Random News: August 5, 2023

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

---

Good morning. It’s August 5, 2023, and it’s a Saturday. I’m having coffee in my blue bathrobe, but not for long. No, I’m not doing naked news; it’s too damn warm for this attire so I’m putting on some shorts and a t-shirt so we can see what’s happening…

• Last night, special counsel Jack Smith asked a judge to quickly set limits on what Donald Trump’s team can do with the evidence that will be shared with them in the election subversion case against the former president.
• Why? Because that orange shitstain swore in federal court that he would not make any effort to influence or retaliate against witnesses or make any other actions that might obstruct the administration of justice in his case. Asked by a magistrate judge on Thursday to verify that he would comply with that instruction, Trump acknowledged it and said that he would.
• Then, one day later, Trump posted on his social media, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”
• Last night’s new filling does not make any request to bar Trump or his attorneys from discussing the D.C. case publicly or with the media.
• However, prosecutors in that case have indicated they’re prepared to share a “substantial“ volume of evidence with Trump as soon as U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan approves an order governing the handling of evidence.
• Chutkan is slated to bring attorneys for both sides to court on August 28 to discuss setting a trial date. It’s unclear if Trump’s post will prompt her to seek more immediate efforts to implement a protective order or to impose a gag order, which can be issued under D.C. federal court rules.
• Trump shows time and time again that he has no regard for the rule of law and believes the rules that apply to all other Americans do not apply to him.
• News flash: No one is above the law. Trump and his cult are going to find that out in the coming months and it’s going to be shocking to them.
• Let’s move on for now…
• Also late last night, a Texas judge issued an order temporarily barring the state from enforcing its ban on abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy in cases where a patient’s life or health could be endangered by an emergent medical condition.
• District Judge Jessica Mangrum ruled the law is ambiguous enough to make it difficult for women to obtain abortions, even when facing serious medical complications.
• The order comes after the judge heard several days of testimony last month from women who say Texas law forced them to continue with high-risk pregnancies.
• What a sick state. Their law forces women to literally die rather than get medical treatment.
• Let’s do some more legal stuff from yesterday.
• A Mississippi federal appeals court yesterday ruled that the state cannot strip the right to vote from thousands of convicts after they complete their sentences, calling that a cruel and unusual punishment that disproportionately affected Black people.
• I agree.
• This knocks down a provision of Mississippi's state constitution that mandates lifetime disenfranchisement for people convicted of a set of crimes including murder, rape and theft.
• And in yet more legal news that happened yesterday…
• The Supreme Court on Friday refused to block a lower court ruling that would revoke the authority of Oklahoma officials to enforce certain laws against Native Americans.
• You may recall a major ruling three years ago, when the Supreme Court reclassified most of eastern Oklahoma, including Tulsa, as an American Indian reservation.
• The latest case began with Justin Hooper, a member of the Choctaw Nation who lives in Tulsa. He was ticketed for speeding in the summer of 2018 on land within Tulsa’s borders on the Muscogee (Creek) Nation reservation.
• Hooper paid the $150 traffic ticket. But after the Supreme Court’s ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma two years later, Hooper went to court and argued that the city does not have jurisdiction to prosecute Indians for violations of city law that occur within the reservation boundaries.
• There were no noted dissents from the Supreme Court’s order Friday.
• But in response to the court’s order yesterday, the city of Tulsa said “As indicated by the Justices, the City will continue to seek clarification of these important legal issues with the District Court and, in the meantime, continue to enforce City ordinances against all persons within the City of Tulsa regardless of Indian status. We will also continue to work cooperatively with our tribal partners to protect the health and safety of our shared constituents.”
