Pepper-spray, not another gun, was sufficiently mighty to stop America's most recent mass shooting by a stalking gunman. But beyond that, so much looked familiar: A young white man with a gun and a knife, an educational institution for a setting (Seattle Pacific University, in this case), the swift implementation of well-orchestrated disaster plans, devastated families and students, grim dissections of a shooting suspect's motives, and a soon-to-cue histrionic defense from the gun lobby.
Canada's had one this month, too. A young white man accused of ambushing and killing three mounties, and putting a town in New Brunswick in an agonizing lockdown while he hid out, was finally arrested after an all-day manhunt.
On the subject, someone left a loaded gun in the toy aisle of a Target in South Carolina—coincidentally right after a campaign launched to persuade the retailer not to let people "open-carry" in its stores.
Hold the Vodafone! One of the world's largest phone providers (just not in America) has admitted installing and operating secret equipment that gives government spies direct access to live telephone calls and real-time streams of cell phone data.
Texas Republicans are the most homophobic Republicans. The state party, which already believes "homosexuality tears at the fabric of society," wants to add support for (typically abusive) pray-the-gay-away counseling to its official platform.
Technically, sexual harassment has just been banned in Egypt. But that won't matter much, police and advocates say, in a society that discourages women from ever coming forward with complaints.
We're back! But not really! The good news in the latest payroll report (217,000 new jobs last month; the first tine in 14 years we've had four months in a row with at least 200,000 new jobs; total payrolls reaching their pre-recession pinnacle) is outweighed pretty much by the bad news in the latest payroll report (a 40-year low in labor participation rates; disproportionate unemployment for minorities, the young, and the under-educated; still not enough jobs for the millions who've joined the workforce since 2008).
Republicans in Congress now say they didn't really mean it all those times in the past five years when they demanded the president do whatever it takes not to abandon an American soldier and bring Bowe Bergdahl home.
Some fresh questions have emerged on whether Bergdahl had even been attempting to desert before his capture in Afghanistan. Sources say he'd been to known to wander from his unit, but also return, sometimes for long solo hikes.
North Korea has jailed another American tourist, bringing its current number up to three. Kim Jong Un might be trying to attract a visit from an American VIP—so he can crow about, on TV, how he brought the mighty United States to its begging knees.
A pack of teenagers, in the Lloyd Center, reportedly assaulted a homeless couple last night—with one teen shoving a woman to the ground and another punching her partner when he got up to confront the kids.
The Columbia River Crossing is still dead. And now its slayers, Republicans from Washington state, have decided to see about deploying a smaller beast in its place.
The NBA Finals! The air-conditioning in San Antonio broke down last night, and the Miami Heat somehow couldn't cope—losing embarrassingly to the aged-like-fine-cheese Spurs.
"SAVOR" THE FINEST PERFORMANCE BY ANTHROPOMORPHIC FOOD SINCE PEE-WEE HERMAN'S REFRIGERATOR ON SATURDAY MORNINGS.
