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Blue cities aim to pass bills to protect those who receive and provide abortions: ‘The fight starts locally’. Plus, the myth of Marilyn Monroe

Until a hero like Marcus Rashford forces people to confront the reality of hungry children, misinformation and complacency about the lives of the poorest reignThis week, a member of the Tory-voting audience in the BBC leadership debate said the following: “I’m really happy the government have basically contributed towards universal credit and people on benefits, but I’m a single parent, I work full-time and I travel and I’m struggling.” It’s true that all but the richest people are struggling with soaring inflation. But the question implied something else: that those on universal credit are managing, that the state looks after them, while those who earn their living have to struggle.The facts, according to the Resolution Foundation, are these: “The basic level of benefits is now just £77 per week – only 13% of average pay and its lowest level on record.” Inflation, meanwhile, has hit the poorest people hardest because those with least spend the highest proportion of their income on energy and food and these prices have rocketed. And people who are low-earners earn too little to pay much or any income tax, so Liz Truss’s vaunted cuts barely touch them. Here’s the truly staggering tax cut fact that she hasn’t been challenged on. Of Truss’s colossal £30bn cut, a bare 15% will go to the bottom half of all earners. The top half gain 85% from this windfall, while the top 5% get 28% of it.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

I look forward to our nightly literary escapades. In a day-to-day in which so many things are a mystery, it’s comforting to immerse myself in a world in which problems have solutionsI’ve been living in an active crime scene for the last two weeks. So you can imagine my relief when the investigator finally cracked the case.“The ice pop must have come from the camp freezer, and not the counselor’s lunchbox,” the hardboiled PI pronounced, brandishing a piece of construction paper with a complex series of diagrams on it, one of which was labeled “salami”. “At first I thought he could have kept it cold with an ice pack, or a cold water bottle, or even cold grapes! But putting it all together, and retracing his steps, that is obviously the only solution.”Sophie Brickman is a contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Times and other publications, and the author of Baby, Unplugged: One Mother’s Search for Balance, Reason, and Sanity in the Digital Age Continue reading...

A shorter work-week would reduce carbon emissions, make life easier for parents and people with illnesses or disabilities, and generally make people happierAlongside being constantly exhausted, in pain and out of breath, one of the hardest things about having long Covid is finding self-worth outside the world of work. I’m one of nearly 2 million people in the UK and 20 million in the US now facing this challenge. It’s one that other disabled people know well: our culture glorifies work, often at the expense of health. Remember all those dreams of change we entertained at the start of the pandemic? Now I’m wondering: could Covid-19’s long tail usher in a deeper shift away from our work-obsessed culture?The time is right for one. Before the pandemic, we had already been working too long and too hard. British workers, for example, put in two and a half weeks more work per year than the average European, and half of our workplace absences are caused by stress, anxiety or depression. Meanwhile in the US, workers spend an extra four hours a week at work, with three-quarters of workers experiencing significant workplace stress.Greg Frey writes about democracy, social movements and resistance in the anthropocene Continue reading...

From Texas volunteers reviewing 2020 primary ballots to objections against absentee drop boxes in Kansas, undermining confidence in elections is metastasizingHello, and Happy Friday,Today I wanted to highlight four really good stories I’ve read over the last week that show how the movement to undermine confidence in election results is metastasizing.Amy Weirich, the Memphis prosecutor who brought charges against Pamela Moses, is in a tough re-election bid. Election day is Tuesday.Local election officials in a Michigan county that was a hotbed of conspiracy theories hosted a public demonstration and test of its voting equipment. No one showed up to watch.Some Democrats are concerned that the party is supporting election deniers in GOP primaries. Continue reading...

Kris Mayes, a former Republican, says protecting democracy, the heating planet and abortion rights are urgent prioritiesThe future of American democracy could be determined by a handful of attorneys general, who will also play a crucial role in shielding women and doctors from draconian abortion bans, according to the Democratic candidate for that office in Arizona.Kris Mayes, 51, who switched parties in 2019 due to the expansion of Trumpism in the Republican party, is urging voters to take the attorney general and other down-ballot races like secretary of state seriously in the November midterms, or else risk losing US democracy altogether. Continue reading...

