Good morning! Sorry it’s Monday.
On this date in 1979, two bombs blew up a Cubana Airways jet, killing all 78 aboard. Several of those suspected of carrying out the terror attack had ties to the CIA. Two — Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch (who later received a pardon for other crimes from George HW Bush) — lived out their remaining years in the US.
Kobani –> Along Syria’s border with Turkey, the Islamic State’s three-week siege of the Kurdish town of Kobani continues. According to Bloomberg’s Glen Carey, Selcan Hacaoglu and Benjamin Harvey, local leaders say the US and Turkey haven’t done enough to assist the outgunned Kurdish forces. AND: Eli Lake reports for The Daily Beast that in Iraq, the elite Iranian troops that have backed the country’s Shi’ite militias have been ordered not to target US forces. Lake says it’s a sign that Tehran wants to strike a deal with the West over its nuclear enrichment program.
In session –> This first Monday in October marks the beginning of a new term at the Supreme Court. At Buzzfeed, Chris Geidner offers up a preview of some of the key cases the justices will consider.
Still tense –> Yamiche Alcindor reports for USA Today that tensions remain high in Ferguson, Missouri: “The question of what might happen if there is no indictment [of officer Darren Wilson] dominates conversations at coffee shops, on street corners and at church services.” Last week, the Ferguson police department asked St. Louis County police to take over security for the town. AND: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that “protesters interrupted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s concert on Saturday night, causing a brief delay in the performance.”
“Major fraud and mismanagement” –> Jeff Bryant writes in WaPo that charter schools “are being imposed on communities – either by legislative fiat or well-engineered public policy campaigns,” and while “many charter school operators keep their practices hidden or have been found to be blatantly corrupt,” no one is “doing anything to ensure real accountability for these rapidly expanding school operations.”
“A level of ignorance we should not allow” –> The PBS Newshour’s science reporter Miles O’Brien ripped Fox News’ racially-tinged and sensational Ebola coverage on Sunday. David Edwards has the details at The Raw Story. AND: Perhaps they were watching Fox in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where The Advocate reports that a police station was evacuated and sterilized after a mentally ill man came in complaining that he felt ill. Seven firefighters were briefly quarantined in a nearby station, “though the man had never set foot on the building’s grounds.”
“How does somebody go into a Walmart and not come out alive?” –> Buzzfeed’s Mike Hayes and Alison Vingiano take a deep dive into the brief life and violent death of John Crawford, the young man gunned down by police in an Ohio Wal-Mart while holding a toy gun.
“How to lie with data” –> Slate’s Phil Plait takes on yet another myth embraced by climate change deniers: that Arctic sea ice isn’t melting.
Also works in economics –> Dean Baker eviscerates WaPo editorial page editor Fred Hiatt’s latest panic over “entitlements” and the projected budget deficit 25 years from now.
Bit cooler than a Prius –> At the Paris Motor Show, Lamborghini previewed its new 910-horsepower plugin hybrid that goes from zero to 60 mph in just three seconds and has a top speed of 200 mph.
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