October 13, 2020

Supreme Court halts census in latest twist of 2020 count (AP)

Supreme Court halts census in latest twist of 2020 count (AP)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday stopped the once-a-decade head count of every U.S. resident from continuing through the end of October.

President Donald Trump’s administration had asked the nation’s high court to suspend a district court’s order permitting the 2020 census to continue through the end of the month. The Trump administration argued that the head count needed to end immediately so the U.S. Census Bureau had enough time to crunch the numbers before a congressionally mandated year-end deadline for turning in figures used for deciding how many congressional seats each state gets.

A coalition of local governments and civil rights groups had sued the Trump administration, arguing that minorities and others in hard-to-count communities would be missed if the count ended early ...

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October 12, 2020

Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed to reimagine violence response and end sole reliance on police ...

Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed to reimagine violence response and end sole reliance on police, but outreach groups at heart of plan still struggle for funding
Chicago Tribune

...

More than 16 months into her term, however, Lightfoot’s plan to fundamentally change Chicago’s approach by relying on those groups has not developed. The administration’s spending on them is a vanishingly small part of this year’s budget, and anti-violence advocates have criticized her relatively modest funding of those initiatives during one of the bloodiest years in recent history.

The administration has touted its $11.5 million in spending this year on conflict intervention, counseling and employment help for people at risk, as well as services for victims and funding for the city’s public safety office.

City Hall officials have described those initiatives as focusing on the city’s most violent neighborhoods. And Lightfoot has said repeatedly she is turning away from the strategy of past mayors, which she has described as using only the police to stop violence.

But her attempt to shift to a different path has been incremental at best. The city’s spending for these alternate approaches to violence is less than 1% of the city’s share of the Police Department budget this year — which is about $1.7 billion. In June alone, the city spent more than four times as much on police overtime.

...

October 11, 2020

The triumph of capitalism. So there!

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October 11, 2020

Guess what influential show biz type came out for Trump.

Time has not been good to him.

https://twitter.com/JakeDuarte43/status/1310656191110868993

October 9, 2020

It's awwww time :)

October 8, 2020

LAPD comedians

https://reason.com/2020/10/08/brickbat-garbage-in-garbage-out/

Three more officers of the Los Angeles Police Department have been charged with falsifying information they placed into a state gang database. "In all three cases, the defendants are accused of writing on the (interview) card that a person admitted to being a gang member even though body-worn camera video showed the defendants either never asked the individuals about their gang membership or the individuals denied gang membership if they were asked," according to prosecutors. A total of six officers so far have been charged with entering false information into that database.

October 6, 2020

Voted by mail today.

That is all.

October 6, 2020

First day of the SCOTUS term and Alito & Thomas call for the overturning of Obergefell.

All the more reason to prevent another Trump appointment.

https://twitter.com/chasestrangio/status/1313112412393005057

October 3, 2020

Somebody's dream job I guess (but not mine).

Imagine working for (for example) Twitter, and being assigned the job of coming up with a distinctive variation and then having to justify your design to a committee on the notional basis of Twitteresqueness.

October 2, 2020

Pence, the next in line for the presidency, tests negative (The New York Times)

Pence, the next in line for the presidency, tests negative

Vice President Mike Pence — the first in line to assume the Oval Office if President Trump becomes too ill to carry out his duties — tested negative for the virus on Friday, a glimmer of stability on a day when questions are swirling over what comes next should Mr. Trump’s symptoms worsen.

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