"Thomas Stovall grew up in a strict Baptist family in Mississippi and always believed that anyone involved with abortion was destined for hell. But his lifelong conviction crumbled when his wife, Chelsea, was 20 weeks pregnant with their third child. Tests showed a severely malformed and underdeveloped fetus, one that was sure to be stillborn if carried to term. There was other devastating news, too. Continuing with the pregnancy could threaten Chelsea’s health and future fertility, doctors warned." Thomas and Chelsea live in Arkansas where abortion is essentially banned. They had to drive 400 miles to get health care. Following the couple's experience, Thomas Stovall "began knocking on doors, hoping to change other men’s minds and help get an abortion measure on the state ballot this fall." Because of increasingly strict abortion bans in many states, we're hearing a lot more stories about women who are being denied direly needed health care. The overturning of Roe and the quick adoption of new restrictions has turned abortion into a top election issue, and because it's on the ballot in so many states, it could be a decisive issue. (Which is why you're seeing one candidate feverishly trying to change his position on the topic.) When it comes to the public debate, the voices you're hearing are not only women. WaPo (Gift Article): A louder voice in fighting abortion bans: Men in red states. "The results of the latest Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll found that 1 in 5 men called abortion a top voting issue for them this year." 2Hostages Killed"It wasn’t the first time that several of the roughly two hundred and fifty hostages seized by Hamas terrorists on October 7th had been killed. Just this June, four other hostages were pronounced dead, including two over the age of eighty; their bodies are still being held in Gaza. I went to the vigils that followed those deaths. They were sizable, charged, and emotional—but nowhere near the outpouring of public fury unleashed this time around." Ruth Margalit in The New Yorker: Grief and Fury in Israel. "Hamas’s killing of six hostages in Gaza, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly delayed a ceasefire deal, has provoked major protests and a renewed sense of crisis." 3Town and CountryIn Springfield, Ohio, about 20,000 Haitian immigrants moved into a town of about 58,000. "They are assembling car engines at Honda, running vegetable-packing machines at Dole and loading boxes at distribution centers. They are paying taxes on their wages and spending money at Walmart. On Sundays they gather at churches for boisterous, joyful services in Haitian Creole." But immigration stories, even seemingly good ones, are never more than one event away from stirring up a heated debate. And those debates rarely remain local. "On a recent Saturday, about a dozen Nazi sympathizers — masked men in matching red shirts, black pants and boots — waved swastika flags as they marched in downtown Springfield near a jazz festival. At least two of the men, who authorities said were outsiders, carried rifles." NYT(Gift Article): How an Ohio Town Landed in the Middle of the Immigration Debate. "Jobs attracted thousands of Haitians to Springfield, and employers were ecstatic. But then an immigrant driver was involved in a fatal school bus crash. And JD Vance entered the fray." 4Taking Atoll on Coral"In the last decade, a mysterious illness called stony coral tissue loss disease has been ravaging coral in reefs across the Caribbean. The disease—which is likely caused by a bacterium or virus—targets a number of hard, reef-forming coral species. It essentially pulverizes the soft coral tissue, killing centuries-old colonies in a matter of weeks. The plight has now spread to at least 30 countries and territories in the Caribbean, where corals were already suffering from pollution, climate change, and other threats." One thing that seems to help: antibiotics. MoJo: Coral Reefs Are Getting Sick, and This Human Medicine Might Help. 5Extra, ExtraPsych Path: "Acadia has lured patients into its facilities and held them against their will, even when detaining them was not medically necessary." NYT (Gift Article): How a Leading Chain of Psychiatric Hospitals Traps Patients. "Acadia has exaggerated patients’ symptoms. It has tweaked medication dosages, then claimed patients needed to stay longer because of the adjustment. And it has argued that patients are not well enough to leave because they did not finish a meal. Unless the patients or their families hire lawyers, Acadia often holds them until their insurance runs out." 6Bottom of the NewsThe upset-filled US Open has been exciting this year. The only sure-thing winner is the cocktail everyone can't get enough of. "The drink’s sales alone could cover the combined championship prize money for both the male and female singles winner — $3.6 million each this year." The $10 million cocktail everyone is drinking at the US Open.
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