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.
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Chicago Tribune: Trump again calls out Chicago on violence and repeats debunked murder rate claim by Katherine Skiba
President Donald Trump on Tuesday again singled out violence in Chicago, this time during a White House meeting with sheriffs where he repeated a debunked claim that the U.S. murder rate is the highest it's been in 45 years.
"If you ran Chicago, you would solve that nightmare, I'll tell you," Trump told visiting sheriffs. "I'll bet everybody in the room ... would raise their hand, because to allow, I mean literally hundreds of shootings a month, it's worse than some of the places that we read about in the Middle East where you have wars going on.
"It's so sad," Trump said. "Chicago's become so sad a situation."
It was the fourth time in less than three weeks in office that Trump has called out Chicago for its violence.
His latest denunciation drew a rebuke from City Hall.
"Instead of focusing so much energy on rhetoric about Chicago, the people of this city would be better off if the president would finally partner with us to improve public safety for Chicago," Matt McGrath, a spokesman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, said in a statement.
Chicago Sun-Times: Shedd’s ‘Granddad’ — world’s oldest aquarium fish — dies by Maureen O’Donnell
Granddad is sleeping with the fishes.
The Shedd Aquarium’s beloved Australian lungfish — the longest-living fish in any aquarium in the world — was euthanized on Sunday because of complications from old age, the Shedd announced on Monday.
He had been in Chicago since the Century of Progress World’s Fair in 1933, and was estimated to be “somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,” said Michelle Sattler, one of his keepers. When Granddad arrived at the Shedd, Franklin D. Roosevelt was president. The lungfish, who measured four feet and weighed 25 pounds, lived through the administrations of 13 more U.S. presidents.
“It is incredible to know that over 104 million guests had the opportunity to see Granddad in our care and learn about his unique species over eight decades,” said Bridget Coughlin, Shedd’s president and CEO. “For a fish who spent much of his time imitating a fallen log, he sparked curiosity, excitement and wonder among guests of all ages who would hear his story and learn about the incredible biology that makes his species a living fossil and one of the oldest living vertebrate genera on the planet.”
“Rest in Peace, Granddad,” said Australian Consul General Michael Wood, who praised the Aussie native’s “personal grit” — as well as good care from the Shedd — for his longevity. Australian officials participated in a 2013 Shedd party to mark Granddad’s 80th anniversary at the aquarium, where he was fed a layered “cake” filled with smelt and shrimp and decorated with silversides and seaweed.
Smithsonian: What Geology Has to Say About Building a 1,000-Mile Border Wall by Maya Wei-Haas
Last month, President Donald Trump took steps to make good on a campaign promise to turn the United State’s existing border fence into a "big, beautiful" wall. On January 25, the White House issued an Executive Order announcing the creation of a “secure, contiguous, and impassable physical barrier … to prevent illegal immigration, drug and human trafficking, and acts of terrorism.” Now the U.S. Customs and Border Protection—the office tasked with enforcing border regulations—is scrambling to make that order a concrete reality.
Today’s fence consists of roughly 650 miles of disparate segments, made out of a combination of steel posts and rails, metal sheeting, chain link, concrete vehicle barriers and wire mesh. To replace that fence with what has been described as a 20- to 50-foot concrete structure that will traverse 1,000 of the some 2,000 miles of the U.S.’s border with Mexico will be no easy feat. Besides dealing with a proposed Mexican lawsuit and navigating the private ownership of much of Texas’ lands, there is another concern few have addressed in detail: geology.
Compared to building a marble palace or high-steepled church, erecting a wall may seem relatively straightforward. It isn’t. (Just ask the Chinese, whose Great Wall took 2,000 years to build and failed to keep out invaders.) Though most wall designs are fairly simple, builders must adapt to a wide range of terrains, explains Gary Clendenin, a senior hydrogeologist at ICF International. The southern U.S. border alone contains desert, wetlands, grasslands, rivers, mountains and forests—all of which create vastly different problems for builders.
“The length of this thing presents challenges that just aren’t typically undertaken in a construction project,” says Clendenin.
Washington Post: Post Nation Open-carry advocates walked into a police station with a loaded rifle. Officers were not amused. by Amy B. Wang
As the two men approached a police station in Dearborn, Mich., on Sunday, one of them looked into the camera he was holding and explained — via Facebook Live — what their intentions were.
They claimed to have been illegally pulled over about an hour earlier and wanted to file a complaint, said James Baker, wearing a dark balaclava over his face.
Next to him, his friend Brandon Vreeland — toting a camera on a tripod — agreed “100 percent.”
Baker turned the camera back toward himself to more clearly reveal a rifle slung across his chest, body armor and a GoPro camera attached to his left shoulder.
“We felt a little afraid for our lives when we were pulled over,” Baker said, “so we figure we better protect ourselves.”
The pair — who describe themselves as open-carry advocates and frequently post videos of their interactions with police — entered the station and walked through another set of doors. Within seconds, a cacophony of shouts echoed throughout the lobby.
“Dude, put that on the ground!” someone can be heard yelling. “Put it on the ground!”
