Here's the wonderful Dominique Pruitt performing "He's Got It Bad."

Previously:

Dominique Pruitt "To Win Your Love" music video

[Video Link] In July I posted a link to songstress Dominique Pruitt's "To Win Your Love." As I said, her work has a great 50s and 60s vibe. Here's a video for her song, "To Win Your Love," which will be on her upcoming album. — Read the rest

I've become an instant fan of Dominique Pruitt's songs, which have a great 50s and 60s vibe.

Incredible footage shows a tornado that sprayed debris into the sky as it ripped through a neighborhood in Johnson County, Indiana yesterday (see video below, shot by local Eric Ford, posted by Brian Krassenstein). The tornado damaged at least 75 homes within a 3-mile area, according to ABC News, and power could be down for days. — Read the rest

A fellow named Jonathon Pruitt reportedly snapped the photo below of a preserved Burger King "found behind a wall" at Wilmington, Delaware's Concord Mall. I can't locate any additional information about this monumental discovery but it's a stunning example of American fast food archaeology. — Read the rest

Police officers in Coeur d'Alene, who arrested 31 alleged members of a white nationalist gang called Patriot Front on Saturday for conspiring to riot at a Pride parade, say they are now receiving death threats from people sympathetic to the alleged hate group. — Read the rest

On June 15, 2021, the BBC reported that Israel had launched another attack into Gaza in retaliation for an assault of incendiary balloons. The headline certainly turned some heads, and seemed particularly bizarre following all of the other recent news about Israel and Palestine. — Read the rest

In the Federal Register, EPA said “critical questions remained regarding the significance of the data” that show chlorpyrifos causes neurological harm to young children.

"The Trump administration is ending funding for a network of research centers focused on environmental threats to kids, imperiling several long-running studies of pollutants' effects on child development," report @CorbinHiar & @ArielWittenberg for @EENewsUpdates.

West Virginia Manufacturers Association (whose major member is Dow Chemical) wants to do something about the frequent "boil water" advisories in the state: specifically, they want to relax the criteria that results in water being declared unsafe to drink, on the ground that West Virginians are so overweight that they can absorb more dangerous substances before reaching unhealthy concentrations of them; and besides, West Virginians don't drink much water, anyway.

The GOP-led U.S. Senate today confirmed ex-coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to run Environmental Protection Agency, in a 52-47 vote mostly along party lines.

Acting EPA Chief Andrew Wheeler has been caught –yet again– engaging with racist and conspiracy theory posts on social media. He pooh-poohed questions about online interactions he had with a Pizzagater, and tells a reporter he doesn't remember liking a racist picture of the Obamas. — Read the rest

Last year, one of EPA administrator Scott Pruitt's aides ordered a dozen $130 fountain pens paid for with taxpayer money, according to new documents that the Sierra Club retrieved through a Freedom of Information Act request. The pens were emblazoned with the EPA seal and Pruitt's signature. — Read the rest

Embattled Trump Secretary of the Interior chair Ryan Zinke (previously) unveiled a plan to raise the service charge for using our nation's parks to $70/day (it's currently $25/day), a move that would price access to national parks out of the budgets of 71% of working-class Americans.

When Nixon formed the EPA in 1970, the agency had the prescience to send photographers across America to photograph the kinds of environmental catastrophes that triggered its formation: chemical factories belching smoke; smog over cities; burning barges in the middle of waterways; clearcuts, litter and filthy lakes and rivers.

The parent company of Hooters restaurants announced it was going to manage its customer loyalty program on a blockchain and issue a cryptocurrency called Mobivity Merit. As a result, its share price jumped 50%.

From CNBC:

"We wanted to expand our existing loyalty program with something that really changes the way our customers can leverage their rewards; Mobivity Merit is real cryptocurrency, leveraging the same infrastructure and principles of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, and more, and will enable our customers to make use of their rewards in entirely new ways," Michael Pruitt, chairman, president and CEO of Chanticleer Holdings, said in a release.

America Rising, a GOP oppo research firm, has filed a slew of Freedom of Information requests seeking access to EPA employees' email, targeting employees who criticized Donald Trump, Scott Pruitt, or EPA policies, or who participated in union rallies against cuts; the requests target communications that mention Trump officials or are addressed to Democrats in Congress.

The Intercept's Sharon Lerner is the best journalist on Trumpian science appointees going, and her piece on Michael Dourson, whom Trump wants confirmed as the EPA's second most powerful executive as Director of the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention is a scorcher.

Trump wants to dismantle America's labor, environmental and safety regulations, but to do so, he needs to hold hearings, post notices, collect feedback and go through the whole long, cautious process of changing agency rules for the EPA and others.

Not since the Reagan era cold war with Russia has apocalyptic awareness been so forefront in the public's mind. Disturbing incidents ranging from nuclear football Facebook selfies to alarming North Korean military activity now accrue weekly. Sometimes hourly. What can one do besides scroll through Twitter before bedtime and let the news populate our nightmares? — Read the rest