Sunday, August 5, 2018

Sunday Globe From A to Z

Same drill, different day:

Boston’s schools are becoming resegregated

Isn't it all in the busing and funding, which would make it more of a cla$$ i$$ue, and you been fooled again as I hear '60s music?

(flip to below fold)

"Democrats spent 2 years working on a new slogan. Here’s what they came up with" by Liz Goodwin Globe Staff  August 03, 2018

WASHINGTON — After nearly two years of brainstorming and not inconsiderable hand-wringing, Democrats have crafted a fresh slogan to close out the midterm elections, one they hope will make it perfectly clear for whom they’re fighting: us.

“For the People.”

It took them two years to come up with that?

Although it lacks the punch of “Make America Great Again,’’ the bite-sized credo is populist without being fiery. It’s probably inoffensive enough to appeal to all wings of the fractured party. It fits pretty well in a hashtag, but most important, Democrats believe, it’s catchier than “A Better Deal,’’ the party’s initial slogan that alluded to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal while simultaneously eluding simple definition.

Still, Democrats can’t seem to win in their attempts at sloganeering. Every attempt only serves as a reminder that the party lacks a clear leader and that it has trouble conveying policy in emotional terms. Commercial branding experts gave this latest effort mixed reviews.

What I don't like about the political coverage of the pre$$ is the strategy of marketing that goes along with the "brand." It's insulting.

With fewer than 100 days until the Nov. 6 midterms, House Democrats have begun working “For the People’’ into their press conferences, media appearances, and tweets. Minority leader Nancy Pelosi urged her caucus in a letter Monday to use a For the People toolkit to plan branded events this month.....

And they think we can't see the the phoniness as they use as tools, or concerns to be swept away and forgotten until the next election?

--more--"

Yeah, “what do Democrats stand for?” 

You can debate that as we look forward to 2020 and the presidential campaign.

God help us all.

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"US isn’t holding up its end of nuclear deal, North Korean envoy charges" by Choe Sang-hun New York Times   August 04, 2018

SEOUL — North Korea’s top diplomat accused the United States of failing to live up to President Trump’s agreement with its leader, Kim Jong Un, warning Saturday that the country would not start denuclearizing unless Washington took reciprocal actions.

They should have expected that from the United States government.

Speaking at a closed-door session at a regional security forum in Singapore, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said his country had taken a series of actions toward denuclearization, such as halting nuclear and missile tests, demolishing an underground nuclear test site, and dismantling a missile engine test site, but Ri said Washington was dragging its feet in taking corresponding measures to build mutual confidence and improve ties with Pyongyang.

Related:

"Still, it shouldn’t be lost on Trump’s supporters that his Twitter toughness toward Iran resembles his approach to North Korea. After he and Kim Jong Un exchanged adolescent insults, they sat down for what his acolytes hailed as a groundbreaking summit in Singapore. The high-profile parley certainly afforded Kim status he had long desired. But all that has come out of the meeting thus far is a vague statement that commits North Korea to little or nothing regarding denuclearization....."

Yeah, dismantling a launch site and the return of war dead is nothing

Why don't you give the families a call and tell them that

Guy can't win for losing after a despotic, impulsive young leader with a nuclear arsenal lured South Korea and the United States into negotiations with the possibility of denuclearization, and did you see who else he suckered in?

Also seeVerifying the End of a Nuclear North Korea Could Make Iran Look Easy

Must be why he quit.

Such steps, Ri said, include easing sanctions and declaring an end to the 1950-53 Korean War as a prelude to negotiating a formal peace treaty to replace the armistice that halted the war 65 years ago.

Seems reasonable enough to me.

“However, the United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK and showing the attitude to retreat even from declaring the end of the war — a very basic and primary step for providing peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Ri said, but frustration has since mounted on both sides, as each accused the other of not living up to the Singapore agreement.

It's not a surprise. The U.S. is an impediment to peace around the planet. They lose their power to intervene otherwise.

North Korea accused the Trump administration of making a “unilateral and gangster-like demand for denuclearization” after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, last month to urge the country to take more steps like handing over an inventory of its nuclear weapons and facilities and dismantling some of them.

North Korea “stands firm in its determination and commitment for implementing the DPRK-US joint statement in a responsible and good-faith manner,” Ri said Saturday, referring to the Singapore agreement.

“What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leader’s intention,” he said.

