Midday open thread: NYT adds 15 obituaries of women; Democrats present their own infrastructure plan

Today’s comic by Ruben Bolling is Hard times in VHS country

• Democrats’ infrastructure plan includes $80 billion for electrical grid upgrades:

Senate Democrats released a $1 trillion infrastructure plan Wednesday framed as a way to give Republican "tax giveaways" for the wealthy back to the American people.

While the plan is unlikely to be embraced by President Trump or gain traction in a GOP-controlled Congress, it serves as a meaningful policy document as the nation heads into a grueling midterm election season.

"Our plan will improve the daily lives of millions of American families by creating a 21st century transportation network, rebuilding water systems and schools, making our electric system stronger and our communities more resilient, and much more," the Democrat plan states. "And we will make these critical investments without undermining important environmental protections."

• Since 1851, obituaries in The New York Times have been dominated by white men. Now, the newspaper of record has added the stories of 15 remarkable women.

• NASA’s Juno spacecraft reveals details Jupiter’s interior:

The new findings, based on high-precision gravitational measurements, show that Jupiter’s iconic striped bands, caused by immensely powerful winds, extend to a depth of about 3,000km below the surface. The mission has also produced a partial answer to the question of whether the planet has a core, showing that the inner 96% of the planet rotates “as a solid body”, even though technically it is composed of an extraordinarily dense mixture of hydrogen and helium gas. [...]

Jonathan Fortney, an astronomer at the University of California Santa Cruz who wrote an analysis of the findings, said: “The big deal is that this tells us how the interior of Jupiter works. People have been fighting about this since before I was born.”

MIDDAY TWEET

NAVAJO NATION SAYS NO TO RENAMING HIGHWAY TO HONOR TRUMPhttps://t.co/wUKuXcR0OS#INDIGENOUS#TAIRPpic.twitter.com/n8X9hMaj2E

• In path of new subway, archaeologists in Rome discover a two-millennia-old, 14-room villa filled with mosaics. The home of a Roman military commander was unearthed during work to expand the Italian capital's subway system. The residence, or domus, was found 40 feet below the city's surface. It includes at least 14 rooms and a fountain in a central courtyard. One of the rooms appears to have been heated. The archaeologists believe the home may have been intentionally buried.

• Seven things about Daylight Savings Time you may not have known.

• Labeled with a fake name Charles Manson’s body awaits disposition in California morgue: His remains have been in the freezer for three months while a court battle if fought over who has the rights to the corpse. A ruling could set that body free in the next few days. Three men are vying for Manson’s ashes. Their attorneys appeared in Kern County on Wednesday to stake their claims. One of the three claims to be Manson’s grandchild via Rosalie Jean Willis, the cult leader’s first wife. 

• Sea-level rise in San Francisco Bay area likely to be worse than previously thought:

Sea level rise threatens to wipe out swaths of the Bay's densely populated coastlines, and a new study out today in Science Advances paints an even more dire scenario: The coastal land is also sinking, making a rising sea that much more precarious. Considering sea level rise alone, models show that, on the low end, 20 square miles could be inundated by 2100. But factor in subsiding land and that estimate jumps to almost 50 square miles. The high end? 165 square miles lost.

The problem is a geological phenomenon called subsidence. Different kinds of land sink at different rates. Take, for instance, Treasure Island, which resides between San Francisco and Oakland. It’s an artificial island made of landfill, and it’s sinking fast, at a rate of a third of an inch a year. San Francisco Airport is also sinking fast and could see half its runways and taxiways underwater by 2100, according to the new analysis.

• Sixth Circuit nominee mum on views about Roe v. Wade. Happy to discuss other rulings:

President Donald Trump’s selection to serve on the Sixth Circuit declined to say on Wednesday whether he believes the Supreme Court rightly decided Roe v. Wade, suggesting it would be inappropriate to weigh in on a case inspiring live issues that might come before his court.

While John Nalbandian emphatically told Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., of the Senate Judiciary Committee, that the high court correctly decided the landmark cases of Loving v. Virginia and Brown v. Board of Education, he said it would be inappropriate for him to comment on whether the decision finding women have a constitutional right to an abortion was a good one.

On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: FL manages to produce a gun law. That Seychelles meeting is back. Greg Dworkin leads off, then Armando gives you permission to talk about Stormy Daniels!  Arliss Bunny previews a special joint Hopping Mad/Irreverent Testimony podcast on trade & tariffs!

RadioPublic|LibSyn|YouTube|Patreon|Square Cash (Share code: Send $5, get $5!)