Republican secretary of state sends vaguely worded letter to voters weeks before primary

Tennessee’s top election official asked more than 14,000 registered voters to prove their citizenship in a vaguely worded letter last month in what voting and immigrant groups say is an attempt to intimidate voters.

The office of the Tennessee secretary of state, Tre Hargett, a Republican, sent the letter to 14,375 voters on 13 June, weeks before early voting was to begin for the state’s August primary. “Our office has received information that appears to indicate that your voter information matches with an individual who may not have been a United States citizen at the time of obtaining a Tennessee license or ID card,” the letter says.

It goes on to remind the recipient that illegal voting is a felony in Tennessee punishable with up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine. It requests that any person who received the letter who is a citizen provide proof, such as a US passport, birth certificate, naturalization papers or other document.

The letter offers no information about what happens if someone does not reply. It also offers no information on how their names were flagged for review. Doug Kufner, a spokesman for Hargett, did not return requests for comment.

One of multiple live bullets found on the set of “Rust” by investigators of the 2021 fatal shooting was discovered in the bandolier of actor Jensen Ackles, according to crime scene technician Marissa Poppell.

Poppell disclosed the detail while on the stand during the second day of testimony in the involuntary manslaughter trial of actor Alec Baldwin, nearly three years after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot on the New Mexico set of the Western film.

Asked about the live rounds of ammunition that were discovered on set, Poppell said investigators found some on a prop cart, in a box of ammo and also in two prop gun holsters — the one worn by Alec Baldwin and another worn by co-star Ackles.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240712114230/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/09/california-heat-wave-prison-inmate-death

The House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said he shared lawmakers’ “insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward” in a private meeting with Joe Biden yesterday.

The meeting came after more than a dozen House Democrats publicly called on the president to end his bid for re-election after his stumbling performance against Donald Trump in their first debate.

Jeffries had promised that he would talk to Biden after speaking with all of the 213 Democrats in the House of Representatives, and, in a letter to lawmakers today, he indicated that he has done so, without elaborating on Biden’s response.

Deep-pocketed Democratic donors are putting multimillion-dollar pledges on hold and saying they won’t hand over the money until Joe Biden abandons his re-election campaign, the New York Times reports.

Others are holding off on giving any more money to Future Forward, the largest Super Pac supporting the president’s campaign.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240712115055/https://illinoisanswers.org/2024/07/09/the-u-n-calls-restraint-chairs-torture-illinois-jails-use-them-every-day/

A fleet of drones patrolling New York City’s beaches for signs of sharks and struggling swimmers is drawing backlash from an aggressive group of seaside residents: local shorebirds.

Since the drones began flying in May, flocks of birds have repeatedly swarmed the devices, forcing the police department and other city agencies to adjust their flight plans. While the attacks have slowed, they have not stopped completely, fueling concern from wildlife experts about the impact on threatened species nesting along the coast.

Veronica Welsh, a wildlife coordinator at the Parks Department, said the birds were “very annoyed by the drones” from the moment they arrived on the beach.

On Sunday, July 7, the Israeli army ordered residents of three neighborhoods in eastern Gaza City to immediately evacuate toward the west, ahead of a new ground invasion. Thousands of displaced families abandoned their shelters and searched desperately for a place to stay the night in the city’s western neighborhoods. Within hours, however, Israeli forces attacked those very areas.

The evacuation order came less than two weeks after Israeli forces reinvaded the Shuja’iya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. Amid continuing displacement and ground incursions in the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, and bombing throughout the Strip — including in designated “safe zones” — there is nowhere for Palestinians to find reprieve from Israel’s onslaught.

Elon Musk's social media company X breached EU online content rules, EU tech regulators ruled on Friday in a finding that could lead to a fine and significant changes in how it operates.

The charges by the European Commission, the first issued under the Digital Services Act (DSA), follow a seven-month long investigation. The new rules require very large online platforms and search engines to do more to tackle illegal content and risks to public security.

The EU executive's preliminary findings or charges sent to X targeted the company's dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers.

It said X's verified accounts which carry a blue checkmark do not correspond to industry practice and negatively affect users' ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts they interact with.

Justice went full frontal in the Castro last week when two nudists took down a man attacking a tourist on the street.

The naked samaritans—Pete Sferra of San Jose and Lloyd Fishback of San Francisco—were letting it all hang out on a July 2 stroll through the neighborhood when they spotted a “crazy kind of pirate guy” threatening a man with a blowtorch.

A video from the scene shows an onlooker snag the blowtorch just before the attacker starts to punch the tourist. Petros Fanourgiakis, owner of the nearby Aegean Delights, said the attacker threatened to burn the tourist’s face.

