The Weekly Town Crier (06/18/21)
All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (08/16/21).
We’ll Miss You:
Read “Frank Bonner, 'WKRP in Cincinnati' Star, Dead at 79” at Pop Culture.
Read “Obituary: Egypt’s first freely elected President Mohamed Morsi” at Al Jazeera.
Religion and Stuff:
Read “Racism & Patriarchy: Two Strands of the Same Authoritarian Theology” at Faith, Philosophy and Politics.
Read “Southern Baptists Take Sides Ahead of Nashville Meeting” at Christianity Today.
Read “Pressure mounts for an independent investigation of SBC Executive Committee handling of abuse” at Religion News Service.
Read “Russell Moore leaves Southern Baptist leadership, but denomination’s troubles remain” at Religion News Service.
Read “Leaks Turn Up The Heat In Advance Of Southern Baptists' Nashville Meeting” at Religion Unplugged.
Read “Southern Baptists are at a Fork in the Road” at Christianity Today. “The SBC will be making choices about how we respond to abuse, race, and more at this watershed convention.”
Read “Less Fore Moore? If Russell Moore Left The SBC Due To Conscience And Convictions His Next Move Is A Curious One” at Religion Dispatches.
Read “SBC Polity Gives People in the Pews the Power to Stop Corrupt Leaders” at Christianity Today. “This week at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, attendees will ask for change from the top. But regular members also bear responsibility.”
Read “The Tragedy of Russell Moore” at Religion and Politics.
Read “Southern Baptists Narrowly Head Off Ultraconservative Takeover” at New York Times. “Ed Litton, a moderate pastor from Alabama, won a high-stakes presidential election with the potential to reshape the future of the country’s largest Protestant denomination.”
Read “Southern Baptist pastor: Minister accused of abusing a dozen boys never investigated” at Religion News Service.
Read “Southern Baptists approve task force on abuse, permanently ban pastors who abuse” at Religion News Service.
Read “This Quote About Pregnant Church From Outgoing SBC President Is Deeply Troubling For Anyone Concerned About Sexual Abuse” at Religion Dispatches.
Read “Atheist Stanford Biologist Robert Sapolsky Explains How Religious Beliefs Reduce Stress” at Open Culture.
Read ““In the Heights” is more Jewish than it seems” at Religion News Service.
Read “Nones’ now as big as evangelicals, Catholics in the US” at Religion News Service.
Read “James MacDonald Continues Tirade; Defends Using Hashtag “#JRgossipsl**” at Roys Report.
Read “Communion ban for pro-choice politicians is an old story, but the stakes have grown” at Religion News Service.
Read “Supreme Court Sides With Catholic Agency In LGBTQ Foster Care Case—But Avoids Major Religious Freedom Questions” at Time.
Read “Care About Religious Liberty? Defend Religious Minorities” at Christianity Today.
Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:
Read “She bought 47 guns last month. Police are already finding them in shooting investigations” at Star Tribune.
Read “Alabama close to completing nitrogen gas death chamber” at AL.com.
Read “White House Pushes To Jump-Start Civil Rights-Era Cold Cases Board” at Huff Post.
Read “'Abnormal methods': U.S. attorney general says feds will review Arizona's partisan election audit” at 12 News.
Read “Former NSA contractor Reality Winner, jailed for leaking secrets about Russian hacking, released early from prison” at NBC News.
Read “U.S. Military Guns Keep Vanishing, Some Used in Street Crimes” at Associated Press.
Read “Guantánamo Detainees Say Conditions Are Worse Since Biden Became President” at Vice.
Read “The Justice Department Overturns Rules That Limited Asylum For Survivors Of Violence” at NPR.
Read “Court fines baker $500 for refusing to make gender transition cake” at The Hill.
Read “Biden signs bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday” at Los Angeles Times.
Read “So You Want To Learn About Juneteenth?” at New York Times.
Read “Everything you need to know about Juneteenth, the new federal holiday” at The HIll.
Read “Firearm purchases to be videotaped under new San Jose law” at The Hill.
Read “Supreme Court Backs Nestle, Cargill on Child-Slavery Suit” at Bloomberg.
Read “After Reparations Study Suggests $151 Million for Each African American, Experts Say Money Alone Isn't Enough” at Time.
Read “St. Louis couple who flashed guns at protesters plead guilty to misdemeanors, forfeit firearms” at NBC 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 “'Traitors Need To Be Executed': 'Stop The Steal' Organizer Indicted In Jan. 6 Conspiracy Case” at Yahoo.
Read “Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, Forceful on Jan. 6, Privately Are in Turmoil” at Wall Street Journal.
Read “Even More Insurrectionists Have Histories Of Violence Against Women” at Huff Post.
Read “Man Pleads Guilty to Shooting Black Girl at Iowa Trump Rally” at NBC Washington. “Michael McKinney, an Army veteran and resident of Saint Charles, Iowa, admitted that he intentionally fired into the girls’ vehicle.”
