June Hot Topics

Gov. Greg Abbott signed laws to empower Texas parents, protect Texans from the growing national fentanyl crisis, and safeguard women’s sports passed during the 88th Regular Legislative Session at the Texas Capitol.

A Wilmington physician with Pelican Family Medicine in Wilmington has agreed as part of a settlement to pay $170,000 after allegedly prescribing controlled substances ‘outside the usual course of professional practice’.

The far-right Alternative for Germany party sees its first head of a county administration elected today in a rural eastern region, a win that comes as national polls show its support at record levels. A runoff election in Sonneberg county pitted Robert Sesselmann, the candidate from Alternative for Germany, against center-right rival Jürgen Köpper. Official figures show Sesselmann, who had been well ahead in the first round two weeks ago, winning by 52.8% to 47.2%.

China was quick to respond to Biden’s comments, calling them a blatant political provocation.
“China expresses strong dissatisfaction and opposition,” said Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, at a regular press briefing, the Associated Press reported. “The U.S. remarks are extremely absurd and irresponsible,” Mao added.

Prince William believes you can have zero homelessness and he’s using Finland as a case study. The Prince of Wales is launching a five-year, locally led plan in six flagship locations around the UK that will demonstrate it is possible to end homelessness, Kensington Palace announced on Monday.

Contributing to the pre-election turmoil, Guatemala’s independent judiciary has been destabilized, with its members more and more often in jail, under death threats, or in exile.

One of the first things you’ll notice about Portuguese people is they have a friendly and welcoming nature. They are generally very easy-going and helpful and take pride in making guests feel at home. Many expats come to really appreciate the strong sense of community that exists across the country. Americans seeking more affordable healthcare and escaping guns violence , want a slower pace, mild weather and European travel destinations move to Portugal, Span.

BET Awards return Sunday night, with a performance-filled show that promises to celebrate 50 years of hip-hop. The show, which takes place at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, will feature a tribute to hip-hop’s most significant moments, as curated by Kid Capri. Patti Labelle will also pay tribute to the late Tina Turner.

Five people are in custody after reports of shots being fired at an officer near O’Brien Park Friday night, Tulsa Police said. Police received a call about a shooting into the wooded area at O’Brien Park shortly after 9 p.m., police said. An officer who arrived at the scene was shot at from a moving car, but was not immediately aware he was being shot at, police said. Police said they deployed a K-9 who bit two people and those suspects were held for arrest. Both were treated by EMSA, police said. The other three suspects were also arrested without incident. Police said they found marijuana and alcohol in the car along with firearms.

In the hushed, ornate St James cathedral in the Armenian Quarter, one of Jerusalem’s most famous photographers Garo Nalbandian is at work, straddling a ladder as he photographs a massive Armenian carpet from above.

Under pressure from Western sanctions, Iran is actively in search of new international trade and investment partners, and it has made some progress. In particular, a Chinese-brokered deal to normalize relations with regional rival Saudi Arabia has created commercial opportunities, and its willingness to provide Russia with drones and ammunition for use in Ukraine has created new openings too.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) confirmed Tuesday that it turned over transgender patients’ medical records to the Tennessee attorney general as part of an investigation into medical billing—a move that stirred controversy and privacy concerns.

Two kayakers, Julie McSorley and Liz Cottriel, were nearly swallowed by a humpback whale while watching off the coast of Avila Beach, California. This event was unexpected and extraordinarily rare, but both women escaped unharmed.

Nichole R. Doster, 36, a manager at Kids Play Childcare & Preschool, was charged after investigators said she left a bag of methamphetamine on the floor of the facility’s infant room on June 16.

Jackson Lears is Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers University who conceives of history as a form of cultural criticism, as an act of the moral imagination. History is a way to synthesize a growing historicism—a sense of peculiarity and foreignness of the past. In Animal Spirits, the distinguished historian Jackson Lears explores an alternative American cultural history by tracking the thinkers who championed the individual’s spontaneous energies and the idea of a living universe against the strictures of conventional religion, business, and politics.

Domestic airfare for the Fourth of July has dropped significantly since this time last year, according to a recent report from travel app Hopper. Tickets for trips over the holiday are sitting at $300 per round trip, according to Hayley Berg, lead economist at Hopper. That’s down 27% from last year. In fact, fares for the holiday weekend are more in line with 2019 prices.

