Unarmed Man Charged With Vicarious Assault After NYPD Trying to Shoot Him Missed and Shot Two Women Instead

So this really happened: A grand jury has charged an unarmed, emotionally disturbed, possibly suicidal man who wandered into Times Square traffic with felony assault after NYPD officers opened fire on him in the mistaken belief he had a gun; with their usual stellar markmanship, they instead hit two women, one using a walker. The indictment unsealed this week charged that Glenn Broadnax “recklessly engaged in conduct which created a grave risk of death.” Really? Statistics show the NYPD usually fires 331 rounds to hit 54 targets, of which 14 will be innocent bystanders, 24 will be dogs, and 16 will be people they were actually aiming at. But still: Lookit what Broadnax made them do. Oh yeah. He's black.

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Prodigal Son: Broke ALEC Asks Sponsors to Please Come Home

Even as the corporate lobbyists of ALEC meet in D.C. this week to discuss how best to undermine democracy, The Guardian got its enterprising hands on internal documents charting ALEC's financial troubles since Trayvon Martin's impolitic death and the ensuing unpleasant publicity. Having lost the support of 400 state legislators and over 60 corporations, ALEC plans to make up a huge budget shortfall by plotting to coax back companies under two new projects - Prodigal Son and Jeffersonian - that will help them avoid the pesky legal, ethical and tax challenges that keep arising when they do the frequent lobbying they even more frequently say they're not doing.

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Glaciers Going, Gone

Mind-boggling time-lapse photos of Alaska glaciers disappearing in mere decades from NASA's new Images of Change . Frightening, galvanizing, show 'em to your skeptical relatives.

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