• So that’s obviously still not set in stone. You know, Oklahoma only exists because the U.S. federal government forcibly removed tens of thousands of Native Americans from their homelands from across North America and transported them to the area.
• Maybe it’s the non-Indians who should move the fuck out of Tulsa, or obey tribal laws. Just a thought.
• I’m on a roll with legal shit that all happened yesterday. Might as well keep it going…
• Liberals who gained majority control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court this week voted Friday to reduce powers of the conservative chief justice and make a series of other changes to how the court operates.
• Good. Fuck that chief justice.
• Now let’s actually change the topic… to youth pastors.
• I’m going to say something and it’s going to make some of you mad, and I don’t care: I’m under the impression that every single youth pastor is a current or future sex offender.
• Yes. Every one of them. And if that’s you, then yes, I’m talking to you.
• In Greenville, SC, a former youth pastor is now facing over 100 charges over accusations he filmed young girls and women.
• According to new arrest warrants, Daniel Mayfield admitted to filming women in both Greenville and Greenwood Counties while the women were changing or in the bathroom. Warrants also allege he was hired as a videographer for several weddings and then filmed the bridal parties as they were getting ready.
• In Charlotte, NC, Robert “Bobby” Price was arrested yesterday morning and faces new charges for incidents between 2001-2011. Police said the victims met Price through the former King’s Way Baptist Church in Concord, where Price was a youth pastor.
• He is now charged with 13 counts of indecent liberties with a child and one count of statutory sexual offense with children between the ages of 9 and 15 years old at the time of the incidents.
• How about the ladies? In Kings Mountain, NC, Amanda Buchanan Justice, 35 was charged with sexually assaulting a child. She turned herself into the Kings Mountain Police Department on Thursday.
• Justice was a youth leader at New Life Family Worship Center in Kings Mountain. The church said Justice stepped down from her role as youth leather days before her arrest.
• So to be clear, that’s three people in two days. All sexually assaulting children, all youth pastors. Do you take your kids to church? Send them to religious camp or daycare? Do you leave them unattended with these people? Maybe consider it a little more.
• And now, The Weather: “Gone (Abebe Bikila)” by Berhana
• RIP to Mark Margolis, a veteran actor who took sometimes minor roles and made them way bigger than they could have been. He died at age 83.
• Margolis had received an Emmy nomination for portraying Hector “Tio” Salamanca on “Breaking Bad”, and also had an amazing role in the 1983 film ‘Scarface’. 
• The classic line said to his character after Tony Montana shot him in the head: “I told you, man, I told you! Don't fuck with me! I told you, no fucking kids! No, but you wouldn't listen, why, you stupid fuck, look at you now.”
• Let’s do some amazing space news.
• Voyager 2 was launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, and has been trucking through space ever since. In 2018, it entered interstellar space, the region between the sun’s heliosphere and the astrospheres of other stars. It is currently 12.367 billion miles from Earth.
• A couple of weeks ago, we lost contact with this old-ass but still functional spacecraft. But then, NASA's Deep Space Network facility in Canberra, Australia sent a command to Voyager instructing it to reorient itself into a proper position to facilitate communication with Earth.
• It’s so far away that the command, traveling at the speed of light, took 18.5 hours to reach Voyager 2. Yesterday morning, a signal returned from the probe, and it started streaming back science and telemetry data.
• “We shouted 12.3 billion miles into interstellar space, instructing it to turn its antenna back to Earth,” the laboratory said yesterday. “And after 37 hours, we found out it worked!”
• That’s so fucking cool. Go Voyager 2!
• Want some more perverted news? Of course you do.
• A man was arrested in Nevada for allegedly entering two homes in the middle of the night and rubbing the feet of two women as they slept. The suspect was identified as Mark Anthony Gonzales. 
