Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Interceptor7, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Besame. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) 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.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
Because I am so looking forward to attending Netroots Nation 18 next week, I took a peek at the 10-day forecast for next week in New Orleans and immediately wished that I hadn’t but...oh, well, at least I am forewarned...
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Republicans give nod to Kemp in governor’s race by Greg Bluestein
Secretary of State Brian Kemp decisively won the Republican nomination for Georgia governor Tuesday, defeating Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle after a grueling runoff shaped by secret recordings, provocative ads and the late intervention of President Donald Trump.
Kemp’s victory sets up a November showdown against former House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams to decide one of the nation’s most-watched races. The two are bitter foes who have scrapped over voting rights and election security since 2014.
Cagle was the heavy favorite when he entered the race last year, thanks to three statewide victories and a huge fundraising advantage. But Cagle was hobbled by damaging audio covertly recorded by a former GOP rival, and any chance of his victory slipped away after Trump endorsed Kemp.
The secretary of state used both developments to portray himself as the more trustworthy conservative and the bigger ally to Trump, and he attracted droves of media attention with a weekend rally with Vice President Mike Pence.
Chicago Sun-Times: Emanuel to let aspiring chefs, retailers to test concepts in vacant storefronts by Fran Spielman
Mayor Rahm Emanuel will move Wednesday to implement his innovative plan to allow aspiring chefs and new retailers to test their concepts in vacant restaurants and storefronts.
Pop-up permitting was just one of a host of mayoral reforms unveiled last spring to further improve a small business climate that had already benefited from the consolidation of business licenses.
Now that the City Council has approved year-round sidewalk cafes, Emanuel is moving to implement the plan that will allow aspiring chefs and retailers to get started at minimal cost and hassle.
At Wednesday’s Council meeting, Emanuel will introduce an ordinance that will allow restaurants and retailers now required to purchase a two-year license to, instead, choose a license as short as five days.
City Hall will also offer pop-up licenses for 30, 90, 180 or 365 days.
The price will be a bargain, compared to the cost of a two-year license. No on-site inspection will be required.
Cleveland.com: Cleveland officer Frank Garmback's suspension halved for role in Tamir Rice shooting by Adam Ferrise
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An arbitrator halved the suspension Cleveland police officer Frank Garmback received for his role in the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
Garmback's original 10-day suspension was reduced to five days by arbitrator Daniel Zeiser of Cleveland. Garmback was previously suspended for using improper tactics when driving his police cruiser to within feet of Tamir and for failing to notify dispatchers when he arrived at Cudell Recreation Center.
Zeiser wrote in his April 4 opinion released to cleveland.com Tuesday as part of a public records request that the city incorrectly put Garmback's disciplinary proceedings in the most serious disciplinary category -- called the Group III category.
The Group III category typically includes excessive uses of force or officer's caught stealing on the job, Zeisler wrote.
Idaho Statesman: Money was raised. Then stolen. And now, even more is flowing in for stabbing victims. By Maria L. La Ganga
From the silk-purse-out-of-a-sow’s-ear-file:
Remember Boise CrossFit, the exercise business where owner Andy Rosenbaum held a fundraiser Saturday to benefit the victims of the mass stabbing at Boise’s Wylie Street Station Apartments?
Remember that his sweaty clientele raised about $2,000 to help the family of 3-year-old Ruya Kadir, who was killed in the June 30 attack, and the other injured and traumatized residents of the mostly-refugee complex?
Remember that the money was stolen in broad daylight, in a crime that was as brazen as it was heartbreaking?
Well, three days after the theft, the generous and the outraged who came in off the street (literally) to make up the loss have helped the Chinden Boulevard gym raise not $2,000, not $5,000, but $11,000 to distribute among the families of the six children and three adults who were stabbed.
Miami Herald: Hazardous weather brings flooded streets — and don’t expect sizzling heat to dry us out by Howard Cohen
With temperatures at 90 degrees and a heat index topping 100, the afternoon rains in Miami-Dade and Broward counties must feel like a blessed relief.
Not so fast.
While on-again, off-again thunderstorms since the morning hours pulled temperatures down to 80 degrees in spots by the afternoon, street flooding is making the commute a pain in the galoshes, according to the National Weather Service. A hazardous weather alert was issued Tuesday.
A street flood advisory is in effect until 6 p.m. Tuesday in parts of Miami-Dade including Medley, Doral, Sweetwater, Westchester, and Tamiami south to the area of Southwest 117th Avenue and Southwest 56th Street, reported WSVN meteorologist Phil Ferro.