South Dakota Republican says monument is ‘special just the way it is’, while speculation grows she is trying to broaden her national appealDonald Trump’s rough summer continues. Hammered by the January 6 committee, his influence ebbing and possible prosecution looming, now the former US president must face the death of a long cherished dream.No, Trump’s face will not be carved into Mount Rushmore. Continue reading...

Blue cities aim to pass bills to protect those who receive and provide abortions: ‘The fight starts locally’Across Texas, Democratic-held cities are galvanizing to mitigate the effects of the Republican-run state’s near-total abortion ban after the US supreme court voted in June to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark case that gave Americans a constitutional right to terminate their pregnancies.Texas’s capital, Austin, voted last week to “decriminalize” abortion in the city by passing the Guarding the Right to Abortion Care for Everyone (Grace) Act. Although abortion is still illegal in the state, the passing of the Grace Act will redirect the city’s budget to focus on going after more important crimes such as sexual assault, theft and burglary. Continue reading...

Aipac says Democrat Andy Levin, a self-described Zionist, is insufficiently pro-Israel – alarming some because much of the money comes from wealthy Trump donorsIt is in Andy Levin’s nature to pick fights.The forthright Detroit congressman and former trade union leader has built a political career on confronting big oil, the gun industry and anti-abortion campaigners. Continue reading...

The freeway removal movement is being boosted by $1bn in federal funding. Will it be enough to reverse decades of damage?Amy Stelly can see the on-ramp for the Claiborne Expressway from the second-floor porch of her childhood home, a block and a half away from the highway. She lives in Treme, a historic Black neighborhood in New Orleans. For decades, the highway has devastated her neighborhood. Stelly is an urban designer and co-founder of the Claiborne Avenue Alliance, which is advocating for its removal.“Claiborne has not been maintained at all,” she says of the highway on the brink of disrepair. “Not only do we have the dire economics, we have the actual physical atrocity. It’s dirty. It’s loud. It’s polluted.” Continue reading...

The breakaway league will be staged at the former president’s course in New Jersey this weekend. Even his most ardent fans don’t appear entrancedThe controversy that has come to define the Saudi-financed breakaway tour at the heart of professional golf’s civil war has redoubled this week as the LIV Golf Invitational Series stages its third event at the Old Course at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, the bucolic New Jersey township 45 miles west of New York City.The upstart circuit bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has enticed some of the sport’s biggest names, including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, with exorbitant $25m purses, nine-figure signing-on fees and an assemblage of perks that would be considered too garish for a reality TV show. It has also drawn fierce backlash from critics who accuse the Saudi government of using sports to launder the kingdom’s dismal human rights record, alleged ties to the September 11 attacks, severe repression of women’s and LGBTQ+ rights and the 2018 murder of the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Continue reading...

Addison Gardner, 12, has testified in West Virginia's legislature in opposition to the state's new abortion law, which would ban abortions even in cases of rape or incest. The middle schooler asked lawmakers: 'If a man decides that I’m an object, and does unspeakable, tragic things to me, am I, a child, supposed to carry and birth another child?'She then urged the legislature to reconsider, saying: 'Some here say they are pro-life. What about my life? Does my life not matter to you?'Rita Ray, an 80-year -old woman who had an abortion in 1959, 14 years before terminations were deemed a constitutional right, looked on as Gardner spoke Continue reading...

In new book, obtained by Guardian, 2016 campaign manager convicted of tax fraud says he was ‘very careful’ to hide advicePaul Manafort indirectly advised Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign while in home confinement as part of a seven-year sentence for offenses including tax fraud – advice he kept secret as he hoped for a presidential pardon.“I didn’t want anything to get in the way of the president’s re-election or, importantly, a potential pardon,” Trump’s 2016 campaign manager writes in his new book. Continue reading...

James had been sentenced to death in the 1994 shooting of his ex-girlfriendAlabama has executed a man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend nearly three decades ago, despite a request from the victim’s family to spare his life.Joe Nathan James Jr received a lethal injection on Thursday night at a south Alabama prison after the US supreme court on Thursday denied his request for a stay. Continue reading...

