Random News: May 6, 2025

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.

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Good morning. It’s May 6, 2025, and it’s a Tuesday. I am at the very start of a hell day, with meetings, deadlines, personal responsibilities, and a live music show to plan and then perform, all between now and when I am finally able to relax this evening. But that’s life. You’re not supposed to sit around being bored… though occasionally that seems like a nice alternative. Ah well.

• I want to start with a special note to every person in America who chose to protest last fall due to your support of Palestine by not voting for Kamala Harris.
• Yesterday, Israel approved plans to seize the Gaza Strip and to stay in the Palestinian territory for an unspecified amount of time.
• So now, the people you thought you were defending literally have no home. The new plan calls for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to move to Gaza’s south. 
• Already facing a dire humanitarian crisis, this forced displacement will result in added misery and death for these people.
• Since you either voted for Dump (or sat out the election, or protested Harris during the election cycle), this must be what you wanted.
• A little background: Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 after a decades-long occupation and then imposed a blockade on the territory.
• Capturing and occupying the territory again for an indefinite period would not only further dash hopes for Palestinian statehood.
• It would also embed Israel inside a population that is deeply hostile to it and raise questions about how Israel plans to govern the territory.
• I suppose they’re relying on Donnie Dump, who has plans to personally profit form the misery of the Palestinian people by building luxury hotels on top of their mass graves.
• Israel had already halted all humanitarian aid into the territory, including food, fuel, and water, resulting in one of the worst humanitarian crisis in history.
• And just think… none of that would have been possible had you not allowed Dumpy to become president. That suffering and needless death is on your hands.
• Let’s move on to some much brighter news.
• Yesterday, Richard E. Myers II — chief judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina — ordered North Carolina election officials to certify a November election and confirm the narrow victory of a Democratic justice on the state Supreme Court.
• This back-and-forth legal saga has gone on for six months. And the Republican who lost the case has seven days to appeal the decision, which could prolong the dispute.
• What was this all about? In November, Justice Allison Riggs won the November election by 734 votes, a slim margin that was confirmed by two recounts.
• But her opponent, Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin, sued in state court, arguing tens of thousands of votes should be thrown out. Why?
• He claimed, without evidence, that more than 60,000 votes that were cast by people who did not have the last four digits of their Social Security numbers or other identifiers on file with election officials when they voted in November.
• Myers — who was appointed to the bench by Dumpy in 2019 — said that invalidating votes that had already been cast violated voters’ due process rights. “You establish the rules before the game. You don’t change them after the game is done,” he wrote.
• Correct.
• In other news…
• Yesterday, the Justice Department announced in a rather surprising move that it will defend Joe Biden’s abortion pill rules that allow abortion pills to be available online and by mail.
• But rather than defending the Food and Drug Administration’s rules for the pills on the merits, the DOJ argued in a filing with a Texas federal court that the three GOP-controlled states suing the agency lack standing and the case should be thrown out.
• They didn't directly weigh in on the underlying issue of access to the drug that's part of the nation's most common method of abortion.
• "The states are free to pursue their claims in a district where venue is proper, but the states' claims before this court must be dismissed or transferred pursuant to the venue statute's mandatory command," federal government attorneys wrote.
• Well, that’s good, I suppose.
• The lawsuit from Idaho, Kansas, and Missouri argues that the FDA should roll back access to mifepristone. They filed their complaint after the Supreme Court preserved access to mifepristone last year.
• Nothing is stopping the states from filing the lawsuit someplace else, but the venue has to have some connection to the claims being made.
• So obviously, the far-right world will continue to make every effort to remove reproductive freedom from women across the country.
• And we’ll keep fighting them every step of the way.
• Let’s move on.
• All five of the living former National Weather Service leaders released an open letter to the American people with a stark warning about the impact of staffing and program cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
• "Our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life," their letter said. "We know that's a nightmare shared by those on the forecasting front lines — and by the people who depend on their efforts." 
• Since the beginning of the year, more than 550 employees have left the National Weather Service, leaving it well below its former staffing levels ahead of hurricane season and the busiest time of year.
• A reminder that weather is not a Democratic or Republican phenomenon. And without proper forecasting and continued research, people will die that could have easily otherwise been saved.
• Side note: since the hurricane season starts in a month, 2025’s storm names are out. At least you’ll know what to call them, even when you don’t get the information you need to be safe from them (nor any FEMA help after they destroy your area)…
• Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dexter, Erin, Fernand, Gabrielle, Humberto, Imelda, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Nestor, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastian, Tanya, Van, Wendy
• Moving on, but on a similar topic…
• The National Institutes of Health has laid off hundreds more staff, including at its cancer research institute.
