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.