This Week With The Police:
Read “4 police officers placed on administrative leave after video goes viral” at Yahoo.
Read “LAPD officers got free swag from Ring, some promoted its cameras” at Los Angeles Times. “Ring says it stopped providing maps of its device network to law enforcement in 2019. In response to specific police data requests, consumers can consent to sharing their footage with investigators.”
Read “The Best Bargain in the History of Law Enforcement” — and the High Cost of Not Testing Backlogged Rape Kits” at Pro Publica. “When reporter Catherine Rentz began looking at the criminal histories of men who’d been arrested for rape based on DNA evidence, she found a system that protected serial criminals rather than survivors.”
Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings
Read “Nevada schools reckon with race, triggering polarization” at Associated Press. “A group wants Washoe County teachers to wear body cameras to ensure parents that no "critical race theory" is being taught in classrooms.”
Read “Most Americans don't know where Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls are, new poll finds” at The Hill.
Read “National Geographic adds 5th ocean to world map” at NBC News.
Read “Critical Race Theory Used To Attack Black Arizona School Board Member” at Newsweek. “A champion of equity in education, Lindsay Love planned to attend a conference for school board members in urban districts. But conservatives tried to twist the purpose of the conference claiming it proved the district supported critical race theory” at News One.
Read “Americans who have heard of critical race theory don’t like it” at The Economist. “But it is a problem of branding, not principle.”
Read “Critical Race Theory Is a Convenient Target for Conservatives” at Slate.
Read “Education Department says Title IX protections apply to LGBTQ students” at CNN.
Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:
Read “AMA: 96% Of Doctors Are Vaccinated Against Covid-19” at Forbes.
Read “Utah reports 413 new cases of COVID-19 — the most in a month” at Salt Lake Tribune.
Read “Ricky Schroder and Anti-Vaxxers Protest Foo Fighters Concert” at Consequence.
Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):
Read “The Making of a Perfect Celebrity Apology” at Vice. “Saying ‘I’m sorry’ has become its own art form in Hollywood—and for better or worse, it takes a team to make it happen. Some of the biggest names in the business break down how the mea culpa sausage gets made.”
Read “National Parks Are Overcrowded and Closing Their Gates” at Wall Street Journal,
Read “Millions of Americans Are About to Lose Their Homes” at Slate. “When the CDC’s eviction moratorium ends on June 30, what will still-struggling renters do?”
Read “This British Schoolgirl Invented an Amazing Gadget to Fight Food Waste” at Global Citizen.
Read “MSNBC says it won't voluntarily recognize new union effort” at The Hill.
Read “50,000 security disasters waiting to happen: The problem of America's water supplies” at NBC News.
Read “Poll: Majority back blanket student loan forgiveness” at The Hill.
Read “Why American Women Everywhere Are Delaying Motherhood” at New York Times.
Internationalities:
Read “Amnesty International Accuses China of Crimes Against Humanity in Xinjiang” at Democracy Now.
Read “El Salvador Just Made Bitcoin Legal Tender, A World First” at Vice.
Read “Kim Jong-un Decries K-Pop as “Vicious Cancer” in Crackdown Against South Korean Pop Culture” at Consequence.
Read “Concerns grow over China's Taiwan plans” at The Hill.
Read “The US is banning dogs from 113 countries” at The Hill.
Read “5 Views From Belarus On The Country's Political Crisis” at NPR.
Read “China, Russia Biggest Cyber Offenders” at U.S. News.
Read “China successfully launches mission sending astronauts to new space station” at CNN.
Politics And Sucheries:
Read “I’ve never regretted doing it’: Daniel Ellsberg on 50 years since leaking the Pentagon Papers” at The Guardian.
Read “GOP senator introduces constitutional amendment to ban flag burning” at The Hill.
Read “Two more Democrats signal opposition to bipartisan infrastructure deal” at The Hill.
Read “'A lot' of politicking still to be done on infrastructure deal” at MSNBC.
Read “US supreme court upholds Obamacare after Republicans seek to gut law” at The Guardian.
Read “Kyrsten Sinema Has Toxic White Lady Energy” at Slate. “The Arizona senator’s position on the filibuster does not square with her supposed admiration of John Lewis.”
This Week In Political Corruption:
Read “Matt Gaetz questioned the head of the FBI in Congress despite himself being under investigation by the FBI” at Yahoo.
Read “Donald Trump: I trust Vladimir Putin more than US intelligence” at Yahoo.
Read “Pelosi: Trump DOJ seizure of House Democrats' data ' goes even beyond Richard Nixon'“ at The Hill.
Read “Apple Is Said to Have Turned Over Data on Trump’s White House Counsel in 2018” at New York Times. “The company notified Donald F. McGahn II last month that it had been subpoenaed for his account information three years ago.”
