In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Assault] Donald Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who was accused of forcefully grabbing Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, and vehemently denied it, has been charged with misdemeanor battery. In footage of the incident, Lewandowski can be seen grabbing Fields, contrary to his claims otherwise. Wesley Lowery has the text of the arrest report. Nice campaign you've got there, Trump.

[CN: Islamophobia] "Harsh rhetoric about Muslims by Republican candidates in the U.S. presidential election campaign is undermining national security efforts, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Tuesday. Asked about comments by Republicans Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, Johnson told MSNBC in an interview that singling out a specific community hampers government efforts to build the connections that are needed to thwart possible attacks. 'Inflammatory comments about patrolling and securing Muslim neighbors or barring Muslims from entering this country, having an immigration policy based on religion, is counterproductive to our homeland security and national security interests,' he said." The Republican candidates are a national security threat for the entire country, and a domestic security threat for Muslim Americans.

[CN: Hijacking] "The hijack of a domestic Egyptian flight that caused it to be diverted to Cyprus has ended with all hostages released and the hijacker surrendering. EgyptAir Flight MS181 was taken over by a passenger claiming to be wearing a suicide explosive belt. Airline officials later said they had been told by Cypriot authorities that the belt was fake. The hijacker's motives remain unclear but the Cypriot president said the incident was not terrorism-related. No-one was injured in the hijacking, Cypriot government spokesman Nikos Christodulides tweeted." What a truly strange story! I'm glad no one was injured.

[CN: Guns] Devastating: "A Chicago teen who appeared in an award-winning public service video about gun violence was shot and seriously injured over the weekend, the New York Times reports. Zarriel Trotter, 13, was struck by a stray bullet after two groups of youths got into a 'heated argument' Friday night on the city's West Side, authorities said. A person pulled out a gun and started firing, striking the boy. 'He was not the intended target,' Police Officer Jose Estrada said, according to the Times. 'He was standing on the sidewalk.' No one else was injured in the shooting. Zarriel, as the Times notes, was one of several young students who took part in a video series last year highlighting the impact gun violence has had on the black community. In the videos, which were part of the YouTube and Facebook campaign, Black Is Human, showed several youth speaking about their fear of gun violence and becoming part of the statistics, as well as the damage it was doing to their neighborhoods. 'I don't want to live around my community where I got to keep on hearing and hearing people keep on getting shot, people keep on getting killed,' Zarriel said in the video in which he is featured."

[CN: Homophobia; transphobia] GOOD: "North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced on Tuesday that he will not defend HB 2, the state's newly passed anti-LGBT law that bans all local LGBT rights ordinances. Cooper said in a statement that he and his office won't 'defend the constitutionality of the discrimination' in the bill which Governor Pat McCrory signed last week. ...Cooper, a Democrat, is running for governor and challenging incumbent McCrory in the fall."

[CN: Addiction] President Obama will unveil a new $1.1 billion proposal to combat heroin and opioid addiction, and it looks a lot different than the usual war on drugs. "During the summit, Obama will outline a multi-point plan, which will include, according to a White House fact sheet: Expanding access to treatment, establishing a mental health and substance-use disorder parity task force, investing in community policing to address heroin, implementing syringe-services programs." I'm not keen on the policing part, but it's only $7 million in Justice Department funding, out of the entire billion+ budget. So that's a big shift.

[CN: Racism; guns; militarized police] Jamil Smith expresses concerns for his hometown Cleveland, once the Republican convention arrives in town and what it will leave in its wake.

Perfect headline is perfect: "Trump Struggles With Presidential Demeanor Ahead of Wisconsin Primary."

If you've been waiting with baited breath to see who Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker endorsed, your long national nightmare is over: He has endorsed Ted Cruz.

[CN: Rape culture] Here are a few more stars you can add to your "These Fuckers Are Still Willing to Work with Woody Allen" list: Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg, Steve Carell, Blake Lively, and Parker Posey, all of whom star in his new film Café Society, which will open this year's Cannes Film Festival, because of course it will.

Neat! "The discovery of a fossilized skull in Kazakhstan is making paleontologists rewrite the timeline of the Siberian unicorn, Elasmotherium sibiricum. This impressive animal was a real-life unicorn, though it didn't match the image most of us have for the fairytale creature. Closer to a rhino than a horse in appearance, it was similar in stature to the mammoth. Measuring up to 6.5 feet tall and almost 15 feet long, it weighed up to 9,000 pounds. Its most recognizable feature was its single horn, which is thought to have been much longer than a rhino's, up to multiple feet long. Its habitat was the vast territory from the Don River in Russia to east of modern Kazakhstan. ...The Siberian unicorn, which first emerged in the fossil record around 2.5 million years ago, was thought to have disappeared 350,000 years ago. But the discovery made by researchers from Tomsk State University in Siberia, Russia, seems to show that E. sibiricum might have stuck around much longer. In fact, the beast and humans might have met."

Speaking of unicorns: "They are distinctive for the long tusk that protrudes from their head but until now nobody had a clue why the Narwhal evolved like it did. Thanks to a scientific breakthrough, biologists now believe that the horn of the male of the species is in fact a sensory organ. ...The tusk is actually the left canine of the toothed whale which breaks through its upper lip. But unlike a normal tooth it has no enamel, making it porous and meaning sea water can travel through the tusk connecting with nerve endings and then, most importantly, sending signals to the brain."

And finally! Bonnie Baby Bentangs! The Edinburgh Zoo "is hopeful that the two Banteng calves will contribute to the conservation of this endangered species in the future."