Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Gray Television's Greta Van Susteren that President Biden should require all members of the military to take the coronavirus vaccine, saying it was a matter of "national security," the Hill reports.
Driving the news: More than half of all service members have received at least one COVID-19 shot as of late June, according to the Hill.
Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins announced this week that he would be retiring ahead of the much-delayed trial of the five men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the New York Times reports.
State of play: The retirement comes as a surprise since he had obtained an extension to serve until Jan. 1, 2023. Martins now will retire on Sept. 30, and no clear reason for his departure has been given, per the Times.
The Kentucky Department of Corrections can deny a life-saving but costly hepatitis C medication to inmates, a federal appeals court recently ruled, according to the AP.
Why it matters: Hepatitis C is the leading cause of serious liver disease and Kentucky has the highest infection rate in the United States, per AP.
Long-standing corruption in Latin America has hindered vaccination campaigns and health care responses.
The big picture: These scandals include inflated prices for unusable ventilators purchased by Bolivia, price gouging for N95 masks in Argentina, and a botched acquisition of emergency field hospitals that took over six months to be operational in Honduras.
Boston Pride announced it will be shutting down after 50 years amid calls for change from members of the LGBTQ community who accused it of excluding people of color and transgender people.
Why it matters: It now is unclear who will organize the Boston Pride Parade, which was rescheduled from June to October this year due to the pandemic.
A growing number of Democrats are ringing the alarm that their party sounds — and acts — too judgmental, too sensitive, too "woke" to large swaths of America.
Why it matters: These Democrats warn that by jamming politically correct terms or new norms down the throats of voters, they risk exacerbating the cultural wars — and inadvertently helping Trumpian candidates.
Television news crews are being increasingly attacked and threatened with violence while on the job, the Washington Post reports.
Driving the news: About one in five TV news directors surveyed by the Radio Television Digital News Directors Association said their crews had been attacked at some point last year, according to the Post.
Laura McGann, former politics editor of Vox.com and Politico, and Mark Bauman, previously with the Smithsonian, National Geographic and ABC News, are teaming up to launch a yet-to-be named, "confidential" media company.
Why it matters: McGann and Bauman say they're looking to build a newsroom that goes deep on select topic areas like misinformation, climate and Chinese geopolitics.
Heavy machinery hoisted the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee from its stone pedestal in Charlottesville, Virginia, around 8 a.m. Saturday morning, AP reports.
The big picture: The removal comes four years after the 2017 "Unite the Right" white supremacist rally, when hundreds of alt-right supporters gathered carrying torches and signs that read "white lives matter." The rally then started because protestors opposed the city's decision to get rid of the monument.
Teachers and civil rights activists are organizing and preparing to go to court to stop conservatives' efforts to block curriculum about institutional racism.
Why it matters: "It is the modern-day Scopes trial," American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten tells Axios, recalling the 1925 case over teaching evolution.
What they're saying: "I'm glad that this small miracle could bring some light into the lives of a hurting family today and provide a bright spot for our whole community in the midst of this terrible tragedy," Levine Cava said, per NPR.
A federal court on Friday blocked a Tennessee law that requires businesses and public facilities to post a sign notifying patrons and visitors that they allow transgender individuals to use the bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity.
State of play: Judge Aleta Trauger of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee granted a preliminary injunction halting the implementation of the law.
The Texas state House Appropriations Committee on Friday voted unanimously to bring a bill to the floor that would reinstate the funding for the Texas Legislature, the Texas Tribune reports.
Driving the news: The bipartisan vote, 21-0, represents the first step Texas legislators have made in order to restore the funding that Gov. Greg Abbott (R) vetoed last month to punish Democratic lawmakers who staged a walkout to stop a GOP-backed voting reform bill from passing.
