Obviously a major story today is the deaths at the hands of police of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. We’ve covered this in a story earlier today and will have more writing on it coming soon — this link roundup also includes the developments in those stories that have happened since noon EST.

Chelsea Manning Hospitalized With No Explanation

+ Chelsea Manning was taken to the hospital from the United State Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she is incarcerated — but it’s hard to say exactly why. Manning’s lawyers say they weren’t notified about her hospitalization and haven’t been allowed to be in touch with her.

“We’re shocked and outraged that an official at Leavenworth contacted the press with private confidential medical information about Chelsea Manning yet no one at the Army has given a shred of information to her legal team,” said Nancy Hollander, lead attorney on Manning’s defense team, in a statement.

Vague sources, seemingly beginning with a tweet from CNN reporter Shimon Prokupecz, had apparently told the media that Manning was hospitalized due to an attempted suicide attempt but neither the military nor Manning’s lawyers have confirmed that. Fort Leavenworth’s spokesperson suggested that one reason Manning’s lawyers may not have been notified was that “…the military’s notification policy depends on the seriousness of the person’s condition, suggesting Manning’s condition was not life-threatening.” Manning’s legal team’s full statement can be read here. Reportedly the military has told them that they earliest they can speak with Chelsea is on Friday.

Aftermath of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile’s Deaths

+ Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds, who survived along with her four-year-old daughter what was a deadly police interaction for her boyfriend Philando Castile and even managed to record it, spoke outside of the Minnesota governor’s mansion today.You can watch the full video of her remarks here.

Diamond Reynolds, Philando Castile’s girlfriend being consoled as she talks about her boyfriend’s shooting death. Jim Mone/AP

Reynolds also reported that she and her four-year-old daughter were taken into custody after Castile was shot and killed, where they were separated from each other and couldn’t access food or water.

+ Philando Castile’s coworkers in St. Paul remember him with love.

‘Kids loved him. He was smart, over-qualified. He was quiet, respectful, and kind. I knew him as warm and funny; he called me his ‘wing man.’ He wore a shirt and tie to his supervisor interview and said his goal was to one day ‘sit on the other side of this table.’

+ President Obama has responded to the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile on Facebook.

+ Beyoncé has written an open letter after the two men’s deaths with a call to action.

Election

+ Sources are saying Bernie Sanders is expected to endorse Hillary Clinton this Tuesday, with some saying he was “swayed” when she added elements of his higher education policy to her platform.

+ Hillary announced an addition to her platform that involves “[eliminating] tuition at in-state public colleges and universities for families with annual incomes up to $125,000”, a policy that many are saying was influenced by Bernie Sanders’ campaign, which called for a similar change.

+ Today in sadly unsurprising news: Donald Trump supporters “more likely than other Americans to describe Black people as “criminal,” “violent,” “less intelligent,” “rude” and lazy” as compared to Whites.”

Police/Violence

+ The lawyers for the four remaining officers who have yet to stand trial for their part in Freddie Gray’s death attempted to have the judge dismiss their cases altogether, but the judge has refused, and they will in fact stand trial.

+ Baltimore brought a new use of force policy into effect for its police officers on July 1, which emphasizes deescalation and “the sanctity of life.” From Colorlines:

• Increased reporting requirements for incidents that involve force, including a form for when officers point a gun or flash a Taser’s current
• A focus on quickly deescalating incidents
• Officers must step in if their colleagues are using excessive force
• Officers have a duty to provide medical aid or immediate hospital transport

+ New York’s Riis Beach has historically been a haven for the LGBT community, with a looser approach to alcohol and nudity than most seaside destinations. On July 4, beachgoers said it didn’t feel like much of a haven — there was a heavy police presence all day, “on horses, in uniform, undercover”, and their presence culminated in the arrest of Krys Fox, a gay photographer who said that he had wrapped a towel around his waist to cover himself while his wet swim shorts dried off, and when the towel accidentally slipped, “six uniformed officers and several undercover plainclothes officers carried Fox off the beach as he screamed, ‘Help me.'” Fox reports he spent three hours in a cell wearing a paper gown, was issued five tickets, and was released and sent home without any clothes.

+ More information on the life and death of Ronnie Shumpert, who was brutally killed after being pulled over in a routine traffic stop.

Smith said he may have run from the traffic stop because he knew the potential for police interactions to escalate. “I think he ran out of fear,” she said. “I think he ran truly out of fear. That’s one thing he didn’t want to deal with is the police, because of the police brutality that goes on nowadays. He just wanted to stay clear of the police. His thing was, ‘I just want to get a job, work and take care of my family.’ That’s all he wanted to do.”