According to the WeatherBug app, rain totals so far in some areas have topped two inches.
Miami’s Biscayne Boulevard, at the Frost Museum of Science, has seen 2.22 inches of rainfall.
Downtown Miami’s Police Department on Northwest Second Avenue has had 1.82 inches.
Burlington Free Press: Nurses strike: no settlement reached as UVM nurse contract talks resume by Dan D’Ambrosio
UVM Medical Center nurses and hospital management returned to the bargaining table Tuesday evening, but were unable to reach an agreement on a new contract, 12 days after nurses walked out on a two-day strike.
The main issue remains money as nurses are demanding a 23 percent raise over three years, including 6 percent in step increases for nurses with fewer than 24 years of service.
The hospital has offered a 13 percent increase over three years, also including 6 percent in step increases.
In both plans, the annual 2 percent increases end after 24 years.
That leaves a gap between hospital management and the nurses of $25 million in total costs including wages and other aspects of the contract. The nurses' proposal would cost $43 million over three years, while the hospital's proposal would cost $18 million over three years.
HuffPost: The Dirty Truth Is Your Recycling May Actually Go to Landfills by Dominque Mosbergen
Americans recycle millions of tons of trash every year. We trust that the items we toss in the blue bin won’t end up in a landfill. We hope this stuff is repurposed and turned into reusable goods ― but a lot of it isn’t getting recycled at all.
Two-thirds of U.S. states are facing a recycling crisis of our own making. For months, mountains of plastic, paper and other materials have been piling up at recycling facilities across the nation. Recyclables are ending up in landfills en masse. Some municipalities — from Sacramento, California, to Hooksett, New Hampshire — have canceled or significantly curtailed their recycling programs, leaving residents with no choice but to throw their recyclables in the trash.
To put it in the words of a waste manager in Bakersfield, California, the situation is “not just a little bad, it is terrible.”
“I’ve been in garbage all my life. This is unprecedented,” Kevin Barnes, the city’s solid waste director, told The Bakersfield Californian earlier this month. “I think there’s been nothing in history this severe for the markets. So we’re in uncharted waters here.”
Buzzfeed: Judge Orders The Release Of Man Turned Over To ICE After Delivering Pizza To A Military Base by Chris Geidner
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the release of Pablo Villavicencio Calderon, the man who was detained and eventually turned over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement when delivering pizza to a military base in New York City.
As part of Tuesday's order granting Calderon's request for a writ of habeas corpus, US District Judge Paul Crotty ordered the government to halt Calderon's deportation and "immediately release [him] from custody."
Calderon was asked for his ID when he was delivering pizza to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn on June 1, his wife said previously. Base security determined that Calderon had a warrant for his deportation outstanding, Crotty detailed in Tuesday's order, leading them to detain Calderon until he could be turned over to ICE.
The plan was then for ICE to hold him until he could be deported to Ecuador. Before that could happen, however, Calderon filed the action in federal court, seeking to stop his removal. Over the next weekend, US District Judge Alison Nathan ordered that Calderon could not be deported or moved out of the New York City area while his request was pending. The case was then transferred to Crotty, who heard arguments over his request earlier this month.
Roll Call: Senators Plot New Russia Sanctions as Committee Leaders Plan Hearings by Niels Lesniewski
Two of the Senate’s many Russia hawks outlined plans to draft new sanctions against the country, just as leaders of the committees of jurisdictions unveiled plans for hearings.
“Just as Vladimir Putin has made clear his intention to challenge American power, influence, and security interests at home and abroad, the United States must make it abundantly clear that we will defend our nation and not waver in our rejection of his effort to erode western democracy as a strategic imperative for Russia’s future,” said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey.
Graham and Menendez are the chairman of the State Department’s appropriations subcommittee and ranking member of the authorizing committee, respectively.
The two senators want to enhance current sanctions against Russian oligarchs and the country’s energy sector. They also want to further boost efforts to counter Russian propaganda, both against the United States and throughout Europe.
The announcement from Graham and Menendez came the same day that the chairmen of the Foreign Relations and Banking Committees announced additional hearings and briefings about U.S. policy toward the Russian Federation.
Washington Post: Trump criticizes FCC for moving to block Sinclair-Tribune Merger by Tony Romm
President Trump came to the defense of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s proposed merger with Tribune Media, days after the Federal Communications Commission raised “serious concerns” about the deal and began legal proceedings to challenge it on grounds the companies had misled regulators.
