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Morning Updates: Hillary’s email investigated, NASA discovers an Earth-like planet

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s use of a private email account could lead to a criminal investigation. NYT/Travis Dove

By Eric Levenson @ejleven

July 24, 2015

2 minutes to read

Good morning, Boston. Last night’s Olympic debate saw some fireworks, another Hillary email investigation, NASA discovers an Earth-like planet, and the rest of today’s news.

Takeaways from last night’s Olympics debate: It was a busy night of yelling, extremely detailed numbers, and broad dismissals. One leading critic of the Boston 2024 Olympic plan called its revenue estimations “drunken optimism.’’ Chris Dempsey of No Boston Olympics and Daniel Doctoroff of the U.S. Olympic Committee turned the debate into a New York vs. Boston fight. Overall, here are four things we learned last night about the Boston 2024 plan. (Boston.com)

Hillary’s emails lead to more investigation: “Two inspectors general have asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into whether sensitive government information was mishandled in connection with the personal email account Hillary Rodham Clinton used as secretary of state, senior government officials said Thursday.’’ (The New York Times)

The unanswerable questions of Sandra Bland’s death: “Why was she arrested? Why did she spend three days in jail for what was basically a traffic violation? Why weren’t precautions in place to prevent her from committing suicide? But here’s what makes this case so maddening: Bland didn’t do anything wrong. Her death, whether suicide or foul play, is the result of a police officer who refused to allow his authority to be questioned and couldn’t walk away. … ‘Maintaining your cool is part of the job,’ says [president of the Police Foundation Jim] Bueerman, and if you can’t do it on a regular basis, ‘Starbucks is hiring.’’’ (The Boston Globe)

Mass. considers a new parenting law: “Michael Reich’s ex-wife won both legal and physical custody of their young son. Reich said he sees him just four hours every month, and his grandfather died last week without ever meeting his great-grandson. ‘I’m out of money, and I’m out of hope,’ Reich said. … The parents testified about how child custody is determined in this state, a process they said left them with too little time to spend with their children and too much to pay in child support and legal bills. [Reich and some other parents] believe two bills currently in front of the legislature could change that.’’ (Boston.com)

And so it begins. Or so it ends: “Scientists using data from NASA’s Kepler mission have confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet orbiting in the habitable zone of a sun-like star.’’

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So much for Obama’s election fixing race relations: “A New York Times/CBS News poll conducted last week reveals that nearly six in 10 Americans, including heavy majorities of both whites and blacks, think race relations are generally bad, and that nearly four in 10 think the situation is getting worse. … [A]lmost half of those questioned said the Obama presidency had had no effect on bringing the races together, while about a third said it had driven them further apart. Only 15 percent said race relations had improved.’’ (The New York Times)