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Record-Breaking, Widespread and Stubborn Heat Wave to Blanket US This Week (Maria)
The author writes, “A June heat wave for the record books is set to send temperatures soaring from the Midwest and Ohio Valley to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast beginning Sunday and continuing into the coming weeks. Extreme heat is the top weather-related killer in the US. … By Sunday, 268 million people in the US are forecast to see air temperatures reach or exceed 90°F, with many of them experiencing heat indices at or above 100°F. Big cities that will be affected by this event include Chicago, Columbus, Albany, Syracuse, Pittsburg, Washington, D.C., New York City, Hartford and Boston.”
The ‘Jimmy Clean Hands’ Election (Reader Jim)
From The Atlantic: “In the director Sergio Leone’s final movie, the 1984 crime epic Once Upon a Time in America, a group of Jewish gangsters in early-20th-century New York City goes from rags to riches and then to disaster. Along the way, they serve as muscle for the labor movement against cops and strikebreakers, which is fine with everyone except Jimmy O’Donnell, a rising and idealistic union organizer. O’Donnell — a small role played to perfection by the late Treat Williams — eventually comes to rely on the guns of the gangsters as he rises through the union ranks. But despite being up to his neck in the corruption around him, he keeps his distance from the thugs, who cynically nickname him ‘Jimmy Clean Hands.’ The Republican Party now has an entire subculture of Jimmy Clean Hands types, who claim to recognize that Trump is completely unfit for office and have said that they will not vote for him — yet will not vote to stop him.”
Campaigns Can Now See What You Watch on TV. It’s Changing Everything. (DonkeyHotey)
From NOTUS: “Smart TVs that track what people watch and how they watch it give political campaigns a new trove of data to exploit, with little transparency on how it’s happening.
What Exactly Did Justice Alito Say That Was Wrong? (Al)
The author writes, “Justice Samuel Alito has been widely criticized … for remarks he made to a self-described documentary filmmaker who on two occasions engaged him at social events, secretly taped him under false pretenses and released the recordings. What did he say that was wrong? Nothing. None of his remarks were improper for a judge to make. Furthermore, he did not even say anything especially controversial — or at least nothing that would be controversial in a less polarized moment.”
Violent Crime Is Down and the US Murder Rate Is Plunging, FBI Statistics Show (Gerry)
The authors write, “Violent crime dropped by more than 15% in the United States during the first three months of 2024, according to statistics released Monday by the FBI. The new numbers show violent crime from January to March dropped 15.2% compared to the same period in 2023, while murders fell 26.4% and reported rapes decreased by 25.7%. Aggravated assaults decreased during that period when compared to last year by 12.5%, according to the data, while robberies fell 17.8%.”
The American Climate Corps Will Get People Into Green Jobs. Can It Help Their Mental Health Too? (Laura)
From Grist: “While the vast majority of 18- to 28-year-olds in the United States say they’re worried about climate change, two-thirds of them are unsure what they can do to make a difference, according to polling from the think tank Data for Progress in 2022. The combination is ripe for ‘climate anxiety,’ a catch-all term for the feelings of grief, fear, and distress that’s not so much a clinical diagnosis as a logical response to living through the hottest period on Earth in 125,000 years.”
Rare 7-Foot Fish Washed Ashore on Oregon’s Coast Garners Worldwide Attention (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “A massive rare fish thought to only live in temperate waters in the southern hemisphere has washed up on Oregon’s northern coast, drawing crowds of curious onlookers intrigued by the unusual sight. … Photos provided by the [Seaside Aquarium] showed a flat, round, gray fish lying on its side in the sand. Photos of a person kneeling next to it, and another of a pickup truck parked next to it, gave a sense of its large scale and size.”
