Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, JML9999 and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Special thanks to JekyllnHyde for the OND banner.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
The Guardian
Police raided an apartment in Phoenix on Monday after two unnamed gunmen were killed by a Texas traffic officer when they tried to get into a contest calling for cartoon depictions of the prophet Muhammad hosted by an anti-Islam group in a Dallas suburb.
Police officials in the suburb of Garland, Texas, refused to confirm reports of the gunmen’s identity, their religious or political affiliations, or even if the shooting, which took place on Sunday, was related to the content of the event.
Multiple news outlets, citing a senior FBI official, reported that one of the gunmen, a resident of the Phoenix apartment, was known to authorities and had been the subject of a terror investigation. The Guardian cannot confirm this, and Harn refused to confirm those reports.
The Guardian
The co-founder of the group behind the contest to award $10,000 for the best cartoon depiction of Muhammad is a New Yorker who runs a blog that campaigns to stop the “Islamification” of America.
Pamela Geller used her blog Atlas Shrugs to declare “this is war” in the hours after the shooting of two gunmen at the contest. The event had been organised by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, a group she set up with Robert Spencer in 2010.
Geller, the winner of numerous awards from far-right organisations such as the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is credited with coining the term “ground zero mega mosque” as part of highly publicised campaign against the development of a community centre, which included a mosque, a few blocks from where the twin towers once stood in New York.
Al Jazeera America
Federal agents searched an apartment in Phoenix as part of an investigation into a shooting outside of a suburban Dallas venue hosting a provocative contest for Prophet Muhammad cartoons, the FBI confirmed Monday.
A police officer shot and killed two gunmen who opened fire outside the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland on Sunday night. A security guard suffered a gunshot wound to his lower leg, but was treated at a hospital and released hours later, said Garland officer Joe Harn.
"We were able to stop those men before they were able to penetrate the area and shoot anyone else," Harn said.
Harn said the men had used assault rifles, and that one officer had fatally shot both gunmen. Harn also said investigators searched the men's car and detonated several suspicious items, but no bombs were found in the vehicle.
Reuters
Police and FBI on Monday searched the Arizona apartment of one of two gunmen shot dead on Sunday after they allegedly opened fire with assault rifles outside a Texas exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.
Police and federal agents had planned security for months ahead of the event in the Dallas suburb of Garland, which was organized by American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), a free-speech organization that is also described as a hate group, and that paid $10,000 for extra protection.
The shooters, who injured a security guard before they were shot dead by a police officer using his duty pistol, wore protective gear and carried extra ammunition in their car, Garland police spokesman Joe Harn said. No bomb was found in their vehicle.
NPR
After two gunmen opened fire at the site of a Muhammad cartoon drawing contest Sunday night in Garland, Texas, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which organized the event, is once again in the spotlight.
Here are five things you should know about the group.
1. Anti-Islam or pro-free speech? The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups, lists the American Freedom Defense Initiative as an "active anti-Muslim group."
The New-York-based AFDI says its goal is simply to "go on the offensive when legal, academic, legislative, cultural, sociological, and political actions are taken to dismantle our basic freedoms and values."
2. Pamela Geller is the group's executive director. Again, the SPLC describes her as "the anti-Muslim movement's most visible and flamboyant figurehead."
New York Times
WASHINGTON — During a training course on defending against knife attacks, a young Salt Lake City police officer asked a question: “How close can somebody get to me before I’m justified in using deadly force?”
Dennis Tueller, the instructor in that class more than three decades ago, decided to find out. In the fall of 1982, he performed a rudimentary series of tests and concluded that an armed attacker who bolted toward an officer could clear 21 feet in the time it took most officers to draw, aim and fire their weapon.
The next spring, Mr. Tueller published his findings in SWAT magazine and transformed police training in the United States. The “21-foot rule” became dogma. It has been taught in police academies around the country, accepted by courts and cited by officers to justify countless shootings, including recent episodes involving a homeless woodcarver in Seattle and a schizophrenic woman in San Francisco.
