The DC: America's first federal execution in 17 years, and... Should the Atlanta Braves and Kansas City Chiefs change their names?

Welcome to Wednesday, July 15th, shirts and skins...

The Washington Redskins announced that they will retire the Redskins name and logo.

This spring's protests regarding police brutality and racial injustice brought a decades-long fight to change the Washington Redskins' name to a head.

In a statement, the team said it would "be retiring the Redskins name and logo upon completion of a review" demanded by its sponsors.

On July 2, FedEx sent the Redskins' general counsel a two-page letter saying that it would remove its signage from the team's stadium after the 2020 season. In the letter, FedEx cited the risk of damage to its brand if the team's name wasn't changed. Losing FedEx's name on the stadium's signage would have cost team owner Dan Snyder around $45 million.

On the morning of July 3, Washington announced that it would undergo a "thorough review" of its name. Corporate sponsors PepsiCo, Bank of America, and Bud Light released statements commending the decision.

Ray Halbritter, Oneida Nation representative and head of the Change the Mascot campaign, praised the team's move:

"This is a good decision for the country - not just Native peoples - since it closes a painful chapter of denigration and disrespect toward Native Americans and other people of color. Future generations of Native youth will no longer be subjected to this offensive and harmful slur every Sunday during football season."

Should teams like the Atlanta Braves and Kansas City Chiefs also change their names?

For a politics-free guide to how to protect you and your loved ones from corona, click on over to our Coronavirus Info Center.

On the Radar

First Federal Execution Since 2003

The federal government conducted its first execution since 2003 on Tuesday morning, using lethal injection to kill a man convicted in 1999 of three murders he committed as part of a plan to establish a whites-only nation.

Attorney General William Barr first announced the resumption of federal executions a year ago, and said by executing Daniel Lewis Lee, he "finally faced the justice he deserved. The American people have made the considered choice to permit capital punishment for the most egregious federal crimes, and justice was done today in implementing the sentence for Lee’s horrific offenses.”

Lee and his accomplice murdered gun dealer William Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell, as they stole guns and money to use in their Aryan Peoples' Republic plot. The killers used stun guns on the victims, sealed trash bags with duct tape over their heads to suffocate them, and dumped their bodies in an Arkansas bayou.

Lee claimed his innocence and appealed that the use of lethal injection with pentobarbital would be cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. Lower courts issued rulings delaying the executions of Lee and three other death row inmates, but the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision in the early hours of Tuesday morning rejecting those claims with the four liberals in dissent.

Do you think the federal government should use the death penalty?

Under the Radar

'Lazarus Moment' Coming for Police Reform in Congress?

While the initial effort to enact police reform stalled in Congress last month, the lead architects of the competing House and Senate bills have kept conversations alive that could yet lead to a bipartisan bill becoming law this summer. 

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) - author of the Just and Unifying Solutions to Invigorate Communities Everywhere (JUSTICE) Act - said he is working with Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) - chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus who wrote the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act - on finding a compromise.

Bass recently traveled to South Carolina to meet with Scott about police reform. At a July 7th event in the Palmetto State in which Scott spoke on a panel with Attorney General Barr, the senator said:

“Folks who are now calling me about the legislation from the other side suggest that perhaps it’s not dead. We may have a Lazarus moment. We may not. The more [Bass] has taken a look at the bill, the more she has suggested that perhaps half or two-thirds of a loaf might be better than none.”

Scott indicated that while the GOP is unlikely to agree to a complete removal of “qualified immunity” ― which shields police officers from civil lawsuits in cases where they allegedly violated a citizen’s rights ― he believes victims and families should be allowed to sue police departments and cities, but that there should be a “moat around the officer” to protect them from civil lawsuits.

He also said the Senate may incorporate some of the House bill’s provisions related to the collection of data on racial profiling.

Do you want Congress to reach a bipartisan compromise on police reform legislation?

And, in the End…

It's I Love Horses Day.

Here's a wild team in Idaho:

More of a bug person? It's also Gummi Worm Day,

—Josh Herman

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