The News Not Noise Letter: News That Doesn’t Suck (and Some That Does)
Tucker Carlson's making waves and Trump wants a new litmus test. Plus: some glittering inspiration, bad dad jokes, and news for a hard day's night.
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It is Friday and that means it’s time for some news that doesn’t suck. That said, there’s a lot going on. We’re starting this newsletter with some end-of-week headlines and ending with a bit of humor.
Here are the headlines:
DOJ Report on Minneapolis PD: Over three years after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, the Justice Department released a scathing report on the Minneapolis Police Department finding that MPD “uses unreasonable force, infringes on First Amendment rights, and discriminates based on race and disability.” Attorney General Merrick Garland said the conditions detailed in the report “made what happened to George Floyd possible.” You can find the full 89-page report here. Garland also ordered a consent decree requiring the MPD to be monitored by the DOJ to drive changes in the department’s practices.
Trump Updates: Trump might want the classified documents trial to move slowly, but so far, the Trump-appointed judge overseeing the case is not on the same page. Judge Aileen Cannon ordered defense lawyers to start the process of obtaining security clearance to review and discuss the documents in question. And in other Trump legal news, one of Trump’s lawyers who resigned from the classified documents case announced today he is resigning from another Trump lawsuit, this one against CNN. Here’s a timeline of his lawyers’ resignations so far via Forbes. And an emerging new dividing line in the GOP primary field: which candidates pledge to pardon Trump if elected.
Fox News Drama: After Fox News ran a chyron referring to President Biden as a “wannabe dictator,” the producer responsible for the chyron, a former managing editor for Tucker Carlson Tonight, has reportedly been fired. Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson used his Twitter show to denounce “the women who run the network” for “panick[ing]” and suggested that those complaining about the chyron want Biden to “ban all criticism of himself because that’s what non-dictators do.” Fox News told Carlson to cease and desist his Twitter show because, though they fired him, Carlson’s contract with Fox runs through early 2025. I know it’s exhausting, but these dynamics inform the GOP primary, so it’s worth your awareness.
Wildfire Smoke: As Canada’s wildfires continue to rage, smoke is pouring through the US Midwest, Northeast, and Mid-Atlantic. Air quality will continue to be less than stellar this weekend.
Tree of Life Shooter Found Guilty: The man who killed 11 and wounded 6 in the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting was found guilty on all charges, including hate crime charges. The Tree of Life shooting was the deadliest attack on Jews in US history. The jurors in this trial must now decide whether to sentence him to the death penalty or to life imprisonment without parole.
RIP Daniel Ellsberg: The military analyst turned whistleblower who leaked the so-called Pentagon Papers, died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 92. He leaked 7,000 pages of government documents which revealed US deceit in the Vietnam War, led to revelations about corruption in the Nixon White House, and drove a momentous First Amendment Supreme Court decision. You can find the New York Times obituary here.
Here’s some news that doesn’t suck:
Recycling and Repairing: After a burning truck caused a section of I-95 in Pennsylvania to collapse, officials found a new, green way to repair the highway. Repair crews will use 2,000 tons of foamed glass aggregate — a product made from recycled bottles and jars that looks like pebbles but at a tiny fraction of the weight — to fill the gap in the interstate before paving over it so they can reopen three lanes of traffic ASAP. Although foamed glass aggregate is extraordinarily lightweight, it’s also strong enough to withstand the weight of heavy traffic. Using this material will protect the pipes beneath the collapsed section of highway while also speeding the repair of this crucial supply chain artery. It’s far more green than using all new concrete and asphalt.
Monday is Juneteenth: On Monday, June 19th, the nation will celebrate its newest federal holiday, Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 when officials arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas to enforce the emancipation of enslaved people — two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and two months after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Over 250,000 people remained enslaved in Texas until northern troops arrived to enforce the executive order. Black communities throughout the US have celebrated Juneteenth for decades, but it was first officially recognized as a national holiday when President Biden signed an executive order in 2021. Read more about the historical legacy of Juneteenth from the National Museum of African American History and Culture here.
Sophisticated Humor: This weekend is Father’s Day. That’s a great excuse to consider the following: why are bad jokes more funny when we call them Dad jokes? And if you had to choose among these, which is your winning selection:
How many narcissists does it take to screw in a light bulb? One. The narcissist holds the light bulb while the rest of the world revolves around him.
I read that by law you must turn on your headlights when it’s raining in Sweden, but how am I supposed to know when it’s raining in Sweden?
I was addicted to the hokey pokey…but I turned myself around.
Why do you never see elephants hiding in trees? Because they’re so good at it.
You can read more dad jokes here, here, and here.
Giving Back Stats: This is the good news part of the week and we wanted to share data that shows – definitively – we do good things. Our friends at USAFacts gathered research from the Census Bureau and AmeriCorps. It shows that volunteers in the US gave more than 4.1 billion hours of formal volunteering service in 2021, with an estimated economic value of $122.9 billion. And that’s just the formal volunteering. Find out more stats about American generosity here. USAFacts is a non-partisan, not-for-profit civic organization dedicated to making government data accessible. They are a News Not Noise content partner.
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