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, jck, 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.
Chicago Tribune: Survey says? Hike booze, cigarette, ride-sharing taxes, but leave property taxes alone, Chicago residents say in city’s online poll by Lisa Donovan
Increase alcohol, cigarette and ride-sharing taxes, but hold the line on property taxes.
That’s what Chicago residents had to say in an online survey the city conducted as a companion to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s recent budget town halls. The mayor wanted a variety of channels where residents could weigh in on spending and savings as the city faces a nearly $1 billion shortfall next year.
The survey, conducted between Aug. 16-Oct. 3, drew 7,347 responses from all residential ZIP codes, according to the mayor’s office.
A snapshot: “Nearly 72% of respondents indicated an interest in increasing the tax on cigarettes, while more than 85% feel property taxes should remain the same. Nearly 87% said they also feel sales tax should remain the same. The revenues that received a majority “Increase the tax or fee,” include ridesharing tax (46%), alcohol tax (46%) and the garage parking tax (44%).” Read the results of the study along with the conclusions drawn from town hall meetings here.
Hartford Courant: With outlook bleak for public option, Connecticut lawmakers shift to new 2020 health care agenda by Jenna Carlesso
A day after the legislative session ended, and still reeling from the defeat of a sweeping public option bill, lawmakers and Gov. Ned Lamont vowed in June to revive the health care overhaul next year.
But as the General Assembly gets closer to reconvening, prospects for a resurrected public option measure are looking dim, and the debate around health care reform has shifted to cost containment, prescription drugs and reinsurance proposals that have bipartisan support.
“Any bill runs the risk of a short session," said House Majority Leader Matt Ritter. “We get in during early February and adjourn the first Wednesday in May. There are so few session days that to get a complicated bill through a public hearing, through a committee, maybe more than one committee — and the public option has a fiscal note — it’s difficult.”
Along with a limited time frame in 2020, Ritter said the tension surrounding this year’s effort is still lingering, dampening plans for a comeback.
Tallahassee Democrat: Judge points to ‘administrative nightmare’ in felon voting law by Dara Kam
TALLAHASSEE -- Calling the process “an administrative nightmare,” a federal judge on Tuesday urged the Florida Legislature to revamp a state law aimed at carrying out a constitutional amendment that restores voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle made the comments as he finished a two-day hearing in a challenge to the law, which was passed along partisan lines by the Republican-dominated Legislature this spring and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. It requires felons to pay “legal financial obligations” associated with their crimes, such as fees, fines and restitution, to be eligible to have their voting rights restored.
Voting-rights advocates and civil-rights groups filed the challenge, arguing that hinging the right to vote on a person’s ability to pay money amounts to an unconstitutional “poll tax.” Plaintiffs also allege the state lacks a uniform or consistent method of applying the law, in part due to record-keeping problems and because DeSantis’ administration has provided no guidance to local elections officials on how to carry it out.
Honolulu Star-Advertiser: Satisfaction study ranks Hawaii airports among the worst by Allison Schaefers
Daniel K. Inouye International Airport nearly tops a list of this year’s worst airports for customer satisfaction, mainly because of construction, which tends to delay passengers and sour their travel experiences.
Only LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport were rated worse out of the 62 airports measured as part of the annual J.D. Power 2019 North America Airport Satisfaction Study, which is in its 14th year.
The study, which was fielded from October 2018 through September, attempted to measure satisfaction levels based on responses from 32,276 U.S. or Canadian residents who had traveled through at least one North American airport during the past three months. Travelers were asked to rate their overall satisfaction by scoring terminal facilities, airport accessibility, baggage claim, security check, check-in/baggage check and food, beverage and retail.
Buzzfeed: A Judge Cleared The Record Of A 21-Year-Old Who Was Jailed For 10 Days For Sleeping Through Jury Duty by Julia Reinstein
A Florida judge cleared the record Monday of a man he'd sent to jail for 10 days because he'd slept through jury duty in August, court records show.
Deandre Somerville, 21, had no criminal record before Circuit Civil Judge John Kastrenakes convicted him of direct criminal contempt last month.
Somerville was supposed to be on the jury for a civil automobile accident negligence case in West Palm Beach County in August. However, he overslept and missed his ride to the courthouse that morning. Instead, he went to his job at a local park, where he's a recreation specialist.
Three weeks later, police showed up at his home.
Before the judge, Somerville apologized and explained he'd never been to a courthouse before — much less served jury duty — and "didn't know the seriousness of it, to be honest."