In a tweet, Trump said Tuesday it was “so sad and unfair” that the FCC, an independent agency, did not approve the merger, a $3.9 billion transaction that would create a conservative television giant that originally hoped to reach more than 70 percent of U.S. households.
Last week, however, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai — a Republican whom Trump appointed to lead the telecom agency — found that Sinclair and Tribune had exhibited a “lack of candor,” seeking to skirt the U.S. government’s restrictions on media ownership by divesting key stations in cities like Chicago to allies of Sinclair. The agency approved an order that would send the matter to an administrative law judge.
Guardian: Greece wildfires: scores dead as holiday resort devastated by Helena Smith, Sam Jones, and Martin Ferrer
The worst wildfire to hit Greece in over a decade tore through a small resort town near Athens on Monday afternoon, killing at least 74 people, injuring almost 200 and forcing hundreds more to rush on to beaches and into the sea as the blaze devoured houses and cars.
Huge, fast-moving flames trapped families with children as they tried to flee from Mati, 18 miles (29km) east of the Greek capital. Among the dead were 26 people whose bodies were found huddled tightly together close to the beach, a Red Cross official said on Tuesday morning.
It was the country’s deadliest fire since blazes raged across the southern Peloponnese peninsula in August 2007, killing dozens of people.
The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, said a state of emergency had been declared in the Attica region, which includes Athens, and ordered three days of national mourning.
AlJazeera: Military's shadow looms as Pakistan goes to the polls by Asad Hashim
Lahore, Pakistan - Pakistanis will go to the polls on Wednesday, after a campaign that has seen allegations against the military of tampering, but would nonetheless be the second civilian-to-civilian handover of power in the country's history.
Voting will open at more than 85,000 polling stations at 8am (03:00 GMT) and close at 6pm.
Results are expected to trickle in several hours later, the election commission says.
On Tuesday, ballot boxes, papers and other election paraphernalia was transported to the stations, under armed guard.
The military has deployed more than 371,000 personnel to provide security inside and outside every station.
"We are trying our best to deliver free, fair and unbiased elections in Pakistan," said Sardar Muhammad Raza, the chief election commissioner, in a video message on Tuesday.
BBC: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang calls for crackdown on vaccine industry
Authorities in China have ordered an investigation into a vaccination scandal as panic grows over product safety.
Last week vaccine maker Changsheng Biotechnology Co was found to have falsified production data for its rabies vaccine.
The firm has been ordered to halt production and recall rabies vaccines.
There has been no evidence of harm from the vaccine, but the scandal has sparked a huge outcry in China.
Changsheng, which suspended trading in its shares for part of Monday, saw their value drop by 10% on the day.
The shares have slumped 47% since mid-July, when news of the scandal first broke.
On Sunday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang urged severe punishment for the people involved, saying the incident had "crossed a moral line".
Reuters: Dozens feared dead, rescuers search for missing after Laos dam collapse
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Rescuers searched in difficult conditions on Wednesday for dozens of people feared dead and hundreds missing after a dam collapsed in a remote part of land-locked Laos, one of Asia’s poorest countries, a government official said.
State media showed pictures of villagers, some with young children, stranded on the roofs of submerged houses. Others showed villagers trying to board wooden boats to safety in Attapeu province, the southernmost part of the country.
A senior Lao government official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said dozens of people were feared dead and hundreds remain unaccounted for after the hydropower dam that was under construction collapsed on Monday.
“We will continue with rescue efforts today but it’s very difficult, the conditions are very difficult. Dozens of people are dead. It could be higher,” the Vientiane-based official told Reuters by telephone.
The once-isolated Southeast Asian country, one of the world’s few remaining communist states, has an ambitious dam-building scheme in order to become the “battery of Asia”.
DW: Mexico: Journalist murdered in seaside town near Cancun
Journalist Ruben Pat Cahuich was gunned down as he walked out of a bar in the tourist hotspot of Playa del Carmen, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Pat Cauich is the second journalist to have been murdered in Quinana Roo in less than a month, after his colleague Jose Guadalupe Chan was also gunned down.
Both journalists worked for the weekly digital news site Playa News Aqui y Ahora, which Pat Cauich oversaw.
"Ruben Pat, manager at the Playa News weekly, was shot dead this morning," the Quintana Roo state government confirmed, adding that the assassination-style killing was meant to "intimidate" other journalists.
On its Facebook page, Playa News mourned the journalist's death, saying it was a "black day for journalism." The grieving staff wrote that they would not be silenced by the killings and demanded answers from the state government.
"Now it is two from our team, Governor, when will the lack of public safety in our state end? We demand justice!" a statement from the weekly news site read.
