Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Ending Greece's bleeding (NY Times Column)
If Greece can't live with the euro, it will be because the currency offers no respite for countries in trouble.
Paul Krugman: Europe Wins (NY Times Blog)
Tsipras and Syriza have won big in the referendum, strengthening their hand for whatever comes next. But they're not the only winners: I would argue that Europe, and the European idea, just won big - at least in the sense of dodging a bullet.
Héctor Tobar: Welcome to Hooverville, California (NY Times)
The third world exists everywhere here - in the spread of inequality.
Deepak A. Kapoor: Bring Back Prostate Screening (NY Times)
FOR years, research on prostate cancer has sought an approach to screening that is more individualized than a one-size-fits-all measurement of the level of prostate-specific antigen in a man's blood. These efforts are now paying off.
Moises Velasquez-Manoff:: The Myth of Big, Bad Gluten (NY Times)
Here's the lesson: Adaptation to a new food stuff can occur quickly - in a few millenniums in this case. So if it happened with milk, why not with wheat?
Alan Feuer: Billionaires to the Barricades (NY Times)
A few months earlier, Jeff Greene, a billionaire real estate entrepreneur, suggested on CNBC that the superrich should pay higher taxes in order to restore what he called "the inclusive economy that I grew up in."
Patrick Barkham: What Greenpeace could learn from Manfred Mann about saving the environment(Guardian)
The organisation planted an orchard in the middle of Heathrow's proposed third runway - but sold it back to landowners too soon. In the 70s however, Manfred Mann's Earth Band tried something similar - and, 40 years later, it's still as green as ever...
Nick Curtis: Hawk the Slayer is back - and he's brought his mindsword (Guardian)
They wanted to make a medieval Fistful of Dollars. They ended up with a cult hit that triggered the sword and sorcery boom. Now, Hawk the Slayer is set to return - with better fights and special effects, but still plenty of cheese.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
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Plumbing History
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Thanks, Dave!
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly overcast and cooler.
Illinois State Police
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin's spokesman said the Queen of Soul was grateful and exclaimed "Hallelujah!" after the state of Illinois helped out when her tour bus broke down on the way to Chicago and left her stranded along a highway.
Transmission problems stopped the bus around 1:20 a.m. Monday a few miles from downtown on eastbound Interstate 290. Franklin's assistants started calling car services to transport her from the side of the road, but they had no luck.
"All were closed or had no vehicles because of the late hour and the holiday weekend," Franklin spokesman Clarence Waldron said.
That's when the Illinois State Police stepped in.
Three units from ISP, along with three from the Illinois Department of Transportation, drove Franklin and her entourage to their hotel. A towing company assigned to the stretch of highway moved the stalled tour bus.
Aretha Franklin
Infighting Grows
GOP
Worried about "Republican on Republican violence," top party donors are taking action, with one firing off a letter calling for more civility and another seeking to block businessman Donald Trump from the debate stage altogether.
Foster Friess, a Wyoming-based investor and one of the party's top 20 donors in the last presidential contest, issued a letter to 16 White House prospects and the Republican National Committee late last week calling for candidates to stay on the "civility reservation."
In the dispatch, Friess cites the backing of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts. "Would you join the effort to inspire a more civil way of making their points?" Friess wrote. "If they drift off the 'civility reservation,' let's all immediately communicate that to them."
The call for calm comes as the sprawling Republican field shows signs it could tip into a bare-knuckles struggle for the nomination - a scenario that the party's elite donors see as a distressing echo of four years ago.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Monday charged that Republicans don't need Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's "lectures." Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker repeatedly dismisses Republicans in Congress as doing little. And Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul regularly jabs his Republican opponents by name.
GOP
Proposed Copper Mine
Arizona
Members of a Native American tribe in Arizona took to the roadways on Monday to protest against a proposal for a massive copper mine at a small town east of Phoenix, vowing to protect sacred lands.
A small group from the San Carlos Apache tribe began a scheduled cross-country caravan to Washington, D.C., to try to persuade the U.S. Congress to save an area known as the Oak Flat campground near Superior, Arizona.
The several dozen protesters hope to garner wide public support and get lawmakers to repeal a land exchange signed last year that paves the way for a $6 billion project by Resolution Copper Mining, a company jointly owned by Britain's Rio Tinto and Australia's BHP Billiton Ltd.
The battle lines were set in December when President Barack Obama approved the exchange of 2,400 acres (970 hectares) deemed sacred to Native Americans and precious to environmentalists.
The exchange was tucked into a defense spending bill and supported by members of Arizona's delegation including former Republican presidential contender John McCain, who called the bi-partisan bill a "game-changer" for the area.
Arizona
Hoax Letter
Ukraine
A forger sent a hoax letter to Russian media in an apparent bid to convince journalists that a senior U.S. lawmaker, Senator Richard Durbin, was trying to tell Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk how to run his government, Durbin's office said on Monday.