Rescue crews search for stranded people amid flooding, mudslides and power outages across the mountainous regionTorrential rains unleashed devastating floods in Appalachia on Thursday, as fast-rising water killed at least eight people in Kentucky and sent people scurrying to rooftops to be rescued.Water gushed from hillsides and flooded out of streambeds, inundating homes, businesses and roads throughout eastern Kentucky. Parts of western Virginia and southern West Virginia also saw extensive flooding. Rescue crews used helicopters and boats to pick up people trapped by floodwaters. Continue reading...

The case marks a significant victory for a nationwide movement of reformist prosecutors in the USNew Orleans’s district attorney, Jason Williams, has been acquitted of all charges in a controversial tax fraud trial, clearing a longstanding cloud over his political future and allowing the progressive prosecutor to remain in office in a city that has long been one of America’s leading incarcerators.Williams, along with his private practice law partner Nicole Burdett, faced a 10-count federal indictment accusing the pair of conspiring to evade taxes over a five-year period by allegedly inflating business expenses and failing to file appropriate documentation for cash payments received by the law firm. Continue reading...

The supermarket chain is the latest major company where workers, who passed the vote 45-31, have unionizedEmployees at a Trader Joe’s supermarket in Massachusetts on Thursday became the latest workers at a large company to approve a labor union.The store in Hadley, about 80miles (129km) west of Boston, is the first Trader Joe’s with an employees union, although workers at two other company locations have initiated unionization efforts. Continue reading...

Rapper, real name Javorius Scott, 24, fatally shot on Wednesday in Bogalusa, north of New Orleans, police sayThe Louisiana rapper JayDaYoungan has been shot dead in his hometown of Bogalusa, north of New Orleans, police said.The musician, whose real name is Javorius Scott, was killed Wednesday just after 6pm. He was 24. Continue reading...

Proposal backed by centrist senator Joe Manchin also addresses healthcare, tax rises for high earners and cutting federal debtJoe Biden has hailed a congressional deal that represents the biggest single climate investment in US history – and hands him a badly needed political victory.In a stunning reversal, Senate Democrats on Wednesday announced an expansive $739bn package that had eluded them for months addressing healthcare and the climate crisis, raising taxes on high earners and corporations and reducing federal debt. Continue reading...

Guttmacher study shows reduction in clinics offering care in 11 states that have implemented bans since supreme court rulingThe number of clinics offering abortion care in 11 US states that have implemented total or six-week bans in the month since the supreme court overturned abortion rights has dropped from 71 to 43, a new study shows.In the study released on Thursday, the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit that studies sexual and reproductive health, said that among the the 11 states, as of 24 July seven no longer had a single clinic providing abortion care. Continue reading...

Maryland family says multiple costumed characters ignored their Black daughter and other Black guestsA Maryland family has sued a Sesame Street theme park for $25m alleging that multiple costumed characters ignored their five-year-old Black daughter and other Black guests.The federal lawsuit was filed in Pennsylvania’s eastern district court and seeks class action status. It argues that Quinton Burns, his daughter and other Black guests were ignored during an 18 June meet-and-greet event at the amusement park by four costumed employees dressed as various Sesame Street characters. Continue reading...

Jon Stewart, who has lobbied for bipartisan bill to expand care for veterans, condemns ‘stab-vets-in-the-back senators’The comedian Jon Stewart ripped into Republican senators on Wednesday, after they abruptly halted a bipartisan bill that would expand healthcare access for military veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.The former host of the Daily Show, who now hosts The Problem with Jon Stewart on Apple TV+, has lobbied for the bill. Continue reading...

News Nation/Decision Desk HQ poll shows majority believe duo should not run again – but they don’t know who they’d preferMajorities of American voters do not want Joe Biden or Donald Trump to run in the next presidential election in 2024, according to a new poll.More than 60% of voters and 30% of Democrats in the NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll said Biden should not run again. Among all voters, 57% said Trump should not run again. Among Republicans, that total was 26%. Continue reading...

