In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

Hey, Republicans—are you listening? "On the heels of his campaign's worst week yet, Donald Trump suggested that it is his temperament that 'has gotten me here' and said he has no plans to change it. 'I think that my temperament has gotten me here,' Trump said in a Tuesday morning interview on Fox Business Network. 'I've always had a good temperament and it's gotten me here. We beat a lot of people in the primaries and now we have one person left, and we're actually doing pretty well there, but we'll see how it all comes out. ...I certainly don't think it's appropriate to start changing all of a sudden when you've been winning,' he said. 'I mean I've beaten many people, and now we're down to one. And we'll see how it all works out, but I think it's going to work out well.'" He's not changing; he's not pivoting; he's not rebooting. Trump is Trump.

And, at the moment, Trump is losing badly: "Let's say this plainly: The polls are not 'skewed.' They weren’t in 2012, and they aren't now. ...Right now, Clinton is leading in almost every single national poll. She leads in both our polls-plus and polls-only forecasts. That doesn't mean she will win. The polls have been off before, but no one knows by how much beforehand, or in which direction they'll miss. For all their imperfection, the polls are a far better indicator than the conspiracy theories made up to convince people that Trump is ahead."

[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] "Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton said Monday night that she will attend all three general election presidential debates and challenged her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, to do the same. 'Secretary Clinton looks forward to participating in all three presidential debates scheduled by the independent debate commission,' John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman, said in a statement." Ball's in your court, Trump!

The three presidential debates are scheduled for Monday September 26, Sunday October 9, and Wednesday October 19. The vice-presidential debate has been scheduled for Tuesday October 4.

[CN: Terrorism] "The parents of two Americans killed in the 2012 terrorist attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court Monday against Hillary Clinton. In the suit, Patricia Smith and Charles Woods, the parents of Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods, claim that Clinton's use of a private e-mail server contributed to the attacks. They also accuse her of defaming them in public statements." As always, Clinton's response, via campaign spokesperson Nick Merrill, was very good: "While no one can imagine the pain of the families of the brave Americans we lost at Benghazi, there have been nine different investigations into this attack and none found any evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing on the part of Hillary Clinton."

[CN: Police brutality] Wow: "Police departments will be required to give the US justice department full details of deadly incidents involving their officers each quarter, under a new government system for counting killings by police that was influenced by the Guardian. Announcing a new program for documenting all 'arrest-related deaths,' federal officials said they would actively work to confirm fatal cases seen in media reports and other open sources rather than wait for departments to report them voluntarily."

[CN: Racism] "In a recent study comparing pain treatment between white and black patients in the ER, [researchers surveying] national hospitals found that black patients with back or abdominal pain were consistently less likely to be given or prescribed opioid-based pain medication than white patients with identical symptoms. For each case, the University of California San Francisco researchers noted, 'pain severity' was the leading factor determining whether or not a patient received pain medication. This determination is entirely up to the doctors, said one of the study's authors, Renee Hsia. 'Whether or not someone 'needs' opioids is a very subjective decision—there isn't an objective test,' she said. Her team's conclusion points to a few gaps in the medical system, including implicit biases among ER doctors and a dangerous inability to assess patient pain."

[CN: Racism; classism] Relatedly: "Philadelphia has plenty of primary-care providers overall, but there is far less access to care in communities with the highest concentrations of African American residents, according to a new study. While the general findings were not a surprise—highly segregated black (and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic) areas were known to have fewer medical practitioners—the difference was bigger than the researchers had expected. The effect was independent of neighborhood poverty rates, which turned out to be less significant than anticipated, although it is not clear why." I bet we can take a good guess, though!

Neat: "Trans triathlete Chris Mosier stars in a new ad for Nike's 'Unlimited' campaign, which showcases everyday and professional athletes who push themselves to the limit. ...Mosier in 2015 became the first openly transgender athlete to win a spot on a U.S. National team. He also challenged the international transgender competition policy which resulted in a completely new set of guidelines for trans athletes."

Phew! "The spectacular Perseid meteor shower, peaking Thursday night (Aug. 11–12), lights up Earth's sky every summer as Earth passes through the trail left by Comet Swift-Tuttle, a miles-wide behemoth that swings by Earth every 133 years. Swift-Tuttle, whose nucleus is 16 miles (26 kilometers) wide, is the largest solar system object to pass close to Earth repeatedly, NASA has said, and researchers once thought it was likely to hit Earth in 2126—but the last time it passed Earth, in 1992, astronomers took more precise measurements and calculated that its next pass wouldn't be so dangerous after all. 'Its orbit passes very close to the Earth's orbit, so that it has been viewed as a hazardous object over the years,' Paul Chodas, NASA's manager for the center of near-Earth object studies, told Space.com. 'Now, we know its orbit very well, well enough to say that we are safe from an impact for many thousands of years.'"

Wow: "NASA just dumped a trove of photos of Mars' dunes, craters, and mountains." The extraordinary photos were taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

And finally! OMGGGGGGGGGG: "Flight Attendant Adopts Stray Dog Who Wouldn't Stop Waiting for Her Outside Hotel." LOVE!