Month: August 2020

Amid America’s summer of protests against police brutality and racism, another police shooting of a Black man has gone viral: that of 29-year-old Kenosha, Wisconsin, resident Jacob Blake.

Blake survived the shooting. But his father told the Chicago Sun-Times his son is paralyzed from the waist down. Rusten Sheskey, a white officer who is a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha Police Department, reportedly shot Blake in the back at close range seven times on August 23. The shooting sparked local protests (during which a 17-year-old vigilante killed two people), reignited national unrest, prompted professional athletes to strike, and …

Cal Cunningham, the Democratic candidate in North Carolina’s US Senate race, pointed out that the US is capable of coming together for the national good — just not, apparently, on Covid-19.

“If it had been a terrorist attack, there would have been an address to the nation, probably to a joint session of Congress. There would not have been a hesitation to invoke things like the Defense Production Act,” Cunningham, a military veteran, told me in a phone interview. “There would have been clear communication from the top to every corner of America about how we fight that enemy. …

A federal appeals court’s 8-2 decision in In re: Michael T. Flynn, handed down Monday, affirms — over the objection of two right-wing judges — that the ordinary rules that apply to any other litigant also apply to President Trump’s former national security adviser. Michael Flynn, a former general who briefly served as Trump’s top national security aide, won’t be able to have criminal charges against him dropped before his case is heard by a federal trial judge.

It’s hardly an earth-shattering legal event. But the decision is significant because it unwinds a deeply radical opinion by one of …

Voters have their last chance to weigh in on one of the country’s most head-scratching primary races this Tuesday, September 1.

Last year, Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA), a four-term congressman and scion of one of the US’s most famous political families, announced that he would challenge sitting Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), who’s up for reelection this fall. What Kennedy has struggled to articulate since then, however, is why he’s doing so. Although he’s emphasized a commitment to the people of Massachusetts, and framed his candidacy as one advancing generational change, Kennedy’s bid has still left many confused.

“He has never …

The Republican National Convention may have ended with a literal bang — fireworks spelling out “Trump 2020” — on Thursday last week, but according to a new post-convention , President Donald Trump isn’t getting much of a convention bounce — at least when it comes to his approval rating.

Historically, presidential candidates see notable, though frequently ephemeral, increases in their polling following their party’s conventions. For instance, in 2016, Gallup found Trump’s approval rating rose about 5 percentage points following the GOP convention, before falling ahead of the election.

However, this year, Ipsos pollsters found Trump’s overall approval rating …

One person was killed in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday after supporters of President Donald Trump led a caravan into the city — and instead of trying to deescalate tensions, Trump spent Sunday on Twitter threatening to send in the National Guard.

Among a slew of other missives, the president retweeted a message calling for Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler to resign, and tiptoed right up to the edge of endorsing violence, saying a video showing his supporters unleashing paintballs and pepper spray on Portland residents — and at least one journalist — reflected that escalating unrest “cannot be unexpected … The …

A shooter killed one person in Portland, Oregon on Saturday night, according to a statement by the Portland Police Bureau.

Much is still unknown about the shooting, but the victim — a white man — appears to have had some connection to the far-right Patriot Prayer group; according to Willamette Week reporter Aaron Mesh, the victim was wearing a hat and shirt with the group’s logo.

The shooting comes after supporters of President Donald Trump led a caravan of vehicles through the city Saturday and clashed with anti-police brutality protesters in Portland’s downtown; video from journalist Cory Elia shows …

When the Emmy nominations were announced in July, nothing made me happier than the eight surprising nods (including Best Comedy Series) for FX’s deliriously funny vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows, based on the film of the same name.

The deeply silly TV show turned out a second season that is one of the funniest TV seasons I’ve seen in ages, featuring riffs on whether vampires have ghosts of themselves because they’re already dead and an entire episode that largely abandons the show’s usual format as one vampire goes on the run and finds a small town …

President Donald Trump wants his enemies locked up — he says so all the time.

He told Hillary Clinton that once he won, she’d be “in jail.” He wants foreign countries to investigate the Bidens. He said that John Kerry “should be prosecuted.” He wants Adam Schiff “questioned at the highest level for Fraud & Treason.” John Bolton, he says, should be “in jail, money seized.” James Comey should face “years in jail.” The list goes on. This isn’t just empty political rhetoric — Trump says similar things to officials in private, and grows angry when his …

The winds shook the whole building. The fire alarm went off. Sometime, between about 2 am and 4 am Thursday, the roof of the building curled away. The rainwater came in, soaking the ceiling of the second floor apartment, dripping down the walls.

Bailey, who’s 26 and lives in Lake Charles, Louisiana, emerged from the apartment at sunrise, after riding out the storm with her boyfriend and her dad and their two pets, a Persian cat and French-Boston Terrier bulldog mix. Outside, she saw the metal awning of the building’s roof rolled up like the end of a toothpaste tube. …