• Between July 1 and 3, Gonzalez allegedly entered two different condos in Stateline, NV through unlocked screen doors in the early morning hours. In each case, the women woke up and confronted the suspect. He fled the scene and police were able to identify him through forensic techniques. 
• Gonzalez is also suspected of numerous offenses including theft of a woman's shoes, trespassing and sexual self-gratification during some of the alleged incidents. 
• Here’s a good plan for a good life: don’t rub anything you haven’t been clearly invited to rub. It’s not that hard.
• Let’s do some charts. This week on the Billboard Hot 100 in August, 1979 is shockingly good.
• 1. Bad Girls (Donna Summer). 2. Good Times (Chic). 3. The Main Event/Fight (Barbra Streisand). 4. My Sharona (The Knack). 5. Gold (John Stewart). 6. When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman (Dr. Hook). 7. Ring My Bell (Anita Ward). 8. Makin' It (David Naughton). 9. Hot Stuff (Donna Summer). 10. You Can't Change That (Raydio). 11. I Was Made For Lovin' You (KISS). 12. Mama Can't Buy You Love (Elton John). 13. Sad Eyes (Robert John). 14. I Want You To Want Me (Cheap Trick). 15. Lead Me On (Maxine Nightingale). 16. Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now (McFadden & Whitehead). 17. Shine A Little Love (Electric Light Orchestra). 18. Don't Bring Me Down (Electric Light Orchestra). 19. After The Love Has Gone (Earth, Wind & Fire). 20. I'll Never Love This Way Again (Dionne Warwick)
• From the Sports Desk… Cleveland Cavaliers and Spanish National Team point guard Ricky Rubio announced today that he was putting his career on hold indefinitely to focus on mental health.
• ”I have decided to stop my professional activity to take care of my mental health. I want to thank all the support I have received from the [Spanish national] team to understand my decision. Today family makes more sense than ever. Thank you. I would ask that my privacy be respected so that I can face these moments and be able to give more information when the time is right."
• I respect that. Rubio, 32, was the MVP of the last FIBA World Cup in 2019 in China. Spain is currently ranked No. 1 in the world ahead of the United States after winning the European championship last summer.
• Today in history… Guangwu claims the throne of China and restores the Han Dynasty (25). Henry I is crowned King of England (1100). Sir Humphrey Gilbert established the first English colony in North America in what is now St. John’s, NL (1583). The Mayflower departs England on its first attempt to go to North America; it fails (1620). Journalist John Peter Zenger is acquitted of seditious libel since what he published about the royal governor of New York was true (1735). The British Navy calls the electric telegraph a “totally unnecessary” invention when they could wave flags to communicate instead (1816). The US government levies the first income tax to pay for the Civil War (1861). Standard Oil Company — today known as ExxonMobil — is established in New Jersey (1882). Bertha Benz takes the first road trip in a car (1888). The first electric traffic light is installed in Cleveland, OH (1914). Harry Houdini spends 91 minutes underwater before escaping (1926). Nazis massacre 50,000 civilians in Wola, Poland (1944). American Bandstand debuts on ABC (1957). Nelson Mandela is jailed in South Africa and won’t be released until 1990 (1962). Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her home from an alleged drug overdose (1962). Richard Nixon is ordered by the Supreme Court to release the “smoking gun” tape and loses all political support (1974). Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air traffic controllers (1981). 
• August 5 is the birthday of novelist Guy de Maupassant (1850), “elephant man” Joseph Merrick (1862), lawyer and judge Gertrude Rush (1880), actor John Huston (1906), astronaut Neil Armstrong (1930), record producer Joe Boyd (1942), actress Loni Anderson (1945), physicist Shirley Ann Jackson (1946), singer-songwriter/guitarist Rick Derringer (1947), guitarist/songwriter Pat Smear (1959), NBA player Patrick Ewing (1962), rapper Adam Yauch, aka MCA (1964), politician Marine Le Pen (1968), and director James Gunn (1970).

Okay then. That’s a lot, and most of it is super newsy news. You may have learned something. I may have too. Today I am going to chill like a… um… I don’t know. Something chilly. An ice cube? A polar bear? A highly functional air conditioning system? Anyway, it’s a no-stress day if possible, and I’m going to avoid all shitty things. Enjoy your day.