Breaking News

This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in each source note. Quotation marks are not used.

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• 
• SOURCE: CBS News
  10/19/2021
  

  Oklahoma ACLU Files Suit Against State Ban on Critical Race Theory

  "The lawsuit says the law is unconstitutional as it goes against the First and 14th Amendments and asks the court for a permanent preliminary injunction to prevent the law from being enforced in schools and universities."

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  10/18/2021
  

  St. Malo, Louisiana, Site of Earliest Filipino-American Settlement, Threatened by Climate Change

  More than a century ago, long before the Civil War, St. Malo was the first permanent Filipino settlement in the United States. Preserving the settlement's history is now a race against time. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  10/18/2021
  

  Executive Privilege was out of Control Before Steve Bannon Claimed It

  by Timothy Noah

  Perhaps Steve Bannon is doing a favor for the cause of government accountability by showing the outlandishness of the entire doctrine, which has managed to pass from Dwight Eisenhower's strategy for stonewalling Joseph McCarthy to a hallowed totem of the out-of-control presidency.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/19/2021
  

  Can Skeletons Have Racial Identity?

  Forensic anthropologists have largely stuck with techniques for assigning geographic ancestry to skeletal remains. Recently, the origins of those techniques in last century's scientific racism have prompted some in the discipline to call for stopping the practice.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/18/2021
  

  Diver Discovers 900-Year-Old Sword Dating to the Crusades

  The sword is dated at 900 years old, and originated in the Third Crusade. 

• 
• SOURCE: Forward
  10/14/2021
  

  Is the Academy's New Museum Neglecting the Jewish Pioneers of Hollywood?

  "After touring the museum’s seven stories, I discovered that Hollywood’s pioneers, who busted their tucheses building the industry it celebrates, ended up on the cutting room floor."

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/16/2021
  

  Macron Commemorates 1961 Killing of Algerian Protesters by Paris Police

  Fabrice Riceputi, a historian of the Algerian War who has written about the killings, described the events of Oct. 17 as “a peak in a period of state terror that is inflicted on the colonized people.”

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/18/2021
  

  Jefferson Statue to be Removed from NY City Council Chambers

  "Annette Gordon-Reed, a Harvard Law School professor and a Jefferson expert, objected to the idea of taking down the Jefferson statue, but said that if it were to move to the New-York Historical Society, where she serves as a trustee, it would be a best-case scenario."

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  10/14/2021
  

  Mary McLeod Bethune Statue is Coming to the Capitol

  Florida legislators unanimously approved Bethune to replace Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith in the Capitol statuary in 2018. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/18/2021
  

  A Century-Long "Reign of Error" for SCOTUS Typo

  by Adam Liptak

  A typo placed in a preliminary slip opinion was formally corrected, but has been cited at least 14 times in cases concerning property rights, highlighting the problem that the Court's corrections often receive less attention than their announcements. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/16/2021
  

  In the Land of Godfathers, the Church Pushes the Tradition Aside

  Church authorities in Sicily have grown concerned that the naming of baptismal godparents has been subordinated to secular concerns of social networking, in extreme cases tied to organized crime. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Bulwark
  10/18/2021
  

  Claremont's Bogus "Censorship" Charge Against American Political Science Association

  "As with almost any instance of so-called cancel culture, the question at hand is ultimately a specific substantive one: What did John Eastman do and was it wrong?"

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  10/18/2021
  

  The Lost Cause Resonance of Pledging Allegiance to Flag from January 6 Capitol Attack

  A rally in support of Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin pledged allegiance to a flag carried at the January 6 seige of the Capitol by Trump supporters. Is the day turning into the Lost Cause of the far right?

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/18/2021
  

  Colin Powell Dies at 84; Career of Military and Diplomatic Leadership Featured Controversial Support for Iraq Invasion

  “I’m the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world,” Mr. Powell said, acknowledging that his presentation “will always be a part of my record.”

• 
• SOURCE: NBC News
  10/14/2021
  

  Texas School Administrator Uses Holocaust as Example of Including "Opposing" Views

  The advice illustrates the predicament of Texas teachers, who are concerned about being punished over any possible political objection to the content of their teaching or the books in their classrooms. 

• 
• SOURCE: Forward
  10/14/2021
  

  The Most Important Band of the 80s Broke Up a Decade Before

  "For all the reams that have been written about the band in recent decades, nothing has so succinctly dissected the Velvet Underground's dark magic as Haynes’ new documentary."

• 
• SOURCE: Texas Monthly
  10/14/2021
  

  Critical Race Fury: The School Board Wars Are Getting Nasty in Texas

  "The threat the loud and the angry pose isn’t necessarily that they win outright but that they tire others out—that they make public service too burdensome, too painful, too tedious."

• 
• SOURCE: University of Virginia Batten School
  10/11/2021
  

  New Research: More Lynchings in Places with More Confederate Monuments

  Empirical research supports what activists have been saying for decades: Confederate memorials encourage violence in the name of white supremacy.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/13/2021
  

  Ryan Russell: Jon Gruden Emails Should Have Shocked Me. They Didn't

  "The long delay in disclosing these emails, coupled with their conversational nature, suggests that others in the N.F.L. are, at best, tolerant of these divisive views. At worst, they share them."

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/6/2021
  

  Germany to Dedicate Additional $767M for Holocaust Survivors

  Russian Jews who were subjected to the brutal siege of Leningrad, and subjected to Nazi propaganda that encouraged other Russians to blame them for the city's suffering, are among those offered new pensions.