Kind of like a, uh, Deep State?

ASEAN foreign ministers, along with counterparts from China, Japan, and South Korea, urged the United States and North Korea ‘‘to continue working towards” a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, according to a draft communique.

Pompeo, who also attended the same security forum, shook hands and chatted briefly with Ri when participants gathered for a group photo, but he was not present when Ri made his statement.

An American diplomat later handed Ri a letter from Trump to Kim. Trump received a letter from Kim this past week. It remained unclear what Trump and Kim discussed through their correspondence.

Pompeo said Saturday that ending North Korea’s nuclear program would take time. But he said he was “optimistic that we will get this done in the timetable and the world will celebrate what the UN Security Council has demanded.”

Speaking in a news conference, Pompeo stressed the importance of keeping economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea, but his appeal came as reports emerged indicating that sanctions against North Korea were not being enforced as effectively as the United States hoped for.

A confidential United Nations report, leaked to the media over the weekend, said that North Korea was continuing with both its nuclear and missile programs. The report said it had increased illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea to evade sanctions and enlisted a Syrian arms broker to sell weapons to Yemen and Libya.

Gee, I wonder who did that and I am so, so, sooooooo tired of intelligence agency propaganda -- even if they stovepipe it through the U.N.

Btw, that's the first time I've seen the word Yemen in I don't know how long.

Time to turn south.

Pompeo is now in Jakarta, Indonesia, where he is scheduled to meet Sunday with President Joko Widodo.

He was greeted with a suicide bomb attacks on Indonesian churches that shook the very ground, was told it was a family squabble, and once again the terrorist was shot dead.

As he arrived in Jakarta, the State Department said the written reply to Kim from Trump had been delivered to Ri.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Trump’s reply was given to Ri by Sung Kim, the US ambassador to the Philippines who has been leading logistical negotiations with the North on its pledge to denuclearize.....

--more--"

Just wondering what South Korea and Russia have to say about all this. 

I increasingly feel that the world is basically giving the big, bad, bully, the AmeriKan Empire, lip service as it then goes along its way. Then the ma$$ media spins it for Americans.

"Accused Russian agent sought powerful friends beyond NRA" by Matthew Rosenberg New York Times   August 04, 2018

WASHINGTON — Twelve days after a young Russian gun-rights activist gained access to some of America’s most prominent conservatives, at an elegant dinner near the Capitol, a Republican operative was eager to keep the momentum going.

In a February 2017 e-mail, the operative, Paul Erickson, proposed another “US/Russia friendship” dinner. He noted that the activist, Maria Butina, who now is accused of being a covert Russian agent, was making an “ever-expanding circle of influential friends.”

The recipient of the e-mail was George O’Neill Jr., a Rockefeller relative and conservative writer. He was helping pay Butina’s bills, said a person familiar with their relationship, and hoped to make her the centerpiece of his own project to improve America’s ties to Russia.

Oh, a Rockefeller was being the Soviet, 'er, Communist, 'er, Russian agent, huh?

In bringing charges against Butina, 29, last month, federal prosecutors described her activities as part of a campaign, supported by Russian intelligence, to use gun rights to make her way into conservative groups and advance Moscow’s interests in the United States.

While the charging documents focus on her alleged efforts to infiltrate the National Rifle Association, interviews with more than two dozen people in Russia and the United States show that her attempts at connecting with prominent American conservatives extended beyond making inroads with the gun-rights group.

The interviews, along with previously unreported e-mails obtained by The New York Times, also reveal new details about her ties to the two older American men she relied on to make her way in the United States: Erickson, with whom she struck up a romance, and O’Neill.

That means the prosecutors office gave them to the Times reporter!

Prosecutors allege that the relationships were nothing more than vehicles for her work on behalf of Russia, citing messages in which Butina told a Russian official all her activities would be “only incognito! Right now everything has to be quiet and careful.”

If you a covert agent and were trying to be quiet and careful, would you put that in a message?

Yet for an alleged Russian agent, Butina hardly lived a life of fake identities, secret communications, and hidden allegiances.

Proving the Deep State exists before they once again turn the page on a ridiculous and obvious piece of political propaganda with precise timing.

The flame-haired graduate student at American University in Washington openly advocated in speeches for Russia-friendly policies and closer ties between her homeland and the United States.