The camera captured two officers at the end of a hallway, appearing to point their weapons at Baker and Vreeland. Soon after, the video cut off, but the phone continued to record the chaotic scene unfolding.
The Root: Tornadoes Touch Down in Louisiana, Wreak Havoc in Areas Previously Hit Hard by Hurricane Katrina by Monique Judge
Multiple tornadoes touched down in southern Louisiana on Tuesday, downing power lines and ripping houses from their foundations as they passed through.
CBS News reports that a spokesman for Gov. John Bel Edwards had declared a state of emergency Tuesday afternoon.
Danielle Manning, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said that tornadoes touched down in at least three areas — one in the eastern part of New Orleans, which was already hard hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005; one near the town of Donaldsonville; and another in the town of Killian.
The tornado in New Orleans East was down at 11:33 a.m., and was part of a large weather system that was sweeping through Louisiana, Mississsippi and Alabama with over 2.5 million people in the storm’s path according to CBS News.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu there were two serious injuries and dozens of minor injuries initially reported, while a spokesman for the Emergency Medical Service said most of those injured had minor scrapes and cuts.
About 10,000 homes are without power and there are reports of gas leaks in the area according to city officials.
FiveThirtyEight: The Minimum Wage Movement Is Leaving Tipped Workers Behind by Kathryn Casteel
When New Jersey raised its minimum wage at the start of the year, low-wage workers across the state cheered. But not Rebecca Fox. The 31-year-old waitress earns the same $2.13 per hour that she has made for the past 18 years. That’s more than $6 an hour less than the state’s minimum wage of $8.44 an hour.
Fox, like millions of waiters, bartenders and other workers across the country, isn’t subject to the minimum wage because she works for tips. Federal labor law allows such workers to be paid a lower wage as long as their total earnings, counting tips, add up to at least the minimum wage. If they don’t, employers are required to make up the difference. But in practice, that doesn’t always happen. “Let’s say your whole night is one big party and that party forgets to tip you for some reason,” Fox said. “You’re going home with nothing.”
In recent years, efforts to raise the minimum wage have gained new momentum. Cities and states across the country have raised their wage floors, in some cases to $10 an hour or more. But even in states that have raised their minimum wages, tipped workers are often still stuck earning $2 or $3 an hour. Nebraska, for example, last year raised its minimum wage to $9 an hour while leaving the tipped wage at the federal minimum of $2.13. The gap is even wider in Massachusetts, where the minimum wage i $11 an hour and the tipped wage is only $3.75.
Mic: Rudy Giuliani's comments come back to haunt Trump admin in Muslim ban hearings by Tom McKay
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's Fox News interview admitting President Donald Trump's executive order banning all refugees and nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries was originally conceived as a way to fulfill Trump's campaign promise of a Muslim ban, has come back to haunt the administration in court.
During a 9th Circuit Court hearing on the executive order Tuesday evening, lawyers for the states of Washington and Minnesota as well as justices on the court pressured Trump's DOJ on whether Trump and Giuliani's use of the term ban, among similar comments from other administration officials, revealed an intent to discriminate against Muslims trying to enter the country.
One justice on the court, George W. Bush appointee Richard R. Clifton, seemed initially skeptical of the claim that the order discriminated against all Muslims. Noah G. Purcell, the Washington state attorney, shot back "We do not need to prove" that the order "harms every Muslim," just that the order was intended as a form of religious discrimination.
Mother Jones: The Terror Attacks Trump Won't Talk About by Mark Follman
On Monday, in a case little noticed by the national media, a man went on trial in federal court for plotting a potentially horrific terrorist attack in upstate New York. In 2015, this man allegedly planned to enlist accomplices to help him bomb a house of worship and open fire with assault rifles on any bystanders. "High casualty rates" was the goal. "If it gets down to the machete, we will cut them to shreds," he allegedly said, according to prosecutors.
Also on Monday, the Trump White House released a list of 78 attacks carried out in the US and abroad by "radical Islamic terrorists" since 2014, which it said were mostly "underreported," following the president's own claim earlier in the day that the media conspired to ignore such attacks. But had the upstate New York plotter succeeded, he would not have made the White House list. The individual charged with masterminding that plan was Robert Doggart, a 65-year-old white man from Tennessee who allegedly conspired to form a militia and attack a Muslim community in Islamberg, NY, on "behalf of American patriotism."
As the media picks apart the White House's absurd suggestion that attacks in Paris, San Bernardino, Orlando, and elsewhere were somehow ignored, the bigger story may be this: Trump has been almost entirely silent about terror plotted and carried out by white supremacists and other far-right extremists.
Guardian: Kremlin critic in coma was 'poisoned by undefined substance' by Alec Luhn
A prominent Kremlin critic and Russian opposition figure who has been in a coma since last week has been diagnosed with “acute poisoning by an undefined substance”, his wife has said.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, 35, who works for Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s Open Russia foundation, had been in Russia to screen a documentary film about his friend Boris Nemtsov, the opposition leader and former deputy prime minister who was gunned down near the Kremlin in 2015.
