Good morning,
Welcome to MS NOW’s Sunday Spotlight, where you can find a selection of the week’s most interesting and important stories.
First, some breaking news: U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham died Saturday night after a “brief and sudden illness.” The prominent Republican and longtime South Carolina lawmaker had just returned from a trip to Ukraine. He was 71 years old.
Meanwhile, the FBI director’s canceled travel could spell trouble ahead, a disgraced candidate’s parting message offers a lesson in what not to do, Immigration and Customs Enforcement shot and killed a Houston man during a traffic stop and a proposed data center’s furry neighbor sparks a backlash. Plus, a prince can’t seem to find a spare room in the royal palace.
Don’t forget to check out more top columns and videos from the week below.
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Exit strategy: Maine Democrat Graham Platner faced controversy throughout his Senate primary campaign ranging from an infamous tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol to allegations of abusive behavior. But when a former girlfriend accused him of sexual assault, any remaining defenders withdrew their support. After a chaotic week, Platner suspended his campaign. His 11-minute video was hard for survivors of sexual assault familiar with abusive tactics known as DARVO — “Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender” — to watch, argues Noor Noman. The story should have been an opportunity for a reckoning on the issue, but so far it has not. Read more.
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ICE shooting: A Mexican father of three shot during a traffic stop in Houston is the latest person to be shot and killed by ICE agents since the start of the second Trump administration. Unsurprisingly, ICE’s account of the shooting and the subsequent behavior of its agents are raising multiple red flags, argues criminal law professor John Pfaff. ICE said Lorenzo Salgado Araujo tried to run over officers, but that is a common claim for the agency that regularly falls apart under scrutiny. Three men who were passengers in his van said that he never swerved and that ICE officers fired almost immediately after stopping him. Read more.
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Cloud computing: A proposal to build a sweeping data center next to the Nashville Zoo has become a viral, bipartisan campaign drawing in celebrities and hundreds of thousands online. DC BLOX, an Atlanta-based data company, wants to purchase land next to the zoo for a $700 million, 50-megawatt campus that would eventually include several data center buildings, write Sydney Reynolds and Josh Einiger. Opponents say the noise and light from the campus would disturb a breeding facility for the endangered cloud leopard that is just 300 feet away. A petition against the proposal has already garnered more than half a million signatures. Read more.
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Spare room: Shortly before Prince Harry lost a high-profile lawsuit against a British tabloid publisher, Buckingham Palace staff announced that the king’s younger son could not be accommodated during a visit to England. The public bickering was surprising, particularly since the palace has hundreds of rooms, but the decision was in line with much recent royal treatment of the prince, who stepped away from public duties in 2020 with his wife, American-born Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. The trip drama overshadowed what could have been a step toward warming relations between Harry and his father, King Charles III. Read more.
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Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has tried to make his state a prototype for a conservative agenda in higher education, including taking over and mismanaging the state’s New College, deleting sociology from state schools’ core curriculums and censoring an introductory sociology textbook. Notably, his Stop WOKE Act outlawed teaching about ideas that are widely accepted across the social and physical sciences, such as the existence of structural racism, argues sociology professor Victor Ray. But a scathing decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rebuked DeSantis and Republicans, clearly outlining how the law overstepped First Amendment protection for public university classrooms. The decision, authored by a Trump appointee, also dismantled Florida’s argument that asking students to think about topics such as racism or slavery amounts do discrimination. “Hearing an idea you disagree with is not discrimination; it is an opportunity to come up with a better idea, or maybe even change your mind,” the judge wrote. Read the column here.
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This week on “The Best People,” Nicolle Wallace is joined by Senator Raphael Warnock to discuss his new book, “The Crooked Places Made Straight,” the increasingly activist court, and a system he sees overrun with money and corruption. Subscribe to MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content.
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