Sees a Paradox” at Barna.

Local:

Read “As Stores Close At Phoenix’s Paradise Valley Mall, Future Plans Grow” at KJZZ.