MyPillow is facing possible eviction at its outlet store, warehouse and primary manufacturing plant in Shakopee just months after the Minnesota company was forced out of a different warehouse for failing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent.

An eviction notice filed in Scott County says the company failed to pay rent for the months of June and July on the 374,000-square-foot property at 2101 4th Ave. E. in Shakopee. MyPillow owes its Pennsylvania-based landlord $447,603, according to the court filing.

A hearing is set for July 23 in Scott County District Court.

In March, the company was ordered by a Scott County judge to vacate another Shakopee warehouse at 4701 Valley Blvd. S. after the property's landlord showed the company owed more than $200,000 in rent. MyPillow was sent at least four default notices over six months before it was evicted from the property. The company's office headquarters are in Chaska.

A New York federal judge has ordered Amazon to comply with a subpoena from a U.S. civil rights agency investigating claims that the online retailer discriminated against pregnant warehouse workers.

U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield in Manhattan late Thursday rejected Amazon's claims that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) subpoena was too broad and sought irrelevant information.

The EEOC is seeking data on requests that pregnant workers at five U.S. warehouses made for accommodations such as limits on heavy lifting and additional breaks, and whether Amazon granted or denied them.

The commission's probe was prompted by complaints from five women who say they faced pregnancy discrimination while working at Amazon warehouses in New Jersey, Connecticut, North Carolina, and California.

A loyal dog jumped into action to save his owner's life during a violent encounter in New Hampshire earlier this week.

An 86-year-old man is recovering at the hospital after police say his neighbor attacked him outside of his Manchester home, threatening to kill him. Family members say his life was saved by the actions of his dog.

“He was throwing patio furniture, hitting with chairs, bricks, and rocks,” Brittney Ardizzoni, the victim’s great-nice said.

Police said Donald Pierce, 55, surprised and then assaulted Ned Tarmey early Sunday morning when Tarmey let his dog out the back door of his house on Pine Avenue.

“There was man standing there and basically just said he was there to kill him,” Ardizzoni said.

Tarmey’s family said as Pierce attacked Tarmey the family dog, Kane, pounced on him, holding Pierce down until police got to the scene.

“He had no clothes on, so I’m guessing that whatever Kane did was, you know, probably not comfortable,” Ardizzoni said.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240712114450/https://nevadacurrent.com/2024/07/09/malfunctioning-swamp-coolers-air-conditioning-confirmed-at-nevada-prisons-amid-heat-wave/

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240712114248/https://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/investigations/concerns-over-conditions-inside-arizona-state-prisons-over-no-air-conditioning

Students from 13 states and Puerto Rico — including Michigan and Indiana in the Midwest — went to Shrub Oak this past school year. Families’ decisions to cross state borders for an education often come after they have struggled to find a place for their children. For journalists, this trend and its impact are not easy to follow. It means education reporters sometimes also have to go beyond their borders both to follow the flow of public money and to see how students are treated when they leave their communities.

And then we heard concerns that students were being mistreated at one of those schools: Shrub Oak International School in Mohegan Lake, New York. Black eyes and bruises. Insufficient staffing. Medical neglect. No kitchen.

At least 15 Illinois students were enrolled there this past school year using state and local taxpayer dollars at $573,200 each. No state outside of New York sends more students to Shrub Oak than Illinois.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17483630

They’re marketed as healthy, “dietitian-approved” meals and delivered directly to the homes of people seriously ill from cancer, diabetes, or heart disease: a Jimmy Dean frozen sausage breakfast sandwich, biscuits and gravy, a cheeseburger.

These are among the offerings sold by an Idaho-based company, Homestyle Direct, which is paid millions of dollars each year by taxpayer-funded state Medicaid programs to deliver what the company calls medically tailored meals. The company, which advertises delivering 7.8 million meals annually, has menus catering to customers trying to manage their cancer and diabetes, as well as “heart healthy” and “renal friendly” dishes.

However, multiple nutrition experts told STAT that many of Homestyle Direct’s offerings fall far short of what they’d consider medically tailored meals, a class of foods that have been proven to help those suffering from diet-related conditions improve their health and stay out of the hospital. Most also don’t appear to meet new voluntary accreditation standards crafted by medically-tailored meal providers.

“Homestyle Direct to me doesn’t look like medically tailored meals at all — it doesn’t even look like generally healthy meals,” said Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240712114410/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/10/republican-trump-election-voting-lawsuits/

Archived at https://ghostarchive.org/archive/GBjmn