In Brief: 7-25-16

On their convention’s eve, Democrats bedeviled anew by email

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — On the heels of a tumultuous Republican convention, Hillary Clinton arrives in Philadelphia eager to show off a forward-looking Democratic Party united behind her steady leadership. To do that, she must overcome lingering bitterness among supporters of defeated rival Bernie Sanders and clean up a resurgent political mess of the party’s own making.

The resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee made for a rocky start on Sunday, as the Florida congresswoman heeded Sanders’ longstanding call to leave as party chief. Her departure comes a few days after the publication of 19,000 hacked emails, which Sanders said confirmed his belief the national party played favorites for Clinton during the primary.

“The party now needs new leadership that will open the doors of the party and welcome in working people and young people,” Sanders said.

Wasserman Schultz’s abrupt departure was undoubtedly an effort to keep the Democrats’ gathering from devolving into the tumult that marred last week’s GOP meeting, when runner-up Ted Cruz pointedly and publicly refused to endorse nominee Donald Trump. As he demanded Wasserman Schultz’s resignation, Sanders made clear he wants to see Clinton in the White House.

“I’m going to do everything I can to defeat him, to elect Hillary Clinton and to keep focusing, keep focusing on the real issues facing the American people,” Sanders said on CNN.

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Wasserman Schultz goes from favored to on the outs

WASHINGTON (AP) — Five years ago, Debbie Wasserman Schultz was put in charge of the Democratic National Committee to usher in a new era for the party. Now, Wasserman Schultz is on her way out, after the publication of emails that suggest Democratic officials favored Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders during the nominating contests.

The scandal is rocking the party on the eve of their convention, and the fall is a stunning one for the tough-talking Florida representative who became the first woman elected to chair the DNC. Two other women have served in the role but were appointed.

On Sunday, Wasserman Schultz announced she would step down as DNC chairwoman at the end of the party’s convention, after some of the 19,000 emails, presumably stolen from the DNC by hackers, were posted to the website Wikileaks.

To Sanders’ supporters, the email scandal proved what they long suspected: The Democratic Party had become a clubby establishment that was resistant to change and reluctant to embrace a more progressive agenda.

For years though, it seemed, Wasserman Schultz was unstoppable.

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Thousands of pro-Sanders, anti-fracking marchers hit streets

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Thousands of demonstrators took to Philadelphia’s sweltering streets Sunday, cheering, chanting and beating drums in the first major protests ahead of the Democratic National Convention, as the city wilted during a heat wave.

Throngs of Bernie Sanders supporters marched down a main thoroughfare to show their support of him and disdain for Hillary Clinton ahead of the convention.

Chanting “Hell No, DNC, we won’t vote for Hillary” and “This is what democracy looks like,” the marchers headed from City Hall down Broad Street, the main north-south artery that leads from the city center to the convention site about 4 miles away.

Though planned for months, Sunday’s marches came as fractures appeared in the party that had been trying to display a show of unity in recent weeks. Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned Sunday as Democratic Party chair over an email suggesting the DNC had played favorites for Clinton during the primary. It was a stunning leadership shakeup as party officials gather in Philadelphia to nominate Clinton.

The Democrats had been trying to avoid the divide that was apparent in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention last week. But the hacked emails, published by Wikileaks, further fired up Sanders supporters, who long accused the party of favoring Clinton despite officially being neutral.

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Police: Man, likely attacker, dies in explosion in Germany

BERLIN (AP) — Police in the southern German city of Ansbach said Monday a man was killed when an explosive device he was believed to be carrying went off near an open-air music festival, injuring 10 others.

Ansbach police said in a statement that just after 10 p.m. Sunday they were alerted to an explosion in the city center.

“A man, according to our current knowledge the perpetrator, died” in the blast they said in the short statement. Further details weren’t immediately available and they did not pick up their telephone lines.

The dpa news agency reported that the nearby open-air concert with some 2,500 in attendance was shut down as a precaution after the explosion.

The city’s mayor, Carda Seidel, told reporters that an “explosive device” blew up in the city center but provided few other details.

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Munich shooter was bullied loner, planned attack for a year

MUNICH (AP) — The teenager behind the deadly shooting rampage in Munich was a withdrawn loner obsessed with playing “killer” video games in his bedroom, a victim of bullying who suffered from panic attacks set off by contacts with other people, investigators said Sunday, adding that he had planned the attack for a year.