+ As of July 5, American police forces have killed 582 people — a number which has to be painstakingly researched and recorded by communities, activists and journalists, since the government doesn’t record that information. A disproportionate number of people killed are of color, especially Black and/or Native, and many are mentally ill. What happened to the police officers involved in those deaths? Well:

According to the Wall Street Journal, 2015 saw the highest number of police officers being charged for deadly, on-duty shootings in a decade: 12 as of September 2015. Still, in a year when approximately 1,200 people were killed by police, zero officers were convicted of murder or manslaughter, painting the picture that officers involved in killing another person will not be held accountable for their actions.

Grab Bag

Roger Ailes and Gretchen Carlson (AP Photo/Richard Drew, file)

+ Gretchen Carlson, longtime Fox News anchor, has revealed that she’s no longer with the network and says that it’s because she turned down sexual advances from Roger Ailes, head of the network.

In the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in New Jersey’s Superior Court in Bergen County, where Ailes lives, Carlson alleged that Ailes began “ostracizing, marginalizing, and shunning” her when she refused to have a sexual relationship with him and complained of her treatment by Ailes and former “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy. The eight-page lawsuit alleges that Ailes violated the New York City Human Rights Law. When Carlson met with Ailes to discuss the discriminatory treatment to which she was being subjected, Ailes allegedly stated, “I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago and then you’d be good and better and I’d be good and better,” according to the complaint, adding that “sometimes problems are easier to solve” that way.

+ On Monday a bombing was carried out at the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, a holy site for Muslims around the world. At least four people were killed in the explosion.

+ Members of the Obama administration, including Obama himself, will no longer visit colleges or universities that fail to effectively address sexual assault.

+ A piece on how while some attempts have been launched to more fully integrate NY’s school system, there’s a failure to organize a comprehensive top-down effort.

…no comprehensive plans have emerged from City Hall or theEducation Department. The schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, has said she wants to avoid mandates in favor of proposals that bubble up from schools and local communities “organically.” That approach, say critics like Councilman Ritchie Torres, a Democrat who represents parts of the Bronx, amounts to tinkering around the edges of a dense and vast problem.

+ Conservative UK leader Stephen Crabb claims he doesn’t support “gay cure” therapy, although his office employed interns through the Christian Action Research and Education group, which advocates for “ex-gay” treatment and “has funded internship places for young people to be placed with MPs as researchers or interns.”

+ A candidate for governor in Missouri, Eric Greitens, has been giving out “ISIS hunting permits,” and the local Muslim community is very worried that it will empower non-Muslims to harass and assault them.

“When [people] get a bumper sticker saying ‘Here’s your permit to attack ISIS,’ and they see a young Muslim lady at Wal-Mart, and they’re like, ‘This is ISIS, I’m going to attack them,’ that’s when the real trouble begins,” Faizen Syed, spokesperson for the Missouri chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told FOX 2 news. Indeed, threats, violent assaults, protests, airport profiling, and instances of vandalism directed at the American Muslim community have risen in the wake of ISIS-affiliated terrorist attacks, even though the Muslim victims are not known to have any connection to the murderous group.

+ Two churches in Iowa are suing the Iowa Civil Rights Act, which includes public accommodations protections for transgender people, saying that the law could force the churches to accept trans people and allow trans people to use the bathrooms that correspond to their gender in their church, and that this makes the Iowa Civil Rights Act unconstitutional.

+ The Obama administration has announced it is imposing sanctions on Kim Jong-Un personally in response to “grave human rights abuses.”

+ Justin Trudeau told reporters Canada is “considering” a gender-neutral option on ID cards.

+ A group of women won a class-action lawsuit against Macy’s after they found they shared similar stories of being detained in what seemed like jail cells inside of Macy’s when employees accused them without any evidence of shoplifting, having their phones and personal items confiscated, and not being allowed to leave until they paid Macy’s $100. It seems Macy’s practices primarily targeted women of color.

Faruk Usar of Usar Law Group, who represents Reyes and Moftah, said: “We’re just starting. There will be discovery to see how many people have gone through this experience. We are seeking all the money Macy’s collected to be returned.” The court enjoined Macy’s from “demanding, requesting, collecting, receiving, or accepting any payments” that connect with the statutes from suspected shoplifters while detained in Macy’s custody.

+ The FBI is now investigating the case of a black man found hanging from a tree in Piedmont Park after social media users demanded a further investigation. Police found there were “no discernible signs of a struggle or foul play” and a medical examiner concluded “the death was consistent with a suicide.” However in the wake of the shooting deaths of two black men in within the last 24 hours, Twitter users expressed outrage and called it a “another modern-day lynching.”

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