Top Stories
TOP STORY
TOP STORY
4th of July—parades, cookouts and fireworks
Americans are celebrating their nation’s birth with parades, cookouts and fiery splashes of colors against the evening sky.
Fireworks are expected to reach an all-time high, with an untold number of backyard displays and 16,000 professional shows lighting up the horizon.
Some said they would enjoy lobster boat races off the rocky coast in Maine. In Philadelphia, descendants of the signers of the Declaration of Independence said they would ring the Liberty Bell 13 times—once for each of the original colonies.
The California communities of Bolinas and Stinson Beach, north of San Francisco, will engage in their annual tug-of-war contest in which losers end up in a lagoon.
In Boston, tens of thousands are expected to enjoy the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular. Maestro Keith Lockhart said seeing people of different political stripes gather on the Charles River Esplanade will be inspiring.
“If, even for one day, we can set aside our differences and embrace our commonalities, this has to be a positive thing,” he said.
POLITICS
POLITICS
Trump leads Biden in newspaper polls
Since the two candidates debated last week, Donald Trump has established a sizable lead over President Joe Biden.
That is the finding of two opinion polls published on Wednesday by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
The New York Times and Siena College poll showed Trump with 49% to Biden’s 43%. This is Trump's largest lead in a Times/Siena poll since 2015 when campaigning for his 2016 presidency.
The Wall Street Journal poll showed Trump with a six-point lead over Biden, up from a two-point lead in February. Some 80% of respondents in the Journal poll, which surveyed 1,500 registered voters June 29–July 2, said Biden was too old to seek a second term.
The Times poll surveyed 1,532 registered voters from June 28–July 2. Voters also saw Biden as "just too old to be an effective president.”
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LAW
LAW
Black voter dilution maps must be redrawn
Three Mississippi state congressional maps made in 2022 violated the Voting Rights Act and diluted the Black vote in three districts.
A US district court ruled Tuesday the state’s Republican-led legislature approved finalized maps with no opportunity for public comment after a 15-minute hearing to issue new criteria.
The Mississippi legislature approved diluted maps redrawing two majority-Black state Senate districts and one majority-Black state House district.
A three-judge panel did not establish the maps were “unconstitutional racial gerrymanders” but ruled that they would have to be redrawn to comply with the Voting Rights Act and that special elections would be required for the newly drawn districts.
SOCIETY
SOCIETY
Concerns grow over gambling addiction
Diagnoses of pathological gambling disorders among service members and veterans are soaring.
The Department of Veterans Affairs said more patients were diagnosed in the first half of 2024 than in all of 2022—20% of the referrals were women.
According to the Government Accountability Office, the Department of Defense (DOD) operated over 3,100 slot machines on US military installations in a dozen countries in 2017.
The machines produce over $100 million annually. They are seen as a “morale booster” for the welfare and recreation of service members.
Slot machines are prohibited on military bases in the US, but casinos are often nearby. Seven casinos are within 20 minutes of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, one of the country’s largest military installations.
The DOD estimated in 2018 that problem gambling among service members is 1.6%–1.7%, in line with the civilian population. The survey was conducted before the boom in sports betting. The military is conducting a new study with results expected in the fall.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Homes unaffordable in larger US counties
Data shows that a growing swath of the US is unaffordable for people looking to buy a home.
A homeowner report in April–June finds 80% in 589 counties typically earning $72,358 annually paid $2,114 a month—about 35% of their pay. Anything above 28% is considered unaffordable.
In over one-third of the markets examined by real estate analytics firm ATTOM, homeowners were spending at least 43% of their wages on housing, which the firm calls "seriously unaffordable.”
For its analysis, ATTOM focused on counties with a population of at least 100,000 and at least 50 single-family home and condo sales in the second quarter of 2024.
Most homeowners living in unaffordable areas are in Cook County, Illinois; Maricopa County, Arizona; San Diego County, California; and Orange County, California, says ATTOM.
The most affordable homes were in Harris County, Texas; Wayne County, Michigan; Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania; Cuyahoga County, Ohio; and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, ATTOM says.
SCIENCE
SCIENCE
Launch date set for Polaris Dawn
The first commercial spaceflight mission with a spacewalk will launch “no earlier than July 31.”
Polaris Dawn, part of a human spaceflight program funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, will see the first private spacewalk with bespoke SpaceX spacesuits and a raft of experiments planned.
Polaris Dawn's orbit will be about 435 miles above Earth in the highest-altitude crewed flight since the Apollo moon missions of the 1960s and 1970s.
By comparison, the International Space Station orbits roughly 250 miles above Earth
OFFBEAT
OFFBEAT
Senior foster mom retires 40+ kids later
A foster mom from Maryland aged 88 received formal recognition as one of the most experienced in the US foster home system.
Since opening her home in Montgomery County in the 1980s, Emma Patterson has fostered over 40 children. She was presented with an award after announcing she would retire from foster care.
Patterson said she became involved when the two children she birthed occasionally brought other kids who needed help home with them.
She registered herself and her home in White Oak, Maryland, into the Montgomery County foster home system, where she occasionally fostered infants.
The children were often born drug-addicted babies who couldn’t go home with their parents. Patterson fostered up to nine kids at a time. Some stayed with her until adulthood.
“It was always a situation where it was just a boy or girl that didn’t have anybody to care anything about them. And they needed a place to sleep or something to eat,” she said.
Otherweb Editorial Staff
Alex FinkTechie in Chief
David WilliamsEditor in Chief
Angela PalmerContent Manager
Dan KriegerTechnical Director