Reading archive 2022-06-30

 Teachers voice concerns after Orange County previews ‘Don’t Say Gay’ impact to classrooms - "According to representatives of the county’s teacher association, teachers and staff members will be disallowed from wearing rainbow articles of clothing, including lanyards distributed by the district last year. Elementary-level teachers reported being discouraged from putting pictures of their same-sex spouse on their desk or talking about them to students.

"'Safe Space' stickers aimed at LGBTQ students may have to be removed from doors, teachers will have to report to parents if a student 'comes out' to them and they must use pronouns assigned at birth, regardless of what the parents allow, the CTA reported."

Indicted Election Denier Tina Peters Loses Her Own Election—and Denies She Lost: “It’s not over,” Tina Peters said, as she was down by 15 percentage points.

Queer Animals Are Everywhere. Science Is Finally Catching On.: The animal kingdom isn’t nearly as straight as you think. - "This ['bisexual advantage'] model is supported by a 2019 paper from a group of young scholars that notes that the earliest creatures wouldn’t have discriminated between sexes, because the earliest creatures didn’t have sexes. Therefore, aversion to homosexual sex would have had to specifically arise over the history of life, which this team of researchers finds unlikely, since the opportunity cost of same-sex sex is relatively low. Given that sexual monogamy is more rare than we once thought, having occasional sex or even forming a lifelong bond with a same-sex partner doesn’t mean an animal isn’t also reproducing. As one of the originators of this “ancestral state” hypothesis, Max Lambert, put it to me: 'Biologists told ourselves for so long that it must be unnatural. My research led to a good question: Why do queer things exist? The simple answer is that animal bisexuality is not costly. It was so biologically simple.'"

Jan. 6 committee subpoenas former White House counsel Pat Cipollone: The panel has been ramping up the pressure, believing his testimony about former president Donald Trump could be explosive

Supreme Court to review state legislatures’ power in federal elections: The justices will look next term at a case from North Carolina, where Republicans want to restore a redistricting map rejected by the state’s supreme court. - "The Supreme Court on Thursday said it will consider what would be a radical change in the way federal elections are conducted, giving state legislatures sole authority to set the rules for contests even if their actions violated state constitutions and resulted in extreme partisan gerrymandering for congressional seats.

...

"Judges have reined in Republican gerrymanders in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, for instance, and rejected maps drawn by Democratic-led legislatures in New York and Maryland. 

"But the effort to have the Supreme Court examine what is called the independent state legislature doctrine has been a Republican-led effort. The GOP controls both houses of the legislature in 30 states."

Opinion  The Supreme Court’s EPA ruling says: We’ll do whatever we want - "At a time like this, intellectual engagement with this court’s rulings, as committed as many liberals are to that project, begins to feel beside the point. We could delve into the flaws in the court’s reasoning, or the myriad ways the conservative justices’ alleged devotion to 'originalism' and 'textualism' has been revealed to be a sham — and many will, including dissenting liberal justices. 

"But what the court’s conservative majority and the Republicans who cheer their decisions know is that only one thing matters: power. 

"Conservatives have spent decades amassing it, now they have it, and they’re going to use it in every possible way to create the country they want.

...

"The reason the court’s conservatives appointed themselves the decision-makers on climate policy is simple: They don’t like what the EPA did. No real constitutional or statutory violation was at issue. They simply believe, as part of their conservative ideology, that the government shouldn’t combat climate change, so they’re going to stop the government from doing it." [ed. note: it's all worth quoting, so just reread it]

Reading archive 2022-06-29

Gorsuch and Sotomayor’s extraordinary factual dispute

Yellowstone bison gores visitor and flings her 10 feet, park says

Yellowstone visitor gored in second bison attack in a month, park says

‘Where there’s bodies, there’s treasure’: A hunt as Lake Mead shrinks: The reservoir supplying electricity to 350,000 homes as well as irrigation and drinking water to about 25 million people stands at a record low

Peter Thiel helped build big tech. Now he wants to tear it all down.: Inside the billionaire investor’s journey from Facebook board member to an architect of the new American right - "As an undergraduate at Stanford University, he founded the right-wing campus newspaper Stanford Review, which published articles calling liberal professors secret Marxists and railed against the inclusion of non-White authors in the school’s curriculum, according to journalist Max Chafkin, author of the Thiel biography, 'The Contrarian.'

...