What kind of spy is that, especially since we are told how cagey and crafty the Russian hackers and agents that poisoned the Skripals, blah, blah, blah, blah. Would they be that sloppy? They certainly aren't portrayed that way on TV.

Or is the case itself conveniently timed BS for propaganda purposes?

She posted photos on Instagram of herself toting guns and checked in on Facebook from locations like Russia House, a lounge in Washington.

Now she looks like just another exchange student.

She consulted with the Outdoor Channel television network for a show about hunting in Russia. Her cellphone case was adorned with a picture of President Vladimir Putin of Russia, riding a horse shirtless.

Yeah, that will help hide your cover.

Butina’s defenders say she was an idealistic, if naive, activist, and contend that Russians’ interactions with the NRA were attempts at rapprochement that only appear sinister when viewed through an outdated Cold War lens.

“I’m just amazed that in today’s world, if you shake hands with a Russian, you must be an agent of the Kremlin,” said David Keene, a former NRA president, who met with Butina at conferences in Moscow and the United States.

Butina denies she was a covert agent who used sex as spycraft, according to her lawyer, Robert Driscoll. He noted that she willingly testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in April and did not flee the United States when the FBI raided her apartment.

Three government officials said Butina’s arrest stemmed from a counterintelligence investigation predating the 2016 election that has focused on a Russian government official, Alexander P. Torshin, who worked closely with Butina for years. Torshin, a former senator, is close to Christian conservatives in Russia.

In Butina, Torshin found someone adept at engaging with powerful conservatives, but it was Erickson and O’Neill, referred to in the indictment of Butina as US Persons 1 and 2, whom she relied on most.

In the past four years, roughly $89,000 moved between the US bank accounts of Erickson, who could not be reached for comment, and Butina’s Russian bank account.

That is when I noticed there was no mention of Manafort today.

O’Neill, who is not accused of wrongdoing, declined to comment for this article.

--more--"

Related(?): "A Russian helicopter crashed shortly after takeoff in Siberia on Saturday, killing all 18 people aboard. The Interstate Aviation Committee said the Mi-8 helicopter collided with the load being carried by another helicopter that had taken off from the same pad in Vankor. The second helicopter landed safely. The crashed copter, believed to have been working for the state oil company Rosneft, had 15 passengers and three crew members (AP)."

Just went right down, huh?

Also see: Tower rental helps Kushner raise cash

666 Fifth Avenue? 

The devil you say! 

So who is renting it, or do I really need ask?

"Tens of thousands protest contentious Israel nation law in Tel Aviv" by Ilan Ben Zion Associated Press  August 04, 2018

TEL AVIV — Tens of thousands of members of Israel’s Druze minority and their Jewish supporters, some chanting ‘‘equality,’’ packed a central Tel Aviv square Saturday night to rally against a contentious new law that critics say sidelines Israel’s non-Jewish citizens.

It marked the first time in recent memory that the Druze — followers of a secretive offshoot of Shi’ite Islam who are considered fiercely loyal to the state — staged a large public protest.

Hundreds of brightly colored Druze flags, rarely seen outside the community, fluttered in the square along Israel’s national banners. Nearby City Hall was also lit up in Druze colors.

The rally marked the biggest backlash yet against the recently passed law that enshrines Israel’s Jewish character and downgrades the standing of Arabic from an official to a ‘‘special’’ language.

The law has outraged Israel’s Arabic-speaking minority, which includes the Druze and makes up about 20 percent of the population. Critics say the law undermines the country’s democratic values.

The Druze serve in the military, unlike most of the country’s Arab citizens, who overwhelmingly follow Sunni Islam and have close family ties with Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories. Over the years, members of the Druze community have risen to prominence in the military and in politics.

On Saturday, Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square was packed with Druze protesters bused in from all over Israel, and their Jewish backers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Cabinet ministers have met with Druze leaders to try and pacify their concerns, but recent meetings did not go well.

According to Israeli media, Netanyahu abruptly ended a meeting with retired Brigadier General Amal Assad, who spearheaded the Druze campaign against the legislation, and other Druze officials last week after Assad warned the new law would ‘‘lead to apartheid.’’

--more--"

Related:

"Police began an investigation Saturday after anti-Semitic graffiti appeared on the ancestral home of the late Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel in northwest Romania. Comments in bright pink paint were scrawled overnight on the small house, a protected historical landmark, in the town of Sighetu Marmatiei. One of the comments said Wiesel was ‘‘in hell with Hitler.’’ Wiesel and
his family were deported to Auschwitz in May 1944. He died in 2016 (AP)."

