South Carolina’s Confederate flag is coming down. Donald Trump still hates illegal immigration. And Blue Bell ice cream is making a comeback.
It’s Thursday, and here are five things to know for your new day:
CONFEDERATE FLAG DEBATE
Coming down: The South Carolina House voted early this morning to move the Confederate battle flag off statehouse grounds. The bill now heads to Gov. Nikki Haley, who has already said she will sign it. It seemed unthinkable just weeks ago that the state would ever remove the flag, but calls to do just that reached a fever pitch after a racially motivated gunman killed nine African-Americans in a Charleston church last month. Haley proclaimed it was a “new day in South Carolina, a day we can all be proud of.”
DONALD TRUMP
Not backing down: Donald Trump was, well, Donald Trump during an interview with Anderson Cooper last night. He was brash and bombastic, standing behind his inflammatory comments about illegal immigration and blowing off a newspaper report that illegal immigrants are working at a construction site for one of his hotels in Washington. Trump said he “can’t guarantee” that all of the workers he employs have legal status in the U.S. If he did discover them, he would “get rid of them immediately.” More of Cooper’s interview with The Donald airs tonight.
WILDFIRES
Alaska is burning: And so is Canada. 3.1 million acres — an area the size of Connecticut — has burned this year in Alaska, which is sweating through one of its hottest summers in memory. All that smoke is affecting the air quality throughout the state, with one National Weather Service scientist saying that the state will deal with crappy air for the rest of the year. Farther east in Canada — Saskatchewan to be precise — thousands have fled their homes as 113 active fires burn. The smoke from those fires have drifted as far south as Denver.
JOURNALISM ETHICS
Privacy violation?: New York Giants pass rusher Jason Pierre-Paul had a finger amputated yesterday. The world knows this because an ESPN reporter tweeted out an image from Pierre-Paul’s medical records. There was a great outcry on Twitter about the tweet, depicting it as a gross violation of privacy and a possible legal breach. Did the reporter, Adam Schefter, violate the law? The general consensus seems to be no, since HIPAA laws only apply to medical professionals. But was what Schefter did ethical? At least one media ethics expert thinks it wasn’t, saying posting someone’s medical records probably isn’t the best way to break news.
ICE CREAM
Some good news: Blue Bell ice cream is back (almost). The company announced yesterday it will start test production of ice cream at its plant in Alabama in the next couple of weeks. The company was forced to recall its entire line of products in April because of listeria contamination fears. Blue Bell’s plants were shut down for cleaning, which took longer than expected because listeria is tough to get rid of and can live on surfaces such as drains and pipes for years. So when will you (or more importantly, me) be able to dig into a half-gallon container of cookies ‘n’ cream ice cream? It’s unclear, but Blue Bell promised on its web site to get product back on store shelves “as quickly as possible.”