"And Thiel’s influence could be felt throughout the company. In his best-selling 2014 book, 'Zero to One,' he argued that businesses should strive to make such a singular product that they become monopolies — while entrepreneurs consolidate power to run their companies like monarchies. Zuckerberg appeared to heed these lessons, multiple people said, from the structure of Facebook’s board, which gives the CEO the majority of voting shares and ultimate control, to his aggressive efforts to purchase or copy nascent competitors, a strategy that has given rise to accusations that the company is a monopoly.

...

"Thiel’s support of Trump — along with comments that resurfaced from a book co-authored with David Sacks that 'a multicultural rape charge may indicate nothing more than a belated regret' and that some rape charges are 'seductions that are later regretted' — provoked outcry within Facebook during election season, but Zuckerberg continued to defend his adviser."

Near Kherson, Ukrainians regain territory in major counteroffensive

Cassidy Hutchinson’s path from trusted insider to explosive witness: ‘I was disgusted,’ former aide to Mark Meadows says in testimony revealing new details

Reading archive 2022-06-28

Gen Z is influencing the abortion debate — from TikTok - "Savannah, who has a background in musical theater, has initiatives of her own, including writing and performing conservative rap songs. Last year, her music video 'Be Like Candace' caught the attention of right-wing commentator Candace Owens. Soon after, Savannah said, she was invited to be part of the organization Owens co-founded, the Blexit Foundation, which states a vision 'to change the narrative that surrounds America’s minority communities.'"

Opinion  Rudy Giuliani gets caught in another lie — at a supermarket

GOP Rep. Boebert: ‘I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk’

Frustration, anger rising among Democrats over caution on abortion: A growing number of Democrats are voicing anger at what they see as the passivity of Biden and other party leaders in the face of hard-hitting GOP tactics on abortion and other issues - "Some activists said Democratic leaders’ exhortation to vote for them to save abortion rights echoes the refrain activists heard on police reform in the wake of Floyd’s killing and on protecting voting rights — two major initiatives that have fallen short despite the narrow Democratic majorities in Washington. 

"'It’s very similar to what happened in 2020: 'Go back to the voting booths.' … It always comes back to 'Now you, the individual, do something,'' said Paris Hatcher, executive director for Black Feminist Future. 'But we’ve elected these people who are in office at this very moment to take action on things like this. It becomes a very passive way to pass the buck when we have elected them to make things happen that center on the well-being of the people.'" [ed. note: political power is derived from the individual's vote - that's what democracy is. You elected an official, not a demigod. We need more votes.]

Opinion  Susan Collins needs to own up to her decision to back Kavanaugh

Harris says she ‘never believed’ Kavanaugh, Gorsuch would uphold Roe

What Ruth Bader Ginsburg really said about Roe v. Wade - "One thing you’ll notice from the above is that Ginsburg calls the court’s decision hasty and “breathtaking,” she suggests it would have been better to go slower and focus on equal protection, and she laments legislators being taken out of the process so quickly and absolutely. But what she doesn’t say is that there is no constitutional right to an abortion or that Roe was wrong. Indeed her comments take issue mostly in how it arrived at a conclusion she supported, and how sustainable it made that right.

"And Ginsburg assured in her 1993 confirmation hearings that she did support it being a right. 

"Abortion 'is something central to a woman’s life, to her dignity,' she said. 'It’s a decision that she must make for herself. And when government controls that decision for her, she’s being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices.'"

Yes, Capitol Rioters Were Armed. Here Are The Weapons Prosecutors Say They Used - "At least three people arrested in connection with the Capitol riot are facing gun charges, though the government has not alleged that those three were part of the actual breach of the building. Other defendants are suspected of possessing guns during the riot but, like the vast majority of the estimated 800 rioters, were not searched that day."

Reading archive 2022-06-27

The GOP’s false assurances that Roe v. Wade was safe - "The Supreme Court indeed overturned Roe on Friday. And when it comes to Republican assurances that other unenumerated rights such as same-sex marriage or contraception couldn’t also be in some danger, it’s probably worth remembering the assurances that were delivered on this issue."

Spanberger’s rival questions on tape whether pregnancy less likely after rape

With violent rhetoric and election denial, podcaster becomes GOP force: Joe Oltmann has built a sprawling political network in Colorado marked by false 2020 claims and suggestions that opponents be hanged - "Broerman had never heard of the podcaster but figured it was important to hear out anyone who might have identified vulnerabilities in the vote. Instead, he found Oltmann’s complaints vague, peppered with technical language about voting machinery that didn’t match Broerman’s knowledge of the system."

