WHAT'S BREWING
STORE OWNER REGRETS 911 CALL ON GEORGE FLOYD The owner of Cup Foods, the Minneapolis store where a clerk called 911 on George Floyd, says his business will no longer involve the police in certain incidents until law enforcement stops “killing innocent people.” Mahmoud Abumayyaleh posted a lengthy note on Facebook to say that he supports the protests over the death of Floyd, a Black man who died after a white officer knelt on his neck outside Cup Foods, and said his store is “deeply saddened for our part of this tragedy.” Abumayyaleh also said that he’ll be “donating to pay for George Floyd’s memorial service.” [HuffPost]
LOUISVILLE POLICE CHIEF FIRED AFTER BODY CAMS INACTIVE IN FATAL SHOOTING Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer fired Police Chief Steve Conrad after learning that the officers involved in a shooting that killed a man early Monday amid tumultuous protests rocking the Kentucky city did not turn on their body cameras. “This type of institutional failure will not be tolerated,” Fischer said. The police department already facing questions and mounting community rage over the March killing by officers of Breonna Taylor, a Black 26-year-old EMT shot as she lay in bed. [HuffPost]
HONG KONG POLICE REJECT APPLICATION FOR TIANANMEN SQUARE VIGIL Hong Kong police rejected an application Monday for an annual candlelight vigil marking the anniversary this week of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, as residents rushed to apply for passports that could allow them to move to the United Kingdom. It would be the first time in 30 years that the candlelight vigil, which draws a huge crowd to an outdoor space, is not held in Hong Kong. The police, in a letter to organizers, said it would violate coronavirus social distancing rules that ban gatherings of more than eight people. [AP]
LOCKDOWN TRAPPED WOMEN IN VIOLENT RELATIONSHIPS. WHEN IT'S OVER, THEY MAY BE KILLED. Latest figures from domestic abuse charity Refuge show that since lockdown started, there has been a 66% rise in demand for its National Domestic Abuse Helpline in the U.K., while there has been a staggering increase of more than 950% to the Refuge website. It is feared many victims are living in fear as they don’t want to worry their families at a troubling time and feel they have nowhere to go. Activists fear what will happen when lockdown is lifted as the most dangerous time for abuse victims is when they try to escape. [HuffPost]
THESE COUNTRIES MAKE VOTING MANDATORY. COULD IT WORK IN THE U.S.? While here in the U.S. we have come to see disengagement as a birthright and disenfranchisement a feature of the system, in a number of other countries, voting is more than a right: It’s required. Some experts believe that making voting mandatory — penalizing those who don’t, or rewarding those who do — could get more U.S. voters casting ballots. And that could bring our democracy closer to being truly representative. But the reasons for low voter turnout are socially complex as well as structural. The obstacles to registering and voting are much higher here than they are in other countries. [HuffPost]
THE EXTINCTION CRISIS IS ACCELERATING, NEW STUDY FINDS The sixth mass extinction in Earth’s history is accelerating as humans rapidly and relentlessly destroy the natural world, according to a new study looking at the loss of terrestrial vertebrate species. And the crisis poses an existential threat not only to thousands of animal and plant species, but to human civilization as a whole. The analysis, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, comes as nations around the globe reel from the coronavirus pandemic — rooted in environmental destruction. [HuffPost]
VEGAS IS ABOUT TO REOPEN. BUT WHEN WILL THE JOBS COME BACK? Even though the Strip will begin a gradual reopening starting on Thursday, workers face nothing but uncertainty. While some casinos and restaurants will have customers for the first time in more than two months, hotels will be limiting the number of guests, crowds around craps tables won’t be allowed, and normally teeming nightclubs will remain shuttered as a public health precaution. Vegas might be the starkest example of what the hospitality industry faces nationwide: a balancing act between bringing back jobs and revenue and keeping workers and customers safe from a virus that’s killed more than 100,000 Americans. [HuffPost] | 
