Source: Alternet

By Reynard Loki / AlterNet
June 20, 2016

At least four people have died in a record-setting heat wave that has engulfed the southwestern United States. The deaths occurred in Arizona, where the temperature hit 120 degrees in some places. More than 30 million people are currently under heat warnings or advisories.

The Red Cross defines a heat wave as “a prolonged period of excessive heat, generally 10 degrees or more above average, often combined with excessive humidity.” In Phoenix the thermometer climbed to 118 degrees, nearly hitting the city’s all-time record of 122 degrees—so hot a Mesa Airlines flight to the city on Sunday was routed back to Texas.

"There'll be a bunch of records broken again today," said CNN meteorologist Chad Myers. "It's not even cooling down at night—that's another part of the problem." The record temperatures are making it the hottest-ever start to summer in Arizona, New Mexico and California, said CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.



By midweek, Weather Channel meteorologist Reynolds Wolf said, the range of extreme heat will spread to the middle of the country. The scorching temps are expected to grip the eastern U.S. later this week.

Read more: http://www.alternet.org/environment/deadly-record-breaking-heat-wave-scorches-southwest-us-worsens-raging-wildfires

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Any comments I might make would be preaching to the choir. You all know what's going on. And I'm in San Diego, so I have to finish this post quickly before my keyboard melts.

Source: Associated Press

By DANICA KIRKA and JILL LAWLESS
Jun. 20, 2016 2:44 PM EDT

LONDON (AP) — Britain's normally raucous House of Commons was given over to tears, roses and warm tributes Monday as legislators urged an end to angry and divisive politics in honor of their slain colleague Jo Cox, who was killed last week.

The British pound and global stock markets surged as shock at the death of the pro-Europe Cox seemed to sap momentum from campaigners fighting for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.

The market surge suggested growing investor confidence that the uncertainty associated with a "leave" vote in Thursday's referendum would be avoided. Betting houses also shortened the odds that Britain would remain in the 28-nation bloc.


Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/a068ce6f98cf4b5a9681693c27c9dc59/ex-conservative-party-chair-switches-sides-eu-referendum

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What a fitting tribute to Cox it would be if a xenophobic asshole like Timmy Mair pushed her side of the Brexit debate over the goal line!

Got my first hide this morning!

Source: The Guardian

Saturday 18 June 2016 12.49 EDT

Vladimir Putin downplayed past comments about Donald Trump and spoke about the presidential election on Friday, adding that he accepted the US is probably the world’s sole superpower.

“America is a great power. Today, probably, the only superpower. We accept that,” the Russian president said at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. “We want to and are ready to work with the United States.”

Alluding to US-EU sanctions on Russia in response to its military actions in Ukraine, he continued: “The world needs such strong nations, like the US. And we need them. But we don’t need them constantly getting mixed up in our affairs, instructing us how to live, preventing Europe from building a relationship with us.”

Asked about the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Putin again described Trump as a “flamboyant” or “colorful” man, using a Russian word – “яркий” – that can be translated with ambiguous connotations, from gaudy to striking to dazzling.

“You see, it’s like I said,” Putin told his questioner. “Trump’s a colorful person. And well, isn’t he colorful? Colorful. I didn’t make any other kind of characterization about him.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/18/vladimir-putin-donald-trump-striking-america-superpower

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Ha'aretz was right about Putin: The deceitful bastard is getting ready for a war!

I am of course talking about Republicans.

If you watched the show, you already know the conservative on the panel was exceptionally dumb. But maybe someone else can post that video. Right now, I'm going beddy-bye!

Source: The Guardian

Friday 17 June 2016 20.46 EDT

The man who killed 49 people and wounded 53 at an LGBT nightclub in Florida on Sunday was dismissed from the state department of corrections in 2007 after joking about bringing a gun to a training class, according to records released on Friday.

The Guardian can also report that G4S, the security company that employed Omar Mateen just months after his dismissal, did not carry out a check on his employment record at the department, which could have raised further red flags about his state of mind.

Mateen began his employment with the Florida department of corrections on 27 October 2006 and was involuntarily dismissed six months later during a required training class at Indian River State program. The 29-year-old did not complete his academic program and was never certified as a correctional officer. The records released on Friday showed Mateen was dismissed after approaching a fellow recruit and asking: “If I bring a gun to school would {you} tell anybody?”

“I looked at him and turned away,” the recruit wrote in a memo dated 23 April 2007.

As a result, the warden of the institution where Mateen was employed recommended his dismissal.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/17/orlando-gunman-omar-mateen-fired-gun-joke-state-department-corrections

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Doesn't anybody check anything these days???

Source: Associated Press

Jun. 18, 2016 12:17 AM EDT

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Oakland lost its third police chief in nine days Friday as it struggles with allegations that a number of officers had sex with a teenage prostitute and exchanged racist text messages.

Mayor Libby Schaaf said acting Police Chief Paul Figueroa was on the job for two days before stepping down but said his decision was not connected to the two scandals.

However, she denounced the department's "toxic, macho culture" and vowed to root out "the bad apples."

"As the mayor of Oakland, I'm here to run a police department, not a frat house," Schaaf told a news conference Friday evening.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/8a6d0c219f56442e9dc735e8836ae9bd/oakland-police-chief-steps-down-after-2-days-job

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Not to worry: on Monday, Steph Curry will be available for the job.

From the New York Times:

Home Should Not Be a War Zone

A BATTLEFIELD on our soil.

That was my reaction on Sunday, like that of so many of my fellow Americans and fellow soldiers, as I began to learn about the horror that unfolded early that morning in Orlando, Fla., when a dangerous man opened fire in a nightclub with a high-powered, military-style rifle.

~

But that was just part of the bloodshed in our communities this past weekend, when at least 121 people across the country were fatally shot. The tragedy in Orlando wasn’t even the only mass shooting; in Roswell, N.M., a man was charged on Sunday with shooting his wife and their four children to death on Saturday. The oldest was 14; the youngest was 3.

In 2014, 33,599 Americans died from a gunshot wound. From 2001 to 2010, 119,246 Americans were murdered with guns, 18 times all American combat deaths in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That is a national crisis. And as a combat veteran and proud American, I believe we need a national response to the gun violence that threatens so many of our communities.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/17/opinion/home-should-not-be-a-war-zone.html?ref=opinion

Good Read? Great Read!