AFP: Zimbabwe economy desperate for election turn-around
Zimbabwean factory manager Sifelani Jabangwe is a survivor of the Mugabe years, overseeing a company that stayed in business despite hyperinflation, abandonment of the national currency and an exodus of investors.
Now he hopes that next week's election will mark a turning point if the vote brings in a legitimate government that can relaunch the shattered economy after Robert Mugabe was ousted last year.
Jabangwe's company, James North Zimbabwe, is the country's largest producer of industrial protective wear and tarpaulins, specialising in protective gloves and shoes.
It has survived by exporting to neighbouring Mozambique and Malawi as well as Kenya and Rwanda, as its client base in Zimbabwe shrunk in line with the declining economy.
Today it employs 150 people -- down from 400 about 15 years ago -- on the Southerton industrial area in the capital Harare, where derelict buildings overgrown with grass are more common than open businesses.
Phys.org: Alarming error common in survey analyses
It is difficult to understate the importance of survey data: They tell us who we are and—in the hands of policymakers—what to do.
It had long been apparent to Brady West, an expert on survey methodology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, that the benefits of survey data coexisted with a lack of training in how to interpret them correctly, especially when it came to secondary analyses—researchers reanalyzing survey data that had been collected by a previous study.
"In my consulting work for organizations and businesses, people would come in and say, 'Well, here's my estimate of how often something occurs in a population,' such as the rate of a disease or the preferences for a political party. And they'd want to know how to interpret that. I would respond, 'Have you accounted for weighting in the survey data you're using—or, did you account for the sample design?' And I would say, probably 90 percent of the time, they'd look at me and have no idea what I was talking about. They had never learned about the fundamental principles of working with survey data in their standard Intro to Stats classes."
As a survey methodologist, West wondered whether his experience was indicative of a systemic problem. There wasn't much in the academic literature to answer the question, so he and his colleagues, Joseph Sakshaug and Guy Aurelien, sampled 250 papers, reports and presentations—all available online, all conducting secondary analyses of survey data—to see if these analytic errors were, indeed, common.
Hollywood Reporter: Fox News' Sean Hannity to Interview Roseanne Barr by Abid Rahman
Fox News' Sean Hannity has secured the first TV interview with Roseanne Barr after she was fired from her eponymous ABC sitcom for racist tweets.
On Tuesday night's episode of Hannity, the host said that Barr would appear as a guest on Thursday's edition of the primetime show. Barr was fired by ABC in May and her revived sitcom Roseanne was dramatically canceled after she tweeted racist remarks aimed at former Obama administration official Valerie Jarrett.
Before the unceremonious end to Roseanne, the revival had opened to stunning ratings and become something of a cause celebre amongst conservatives and Trump supporters, as many felt the show was more sympathetic towards them.
Despite canceling Roseanne, ABC ordered a spinoff of the series, The Conners, that will not feature Barr's character and instead focus on the rest of the cast.
In an interview earlier this month, Barr said she may make a comeback after she revealed that she had been offered "many" opportunities to return to television.
New York: Why It’s So Hard to Give Up the Dream of a Tiger Woods Comeback by Will Leitch
Last weekend, it is very likely you paid attention, however briefly, to golf for the first time in nearly a decade. The reason, of course, is Tiger Woods. At the Open Championship in Carnoustie, Scotland — don’t you dare call it “the British Open” — Woods, once the most powerful marketing force in America, held the lead with seven holes to go in the penultimate major of the year, and you saw the alerts come across social media like a bat signal: Tiger’s back. Tiger’s back. The day has come.
It had not come. Woods ended up collapsing down the stretch and finishing tied for sixth, which was actually his first top-ten finish since the 2011 Masters, and afterward, his fellow golfers bunched with him on the leaderboard spoke of the experience with the amusement of teenagers watching an old guy on the basketball court: Tiger is basically Uncle Drew to them. Three-time major winner Jordan Spieth, who was 14 when Woods last won a major and 3 when he won his first one, said when he saw Woods’s name on the leaderboard, “I was like frustrated at myself. He’s like, ‘He hasn’t been in this position in ten years, and you’ve been here how many times in the last three years?’ He was like throwing it back at me.” But for the average golf fan — and for the average sports fan — seeing Tiger Woods atop the leaderboard felt vindicating, proof that his genius had returned, that we hadn’t been wasting all those years calling him the greatest of all time for nothing.
Don't forget that Meteor Blades is hosting an open thread for night owls tonight.
Everyone have a great evening!