Climate change is fueling longer heatwaves in the region, where weeklong heat spells are historically rare according to climate expertsHeatwave duration records could be broken in the US Pacific north-west this week, as temperatures near triple digits are forecast to extend into the weekend.“For the next several days through Saturday we’re going to be within a few degrees of 100F every day,” said Colby Neuman, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service (NWS) in Portland, Oregon. Continue reading...

Joe Biden urges Congress to pass measure that took ‘extraordinary effort’ to achieve. Plus, US centrists to launch new third political party

The US constitution used to be considered a model for democracies around the world – but its antiquated institutions and absence of rights have guaranteed its declining influence“Every constitution,” Thomas Jefferson wrote in a 1789 letter to James Madison, “naturally expires at the end of 19 years.” Two centuries after its expiration date, citizens of the United States are suffering the consequences of a constitution drafted by 55 men who owned hundreds of human slaves, thousands of acres in landed estates, and millions of dollars in inherited wealth. Fundamental rights denied, foundational institutions paralyzed and existential crises ignored: these are side-effects of a legal framework that has not been meaningfully amended in over a half-century.The US is not alone. Scores of constitutions around the world were written by dictators, colonizers and military occupiers to enshrine institutions that are undemocratic by design and unfit to cope with crises like a rapidly heating planet. In some cases, like the UK, the constitution was never actually written at all, setting the political system on a precarious foundation of norms and conventions that leaders like Boris Johnson have proven all too eager to discard. When a cross-party committee convened in 2013 to review the UK’s constitutional chaos, its recommendation was nothing short of radical: that the government should consider “preparations for a UK-wide constitutional convention”.David Adler is a political economist and general coordinator of the Progressive International Continue reading...

In many cases, the encounters started as traffic stops or there were no allegations of violence or serious crimesNearly one third of people killed by US police since 2015 were running away, driving off or attempting to flee when the officer fatally shot or used lethal force against them, data reveals.In the past seven years, police in America have killed more than 2,500 people who were fleeing, and those numbers have slightly increased in recent years, amounting to an average of roughly one killing a day of someone running or trying to escape, according to Mapping Police Violence, a research group that tracks lethal force cases. Continue reading...

The basketball star is detained in Russia, far from her teammates and loved ones. But there are signs she has held on to her fighting spiritFor five months, Brittney Griner has been all but silenced. Before officials stopped her at Sheremetyevo International Airport on 17 February for allegedly bringing cannabis oil into Russia, the WNBA star’s impact went beyond high-scoring games, Olympic gold medals and fast-break dunks. Outside of sports, Griner has often used her voice to galvanize and help the masses.When American cities were filled with protests in 2020 after the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, Griner used her fame to help bring attention to systemic issues that are often faced by marginalized communities. In 2019, she used her platform to raise tens of thousands of dollars for the victims of Hurricane Harvey, which devastated her hometown of Houston, Texas. And she would often partner with the Phoenix Rescue Mission to provide shoes for the homeless in Arizona’s capital, where she is an eight-time WNBA All-Star with the Mercury. Continue reading...

With the near-infinite amount of suffering out there, it seems self-indulgent to feel so sad, but I can still feel the warmth and weight of each birdA fox took my hens last month. “All my pretty chickens … at one fell swoop,” as Macduff says in Macbeth, though, of course, Macduff is talking about his actual children, not bantams. They were very pretty indeed, though, my girls.Weeks later, I’m still finding feathers. I cleared the bulk of the colourful ones the next day with a leaden heart: five piles marking the demise of each of my five beloveds. The tiny speckled gang-leader girls, Eris and Faustina, glossy goth-black Josephine, broody, petrol-iridescent Stella and stoic beige-bearded Daphne, the flock sentry, usually alert to any threat. Was she caught off guard on a balmy early evening, distracted by a worm, or a scrap with a magpie? I try to stop speculating, imagining, blaming myself for going out, for not keeping them safe. But their downy, impossibly soft under-feathers have lingered: I find them snagged on bushes, tumbling across the straw-dry grass, gathering in small drifts on the bristles of the doormat. They keep ambushing me. Continue reading...

Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser’s new book recounts turmoil caused by Fox News decision to call state for Biden in 2020When Fox News called Arizona for Joe Biden on election night 2020, infuriating Donald Trump and fueling Republican election subversion attempts which continue to this day, Rupert Murdoch told Jared Kushner “the numbers are ironclad – it’s not even close”.Details of the Fox News owner’s conversation with Trump’s son-in-law and chief adviser about the call which most observers say confirmed Trump’s defeat are contained in Kushner’s memoir, Breaking History, which is due out next month. Continue reading...

For 30 years, I tried to ‘fight’ it. In the end, I found relief in embracing my identity as a person with a disabilityIn my second year at university, I came down with the Epstein-Barr virus, and I expected to fully recover. Sure, I knew it would take longer than recovery from a bog-standard cold, but no more than a few weeks.At first, my optimism seemed warranted. It was the Easter holidays and my parents took good care of me. The fever only lasted a few days and I was out of bed within a week or two. I made it back to university for the summer term; the only difference was that my parents carried my belongings from the car to my room. Continue reading...

Following the supreme court’s abortion decision, urologists say more men are taking charge of their reproductive health, to permanent endsShawn never really wanted children. A 32-year-old software engineer and amateur weightlifter living in central Florida, he had long contemplated a vasectomy. When he met his fiancee and learned that she also held no grand designs on reproduction, the matter was all but settled. He was, by his estimate, “90% certain”.The supreme court’s recent overturning of Roe v Wade, and the nationwide convulsions over abortion access, was the final push he and his partner needed. When he read that Justice Clarence Thomas mentioned, in his opinion concurring with the controversial ruling, that the court should reconsider access to contraception, Shawn knew he had to move fast. Continue reading...

The move is intended to curb inflation though previous increases this year have had little effect so farWith the US economy teetering on the edge of a recession and inflation running at a four-decade high, the Federal Reserve announced another three-quarter of a percentage point increase in its benchmark interest rates on Wednesday, the second such increase in just over a month.In a statement, the Fed said it was “highly attentive to inflation risks”. Continue reading...

Consulate accepts a dozen small artworks amid worldwide movement to repatriate Indigenous itemsSmall, ancient sculptures that have been gathering dust in an Albuquerque storage box are returning home to Mexico, where they are intertwined with the identity of Indigenous communities.The Albuquerque Museum Foundation celebrated the repatriation of a dozen sculptures in a ceremony on Wednesday. The local consulate of Mexico accepted Olmec greenstone sculptures, a figure from the city of Zacatecas, bowls that were buried with tombs and other clay figurines that date back thousands of years. Continue reading...

John Eastman spoke at a rally before the Capitol attack and claimed Mike Pence could halt certification of Biden’s election winThe US justice department said on Wednesday it had obtained a warrant to search the phone of Donald Trump’s election attorney, John Eastman, who spoke at a rally before the January 6 assault on the US Capitol.Federal agents seized Eastman’s phone in June based on a warrant authorizing them to take the device. They needed a second warrant to search the phone’s contents. Continue reading...

Dozens of former Democrats and Republicans to form new party in bid to appeal to voters unhappy with America’s two-party systemDozens of former Republican and Democratic officials will announce a new national political third party to appeal to millions of voters they say are dismayed with what they see as America’s dysfunctional two-party system.The new party, called Forward, will initially be co-chaired by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang and Christine Todd Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey. Continue reading...

State attorney general notifies Dr Caitlin Bernard and claims ‘she used a 10-year-old girl to push her political ideology’The Indiana state attorney general has launched an investigation into the doctor who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim.According to Kathleen DeLaney, a lawyer acting for the doctor, Caitlin Bernard, a notice from the Indiana attorney general, Todd Rokita, regarding his investigation arrived on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Executives from major American gun companies told Congress that guns were not to blame for the recent mass shootings in the US, including at a Fourth of July parade in Illinois and a school in Texas, and the racist massacre of Black shoppers at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. The CEOs said guns were an 'inanimate object' and it was a 'local problem'

Robert Crimo, 21, accused of killing seven and wounding dozens in Fourth of July attack in Chicago suburb, indicted by grand juryThe man accused of opening fire on an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago, killing seven, has been indicted by a grand jury on 117 felony charges.The indictment included 21 first-degree murder counts, 48 counts of attempted murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery, representing the seven people killed and dozens wounded in the attack on the Fourth of July event in Highland Park, Illinois. Continue reading...