Reading archive 2022-06-26

For Trixie Mattel, drag is an art form. It’s also her empire.: A new double album, a Discovery Plus show and a comedy tour are just the latest ventures for the drag queen

Opinion  As an adoptee, I know: Adoption is not a fairy-tale answer to abortion

Opinion  We know what to do to save the giant sequoias

Opinion  The Supreme Court rulings represent the tyranny of the minority - "In Federalist No. 22, Alexander Hamilton warned that giving small states like Rhode Island or Delaware 'equal weight in the scale of power' with large states like 'Massachusetts, or Connecticut, or New York' violated the precepts of 'justice' and 'common-sense.' 'The larger States would after a while revolt from the idea of receiving the law from the smaller,' he predicted, arguing that such a system contradicts 'the fundamental maxim of republican government, which requires that the sense of the majority should prevail.'

...

"To take but one example: Twenty-one states with fewer total people than California have 42 Senate seats.

"As an Economist correspondent points out, '5 of the 6 conservative Supreme Court justices were appointed by a Republican Senate majority that won fewer votes than the Democrats' and '3 of the 6 were nominated by a president who also won a minority of the popular vote.'"

GOP lawmaker calls Roe ruling ‘victory for white life’ as Trump rally cheers: A spokesman said the comment by Rep. Mary E. Miller (R-Ill.) was a ‘mix-up of words’

Reading archive 2022-06-25

Russia will soon exhaust its combat capabilities, Western assessments predict: Small shifts in territorial control matter less than the overall balance of forces, which analysts say could shift back in favor of Ukraine in the coming months

Emboldened Supreme Court majority shows it’s eager for change: Reinforced by Trump appointments, conservatives take on controversies dear to the right

Opinion  The Supreme Court radicals’ new precedent: Maximum chaos - "The right-wing majority’s selective application of history reveals the larger fraud in this pair of landmark rulings: Their reasoning is not legal but political, not principled but partisan."

Reading archive 2022-06-22

New York Times The Morning for 6/22/2022 - "The case, Carson v. Makin, concerned a Maine program that let rural residents who lived far from a public school attend a private school using taxpayer dollars, so long as that school was “nonsectarian.” Families who wanted to send their children to Christian schools challenged the program, arguing that excluding religious schools violated their right to exercise their faith." [ed. note: that is a batshit crazy argument]

Reading archive 2022-06-21

Investors paid thousands for rare wines. It was a scam, feds say.

Opinion  Texas Republicans want to secede? Good riddance.

Why gas is so expensive in some U.S. states but not others

PolitiFact: Tucker Carlson is wrong. Firearms, other weapons at Capitol on Jan. 6

How Kaliningrad, Russian land ringed by NATO, is tangled in Ukraine war

Japan and South Korea's Attendance at the Upcoming NATO Summit Could Worsen Global Tensions

Oil refineries are making a windfall. Why do they keep closing?: Companies see only headaches on the horizon for refineries, undercutting the White House push to boost production - "The explosion was triggered by a pipe that had not been inspected since 1973. It was so corroded that the pipe’s metal had become thinner than a credit card, according to investigators from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board. The board noted that such corrosion had been the culprit in earlier refinery explosions in California and Utah, and “it’s just a matter of time” before another such explosion at a refinery leads to fatalities or contamination of a community."

Why an energy crisis and $5 gas aren’t spurring a green revolution: As high prices move consumers to rethink their attachment to oil and gas, America is struggling to meet the moment - "There are numerous hurdles in the way, as outdated federal rules and local planning disputes slow projects down. In November, for instance, one of the country’s larger clean-energy projects faltered in the Northeast. Maine voters stymied plans for a transmission line that would bring enough clean electricity from hydroelectric plants fueled by dams in Canada to power 900,000 homes in New England.

"The plan was opposed by some local conservation groups that argued the lines would create an environmental menace in Maine’s North Woods and that hydroelectric power is detrimental to fragile aquatic ecosystems. But the most potent opposition came from energy companies heavily invested in fossil fuel, which spent $24 million supporting the ballot initiative campaign to kill the transmission line.

...