The hoaxer wrote to Yatsenyuk on what appeared to be U.S. Senate letterhead, claiming to be Durbin, the number two Democrat in the Senate, a leading American voice on Ukraine-related issues who traveled to Kiev in May to discuss Russian aggression.
Ben Marter, a spokesman for Durbin, said his office had told the CIA and the FBI about the letter. Marter said he first learned about it when he was contacted by Russian state-owned media asking for comment.
The forged letter was on paper that resembled U.S. Senate stationery, but with Durbin's title wrong. The Illinois lawmaker is assistant Democratic leader, but the forged letter called him "Assistant Minority Leader."
"Senator Durbin has been outspoken in his criticism of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and supportive of Ukrainian efforts to reform their economy and defend their nation. This letter is a forgery and was obviously written by somebody with a tenuous grasp of the English language," Marter said.
Ukraine
'ludes
Cosby
Bill Cosby admitted in 2005 that he secured quaaludes with the intent of giving them to young women he wanted to have sex with and that he gave the sedative to at least one woman and other people, according to documents obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
Cosby's lawyers insisted that two of the accusers knew they were taking quaaludes from the comedian, according to the unsealed documents.
Nevertheless, attorneys for some of the numerous women suing Cosby seized on the testimony as powerful corroboration of what they have been saying all along: that he drugged and raped women.
The AP had gone to court to compel the release of a deposition in a sexual-abuse case filed by former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, the first of a cascade of lawsuits against him that have severely damaged his good-guy image.
Cosby, who starred as Dr. Cliff Huxtable on "The Cosby Show" from 1984 to 1992, settled Constand's lawsuit under confidential terms in 2006. His lawyers in the Philadelphia case did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment on Monday. Constand consented to be identified but did not want to comment, her lawyer said.
Cosby
Greenhouse Emissions
Arctic
One of the largest ever studies of how climate change is remaking the face of the Arctic has found that shrubs are gradually taking over the tundra.
And David Hik, co-author of the paper in Nature Climate Change, said the increasing dominance of shrubs over grasses is likely to be the cause of its own climate feedback.
Shrub roots, which penetrate deeper into the soil than grass roots, are also likely to break up permafrost and allow water to trickle down into it.
Hik and his colleagues completed a study that looked across nine Arctic countries and used data collected over 60 years. Although scientists have known for some time that shrubs were gradually moving north, the rate at which the "shrubline" is moving in different parts of the Arctic has been a mystery.
Hik's paper suggests the changes are happening faster in northern Europe and Russia than they are in North America. They also found that soil moisture and depth are crucial factors in how fast shrubs expand their range.
Arctic
Because Freedom
Michigan
A western Michigan woman heads to court Tuesday after being arrested for failing to renew her dog's license.
Becky Rehr says she drove to the Kalamazoo County sheriff's office June 23 to prove that she's recently renewed the license for the family's 11-year-old dog, Dexter. Rehr's 14-year-old daughter waited in the car as her mother was arrested, fingerprinted and held for three hours, The Kalamazoo Gazette said.
"They frisked me and put me in this intake cell with all these inmates in orange jumpsuits," Rehr said. "I was pretty nervous."
County animal control Director Steve Lawrence said his office gave the 47-year-old Cooper Township woman numerous phone, mail and in-person notices of the need to renew the license. The last was a phone warning that a warrant would be requested unless she got a license by May 28.
Michigan
Continued Tax Exemption
Di$ney
The "happiest place on Earth" will keep a special tax exemption in Anaheim, California, for 30 more years if the City Council approves the Walt Disney Co's plan for a $1 billion-plus expansion of its theme park complex in the city.
The five-member council is expected to vote on Tuesday on the company's proposal to go ahead with its Disneyland Resort makeover in exchange for a continued waiver of any future admission tax the city might impose on entertainment venues.
The resort's current exemption was granted by the city in 1996 and is due to expire on June 30, 2016.
No entertainment gate tax has ever been levied by the city of Anaheim, but an extension of Disney's special waiver would reimburse the company for any such taxes imposed during the next three decades, municipal spokeswoman Ruth Ruiz said.
Di$ney
Weekend Box Office Revised
'Inside Out'
Three weeks after opening, Pixar's "Inside Out" has finally slayed the dinosaurs of "Jurassic World."
In final box office figures released Monday, "Inside Out" came out slightly ahead of "Jurassic World" after estimates Sunday had "Jurassic World" narrowly edging "Inside Out" for the top spot.
The acclaimed Pixar original took in $29.8 million over the July 4 weekend for Disney, enough to barely surpass the hit Universal reboot "Jurassic World," which pulled in $29.2 million on its fourth weekend.
