Today's Takes: Thursday, July 8

Good morning, everyone. The photo above is from the cover of a Joel Salatin book that I suggest everyone purchase and put on their shelf.

Thanks for reading

Headlines

🗳 Eric Adams wins Democratic primary in NYC’s mayoral race (AP)

After a hotly contested, confusing recount that drew the attention of the entire nation, the tally vindicated Eric Adams. Adams ran a strong anti-crime campaign reminiscent of David Dinkins' campaign at the height of the NYC crack epidemic. As violence surges around the country in the wake of BLM's racial reckoning, it's a positive sign that NYC chose a mayor with awareness of the difficulties of policing and acknowledges that the problems start at a community level.

📰 TODAY IN: General Headlines

• Bitcoin Fraud Concerns Draw Scrutiny From Regulators (WSJ)
• Trump to sue Facebook, Twitter CEOs (The Hill)
• UFC Inks $175 Million Crypto Deal, Its Largest Sponsorship Ever (Sportico)
• Student-Loan Holders Get Piecemeal Relief From Biden Administration (WSJ)

🤡 TODAY IN: Clown World News

• Riot Leader Had ‘Fully Constructed U.S. Capitol Lego Set’ at Home, FBI Says (Daily Beast)
• Pornography literacy classes are supposed to teach students how to critically assess what they see on the screen. But when a sex-positive educator taught her curriculum at two elite New York City schools recently, some parents were outraged. (NY Times)
  • Sex-positive used to be called prostitution or something like that

🦠 TODAY IN: Covid Tracker

Reposting our recap of the stats of Covid which haven't changed. It is easy to lose track of this stuff (Read)

• Australia’s largest city Sydney locks down for third week (AP)
  • ...despite only 27 new cases.
  • Lockdowns still don't have an effect on rates of fatal infection
• Delta Covid-19 Variant Gains Ground Among the Unvaccinated (WSJ)
  • ...hospitalizations continue to fall.
  • The Delta variant is more contagious, but significantly less deadly
• Lambda COVID variant: All you need to know about the new UK coronavirus strain (Science Focus)
  • It's still early, but lambda accounts for a large share of cases in Peru
  • New strains are identified by an increase in transmissibility and/or severity
  • It is exceedingly rare (meaning unobserved in nature) that a virus gains both transmissibility and severity

Original Reads

In case you missed it

• Avuncular Tom by Jerod Hollyfield (Read)
• The Man Who Sued the World by Megan Lee Podsiedlik (Read)
• Tenured Negligence by Jerod Hollyfield (Read)
• Critical Race Theory for Dummies by The Pamphleteer (Read)

Nashville Politics

• Election commission seeks to settle one lawsuit (Main Street)
• Davidson Election Commission chair says he was fired from law firm due to vote over anti-tax hike referendum (Tennessean)
  • Jim DeLanis, chairman of Davidson County Election Commission, told The Tennessean Tuesday he was fired from his private job last week after 40 years of employment.
  • The reason, he said, was because he voted as the commission chair to appeal a judge's decision deeming the controversial anti-tax hike referendum invalid.
• North Nashville community to weigh in on how to spend infrastructure funding for neighborhood (Channel 5)

Nashville News

• Owner of Spring Hill company charged in alleged $86 million Medicare fraud scheme (Homepage)
• Does This Weekend's Fireworks Fiasco Reveal Nashville's True Priorities? (Scene)
  • Betsy Phillips does a good job pointing out how egregiously the city has begun to bend over backward to cater to tourists
  • Governor Lee's "free tickets" to tourists announcement yesterday underscores this point even more

Nashville Development

• Gulch site eyed for mixed-use tower (Post)
• Crown Bakeries continues expansion run with bagel manufacturer (Post)
• Las Vegas ramen franchise looks to cement itself in Nashville community (Biz Journal)
• Just months after opening, Fifth + Broadway has 'far exceeded our expectations' (Biz Journal)
• Retirement tech company establishing U.S. headquarters in Nashville (Post)

One Good Read

🎭 Why Saving Comedy Is So Crucial To Saving America (Read)

Something to Watch

🪀 Chuck Hoberman's toys will be familiar to you. The Harvard based designer has produced some of the more iconic what-exactly-is-this-thing widgets that have littered playrooms for the past 30 years

Something to look at

Stat of the Day

Have a great Thursday