RSN: John Kiriakou | Sessions v. Winner, It's Just the Beginning

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RSN: John Kiriakou | Sessions v. Winner, It's Just the Beginning

Prison. (photo: David McNew/Getty)

Private Prison Operators Are Cashing in on Trump's 'Zero Tolerance' Immigration Policy
Rob Urban and Bill Allison, Bloomberg
Excerpt: "The biggest private prison operators, which have poured money into Republican coffers, stand to make a windfall from President Donald Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy on illegal immigration that has pushed thousands of undocumented immigrants into detention."
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RSN: Andy Borowitz | Foreigners Unsure Why Anyone Would Want to Travel to US at This Point

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RSN: Andy Borowitz | Foreigners Unsure Why Anyone Would Want to Travel to US at This Point

Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for U.S. president Donald Trump. (photo: Brian Snyder/Reuters

Manafort Had $10 Million Loan From Russian Oligarch: Court Filing
Reuters
Excerpt: "In an affidavit attached to the July 2017 application, an FBI agent said he had reviewed tax returns for a company controlled by Manafort and his wife that showed a $10 million loan from a Russian lender identified as Oleg Deripaska."
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RSN: Elie Mystal | Federal Judge Orders Immigrant Families Reunified

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RSN: Elie Mystal | Federal Judge Orders Immigrant Families Reunified

RSN: Robert Mueller Could Have an October Surprise for the GOP

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RSN: Robert Mueller Could Have an October Surprise for the GOP

The Daily 202: A poll commissioned by Bush and Biden shows Americans losing confidence in democracy

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The Daily 202: A poll commissioned by Bush and Biden shows Americans losing confidence in democracy

-- The Trump administration is rejecting a U.N. report saying 18.5 million Americans live in extreme poverty. Jeff Stein reports: “In May, Philip G. Alston, special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights for the U.N., published a report saying 40 million Americans live in poverty and 18.5 million Americans live in extreme poverty. But in a rebuke to that report on Friday, U.S. officials told the United Nations Human Rights Council there only appear to be approximately 250,000 Americans in extreme poverty, calling Alston's numbers ‘exaggerated.’ The rift highlights a long-running debate among academics over the most accurate way to describe poverty in America, one with enormous implications for U.S. policy-making and the nation's social safety net.”

-- The GOP’s efforts to scale back food stamps could have a drastic effect on the white working-class voters who voted for Trump. Andrew Van Dam reports: “On the surface, these efforts seem like they will affect Democratic voters the most. The highest rates of food-stamp assistance tend to be in the most Democratic areas. But that’s a superficial reading of the numbers. … In the Trump era, the Republican Party has relied heavily on rural voters. And the most rural 20 percent of the population is also the most likely to live in a household that receives food stamps.”

-- The new version of the standard 1040 income tax form will be smaller, as GOP lawmakers promised, but it will also be more complicated than ever. The New York Times’s Jim Tankersley reports: “The new form eliminates more than half of the 78 line items from the previous form, reducing it from two full pages of text to one double-sided half page. … Smaller is not necessarily simpler. The new form omits a variety of popular deductions, including those for student loan interest and teaching supplies, forcing taxpayers to search for them — and tally them up — on one of six accompanying work sheets.”

1. Former NATO secretary general Javier Solana, who played a critical role in negotiating Iran’s nuclear deal, was denied entry into the United States because of a trip he took to Iran in 2013.The former E.U. foreign policy chief had been scheduled to attend an event in D.C. (New York Times) 

POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: PRESSLEY’s OCASIO-CORTEZ bump — BAKER signing GRAND BARGAIN into law today — Mass. Dems want SCOTUS replacement picked post-2018

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POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: PRESSLEY’s OCASIO-CORTEZ bump — BAKER signing GRAND BARGAIN into law today — Mass. Dems want SCOTUS replacement picked post-2018

- "US officials reject Baker's Medicaid proposals," by Priyanka Dayal McCluskey, Boston Globe: "Federal officials have rejected proposals from Governor Charlie Baker's administration to slash costs in the Massachusetts Medicaid program by limiting coverage for some prescription drugs and moving thousands of people off the program. The Washington-based Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, said Wednesday that Massachusetts' request did not meet the agency's requirements for such changes."

- "Key evidence in alleged trooper overtime scam came from cruiser radios," by Martin Finucane, Boston Globe:"The three Massachusetts state troopers who are facing federal embezzlement charges for allegedly charging tens of thousands of dollars of fake overtime were betrayed by trusted tools: their cruisers and their radios, according to federal investigators. Records from the radios were a key part of the paper trail laid out in the affidavits supporting the criminal complaints against the troopers."

