Tonight at 6 PM PT, join us to discuss the Republican debate. Rand Paul has returned to the line-up but The Donald will be absent because he can’t stand the thought of being questioned by Megyn Kelly.
• Today’s comic by RubenBolling is Policies that put our children on the path to lead:
On this date 30 years ago, the Challenger shuttle blew up: Just 73 seconds after lift-off, some 10 miles above the Earth, the Challenger was enveloped in fire and smoke, stunning the cheering audience on hand to see the launch live. “Obviously a major malfunction,” said Stephen A. Nesbitt of Mission Control, according to a transcript of the shuttle’s final moments. “We have no downlink.” And then, after a long pause: “We have a report from the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded.” It would be a long time before the cause of the explosion—the failure of an O-ring—was determined. It was 32 months before another shuttle flew.
• Crackdown on solitary confinement begins, but culture of secrecy remains:
Across America a culture of secrecy still surrounds the use of prolonged solitary, defined by the UN as torture, [Jean Casella, co-director of Solitary Watch] added. “These ‘supermax’ prisons have been like black sites. Journalists have not been allowed in. No visitors have been allowed in. We don’t have independent inspectors like in Britain. The reason given is safety and security, but really it’s to keep people from seeing what goes on there: the number of mentally ill people, the number of who spend their days screaming and banging their heads against a wall.”
• Flat Earthers still hanging onto their conspiracy theory.
• Widow of Fox Lake Police Lt. Joe Gliniewicz indicted:
The widow of an Illinois police lieutenant who tried to portray his suicide as murder was indicted Wednesday on six counts accusing her of participating in her husband's stealing of charitable funds, authorities said.
Melodie Gliniewicz, 51, is the wife of Fox Lake Police Lt. Joe Gliniewicz, who killed himself last year. Officials said her husband staged his suicide to appear he was killed in the line of duty while pursuing three suspects. The case prompted a massive manhunt for weeks until authorities unraveled the ruse.
• Two activists talk about the role of direct action to slow climate change.
• Activist explains why he blocked an oil train and why you should engage in climate disobedience, too:
In our testimony, the five of us recounted the range of legal actions we took to address climate and fossil fuel threats before we crossed the line. It was a sweeping inventory of legal citizen activism.
My testimony covered my long history as a professional climate activist. A founder of the group Climate Solutions back in 1998, participant in legislative campaigns and consensus-building roundtables, coauthor of a book and writer of many papers on practical climate solutions from renewable energy and electrified transportation to natural carbon sequestration. I related how I am still working on those solutions through legal currents, and will continue to do so. But that is not enough.
• 100 times a white actor played a character who wasn’t.
• Barbie gets three new bodies, and one of them is plump:
It’s a massive risk for Mattel. Barbie is more than just a doll. The brand does $1 billion in sales across more than 150 countries annually, and 92% of American girls ages 3 to 12 have owned a Barbie, thanks in part to her affordable $10 price tag. She’s been the global symbol of a certain kind of American beauty for generations, with brand recognition that’s up there with Mickey Mouse. M.G. Lord, a Barbie biographer, once said she was designed “to teach women what—for better or worse—is expected of them in society.”
• On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin counts down to IA, discusses Bernie’s barriers, revolution “vs.” incrementalism & the Flint town hall. Unga-bunga, me like Trump! NRA kids safety program now somehow feared “anti-gun.” Kochs vs. Mayer. TX open carry law sows confusion.
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