Kristan Hawkins was 23, she started sleeping in her office. It was years before her organisation, Students for Life of America (SFLA), would become one of the largest, most influential anti-abortion groups in the country. And it was more than a decade before she would stand outside the US Supreme Court to announce to her triumphant supporters that the nationwide right to abortion had been undone.

On June 15, Mohammed Sanogo a high-achieving student with a GPA above 4.0 was thrown to the ground and arrested in the parking lot by University of Delaware Police. The incident has left school officials demanding answers and leaders in the local Muslim community is raising concerns about bias and police misconduct.

Homelessness is a national crisis, and all too pervasive in California, where an estimated 171,000 people — or 30% of all homeless people in the U.S. — are homeless. Political leaders are divided over how to address the crisis, with some, including Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, favoring tent encampment sweeps and a tough-love approach toward those with mental health and addiction issues.

According to the statement at tulsaopera.com, the company cited financial struggles exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for the decision. (The company’s headquarters, at 1610 S. Boulder Ave., sustained significant damage during the June 18 storm, with much of the company’s library of librettos and recordings severely damaged. As to our other scheduled events, the Encore Series will go on! This includes Opera Rocks the Country in January, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change in February and Opera Fizz: A Bubbly Night of Music and Mixology in April. Also, our robust education and outreach programming will continue, including Songs By Heart, Tulsa Youth Opera, the Raise Your Voice Tour, Aria Yoga and Tulsa Opera Signature Chorale.

A black Dodge Charger, driven by Melanie Herrera, drove around the barricades and ignored warnings. Herrera ran over power lines, but kept driving reaching speeds of over 65 mph. The power lines she ran over wrapped around one man’s leg. Herrera’s vehicle pulled him down the street while severing his left leg below the knee.

One minute he was eating a taco, and the next a king was reaching out to him. Jeff Jackson, a freshman Democrat from North Carolina, may not chair any committees or hold a position in leadership – but he’s quickly becoming one of the U.S. House’s better-known members outside of Congress, thanks to his viral videos about what goes on under the dome.

The week kicks off with the Summer Solstice (the longest day of the year) and the Sun’s ingress into Cancer on June 21. We start a new season, bringing new hopes and goals.The same day, Mercury in Gemini and Mars in Leo connect, energizing our thoughts. The Sun and Mercury in Cancer aspect the Nodes of Destiny connect on the 23rd and 27th, bringing change encounters with others. Mercury squares Neptune in Pisces on June 25, making our words seem and feel loftier. Mercury enters Cancer on the 26th, adding emotion and intuition to communication.

Pharrell Williams’ debut as men’s creative director for Louis Vuitton was nothing short of spectacular, heralding a new era for the storied French fashion house. The American polymath, whose appointment was announced in February, closed down the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris on Tuesday, where the show was held at sunset with a full orchestra, gospel choir and over 70 looks modeled by some familiar faces including designer Stefano Pilati and Pusha T and No Malice of the hip-hop duo Clipse.

Planned Parenthood CEO: ‘Abortion May Have Saved Democracy’ Alexis McGill Johnson says voters recognized abortion rights is about more than just reproductive freedom.

The Fed put a hold on its aggressive campaign of raising interest rates for what would have been the 11th straight time, saying it wanted to digest the effects of a series of hikes that have lifted borrowing costs by 5% since March 2022. At the same time, more than half the members of the Federal Open Market Committee said they expected to have to raise rates two more times this year.

The Boston Celtics, LA Clippers and Washington Wizards are working on a three-team trade that would see the Celtics acquire Kristaps Porzingis and the Clippers land Malcolm Brogdon, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, although there are still outstanding issues to be resolved before a deal can be completed.

A building in central Paris housing an arts and design school, catering mainly to international students, was partially destroyed in a violent blast on Wednesday afternoon. French Interior MInister Gérard Darmanin told a press conference just before 10 pm local time (1pm PT) that 37 people had been injured.

Chu Lai, Vietnam, 1966: My life lesson in leaping.” Our sergeant knew what lay ahead for us new guys – as well as a way to help us face that future,” our essayist writes… I had volunteered for service in Vietnam after being posted at a Marine Corps air station in North Carolina. When we landed on the metal strips of the runway in the port of Chu Lai, I felt the heat reflecting off the metal even before we got off the plane. It was one of the hottest summers I’ve ever experienced.

