https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/29/operation-legend-doj-to-send-officers-to-detroit-cleveland-milwaukee/5535490002/

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department plans to send nearly 100 federal agents and officers to Detroit, Cleveland, Ohio, and Milwaukee in an expansion of Operation Legend, a federal crime initiative that began earlier this month.

The department will send 42 agents to Detroit and more than 25 each to Cleveland and Milwaukee – cities that officials said have seen rising violent crime rates. The federal officers, drawn from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies, will help local and state officials in criminal investigations, the Justice Department has said.

The announcement comes as state and local officials, drawing from the unrest in Portland, Oregon, are increasingly skeptical and apprehensive of a surge of federal law enforcement resources to their cities. Several big-city mayors have decried the aggressive use of federal forces in Portland and have expressed reservations about the deployments of agents to their cities.



Attorney General William Barr has defended the expansion of Operation Legend, saying it's targeting cities struggling with violent crime, and the deployments are different from the surge of officers in Portland, where federal agents have clashed with protesters.

"The most basic responsibility of government is to protect the safety of our citizens," Barr said in a statement. "The Department of Justice’s assets will supplement local law enforcement efforts, as we work together to take the shooters and chronic violent criminals off of our streets."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/07/27/washington-dc-july-record-heat/

The heat this month has kept coming and coming and now has tied a record for its persistence. On Monday, Washington notched its 25th day hitting at least 90 degrees, tying the record for the most such days in a month.

Tuesday, it seems destined to surpass it.

The 90-degree milestone is just one of a number of impressive heat records that have been tested or smashed in recent weeks.

The 90-degree days have mounted over the course of three heat waves this month (defined as at least three consecutive days hitting 90 or higher). This first heat wave, which began in late June, lasted 20 days, the second-longest on record. The second heat wave spanned July 17 to 23, while we began yet another Saturday.

The 25 days hitting at least 90 degrees this month matches the record mark from 2011. In addition to being the most 90-degree days in July, it also exceeds the record count in all Junes and Augusts. The number of 90-degree days during this month alone exceeds 35 percent of summers on record.

When we tack on the nine 90-degree days in June, there have been 34 such days this year, so far, about 12 more than normal.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/07/22/dc-area-forecast-extreme-heat-today-with-higher-humidity-late-day-storms-likely/

Today’s daily digit
A somewhat subjective rating of the day’s weather, on a scale of 0 to 10.

2/10: Still super hot with the humidity up again after a slight drop yesterday. Heat index could reach near 105.

Express forecast
Today: Extremely hot, humid, late-day storms likely. Highs: Mid- to upper 90s.
Tonight: Steamy with evening storms likely. Lows: Mid-70s to near 80.
Tomorrow: Very hot and humid, chance of late-day storms. Highs: Mid-90s.
Forecast in detail
The heat is here to stay. Today feels even a bit worse than yesterday with higher humidity. Late-day storm chances accompany the heat today and tomorrow with highs well into the 90s and the heat index near or past 100. We do get a slight break Friday and Saturday, with highs closer to 90, but then we’re hotter again Sunday.

Today (Wednesday): Heat similar to yesterday’s, but with higher humidity, thanks to light winds from the south. The heat is unforgiving, with partly to mostly sunny skies through much of the day. Morning temperatures rapidly rise through the 80s, to near or past 90 by lunchtime, with afternoon highs in the mid- to upper 90s. The high humidity (dew points in the low- to mid 70s) could make it feel like near 105 at times this afternoon. There’s also a good chance of strong to severe storms, arriving from west to east after 4 p.m. or so. Confidence: Medium-High

Tonight: Strong to severe storms are pretty likely during the evening, lingering the latest in our southern and eastern suburbs before diminishing after 11 p.m. or so. Skies remain partly to mostly cloudy thereafter with steamy lows in the mid-70s to near 80. Confidence: Medium-High

https://www.boredpanda.com/rare-black-panther-wildlife-photography-shaaz-jung/

Wildlife filmmaker and photographer Shaaz Jung has grown up in awe of the mighty jungle and has been fascinated by black panthers ever since the first time he saw one.

