WHAT'S BREWING
JUDGE BANS FEDERAL OFFICERS FROM TARGETING MEDIA IN PORTLAND A federal judge temporarily blocked federal law enforcement officers from arresting or using physical force against journalists and legal observers in Portland, Oregon, amid ongoing protests against police brutality and flaring tensions over the deployment of agents in the city. U.S. District Judge Michael Simon said there were indications the media had been targeted by federal law enforcement sent to Portland and moved to protect those documenting the rise in tensions. “When wrongdoing is underway, officials have great incentive to blindfold the eyes of the Fourth Estate,” Simon said in his ruling. [HuffPost]
F**KING BITCH, AND THE EVERYDAY TERROR MEN FEEL ABOUT POWERFUL WOMEN Two words placed side by side with great frequency are what linguists call “a collocation.” The pairing’s existence indicates that the words pack a greater punch when used in tandem. When Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) called Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) a “f**king b**ch” on the steps of the U.S. Capitol this week, he used one such collocation. “F**king” and “b**ch” form a neatly packaged jab, giving the user the ability to spit venom without creativity or context. Regardless of context, the words indicate that a woman has taken up space the speaker would prefer she did not. [HuffPost]
BILL GATES HITS TRUMP'S CORONAVIRUS BOAST WITH A REALITY CHECK Trump on Sunday falsely claimed that the United States has “one of the lowest mortality rates in the world” and “maybe the lowest mortality rate anywhere in the world,” while holding up a chart that showed otherwise during a Fox News interview. In an interview with CBS News, Bill Gates offered up a fact check. “Not at all, not even close,” Gates said. “By almost every measure, the U.S. is one of the worst.” As PolitiFact notes, there are many ways of looking at mortality rates. The United States is not one of the lowest in any of them. [HuffPost]
THE 2020 ELECTION HAS BEEN GROUNDBREAKING FOR DISABILITY RIGHTS. NOW WHAT? For the 61 million Americans living with disabilities, that primary debate helped further legitimize disability rights as an essential issue that politicians can’t afford to ignore. Disabled people make up nearly a quarter of the adult U.S. population, and in many battleground states, have the ability to sway elections. Though political candidates have largely neglected disability issues in the past, more politicians are actively engaging with the community, particularly as disabled people continue to lead efforts within the progressive movement, including the fight to save the Affordable Care Act in 2017. [HuffPost]
POLICE VIOLENCE AGAINST BLACK DISABLED PEOPLE CANNOT BE IGNORED ANYMORE Deborah Danner was a 66-year-old Black woman with schizophrenia. In 2016, an NYPD officer shot her in her Bronx apartment while responding to her neighbor’s call that she had been behaving erratically. She did not survive. Chillingly, Danner wrote an essay four years before her death about the dangers of people with mental health conditions interacting with police that predicted her fate. “We are all aware of the all too frequent news stories about the mentally ill who come up against law enforcement instead of mental health professionals,” she wrote. “And end up dead.” [HuffPost]
GIANTS AND DODGERS PLAYERS TAKE A KNEE DURING NATIONAL ANTHEM Some San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers players and staff knelt during the national anthem before Thursday’s season opener in a show of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Players on both teams knelt before the anthem at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, holding a single length of black fabric while a video on racial injustice played. Some then remained kneeling during the anthem, including Giants manager Gabe Kepler. Other players to kneel included Dodger Mookie Betts and Giants players Pablo Sandoval and Mike Yastrzemski. [HuffPost] | 
