1. 4 million
Supporters of the New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform Campaign rally at Battery Park on July 14, 2014 in New York City, with the Statue of Liberty in the background. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
-
President Obama will announce his plan to protect 4 million undocumented immigrants from deportation tomorrow night.
[Vox / Dara Lind]
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The stipulations are expected to include the length of time the immigrants have been in the US and their family ties here.
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But, reportedly, farm workers and parents of undocumented immigrants who came here as children ("DREAMers") won't get special protections.
[Politico / Carrie Budoff Brown, Seung Min Kim, and Anna Palmer]
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The program is based on an existing one for DREAMers; here's how that one works.
[Vox / Dara Lind]
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Presidents have unilaterally protected immigrants from deportation at least four times before (including Obama's protections for DREAMers).
[Vox / Matt Yglesias]
-
Conservatives are naturally up at arms, but Jon Chait argues liberals should be worried too.
[NY Mag / Jonathan Chait]
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One debate Republicans are having: do we use this precedent to take drastic executive action once we're back in the White House?
[Federalist / Gabriel Malor]
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It does appear that Obama has a lot of legal leeway here; the question is about the precedent it sets and the political ramifications.
[Congressional Research Service / Kate Manuel and Todd Garvey]
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The announcement coincides with the Latin Grammys, which will cut away for them, ensuring a large Latino audience.
[Washington Post / Ed O'Keefe]
2. 15 accusers
Bill Cosby performs onstage at Funny Or Die Clubhouse + Facebook Pop-Up HQ @ SXSW - Day 2 on March 10, 2014 in Austin, Texas. (Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images)
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Netflix has canceled a comedy special by Bill Cosby, and NBC has killed plans for a new sitcom with him, in light of allegations by 15 different women that he sexually assaulted them.
[Vox / Kelsey McKinney]
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TV Land has pulled reruns of "The Cosby Show" as well.
[Vox / Jenée Desmond-Harris]
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Unfamiliar with the allegations against Cosby? Here are the basics.
[Vox / Jenée Desmond-Harris]
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Tom Scocca at Gawker has a comprehensive rundown of the accusations, up to February of this year.
[Gawker / Tom Scocca]
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There have been more accusations since then, included in this helpful timeline from Vulture.
[Vulture / Matt Giles]
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The latest woman to come forward is model Janice Dickinson, who claims Cosby assaulted her in 1982.
[Vox / Jenée Desmond-Harris]
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The allegations consistently involve Cosby drugging women — which, disturbingly, he joked about on a 1969 comedy album.
[Bill Cosby - "Spanish Fly"]
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Most of the accusations are years old but received renewed interest in light of (1) Scocca's piece and (2) comedian Hannibal Buress incorporating a bit highlighting the accusations into his standup act.
[Vox / Dylan Matthews]
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A Twitter request by Cosby for fans to "meme him" last week was quickly coopted by critics who used it to highlight the accusations.
[Vox / Jenée Desmond-Harris]
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Cosby's lawyer responds: "Mr. Cosby does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment."
[John P. Schmitt via AP]
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If you would like to see the worst possible way to handle this, here's a video of Don Lemon asking one of the accusers why she didn't bite Cosby's penis.
[Vox / Jenée Desmond-Harris]
3. Ferguson waits
Demonstrators mark with a protest the 101st day since Michael Brown was killed on November 17, 2014 in Clayton, Missouri. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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The grand jury considering whether to charge Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown meets Friday, maybe for the last time.
[CNN / Evan Perez, Shimon Prokupecz, and Moni Basu]
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The jury could conclude that the shooting was justified if they were convinced that Wilson reasonably believed his life was in danger or that Brown was a violent felon trying to escape.
[Vox / Dara Lind]
-
11 essential facts about the situation in Ferguson, to get you up to speed.
[Vox / Amanda Taub]
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Alternately, check out our full explainer here.
[Vox / German Lopez]
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Leaked emails show the Ferguson police department was divided on how to handle protests, with some attacking Capt. Ron Johnson, the officer in charge, as overly sympathetic to protesters.
[AP / David Lieb]
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Chicago, San Francisco, and many other cities have even bigger racial disparities in arrests than Ferguson.
[USA Today / Brad Heath]
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Gov. Jay Nixon's Ferguson Commission was widely expected to be a perfunctory exercise conducted to assuage protesters, but its members sound serious about doing a real investigation.
[MSNBC / Trymaine Lee]
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Nickelback has written a protest song about Ferguson for some reason.
[Jezebel / Jia Tolentino]
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If you're looking for a good Ferguson protest song, Vince Staples' "Hands Up" is outstanding.
[Vince Staples]
4. Misc.
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Hot cake sales fall, endangering the country's supply of metaphors.
[Businessweek / Kyle Stock]
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Texas is about to execute a schizophrenic man who claimed that "demons had been laughing at him" after he murdered his wife's parents.
[Slate / Boer Deng and Dahlia Lithwick]
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Ukrainian separatists are having large mobs of people vote on punishments for criminals.
[New Republic / Noah Sneider]
-
A philosopher explains Willow and Jaden Smith's latest interview.
[Vice / Arielle Pardes]
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Every year, dozens of butchers commute almost 14,000 miles from New Zealand to Iceland to slaughter sheep.
[BBC / Megan Lane]
-
How the Sexiest Man Alive issue of People gets made.
[Slate / Amanda Hess]
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An effective asthma treatment program will probably disband because of Medicaid's flawed payment system.
[Washington Post / Danielle Paquette]
5. Verbatim
-
"I went to the dean covered in scabs and with broken ribs. And he said, 'Do you think it was just regrettable sex?'"
[Liz Seccuro to Rolling Stone / Sabrina Rubin Erdely]
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"A defender of Bill Cosby must, effectively, conjure a vast conspiracy, created to bring down one man, seemingly just out of spite."
[The Atlantic / Ta-Nehisi Coates]
-
"What exploded over Russia this time?"
[Slate / Phil Plait]
-
"Cracker Barrel is the Tim Duncan of chain restaurants: It's a superstar, but slightly boring, but efficient."
[Hannibal Buress via Splitsider / Megh Wright]
-
"I killed feminism. Why did I do that? Rats. I did not mean to do that."
[Gillian Flynn to NYT / Cara Buckley]
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