ProPublica: An Unseen Victim of the College Admissions Scandal: The High School Tennis Champion Aced Out by a Billionaire Family by Daniel Golden and Doris Burke
On a Monday morning in April 2017, students at Sage Hill School gathered in its artificial-turf quadrangle, known as the Town Square, to celebrate seniors who were heading to college as recruited athletes. The 10 honorees lined up behind an archway adorned with balloons. One by one, they stepped forward as their sports and destinations were announced. Patricia Merz, the head of the private high school in Newport Coast, California, placed a lei in the appropriate college’s colors around each student’s neck.
Most of the students were recruits to low-profile Division III programs. Only three had committed to play Division I college sports. Two were the captains of Sage Hill’s girls’ volleyball and girls’ soccer teams, bound for Columbia University and the University of Denver, respectively. The other, Grant Janavs, played tennis. As his shirt and blue-and-gray lei both showed, he would attend Georgetown, the elite Catholic university in Washington, D.C.
Washington Post: Former national security officials fight back as Trump attacks impeachment as ‘deep state’ conspiracy by David Nakamura
The debate over President Trump’s fitness for office amid the House-led impeachment inquiry has put renewed scrutiny on national security officials who served in his administration to speak out, even as the president ramps up efforts to discredit the investigation as a “deep state” plot to destroy him.
Over the past week, several former officials have spoken critically of Trump’s conduct and his foreign policy, lending weight to the picture of a president motivated by political interests with little regard for policy expertise, legal boundaries or institutional restraints.
Although the critiques have not all directly addressed the focus of the House investigation — Trump’s request that Ukraine investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden — they have added to the case being made by the president’s critics that he is putting U.S. security at risk.
New York Times: Sanders Says He Will ‘Change the Nature’ of His Campaign After Heart Attack by Sydney Ember and Jonathan Martin
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Senator Bernie Sanders, in a striking concession for a leading presidential candidate, said on Tuesday that he planned to slow down his pace on the campaign trail after suffering a heart attack a week ago, and acknowledged that voters would likely consider his health when deciding whether to support him.
“I think we’re going to change the nature of the campaign a bit,” Mr. Sanders told reporters after a visit with a local cardiologist. “Make sure that I have the strength to do what I have to do.”
Mr. Sanders’s remarks stood in sharp contrast with comments in recent days from his campaign advisers, who have insisted that the Vermont senator was neither changing course nor easing his trademark intensity as a result of the heart attack.
Given Mr. Sanders’s influential role in the Democratic race, not only as a top candidate but also as a driving force in policy debates, his decision to pull back campaigning injects new uncertainty into the contest — both for the future of Mr. Sanders’s candidacy and the possible ramifications for other contenders.
Guardian: Boris Johnson's Brexit deal appears doomed as deadline looms by Heather Stewart, Daniel Boffey, Rowena Mason, and Peter Walker
Boris Johnson’s Brexit plan appeared to be all but dead on Tuesday night as the government admitted there was little prospect of a deal before 31 October, following a day of furious recriminations.
The prime minister spoke to the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, on the phone after a stormy 24 hours of briefing and counter-briefing, as concerns about his tactics were even raised in Johnson’s cabinet.
In Brussels, a further extension that could be as long as next summer is now considered almost inevitable, despite Johnson’s continued insistence that the UK would leave on 31 October, with or without a deal.
A blame game erupted on Tuesday morning as the cabinet gathered in Downing Street when an anonymous source briefed selected journalists about a private call between the prime minister and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.
The unnamed figure in No 10 claimed that Berlin’s insistence on keeping Northern Ireland in the EU customs union made a Brexit deal “essentially impossible, not just now but ever”.
AlJazeera: How would a battle between Turkey and the SDF play out? By Andrew Wilks
Ankara, Turkey - The withdrawal of US troops from the area around Syria's northeast border with Turkey has set the stage for a military confrontation between Washington's long-time Kurdish allies and fellow NATO member Ankara.
Following President Donald Trump's announcement on Sunday that US troops would stand aside to allow a long-threatened Turkish military operation, Turkey is expected to send its forces across the frontier within days.
While the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has been extensively armed by Washington to lead the ground fight against ISIL, it lacks the armour, artillery and air power of a modern military force.
Turkey, which boasts the second-largest army in NATO, has all the attributes of such a power and its troops have gained experience through two previous operations in northern Syria, as well as decades of fighting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) within its own borders.
DW: Ecuador president Moreno leaves Quito amid growing unrest
As thousands of anti-government protesters poured into Ecuador's capital Quito, the nation's president, Lenin Moreno, moved to the southern port city of Guayaquil and announced he was facing an attempted coup.
Nationwide protests, including road blocks, looting and escalating clashes, first started earlier this week in response to the government's decision to cancel key fuel subsidies.