What timing!

"A 28-year-old woman wearing a face veil has become the first person in Denmark to be fined for violating a new law banning such garments in public places. Police were called to a shopping center in Horsholm on Friday to confront a woman wearing a niqab garment covering her face. The woman was given a fine of $156 and asked to remove the veil or leave. She opted to leave (AP)."

That's the root of all your troubles right there! 

Never mind the political puppet corruption robbing you of your treasure and your rights as the war machine grinds along.

"Turkey’s president said Saturday that the government would freeze the assets of two US officials in retaliation for American sanctions against Turkey’s justice and interior ministers over the detention of an American pastor. The Treasury sanctions were imposed Wednesday. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered authorities to freeze the Turkish assets of America’s justice and interior ministers. It is unclear if those officials have any assets in Turkey (AP)."

Think what you want of the Turks, but they don't let themselves get pushed around by anybody.

"A man was fatally shot at a protest in the northern province of Alborz. Someone fired from a car during the protest Friday in Karaj, about 30 miles west of Tehran. There were no additional details. Officials arrested 20 protesters and said many of the leaders were women. There have been several demonstrations in Iranian cities in recent days over economic conditions (AP)."

Arrested for not wearing a veil!

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(Full page advertisement for Total Wine on page A3)

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"Zimbabwe opposition says soldiers search for its supporters" by Christopher Torchia Associated Press  August 04, 2018

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwean soldiers were searching parts of the capital for opposition supporters to detain after the disputed election, the main opposition party said Saturday, as elsewhere mourners gathered for a victim of Wednesday’s military crackdown — a woman shot in the back.

Nkululeko Sibanda, a top official in the Movement for Democratic Change party, spoke at a courthouse in Harare where 24 supporters appeared on accusations of inciting public violence. Sibanda said they included people arrested on Thursday during a police raid on party headquarters.

‘‘A lot of people are hiding,’’ Sibanda said. ‘‘It’s scarier than the Mugabe times.’’ 

(Blog editor's chin sags to chest)

There was no independent confirmation of the allegation. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said he wants to work with the opposition to rebuild the country after decades of repression under his former mentor, Robert Mugabe. 

How ironic, and I'm starting to ask myself why the Zimbabweans would vote for him. He was Mugabe's main enforcer.

As riot police circulated in the capital, supporters of opposition leader Nelson Chamisa urged him to keep fighting a day after he forcefully rejected Mnangagwa’s election victory and alleged manipulation.

International election observers who were invited by Mnangagwa’s government after years of being banned by Mugabe were pulling out after issuing mixed reports on Monday’s vote.

While the election itself was called peaceful, the observers expressed concern over the lack of transparency in the voters’ roll and the ‘‘extreme bias’’ of state-run media in favor of Mnangagwa. And in a joint statement the observers criticized the military’s ‘‘excessive’’ use of force.

They were singing a different tune only two days ago, and now they either got the result they wanted or are being run out of the country.

A credible election is a crucial step for lifting international sanctions and attracting badly needed foreign investment in Zimbabwe’s long-collapsed economy.

The State Department late Friday encouraged the release of fully transparent election results and said anyone with grievances should pursue them through legal channels, adding that ‘‘we encourage all political leaders to show magnanimity in victory and graciousness in defeat.’’

Yeah, this is what is coming to America in 2018 no matter how it turns out.

Some observers said Zimbabwe’s future depends on whether Mnangagwa can persuade the military hard-liners and former generals who make up his inner circle to share his vision of democratic change.

Trump seems to be losing that battle.

After decades as Mugabe’s enforcer amid killings of thousands of people in Matabeleland in the 1980s, land seizures from white farmers and elections marred by violence, the 75-year-old Mnangagwa now faces what might be his biggest challenge: asserting control over the security apparatus that put him in office.

Has Trump called him to congratulate him on his victory yet? 

Looks like they have similar problems.

Jubilant Zimbabweans cheered the military in November when it rolled into the capital, Harare, and pressured Mugabe to resign after 37 years in power, but when troops returned to the streets on Wednesday, fears rose that Mugabe had gone but his harsh system remained.....