Kara-Murza was about to fly back to the US for his daughter’s eighth birthday when he woke up at 5am on Thursday with an accelerated heartbeat and difficulty breathing. He remained in a stable but critical condition on Tuesday in a medically induced coma, his wife, Yevgeniya, said.
Kara-Murza was taken to the same hospital in 2015, when he was diagnosed with acute kidney failure in connection with poisoning and only just survived. He later said it had been an attempt to kill him for his political activities. The symptoms were the same in this latest attempt on his life, his wife told the Guardian.
The family has sent blood samples to laboratories in France and Israel in an attempt to identify the poison, which they were unable to do last time.
On Tuesday she said Donald Trump, who said in an interview this weekend that he respected Vladimir Putin, should realise that a true leader would not allow people to be “poisoned because of their beliefs”.
BBC: Brexit rebellion avoided after 'meaningful vote' offer
The government has seen off an attempt to add conditions to its Brexit bill as a Conservative rebellion was avoided.
MPs rejected a bid by Labour's Chris Leslie to force the government to consult Parliament on the deal struck with the EU before it is finalised.
It came after ministers pledged that a "meaningful" vote would be offered.
Labour and some Tories had pushed for MPs to have a decisive say on the final terms, but the 326 to 293 vote meant the bill remained unchanged.
Seven Conservatives rebelled, while six Labour MPs voted with the government.
Several other attempts to amend the draft legislation, which if passed will authorise the prime minister to formally begin Brexit negotiations under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, were also rejected during more than seven hours of debate.
More amendments will be considered on Wednesday before MPs hold a final vote on whether to back the bill.
AlJazeera: Thousands of Roma 'made homeless' in France in 2016 by Anealla Safdar
More than 10,000 Roma were forcibly evicted by French authorities last year, with most ejections taking place during the cold winter months, according to a new report.
The European Roma Rights Centre and the Ligue des droits de L'Homme (Human Rights League of France) said on Tuesday that at least 60 percent of Romani families in the country were forced to leave their dwellings.
The majority of the recorded evictions took place without a court decision, and in most cases adequate alternative accommodation was not offered to those made homeless, the groups said in a joint report.
"France's policy of ethnically targeted evictions creates cycles of repeat evictions and forced removals," the report said.
"It is also a significant squandering of financial and administrative resources. It is not only a morally bankrupt strategy, but one that is not in the best interests of taxpayers whose contributions could far better be deployed to invest in social assessments and sustainable solutions for housing."
Reuters: Japan chief questioned over Tokyo bid payment: report by Chris Gallagher
Tokyo prosecutors have questioned the president of the Japan Olympic Committee over controversial payments made to a Singaporean consulting firm during the bidding for the 2020 Summer Games, Kyodo News agency reported on Wednesday.
The questioning of Tsunekazu Takeda, who led the successful bid, and several other people involved in the bidding, was voluntary and carried out at the request of the French authorities, Kyodo said.
Takeda and the others denied doing anything illegal, the report said.
The Tokyo prosecutors' office and the JOC declined to comment on the report when contacted by Reuters.
French prosecutors last year announced an investigation into more than $2 million of payments made by the bid committee to the consultancy, Black Tidings.
Black Tidings is headed by Ian Tan Tong Hon, who is known to be friends with Papa Massata Diack, son of disgraced former international athletics chief Lamine Diack.
Japanese officials repeatedly said the payments had been legitimate consultant's fees, and a panel commissioned by the JOC said in September it had found that the payment was legitimate.
Tokyo 2020 organizers have been grappling with a list of headaches including soaring costs and calls to change venues.
New York Times (blog): Nurturing New Storytellers in Africa and Latin America by David Gonzalez
For some people, the idea of “serious” photography conjures up dramatic scenes of suffering, violence and poverty. This can be especially so in parts of Latin America and Africa, where careers have been made by foreign journalists who go in looking for drama. While no doubt there are pressing issues in these regions, there are also scenes of daily life, or less dramatic situations, that go unnoticed, slanting how a global audience sees people and places.
The prize-winning aesthetic can filter down to local photographers, who imitate what they think will get them noticed, said Laura Beltrán Villamizar, a photo editor and curator originally from Colombia. “Most of the World Press Photo winners, and people in the industry, are male and western, either from Europe or the U.S.,” said Ms. Beltrán Villamizar, who used to work for World Press Photo. “Photographers from Africa and Latin America think the western gaze is how you make it in the industry, that poverty and blood-drenched photos are the ones that are going to sell because it’s the one that is portrayed the most. This is what makes it to the news. This is how western photographers get their stories.”
This is what she intends to change. She and Colombian photographer Federico Rios Escobar have started Native Agency, which has taken under its wings a dozen photographers from Africa and Latin America mentoring them on everything from developing and researching stories to getting their work published. Working as a collective — and across six time zones — they also share their work with one another online to begin to understand not just their own countries, but what is going on elsewhere.
If you would like, you can take a look at this if you haven’t already...
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Everyone have a great night!