“Authorities suspect sabotage caused a train derailment in northwestern France that injured 44 people after a piece of rail was found on the track. The regional train was carrying 186 passengers from Rouen to Caen when it derailed Friday evening in Cleon. One carriage tipped onto its side while four others left the tracks. … A spokeswoman for the French national police communications service, known as SICOP, told The Associated Press the piece of rail found on the track was ‘probably’ linked to the derailment. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she wasn’t authorized to be publicly named in line with police policy.” (09/12/26)
“Age-verification seems like a simple fix. And it is often driven by a genuine concern for kids’ safety and well-being. But it comes at a cost: age-verification threatens our anonymous speech online. As trendy as age-verification might be, it is worth taking a moment, in the year of America’s 250th anniversary, to remind ourselves of the deep history of anonymous speech in the United States—a speech right that can easily be underestimated or denigrated.” (09/11/26)
“Wednesday night in Dallas, Donald Trump declared that the 2026 midterms would determine ‘if our country stumbles at the starting gate of our next 250 years or surges forward and never looks back.’ That is how he began his long, rambling convention speech, promising to ‘leave the world in our dust.’ But far from a display of power and forward-looking ideas, Trump’s speech came off more like a sermon from Jonestown. And observers noticed. My own overriding thought was: ‘This speech was like some sort of performance art piece of a live entombing of a mad king and his most loyal followers.'” (09/11/26)
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday offered the lone holdout juror of the Lindsay Clancy case ‘asylum’ after a report alleged that the juror had faced domestic violence accusations in the past. … DeSantis said the report was an attempt at damaging the reputation of the man, who has not identified himself but who others on the jury said is black and in his 30s. ‘A man objected to allowing a woman to kill her three young kids and get away with it, so NBC is trying to smear that juror, whose identity should be protected. Another low for legacy media,’ DeSantis wrote on X in response to the NBC10 report. ‘If the juror is being harassed, Florida will provide asylum — I’m sure he’d be welcomed and appreciated.’” (09/12/26)
“There is an argument making the rounds: Flock cameras are good because cop cams have proven themselves so useful. More transparency! Flock cameras, you may remember, are the traffic cameras integrally linked to an artificial intelligence that tracks car license plates (and thus the cars, and drivers) that come within the cameras’ field of vision. The company contracts with cities and other governments. To surveil us. You know, ‘to protect us from crime.'” (09/11/26)
“David Keith Cobb, a longtime organizer within the Green Party of the United States who helped the party secure federal recognition as a national committee before going on to become its 2004 presidential nominee, died Monday at the age of 63. The national Green Party announced Cobb’s passing this week, confirming that he died on Labor Day. … The Green Party nominated Cobb for president at its 2004 national convention, with Maine activist Pat LaMarche selected as his running mate.” [editor’s note: I was a few feet away when Cobb and 2004 Libertarian presidential nominee Michael Badnarik got arrested together while attempting to serve a lawsuit to Presidential Debate Commission in St. Louis; he was an opponent, but not an enemy – TLK] (09/11/26)
