Your Sunday reads: sexual assault, murdered dogs, water wars, Florida storm, Ramadan, Doctor Who, and TRC

It’s Sunday … so I’m reading the NYT (among others). Because it’s the web, I’m not just reading today’s stories.

I’m going to adopt my friend Karen’s new shorthand, The Republican Candidate (TRC), and try to avoid TRC all the time.

 

1. Sexual assault victim eloquently describes repercussions

If you read nothing else today, read this 12-page, single-spaced letter (embedded in this post at the bottom). #longread

A jury convicted the then-freshman Stanford swimmer who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman of three felonies. The judge sentenced him to only six months in jail because a longer sentence would have “a severe impact on him.” At his sentencing, his victim read her letter in court.

LA Times, 4 June 2016
Backstory: Washington Post, 3 June 2016; San Jose Mercury News, 31 March 2016; LA Times, 30 March 2016

 

2. TRC

“To some of us, Trump is a fundamentally unserious person, and thus a dangerous one. To others, he’s a vessel of grievance and protest, and that’s enough. The chasm between those viewpoints isn’t easily bridged. So we take detours around it.”
New York Times, 5 June 2016

 

3. It’s Ramadan (tonight)

At our CD Caucus, while I was talking with a young man about his being an at-large delegate, I learned that the state convention takes place during Ramadan. It starts tonight, on the first sighting of the new moon.
VOA News, 5 June 2016
Backstory: faithstreet.com, 16 June 2015

 

4. The Perils of Irrigating a Desert to Create a Breadbasket and Urban Oasis

This is the story of the delta smelt, a small fish on the endangered species list that serves as a proxy (think canary in a coal mine) for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem; urban-rural conflict; and a total lack of understanding of how public infrastructure created the monster that is southern California — and why spending $25 billion to fix it, won’t. And no, I don’t think anyone has a “right” to live year-round or farm in an unsustainable environment. Ted Cruz and TRC both used the delta smelt as a rhetorical battering ram while campaigning in California.
Pacific Standard Magazine, 3 June 2016
Backstory: The Atlantic, 24 February 2014; Good, 5 June 2010; Bay-Delta Conservation Plan

 

5. Tropical Depression/Storm Heads Towards Florida

And yes, they are not unusual in June. But this is the third named storm since June 1, when the season began.
Washington Post, 5 June 2016

 

6. Pop Culture

Doctor Who Series Ten To Start Filming In Two Weeks
doctorwhowatch.com, 4 June 2016

 

7. Regional WTH

A retired state patrol officer and his brother shot and killed three Great Pyrenees livestock protection dogs in 2012. On purpose. Lied about it. Was given a slap on the wrist by criminal court. Lost big time in civil court in March. Good.
Bend Bulletin, 11 March 2016
Backstory: Bend Bulletin, 28 October 2013