A judge says that a Florida redistricting plan pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis violates the state constitution. The state judge said Saturday the plan is prohibited from being used for any future U.S. congressional elections since it diminishes the ability of Black voters in north Florida to pick a representative of their choice. The judge sent the plan back to the Florida Legislature with instructions that lawmakers should draw a new congressional map that complies with the Florida Constitution. The decision in state court was the latest to strike down new congressional maps in Southern states over concerns that they diluted Black voting power.
"So many memories and so little worth remembering, and in front of me — a long, long road without a goal..."
Fathers and Sons
Ivan Turgenev died #OTD in 1883. His first major publication, a short story collection titled A Sportsman's Sketches (1852), was a milestone of Russian realism. His novel Fathers and Sons (1862) is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century fiction. via @wikipedia
Books by Ivan Turgenev at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/922
‘If you really can't figure out which political party or which politician to vote for, just ask if they're on the side of libraries.
Are they voting to fund their libraries?
Are they voting to keep them free?
Then vote for those guys.
They're probably the good guys.
And by the same token, the book burners, the book banners, they're probably the bad guys.’
Neil Gaiman is a fierce supporter of libraries. The author of American Gods, Neverwhere, Good Omens, The Sandman, Coraline, and so many more has had a lifelong love affair with reading. And he credits librarians for fostering his curiosity about books and learning at a young age. Gaiman spoke with I Love Libraries recently about libraries, comic books, book banning in the U.S., movies, and more.
My beautiful country is on fire.
Firefighters are so overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster that the military has been deployed to help.
Entire cities have been evacuated.
14 million hectares of land has burned in Canada this year, easily dwarfing the previous record of 7.6 million hectares reported in 1989 — and the season isn't even over yet.
Severe drought and extreme heat was exacerbated by fossil fuel-induced #climate change, with dry lightening + wind = deadly.
All these red states are now boasting about how they are withdrawing from the American Library Association. They aren’t just satisfied with banning books, they want to get rid of the places that keep and lend them, too. The Christian Right is on the march.
Carl Sagan once warned us of the “dumbing down” of America. He warned of a time when our “critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...”
That time is upon us. We must do all we can to prevent that darkness from taking hold.
To offer a clearer picture of how much progress has been made since #detroit's bankruptcy the Free Press dug into metrics spanning the last decade.
#SocialScienceSunday #BlackMastodon
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2023/07/16/detroit-bankruptcy-anniversary-10-years-progress/70398976007/
Red-tailed Hawk
Most common roadside raptor across much of North America. Often perches atop telephone poles, light posts, and edges of trees. Incredible variation in plumages, including less common dark morphs and various regional differences. Eastern adults have brilliant reddish-orange tail and pale underparts with obvious band of dark marks across belly. Western birds are typically darker. Immatures do not have a red tail.
Link: https://ebird.org/species/rethaw
Photo Location: United States
Most common roadside raptor across much of North America. Often perches atop telephone poles, light posts, and edges of trees. Incredible variation in plumages, including less common dark morphs and various regional differences. Eastern adults have brilliant reddish-orange tail and pale underparts with obvious band of dark marks across belly. Western birds are typically darker. Immatures do not have a red tail.
"The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them."
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett was born #OTD in 1861. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Wells dedicated her career to combating prejudice and violence, and advocating for African-American equality—especially that of women. via @wikipedia
Books by Ida Bell Wells-Barnett at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/5765
Virginia S. O'Possum
Kriszta Satori
Project Gutenberg
Yahia Lababidi
Meanwhile in Canada
George Takei 
🏳️🌈🖖🏽
jenifer daniels ♎ :verified:
Bird of the day