| By Derek Caney (@stax920)
Some 50,000 residents of Falluja, Iraq were trapped in the city without access to water, food or healthcare in what one aid official called a "human catastrophe," as Islamic State fought back against an onslaught by the Iraqi army. At least 50 people have died in the city since the offensive started eight days ago.
Digits of the day: 1,400 Verizon and unions representing 40,000 workers reached a tentative deal to end a seven-week strike. Terms of the deal include 1,400 new jobs and pay raises topping 10 percent.
The man who went on a shooting rampage at a Houston auto body shop was Dionisio Garza, a veteran who served in Afghanistan and was discharged from active duty in 2014, according to ABC's KTRK Houston station. "I really believe this is a PTSD thing," Garza's father told NBC's KPRC. Police have not officially released his name. The gunman killed one and wounded six, including two police officers, before police shot him dead.
Remembering the fallen 
Army soldiers Rick Kolberg (L) and Jesus Gallegos embrace as they visit the graves of Raymond Jones and Peter Enos on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery, May 30, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Around the country - The director of the Cincinnati Zoo insisted that a 3-foot-high barrier around the gorilla enclosure was adequate, even though a 4-year-old boy was able to climb over it and fall in. Zookeepers killed the ape after it grabbed the child and dragged him around.
- The Secret Service locked down the White House, after someone threw a metal object over the fence. President Obama was in his residence at the time, but the lockdown was lifted after the object was determined not to be dangerous. The man who threw it was apprehended without incident.
- A federal judge unsealed documents related to a lawsuit related to Trump University. Donald Trump had no comment on the matter. HA! Just kidding! He called the Judge Gonzalo Curiel "a hater" and "a hostile judge." Trump also said he believed the judge was Mexican. In fact, he was born in East Chicago. The suit accuses the presumptive Republican nominee's school of misleading thousands of people who paid up to $35,000 for seminars to learn about the billionaire's real estate investment strategies.
Around the world - At least 880 refugees died trying to cross the Mediterranean in the last week, according to the United Nations.
Quote of the day: "(Smugglers) are packing people on boats that are barely sea-worthy and many cases are not meant to make the crossing. What happens is, as soon as they depart from shore, they call for rescuers and then rescue services come and rescue them." - UNHCR spokesman William Spindler - Good morning, North Korea! Perhaps not as well known as Adrian Cronauer, Kim Chung-seong, a defector from North Korea and a Christian missionary, takes to the microphone in a small Seoul studio for an hour every day to send a mix of gospel music and news into the Communist country.
- People returning from areas threatened by the Zika virus should follow safe-sex practices or abstain from sex for at least eight weeks, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, doubling the four weeks it had previously recommended.
Around Wall Street - It's getting ugly in the Viacom boardroom. Six independent directors of Sumner Redstone's media empire – home to MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures – promised to fight any attempt to oust them. They were responding to Redstone's salvo last week that he may sack the board. In a letter to shareholders, independent director Fred Salerno said it was "inexplicable" that the 93-year-old Redstone was acting on his own free will.
- Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih arrived in Vienna three days early for the semi-annual OPEC meeting. Among the oil market tea-leaf readers and OPEC micro-analyzers, Falih's early arrival indicates a willingness to deal with other members over the price of oil. Prices were essentially flat at $49 a barrel. That's about double where it was in February, but half of where it was two years ago.
- Global markets appear to be "well-prepared" for a summer interest rate hike, said St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard. "This is not too surprising given our liftoff from December and the policy of the committee, which has been to try to normalize rates slowly and gradually over time," he said.
Today's reason to live The Kills – Doing It To Death |