"The vote reversed a years-long, multimillion-dollar state approval process during which, Barringer said, environmental concerns were thoroughly considered and mitigated. And voter antipathy toward the project was driven in large part by distrust for the local utility partner on it, Central Maine Power, which has a dismal customer service record and a history of outages."

Document reveals details of 2009 sexual assault allegation against Daniel Snyder

The most common abortion procedures and when they occur

‘There’s nowhere I feel safe’: Georgia elections workers describe how Trump upended their lives: Shaye Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, testified how Trump and his allies fueled harassment and racist threats

Reading archive 2022-06-19

This Styrofoam-eating ‘superworm’ could help solve the garbage crisis: Scientists across the world are trying to find bacteria and bugs that consume trash. A plastic-consuming worm is the latest.

Opinion  We warned Google that people might believe AI was sentient. Now it’s happening.

Reading archive 2022-06-16

Extreme heat and humidity kill thousands of cattle in Kansas

A first look at plans for the new Union Station in D.C.: New renderings show the major overhaul being proposed for the 115-year old train hub

Opinion  Mitt Romney’s challenge to Joe Manchin — and to fellow Republicans

Opinion  Biden’s rousing speech before the AFL-CIO is exactly the message Democrats need

U.S. cadets suing shipping company, alleging rape and harassment at sea: One woman’s anonymous online account of assault last year raised concerns on Capitol Hill, prompting a temporary pause in the program

GUIDE TO GARDENING FOR BATS

Herschel Walker, who criticizes absentee fathers, acknowledges second son

Prairie Referees?

Reading archive 2022-06-14

“Prove to the World You’ve Lost Your Son” How a Tulsa grandmother became a vicious Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist—in her own words.

Warehouses in China and U.S. show global economy struggling to adjust: Rising inventories suggest new challenges for the world’s two largest economies

James Patterson claims: White male writers face ‘another form of racism’: The best-selling novelist, 75, is facing backlash from critics and writers. He apologized Tuesday.

New details emerge of Oval Office confrontation three days before Jan. 6: Jeffrey Clark, a mid-level Justice Department official, wanted Trump to name him attorney general in a plan aimed at potentially overturning the election

Reading archive 2022-06-13

A Black Army vet spent 16 months in solitary. Then a jury heard the evidence against him.: Andrew Johnson refused to plead guilty to attempted murder charges, insisting he’d been defending himself during a confrontation in California.

How the White House lost Joe Manchin, and its plan to transform America - "'It was not like this was the biggest insult in the world,' said Dean Baker, a White House ally who works at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a left-leaning think tank. 'The idea you would have done something good for the country, but instead will not do it because you think someone in the White House may have insulted you is kind of crazy.'"

D.C. mayoral candidates meet on TV, with voting underway and passions high

The town crier: Deepening suspicions. A parallel voting system. Dumpster diving for documents. In northwest Georgia, a woman known as ‘Burnitdown’ portends what the Trump movement is becoming.

Reading archive 2022-06-12

Infighting in Israel imperils legal safeguards from West Bank settlers

Court filing offers new evidence of post-election breach in Coffee County, Ga.

Reading archive 2022-06-10

Opinion  The best China strategy? Defeat Russia.

Here's how Fox and Newsmax tried to spin the January 6 committee's first prime-time hearing

Reading archive 2022-06-09

Opinion  Chickens have gone crazy in Hawaiʻi. But there’s a way bigger problem. - "The animals — moa, as we Native Hawaiians know them — had been domesticated and transported in the voyagers’ double-hulled vessels, along with pigs, dogs and canoe crops such as kalo (taro), ʻulu (breadfruit) and ʻuala (sweet potato).

"Over the following centuries, the Native Hawaiians, or kanaka maoli, developed a complex, regenerative and self-sufficient agricultural system in their new home, and the moa proliferated.

...

"Besides, how else will we cook our huli huli chicken? The word means “to turn,” as in the turning of the chicken over burning kiawe wood — but also as in the turning of old systems into new ones, of shifting and rejecting the status quo." [ed. note: lolllllll "native" Hawaiians are humans like any other who have brought and embraced ecological destruction at every turn - introducing chickens, pigs, dogs, and invasive Prosopis pallida trees ("kiawe") but lamenting always the newcomer]

Opinion  As climate catastrophes multiply, Republicans rethink denialism

Opinion  How NIMBYism chokes off affordable housing even in Big Sky Country

D.C. chiropractor who stormed Capitol arrested on Jan. 6 charges: David Walls-Kaufman, who was seen on video in the Capitol, was arrested by the FBI just hours before the first public hearing by the Jan. 6 committee was set to begin.

