Two Dozen Weapons Taken Off NYC Streets After Gun-Trafficking Ring Is Dismantled
Reopening America’s Schools Is Way Harder Than It Should Be ; Trial of COVID-19 Drug Given Via Inhaler ‘Very Promising’ ; and More Picks
Reopening America’s Schools Is Way Harder Than It Should Be (Bethany)
From Chalkbeat: “Schools are run locally, autonomy the Trump administration has taken to new extremes by offering reopening instructions that amount to, ‘good luck.’ As a result, many of the country’s 13,000-plus school districts have been left alone to navigate everything from finding masks to deciding what safe classrooms look like — not to mention how to offer widespread and safe food distribution and personalized emotional support in the absence of physical gathering space.”
Philadelphia’s Top Prosecutor Is Prepared to Arrest Federal Agents (Dana)
The author writes, “Trump’s dare to deploy additional troops to more cities will test the mettle of reformist prosecutors like [Philadelphia District Attorney Larry] Krasner, who has aggressively pursued police reforms and taken steps to eliminate what he calls unethical and unconstitutional police practices that Trump has said he’d like to see more of. A clash between local and federal law enforcement over how to manage protesters in Philadelphia — if it comes to that — would be unprecedented.”
Trial of COVID-19 Drug Given Via Inhaler ‘Very Promising’ (Mili)
The author writes, “Trials of an experimental drug inhaled by patients have found a significant reduction in hospital patients with Covid-19 needing to be put on a ventilator or dying from the disease, according to researchers. The drug, called SNG001, is delivered via an inhaler and is based on interferon beta, a protein produced naturally in the body that plays an important role in coordinating the body’s antiviral response.”
DHS Authorizes Domestic Surveillance to Protect Statues and Monuments (Reader Pat)
From Lawfare: “You might not imagine that the U.S. intelligence community would have much stake in local protests over monuments and statues. You’d be wrong. A document provided to Lawfare on July 19 from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Intelligence & Analysis (I&A) describes personnel as ‘collecting and reporting on various activities in the context of elevated threats targeting monuments, memorials, and statues’—and it gives legal guidance concerning the ‘expanded intelligence activities necessary to mitigate the significant threat to homeland security’ posed by such activities.”
Cracking the Case of South India’s Missing Vegetables (Dana)
The author writes, “Over 10,000 years of human agriculture, farmers across the world developed hundreds of thousands of varieties of fruits, vegetables, grains, and tubers, each suited to their unique climate. These cultivars reflect the ecological conditions and cultural preferences of the people who farmed them, and shaped palates and landscapes in turn. Since the late 1800s, however, the rise of industrial agriculture has decimated local cultivars. From 1900 to 2000, farmers lost 75 percent of plant genetic diversity.”