-"Mediator again seeks elusive compromise on Housatonic River cleanup," by Larry Parnass, The Berkshire Eagle: "Same problem. Same disputing parties. Same mediator. It begs the question: Is a breakthrough possible on the region's costliest environmental disaster? The last time attorney John G. Bickerman waded in to help the Environmental Protection Agency, the General Electric Co. and a flotilla of stakeholders come to terms on further removal of a probable carcinogen from the Housatonic River, he didn't see much hope."

CHARLIE BAKER'S POLITICAL HACKS!

- "MBTA shells out $2,500 for break room pool table refurbish," by Dan Atkinson, Boston Herald: "The MBTA spent more than $2,500 in taxpayer dollars to refurbish a billiards table so employees could play pool while on break, but doesn't plan to use more tax funds to repair its other employee pool tables, officials said. Manager of Customer Experience Projects Lisa Radosta ordered the repairs from Boston Billiards last year, according to emails obtained by the Herald."

RSN: Charles Pierce | SCOTUS' Conservative Majority Decision on Texas's Voting Maps Is Delusional on Multiple Levels

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RSN: Charles Pierce | SCOTUS' Conservative Majority Decision on Texas's Voting Maps Is Delusional on Multiple Levels

Donald Trump with Paul Ryan. (photo: Getty)

Trump's Latest Bid to Punish the Poor
Sanford Schram, Jacobin
Schram writes: "Trump's plan to reorganize federal agencies sounds innocuous. But its real aim is to further gut the welfare state."
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RSN: Hilary Hurd and Yishai Schwartz | The Supreme Court Travel Ban Ruling: A Summary

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RSN: Hilary Hurd and Yishai Schwartz | The Supreme Court Travel Ban Ruling: A Summary

National Law Journal

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National Law Journal

BREAKING: Justice Anthony Kennedy Retires, Paving Way for Donald Trump to Reshape Supreme Court

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BREAKING: Justice Anthony Kennedy Retires, Paving Way for Donald Trump to Reshape Supreme Court

RSN: Upstart Bernie Supporter Stuns Top House Democrat in NY Primary

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RSN: Upstart Bernie Supporter Stuns Top House Democrat in NY Primary

'Take the six million people who live in south Florida today and divide them into two groups: those who live less than six and a half feet above the current high tide line, and everybody else.' (photo: Milkweed Editions)

Rising Seas: 'Florida Is About to Be Wiped Off the Map'
Elizabeth Rush, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "Sea level rises are not some distant threat; for many Americans they are very real. In an extract from her chilling new book, Rising, Elizabeth Rush details how the US coastline will be radically transformed in the coming years."
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National Law Journal: Inside the Court for Trump v. Hawaii | Shanmugam's Hat Trick | Feuding Footnotes: Alito v. .....

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National Law Journal: Inside the Court for Trump v. Hawaii | Shanmugam's Hat Trick | Feuding Footnotes: Alito v. .....

POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: ‘Vote her in next, Massachusetts’ — $15 minimum wage, paid family leave ballot questions to be dropped — KENNEDY joins hunger strike

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POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: ‘Vote her in next, Massachusetts’ — $15 minimum wage, paid family leave ballot questions to be dropped — KENNEDY joins hunger strike

YOU HEARD CHARLIE BAKER WHINING ABOUT THIS ISSUE....DO YOU SEE CHARLIE BAKER TAKING ANY ACTION?

- "Lawmakers want outside review of Feeley rulings," by Christian M. Wade, Eagle-Tribune: "State lawmakers are seeking an independent judicial review of recent decisions by embattled Salem Superior Court judge Timothy Q. Feeley and want him removed from the criminal bench in the meantime. Rep. Paul Tucker, D-Salem, a member of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee, is leading the effort and cites Feeley's recent decision to let a convicted heroin dealer off with probation, as well as other questionable rulings over the past few months that have drawn protests and calls for his removal."