Reading archive 2022-06-08

Your liver is younger than you think

Inside the Taliban’s secret war in the Panjshir Valley

What is stagflation? Here’s why it matters and what you should know.: Inflation and weakening growth could trap the global economy in a years-long slump, economists warn

AR-15s useful to shoot prairie dogs, GOP leader says, as gun talks intensify

DeSantis spokeswoman belatedly registers as agent of foreign politician: Christina Pushaw’s disclosure of work for Mikheil Saakashvili came after contact from the Justice Department, her attorney said

Reading archive 2022-06-07

The Pithiest Critique of Modern Conservatism Keeps Getting Credited to the Wrong Man: “Wilhoit’s Law” was created by a different Frank Wilhoit.

Email to Giuliani reveals plan to keep Trump in office on Jan. 6, court records show

What science tells us about the mood-boosting effects of indoor plants

Opinion  A shocker in the Proud Boys indictment exposes the right’s long game - "'This regeneration through violence is going to be with us for a long time,' Lowndes said, 'because it is fundamental to the right-wing political imagination.'"

Trump call Jan. 6 to ‘walk down to the Capitol’ prompted Secret Service scramble: Agency’s actions are part of the Jan. 6 committee’s probe into Trump’s role in inciting the violent attack

Transcript: Race in America: Giving Voice with Bisa Butler

Both Republicans and Democrats prioritize family, but they differ over other sources of meaning in life

Reading archive 2022-06-06

Why High Turnout In Georgia Doesn’t Mean Voting Restrictions Haven’t Had An Effect

Jan. 6 attack part of ‘extremely well-organized’ conspiracy, Cheney says

Man drowns as Arizona police watch: ‘I’m not jumping in after you’

A liberal D.A. finds voters’ moods have changed even in San Francisco

U.S. and South Korea respond to North Korean launch with 8 missiles of their own

Rays players make ‘faith-based decision’ to shun Pride Night logos

Most, but not all, Rays show their LGBTQ+ support With rainbow-colored logos added to their jerseys and caps for Pride Night, players had to make a choice about opting in. - "Adam, chosen by team officials to speak for the players who opted out, said it was primarily a matter of religious beliefs and not wanting to encourage the 'behavior' of those in the LGBTQ+ community. 

"'A lot of it comes down to faith, to like a faith-based decision,' Adam said. 'So it’s a hard decision. Because ultimately we all said what we want is them to know that all are welcome and loved here. But when we put it on our bodies, I think a lot of guys decided that it’s just a lifestyle that maybe — not that they look down on anybody or think differently — it’s just that maybe we don’t want to encourage it if we believe in Jesus, who’s encouraged us to live a lifestyle that would abstain from that behavior, just like (Jesus) encourages me as a heterosexual male to abstain from sex outside of the confines of marriage. It’s no different. 

"'It’s not judgmental. It’s not looking down. It’s just what we believe the lifestyle he’s encouraged us to live, for our good, not to withhold. But again, we love these men and women, we care about them, and we want them to feel safe and welcome here.'" [ed. note: lol these broken people]

Woodward and Bernstein thought Nixon defined corruption. Then came Trump.

Reading archive 2022-06-05

Tiananmen vigils gain prominence in Taiwan as Chinese threat looms

Reading archive 2022-06-03

Beijing chafes at Moscow’s requests for support, Chinese officials say: China’s leadership wants to expand assistance for Russia without running afoul of Western sanctions and has set limits on what it will do

Opinion  Metro has a chance to break out of its tailspin of turmoil

Classmates wouldn’t sign his yearbook. So older students stepped in.: An impromptu swarm of upperclassmen filed into the sixth-grade class to sign his yearbook

Opinion  What are D.C. voters hungry for as primary day approaches?

How humid air, intensified by climate change, is melting Greenland ice: A new study highlights how warm, moist air invaded Greenland in 2021 to cause widespread melting, an increasingly common occurrence over the past decade

Elon Musk targets white-collar Tesla staff, a test case of Twitter plans: In an email to executives, the billionaire CEO announced layoffs of 10 percent of salaried staff, saying he has a “super bad feeling” about the economy.

