Like a Hurricane: More than a million people are without power today in the Dominican Republic after Hurricane Fiona passed through with sustained winds up to 90 miles per hour. As much as 20 inches of rain fell on parts of the island, 32 inches near Ponce, Puerto Rico’s second largest city, according to the US Geological Survey.

  Puerto Rico is draining out, trying to restore power, and assessing the damage after being hit the day before. Whole neighborhoods were left in water several feet deep. The island’s GovernorPedro Pierluisi described the damage as “catastrophic.”

Lies and Immigration: Sheriff Javier Salazar of Bexar County Texas has opened a criminal investigation into the transport of 48 migrants from a shelter in San Antonio to the Massachusetts resort island of Martha’s Vineyard last week.

  A Venezuelan migrant may have been paid to lure fellow countrymen, women, and children into the scheme. They were recruited in Texas, Flown to Florida, then on to Martha’s Vineyard with the blessing of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

  Sheriff Salazar said the migrants were “lured under false pretenses” with promises of work and a better life. Salazar, who’s a Democrat, said, “They had a right to walk around the streets just like you and me, and they had a right not to be preyed on and played for a fool and transported halfway across the country, just for the sake of a media event or a video opportunity.” 

  A day after the Martha’s Vineyard operation, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent two busloads of migrants to be dumped off in front of the Washington residence of Vice President Kamala Harris.

  Massachusetts State Representative Dylan Fernandes asked the Department of Justice to investigate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his part in dumping the 50 migrants on Martha’s Vineyard island. Fernandes, a Democrat who represents the Vineyard, wrote on twitter, “Not only is it morally criminal, there are legal implications around fraud, kidnapping, deprivation of liberty, and human trafficking.”

Free at Last: A judge in Baltimore threw out the murder conviction of Adnan Syed, who was featured in the 2014 podcast “Serial” about his claim that he did not murder his former high school girlfriend in 1999. Syed, who’s now 43, was released yesterday after 23 years in prison. Prosecutors say they have new evidence that undermines their case against Syed, but they have 30 days to decide whether they will try him again.

  C. Justin Brown, a former attorney for Syed, released a statement saying,

“It has now been revealed that prosecutors were aware of another viable suspect in Hae Min Lee’s murder, but that they sat on that information for more than 20 years.” He went on, “While we do not know how this happened, nor whether it was intentional, we do know it is inexcusable.”

  Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, whose office has previously supported the handling of Syed’s case, is furious that the Baltimore prosecutor acted without consulting his office.

The Long Goodbye: After a day of ornate and choreographed pageantry, the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II was lowered into its final place in St. George’s Cathedral at Windsor Castle. Moments before the final movement, the Queen’s crown, orb, and scepter were removed from their place on the coffin, the last ceremonial signal that her 70 year reign is finally over. 

The War Zone:  Ukrainian liberators have discovered as many as a dozen torture chambers used by Russian occupiers to terrorize civilians and captured soldiers. They are now the focus of war crimes investigators.

  Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that Russia committed mass murder in the formerly occupied city of Izyum where 450 graves were found in a forest. “It’s a lie and of course we’ll stand up for the truth in this entire story,” Peskov said.

  Ukrainian authorities are digging up and identifying hundreds of bodies. Many bodies show signs of torture and that the victims were executed. Soldiers had their hands tied. 

  The Russians evidently tortured and eliminated people they thought would give them difficulty in establishing an occupation government. Others were killed in the fighting.

  What the mass grave demonstrates is that torture and murder is in the DNA of the Russian military. The Izyum grave site is a reminder of the infamous Katyn Forest massacre in which the Russian army during World War II murdered 22,000 Polish army officers, police officers, and members of the intelligentsia. The massacre discovered by the German army was believed to have been initiated by the notorious NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria, but was never officially classified as a war crime. 

  In the current situation, Russian state media have denounced claims of war crimes as “Nazi propaganda.”

Non-Reading List: The banning of certain books in schools and some libraries across the country has surged, according to a report released by  PEN America.

  This year alone, 1,651 books have been attacked by banners. 

  Nearly 140 school districts in 32 states issued more than 2,500 book bans during the 2021-22 school year, according to the report,  “Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools.”

  The bans are often the result  of pressure from parent and community groups. CNN reported on Bonners Ferry, Idaho where people carrying guns showed up at the local library to pressure the librarian.

  Some of the leading book-ban groups are Moms for Liberty, No Left Turn, and Parents Defending Education, which have chapters or influence across the country.

  The books most frequently targeted are about race, racism, gender, and sexuality. Books that feature characters of color account for 40% of books banned; those with LGBTQ characters and themes made up 41%.

The Spin Rack:  — The Taliban government in Afghanistan has traded an American engineer, Mark Frerichs, who has been held hostage, in exchange for the US releasing an Afghan tribal leader who had been convicted of drug trafficking.

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