An Ignoble Experiment: One Last Time

2016/08/04

One Last Time

August 04, 2016

ONE LAST TIME

Making History. It may be his birthday, but yesterday, President Obama gave 214 Americans a life-changing gift by commuting their sentences—which is the most sentences commuted in one day since 1900. In total, Obama has granted 562 commutations, more than the last nine presidents combined. All of the Americans who received commutations were "incarcerated under outdated and unduly harsh sentencing laws," and many of them were convicted of nonviolent drug crimes. Yesterday's announcement is part President Obama's initiative to change the U.S.'s approach to clemency. Though these clemencies will change people's lives, they are not a comprehensive tool for broader sentencing reform. We need Congress to act to bring about lasting criminal justice reform.

WHAT'S TRENDING

Bug spray. Women need more than just that to protect against Zika transmission. With the start of the Olympics tomorrow and the first locally transmitted cases of the virus in the U.S., the z word has been in the news a lot lately. And yesterday, news broke that 41 U.S. service members—including one pregnant woman—have also contracted Zika. But most of the talk about combatting Zika has focused on environmental health concerns and mosquito control—ignoring the big mosquito in the room: women's health. More than 2 million pregnant women in the U.S. are potentially at risk of contracting the virus, which means ensuring access to reproductive and maternal health care is critical—both to fighting the Zika outbreak and curbing the effect the virus can have on women. And yes, Congress is still on recess and still hasn't passed a bill to provide funding to fight the outbreak. Meanwhile the Trump campaign called the Zika outbreak in Florida an "insignificant issue." For what (besides more DEET) should be done to combat Zika, check out this event.

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Mo' money, less problems. Turns out that raising the minimum wage and expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit does more than help struggling workers get by—it also reduces crime, which saves American communities billions of dollars. In case anyone needed even more reasons to pay people a living wage.

Trouble in paradise? Just a little more than a week after the Trump and Pence air kiss seen around the world, it appears Pence is breaking ranks with The Donald over another Republican leader: Speaker Paul D. Ryan. Trump, in an apparent tantrum after Paul Ryan appeared to criticize Trump's inappropriate comments about fallen Army Captain Humayun Khan's grieving parents, has refused to endorse Paul Ryan in his primary to retain his House seat. However, Trump's wingman Pence had other plans and endorsed the Speaker yesterday.

Speaking of tantrums. Donald Trump, the 70-year-old father of 5, threw a baby out of a campaign rally on Tuesday. And when asked about his plans for childcare solutions by a female reporter, Trump responded with "it's a big subject, darling." Clearly he can't be counted on for childcare solutions.

Baby pics. Today is President Obama's 55th birthday. Here are 55 pictures of POTUS to prove that even presidents had awkward Halloween costumes.

There's no place like home. That's what Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) is probably saying after he lost his primary race in a landslide. The strict Tea Party conservative hasn't been known to make many friends in Washington and apparently even voters in uber-conservative Kansas are frustrated with a Congress that can't seem to get anything done. It appears that voters are rejecting extremely conservative candidates in a possible backlash against Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback. Read more here.

Don't worry, Beyoncé. Political commentator Angela Rye, citing Beyoncé, tells former Trump campaign manager and current CNN commentator Corey Lewandowski what we've all been thinking this election season.