"In an article criticizing Republican vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence for his record on lesbian and gay issues, Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote about Pence's support for conversion therapy — a discredited practice intended to "retrain" gay people."
"One paragraph contains sentences nearly identical to those on the website of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, but it is not attributed as such.'
OP-ED: And with police-citizen tension at an all-time-high, Stockton's police chief Eric Jones tries to figure out a way to start healing officer-community relations and improving oversight.
Tina Rosenberg in the N.Y. Times: "The horrors of the last few weeks — eight police officers assassinated, at least two more unarmed black men to add to a long list of those killed by police — have produced increasingly desperate calls for unity and understanding. How can Americans build empathy and trust between their police and their minority communities? How can they stop the killings? And is there a way to do this while reducing crime?"
"On July 17, Eric Jones, the police chief in Stockton, Calif., spoke at Progressive Community Church, an African-American church on Stockton’s south side. On Sunday evening, people from three different churches gathered at Progressive to talk about police-community relations. The police department streamed the speech live on Facebook, where it has 94,000 followers."
"Jones talked about the murdered police officers. But his real subject was black lives, not blue ones. “There was a time where police were used to be dispatched to keep lynchings ‘civil,’ ” said Jones, who is white. “The badge we wear still does carry the burden, and we need to at least understand why those issues are still deep-rooted in a lot of our communities.” And injustice continues, he said: “We know that there are disparities in arrests and shootings across the country."
READ MORE in Public Safety: Burning issues build as 'Sand Fire' on L.A.'s parched wild fringe -- Andrew C. Revkin with The N.Y. Times.
And across the ocean, a nation is in shock and mourning after a knife-wielding maniac murdered 19 disabled people in a care-giving facility in Japan.
Associated Press' Mari Yamaguchi and Yuri Kageyama report in The Chronicle: "A young Japanese man went on a stabbing rampage Tuesday at a facility for the mentally disabled where he had been fired, officials said, killing 19 people months after he gave a letter to Parliament outlining the bloody plan and saying all disabled people should be put to death."
MORE in World News: Afghan official says major offensive against Islamic State is underway -- A.P.'s Lynne O'Donnell and Karim Sharifi in The Chronicle
And now a page out of our "Public Edumucation" file ...
Remember kids: stay in 'scohol.'
UPI: "DELTONA, Fla., July 25 -- A Florida high school's spelling is under scrutiny after the road outside the building was freshly painted to read "SCOHOL."
"Kevin O'Korn posted a photo to Facebook Saturday showing Volusia County had painted the road outside Pine Ridge Middle School in Deltona to read "SCOHOL," and the spelling error appeared twice."
"It was unclear whether the fault for the painting mistake lies with the school district, the county or an independent contractor."