• Around 200 employees began receiving layoff notices this past Friday evening. The move surprised NIH officials, since the department previously claimed no further cuts were planned at the agency.
• Among the cuts on Friday were around 50 employees at the NIH's National Cancer Institute, or NCI.
• So yesterday, over a dozen states sued the Dump administration for laying off thousands of Health and Human Services staffers.
• The lawsuit — filed in Rhode Island federal court by New York, California, 17 other states and Washington, D.C. — claims that Dumpy has sought to dismantle HHS through layoffs that disproportionately hit "disfavored work and programs," like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.
• Yesterday’s lawsuit, which names Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other HHS leaders as defendants, argues these job cuts have "systematically deprived HHS of the resources necessary to do its job."
• Accurate.
• Let’s move over to immigration for a moment.
• Yesterday, Dump offered free airline tickets and a $1,000 incentive to unauthorized immigrants if they sign up for self-deportation and return to their home countries voluntarily. 
• Shrug. I’ll tell you what I’d do. I’d take the tickets, pocket the grand, go visit some family and friends, and then come on back when I felt like it.
• I’m not suggesting that people do what I described above. I’m saying that’s what I’d do.
• In other news…
• You know that AI-generated image that Dumpy posted of himself dressed as the pope while Catholics are still mourning the death of Pope Francis?
• Dumples the Sacrilegious Clown got confronted with it yesterday. His whiny response was perfectly predictable.
• "I had nothing to do with it. Somebody made up a picture of me dressed like the pope and they put it out on the internet. That's not me that did it, I have no idea where it came from, maybe it was AI, but I know nothing about it, I just saw it last evening.”
• Uh huh. Well, if the things he posts are all jokes, maybe his entire presidency is a joke. That makes more sense than most explanations and excuses for him.
• Let’s just move on.
• And now a tale of “But I didn’t think the leopards would eat MY face…”
• Frank Davis, the mayor of Emmitsburg, MD, voted for Dumpy because he liked the idea of cutting government waste.
• But that waste turned out to be the biggest part of his town’s identity: the National Fire Academy.
• In March, the Dump administration suddenly cancelled in-person classes at the academy, which trains the country's firefighters. The academy also was a big factor in driving the local economy.
• Big spending cuts always sound nice until the thing that’s important to you is on the chopping block.
• Davis now says, ”It will change my outlook to say that they're not being fair,. They’re just going in to cut and not caring what they cut."
• Denis Onieal, who served for two decades as superintendent of the academy which trained 8,000 to 10,000 firefighters on campus each year, is also perplexed.
• If the courses aren't restored, Onieal says Americans will pay. He says, ”We're on a very long, slow path to self-destruction. Every day that this training is unavailable to the locals is one day closer to a disaster they can't handle or won't know how to handle."
• Why was this essential training cut? because it isn’t in FEMA’s budget that was slashed by Dump along with his boss, Elon Musk.
• Continuing on with a note from the History Desk…
• One of the most important documents of our country is, of course, the Declaration of Independence.
• It was, in part, a list of grievances aimed at King George III of Great Britain, justifying why the USA was severing ties with England.
• Take a look at the excerpts below and see if they sound familiar…
• For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
• For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: 
• For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: 
• For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
• It’s almost as if the Founding Fathers had specifically anticipated all of the actions of Donnie Dump, a man who understands noting about the history of our country and what made us great in the first place.
• Moving on.
• Goodbye to Skype.
• The pioneering online video calling service that has been around for more than two decades went offline for good yesterday.
• Microsoft, which owns Skype, had announced in February that the service would be available until May 5 and urged users to switch over to the free version of Microsoft Teams, its communication platform that features the ability to video call.
• Who still uses Skype? A lot of older folks who don’t want to learn to use another kind of tech platform.
• Skype was among the first video conferencing apps and exploded in popularity, at one point boasting more than 300 million users.
• But its user base has dwindled in recent years, as the app has faced growing competition from video calling and messaging alternatives such as Zoom, WhatsApp, Slack, Google Meet and others.
• And now, The Weather: “Made to Blush” by Lampland
• Let’s do a chart.
• It’s 41 years ago today at the start of May 1984, and this is the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
• Me? I’m a sophomore in high school. And like most people of that particular age range — especially young soon-to-be men — I’m a complete idiot.