Law enforcement officials piecing together a portrait of the 18-year-old shooter said he was seeing a doctor up to last month for treatment of depression and psychiatric problems that began in 2015 with inpatient hospital care followed by outpatient visits.

They said medication for his problems had been found his room. But toxicological and autopsy results were still not available, so it’s not yet clear whether he was taking the medicine when he went on his shooting rampage Friday, killing nine people and leaving dozens wounded.

The 18-year-old German-Iranian, identified only as David S. due to Germany privacy laws, had earlier been described by investigators as being bullied by schoolmates at least once four years ago and being fascinated by previous mass shootings. But none of those killed were known to him, investigators said.

Late Sunday police said they had taken in for questioning a friend of the shooter who might have known of the attack plan. Further details were not immediately available, but Germany’s dpa news agency reported the 16-year-old boy had gone to police himself after the act.

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Heat wave, drought showing no signs of slowing down

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The heat wave gripping parts of the country including Philadelphia, where tens of thousands are descending upon the city for the Democratic National Convention this week, is not going away anytime soon and will hit a peak Monday with temperatures in the city feeling like 108 degrees.

Excessive heat warnings will continue Monday, the first day of the convention, in the Philadelphia area, most of the Midwest and regions out west. It’s due to a dome of high pressure, meteorologists say, that’s affecting most of the United States and contributing to drought conditions in the Northeast and continuing to fuel wildfires in California.

“It’s fair to say that the vast majority of the nation has been experiencing above normal temperatures for the past week,” said David Robinson, New Jersey state climatologist.

The dome of high pressure traps hot air and is the basis for the “critical high temperatures” the country has been experiencing the past week, Robinson said, even for being the warmest time of the year.

Thunderstorms are common, as they were in parts of New England over the weekend, but don’t help much with drought conditions in the Northeast and out west. Particularly dry weather in areas like Massachusetts and New York have forced farmers to choose which crops they will water and which will just not survive the season.

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IOC leaders stop short of complete ban on Russians from Rio

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Rejecting calls by anti-doping officials for a complete ban on Russia, Olympic leaders on Sunday gave individual sports federations the task of deciding which athletes should be cleared to compete in next month’s Rio de Janeiro Games.

Citing the need to protect the rights of individual athletes, the International Olympic Committee decided against taking the unprecedented step of excluding Russia’s entire team over allegations of state-sponsored doping. Instead, the IOC left it to 27 international sports federations to make the call on a case-by-case basis.

“Every human being is entitled to individual justice,” IOC President Thomas Bach said after the ruling of his 15-member executive board.

Bach said the IOC had decided instead on a set of “very tough criteria” that could dent Russia’s overall contingent and medal hopes in Rio, where the Olympics will open on Aug. 5.

Under the measures, no Russian athletes who have ever had a doping violation will be allowed into the games, whether or not they have served a sanction, a rule that has not applied to athletes in other countries.

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Civil-rights marchers: US still needs to address inequality

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A half-century ago, thousands joined a march across Mississippi to challenge a system that condoned violence against black people and suppressed their rights — issues still reverberating in today’s national debates about police violence.

The March Against Fear in the summer of 1966 helped many find a voice to protest the injustices of the day, setting an example for contemporary movements such as Black Lives Matter.

The link between past and present was on the minds of participants in the march 50 years ago who recently told their stories to The Associated Press.

They say recent deadly encounters involving police show that Americans need to engage in honest dialogue about race — even if it’s uncomfortable for some people to acknowledge that black lives have long been devalued. They also lamented what they see as a lack of progress on many fronts.

“Literally nothing has changed,” says James Meredith, who launched the march. “That is not completely true. What has changed the so-called civil rights movement is completely at an end. It is over…. That’s why we have the crisis we have in the nation today.”

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Verizon said to be buyer of Yahoo for $5 billion: Reports

NEW YORK (AP) — Verizon has agreed to buy online portal Yahoo Inc. for roughly $5 billion, according to multiple media reports, each citing a single unnamed source.

The deal is expected to be announced formally on Monday before markets open, the reports said.

Verizon had emerged in recent days as the front-runner for the beleaguered internet company. Yahoo is expected to sell its email service and news, finance and sports websites in addition to its advertising tools under pressure from shareholders fed up with a downturn in the company’s revenue during the past eight years.

The deal is likely to end the four-year reign of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, a former Google executive who flopped in her attempts to turn around the Sunnyvale, California, company.

Yahoo has been in a long, deep slump even as advertisers have been pouring more money into what is now a $160 billion market for digital advertising, according to research firm eMarketer.