Al Jazeera America
GREENVILLE, Mich. — In free trade, economists say, there is creation and destruction, winners and losers. In that equation, Jim and Patty Hoisington count themselves among those who lost.
Theirs is the kind of cautionary tale that opponents of the the massive 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership point to as they warn against the United States' latest foray with free trade.
For decades, the Hoisingtons, who met on the factory floor after Jim asked a fellow colleague if Patty was “going with anyone,” built their lives around building appliances in this quintessential industrial town, the so-called "refrigerator capital of the world."
Reuters
Federal authorities charged New York state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son on Monday with engaging in a corruption scheme, in the latest of a string of criminal cases against politicians in the state's capital of Albany.
Skelos, a 67-year-old Republican, and his 32-year-old son, Adam, were named in a six-count criminal complaint filed in Manhattan federal court that included charges of conspiracy and extortion.
Prosecutors said Skelos pressured a real estate developer and an environmental technology company to pay his son more than $200,000 in exchange for his support on infrastructure and legislation.
The men surrendered to the FBI on Monday morning and were expected to appear in court later in the day. Their lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
NPR
The presidential hopefuls haven't spent much time so far with voters. Instead, they've committed many days to courting the millionaires and billionaires who can fuel a White House bid. And at the same time, activists on the left and right are seeking to redefine political corruption, which they believe this is.
One prime example: The political network of brothers David and Charles Koch — with pledges of nearly $900 million — seems to bedazzle prospective Republican candidates. In a recent conference call sponsored by the Koch-backed Americans For Prosperity, presidential candidate and Florida senator Marco Rubio was asked about a possible endorsement by the brothers.
NPR
United States Marines have arrived in Nepal, where a 7.8 magnitude earthquake late last month killed more than 7,000 people.
Reporting from Katmandu, NPR's Julie McCarthy says that Brig. Gen. Paul Kennedy, the commanding general of the III Marine Expeditionary Brigade stationed in Okinawa, Japan, tells her the Marines came with four Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft that should make it much easier to reach remote areas.
At this point, Kennedy said, the rescue phase of the operation is coming to an end so this mission will be mostly about providing aide.
The Guardian
Carly Fiorina formally declared herself a candidate for president on Monday, making her the first woman to seek the Republican nomination in 2016 – and perhaps Hillary Clinton’s most antagonistic foil.
She announced the move on Twitter with the simple message: “I am running for president.”
Fiorina, a former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, joins senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio in what is shaping up to be a crowded GOP field. The retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson announced his candidacy too; former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is expected to launch his campaign on Tuesday.
The Guardian
Telling a crowd in his native Detroit that citizens should “rise up and take the government back”, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson on Monday formally announced his run for US president.
The notoriously outspoken Carson, whose entrance into politics began two years ago in a highly critical speech of Barack Obama’s healthcare legislation, joins an already overflowing field for the Republican nomination as the party’s first black candidate for 2016.
Standing on stage at an ornate music hall next to his wife Candy, Carson told the audience to applause and cheers: “I’m a candidate for president of the United States.”
New York Times
Public perceptions of race relations in America have grown substantially more negative in the aftermath of the death of a young black man who was injured while in police custody in Baltimore and the subsequent unrest, far eclipsing the sentiment recorded in the wake of turmoil in Ferguson, Mo., last summer.
Americans are also increasingly likely to say that the police are more apt to use deadly force against a black person, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll finds.
The poll findings highlight the challenges for local leaders and police officials in trying to maintain order while sustaining faith in the criminal justice system in a racially polarized nation.
Reuters
President Barack Obama on Tuesday will nominate Marine General Joseph Dunford as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. officials said on Monday, in a widely expected pick likely to win swift Senate confirmation.
Dunford, commandant of the Marine Corps, would replace Army General Martin Dempsey, who is expected to step down in September as the top military officer after a tumultuous four-year period that saw most U.S. forces withdraw from Afghanistan but thousands return to Iraq.
