Midday open thread: Tribes sue over grizzly delisting; 'untreatable gonorrhea' spreading

Today’s comic by Mark Fiore is Thank you, Twitter:

• What’s coming up on Sunday Kos …

• Stop Trump and the Republicans from defunding public broadcasting, by Denise Oliver Velez


• Right-wing media politicize murder of NYPD officer to attack Black Lives Matter, Hillary and Obama, by Ian Reifowitz


• Trump’s ‘voter integrity’ panel is a joke—and a serious threat, by Sher Watts Spooner


• Were NPR tweets inciting revolution? One’s terrorist is the other’s revolutionary, by Egberto Willies


• A reason to believe and why this is important to the Democratic Party, by David Akadjian


• Someone you know has had a miscarriage. That’s a virtual guarantee, by Laura Clawson


• The GOP’s Holocaust sound byte bites back, by Jon Perr


• New poll offers deeper insight into what ails rural America, by David Jarman

• Indians sue government over decision to stop protecting Yellowstone grizzly bears: When Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke removed grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem from the Endangered Species June 22, it was barely more than a week before nine tribes of American Indians and some Native spiritual societies sued. The four-count lawsuit claims the government didn’t consult them before delisting the giant bears, a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. They also said the delisting violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The plaintiffs include the Crow Indian Tribe, the lead plaintiff,  the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Piikani Nation of Canada, the (Blackfeet) Crazy Dog Society, the Northern Arapaho Elders Society, the Hopi Bear Clan, the chairman of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, a Zuni religious leader, and others.

• The world’s biggest economies spent four times more in public investment on fossil fuels than on clean energy: The G20, comprising the world’s richest nations, invested public funds devoted to energy mostly in oil, gas, and coal projects between 2013 and 2015, according to a new analysis by environmental organizations, including Sierra Club and Oil Change International. Japan spent the most on such projects during that period, in part because of shutdown in the nation’s nuclear power plants after the Fukushima disaster. China and South Korea were next, and the United States was fourth. The report said that “Of all public finance for energy provided by G20 institutions and the multilateral development banks between 2013 and 2015, over $71.8 billion annually—or 58 percent—supported fossil fuel production, while just $18.7 billion annually—or 15 percent—supported clean energy (including renewable sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, and small hydro).

• Arctic ice cover in June near record low levels of 2012: The summer melt season got off to a fairly slow start in May, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported Thursday. But in June, ice retreated at a faster than average rate. On July 2, the extent of Arctic sea ice was at the same level as recorded in 2012 and 2016. In 2012, when the melt season ended in September, sea ice extent had reached the lowest in the satellite record. 

• World Health Organization reports that “untreatable gonorrhea” spreading:

Untreatable strains of gonorrhoea are on the rise, the World Health Organization has warned, fuelling fears that last-resort drugs will soon be futile after three confirmed cases in which antibiotics were ineffective.

Gonorrhoea is the second most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the UK after chlamydia, with almost 35,000 cases reported in England in 2014. The WHO estimates that 78 million people worldwide contract the disease each year, with most cases affecting young men and women under the age of 25.

• Urban Institute study shows LGBTQ housing discrimination: With the help of thousands of testers in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas, researchers found that same-sex couples (particularly male couples) and transgender people got less favorable treatment than similarly situated individuals seeking the same housing. Among the findings: Men in same-sex relationships were quoted average yearly costs $272 higher than men in heterosexual relationships.

On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Wandering around Poland, Trump pushes a “clash of civilizations.” Are we going in unarmed? Did Sater flip on Trump? Will McConnell flip on Trumpcare? Maddow issues fake news alert. Speaking of which, Trump claims a new charitable donation.

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