The Weekly Town Crier (08/07/20)
All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (08/07/20).
We’ll Miss You:
Read “Wilford Brimley, 'Cocoon' actor who appeared in Quaker Oats commercials, dies at 85” at CNN.
Read “Chicago rapper FBG Duck killed in brazen daytime shopping attack” at BBC.
Read “R.I.P. Vern Rumsey of Unwound” at Treble.
Religion and Stuff:
Read “Supreme Court Rejects Nevada Church’s Appeal to Reopen Like Casinos” at Christianity Today.
Read “Trump-Loving Anti-Mask Pastor Threatens Dunkin’ Donuts Employee With Assault” at Patheos.
“Ed Stetzer asked the U.S. Surgeon General, "What medical advice would you like churches to know?" Here's what he said: “Keep Your Distance.” Read "Keep Your Distance: Words of Advice for Churches from the Surgeon General” at Christianity Today.
Read “N. T. Wright: The Pandemic Should Make Us Humble—and Relentlessly Practical” at Christianity Today.
Read “Obeying God Rather than Men? What’s Really a Religious Liberty Issue?” at Christianity Today. “
Read “Jerry Falwell Jr. Just Deleted a Photo of Himself With His Arm Around a Woman and His Pants Undone and People Are Very Confused” at Second Nexus.
Read “Jerry Falwell Apologizes For Pic Of Him With Unzipped Pants In Head-Scratching Interview” at Huff Post. “The influential evangelical leader said in a slurred voice, “I’ve apologized to everybody and I promised my kids, I’m gonna try to be a good boy from here on out.”
Read “Liberty University Poured Millions Into Sports. Now Its Black Athletes Are Leaving” at Slate. “One student was once told by an instructor: “Don’t be scared...I’m not going to pull out my whip and hit you with it.”
Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:
Read “An all-White jury convicted a Black man of rape in 1976. Now, lawyers say evidence was hidden from the defense” at WBTV.
Read “The myth of closing the racial wealth gap with individual accomplishment” at Axios.
Read “93-Year-Old Former Nazi Guard Convicted In One Of Germany’s Last Holocaust Trials” at All That’s Interesting. “Dey claimed he had been forced to serve as an SS guard, and was merely following orders placing him in that position.”
Read “PPP was not distributed equally across racial lines” at Axios.
Read “'Family Separation 2.0.' Parents in ICE Detention Have To Decide Whether to Keep Their Children or Release Them To Sponsors” at Time.
Read “A Black Lives Matter mural is set to be removed in Tulsa after the city received a request for a pro-police painting” at Insider.
Read “‘If The Players Won’t, I Will’: Hockey Fans Post Pictures Kneeling For Black Lives Matter” at Forbes.
Read “An Effort to Abolish Court Fees Grows in California” at Bloomberg.
Read “Louisiana Supreme Court upholds Black man's life sentence for stealing hedge clippers more than 20 years ago” at CNN.
Read “The mother of NSA leaker Reality Winner speaks out: 'Everything about her case has been so harsh and just cruel' at Business Insider.
Read “Why the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is necessary” at Christian Century.
Read “Trump’s reflections on John Lewis preview his own potential legacy” at Washington Post. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. I don’t know John Lewis. He chose not to come to my inauguration. He chose — I never met John Lewis, actually, I don’t believe.”
Read “Thousands rally in Turkey to demand end of violence against women” at Al Jazeera.
Read “Capital One fined $80 million for 2019 hack of 100 million credit card applications” at Washington Post.
Read “NY AG files lawsuit to dissolve the NRA after 18 month investigation” at American Military News.
Read “The Ghost of Margaret Sanger Planned Parenthood and the complexities of anti-racism.” at New York Times.
This Week In Protest-Related News:
Read “Burns, bloody wounds, broken bones: Injuries mount at Portland protests” at Oregon Live.
This Week With The Police:
Read “L.A. County deputy alleges ‘Executioner’ gang dominates Compton sheriff station” at Los Angeles Times.
Read “East Hartford police union president says some department-issued pistols don’t shoot straight, a defect that could lead to ‘a needless tragedy’” at Hartford Courant.
Education and The Learnings:
Read “Michigan Court Frees Black Teenager Jailed for Missing Online Schoolwork” at Democracy Now.
School Re-Openings:
Read “A Georgia sleepaway camp's coronavirus outbreak is a warning for what could happen when schools reopen, CDC says” at CNN.
Read “A Study Shows Children Can Carry Tons of Virus. What Does That Mean for Schools?” at Slate.
Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:
Read “COVID-19 Hospital Data System That Bypasses CDC Plagued By Delays, Inaccuracies” at NPR.
Read ‘Arizona Cardinals void season tickets for upcoming season amid COVID-19 outbreak” at 12 News.
Read “Trump says Fauci is "wrong" about coronavirus cases surge” at Axios.
Read “In GOP plan, you can't sue your employers for giving you COVID — but they can sue you” at Yahoo.
Read “Top Fed official: Short, sharp coronavirus lockdown will enable recovery” at Axios.
Read “More athletes opt out as U.S. struggles with coronavirus” at Axios.
