Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Doctor RJ, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) wader, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
I’m Chitown Kev substituting for annetteboardman this evening.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
Louisville Courier-Journal: Louisville returns love Ali showed city, world by Kristina Goetz and Philip M. Bailey
Thousands lined a 19-mile farewell lap through the city of Louisville on Friday to say goodbye to the man who said: I’m pretty. I’m black. I’m proud. I am the greatest.
Muhammad Ali, the championship boxer and global icon who oft reminded the world of the love of his hometown was showered with adoration in return — from highway guardrails and the narrow Parkland street where he grew up, to the center of downtown on Broadway and the open gates of his final resting place at Cave Hill Cemetery.
The day’s journey began an hour late as spectators crowded the lawn of A.D. Porter & Sons, one of Louisville’s longest-running African-American-owned funeral homes. Passersby in cars slowed — if not outright stopped — as they passed the funeral parlor, many steering with one hand and capturing the moment on a cell phone with the other.
The Detroit News: Hockey great Gordie Howe dies at 88 by Gregg Krupa
Gordie Howe, a legendary figure in Detroit sports and widely acclaimed as one of the greatest hockey players in history, died shortly before 8 a.m. Friday, the Red Wings confirmed. He was 88.
Howe died surrounded by family at his son Murray's house. He suffered a series of strokes in recent years.
Howe combined strength and mobility, brute intimidation and prolific scoring, a blend of skills rare in the NHL, which he performed with transcendent ability.
A winner of four Stanley Cups, six scoring titles and six MVPs, Howe is third in NHL history with 1,850 points, including 801 goals and 1,049 assists, despite playing in a defensive era.
With the exception of heavyweight champion Joe Louis, there was no professional sports figure in Detroit more beloved than Gordie Howe. I’m too young to have seen Howe do his thang at The Old Red Barn on Grand River Avenue (I am old enough that I attended a hockey game there, though) but I do remember how excited I was when he played in an NHL All-Star Game well into his 50’s.
The 1980 NHL All-Star Game, held at The Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, was Gordie Howe’s 23rd NHL all-Star Game...and Edmonton Oiler Wayne Gretzky’s first.
Guardian: Mitt Romney may vote Libertarian, as GOP criticism of Trump deepens by Nicky Woolf
The former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has said he will consider voting for the Libertarian party in the presidential election instead of Donald Trump, in a stark example of how far the GOP establishment is from accepting the billionaire leading its bid for the White House.
Romney, who lost to Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election, even said that the decision to vote against his party would be “very easy” if Bill Weld, another former Massachusetts governor who has fundraised for Romney, was at the top of the Libertarian ticket.
If Bill Weld were at the top of the ticket, it would be very easy for me to vote for Bill Weld for president,” Romney told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Friday. The Libertarian nominee is currently former Republican governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson, with Weld as his vice-presidential pick.
Romney, who is hosting his annual ideas retreat in Utah, where speaker of the house Paul Ryan and Republican national committee chair Reince Priebus among the attendees, added that he was going to try to “get to know Gary Johnson better and see if he’s someone who I could end up voting for. That’s something which I’ll evaluate over the coming weeks and months”.
Chicago Sun-Times: CPS students cut class to protest budget mess at Loop rally by Andy Grimm
Several hundred Chicago Public Schools students risked detention Friday by skipping class to protest budget cuts at a Downtown demonstration, marching with signs and bullhorns in the 90-degree heat.
The decision to cut 8th period music theory wasn’t hard for Lakeview High School junior Sean Valentin.
“It’s my favorite class, but it will probably be cut next year if we don’t do something,” said Valentin, 17, a percussionist in the school band.
CPS officials have warned the district would likely not be able to open schools next fall if the Legislature and Gov. Bruce Rauner can’t pass a school funding budget, a process that has been hung up by the war between the Republican governor and Democratic leaders. Rauner, who on Monday referred to some CPS schools as “crumbling prisons,” was the target of insults on many of the signs carried by students as they marched from the Thompson Center to City Hall, CPS headquarters and back.
Among the slurs: “Rauner is the Nickelback of politicians” and “Rauner puts ketchup on his hotdog.”
Reuters: ACT cancels entrance exam in South Korea, Hong Kong after test leak by Steve Stecklow
The ACT college-entrance exam was canceled Saturday for all test-takers in South Korea and Hong Kong in the latest example of how an East Asia cheating epidemic is roiling American higher education.
The incident marked the first known cancellation of the high-stakes exam for an entire country, according to ACT spokesman Ed Colby.
ACT Inc, the Iowa-based nonprofit that operates the test, said it halted the test after discovering that it had leaked in advance.
“ACT has just received credible evidence that test materials intended for administration in these regions have been compromised,” ACT said in a statement.
The cancellation came only hours before students were to take the exam, which is used by most U.S. colleges to assess applicants.
