In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today!

[Content Note: Violence] Much of the nation is marking the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy today. I don't really have anything to say about that. It was a terrible day and scary time for lots of USians who were alive. As someone who was born more than a decade after, I have always personally found the nation's obsession with Kennedy's death a little macabre and upsetting.

The House Intelligence Committee voted to reauthorize the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies yesterday, with legislation that includes "$75 million to combat insider threats following the leaks of classified information by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden." Transparency! Accountability! Whistleblower protection! And other bullshit!

[CN: War; profound violence] Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, may be negotiating his surrender. Kony is "wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity including mass murder, torture, and kidnapping of children for his army."

Late late night, the Texas Board of Education "used a late-night meeting to give preliminary approval to new science textbooks for classrooms across the state late Thursday night, but it blocked signing off on a major new biology text until alleged 'errors' in lessons over the theory of evolution are checked by outside experts. ...The issue is important nationally since Texas is so large that many books prepared for publication in the state also are marketed elsewhere around the country."

[CN: Death; destruction] The roof of a supermarket collapsed in the Latvian capital of Riga, killing at least 45 people. That number could rise, as investigators are unsure how many more people are still inside. Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis says that an investigation has already begun into potential building standards violations.

The ACLU is challenging Kansas' two-tiered voter registration system. Good.

Attorneys for the State of Arizona have "asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and reinstate an anti-abortion law that strips Medicaid funding from doctors and clinics that perform abortions, even though that money does not go toward abortion care." Not good.

[CN: Homophobia] After it was revealed that the US Air Force Academy "has a gay conversion therapy advocate overseeing its counseling program," and a subsequent USAFA press release claimed LGB cadets are "happy" there, a US Air Force Cadet is disputing that claim. Shocking.

If a celebrity photobombed your wedding pictures, would you want it to be Zach Braff? Well, then get ready to be jealous!

Jennifer Lawrence had what I would describe as a perfectly reasonable (and what looks to me like a self-amusingly hyperbolic) reaction to just literally being screamed at incessantly at a red carpet premiere, and now there are fully one million headlines saying she had a "meltdown." Ha ha perfect. Being famous looks terrible!

Exhibit B: This is a real headline in the world (at the National Enquirer, to which I will not link): "JENNIFER ANISTON TOPLESS SHOCKER! Jen ready to bare ALL as pregnancy dreams just…fade away." Ellipses original. You know, so we can all understand to insert our own heaving sigh that Jen's pregnancy dreams are SIIIIIIIIIIIIGH fading away.