Reading archive 2022-06-02

We’ve Known How To Prevent A School Shooting for More Than 20 Years

Homeless camp cleared at Union Station: ‘We don’t have nowhere to go’

Google’s plan to talk about caste bias led to ‘division and rancor’

China’s hold over Tesla raises questions about Musk’s bid for Twitter: Current and former U.S. officials say deal could go against national interest - "By dominating the supply of multiple components critical to the fortunes of Tesla, the Chinese government holds so much leverage over chief executive Elon Musk’s wealth that his planned acquisition of Twitter should concern national security leaders, a dozen current and former officials involved in reviewing foreign investments told The Washington Post."

Opinion  Doug Mastriano’s unhinged ‘Nazi’ claim signals deeper danger ahead

Opinion  Susan Collins confronts a moment of truth - "'Justice Rehnquist was not successful in convincing a majority of justices in the context of abortion,' [Justice Kegstand] said. 'But he was successful in stemming the general tide of freewheeling judicial creation of unenumerated rights that were not rooted in the nation’s history and tradition.'" [ed. note: my marriage is fucked]

...

"Collins told me that neither side is more responsible than the other for today’s extremism — that there’s plenty of blame to go around." [ed. note: this is delusional]

Opinion  In death row case, the Supreme Court says guilt is now beside the point - "Last week, Scalia’s once-fringe position became law. In Shinn v. Ramirez, the court voted 6 to 3 to overrule two lower courts and disregard the innocence claims of Barry Lee Jones, a prisoner on Arizona’s death row. Importantly, the majority did not rule that it found Jones’s innocence claims unpersuasive. Instead, it ruled that the federal courts are barred from even considering them. Thomas wrote the opinion.

...

"But last week the Supreme Court snuffed it out. Led by Thomas, the majority ruled that while the court’s 2012 decision did allow the federal courts to find that Jones’s post-conviction attorney was ineffective, AEDPA still bars Jones from using the evidence those attorneys failed to find in federal court. According to the majority, the federal courts can acknowledge that a prisoner’s state-appointed attorneys failed him at two critical points in his case, but they’re barred from actually doing anything about it. 

"It’s an illogical and profoundly cynical ruling, one that will almost certainly mean innocent people will remain behind bars — or be executed.

...

"The Supreme Court’s own history ought to impart some lessons here. In 1994, Scalia described in an unrelated death penalty case the heinous nature of the rape and murder for which Henry McCollum was convicted and sentenced to death in North Carolina. It was, Scalia argued, a poster case for the death penalty. About 20 years later, McCullum was exonerated and freed. In 2006, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote a dissenting opinion defending the Tennessee conviction of Paul House that also included graphic descriptions of the crime and a recitation of the state’s narrative as if it were fact. House, too, was later exonerated and released. 

"Thomas joined both of those opinions. He seems utterly unchastened that both were so clearly and consequentially wrong."

Reading archive 2022-06-01

This device may nudge your brain into deep sleep: It uses electric current pulsed through the scalp and skull to help the brain flush away harmful waste during deep sleep

In worsening drought, Southern California water restrictions take effect: Outdoor water use limited to one day per week in parts of the Los Angeles area - "Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) warned that mandatory water restrictions might be imposed throughout the state. Almost a year before, he had called on residents to voluntarily reduce water use by 15 percent. But that has not happened."

Opinion  John Durham’s flop is only the latest of many Trump coverup failures

What if — and bear with me here — John Durham doesn’t have the goods? - "Durham’s probe has become everything that Trump and his allies accused special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation of being: a fishing expedition that’s gone on for an extended period of time without actually surfacing anything that significantly aids the central case. Mueller could point to dozens of indictments and a voluminous exploration of how Russia tried to swing the 2016 election two years into his assignment. Three years into Durham’s, he failed to obtain a conviction on his central line of attack."

Norton: D.C. leaders’ disagreement leaves RFK Stadium plan in lurch

D.C. gun seizures are soaring — but charges aren’t sticking: Police say there are legal hurdles to securing convictions even when they recover a weapon. Defense attorneys say they are bringing weak cases.

Will exercise, meditation or reiki help if you can’t find a therapist?: The shortage of specialists is driving many to try alternative methods. What the science says about their effectiveness.

Opinion  Hapless Trumpist Mo Brooks gives away the GOP ‘vote fraud’ scam