Read “Our pandemic slowdown has been good for the planet What if we kept it going?” at Christian Century.
Read “'It is what it is,' Trump says of rising coronavirus death toll as he insists outbreak is 'under control'“ at AZ Central.
Read “The Unraveling of America Anthropologist Wade Davis on how COVID-19 signals the end of the American era” at Rolling Stone.
Miscellany Cultural Items:
Read “Florida 17-year-old charged with Twitter hack of Obama, Biden, Kanye, other high-profile accounts” at NBC News.
Meet Theo, the 7-year old boy who has been homeless his whole life at San Francisco Chronicle.
Read “James Murdoch exits News Corp. board” at Axios.
Read “Postage Stamps Honor Scholars and Novelist in Schomburg Center Collections” at New York Public Library.
Read ‘U.S. Postal Service Considers Downsizing, Senator and Union Leader Say” at Time.
Read “Disney Suffers Brutal Quarterly Earnings Due to Theme Park Closures” at Variety.
Read “Beirut blast: Hundreds injured in explosion - Red Cross” at BBC.
See “Aerial footage shows scope of devastation after Beirut explosion” at NBC News.
Read “When Workers Can Live Anywhere, Many Ask: Why Do I Live Here?” at Wall Street Journal. “Coronavirus prompts Americans to reassess the need to reside near hot job markets.”
Politics And Sucheries:
Read “Trump Gives Medical Stockpile A 'Kodak Moment' With New Loan To Make Drugs” at NPR. ‘The Trump administration said it plans to give a $765 million loan to Eastman Kodak – which has struggled to survive after digital cameras displaced film – so the company can manufacture ingredients used in pharmaceuticals.”
Read “Trump Keeps Criticizing Universal Vote By Mail. But The Nation Isn't Doing That” at NPR.
Revisit: “The Electoral College’s Racist Origins” from The Atlantic in 2019. “More than two centuries after it was designed to empower southern white voters, the system continues to do just that.”
Read “Citing Election Delay Tweet, Influential Trump Ally Now Demands His Re-Impeachment” at NPR.
Read “Biden campaign faith director talks Christian beliefs, outreach to evangelicals and systemic racism” at Christian Post.
Read “Biden will no longer travel to DNC to accept Democratic nomination amid pandemic” at ABC News.
Read “Protest leader Bush ousts 20-year US Rep. Clay in Missouri” at Associated Press.
Read “Pence blasts Chief Justice John Roberts as ‘disappointment to conservatives’” at Politico.
Music-Related News and Such:
Read “Soundtrack Of My Life: Spoon’s Britt Daniel Founder of the legendary alt-rockers talks love of The Beatles, Bee Gees and spending lockdown listening to Sleaford Mods” at NME.
Read “What Beyoncé Tells Us Without Saying a Word” at Vulture.
Read “Beyoncé’s Black Is King Offers Awe-Inspiring Looks and Muddled Messages” at Pitchfork.
Read “The Rolling Stones to Release 1989 Trump-Promoted Concert as Live Album and Film” at Consequence of Sound. “Keith Richards infamously pulled a knife on Trump after he reneged on an agreement with the band.”
Read “Nick Cave on Living with Loss and the Central Paradox of Grief as a Portal to Aliveness” at Brain Pickings.
Read ‘Ishmael Butler on the 10 Best Shabazz Palaces Songs” at Treble.
Read “Radiohead’s Thom Yorke on the album that changed his life” at Far Out.
Read “The Who Will Launch Weekly “Join Together @ Home” Broadcast with 1982 Shea Stadium Show” at Relix.
Read “Neil Young Sues Donald Trump Campaign Over Unauthorized Use of His Music” at Pitchfork.
Read “Tom Petty Estate Shares Unheard ‘Wildflowers’ Track, “There Goes Angela (Dream Away)” at Jambands.
Movies/TV/Etc.:
Read “The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Swings into the ’60s: Review” at Consequence of Sound. “Netflix's fractured superhero family goes through the motions, but in the '60s this time.”
Read “'Mulan' will premiere on Disney+ September 4th for $30” at Engadget.
Books/Reading/Authors
Read “Eric Metaxas is writing a memoir” at The Way of Improvement.
“Culture”/Design/Artsy Things:
Read “Tourist snaps the toes off 19th-century statue while posing for photo” at CNN.
Science/Animals/Technology/Environment/Etc.:
Read “"Zombie cicadas" infected with mind-controlling fungus return to West Virginia” at CBS News.
Read “Remembering the Astronaut Who Smuggled a Sandwich Into Space” at Atlas Obscura. “He got into a lot of trouble.”
Read “Why Some People Can Stay Sharp Even After Age 95” at Psychology Today.
Food Cultures:
Read “KFC Has Launched Its Own Lipstick – & It Tastes Like Hot Wings” at Bustle.
Misc. Oddities:
See “Here’s How 30 People React To A Sign On The Sidewalk Telling Them To ‘Commence Silly Walking’” at Bored Panda.
AZ Local:
Read “Lawsuit accuses Bikini Beans Coffee owners of stealing wages from employees” at 12 News.