Colby declined to discuss how the test had leaked or where. He said ACT discovered evidence of the breach on Friday.
Colby said the cancellation affected about 5,500 students who were scheduled to take the test at 56 different test centers. They will receive refunds of registration fees. He said it was “not feasible” to reschedule the exam; the ACT will not be administered again until September.
Mother Jones: How Many Transgender Americans Are There? by Samantha Michaels
Transgender rights have cropped up in the news a lot over the past year, from Caitlyn Jenner's publicized transition to the fight over sex-segregated bathrooms. Trans rights have even become a campaign issue, with everyone from former presidential hopeful Ted Cruz to presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton speaking out on recent anti-transgender legislation.
But despite this national conversation, "we can't really say how many transgender people are in the US, and we can't really say what their demographics look like," says Jody Herman, a public-policy researcher at the Williams Institute at UCLA, which has been a leader in efforts to study the transgender population. The federal government has done little to estimate the number of transgender citizens. In part, that's because the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, an annual population count, only asks about sex.
On Thursday, Orange Is the New Black star Laverne Cox, a transgender rights advocate, will speak on Capitol Hill about this lack of data, which can make it difficult for policymakers to address anti-trans discrimination. Cox is urging lawmakers to pass the LGBT Data Inclusion Act, which would require federal agencies like the Census Bureau to include questions about sexual orientation and gender identity in national demographic surveys. "That gap in data potentially denies policy initiatives and funding" to help transgender people, says Arizona Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, who introduced the bill.
Guardian: Alaska on track for hottest year since records began by Andrea Thompson
Alaska just can’t seem to shake the fever it has been running. This spring was easily the hottest the state has ever recorded and it contributed to a year-to-date temperature that is more than 10°F (5.5°C) above average, according to data released Wednesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).
The Lower 48, meanwhile, had its warmest spring since the record-breaking scorcher of 2012.
While May as a whole was only slightly above average – thanks in part to whiplashing weather from the beginning of the month to the end – every state in the contiguous US had warmer-than-normal temperatures for the spring as a whole.
Mashable: U.S. and India agree to cut the most important global warming pollutant you've never heard of by Andrew Freedman
Solving human-caused global warming requires cooperation between the countries responsible for the majority of global warming to-date, such as the United States, and the fast-growing nations representing the emissions of tomorrow, such as India.
It also demands cutting both the gases that warm the planet in the long-term, such as carbon dioxide, and those that act during the timespan of a decade or more, such as methane and hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs.
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made progress on both types of planet-warming emissions.
The two leaders have a close personal relationship and a shared commitment to addressing global warming, according to aides, and they announced a series of steps that move the two countries, and the world at large, closer to averting the worst impacts of global warming.
India and the U.S. announced Tuesday that they have agreed to a "shared approach" to implement an accelerated phaseout of HFCs, which are known as a "super greenhouse gas" for warming the planet so significantly even in small amounts. It has a global warming potential that is many thousands of times larger than carbon dioxide.
AlJazeera: Canada's First Nations face systemic water crisis by Jillian Kestler-D’Amours
Toronto, Canada - Canada is violating its international human rights obligations by failing to provide adequate, sanitary water supplies to First Nations communities, several of which are facing a "broader systemic crisis", Human Rights Watch said.
Water in First Nations communities "is contaminated, hard to access, or at risk due to faulty treatment systems," the human rights group said in a 92-page report released on Tuesday.
"Make it Safe: Canada's Obligation to End the First Nations Water Crisis" reported that drinking water advisories were in effect in 134 water systems in 85 First Nations reserves across the country - a majority in the province of Ontario - as of January 2016.
Drinking water advisories are put in place by First Nations communities under advice from Health Canada when household water is unfit to drink. Thirty-six percent of the advisories in Ontario last year had been in place for more than a decade.
BBC: Istanbul attack: Kurdish group claims deadly car-bombing
Kurdish militant group has said it carried out a car bomb attack in central Istanbul on Tuesday that killed seven police officers and four civilians.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) said the attack was in revenge for Turkish army operations in the Kurdish-dominated south-east.
It has warned foreign tourists that Turkey is no longer safe to visit.
The TAK is regarded as a splinter group of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
"The action was carried out to counter all the savage attacks of the Turkish republic in Nusaybin and Sirnak and other places," a TAK statement said, referring to the areas in the south-east where the military has been confronting Kurdish rebels.
"We again warn foreign tourists who are in Turkey and who want to come to Turkey: Foreigners are not our target but Turkey is no longer a safe country for them. We have just started the war."
AFP: Fujimori concedes defeat in Peruvian election
Keiko Fujimori conceded defeat Friday in Peru's photo-finish presidential election to former Wall Street banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who now faces the task of uniting a deeply divided country.