Dunford has experience in both wars, and before becoming the top Marine general in late 2014, led U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan as they handed over greater responsibility to Afghan troops battling a still-resilient Taliban.
He earned the nickname "Fighting Joe" on the battlefields of Iraq, where he helped lead forces during the U.S. invasion in 2003. He was known as a calm and thoughtful leader who created conditions for success with careful planning and harmonious execution, according to friends and colleagues.
Reuters
A New York City plainclothes police officer who was shot in the head died on Monday, the fifth officer gunned down in as many months amid anti-law enforcement sentiment not seen since the turbulent 1960s, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said.
Officer Brian Moore, 25, was in an unmarked car pursuing Demetrius Blackwell, who was wanted on a weapons charge, when he was shot during the weekend in a residential neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, police said.
Bratton said the Queens district attorney on Tuesday would seek a first-degree murder indictment against Blackwell, 35, who was being held without bail on attempted murder, assault, weapons possession and other charges.
BBC
Convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has cried in court in a rare display of emotion as relatives urged the jury to spare his life.
Tsarnaev, who has maintained a stoic demeanour throughout the court proceedings, broke down on Monday when an aunt testified.
A jury is deciding whether the 21-year-old should be put to death for carrying out the bombing with his brother.
Three people were killed and 264 other were injured in April 2013 blast.
The aunt, Patimat Suleimanova, sobbed uncontrollably and could only answer a few basic questions about Tsarnaev.
As Judge George O'Toole Jr suggested that Ms Suleimanova step down from the witness stand to compose herself, Tsarnaev wiped away tears from his eyes with a tissue.
Los Angeles Times
Extending state-subsidized healthcare coverage to people in the country illegally could cost California as much as $740 million annually, according to a Senate fiscal analysis released Monday.
The report affixes a price tag to the proposal for the first time since Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) introduced his bill last December.
Researchers at UC Berkeley and UCLA estimate that, in California, about 1.8 million people who are in the country illegally lack healthcare coverage. Around 1.5 million of them would qualify for Medi-Cal.
With new immigration proposals, state lawmakers hope to build momentum
With new immigration proposals, state lawmakers hope to build momentum
Ed. Note: This is less than the Koch Brothers intend to spend to buy the 2016 election.
NHK World
Families of missing Japanese and those abducted by North Korea have called for help and understanding at a rally in the US.
A private group investigating suspected kidnappings by North Korea held the event outside Los Angeles on Sunday. Taking part were families of people believed to have been kidnapped by North Korean agents and those acknowledged by Japan's government as abduction victims.
The group's leader, Kazuhiro Araki, said it is necessary to step up international pressure on Pyongyang to resolve the issue by boosting public awareness not just in Japan but also in the US.
NHK World
A non-partisan group of Japanese Diet members promoting friendship with China has left for Beijing on a 3-day visit. They will meet ranking Chinese officials in a bid to help thaw strained ties.
The group left Tokyo's Haneda airport for the Chinese capital on Monday morning. They include group leader and ruling Liberal Democratic Party Vice President Masahiko Koumura and senior politicians of both the ruling and opposition parties.
They will stay in Beijing until Wednesday. The Japanese lawmakers are to meet former Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and leading scholars of a Chinese think tank specializing in the nation's diplomatic strategies.
DW
The latest intelligence service scandal to seize German attention has turned the spotlight on Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière. Fairly or unfairly, is the question the country would like answered.
As the media wheels turn around accusations that Germany's intelligence service, the BND, violated laws by helping the US spy on European politicians and companies, they draw a ring around one person in particular: Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière.
As both the Chief of the Chancellery between 2005 and 2009, and therefore responsible for the BND, and a potential successor to Angela Merkel, the accusations have sparked outrage and opposition calls for his resignation, as well as sanctions against those implicated.
Speaking on Monday, Social Democrat leader and Vice Chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, said it was "more than one of those regular, bi-annual secret service scandals," and could "trigger a serious tremor."