Read “Emails Expose Coordination Between Mitch McConnell and His Wife, Elaine Chao” at Daily Beast.
Read “Majority of Republicans think state reviews will change 2020 outcome: poll” at The Hill.
Music-Related News and Such:
Read “Sony Music to Pay Royalties to Unrecouped Legacy Artists and Producers in Major Policy Change” at Pitchfork.
Read “Van Morrison and Eric Clapton Wonder Why They’re the Only ‘Rebels’ Left in New Duet” at Yahoo.
Read “Check out this remake of a classic Japanese portable record player” at Boing Boing.
Browse Spin’s picks for “The 30 Best Albums of 2021 (So Far)”.
Browse The Guardian’s picks for “The best albums of 2021 so far.”
Read “The Cure’s Robert Smith thinks the band’s next album will be their last” at NME. “I definitely can't do this again.”
Read “The Money Laundering Case Against The Fugees’ Pras Michél Just Took Another Wild Turn” at Okay Player.
Read “Concert, theater owners call pandemic relief fund efforts a ‘disaster’” at Cronkite News.
Read “David Bowie Recalls the Strange Experience of Inventing the Character Ziggy Stardust (1977)” at Open Culture.
Read “DJ Nile Rodgers Launches Los Angeles Roller-Disco Haven ‘The DiscOasis’” at Variety.
Read “Recording Academy Seeks to Close Deborah Dugan Arbitration Hearing to Public” at Pitchfork.
Read “Bob Dylan Announces His First Streaming Special, ‘Shadow Kingdom,’ for July” at Variety.
Read “Soundgarden And Vicky Cornell Reach Temporary Truce Over Social Media Accounts” at Stereogum.
Read “A Brief History of the Lumpen, the Black Panthers' Revolutionary Funk Band” at KQED.
Read “2021 Polaris Music Prize Long List Is Here” at Polaris Music Prize.
Read “Celebrating Juneteenth And Black Music Month With Classical Classics” at NPR.
Read “Cedric Burnside Grew Up Steeped in Mississippi Blues. Now, He’s Helping to Ensure Its Future” at Rolling Stone.
Read “Here’s How White and Male the Execs of the Music Business Are” at Rolling Stone.
Read “XTC’s Andy Partridge Announces First Volume in ‘My Failed Songwriting Career’ Series” at Rolling Stone.
Read “50 years of Blue: a celebration of the Joni Mitchell masterpiece” at CBC.
Read “Overlooked No More: Jobriath, Openly Gay Glam Rocker in the ’70s” at New York Times. “His space alien persona and theatrical rock music drew comparisons to David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust character. But American audiences seemed unwilling to accept his sexuality.”
Read “Wiz Khalifa Cast As George Clinton In New Movie About Casablanca Records” at Stereogum.
Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:
Read “NBC Halts Production on Ultimate Slip 'N Slide amid Report of 'Explosive Diarrhea' Outbreak on Set” at People.
Read “James Corden gets called out for mocking Filipino cuisine and other Asian dishes” at Los Angeles Times.
Read “'Queer Eye' cast faced 'blatant' hate filming in Texas” at The Hill.
Read “Ted Lasso’s seamless single-cam editing captures the comedy’s collaborative spirit” at AV Club.
Browse Paste’s picks for “The 20 Best TV Shows of 2021 (So Far).”
Books/Reading/Authors
Read “Watch a Never-Before-Aired James Baldwin Interview From 1979” at Esquire.
Design/Artsy Things:
Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:
Read “The solar system probably has thousands of captured interstellar asteroids” at Universal-Sci.
Read “Weird ‘Living Fossil’ Fish Lives 100 Years, Pregnant For 5” at Huff Post.
Food And Drink Cultures:
Read “Thieves Find Money That Grows on Trees: ‘Avocados Are the Green Gold’” at Wall Street Journal.
Misc. Oddities:
Read “Massachusetts lobster diver survives being swallowed by whale: 'I was completely inside'“ at Fox Propaganda.
Read “9 Surprisingly Ancient Marvels in Modern California” at Atlas Obscura.
Local:
Read “'Reasonable People Know the Elections Are Over.' Secretary of State Katie Hobbs on Death Threats, Arizona's Election 'Audit', and Running for Governor” at Time.
Read “Native American Artist Recasts Hollywood Sign As 'Indian Land'“ at KJZZ.
Read “'It's just been overwhelming': Mesa wig store targeted by anti-mask group gets outpouring of support” at AZ Central.
Read “Reps. Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar among few who voted against Juneteenth holiday” at AZ Central.
Read “Arizona Will Pay Prisoners $1.50 An Hour To Fight Wildfires” at KJZZ.
Read “Ducey ditches ‘things that matter’ to Arizonans so the rich can be richer” at AZ Mirror.
Read “Fully Vaccinated? No Masks, Social Distancing Required At Most Phoenix City Buildings” at KJZZ.