Good morning — and a happy 88th to Queen Elizabeth! She probably starts her day with our Morning Reads, right?
Bloodshed –> Moscow and Kiev are trading blame for a shootout that left at least three dead in Eastern Ukraine in the first violence since a peace deal was brokered last week. Daniel Politi has the known knowns at Slate.
“There’s one person pretending to be the judge, and two other agencies behind the scenes…” –> Matt Apuzzo reports for the NYT that the FBI has been “covertly” investigating some of the lawyers defending Gitmo detainees.
Kochs versus Planet Earth –> Evan Halper reports for the LAT that the Koch brothers are stepping up their attacks on solar energy.
Making it work –> At The Guardian, David Dayen looks at how Los Angeles is trying to implement a novel supplement to Obamacare that could provide truly universal health care to the city’s residents.
A wretched hive –> A new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center links almost 100 recent murders to the community at the white supremacist website Stormfront. Reuters reports, via The Raw Story.
Media fight –> This week the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a lawsuit the major networks brought against Aereo in a case that National Journal’s Brendan Sasso says “could shape the future of television and even the Internet.”
Piketty’s nightmare –> Jamie Johnson reports for the NYT that the White House played host to “an elite group of 100 young philanthropists and heirs to billionaire family fortunes” in an attempt to “find common ground between the public sector and the so-called next-generation philanthropists.” The story appears in the fashion and style section.
The new normal –> At MoJo, Ben Dreyfuss argues that the public appears to have become immune to mass shootings in the 15 years since the Columbine massacre.
The “Hobby Lobby Bible curriculum” –> Some Oklahoma schools are offering it, despite the fact that critics say it straddles the line between bible education, which is legal in public schools, and proselytizing, which is not. Mary O’Hara has the story for Vice.
Modern slavery? –> That’s what striking prison inmates in Alabama say they’re fighting to end. Josh Eidelson reports for Salon.
Working the refs –> Tom Sullivan writes at the Asheville Citizen-Times that zombie myths about voter fraud are a means of preparing the ground for lawsuits over tight elections.
R.I.P. –> Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, the prize-fighter who served 19 years on murder charges that were later dismissed due to prosecutorial misconduct, died Sunday of prostate cancer at age 76. Selwyn Raab, who originally broke the story of Carter’s innocence in 1974, reports for the NYT.
Marijuana illegalization –> At Origins, Stephen Siff writes about how politics and racial grievances played into pot prohibition during the last century.
Practical news –> The BBC’s Jane O’Brien explains the best way to move a T-Rex skeleton across the United States. You might want to bookmark this one for when the need arises.
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