Today’s comic by Mark Fiore is Trump ends the War on Christmas!
• What’s coming up on Sunday Kos …
- Doug Jones’ Alabama upset pushes predictions of 2018 Democratic wave election, by Sher Watts Spooner
- ‘Because it is right, because it is wise’: The war on poverty needs to restart in Alabama, by Susan Grigsby
- Recovery in the U.S. Virgin Islands: A look at the people and the national park, by Denise Oliver Velez
- Seven questions for Robert Barr, the first pulpit rabbi to run for Congress, by David Akadjian
- Amputations, burns, and deaths shows that manufacturing isn’t enough for good jobs—we need unions, by Laura Clawson
- Will GOP respect voters, seat Doug Jones before vote on Trump tax cut? (Hint: See Garland, Merrick), by Ian Reifowitz
• California guidelines advising on cell phone use are now official:
This week, California officially issued groundbreaking guidelines advising cell phone users to keep phones away from their bodies and limit use when reception is weak. State officials caution that studies link radiation from long-term cell phone use to an increased risk of brain cancer, lower sperm counts and other health problems, and note that children's developing brains could be at greater risk.
The state Department of Public Health was forced to release the guidelines in March after a lawsuit by University of California, Berkeley, researcher Dr. Joel Moskowitz. At the time, the department said the guidelines were only a draft, but they now are the state's official position. [...]
In studies by the federal National Toxicology Program, male rats exposed to cell phone radiation had a greater chance of developing a brain cancer called malignant glioma, as well as developing a tumor found on the heart. Based on human epidemiological studies demonstrating increased risk of brain tumors, the World Health Organization has declared cell phone radiation a possible carcinogen. Meanwhile, the telecom industry continues to fight efforts to inform the public.
• On this date in 1890, the Hunkpapa Lakota chief Tatanka Iyotanka (Sitting Bull) was slain. Two weeks later, at least 250 Lakota were massacred at Wounded Knee.
• Pfffffft.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said last month she would vote for GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore despite having “no reason” to disbelieve women who accused him of misconduct ranging from unwanted attention to pursuing relationships with teenagers to harassment and assault.
On Thursday, she declined to say who she cast a ballot for.
MIDDAY TWEET
• Man who plowed his car into anti-white nationalist counter-protesters in Charlottesville is charged with first-degree murder:
Prosecutors announced at the start of a preliminary hearing for James Alex Fields that they were seeking to upgrade the second-degree murder charge he previously faced in the Aug. 12 collision in Charlottesville that left 32-year-old Heather Heyer dead and dozens injured. The judge agreed to that and ruled there is probable cause for all charges against Fields to proceed.
Fields’ case will now be presented to a grand jury for an indictment.
• Mercury is polluting the Arctic. Here’s how it gets there.
• Kepler telescope finds a solar system with eight planets:
Scientists on Nasa’s Kepler mission have spotted an eighth planet around a distant star, making it the first alien solar system known to host as many planets as our own.
The newfound world orbits a star named Kepler 90 which is larger and hotter than the sun and lies 2,500 light years from Earth in the constellation of Draco.
Known as Kepler 90i, the freshly-discovered world is smallest of the eight now known to circle the star, and while it is probably rocky, it is a third larger than Earth and searingly hot at more than 420C.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: The Internet of Things is watching you. Even if you’re Canadian. Cambridge Analytica under the lights. It’s science: Trump is a horrific liar. Eric Posman riffs on “permission structures,” post-AL-SEN. Still trying to figure out how Yemen happened.
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