The Weekend Off – News You Missed

Alaska

The Daily Beast – The Keystone Bill’s Most Hilarious Amendment: Protecting Chicken, Alaska

Sen. Dan Sullivan’s (R-Alaska) first amendment as a lawmaker sent a clear message to the federal government: Nobody messes with Chicken, Alaska. Nobody.

Sullivan’s amendment to the Keystone XL Pipeline bill—expected to be voted as soon as Monday— bars officials from Environmental Protection Agency from carrying guns, a direct result of a “raid” conducted in a tiny gold mining town in 2013. A town called Chicken.

ADN – Alaska health department investigates possible measles case

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services is investigating a possible measles case in a 1-year-old from Anchorage who returned to the state from California this month.

Though whether Rivki Webb tested positive for measles Friday because she contracted the disease while traveling or simply because she had recently received the vaccine remains unknown. Test results will provide the answer late next week, according to a statement from DHSS.

Juneau Empire – Prosecutors dismiss case against woman who freed eagle from trap

Prosecutors on Thursday dismissed the case against a Juneau woman who freed a bald eagle ensnared in a trap, commending her efforts as laudable.

National

The Atlantic – Wealthy L.A. Schools’ Vaccination Rates Are as Low as South Sudan’s [From 2014 But More Relevant than Ever]

When actors play doctors on TV, that does not make them actual doctors. And that does not mean they should scour some Internet boards, confront their pediatricians, and demand fewer vaccinations for their children, as some Hollywood parents in Los Angeles have apparently been doing.

Matter/Medium – Zero Percent Water

I speed along highway 99, the asphalt bleary under the high scorching sun. I’m heading to Kingsburg to speak with farmers about one of the worst recorded droughts in California history. I’m running late, a little lost. My GPS screen flickers. The electric-lady-voice instructs me to turn right, but there’s nothing on the right except for ditch weeds and fallow fields. Flats brown to the horizon. Dust devils swirl out there, disappear, rise again in another spot.

Miles later I exit. I think I’ve driven too far. I turn right and then right again and find myself at a four-way stop. I take out my phone, hoping for a cell signal.

NY Times – Justices to Hear Case Over Drugs Used in Executions

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide a case on the constitutionality of the new combinations of drugs that some states are using to execute prisoners and that critics say cause intense suffering.

The court will hear a challenge to Oklahoma’s choice of drugs even though the justices declined last week to stop an execution there that used the contested chemicals.

International

France 24 – Founder of Russian gay teen site convicted of ‘propaganda’

A Russian court on Friday convicted a journalist who set up a website to support gay, lesbian and transgender teenagers under a controversial law banning “gay propaganda” aimed at minors.

The social networking site, called Children 404, is used by thousands of teenagers to post heart-rending accounts of realising they are gay and their experiences of coming out to family, friends and teachers.

WSJ – Breaking Up the Big Banks: New Poll Suggest Voters Are in Favor

There’s not a lot of love for the big banks these days.

Case in point: A poll to be released Tuesday by a group called the Progressive Change Institute found that a majority of U.S. voters would be quite happy for Citigroup Inc.C -1.92% and other big banks to be broken into pieces. According to the poll, 58% of likely voters said they would support breaking up “big banks like Citigroup.”

Al Jazeera – Kurds angered by anti-ISIL conference snub

The president of Iraqi Kurdistan on Friday slammed the United States-led coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for excluding the Kurds from an organizational meeting in London this week, noting that his hard-bitten peshmerga fighters had proven themselves the only capable force on the ground to combat the armed group.

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