RSN: William Boardman | Trump Isn't The Problem, He's the Manifestation of America's Id

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RSN: William Boardman | Trump Isn't The Problem, He's the Manifestation of America's Id

Stomach contents of an albatross chick photographed in the Pacific in 2009. (photo: Chris Jordan/U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service HQ)

Marine Plastic: Hundreds of Fragments in Dead Seabirds
Victoria Gill, BBC News
Gill writes: "Parent birds unwittingly feeding plastic to their chicks means that the birds emerge from their burrows with stomachs filled with plastic, and with insufficient nutrition to enable them set out to sea and forage for themselves."
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RSN: Garrison Keillor | A Good Vacation, Now Time to Head Home

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RSN: Garrison Keillor | A Good Vacation, Now Time to Head Home

Crews work to clean up cars from the BNSF railway after a 31-car derailment dumped crude oil into the Little Rock River on Friday, June 22, 2018, in Doon. (photo: Bryon Houlgrave/The Register)

Derailed Train Spills 230,000 Gallons of Crude Into Flooded Iowa River 
Danielle Gehr, Des Moines Register
Gehr writes: "Rock Valley felt prepared this time around, when the city faced its second flood in four years. Then, crude oil was added into the mix." 
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RSN: Juan Cole | Warning to US: Erdogan Has Used Same Techniques as Trump to De-Democratize Turkey

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RSN: Juan Cole | Warning to US: Erdogan Has Used Same Techniques as Trump to De-Democratize Turkey

RSN: Sy Hersh: I Knew Richard Nixon Beat His Wife in 1974, but Did Not Report the Story

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RSN: Sy Hersh: I Knew Richard Nixon Beat His Wife in 1974, but Did Not Report the Story

National Law Journal

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National Law Journal

RSN: Jane Mayer | A Parlor Game at Rebekah Mercer's Has No Get Out of Jail Free Card

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RSN: Jane Mayer | A Parlor Game at Rebekah Mercer's Has No Get Out of Jail Free Card

Refugees in the Sahara. (photo: AP

Walk or Die: Algeria Abandons 13,000 Refugees in the Sahara
Associated Press
Excerpt: "Algeria has abandoned more than 13,000 people in the Sahara Desert over the past 14 months, including pregnant women and children, expelling them without food or water and forcing them to walk, sometimes at gunpoint, under a blistering sun. Some never make it out alive."
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The Daily 202: Liberal hostility toward Trump aides could galvanize the GOP base

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The Daily 202: Liberal hostility toward Trump aides could galvanize the GOP base

RSN: Rebecca Gordon | Nicaragua at the Barricades ... and a Crossroads

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RSN: Rebecca Gordon | Nicaragua at the Barricades ... and a Crossroads

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt used his private email for official business when he served as Oklahoma's attorney general. (photo: Evan Vucci/AP)

New Pruitt Question: Where Are His Emails?
Emily Holden, Politico
Holden writes: "The EPA administrator wrote only one email in 10 months to anyone outside the agency, if the official paper trail is to be believed. Watchdog groups don't believe it."
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RSN: How Totally Out of Control Is Facebook? Read This

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RSN: How Totally Out of Control Is Facebook? Read This

POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: IMMIGRATION pressure continues — HEALEY’s ruling could slow marijuana industry — Progressive groups line up behind NEAL challenge

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POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: IMMIGRATION pressure continues — HEALEY’s ruling could slow marijuana industry — Progressive groups line up behind NEAL challenge

Gov. Charlie Baker, LG Karyn Polito, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao, Massachusetts Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, MBTA General Manager Luis Ramirez, 

CHARLIE BAKER FAIL! 

OVERPAID LUIS RAMIREZ MORE INTERESTED IN POSTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA THAN DOING HIS JOB, UNQUALIFIED & INADEQUATELY SCRUTINIZED FOR THE JOB....ELAINE CHAO?  DO YOUR RESEARCH! WIFE OF MITCH MCCONNELL, UNQUALIFIED FOR HER POSITION, CONFIRMED BY REPUBLICAN BOBBLE HEADS. 

KEEP GENUFLECTING CHARLIE!  

- "Records reveal trooper posts that are overtime all the time," by Kay Lazar, Boston Globe: "Despite multiple investigations into an alleged overtime scandal at the Massachusetts State Police, and a pledge by leaders to correct abuses, one longstanding, pricey practice has quietly continued. Each day, state troopers are posted along highways and tunnels around Boston at seven so-called Emergency Response Stations, poised to respond to accidents, fuel spills, and other incidents."

RSN: Giovanni Tiso | A Brief (Fascist) History of 'I Don't Care'

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RSN: Giovanni Tiso | A Brief (Fascist) History of 'I Don't Care' 

National Law Journal

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National Law Journal

RSN: The NRA Spent $30 Million to Elect Trump. Was It Russian Money?

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RSN: The NRA Spent $30 Million to Elect Trump. Was It Russian Money?