DW
Jean-Marie Le Pen has refused to attend a disciplinary meeting of the far-right National Front. The executive meeting was intended to possibly sanction the aging party founder for a series of anti-Semitic public remarks.
Saying he found it beneath him to appear, the founder of France's far-right National Front (FN), Jean-Marie Le Pen, refused to attend an executive board meeting Monday. The purpose of the meeting was to make a decision over whether to sanction the party's 86-year-old rabble-rouser over his anti-Semitic remarks.
Ahead of the decision, a broader meeting of the party on Monday declared that it "disapproves the comments made and reiterated by Jean-Marie Le Pen," while confirming its unwavering support of his daughter Marine, who has led the party since 2011.
Al Jazeera America
Testimony collected by Israeli NGO shows ‘ethical failure in the IDF’s rules of engagement’ during summer war.
Israel inflicted "massive and unprecedented harm" to Palestinian civilians during the 2014 Gaza war with indiscriminate fire and lax rules of engagement, a report said on Monday, citing testimony given anonymously by dozens of Israeli soldiers.
The 237-page report by the Israeli advocacy group Breaking the Silence described how the Israeli military (IDF) left Gaza devastated after it invaded the Palestinian territory last July with the stated aim of halting Hamas rocket fire.
“From the testimonies given by the officers and soldiers, a troubling picture arises of a policy of indiscriminate fire that led to the deaths of innocent civilians,” said Yuli Novak, director of Breaking the Silence. “We learn from the testimonies that there is a broad ethical failure in the IDF’s rules of engagement, and that this failure comes from the top of the chain of command, and is not merely the result of ‘rotten apples.’”
Spiegel Online
Germany's latest spying scandal has created the biggest crisis yet for the country's foreign intelligence agency. The German government appears to have been aware of widespread US spying, possibly including economic espionage, against European targets and yet it did nothing to stop it.
July 14, 2013 was an overcast day. The German chancellor was reclining in a red armchair across from two television hosts with the country's primary public broadcaster. With Berlin's Spree River flowing behind her, Angela Merkel gave her traditional summer television interview. The discussion focused in part on the unbridled drive of America's NSA intelligence service to collect as much information as possible. Edward Snowden's initial revelations had been published just one month earlier, but by the time of the interview, the chancellor had already dispatched her interior minister to Washington. Having taken action to confront the issue, Merkel was in high spirits.
Reuters
Britain's Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge have named their newborn daughter Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, a choice that honors the baby's late grandmother Princess Diana and her great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth.
The news, announced in a statement on Monday from the couple's Kensington Palace residence, was eagerly awaited by royal watchers and bookmakers who had been placing bets and speculating on the subject since the baby's birth on Saturday.
"The baby will be known as Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Cambridge," Kensington Palace tweeted.
DW
The United Nations condemned the Saudi-led coalition's airstrikes on Yemen's Sanaa airport on Monday, saying it hindered the travel of humanitarian aid workers.
The UN is preparing an airlift of workers from Djibouti to the Yemeni capital, but "no flights can take off or land while the runways are being repaired," said Johannes Van Der Kaauw, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen.
"I strongly urge the coalition to stop targeting Sanaa international airport and to preserve this important lifeline - and all other airports and seaports - so that humanitarians can reach all those affected by the armed conflict in Yemen," the statement continued.
While the bombers continued to pummel the airport in the capital, a further 150 airstrikes targeted the one in the southern city of Aden, as well as to the west in Hodeida. The coalition led by Saudi Arabia backs troops loyal to exiled President Abed Rabbo Monsour Hadi, who are locked in fierce fighting with the rebel Houthis.
THE ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY
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Al Jazeera America
In "The Other Silicon Valley," Al Jazeera takes a look at how California's tech boom affects the working class. This is part two of a seven-part series.
SAN FRANCISCO — Some legal battles resolve big questions; others merely dramatize them.
The Ellen Pao trial fell into the latter camp, putting a harsh spotlight on the venture capital industry in Silicon Valley. While Pao lost her gender discrimination lawsuit against the VC firm Kleiner Perkins last month, scores of women have said Pao’s allegations resonate with their own experiences of gender discrimination.
