Good morning — and happy Friday!
On this date in 1927, a group of unarmed strikers were cut down by machine gun fire during a clash with company guards and Colorado Mounted Rangers at the gates of the Columbine Mine in Serene, Colorado. The Columbine Mine Massacre was one of a series of violent incidents that occurred during a 50-year stretch of labor confrontations in Colorado that would reshape the American mining industry.
You may have heard that the president gave a speech…
- Watch Obama announce his executive order providing deportation relief for up to five million undocumented immigrants, or read a transcript.
- At The Atlantic, Peter Beinart writes that Obama made a hard choice between his desire for bipartisanship and the debt to his progressive base.
- At Newsday, Clara Cortes, an undocumented worker who came to the US 15 years ago with a young child in tow, explains how the order may be a life-changer for her and her family.
- Reuters reports that Republicans are united in their fury over the move, but deeply conflicted about how best to respond. (Via The Raw Story.)
- Oklahoma and Texas are going to sue, according to National Review.
- Jackie Calmes reports for the NYT that some GOP observers worry that the order may unleash a flood of offensive rhetoric from the party’s immigration hardliners that could alienate Latinos for a generation.
- Playing up the Obama-as-dictator talking point, Canadian-born Ted Cruz took to the Senate floor to give a slightly modified version of a speech Cicero first delivered to the Roman senate in 63 BC. We’re not sure how that’ll play in Peoria, but it got the desired media attention. Phillip Bump reports for WaPo.
“In talks…” –> Officer Darren Wilson is “in talks” to resign from the Ferguson police department, according to CNN. He insists it’s not an admission of wrongdoing.
Stalemate –> Ryan Grim and Ali Watkins report for the HuffPo that negotiations for the release of the Senate’s report on torture by the CIA broke down over the White House’s push for redactions.
Two Americas –> Andy Kroll at MoJo: “Meet the Fortune 500 Companies Funding the Political Resegregation of America”
“Jail first and ask questions later” –> The FBI says that it stopped a potentially deadly American jihadist who was bent on joining ISIS and waging war against the west. At The Daily Beast, James Poulos writes that what the agency really has is a “sad mushball of evidence” against a young and confused woman who came to jihad from “the vast American underclass.”
Americans are united –> Despite our growing political and cultural polarization, a majority of Americans from all walks of life agree that “the system is stacked against” people like them, according to a new WSJ/ NBC News poll.
We loved the Huxtables! –> Rebecca Traister at TNR: “No One Wanted to Talk About Bill Cosby’s Alleged Crimes Because He Made White America Feel Good About Race.”
Toxic governance –> At Grist, Ben Adler looks at the awful environmental records of three newly elected Republican governors — Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, Maine’s Paul LePage and Florida’s Rick Scott.
Garbage in, not out –> The BBC looks at the issue of trash on the lunar landscape — 400,000 pounds of man-made detritus — as a private group seeks to crowdsource a new mission to our closest celestial neighbor.
You can get our Morning Reads delivered to your inbox every weekday! Just enter your email address below…
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
