Just One Thing: Parkland HS deputy who stayed outside school during massacre acquitted on all charges
Scot Peterson verdict: Deputy not guilty in Parkland shooting trial (usatoday.com)
Here's Peterson's attorney talking to a reporter after the verdicts:
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One More Thing: Important rulings from the Supreme Court
Lorie Smith of 303 Creative wins!
21-476 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis (06/30/2023) (supremecourt.gov)
From the majority opinion, by Gorsuch: "The First Amendment prohibits Colorado from forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees."
He also addresses an issue I've been talking about for years, the abuse of "public accommodation" laws: "As in those cases, when Colorado’s public accommodations law and the Constitution collide, there can be no question which must prevail."
From the Alliance Defending Freedom (Lorie's attorneys): https://adflegal.org/article/us-supreme-court-protects-free-speech-landmark-ruling?sourcecode=11028216_r200
A lot of info about the case: 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis - SCOTUSblog
As if the situation isn't crazy enough: Key document may be fake in LGBTQ+ rights case before US supreme court | US supreme court | The Guardian
And SCOTUS kills Biden's reprehensible student loan transfer scheme:
CNBC: Supreme Court strikes down Biden's student loan forgiveness plan
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/22-506_nmip.pdf
Biden v. Nebraska - SCOTUSblog
The other student loan case, Dept of Education vs Brown was dismissed for lack of standing by the plaintiffs. It didn't matter.
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Today's Guests
Quite a lot of interesting guests today!
Jesse Thomas is executive producer and engineer for the Colorado Rockies Radio Network. He joins us for just a few minutes to describe the insane hailstorm he witnessed at Coors Field yesterday.
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Dan Mathews is Director of Projects for Save the Chimps and was for many years a senior VP at PETA. We'll discuss the best story of the week, the heartwarming moment at which Vanilla the chimp, who spent 28 years in lab cages, saw the sky for the first time.
Save the Chimps | Chimpanzee Sanctuary
Vanilla the chimp, caged entire life, sees sky for first time in heartwarming video (nypost.com)
Watch the expression on her face as alpha-male Dwight welcomes her to the big wide world...
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Monty Moran was president and COO, then co-CEO of Chipotle. His new book is "No One Is a Stranger: Finding Love, Connection, and a Brilliant Life"
Get to Know Monty: Former CEO of Chipotle | Monty Moran (montyfmoran.com)
And here he's prior book: Love Is Free. Guac Is Extra.: How Vulnerability, Empowerment, and Curiosity Built an Unstoppable Team
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Andrew Yang got a lot of attention when he ran for the Democratic Party nomination for president in 2020. Clearly an "out of the box" thinker, Yang got praise even from folks who didn't necessarily agree with him on policy for being willing to engage in thoughtful debate. An example of where I don't agree on policy is his support of Universal Basic Income.
Andrew is now co-chair of The Forward Party which states on their website: "Forward is the new (and necessary) party that actually works for the people, not the extremists. We believe everyday American citizens should be able to decide what is best for them, not a bunch of out-of-touch politicos in D.C. We are the only new party that is delivering a strategy designed to empower local leaders to unlock policy solutions that work in their communities."
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Other Stuff
What should the punishment be? Tourist who carved names into Colosseum identified (msn.com)
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Worth a read: Clarence Thomas, Ketanji Brown Jackson air sharp disagreement on race in America - POLITICO
Also, in her dissent, Justice Jackson cites a study that claims that black newborns are much less likely to die if they're taken care of by a black doctor. This Twitter thread thoroughly debunks that nonsensical claim: (18) (((tedfrank))) on Twitter: "Saw this in @SCOTUSblog. Wait, what? Affirmative action doctors *double* the chances of black infant survival?!? https://t.co/mMKB58vJey" / Twitter
In short, the answer (per Ted Frank) is that the babies most likely to die are in the NICU and there are very few black doctors there. Also, "The difference is 99.96% vs 99.91%. And the difference isn’t even statistically significant."
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Wow: Colorado Supreme Court: Murder suspects can't be held without bail (denverpost.com)
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Yes! People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers - WSJ
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A thought: I've said this a few times on the air but want to write it down, in brief: Colleges and universities have legitimate desires to have diverse student bodies. Including having a number (that I'm not in position to judge) of "black and brown" students. There's not enough talk about a fundamental issue: especially for black kids, why do so many (not all) need to have academic standards lowered in order to be able to gain admission to top colleges? I think it's two things: Nearly 70% of black kids are born to single moms. And Democrats, who run cities with large black populations, are so completely dominated by teachers unions that they oppose any sort of reform that could help black kids learn enough, and well enough, to not need an artificial boost to get into college. Let's deal with the fundamental problems rather than try to overcome them with racist policy.
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Here are a few Denver/Boulder-area fireworks events for July 3/4: Seven places to watch 4th of July fireworks and drone shows around Denver - Axios Denver
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Cutting it by 2/3 is a good start. Now cut it by another 2/3: Xcel Energy's proposed rate increase cut by more than half | 9news.com
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I didn't realize this was controversial: Where should ketchup be stored? Heinz settles heated debate (nypost.com)
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Today's Videos
OK, this is the funniest thing I've seen all week, or maybe all month
Well, of course that's how it goes with daughters
Is this a real thing?