July 6, 2015

• Today South Carolina lawmakers will start deciding the fate of the State House's Confederate flag.
• Reminder: The US Capitol is still full of statues of Confederates.
• NASCAR fans at Daytona proudly display Confederate flags that have "absolutely nothing to do with slavery."
• "You never really know a person until you see them on the news in a bullet-proof vest, being escorted by police."
• Fear, not freedom, defines America for many, including Ta-Nehisi Coates—and, he fears, his son.
• Clinton emails uncover State Dept.'s role in 2009 Honduras power struggle.
• "Germany is the country that has never repaid its debts. It has no standing to lecture other nations."
• Whether or not Greece stays in the euro, it's going to cost Greece and the eurozone.
• Economists doubt finances behind a flurry of record-setting healthcare mergers and acquisitions.
• Tunisia, reeling from terror attack, pledges to close around 80 mosques accused of extremism.
• An Indian state is in turmoil as hundreds killed in Mafia-like fallout from education scandal.
• Nader's letters to the president.
• America's fetish for automation is putting nuclear safety at risk.
• How a new World War with Russia could happen.
• Disaster predictions, calculated.
• Burt Shavitz, cofounder of Burt's Bees, dies at 80.
• A year ago, Burt Shavitz's tell-all documentary debuted.
• "In Vermont, any road that was ever officially entered into a town's record books remains legally recognized, indefinitely."
• The story behind the wall of amps behind the Grateful Dead, pioneers of sonic tech that became the live music standard.
• Smugglers posed as filmmakers to move hundreds of pounds of hash out of Morocco in 1972.
• Astronomers say crust and ice suggest possible life on the Philae comet.
• Sensor-laden Chicago could measure summer vibes—and tensions.
• Indiana is getting closer to ending school-bus transportation for children heading to class.
• Most of the time, weird news is snarky Mencken. Less commonly found: sympathy.
• After his laptop crashes, aspiring rapper records album on Apple Store computers.