--more--"

Ahlia Kumire (center) wept at her father’s funeral ceremony after he was shot during post-election violence on Wednesday in Harare.
Ahlia Kumire (center) wept at her father’s funeral ceremony after he was shot during post-election violence on Wednesday in Harare (ZINYANGE AUNTONY/AFP/Getty Images).

I post the picture because they deserve better!

Makes the incident at the Smith lunch counter pale by comparison, and Boston school kids are lucky they don't have to use a bathroom in South Africa:

"Corruption leaves South Africa schools in turmoil" by Norimitsu Onishi New York Times, August 04, 2018

MIDDELPLAAS, South Africa — The little girl hated going to the bathroom at school. The pit toilets were so dark, dirty, and crumbling. Many children were so afraid of them that they simply relieved themselves in the schoolyard to avoid the ordeal, but as she played with her best friend during recess, the girl, Ziyanda Nkosi, a 6-year-old first-grader, really had to go. She stepped warily inside the closet-like latrine.

Even with the gentle pressure of her tiny frame, the floor caved in. Ziyanda flailed wildly, clinging to the edges of the hole, frantically trying to keep herself from falling in and drowning in the fetid pool below. “Mommy! Mommy!” she screamed, managing to hold on long enough for an older boy to run in and save her.

Hundreds of parents, enraged that their warnings about the dilapidated school had been ignored for years, burst into protest a couple of days later, upending their quiet rural town for two weeks last August. They burned tires, blocked roads, and demanded justice from the provincial government led by David Mabuza, a former math teacher who had become one of the most powerful figures in the African National Congress and was positioning himself to become South Africa’s deputy president.

One of the party’s historic promises had been to provide a good education for black people, who had been deliberately denied the opportunity under apartheid. ANC leaders like Nelson Mandela often spoke about freeing black South Africans through school, and Mabuza, whose first big post in the province was education minister, got his political start by promising just that, but under the ANC, the education system has been in shambles, so gutted by corruption that even party officials are dismayed at how little students are learning, in schools so decrepit that children have plunged to their deaths in pit toilets.

(Blog editor gasps at the indignity and sheer horror before wondering about the shape of U.S. schools -- and that was five years ago!)

The rage in Ziyanda’s town grew so intense that protesters hurled stones at a local ANC leader, who narrowly escaped by whipping out his handgun and shooting randomly into the crowd, wounding two children and roiling the community all the more.

I'll bet he didn't get their vote.

Mabuza never came to the school or met with the parents — and for good reason, local officials contend. The dangerous conditions were a clear reflection of his control over the province, where millions of dollars for education have disappeared into a vortex of suspicious spending, shoddy public construction, and brazen corruption to fuel his political ambitions, according to government records and officials in his party, but the uprising and allegations against Mabuza did not crimp his political rise. To the contrary, only a few months later, as the ANC tried to quash national outrage over misrule by its leaders, Mabuza scored his biggest triumph by far.

He was picked to become second-in-command of the entire ANC, launching him into an even more prominent post — as South Africa’s deputy president, second only to the nation’s leader.

Where my print copy ended and what the web added.

Mabuza may seem an odd choice, especially at a time when the ANC is desperate to purge its reputation for graft and restore its image as the rightful heir to Mandela’s legacy.

After all, Mabuza’s rural province, Mpumalanga, is fairly small, has little economic clout and is widely regarded as one of the country’s most corrupt, but that is the vexing secret behind Mabuza’s spectacular climb, current and former ANC officials say: He siphoned off money from schools and other public services to buy loyalty and amass enormous power, making him impossible to ignore on the national stage and putting him in position to shape South Africa for years to come, a kingmaker in the back-room negotiations to choose South Africa’s new president.....

--more--"

I wonder who has to clean them.

Meanwhile, look at who was just visiting as he saluted an accused war criminal and spent time with friends in a country still struggling with deep economic inequality 24 years after the end of white minority rule (they now have an elite black cla$$ to match them) before fading into oblivion again after the endorsements (I'm sure he wasn't there for the water). If he gets to far into the circus ring then the spotlight will start to shine on his administrations use of the national security and law enforcement agencies in this country to spy on and infiltrate an opposing party's presidential campaign. That is the Trump card (pun intended) the current president has over that batch of scoundrels when things heat up.