Paramount's "Terminator Genisys," which cost $155 million to produce, fared worse than the previous four installments of the franchise. It made $27 million over the weekend and $42.5 million since it opened Wednesday.
The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Monday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Rentrak:
1. "Inside Out," Disney, $29,771,224, 4,158 locations, $7,160 average, $245,891,395, 3 weeks.
2. "Jurassic World," Universal, $29,242,025, 3,737 locations, $7,825 average, $556,542,980, 4 weeks.
3. "Terminator Genisys," Paramount, $27,018,486, 3,758 locations, $7,190 average, $42,474,183, 1 week.
4. "Magic Mike XXL," Warner Bros., $12,857,184, 3,355 locations, $3,832 average, $27,890,003, 1 week.
5. "Ted 2," Universal, $11,171,520, 3,448 locations, $3,240 average, $58,500,630, 2 weeks.
6. "Max," Warner Bros., $6,617,389, 2,870 locations, $2,306 average, $25,378,166, 2 weeks.
7. "Spy," 20th Century Fox, $5,137,677, 2,387 locations, $2,152 average, $97,536,300, 5 weeks.
8. "San Andreas," Warner Bros., $2,824,063, 1,672 locations, $1,689 average, $147,190,443, 6 weeks.
9. "Me And Earl And The Dying Girl," Fox Searchlight, $1,246,803, 870 locations, $1,433 average, $3,931,842, 4 weeks.
10. "Dope," Open Road, $1,118,117, 863 locations, $1,296 average, $14,124,389, 3 weeks.
11. "Mad Max: Fury Road," Warner Bros., $1,016,016, 561 locations, $1,811 average, $149,006,895, 8 weeks.
12. "Avengers: Age Of Ultron," Disney, $886,151, 589 locations, $1,505 average, $454,231,429, 10 weeks.
13. "Love & Mercy," Roadside Attractions, $742,048, 440 locations, $1,686 average, $10,529,863, 5 weeks.
14. "Pitch Perfect 2," Universal, $567,500, 454 locations, $1,250 average, $182,346,060, 8 weeks.
15. "Insidious Chapter 3," Focus Features, $558,121, 651 locations, $857 average, $51,232,716, 5 weeks.
16. "I'll See You In My Dreams," Bleecker Street, $468,250, 240 locations, $1,951 average, $5,836,504, 8 weeks.
17. "Faith Of Our Fathers," Pure Flix, $438,186, 344 locations, $1,274 average, $626,977, 1 week.
18. "Tomorrowland," Disney, $383,037, 297 locations, $1,290 average, $91,040,567, 7 weeks.
19. "The Overnight," The Orchard, $325,575, 307 locations, $1,061 average, $628,913, 3 weeks.
20. "Home," 20th Century Fox, $290,760, 257 locations, $1,131 average, $175,366,853, 15 weeks.
'Inside Out'
In Memory
Amanda Peterson
Amanda Peterson, best known for her role in the 1987 romantic comedy "Can't Buy Me Love," has died. She was 43.
Sgt. Mike Moran with the Greeley, Colorado, police department says Peterson was found dead at an apartment complex Sunday. She was alone, and an investigation into her death is ongoing. No other information was released.
Peterson began her film career when she was 9 in the 1982 adaptation of the play "Annie," directed by John Huston.
The Greeley native appeared in numerous movies and TV shows over the next decade. Her biggest role was playing opposite Patrick Dempsey in "Can't Buy Me Love."
She played cheerleader Cindy Mancini, whom Dempsey's character paid to pose as his girlfriend.
Peterson appeared in her last film, "Windrunner," in 1994.
Amanda Peterson
In Memory
Jerry Weintraub
One of the last of the classic Hollywood showmen, Jerry Weintraub built his show business empire on a Rolodex and chutzpah.
The Brooklyn-born son of a Bronx jeweler, Weintraub rose from the mailroom of a talent agency to become a top concert promoter before shifting into a decades-long career as a top Hollywood producer.
Along the way, Weintraub worked with the most famous of stars - Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, George Clooney, Brad Pitt - and was a close friend of former President George H.W. Bush. He relished his insider status, just as they savored the stories that eagerly poured out of him.
Weintraub, the dynamic producer and manager who pushed the career of John Denver and produced such hits movies as "Nashville," ''Karate Kid" and "Ocean's Eleven," died Monday in Santa Barbara, California. He was 77. A publicist for Weintraub said he died of cardiac arrest.
One of Weintraub's most recent successes was the 2013 Liberace drama "Behind the Candelabra." After the studios passed, he took it to HBO, where it won 11 Emmys.
Starting in the 1980s, Weintraub became known as one of the Republican Party's most loyal supporters in Hollywood. He had been close to Bush years before he became president, and in 1991, he hosted a star-studded party for the president at his Malibu home and played golf with Bush and former President Ronald Reagan.
Jerry Weintraub
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