Black Lives: Protesters hit the streets in Louisville last night and two police officers were shot after a former cop was indicted in the killing of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, although not for her death, but for endangering the lives of neighbors when he fired his gun.

  The protesters were met by a phalanx of riot police. A suspect was arrested in the shooting of the officers. 

  Ben Crump, one of the attorneys for Taylor’s family, said of the indictment,  “This is outrageous and offensive!” Taylor has become one of the people whose death at the hands of police has fed the Black Lives Matter movement.

  Former detective Brett Hankison was indicted on three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment, which under Kentucky law is “an extreme indifference to the value of human life,” punishable by 1-5 years in prison.

  The police department had previously fired Hankinson because he “wantonly and blindly fired 10 rounds” during the Taylor raid.

  Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who was wounded in the March 13 incident, was not indicted and neither was Detective Myles Cosgrove. 

  The three officers had broken into Taylor’s apartment on a no-knock warrant for drugs and her boyfriend Kenneth Walker opened fire, saying later he thought it was intruders. Taylor bled out with five gunshot wounds. Kentucky Attorney Gen. Daniel Cameron said the state’s investigation determined the officers’ use of force was “justified” because they had been fired upon first. 

  Before Hankinson’s indictment yesterday, Sgt. Mattingly wrote an open e-mail to his 1,000 fellow cops denouncing department leadership and saying,  “I know we did the legal, moral and ethical thing that night. It’s sad how the good guys are demonized, and criminals are canonized.”

  The primary targets of the investigation were the operators of a drug house 10 miles away, one of them Taylor’s former boyfriend. Breonna Taylor was not the target of the investigation. No drugs or money were found in her home. She had committed no crime.

I, Claudius: President Trump late yesterday during a White House press conference refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the November election.

  Asked whether he would “commit here today for a peaceful transfer of all power after the election,” Trump replied, “We’re going to have to see what happens.” He said, “You know that I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.”

  He was speaking of mail ballots. Trump said, “We want to get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation.”

Viral News: Johnson & Johnson announced that it has become the fourth company to begin the final stage of clinical trials for a coronavirus vaccine and has already been making major stockpiles preparing for release.

  They say one advantage of their vaccine is that it’s a one-shot treatment.

  President Trump has repeatedly claimed that a vaccine will be ready before Election Day although that’s not what the drug companies say.

  On the downside, scientists in Houston released a study of more than 5,000 genetic sequences of the coronavirus that says the virus is accumulating multiple mutations, one of which may have made it more contagious.

  This morning, 201,920 Americans are dead of the coronavirus and 6,935,415 have been infected.

The Non-Smoking Gun: A Republican-led Senate investigation found that former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter  “cashed in” on his father’s name to close big-money business deals around the world, but that Joe Biden himself had done nothing wrong. The senate report says the younger Biden’s work for a Ukrainian energy company then mired in a corruption scandal was a conflict of interest while his father in office.

  At least one Republican senator had claimed the report would prove Joe Biden is “unfit for office” but the smoking gun fired blanks.

The Late RBG: The casket holding the body of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was laid out in honor on the courthouse steps during a moving ceremony in which dozens of  employees and former clerks dressed in clack stood in lines on the plaza in front of the building’s massive columns.

  Holding his emotions, Chief Justice John Roberts said, “It has been said that Ruth wanted to be an opera virtuoso, but became a rock star instead.”

  He spoke of Ginsburg’s record of fighting discrimination and for equal rights. 

  Roberts said, “She was not an opera star but she found her stage, right behind me in our courtroom. There she won famous victories that helped move our nation closer to equal justice.” He said, “Her voice in court and in our conference room was soft, but when she spoke, people listened.”

The Bulletin Board: Because of the pandemic, New York City has cancelled its in-person Times Square New Year’s celebration for 2021 and the Metropolitan Opera has abandoned its entire 20-21 season. — Battling air pollution, California plans to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, Gov. Gavin Newsom said. —  A NY state judge has ordered President Trump’s son Eric to be deposed no later than Oct. 7 in the New York attorney general’s investigation of the Trump Organization’s finances. The younger Trump has claimed he’s too busy to meet with investigators until after November’s election.

Fake News: Employees of Tribune Publishing, which prints eight newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles times,  were momentarily thrilled when they received a company email announcing that they were getting a bonus of up to $10,000, to “thank you for your ongoing commitment to excellence.”

 To find how big their bonus would be, they just had to click on a link, and the link turned out to be a test of phishing scams and how many employees would fall for it. A lot of companies have been doing this and the Tribune bosses have apologized for their stupidity.

  Of course, in the news business, employees should have known that an unsolicited offer of more money had to be a scam.

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