Fujimori, the daughter of disgraced and jailed former president Alberto Fujimori, had refused to give up for five days after the neck-and-neck run-off vote, holding out hope the count would swing back in her favor.
But with political analysts, statisticians and even some members of her own party saying it was impossible for her to win even by challenging smudged and otherwise questionable ballots in court, she finally threw in the towel.
"In a democratic spirit, we accept these results," she said, flanked by members of her Popular Force party, who will have a majority in Congress from late July.
Kuczynski, 77, has called for unity in a country left torn by the election, in which he took 50.12 percent to Fujimori's 49.88 percent.
"It's time to work together for the future of our country," he said Thursday.
Hürriyet Daily News: Turkish children hide stray dogs from municipal police
A number of children in the Hadımköy district of Istanbul’s Arnavutköy municipality have hidden local stray dogs from municipal police officers out of fear the animals would be taken away and euthanized.
The Arnavutköy Municipality allegedly continues to collect stray dogs which had previously been vaccinated and neutered or spayed even though it was forbidden, reported daily Sözcü.
The residents of the district claimed the municipality loads stray dogs onto trucks and takes them to unknown places after drugging them with needles, implying that the municipal police was euthanizing the animals.
The tension in the neighborhood rose as municipal police officers allegedly killed a dog by giving it an injection without veterinary observation.
A number of local children reacted to the situation and collaborated against municipal officials by hiding the dead dog to prove the police had committed an illegal act. The children held hands and formed a barrier in front of municipal trucks to prevent them from passing and also reportedly hid stray dogs in their houses and basements.
I remember when I visited Detroit for my uncle’s funeral in 2007, one of the most shocking sights (at least to me) was not all of the abandoned buildings and houses (I was used to that even before I left Detroit in the mid 80’s) but the sight of so many stray and abandoned dogs. Many of the dogs were pit bulls and rottweilers.
The first couple of times I ran upon them, I was scared but as I walked by them, I noticed that the dogs did not bark nor were they threatening. The third time, I ran upon a pit bull, I believe, and looked into his eyes and I played with him for about 45 seconds. He (or she) seemed scared, vulnerable and quite lonely...and appreciative that I spent some time with him/her. To the best of my ability, I tried to spend some time with every stray that I came upon.
Guardian: Milky Way no longer visible to one third of humanity, light pollution atlas shows by Nicola Davis
It has inspired astronomers, artists, musicians and poets but the Milky Way could become a distant memory for much of humanity, a new global atlas of light pollution suggests.
The study reveals that 60% of Europeans and almost 80% of North Americans cannot see the glowing band of our galaxy because of the effects of artificial lighting, while it is imperceptible to the entire populations of Singapore, Kuwait and Malta.
Overall, the Milky Way is no longer visible to more than one third of the world’s population.
Lead author Fabio Falchi from the Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute in Italy said the situation was a “cultural loss of unprecedented magnitude.”
Reuters: Exclusive: Studies find 'super bacteria' in Rio's Olympic venues, top beaches by Brad Brooks
Scientists have found dangerous drug-resistant "super bacteria" off beaches in Rio de Janeiro that will host Olympic swimming events and in a lagoon where rowing and canoe athletes will compete when the Games start on Aug. 5.
The findings from two unpublished academic studies seen by Reuters concern Rio's most popular spots for tourists and greatly increase the areas known to be infected by the microbes normally found only in hospitals.
They also heighten concerns that Rio's sewage-infested waterways are unsafe.
A study published in late 2014 had shown the presence of the super bacteria - classified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an urgent public health threat - off one of the beaches in Guanabara Bay, where sailing and wind-surfing events will be held during the Games.
The first of the two new studies, reviewed in September by scientists at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in San Diego, showed the presence of the microbes at five of Rio's showcase beaches, including the ocean-front Copacabana, where open-water and triathlon swimming will take place.
Reuters: Texas home of Janis Joplin hits market for $500,000, gawkers included by Jim Forsyth
The modest home in the gritty Texas refinery city of Port Arthur where rock legend Janis Joplin grew up in the 1950s is up for sale at a hefty price of $500,000, a realtor said on Wednesday.
The price for the 1,300-square-foot (121-square-meter) house with a small front porch is about 10 times higher than the asking price for other homes in the area. The Joplin home comes with a historical marker and a steady stream of fans of the woman known for songs including "Me and Bobby McGee," and "Piece of my Heart."
The current owners of the home, about 90 miles (145 km) east of Houston, has grown a hedge around the property to prevent gawkers from peering through the windows, said realtor Diane Fernandez.
"The owners have had people come from all over the world. They come from Europe, Australia. They've had people offer them $2,000 to sleep on Janis Joplin's bedroom floor," she said in an interview.
Fernandez says the current homeowners, who declined to be named, did not accept the offers.
And don’t forget that Mr. Meteor Blades is hosting an open thread for night owls.
Everyone have a great evening!