Good morning! Today marks the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month here in the US. Why does it start in the middle of the month? Mostly because September 15th is Independence Day for everyone in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Happy Holiday!
Stat of the day: 23 percent — women’s share of the 5,500 witnesses who have testified before committees in the 113th Congress, according to an analysis by The Sunlight Foundation (via: TNR).
War on ISIS:
- The Free Syrian Army (FSA) — the “moderate” Syrian rebels who are central to Obama’s strategy to defeat the Islamic State — signed a non-aggression pact with the militant group on Friday, according to AFP. But on Saturday, the group’s leader said that the FSA wouldn’t join the US-led coalition without a guarantee of help in deposing Bashar al-Assad.
- The militants released a video on Saturday purporting to show the beheading of British aid worker David Haines; British PM David Cameron vowed that the group would see “justice.” Greg Botelho has the story for CNN.
- Ken Dilanian reports for the AP that “Islamic State militants, who once relied on wealthy Persian Gulf donors for money, have become a self-sustaining financial juggernaut, earning more than $3 million a day from oil smuggling, human trafficking, theft and extortion.” Experts say the group’s resources make it like no other terrorist organization.
- Alistair Bell reports for Reuters that the Islamic State may be recruiting women from within Minnesota’s Somali community.
- The New York Times reports that several Arab governments have agreed to participate in the air campaign against the Islamic State, but the war “would not accelerate in earnest until disparate groups of Iraqi forces, Kurds and Syrian rebels stepped up to provide the fighting forces on the ground.”
- But Ian Black reports for The Guardian that while Arab states’ cooperation is symbolically important, “fighting with the US would require greater determination than they have yet shown to tackle the jihadis who have sent shockwaves across the region.”
- At The New Yorker, Amy Davidson argues that the question of whether we are “at war” with the Islamic State is not merely a matter of semantics. And John Kerry wasn’t eager to clarify our war status over the weekend.
Voting –> On Friday, a federal appeals court refused Ohio’s request to stay an earlier order requiring the state to restore early voting days that the legislature tried to shut down. Rick Hasen has some analysis at the Election Law Blog.
“Without trees there would be no water, and without water there is no food” –> The Amazon is stricken with drought and not functioning as the giant fresh water-pump it usually is. Scientists blame a combination of deforestation and global warming, according to the Climate News Network.
“Treasure Map” –> The NSA and its British counterpart, GCHQ, “are seeking to map the entire Internet, including end-user devices,” according to documents revealed by Edward Snowden. In Der Spiegel, Andy Müller-Maguhn, Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach, Michael Sontheimer and Christian Grothoff report that as part of the effort, the spy agencies hacked into networks owned by Deutsche Telekom.
One in three –> According to the NYT, court documents reveal that the NFL “expects nearly a third of retired players to develop long-term cognitive problems.”
Dangerous anti-science –> As an outbreak of potentially fatal whooping cough threatens Los Angeles like ‘wildfire,” The Hollywood Reporter’s Gary Baum writes that in many LA schools, “affluent, educated parents are opting out” of immunizations “in shocking numbers (leaving some schools’ immunization rates on par with South Sudan).”
Righteous rant –> Salon’s Thomas Frank blasts Ezra Klein and other young Washington journos’ claim to have discovered political science — and has a lot more to say about the nature of expertise in the nation’s capitol.
“Riddled with corruption and graft” –> The US inspector general for Afghanistan said that “the country remains under assault by insurgents and is short of domestic revenue, plagued by corruption, afflicted by criminal elements involved in opium and smuggling, and struggling to execute the basic functions of government.”
Musical chairs –> Citing health problems, Toronto’s walking reality show of a mayor, Rob Ford, withdrew his bid for re-election on Friday. His brother Doug’s running instead. Mayor Ford will now run for his old city council seat, replacing his nephew Michael on the ballot. Got that? Daniel Dale has the details at The Toronto Star.
“A confusing, unteachable hodgepodge” –> Wonkette gives a series of textbooks written to comply with the Texas’ school board’s standards the treatment they richly deserve.
You can get our Morning Reads delivered to your inbox every weekday! Just enter your email address below…
