Good morning — and happy Newspaper Carrier Day for those fond of obsolete holidays!
On this date in 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus deployed the National Guard to prevent black students from attending Little Rock’s Central High School. The standoff continued for several weeks until President Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and ordered in the 101st Airborne Division (without its African-American soldiers) to protect the students and enforce school integration.
Stat of the day: $152 billion — the amount the 23 states that have refused to expand Medicaid will end up paying over the next eight years to expand the program in other states, according to an analysis by McClatchy’s Washington Bureau.
Clean –> A representative for St. Louis County testified in a hearing that Michael Brown’s sealed juvenile record contains no felony charges. A judge is considering whether to lift the seal. Jeremy Koehler reports for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. AND: Attorney General Eric Holder is preparing to “launch a broad civil rights investigation” of the Ferguson Police Department and other police departments in the county, report Sari Horwitz, Carol Leonnig and Kimberly Kindy at WaPo. At least 34 police departments around the country are currently under investigation by the Justice Department for alleged civil rights violations.
Chaos continues –> As Russia and Ukraine continue to hammer out a ceasefire agreement (with conflicting reports on how that’s going), Obama said in a speech to Estonians that the Ukraine conflict — “a brazen assault on the territorial integrity of Ukraine” — was a test for NATO. AND: In a joint opinion piece for the London Times, Times, British PM David Cameron and Obama argue that NATO must also now confront ISIS. “We must use all the resources at our disposal – military, economic and political,” the two leaders write. ALSO: At the Plum Line, Paul Waldman writes that the coming conflict with ISIS will likely be lengthy, and no matter how Obama chooses to handle it, he is in a lose-lose situation politically. MEANWHILE: Al Qaeda announced today that it is establishing a new branch on the Indian subcontinent.
Rebranding –> A cooperative project between US telecom companies to make smartphone payments mainstream, once called Isis, will have a new name going forward — for obvious reasons. Mike Isaac reports for the NYT’s Bits blog.
Setback –> A federal judge upheld Louisiana’s same-sex marriage ban. Sahil Kapur reports for TPM that the ruling “was the first defeat in a federal court for same-sex marriage since the Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that the U.S. government cannot deny equal benefits to married gay couples.”
Not a drop to drink –> Tom Philpott reports for MoJo that researchers have concluded that the odds of a decade-long drought in the Southwest are “at least 80 percent,” and “the chances of a ‘megadrought,’ one lasting 35 or more years, stands at somewhere between 20 percent and 50 percent, depending on how severe climate change turns out to be.” AND: From MoJo’s James West: “China Just Got Serious About Global Warming. Now We’re Really Out of Excuses.”
There’s no class war –> At Vox, Nick Carnes argues — with charts! — that the class war has already been won by those at the top of the heap, as “one class of Americans is almost entirely locked out of our political institutions.”
Not working –> Conservative attempts to exploit Obamacare as a wedge issue don’t seem to be working, a study from George Washington University finds. “Of the 70 percent who said the country was off on the wrong track, just 5 percent offered a reason having to do with Obamacare. In other words, only about 3.5 percent of all Americans think Obamacare is the bane of American existence right now,” writes WaPo’s Aaron Blake.
Captive audience –> HuffPo’s Dave Jamieson gives us an inside look at what it’s like to sit through a mandatory anti-union meeting at work.
Unpopularity contest –> At the NYT, Nate Cohn argues that the midterm elections could hinge on whether Obama or Congressional Republicans are less popular when November rolls around.
Not-so-secure communities –> At Slate, Ben Mathis-Lilley looks at new research which shows that deporting immigrants arrested by local police hasn’t resulted in lower crime rates.
Medical mystery solved –> A Great Dane was rushed to DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital in Portland, Oregon, with severe stomach problems. During a two-hour-long surgery, vets extracted 43 1/2 socks from the dog. “That 1/2 sock remains a mystery,” writes The Oregonian’s Tom Hallman Jr. We’re happy to report that, now sans socks, the Dane is feeling better. And his story helped the clinic win a $500 cash prize from Veterinary Practice News, which it will use to help low-income families pay for pet health care.
You can get our Morning Reads delivered to your inbox every weekday! Just enter your email address below…
