Gun Violence Is a National Security Threat: Janet Napolitano
TX Shreds Bill That Would've Required Paper Ballots ; Femicide Is on the Rise in Mexico ; and More Picks
The New Trove of Secret Gerrymandering Files Will Be a Nightmare for the GOP (Reader Pat)
The author writes, “In July, attorneys for Common Cause and North Carolina Republicans will face off at a trial over [Thomas] Hofeller’s partisan gerrymander of the state’s legislative districts. Voting rights attorneys will now likely be armed with data from Hofeller’s own hard drives, ready to pierce the secrecy of GOP redistricting. It will not be the last time the consultant’s materials are used to tear down the gerrymanders he spent his life perfecting.”
Paper Requirement for Texas Voting Machines Dies in Legislature (Chris)
From StateScoop: “House Bill 2909 … would’ve mandated that by 2024, all voting machines in Texas use either voter-marked paper ballots or — if using a digital interface — be capable of printing a paper receipt of all recorded votes. While the bill had been approved by both the Texas House and Senate, it failed to be approved by a conference committee before the biennial legislative session expired.”
Ten Women Are Murdered in Mexico Every Day (Chris)
The author writes, “On average [in the first quarter of 2019] a woman was murdered every two hours and a half in Mexico, according to numbers released by the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System.”
Pentagon Tells White House to Stop Politicizing Military (DonkeyHotey)
The author writes, “[Patrick Shanahan, Trump’s acting defense chief] told his chief of staff on Friday to speak with the White House military office ‘and reaffirm his mandate that the department of defense will not be politicized.’”
Researchers Revisit Antiseptic Properties of Civil War–Era Natural Remedies (Mili)
From Science Daily: “During the height of the Civil War, the Confederate Surgeon General commissioned a guide to traditional plant remedies of the South, as battlefield physicians faced high rates of infections among the wounded and shortages of conventional medicines. A new [Emory University] study of three of the plants from this guide … show[s] that extracts from the plants have antimicrobial activity against one or more of a trio of dangerous species of multi-drug-resistant bacteria associated with wound infections.”
