Good morning — and happy Friday!
Nine years ago today, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, killing over 1,800 people and causing more than $100 billion in property damage.
Stat of the day: 28,000 — the number of children and teens shot and killed in the US between 2002 and 2012. According to ABC News, that means that 13 kids died at home for every soldier killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan during that period.
Likely the first of many –> Carey Gillam reports for Reuters that six people have sued the city of Ferguson, Missouri, for $40 million for their treatment at the hands of police during the recent protests over Michael Brown’s shooting death.
Context matters –> During a press conference on Thursday, Barack Obama said that the US “doesn’t have a strategy yet” for defeating the Islamic State. Critics pounced, but Vox’s Zach Beauchamp explains that the statement is consistent with the administration’s view that the militant group can only be defeated with a concerted effort by regional actors. ALSO: CBS News and the AP report that the Islamic State “killed more than 160 troops captured in recent fighting for a string of military bases in northeastern Syria, shooting some and slashing others with knives in the past 24 hours in the latest mass killing attributed to the extremists.”
Now can we call it torture? –> Speaking of the Islamic State, the group waterboarded at least four people it held in captivity, including journalist James Foley, whom the militants executed last week. WaPo’s Adam Goldman and Julie Tate don’t describe the procedure as an “enhanced interrogation technique” in this context, instead writing that “President Obama has condemned waterboarding as torture.”
300,000 –> Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, facing an uphill battle for re-election in a blue state where his popularity has plummeted, reached an agreement with the federal government to expand Medicaid. Amy Worden reports for The Philadelphia Inquirer that the move will extend insurance coverage to 300,000 low-income Pennsylvanians.
Covert war –> At Radio Free Europe, Glenn Kates writes that Russian troops are being captured and killed in Ukraine, and it’s prompting Russians to ask whether their country is now at war. Kates writes, “The answer to the question… is one that is becoming increasingly obvious for military families. It is the details that they say are not forthcoming.”
Will justice be served? –> On Wednesday, the prosecution of four Blackwater mercenaries accused of killing 14 civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007 “reached an emotional and legal climax,” according to The Guardian’s Dan Roberts.
Frivolous — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal sued the Obama administration this week, claiming that federal education grants “coerce” states to accept Common Core education standards. Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick notes that Jindal was a big supporter of Common Core, and argues that “the suit is little more than a piece of political posturing in the run-up to the 2016 presidential race, a feint to embrace Tea Party suspicions of big federal government programs.”
Strange ideology –> We told you earlier in the week about a recent Pew study which found that very few self-identified libertarians hold consistently libertarian views. Today at AlterNet, RJ Eskow offers a possible explanation for the disconnect as he looks at six “strange libertarian ideas.”
Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree –> Ahiza Garcia at TPM: “Cliven Bundy Spawn Boycott School When Told They Can’t Bring Knives.” Bundy’s grandkids say they don’t want to be homeschooled, they just want to be able to carry their blades to class.
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