CEOs face aggressive questioning from lawmakers at hearing about their companies’ responsibility for recent attacksExecutives from large American gun companies appeared before a House committee on Wednesday, facing aggressive questioning from lawmakers about their organizations’ responsibility for recent devastating mass shootings in the US.The hearing marked the first time in nearly two decades that the CEOs of leading gun manufacturers testified before Congress and comes after a wave of deadly attacks including at a Fourth of July parade in Illinois, a school in Texas and the racist massacre of Black shoppers at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Continue reading...

Desiree and Jeff Jolly say they got $180 fine for parking in a red zone that didn’t exist when they parked the car days earlierParking in San Francisco is notoriously difficult and costly – the city has some of the most expensive parking citations in the US. But according to one couple, the city gave them a ticket for parking in a red zone after workers painted the curb red while the car was parked.Desiree and Jeff Jolly told ABC7 they received a $180 fine for parking in a red zone that didn’t exist when they parked the car days earlier. They pointed out a spot workers missed to avoid painting their vehicle. Continue reading...

Trident Mortgage Company, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, agrees to second-largest settlement over ‘redlining’A mortgage lender owned by the billionaire Warren Buffett’s holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, engaged in lending discrimination against homebuyers of color, or redlining, in communities around Philadelphia, the US Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.An agreement with Trident Mortgage Company resulted in the second-largest settlement over redlining in DoJ history. Continue reading...

Olivia Julianna credits Republican for bringing attention to her platform after he ‘decided to body shame me publicly’A Texas teenager has raised more than $200,000 for abortion rights funds, after being bullied online by the Florida Republican congressman Matt Gaetz.Olivia Julianna, 19, said that by Wednesday she had raised $214,000 for abortion funds, a sum she credited to Gaetz bringing attention to her platform via his insults. Continue reading...

J Alexander Kueng handed three years and Tou Thao three and half for role in Floyd’s 2020 death, which sparked worldwide protestsThe last two former Minneapolis police officers convicted of violating George Floyd’s civil rights during his May 2020 killing were sentenced on Wednesday in federal court to three- and three-and-a-half-year penalties a judge said reflected their level of culpability in a case that sparked worldwide protests as part of a reckoning over racial injustice.J Alexander Kueng was sentenced to three years and Tou Thao received three-and-a-half. They were convicted in February of two counts of violating Floyd’s civil rights. The jury found they deprived the 46-year-old Black man of medical care and failed to stop Derek Chauvin as he knelt on Floyd’s neck for nine and a half minutes. Continue reading...

Democrats are intervening in Republican primaries, prompting fears the strategy could backfire or promote Trump alliesSome Democrats in Washington are publicly fuming over the party’s decision to boost a Republican congressional candidate in Michigan who has questioned the 2020 election result.The outcry escalated after Axios reported that Democrats plan to spend $425,000 to air an ad ahead of Michigan’s primary, highlighting the conservative bona fides of John Gibbs, who is challenging the incumbent Republican, Peter Meijer. Continue reading...

Neither Liz Truss nor Rishi Sunak is a Tory in the sense that he understood it - they show no interest in preserving the unionI realised David Trimble and I would get on fine when we met for the first time. Over lunch just off Whitehall in the early 1990s, I asked Trimble, in those days the embodiment of a hardline backbench Ulster Unionist MP, if he ever spent time in the Irish Republic. With a grin, he replied that he had just recently been in Dublin for a performance of Leoš Janáček’s Kát’a Kabanová, a work he greatly admired. We spent the rest of the lunch talking about opera as well as politics. It was clear that this was a unionist politician who was worth knowing.And so it proved over many years, in conversations of every kind. Trimble, who died this week, was smart, approachable, sometimes sharp, but above all an immensely practical politician. He came from a relatively liberal unionist family background in County Down, but he always knew he had to carry his ardently loyalist base in his Upper Bann constituency along any new path that he advocated or that events required. He was one of those politicians who think around corners, not in straight lines, the best sort.Martin Kettle is a Guardian associate editor and columnist Continue reading...