This passion became an obsession and it had become Jung’s ultimate goal to shed more light on these masters of darkness.

While chasing his dream, Jung spent the last couple of years exploring the Kabini Forest in Karnataka, India, and came back with some of the most beautiful shots of the most majestic animal we have ever seen.

More info: shaazjung.com | Instagram | Facebook (h/t mymodernmet)

https://dcist.com/story/20/07/13/graphics-designers-have-ideas-for-new-logos-for-washingtons-nfl-team/

Washington’s football team is retiring its name, a racial slur for Native Americans. The logo will go, too. The news comes during a national reckoning on racial inequality and after corporate sponsors pushed the team to modify its branding.

The question now is what the new name and logo will be. The team hasn’t given much insight into how it will make that decision, though the Washington Post reported today that the front-runner for the new name is “held up by trademark issues.”

In a statement, the team said owner Dan Synder and coach Ron Rivera “are working closely to develop a new name and design approach that will enhance the standing of our proud, tradition rich franchise and inspire our sponsors, fans and community for the next 100 years.”

Fans, graphic designers and members of the public have been proposing alternative names and logos for years. Behance, a social media platform that showcases creative design work, is full of ideas.

James Lewis, a Texan and Dallas Cowboys fan, designed a package around the Redtails, a nickname for the Black World War II aviators known as the Tuskegee Airmen. The airmen’s planes had distinctive red-painted tails.

A 13-Year-Old Will Be Tried As An Adult For Shooting And Killing His Brother While Playing Cops And Robbers

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ellievhall/13-year-old-cops-robbers-brother-shot-kill-dads-gun



A 13-year-old boy in Pennsylvania will be tried as an adult for fatally shooting his 9-year-old brother in the head, according to online court dockets.

Brayden Leroy Wright of Waynesboro was charged Wednesday with first-degree criminal homicide and second-degree aggravated assault. He was denied bail.

According to a state police arrest affidavit obtained by the Patriot-News, Brayden shot his brother as they were playing cops and robbers at approximately 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday.

The 13-year-old told arresting officer Erica Polcha that he retrieved one of the two loaded 9mm handguns that their father kept in the living room couch to use during the game. The boys' father, Mark Snyder, later told police that he kept the guns loaded and unsecured "for home protection."

Polcha said that Brayden told her he became angry when his brother "was not complying with his commands" in the game. Brayden then reportedly put the muzzle of the gun to the back of his sibling's head as he lay on the couch watching YouTube videos.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/the-floor-is-collapsing-under-trump-as-covid-19-hits-his-base/

I have long argued that conservatives’ innate empathy deficit requires them to suffer directly from societal problems and controversies before they will support basic concepts, like the value of the social safety net or the importance of medical research or the morality of same-sex marriage. We’ve seen this play out with the COVID-19 crisis, as the virus first hit urban centers and coastal regions rather than Republican strongholds.

Republican governors, with only a few exceptions, did not take the pandemic seriously enough and put too much emphasis on reopening their economies. They are now suffering the consequences, and their constituents are turning on them, and on the president. Gallup shows Trump’s approval rating sinking to 38 percent, and the explanation is based almost entirely on new people being impacted by COVID-19.

Pew Research Center polls show Trump’s approval is slipping fastest in the 500 counties where the number of cases have been more than 28 coronavirus deaths per 100,000 people.

Pew surveyed voters in late March and the same people again in late June, and found 17% of those who approved of the president in March now disapprove.

The shift came almost equally among Democrats and Republicans, men and women, and college graduates and non-graduates. But those who live in counties with a high number of virus cases were 50% more likely to say they no longer approve of Trump.

It was easy for conservative-minded people, regardless of formal party affiliation, to maintain their support for Trump so long as the pandemic seemed far away and someone else’s fault. These are the folks who stubbornly stuck with the president through everything over the last three and a half years. They created the floor in Trump’s approval ratings.

But they are beginning to abandon him now that it’s their hospitals that are filled with coronavirus patients. They can see that things have not turned out the way that Trump or their Republican governors said they would. That’s why Trump’s approval numbers have dropped, and it’s also why Republican internal polling points to a coming rout at the hands of the Democrats.