Crooked Media - What A Day: Muddying the Waters

The signs of a return to normal American life are all around us: Businesses are reopening, air travel has picked up, and there was so much gun violence in a single weekend that we all need a Monday roundup just to keep track. 
 

• In Kenosha, WI, a gunman fatally shot three people and injured at least three others at a bar early on Sunday morning, after he was asked to leave. Authorities said later on Sunday that a “person of interest” had been located and charged with first-degree homicide. 
   
• In Austin, TX, police have arrested a former sheriff’s office detective suspected of shooting and killing three people on Sunday, in what police said appeared to be “a domestic situation.” Meanwhile, the Texas House just passed a bill to eliminate handgun permits, which would allow Texans over 21 to carry open or concealed handguns without passing a safety course.
   
• There were two mass shootings in Louisiana alone. On Saturday night in LaPlace, a shooter injured six people during a 12-year-old’s birthday party. A neighbor said that all of the victims were children, and that he thought the shooter was a child, too. On Sunday night, a gunman shot and injured five people in Shreveport.
   
• In a gun violence ouroboros, one or more people in an SUV started shooting into a vigil for a shooting victim in Columbus, OH, on Saturday night, killing a woman who was driving past and wounding five others, including a 12-year-old. In Chicago, IL, a gunman opened fire at a car in a McDonald’s drive-thru lane on Sunday afternoon, killing a 7-year-old girl and injuring her 29-year-old father. The list goes on, and on, and on. 

That devastating weekend followed a mass shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, IN, which now appears to be the result of a red-flag law gone unused.
 

• The gunman who shot and killed eight people last week was able to legally purchase the two semiautomatic rifles he used in the attack, just months after his mother alerted law enforcement to his instability and authorities confiscated his shotgun. That’s because prosecutors decided not to petition for a red-flag determination, which would have barred the shooter from buying or possessing guns for at least six months. Authorities claimed they thought they had fixed the situation by permanently seizing the shotgun, and weren’t confident they could build a red-flag case within the allotted two-week window.
   
• Indianapolis authorities have released the names of the FedEx shooting victims. Four of the eight people killed were Sikhs, prompting calls for police to investigate the shooting as a possible hate crime. Police said on Friday that roughly 90 percent of the workers at the warehouse were members of the local Sikh community. 

Red-flag laws only work when they’re enforced, and the last few days and weeks should disabuse anyone of the notion that they’re a replacement for more aggressive gun control. As Anthony Fauci said between mass shootings on Sunday, “How can you say that's not a public-health issue?” More pressingly: How do you get a political party that’s increasingly defined by its opposition to public-health measures to care?

In case you missed it, Pod Save the People co-host Kaya Henderson sat down with Oscar-nominated director Shaka King to talk about his film, Judas and the Black Messiah ahead of this year's award season. 

To listen, check out the episode “Pat Yourself on the Back” in the Pod Save the People feed on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods →  

Progressives have introduced the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act, legislation that would provide more than $100 billion for retrofitting public housing, as part of a push to expand the commitments in President Biden’s infrastructure package. The (new) Green New Deal would also allocate $1 trillion in federal spending directly to cities, towns, and tribes working to slash carbon emissions, which would help counteract state-level efforts to slow the transition away from fossil fuels. Over on the other end of the spectrum, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said on Sunday that he and other Republicans would support an $800 billion infrastructure bill, stripped of the provisions that Republicans have arbitrarily decided don’t count as infrastructure. Biden held his second infrastructure meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Monday, and again said that he's prepared to compromise.

• During closing arguments in the Derek Chauvin trial, the prosecution instructed jurors to “believe your eyes. What you saw happened, happened.” The defense focused on how “a reasonable police officer” would have handled the situation, and offered up an impossibly weird chocolate-chip cookie analogy. The jury has begun deliberation, and President Biden is expected to deliver remarks after it renders a verdict.
   
• Republicans have gone Bad Faith Mode on Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) over her comments encouraging Minnesota protesters over the weekend, claiming that she was “inciting violence.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced he will introduce a censure resolution, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said she will introduce a resolution to expel Waters from Congress, bless her heart. 
   
• In other doomed initiatives, Greene has scrubbed the launch of her wildly racist America First Caucus, after GOP leaders disapproved.
   
• DC’s chief medical examiner ruled that Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick suffered two strokes and died of natural causes the day after he was assaulted by rioters, which will make it harder for prosecutors to pursue homicide charges. 
   
• Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH) said he will leave Congress next month to lead Ohio’s Chamber of Commerce, opening a sixth (not terribly competitive) House vacancy.
   
• Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced his support for the PRO Act (hooray!) and looks forward to passing it the good old fashioned way, with 10 Republican votes (oh no).
   
• The country’s largest coal-miners union indicated it would accept a transition away from fossil fuels in exchange for new jobs in renewable energy. Many of the proposals mine workers are demanding are already included in Biden’s jobs plan. 
   
• Disparities in vaccination rates between states and counties already break down along political lines, in spite of Vaccine Influencer Ivanka Trump’s tireless work. 
   
• Former Attorney General Bill Barr and Justice Amy Coney Barrett have both scored book deals—in Barrett’s case, for a whopping $2 million.
   
• NASA successfully flew a little helicopter around on Mars, marking the first powered flight on another planet. One small step for helicopter, one giant leap for helicopterkind.
   
• Twelve of Europe’s top football (“football”) teams have announced plans to break away and form a European Super League—a tradition-defying cash grab—to the outrage of fans all over the world. More like European Blooper League, amirite? #BlooperLeague #SportsNewsletter

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been transferred to a prison infirmary for “vitamin therapy,” after his personal physician warned that he could die “at any minute.” Navalny has been on a hunger strike for nearly three weeks to protest his lack of access to medical care, and over the weekend, his team said that his blood tests showed a risk of imminent heart or kidney failure. Dr. Anastasia Vasilyeva, Navalny’s physician, said the transfer to a prison hospital wouldn’t help him, since it’s a site that specializes in treating tuberculosis. The Biden administration has warned that the Russian government will face consequences if Navalny dies, and his allies have planned nationwide protests on Wednesday to call for his release.

Not-so-fun fact: researchers have found that eating sugar, specifically fructose – the kind that's in lots of processed foods and drinks – may actually make you crave more sugar. On the flip side, you tend to be satisfied with fewer sweet things when you eat less sugar.

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Half of the adult U.S. population has now received at least one vaccine dose, and as of today, every American over age 16 is eligible. 

New Yorkers can now get vaccinated under the Big Whale.

Maryland may be about to become the first state to provide access to counsel to renters facing eviction.

The Biden administration has freed up $8 billion in disaster relief funding for Puerto Rico, and eased Trump-era restrictions on the aid.