“A homeless man who was shot multiple times after breaking into a Portland granite and marble shop is now suing the business and its owner. … Voyles, who was homeless at the time, claims he was cold and sleep-deprived. He entered the closed business through a damaged portion of a garage bay door, seeking warmth and food. While inside, Voyles picked up a drill bag and admitted in the filing that he was a trespasser who intended to keep it. The encounter escalated when Grant emerged from a back room. The lawsuit claims Voyles apologized immediately, but Grant threw a coffee mug and heavy tiles at him as Voyles ran toward the garage door to escape. When Voyles picked up a pair of bolt cutters to shield himself and unsuccessfully tried to open the locked door, Grant allegedly left the room and returned with a gun.” (08/14/26)
Yesterday, our web hosting service went down, completely and for many hours (and, I noticed, with enough multiple explanations to make it sound like more was going on than met the eye).
Naturally, that happened AFTER we’d entered a considerable amount of content for the freedom movement’s daily newspaper — content we couldn’t recover for an “email only” edition.
Improvise, adapt, overcome, etc. We switched over to just putting content in a text file for an email only edition AND hoped that the web site would come back up in time to get all that content entered for the web edition. Which didn’t happen until too late for that to be practical (I get up early in the morning to bring you RRND/FND, which means I also go to bed early after spending a little time with my family).
So, we’ve got 35 items in an “email only” edition, and 29 items in the web edition, with only two overlaps (the “top two” news stories, which get done first thing in the morning anyway).
The moral of the story: If you’re not subscribed to our email edition, you should be, even if you usually only read our content on the web:
“Nigel Farage has comfortably won a by-election that he triggered, meaning he will remain as a member of parliament after a contest that all the other major British parties boycotted, leaving his main opposition as a comedian dressed as a trash can. Farage, leader of the populist hard-right Reform UK party, was ultimately re-elected by a substantial margin, winning 22,239 votes – 1,000 more votes than he won in the 2024 general election. His main opponent, Count Binface – a self-described intergalactic space warrior – won a creditable 9,455 votes, indicating the presence of a considerable anti-Farage vote, even in one of the most right-leaning areas in Britain.” (08/14/26)
“Ukraine has proposed a deal with Russia for both sides to halt their attacks on civilian ships in the Black Sea in an apparent attempt to reopen a crucial grain corridor, Reuters reports. Kyiv is said to have made the offer through a third party. Moscow has yet to respond, the news agency added. The busy waterway is a key export route for both Russia and Ukraine, used to transport grain and other vital foodstuffs worldwide. Since July Ukraine has effectively closed the route for commercial Russian shipping. Its drones have hit nearly 220 vessels in the Sea of Azov and Black Sea, including oil tankers, grain cargo ships and passenger ferries. … During the same period, Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukraine’s southern ports, dealing a severe blow to the country’s agricultural sector.” (08/13/26)
“Two people in Seattle have submitted a petition to recall Mayor Katie Wilson, alleging she has ‘neglected her legal duty to maintain public safety and peace.’ The recall petition comes amid a slew of city controversies, the latest being the continued fallout from the deadly Bite of Seattle shooting, and the forced resignation of Police Chief Shon Barnes. Melinda Jacobson and Dale Osterud filed the recall petition with the King County Elections Office on Tuesday, Aug. 11, alleging that Wilson is ‘derelict in her duties for public safety’ of the City of Seattle. … According to the King County Elections Office, recall charges must undergo a technical review by the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Elections officials say this is where the recall effort is currently.” (08/12/26)
“An Australian jury on Thursday convicted a former Catholic bishop renowned for hosting alcohol-fueled house parties of sexually abusing two young Indigenous men. The District Court of Western Australia jury convicted Christopher Saunders, 76, of 13 out of 19 charges of sexual abuse that allegedly occurred between 2008 and 2019 in his sprawling diocese on the country’s tropical northwest coast. Prosecutors alleged he lured young Indigenous men to his church-owned house in the tourist town of Broome with free alcohol and cigarettes paid for with church funds. … The convictions included one count of sexual penetration without consent and a dozen indecent assaults.” (08/13/26)
“U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has convened a special grand jury in Washington, D.C., amid a clash with President Donald Trump, according to a report. A special grand jury is a rare legal body that can release a potentially critical report about the subject of an investigation if there is a ‘preponderance of evidence’ of wrongdoing, regardless of whether there is enough evidence to bring the person to trial. … The special grand jury has reportedly been convened as Trump has pressured Pirro to deliver on cases he wants prosecuted. Since Pirro has been in office, she has failed to successfully prosecute a man who allegedly threw a Subway sandwich at a federal agent; six Democratic lawmakers who released a video advising military members to reject illegal orders; and [Jerome] Powell, whom Trump claimed had mishandled a Federal Reserve renovation project.” (08/12/26)
“A major oil spill off Oman has spread to the country’s mainland, polluting beaches along the central coast, environmental authorities have said. Oil from the Caroline Bezengi, a tanker that has been leaking crude since running aground off Oman in June, has reached beaches in Ras Madrakah, affecting up to 40km (25 miles) of coastline, the sultanate’s Environment Authority said on Wednesday. … The Caroline Bezengi has been disabled near Oman’s Al Hallaniyat Islands since June 8, when the ship’s crew reported a suspected explosion. The cause of the incident has not been reported.” (08/13/26)
“The Trump administration has filed fraud-related charges against a former Southern Poverty Law Center official who testified during the Jan. 6 insurrection investigation, as its crack down on the anti-hate [sic] group and President Donald Trump’s perceived opponents. The Justice Department originally charged SPLC in an 11-count indictment in April, alleging that the frequent target of right-wing criticism had defrauded donors by using their money to pay informants within hate groups they were monitoring. The Trump administration has framed the payments as paying the hate groups it was supposed to monitor, such as the KKK. SPLC vehemently denies the allegations.” (08/13/26)
“Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the far-eastern Kuril islands for the first time on Thursday, prompting a ‘strong’ protest by Japan, which also claims the territory. Russian-Japanese relations have long been dogged by tensions over the contested islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and seized by the Soviet Union in 1945. The Kremlin posted a video of Putin in the Kuril Islands, with Russian media saying he visited a fish-processing plant where he was given caviar. Putin travelled to the Kurils after visiting the nearby Russian island of Sakhalin, where Russia’s navy was conducting drills. … The four contested isles are part of the volcanic Kuril archipelago, which runs in a broad arc from Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula down to Japan’s main northern island Hokkaido.” (08/13/26)
