| By Derek Caney (@stax920)
A driver of a Tesla Model S was killed in an accident while using the car's Autopilot mode, prompting a government investigation of 25,000 Tesla cars using the nascent technology. It's the first known death to involve a Model S operating on Autopilot (the company's name for its software). On a clear day on May 7, a tractor trailer made a left-hand turn in front of 40-year-old Joshua Brown's Model S. "Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied," Tesla said in a blog post. Tesla disclosed the investigation yesterday.
A federal judge blocked a Mississippi law that allowed those with religious objections to deny wedding services to same-sex couples and impose dress and bathroom restrictions on transgender people. District Judge Carlton Reeves ruled the law unconstitutionally discriminated against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and others who do not share the view that marriage is between a man and a woman. The ruling came the same day that the U.S. military repealed its ban on transgender service members. For those keeping score at home, you can keep track of anti-LGBT legislation using the Human Rights Campaign's interactive map and the status of individual bills at the ACLU's website.
Digits of the day: 28 percent One of the unexpected reverberations of Britain's vote to withdraw from the European Union is in the Florida real estate market, where Britons have long been a significant force. In Orlando, for example, Britons accounted for 28 percent of the area's foreign property buyers. With the collapse of the British pound following the vote, the property market has gone quiet.
Portugal on penalties 
Portugal's Rui Patricio saves a penalty shot from Poland's Jakub Blaszczykowski in the Euro 2016 quarterfinal. REUTERS/Michael Dalder
Around the world - The Taiwan Navy fired a supersonic missile in error, hitting a Taiwanese fishing boat in waters separating the island from China. The missile did not explode but it pierced the boat, killing one fisherman. There may never be a good time for an accident like this, but the incident occurred while Communist Party rulers in Beijing celebrated the party's 95th birthday. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and the island's new president, in particular, disagrees.
- Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, thousands of residents marched in protest on the 19th anniversary of the financial hub's return to Chinese rule. Tensions are simmering against Chinese authorities over the detention of five Hong Kong booksellers who specialized in works critical of Chinese leaders. One of the men, Lam Wing-kee, was detained for eight months and released last month.
- When a U.S. air strike hit Sabratha in western Libya on Feb. 19, it reduced a building on the southern fringes of the city to rubble, killing dozens of militants and exposing a network of Islamic State cells operating just near the Tunisian border. It also upended the lives of three young Tunisian women who were married to militants killed in the strike or its aftermath. They are now being held with their children in a Tripoli prison.
Quote of the day: "My son Bara was hit by bullets in his stomach and back. At that point my husband started shouting, 'There are women and children with us.' But the thuwar (revolutionaries) didn't want to stop because they knew we were Islamic State and we might blow ourselves up." – Wahida Bin Mukhtar al-Rabhi
Around the country - A Maryland judge ordered a new trial for Adnan Syed, whose murder conviction was called into question by the 2014 podcast "Serial." Syed, 36, is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of his former girlfriend Hae Min Lee, who was 18 when she died. His lawyers had sought a new trial amid questions about the fairness of the proceedings that were raised by the podcast in late 2014.
- Donald Trump said he would be open to using NATO forces in the fight against Islamic State militants. NATO would be the alliance that Trump has been calling obsolete.
- U.S. sailors who blundered into Iranian waters in January divulged sensitive information while held at gunpoint by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a Navy report. Some of the 10 crew members gave away the capabilities of their vessels, one of them disclosing his vessel's potential speed and suggesting it was on a "presence" mission to demonstrate U.S. military power in the Gulf.
Around Wall Street - Since the beginning of the fracking revolution, oil producers have struggled with a vexing problem: After an initial burst, crude output from new shale wells falls much faster than from conventional wells. But recent data shows that output has been improving over time. The trend, if sustained, would help ameliorate the industry’s most glaring weakness and cement its importance for worldwide production in years to come.
- A California jury ordered Oracle to pay Hewlett-Packard Enterprise $3 billion in damages in a case over HP's Itanium servers. In 2011, Oracle stopped developing software for use with HP's servers that ran on Intel's Itanium processors, saying that Intel made it clear that the chip was nearing the end of its life and was shifting its focus to its x86 microprocessor. HP said Oracle agreed to support Itanium, without which the equipment using the chip would become obsolete. HP won the case in 2012. A jury decided the damages yesterday. Oracle plans to appeal.
- Hershey rejected a $23 billion bid by rival candy maker Mondelez, the folks who bring you Oreo cookies. Perhaps Mondelez will have to sweeten the deal. Eh? See what we did there? It's Friday. What do you expect?
Today's reason to live Dave Alvin – Fourth of July |