• 1. Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now) (Phil Collins). 2. Hello (Lionel Richie). 3. Hold Me Now (Thompson Twins). 4. Footloose (Kenny Loggins). 5. Love Somebody (Rick Springfield). 6. To All The Girls I've Loved Before (Julio Iglesias And Willie Nelson). 7. You Might Think (The Cars). 8. They Don't Know (Tracey Ullman). 9. Let's Hear It For The Boy (Deniece Williams). 10. Miss Me Blind (Culture Club). 11. Oh, Sherrie (Steve Perry). 12. Head Over Heels (Go-Go’s). 13. Tonight (Kool & The Gang). 14. Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper). 15. Don't Answer Me (The Alan Parsons Project). 16. The Authority Song (John Cougar Mellencamp). 17. The Longest Time (Billy Joel). 18. Breakdance (Irene Cara). 19. Automatic (The Pointer Sisters). 20. Sister Christian  (Night Ranger).
• From the Not-Sports Desk…
• Yesterday, the Baltimore Ravens released kicker Justin Tucker, parting ways with the NFL's most accurate kicker who is being investigated by the league for sexual misconduct.
• Back in February, I told you about how 16 massage therapists from eight different spas made allegations of inappropriate behavior by Tucker. So this wasn’t a one-time thing.
• Guys — and yes, it’s nearly always guys — some advice: no matter what your sexual proclivities are, make them consensual.
• Also from the Not-Sports Desk…
• Dumpy’s 2026 fiscal budget request to Congress eliminates major federal funding for traumatic brain injury (TBI) research and education, potentially undercutting efforts to address head injuries in sports, particularly at the high school and youth levels.
• Dump wants to eliminate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention umbrella agency responsible for TBI research, including the $8.25 million marked for brain injury research and public education about the dangers of concussions.
• The budget cuts would "roll back decades of progress," said Dr. Owen Perlman, a brain injury specialist and board member of the Brain Injury Association of America.
• Fucking assholes.
• From the actual Sports Desk… continuing on with Round Two playoff scores in basketball and hockey.
• In the NBA: The Knicks stole game 1 of their series against the Celtics, winning 108-105 in overtime. And then in the second upset of the day, the Nuggets stunned the Thunder 121-119, going up 1-0 in that series.
• In the NHL: the Maple Leafs beat the Panthers 5-4, going up 1-0 in the series.
• And in other Sports Desk news, congrats going out to swimming superstar Katie Ledecky, who added to her long-list of extraordinary accomplishments this weekend when she broke her own world record in the 800-meter freestyle at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
• The 28-year-old’s new mark of 8 minutes and 4.12 seconds, breaks the previous mark she set nearly nine years ago at the 2016 Rio Olympics by 0.67 seconds.
• How dominant is Ledecky? She now has all of the top 10 best performances for this event in history.
• And last summer in Paris, she became the most decorated female American Olympian of all-time with 14 medals — nine gold, four silver, and one bronze.
• Today in history… Spanish and German troops sack Rome, marking the end of the Renaissance (1527). The Siege of Cuzco commences, in which Incan forces attempt to retake the city of Cuzco from the Spanish (1536). A faction of the British Army removes Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and reinstalls the Rump Parliament (1659). Louis XIV of France moves his court to the Palace of Versailles (1682). Arkansas secedes from the Union (1861). Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Lakota surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska (1877). The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris (1889). George V becomes King of Great Britain, Ireland, and many overseas territories, on the death of his father, Edward VII (1910). Babe Ruth, then a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, hits his first major league home run (1915). Thirty-six people are killed when the German zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, NJ (1937). John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ (1940). Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes (1954). Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel (1994). Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. unveils the first iMac (1998). In just 36 minutes, the Dow-Jones average plunged nearly 1,000 points in what is known as the 2010 Flash Crash (2010). The coronation of Charles III and Camilla as King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms is held in Westminster Abbey, London (2023).
• May 6 is the birthday of politician Maximilien Robespierre (1758), neurologist/psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856), explorer Robert Peary (1856), activist/politician Motilal Nehru (1861), actor Rudolph Valentino (1895), NFL coach Weeb Ewbank (1907), actor/director Orson Welles (1915), physicist/astronomer Robert H. Dicke (1916), MLB player Willie Mays (1931), singer-songwriter Bob Seger (1945), UK prime minister Tony Blair (1953), actress Roma Downey (1960), actor George Clooney (1961), singer/keyboardist Lætitia Sadier (1968), singer-songwriter/guitarist Chris Shiflett (1971), NHL player Martin Brodeur (1972), actress Gabourey Sidibe (1983), NBA player Chris Paul (1985), rapper Meek Mill (1987), MLB player José Altuve (1990), murder suspect Luigi Mangione (1998), and WNBA player Angel Reese (2002).

That’s plenty of stuff to consider. Now I have to jump into hell, or at least my workday ahead. I’m probably overdramatizing it. Still, bleh. Enjoy your day.