[Headline from DRJ]

Via the Houston Chronicle, which isn’t really Southern:

Southern insults disguised as compliments that you’ve probably heard

You walk in the door to grandma’s house filled with the aroma of some freshly baked dessert, but instead of the usual greeting, she cups your face in her hands and says “my, well don’t you look healthy.”

Heh.

— DRJ

[Headline from DRJ]

U.S. demands $12.7 billion in judgment against ‘El Chapo’:

U.S. authorities said on Friday they were seeking a court order requiring Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to forfeit $12.7 billion following his conviction for racketeering and drug trafficking crimes earlier this year.

The sum represents the total amount of cocaine, marijuana and heroin that a jury found Guzman to have trafficked, multiplied by the average prices of those drugs, according to a filing by prosecutors in Brooklyn federal court.

It was not immediately clear what assets, if any, the United States could seize to satisfy the judgment. A spokesman for the prosecutors declined to comment.

Didn’t Ted Cruz suggest this last year?

— DRJ

[Headlines from DRJ]

Guess who saluted Trump? CNN White House reporter Stephen Collinson:

Trump calls bluff of critics in July 4th speech

(CNN)President Donald Trump was as good as his word Thursday: He saluted America.

In one of the least polarizing speeches of his presidency, Trump paid tribute to America’s armed forces at a July Fourth appearance before the Lincoln Memorial in Washington that unfolded amid stormy skies and criticism that he was politicizing the nation’s Independence Day celebrations.

And local station WTOP joined the praise, plus a beautiful fireworks video.

But it wasn’t all good news:

USA Today — Donald Trump trips up on history in 4th of July speech, mentions airports during Revolutionary War.

The Hill — Company that donated fireworks to Trump’s event also successfully lobbied against tariffs.

Overall, good effort Mr. President. Too bad about the rain.

— DRJ

[Headline from DRJ]

Following up on yesterday’s earthquake near Ridgecrest, California, I found this section in an AP News’ article interesting:

Lucy Jones, a seismologist with the California Institute of Technology’s seismology lab, said the earthquake was the strongest since a 7.1 quake struck in the area on October 16, 1999. “This has been an extremely quiet abnormal time,” Jones said. “This type of earthquake is much more normal … The long term average is probably once every five or 10 years somewhere in Southern California.”

Jones said that the 6.4 quake was preceded by a magnitude 4.2 temblor about a half hour earlier. The epicenter was in the arid expanse of Searles Valley, a sparsely populated region. “This is an isolated enough location that that’s going to greatly reduce the damage,” she said.

The quake was detected by California’s new ShakeAlert system and it provided 48 seconds of warning to the seismology lab well before the shaking arrived at Caltech in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena but it did not trigger a public warning through an app recently made available in Los Angeles County. USGS seismologist Robert Graves said the ShakeAlert system worked properly. Graves said it calculated an intensity level for the Los Angeles area that was below the threshold for a public alert. The limits are intended to avoid false alarms.

It sounds like California has so many earthquakes that officials worry about giving too much notice and people tuning out notices.

UPDATE 7/5/2019 — Another, larger quake.

— DRJ

[Headline from DRJ]

Reuters — White House faces court deadline to reveal U.S. census citizenship plan:

The White House faces a Friday afternoon court deadline to reveal whether it intends to follow through on U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to press ahead with his fight to add a contentious citizenship question to the 2020 census.

Maryland-based U.S. District Court Judge George Hazel wants the administration to state its intentions by 2 p.m.

A White House spokesman said on Thursday that officials are examining “every option” available to add the query to the decennial population survey.

Donald Trump has made some lawyers’ jobs easier this week. Unfortunately, it is the lawyers who oppose the Administration.

UPDATE on the hearing before Judge Hazel 7/5/2019 at Law & Crime. IMO the DOJ attorneys are in a nightmare scenario and they can’t escape because they can’t fire their client.

— DRJ