Good after­noon and Hap­py Fourth of July 2011! Here’s a quick news roundup for our nation’s two hun­dred and thir­ty fifth birthday:

  • Once again, speed eater Joey Chest­nut has won the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eat­ing Con­test, held annu­al­ly at Coney Island since 1916. Chest­nut man­aged to down six­ty-four hot dogs and buns in ten min­utes, almost equalling the world record he set in 2009 when he scarfed down six­ty-eight hot dogs and buns.  This is Chest­nut’s fifth straight title.
  • Pres­i­dent Oba­ma had been sched­uled to go golf­ing today at Andrews Air Force Base, but the out­ing has been called off, we’ve just learned. The White House pool report attrib­ut­es the deci­sion to can­cel  to “mug­gy, over­cast skies and threat of rain”. For­tu­nate­ly, here in the Pacif­ic North­west, the skies are clear for a change, and the sun is out. The tem­per­a­ture is sup­posed to hit 70° F around much of Puget Sound today.
  • More than five hun­dred new Amer­i­cans were sworn in at noon today at Seat­tle Cen­ter’s Fish­er Pavil­ion in the Eth­nic Her­itage Coun­cil’s 27th Annu­al Nat­u­ral­iza­tion Cer­e­mo­ny. We at NPI extend our con­grat­u­la­tions to each and every one of them. Con­grat­u­la­tions on becom­ing citizens!
  • The New York Times reports that Joplin, Mis­souri is try­ing to observe the Fourth with­out dwelling on the dead­ly tor­na­do that struck the city over a month ago. The city’s res­i­dents were deter­mined to make this year’s Inde­pen­dence Day cel­e­bra­tions one of the biggest ever.
  • Ini­tial­ly, after hack­ers broke into one of Fox Noise Chan­nel’s Twit­ter accounts ear­ly this morn­ing and post­ed a series of false tweets claim­ing that Pres­i­dent Oba­ma had been assas­si­nat­ed, the Secret Ser­vice had no com­ment. Now, how­ev­er, the Secret Ser­vice says it will inves­ti­gate the hack­ing.

Again, Hap­py Fourth. Here’s hop­ing you have a fun-filled cel­e­bra­tion today.

About the author

Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, as well as the founder of NPI's sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer. Andrew is also a cybersecurity expert, a veteran facilitator, a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

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