Reporting in The Atlantic, crime data researcher Jeff Asher has called it one of the largest annual percentage shifts in murder ever recorded. While up in some places and down in others, murders have declined 12.5%, on average, in 99 U.S. cities that have released updated 2023 data, according to his analysis.

McCarthy urges Republicans to reject quick Biden impeachment vote. Speaker McCarthy argued in a private meeting of House Republicans that impeachment resolutions should go through the committee process rather than be rushed to the floor.

With over a decade of experience in the human iPSC space, we understand that high-quality cell assays are challenging, with significant risks and costs if not performed well. But like you, we also see the enormous value in human iPSCs for building better, more physiologically relevant models of human disease.

U.S.-Taiwan Relations: Will China’s Challenge Lead to a Crisis? Book by Bonnie Glaser, Richard C. Bush, and Ryan Hass

The push to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, which successfully led to the first national Juneteenth observance last year, brought a new wave of attention to the history behind this celebration: That on June 19, 1865, enslaved men and women in Texas found out—weeks after the Civil War ended—that they were free, and the Union Army’s Major General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

Police cordon off the area of a shooting just after midnight Sunday at a large Juneteenth celebration in a strip mall parking lot in Willowbrook, Illinois on June 18, 2023. Jacek Boczarski—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Gov. Greg Abbott signed numerous bills this week, including some that restrict labor rights, ban transgender women from competing in sports, and bar universities and colleges from having their own diversity offices and training.

Who’s running for president? Here’s the 2024 candidate roster. The 2024 election promises to be historic as a long slate of Republican candidates seek to unseat the sitting president, Joe Biden.

In the past five years, Seward County law enforcement has hauled in $7.5 million from forfeitures, according to county financial records and Department of Justice annual reports. Using a loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convicting them of crimes.

A state police trooper was killed along with the suspect who shot him during a gun battle Saturday afternoon in central Pennsylvania, authorities said. The suspect had also shot and seriously injured another state trooper earlier Saturday afternoon, state police said.

Amanda Garcia, policy director for the Senate of College Councils at the University of Texas, standing center, as students who are against proposed legislation to remove certain diversity, equity and inclusion programs in colleges and universities gathered for a sit-in at the capitol to protect DEI on Thursday, March 23.

Class 8 forecasts, as published in the latest release of the North American commercial vehicle (CV) forecast, are for slight year-over-year increases in retail sales and production volumes in 2023, reflecting stronger momentum into Q3. ACT continues to forecast deteriorating sales and build in Q4.

Surprising Health Benefits Of Cloves. Small, dried flower buds from an evergreen tree called a clove have a flavor all their own, resembling cinnamon but with more spice.

In Scorching-Hot Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott Just Took Away Construction Workers’ Right to a Rest Break. Austin construction workers dig on a hot day in August 2021. Earlier this week, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill that overturns local ordinances in Austin and Dallas that mandate regular rest breaks for such workers. (Credit: Blaine Young)

The US Men’s National Team dominated Mexico in a 3-0 win Thursday in front of a sellout crowd of 65,000 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Chants heard during the game led to the activation of the anti-discrimination protocol by the match officials. Additionally, security staff ejected several fans for engaging in unacceptable behavior in the stadium,” a security statement said.

As we discussed yesterday, the Fed’s 75-basis-point move was basically a foregone conclusion. And the central bank delivered, announcing it would raise interest rates once again by three-quarters of a percentage point — its fourth straight move of that size since it began trying to tame inflation in earnest this spring.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk said on Saturday that the social media platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per-article basis with one click, calling it a win for both the public and media organisations.

Today, in many ways, Scotland is becoming a failed state. Economic performance is woeful. Drug and alcohol problems have surged, there is a failure to engage seriously with the challenges the country is facing, and the drive for independence has fractured society in an endless culture war.

In announcing that he’s running for president under the auspices of the Movement for a People’s Party (MPP), the distinguished thinker and progressive activist Cornel West has set himself up to be attacked from all sides. 

Scott, too, despite criticizing many of the policies of President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, still doesn’t say that all is lost.

“America continues to evolve in the right direction,” he said on Fox News Monday night. “We continue to call upon our better angels.”