Members of the nation's indigenous tribes traveled to the city for a march on the Quito presidential palace on Tuesday. Protesters braved police tear gas and some briefly broke into the empty congress building, while elsewhere roads were blocked and transport came to a halt.
Protesters seized two oil installations and state oil company Petroecuador warned that one-third of the country's production could be lost if protests continue.
In other parts of the Andean country, protesters vandalized shops and vehicles during running street battles with riot police.
BBC: Abrar Fahad: Killing of Bangladesh student triggers protests
Students across Bangladesh are protesting after an undergraduate was beaten to death at one of the country's most prestigious universities.
The body of Abrar Fahad, 21, was found in a dormitory days after he posted comments criticising the government.
Several members of the student wing of the governing Awami League have been detained in connection with the death.
The killing has shocked Bangladesh and shone a light on the culture of violence in public universities.
The Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student wing of the Awami League, has been widely accused of using torture and extortion against students.
Sydney Morning Herald: Bushfire that ripped through northern NSW village 'potentially deliberately lit' by Jenny Noyes
Fire authorities believe an out-of-control bushfire that has destroyed as many as 30 homes in northern NSW amid a "cycle of bad weather" may have been deliberately lit.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday afternoon after fire ripped through the village of Rappville on Tuesday, NSW Rural Fire Service Superintendent Michael Brett said initial investigations indicate the fire started late on Friday evening and was "potentially deliberately lit".
"At about midnight, we were called to a fire up in the Busbys Flat area, and our investigations have come back that there was something suspicious that's happened in that area.
"The cause of the fire is still being determined, but we've identified some suspicious activity," he said.
The NSW Rural Fire Service said on Wednesday morning that the fire had destroyed a "significant number" of homes in Rappville, which has a population of about 250.
Hollywood Reporter: Byron Allen v. Comcast: Supreme Court Race Case Could Reshape Bias Lawsuits by Eriq Gardner
When Byron Allen first launched a legal rampage back in 2015, few would have guessed he would get to the Supreme Court with a case that could transform the way discrimination lawsuits are handled and represents a coda on 19th century Reconstruction efforts after the Civil War.
Once known as the entrepreneur who debuted as a stand-up comedian on The Tonight Show as a teenager, Allen, 58, sued cable operators and satellite distributors after they refused to license his small channels devoted to topics including criminal justice, cars and pets. He hired an attorney who defended the city of Los Angeles in the Rodney King beating case and demanded tens of billions of dollars via allegations of a racial bias conspiracy against Comcast, DirecTV, Charter and others.
Just how out there was Allen’s lawsuit? The NAACP and Al Sharpton were originally co-defendants in the case for allegedly taking actions to “whitewash” Comcast’s discriminatory business practices. As the story was told in the suit, when Comcast sought regulatory approval for its 2010 bid to acquire NBCUniversal, it looked to gather support. To calm any fears that the merger would have a detrimental impact on diversity, Comcast made voluntary commitments and came to memoranda of understanding with various civil rights groups like the NAACP, National Urban League and Sharpton's National Action Network. But Allen took issue with those so-called "sham" agreements, questioning the monetary donations that Comcast had made to these groups and further challenging how Comcast was spending $25 billion annually on channel licensing, but less than $3 million on what he characterized as "100% African American-owned media."
Phys.org: Dark matter and exoplanet discoveries win Nobel Physics Prize
Canadian-American cosmologist James Peebles and Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz on Tuesday won the Nobel Physics Prize for research that increases the understanding of our place in the Universe.
Peebles won one-half of the prize "for theoretical discoveries that have contributed to our understanding of how the Universe evolved after the Big Bang," professor Goran Hansson, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, told a news conference.
Mayor and Queloz shared the other half for the first discovery, in October 1995, of a planet outside our solar system—an exoplanet—orbiting a Sun-like star in the Milky Way.
"Their discoveries have forever changed our conceptions of the world," the jury said.
AP: College Football Top 10
1. Alabama
2. Clemson
3. (tie) Georgia, THOSE People
5. LSU
6. Oklahoma
7. Florida
8. Wisconsin
9. Notre Dame
10. Penn State
Blue State teams in AP Top 25 with rankings: #13 Oregon, #20 Virginia.
The big games for this coming week...The Red River Rivalry ...and ...#10 Penn State @ #17 Iowa...Don’t sleep on a good Iowa team playing at Kinnick Stadium...especially at night...as Penn State well knows...of course…one of the most infamous trap games on any highly ranked Big 10 team’s schedule.
Everyone have a great evening and I will see you this coming Saturday for...Science!