Losing the job. Feeling the heat. Closing the books. It’s Tuesday, and here are the 5 things you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door.
1. Campaign 2016
It may or may not have played out like a scene from “The Apprentice” — Donald Trump sitting at a table, holding the fate of the person seated in front of him in his hands — but the result was the same: “You’re fired.” Trump let go of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski yesterday, in the clearest sign yet his campaign is struggling. Trump’s trailing Hillary Clinton in both the polls and the money race — heck, Ben Carson’s got more campaign cash than The Donald right now — and with just 139 days to go until the election, Trump (with a little nudge from his family) decided now was the time to deliver the whole thing a jolt.
2. Orlando mass shooting
Not much new was learned when the FBI released a transcript and summaries of the Orlando shooter’s calls during the massacre. What did happen yesterday was a big reversal. The FBI originally took out all references the shooter made to ISIS when the transcript was released; the feds didn’t want to give the terrorists any more publicity. OK, but leaving out the Islamic State references — and giving everyone from conspiracy theorists to House Speaker Paul Ryan reason to howl about the partial transcript — did exactly the opposite. So the feds put out a full transcript later in the day.
3. Guns
Nothing ever seems to get done in D.C., and yesterday was no different. Four different gun control bills went down in flames in the Senate, the latest failed attempt to regulate guns after yet another shooting massacre. But it’s no surprise: it’s an election year and the political parties are just too far apart on the issue. A fifth bill may be voted on today, but it’ll probably suffer the same fate as all the others.
4. Wildfires
Feel the heat, feel the fire. That’s what folks in the Southwest are going through right now as the region sweats through a heat wave — Burbank, California, hit a record-breaking 111 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday — and battles a swarm of wildfires. Multiple blazes are burning in New Mexico, Arizona and California, including one billowing smoke visible from Dodger Stadium, and folks were forced from their homes around San Diego by fires raging near the U.S.-Mexico border.
5. Civil rights killings
It’s one of the most notorious murder cases of the civil rights era: three men, working to register blacks to vote, ambushed and shot to death by Klan members in 1964. But the feds closed the books yesterday on the “Mississippi Burning” killings, because there’s realistically no one left to prosecute. Nine people were eventually convicted in the half century since the murders; an effort was made a few years ago to nab a few remaining suspects, but the passage of time and a lack of witnesses has scuttled that effort.
BREAKFAST BROWSE
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Happy hooligans
Irish soccer fans at Euro 2016 are out of control. They’re serenading nuns, dancing to Abba and changing flat tires. They must be stopped.
Bzzzzzzz
There’s a big buzz around “The Hive,” a 40-ton steel sculpture in London. Its lights and sound are controlled by a nearby beehive.
What a gig
A pianist plays on a platform in the middle of the Atlantic, all to bring attention to global warming and its effect on the Arctic.
Super Cindy
Remember Cindy Crawford’s famous 1992 Super Bowl ad for Pepsi? It’s back, but updated for 2016 by making Crawford an emoji, of course.
Number of the day
1,727 pounds
The amount shed by the 80 team members of Man v Fat, an English amateur soccer league dedicated to weight loss.
AND FINALLY …
‘Hey bear … out!’
Scared of bears? Not this guy, who calmly orders a Yogi wannabe out of a Dumpster in Colorado. (Click to view)