"Some arrested in Portland, Ore., as right-wing rally, counterprotesters clash" by Manuel Valdes and Gillian Flaccus Associated Press  August 04, 2018

PORTLAND, Ore. — Small scuffles broke out Saturday as police in Portland, Ore., deployed ‘‘flash bang’’ devices and other means to disperse hundreds of right-wing and self-described antifascist protesters.

Two sides of the same agent provocateur coin.

Related:

"Jason Kessler, the organizer of last year’s deadly ‘‘Unite the Right’’ rally by white nationalists and neo-Nazis, is no longer seeking a permit from the city to hold a sequel next month. On Tuesday, Kessler shocked even his own lawyers by withdrawing his request. Kessler, who lives in Charlottesville and graduated from the University of Virginia, quickly vanished after the hearing and was unavailable for an interview request....."

Probably because he didn't want to face questions about being a controlled-opposition agitator.

There were arrests and some injuries, but it wasn’t immediately clear how many. A reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive was bloodied when he was struck by a projectile. Eder Campuzano said later on Twitter he was ‘‘okay.’’

Demonstrators aligned with Patriot Prayer and an affiliated group, the Proud Boys, gathered around midday in a riverfront park. Hundreds of demonstrators faced them from across the street, holding banners and signs with opposition messages such as ‘‘Alt right scum not welcome in Portland.’’ Some chanted ‘‘Nazis go home.’’

Officers stood in the middle of the four-lane boulevard, essentially forming a wall to keep the two sides separated. The counterprotesters were made up of a coalition of labor unions, immigrant rights advocates, democratic socialists, and other groups. They included people dressed as clowns and a brass band blaring music.

The rally organized by Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson was the third to roil Portland this summer. Two previous events ended in bloody fistfights and riots, and one counterprotester was sent to the hospital with a skull fracture.

Are you looking forward to November?

Protesters saw a significant police presence that included bomb-sniffing dogs and weapons screening checkpoints. In a statement, police said weapons may be seized if there is a violation of law and added that it is illegal in Portland to carry a loaded firearm in public unless a person has a valid Oregon concealed handgun license.

Among the things police confiscated were long sticks and homemade shields.....

--more--"

Related:

"Hundreds of gun-control protesters were joined by survivors of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting at a rally outside NRA headquarters in Fairfax, Va. Family members of some of the 17 people killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February addressed the crowd during the ‘‘National March on NRA’’ rally. The protest shut down a portion of the road outside the NRA headquarters. Police kept protesters and counterprotesters, some of whom were armed, separated during the rally. In a separate development Saturday....."


Yes, folks, all the Clinton-Bush secrets and skullduggery surrounding Iran-contra are safely under armed guard.

UPDATE: 

"In New York on Saturday, thousands of people marched across the Brooklyn Bridge in a protest against gun violence. A student-led group called Youth Over Guns, which was formed after the Parkland massacre, organized the protest. The protesters marched across the bridge and then rallied in lower Manhattan. Aalayah Eastmond, a survivor of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, addressed the crowd. Actresses Julianne Moore and Susan Sarandon also attended....."

I'll be lenient (is that the same, yeah, it is) with them today.

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Harsh discipline methods reported at centers for troubled migrant youths

Yesterday they were being sexually abused, and today they are being tortured. 

I'll let you wrestle with that for now.

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Small-plane crash kills all on board

Missing Chinese tourist, 12, found

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Tornado hits Webster, as strong storms move across region

William Evans’s forceful advocacy on gun control has helped make our state safer

(flip)

Casting call for a certain type of Bostonian doesn’t disappoint 

Ick, casting couch, #NotMe, and how how much of the tax loot take is going towards celebrity Wahlberg's salary and the stereotype?

Whadda ya' mean they are trying to expand it?

UPDATE: 

"When the curtain rises this month at the Emerson Colonial Theatre, “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” will be center stage, but the real star will be the long-shuttered hall itself, which after months of painstaking renovations will reclaim its place as a crown jewel of Boston theater....."

Globe talks to Erica Lynn Schwartz, the Colonial’s general manager, and Tobie Stein, author of “Boston’s Colonial Theatre,” a history of the playhouse.

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Commonwealth Ave. bridge construction continues on time

Just be careful crossing or riding a bike.

25 years later, family still seeks answer to Grafton girl’s murder

Anybody check the lake?

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By this time in the reading I'm ready to end it and put the paper aside to do other business

IMHO, there is only one thing left that may be worth reading

Other than that, I'm out of ideas.