“Ellen Pao is a Rosa Parks,” Shirley Hines, a longtime public affairs professional in the industry, told Al Jazeera shortly after the trial’s end. “She is the one who basically said, ‘No, enough.’ To her credit, she’s very brave. I admire her for just taking it on, and saying ‘no.’”
Reuters
General Electric Co on Monday announced collaborations with Qualcomm Inc and Apple Inc as it uses digital technology and the growing appetite for data to reinvigorate its 130-year-old lighting business.
With chipmaker Qualcomm, GE is offering retailers a way to connect with shoppers' smartphones through technology embedded in LED light bulbs, the company said. One use of the "indoor positioning" technology could be to transmit customized coupons to shoppers depending on their store location.
GE also said it will produce an LED bulb compatible with Apple's yet-to-launch connected-device platform HomeKit. The bulb can change colors to align with the natural rhythms of the body.
The tie-ups underscore GE's plans to dive into the emerging and increasingly competitive market for connected lighting that integrates with smart devices.
NPR
Parents worry about a child getting a concussion in the heat of competition, but they also need to be thinking about what happens during practices, a study finds.
High school and college football players are more likely to suffer a concussion during practices than in a game, according a study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. Here are the numbers:
In youth games, 54 percent of concussions happened during games.
In high school and college, just 42 percent of concussions happened during games, with 58 percent during practices.
Overall, college students had the highest rate of concussions during games, with 3.74 per 1,000 games compared to 2.01 for high schoolers and 2.38 for youths. High schoolers had the highest rates during practices.
NPR
If you ran down the list of ailments that most commonly kill Americans, chances are you wouldn't think to name sepsis. But this condition, sometimes called blood poisoning, is in fact one of the most common causes of death in the hospital, killing more people than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.
Jennifer Rodgers learned about sepsis the way many people do — through personal experience.
In the summer of 2012, Rodgers and her extended family took their annual trip to the Jersey Shore. But that trip came to an abrupt halt after her 62-year-old father, Bob Skierski, developed a serious medical condition: a blocked artery in his abdomen.
C/NET
Is Tidal, the music-streaming service headed by hip-hop mogul Jay Z, the end -- or is it the beginning? After a glitzy launch in March, Tidal has a horde of detractors baying for its blood. It's already been deemed a failure, despite offering the possibility of exclusive albums from high-profile artists like Beyoncé.
As a newcomer, it's difficult to expect Tidal to overcome the mighty incumbent Spotify in the first few months of its life. Sure, it hasn't motivated millions of Spotify subscribers to suddenly jump ship and start paying for subscriptions, but this is not Tidal's fault. I believe it's a problem with our perception of how music should be consumed: why pay for it when we can get it for free?
C/NET
Protesters on the street are demanding justice. Police are on TV pleading for peace. Taser is rolling in the dough.
The Scottsdale, Ariz., company that makes stun guns and body cameras for law enforcement officers has long been ignored by Wall Street for its still-debated controversial solutions to otherwise potentially deadly clashes between police and civilians.
Taser's stock began surging last summer as major protests ignited in Missouri and New York over alleged police brutality and the deaths of two unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers. As lawmakers from across the country continue searching for answers, Wall Street has found Taser.
The company's shares have risen more than 160 percent since the August shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. -- better than some of the largest tech companies in Silicon Valley, including Apple, whose iPhones propelled its shares more than 36 percent over the same time, and video streaming service Netflix, whose shares have risen nearly 25 percent. Shares of a Taser competitor, Digital Ally, have risen nearly fourfold.
BBC
The Silicon Valley entrepreneur and SurveyMonkey Chief Executive Dave Goldberg died of severe head trauma, according to local officials.
Mr Goldberg , husband of Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, was found lying next to a gym treadmill on Friday at a Four Seasons resort in Mexico.
Mexican authorities have no plans for a criminal investigation
The officials said Goldberg still had vital signs when he was discovered, but later died at a hospital.