Today’s comic by Ruben Bolling is Young Brett Kavanaugh: The Supreme Court years:
• In Texas, disaster funds in Hurricane Harvey have gone disproportionately to white, rich residents of small towns: Poorer neighboring towns with larger populations of people of color are getting far less disaster funds. Southeastern Texas is still afflicted by the impacts of Hurricane Harvey that struck more than a year ago, killing 107 people. More than 10 percent of the population has yet to return home after evacuating. Taylor Landing, population 228, zero African Americans, and zero people living in poverty, got $1.3 million in federal disaster funds for 22 hurricane-affected residents. That’s about $59,000 per person. Then there is Port Arthur 15 miles to the east. The city’s population of 54,000 is about one-third black, the poverty rate is 29 percent, and the hurricane that dropped 26 inches of rain in one day affected almost everyone. Total federal disaster funds: $4.1 million distributed to about 50,000 people, $84 per person. This skew is a product of the method of distribution, which is done based on place rather than people.
• Chippewa appeal to Supreme Court in decision that suppresses the Indian vote:
Native voters have filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court after losing a ruling affecting their rights in North Dakota.
The plaintiffs, who are citizens of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, challenged a state law that requires voters to present identification at the polls with their current "residential" street address. They said this was discriminatory because reservation residents often rely on a "mailing" address, such as a post office box.
A divided panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed and upheld the state law by a 2-1 vote on September 24. But with time running out to seek for a rehearing and take other steps to assert their rights before the November 8 election, the plaintiffs are asking higher powers to intervene.
xBy the way, 36 hours ago we learned that the president engaged in a years-long conspiracy to commit tax fraud on a massive scale.In case you've already forgotten.
— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman1) October 4, 2018• The annual list of MacArthur Foundation “genius” grants has been released: The grants, which have been awarded since 1981, come from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in recognition of exceptional “originality, insight and potential.” They come with a no-strings-attached award of $625,000, distributed over five years. Twenty-five people—artists, composers, activists, writers, scientists, lawyers, and a journalist—received a grant this year. One of them is the Rev. William J. Barber II, a civil rights activist currently leading the Poor Peoples Campaign.
• Minnesota police chief tells residents not to worry about drunk birds. They’ll sober up, he says. In Gilbert, a town of 2,000 in northeastern Minnesota, residents called police to say that birds were flying into windows and cars and “acting confused.” The problem was that an early frost had caused the local berries to ferment earlier than usual. Birds ate them and got drunk. While this happens to some extent every year, there is a lot more of it this autumn. A police news release explaining the situation ended with a suggestion that residents call if they see "Angry Birds laughing and giggling uncontrollably and appearing to be happy" or "Tweety acting as if 10 feet tall and getting into confrontations with cats."
• Businesses are pushing for greener buildings in spite of Donald Trump’s anti-environmental rhetoric.
• Coastal flooding becoming the new norm:
From 2005 to 2015, the median annual frequency of flooding days more than doubled along the stretch of coast from Florida to North Carolina, according to an analysis by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The coast between Virginia and Maine saw a median increase of 75 percent during the same period. (The trend was more limited on the West Coast, in part because of the region’s coastal topography, ocean currents, and the uneven distribution of sea level rise around the world.)
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: The “FBI report" is out, so of course, it's Kavanaugh Day all over again. Greg Dworkin & Armando round up the politics, procedure & ramifications, while, Gop Senators see in it exactly what they wanted to, and do with it exactly what you thought they would.
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