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Global Network Outages Leave World With Blue Screens and Confusion (Maria)
The author writes, “Millions of people outside the IT industry are learning what CrowdStrike is today, and that’s a real bad thing. Meanwhile, Microsoft is also catching blame for global network outages, and between the two, it’s unclear as of Friday morning just who caused what. After cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike shipped an update to its Falcon Sensor software that protects mission-critical systems, Blue Screens of Death (BSODs) started taking down Windows-based systems. … Security consultant Troy Hunt was quoted as describing the dual failures as ‘the largest IT outage in history.’”
The Imperial Presidency Unleashed (Sean)
From Foreign Affairs: “This week in Milwaukee, Republicans have gathered to formally nominate Donald Trump for president — as they have twice before. But this time, they meet under vastly different circumstances. Most obviously, they are nominating the former president just five days after a man tried to assassinate him during a campaign rally. But they are also nominating Trump in the wake of two extraordinary legal developments. The more recent of the two is the dismissal of the classified documents case in Florida. The other, more enduring one is the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States — which grants presidents sweeping immunity from criminal prosecution after leaving office.”
VIDEO: The Attempted Assassination of President Trump (Al)
From Vlogging Through History: “There is obviously a very historical element to this because this is something that we’re going to be talking about for decades and even centuries to come.”
‘Oven on Wheels’: US Amazon Drivers Roast Before ‘Prime Day’ Rush (Laura)
From Context: “With heat waves sweeping across the United States, drivers delivering packages for Amazon.com Inc — the largest package delivery player in the country — are having to work through record-setting temperatures.”
How a Supreme Court Decision Could Reignite the PNW’s Biggest Environmental Battles (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “Since the Pacific Northwest’s ‘timber wars’ of the 1990s, the federal Northwest Forest Plan has managed conservation and logging interests in regional forests. The plan was formulated by a team of scientists from several fields, tailoring their rules to mandates from Congress. The Forest Service announced earlier this year that it was looking to update those rules to meet the growing challenges of wildfire and climate change. But Oregon environmental advocates say those rules, among many others issued by federal regulatory agencies, could now come under threat. The Supreme Court late last month overturned what’s known as the Chevron decision, a longstanding precedent that lower federal courts should defer to agencies — staffed by experts — on ‘reasonable’ rule changes to enforce legislation.”
School Vouchers Were Supposed to Save Taxpayer Money. Instead They Blew a Massive Hole in Arizona’s Budget. (Dana)
From ProPublica: “Arizona, the model for voucher programs across the country, has spent so much money paying private schoolers’ tuition that it’s now facing hundreds of millions in budget cuts to critical state programs and projects.”
Potty-Mouthed Parrot Arrives at Shelter; 400 People Apply to Adopt Him (Russ)
The author writes, “A few days after the Niagara SPCA animal shelter took in a white-fronted Amazon parrot last month, staffers and volunteers got an earful. ‘Do you want me to kick your [expletive]?’ the parrot named Pepper asked a volunteer at the Niagara Falls, N.Y., shelter. Pepper and six parakeets were surrendered by a woman who said she could no longer care for them.”
