NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
1 Protest zone: A collection of Seattle businesses, property owners and residents sued the city this week over its tolerance of an “occupied” protest zone, saying officials have been complicit in depriving them of their rights to their property. The plaintiffs — including a tattoo parlor, auto repair shop and property management firm emphasized that they were not trying to undermine the antipolicebrutality or Black Lives Matter messaging of the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest.” “Rather, this lawsuit is about the constitutional and other legal rights of plaintiffs — businesses, employees, and residents,” the lawsuit said.
2 Death probe: Colorado’s governor appointed a special prosecutor Thursday to investigate the death of Elijah McClain, a 23yearold Black man put into a choke hold by police who stopped him on the street in suburban Denver last year. Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order directing state Attorney General Phil Weiser to investigate McClain’s death and possibly prosecute those involved. McClain’s name has become a rallying cry during the national reckoning over racism and police brutality following the deaths of George Floyd and others.
3 Hate tattoos: Vermont tattoo artist who has long offered free removal or covering of hateful skin art like swastikas, SS lightning bolts or the words “white power” says he’s seen an uptick in business recently after George Floyd’s death. Alexander Lawrence, who runs Mountainside Tattoo in the village of Bellows Falls, Vt., says he’s always offered to remove hateful images for free. But after Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police, which sparked global protests against police brutality and reenergized the Black Lives Matter movement, Lawrence says he’s been getting so many requests he’s looking for an office manager to schedule his appointments.
4 Trump book: New York City Judge Peter Kelly on Thursday dismissed a claim by Donald Trump’s brother, Robert, that sought to halt the publication of a tellall book by the president’s niece, saying the court lacked jurisdiction in the case. The motion filed earlier this week sought an injunction to prevent Mary Trump and the book’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, from releasing it in July. Mary Trump is the daughter of Fred Trump Jr., the president’s elder brother, who died in 1981. An online description of her book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” says it reveals “a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse.” 5 NASA honors engineer: NASA is naming its Washington headquarters after Mary Jackson, the space agency’s first African American female engineer whose story was portrayed in the popular film “Hidden Figures.” Jackson started her NASA career in 1951 as part of a segregated unit of female mathematicians at what is now Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. The women did calculations during the early precomputer days of the U.S. space program. Their story was chronicled in a book and the 2016 film. Jackson was later promoted to engineer. She died in 2005.