Today's Top Stories:
Hours after massacre, Trump-backed GOP candidate for governor tells Illinois to "move on" and "celebrate" Independence Day
Republican Darren Bailey spoke hours after the Highland Park mass shooting and told Illinoisians to "move on" and celebrate "the most amazing country."
VIDEO OF THE DAY: Liz Cheney finally asked about a criminal referral for Trump
The disgraced ex-president's day in court is coming...if Merrick Garland's Justice Dept. can muster the courage to do the right thing.
Take Action: Demand the Justice Department indict Trump's election steal lawyer John Eastman!
Supreme Court takes up the SINGLE MOST DANGEROUS case yet
No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen: OMG.
4th of July rooftop shooter in custody after killing six, injuring dozens in Highland Park, Illinois, mass shooting
A 22-year-old gunman — now in custody — fired several hundred rounds at a 4th of July parade, killing six and wounding dozens in Highland Park, Illinois, in just the latest ultraviolent mass shooting in the United States.
Take Action: Tell Congress to pass paid family leave and affordable child care!
Akron horror: Policing experts say bodycam footage raises more questions in Jayland Walker killing
As Akron police released body-camera footage of the fatal shooting of Black motorist Jayland Walker showing multiple police officers discharging a hail of bullets, policing experts say the video produces more questions than answers early on.
Take Action: Tell Big Tech companies to keep abortion data away from the cops!
"I’m terrified I might be here forever": Brittney Griner pleads for help in letter to Biden from Russian prison
The WNBA star has been detained in Russia for over four months after security at a Moscow-area airport allegedly found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her carry-on bag as she tried to enter the country.
Drug distributors win key federal opioid trial in hard-hit West Virginia county
A federal judge in West Virginia sided with three major US drug distributors on Monday, ruling that the drug companies can't be held responsible for the addiction epidemic in Cabell County after flooding the area with highly addictive opioids.
excerpt:
A federal judge in West Virginia sided with three major U.S. drug distributors on Monday, ruling that the drug companies can't be held responsible for the addiction epidemic in Cabell County after flooding the are with opioids. U.S. District Judge David Faber issued his 184-page ruling nearly a year after lawyers for Cabell County and the drug companies — AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson — concluded a three-month bench trial in Faber's court.
The three drug companies distributed 81 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to Cabell County over an eight-year period ending in 2014, a quantity that works out to 94 pills for each adult and child every year. Lawyers for the county argued that the drug distributors acted unreasonably, recklessly, and without regard for public health and safety, ignoring red flags that their "tsunami" of pills were being funneled to the black market as the area wrestled with a growing opioid-fueled addiction crisis.
Lawyers for the drug companies countered that they were only fulfilling orders from licensed pharmacies based on prescriptions written by doctors. Judge Faber agreed, writing that while "the opioid crisis has taken a considerable toll on the citizens of Cabell County and the city of Huntington," cases such as this one "must be decided not based on sympathy, but on the facts and the law," and the plaintiffs did not prove the companies violated public nuisance laws or tie the companies' conduct to the harm in the communities.
The use of public nuisance laws in opioid cases has had mixed results across the country, but this was the first one involving opioid distributors to end up at federal trial, The Associated Press reports. "The result could have huge effects on similar lawsuits." The plaintiffs said they are "deeply disappointed" with the ruling and may file an appeal. Drug overdose deaths hit a new nationwide high in 2021, and Cabell County reported significantly higher numbers of emergency responses to suspected overdoses compared with previous years.
Take Action: Demand Congress reform the extremist Supreme Court!
The fight for abortion rights isn't over yet — not by a long shot!
John Fetterman for Senate: John Fetterman has vowed to kill the filibuster and codify Roe into law — but we need to send him to the Senate to do it. Can you chip in today to help him win one of the most flippable races in the country?
NRA posts appallingly insensitive July 4th greeting day of mass shooting
“The only reason you’re celebrating Independence Day is because citizens were armed,” the NRA tweeted the same day an "armed citizen" senselessly murdered six and wounded dozens with a high-powered assault rifle at a 4th of July parade in Illinois.
Rep. Lauren Boebert's terrible take on Denmark shooting slammed as "deadly" stupid
The QAnon blowhard congresswoman seized on the recent mall shooting in Copenhagen as evidence that strict gun control laws don’t work. However, she failed to point out that it was Denmark’s first mass shooting in seven years.
Fox News facing major financial damage in dogged suit over election lies
A massive $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit by a voting machine company over Fox News election lies got a whole lot more serious when a judge ruled the action can proceed in a scathing ruling against Rupert Murdoch and his son.
NATO poised to sign accession protocols for Sweden, Finland
Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine is having profound consequences on the future of Russia, the expansion of NATO to more neighboring nations chief among them.
It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world
Hope...
Today’s Action: Tell Congress to expand and balance the Supreme Court!
One of the worst possible outcomes from our unbalanced Supreme Court took shape last month, ripping the right to choose away from people across the country. The fraying thread of reproductive healthcare has been fully cut by a stacked court majority, hellbent on disheveling the separation of church and state. Not so fun facts: five of the six conservative justices currently sitting on the Supreme Court were a) appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote when they first took office and b) confirmed by some of the slimmest Senate margins in US history. And that’s arguably not even the worst part.
In 2016, Republicans stonewalled then-President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee for 293 days, refusing to hold hearings, and ultimately gifting the open seat to Trump in early 2017. Four years later, in the waning days of the 2020 election, Republicans jammed through a deeply unpopular Supreme Court justice in a historically short period of time. They succeeded by ignoring their own voters' opinions, their own precedent, and their own committee rules — to the detriment of all other legislative needs, including pandemic relief. A court that should be a 5-4 left-leaning majority is now one completely unrepresentative of America.
Call (202-224-3121) or write your members of Congress and demand they support the expansion of the Supreme Court!
Changing the number of justices has precedent, would allow for more accurate representation, and is more necessary than ever. The far-right court will not stop with reproductive rights. Part of Justice Alito’s ridiculous argument against protecting the right to abortion is that the right to privacy is not explicitly stated in the Constitution. This myopic, originalist argument would clear the way for multiple other precedents to be unraveled — same-sex intimacy, same-sex marriage, access to contraceptive care, and more.
It doesn’t stop at the judicial level. Conservatives across the country, emboldened by a radically imbalanced court, are systematically disenfranchising millions of voters and criminalizing abortion seekers. Expanding the court means protecting the voices of marginalized communities across the country.
Call (202-224-3121) or write your members of Congress and demand they restore balance and representation to the Supreme Court by expanding its numbers!
PS — Please don't forget to sign the petition to impeach Clarence Thomas before he executes a judicial coup, and be sure to follow OD Action on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
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