Jared Kushner. (photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Jared Kushner, Who Doesn't Like Reading History Books, Says He Has a New Middle East Peace Plan
Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani, ThinkProgress
Varkiani writes: "President Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner says he has a new peace plan for Palestine and Israel."
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RSN: Bill McKibben | Some Rare Good Climate News: The Fossil Fuel Industry Is Weaker Than Ever

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RSN: Bill McKibben | Some Rare Good Climate News: The Fossil Fuel Industry Is Weaker Than Ever

Voting equipment vendor ES&S invited state and county election officials to join an 'advisory board' and treated them to trips to Las Vegas and elsewhere, an arrangement that drew criticism from ethics watchdogs. (photo: David Goldman/AP)

Voting Machine Vendor Treated Election Officials to Trips to Vegas, Elsewhere
Greg Gordon, Amy Renee Leiker, Jamie Self and Stanley Dunlap, McClatchy DC
Excerpt: "The unusual practice, which has not previously been reported, offers a glimpse of one way in which a voting equipment manufacturer has sought to cement relationships with government officials, some of whom play roles in the award of millions of dollars in contracts."
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RSN: Charles Pierce | This Country Was Born in Incivility. Being 'Civil' Won't Save It Now.

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RSN: Charles Pierce | This Country Was Born in Incivility. Being 'Civil' Won't Save It Now.

RSN: Frank Rich | The Shameless Fakery of Trump's Retreat on Family Separations

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RSN: Frank Rich | The Shameless Fakery of Trump's Retreat on Family Separations

The Post Most: Why didn’t someone stop Melania Trump from wearing that jacket?

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The Post Most: Why didn’t someone stop Melania Trump from wearing that jacket?

Analysis The original source for Trump’s claim of 63,000 immigrant murders? Bad data from Steve King in 2006. Made-up data from a blog post from 2005 was presented as fact by Trump. By Philip Bump  •  Read more »

RSN: Masha Gessen | Trump's Opponents Aren't Arguing for "Open Borders" - but Maybe They Should

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RSN: Masha Gessen | Trump's Opponents Aren't Arguing for "Open Borders" - but Maybe They Should

Pollution from a factory. (photo: Reuters)

Exxon's Sitting on Key Records Subpoenaed in Climate Fraud Investigation, NY Says
David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News
Hasemyer writes: "ExxonMobil has yet to turn over key financial records subpoenaed by state investigators over a year ago in a climate fraud inquiry, New York's attorney general told a judge in new court filings."
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RSN: Charles Pierce | This Nation Is Beginning to Realize the Full Extent of What It Did to Itself in November 2016

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RSN: Charles Pierce | This Nation Is Beginning to Realize the Full Extent of What It Did to Itself in November 2016

RSN: Matt Taibbi | Trump's Family Separation Scandal Has Revealed Every Species of Hypocrite

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RSN: Matt Taibbi | Trump's Family Separation Scandal Has Revealed Every Species of Hypocrite

RSN: Harvey Wasserman | Life and Death Spiral of US History: From Deganawidah to The Donald

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RSN: Harvey Wasserman | Life and Death Spiral of US History: From Deganawidah to The Donald

In Roche, a woman watches as her house, which belonged to her family for many generations, is demolished during a forced displacement. (photo: Rafael Ríos)

Death and Displacement: A USAID Export
Victoria McKenzie and Steven Cohen, NACLA
Excerpt: "In April 2013, the northeastern department of La Guajira, Colombia was suffering its worst drought in three decades. The streams that flow down from the Sierra Nevada and Serrania del Perija had reduced to a trickle, and the scattered wells on the already arid Caribbean peninsula were running dry. In the previous three years, thousands of Indigenous Wayuu children had died of thirst, hunger, and disease."
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RSN: Michael Moore | Do Not Stop the Protests

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RSN: Michael Moore | Do Not Stop the Protests

RSN: Bill Simpich | There Is No Plan: Can the 2300 Children Find Their Parents?

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RSN: Bill Simpich | There Is No Plan: Can the 2300 Children Find Their Parents?

RSN: Robert Reich | The Trump Takeover of the Courts

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RSN: Robert Reich | The Trump Takeover of the Courts

A U.S. Geological Survey geologist inspects a recent lava flow from a Kilauea volcano fissure on Hawaii's Big Island on May 19, 2018, in Kapoho, Hawaii. (photo: Mario Tama/Getty)

Trump Administration Is Suppressing Media Access of Government Scientists
Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times
Lin writes: "A new directive from the Trump administration instructs federal scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey to get approval from its parent agency before agreeing to most interview requests from reporters, according to employees and emails from officials with the Department of the Interior and USGS."
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RSN: Bernie Sanders | A World for All of Us, Not Just the Billionaires

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RSN: Bernie Sanders | A World for All of Us, Not Just the Billionaires

Tori Venable, Tennessee state director of Americans for Prosperity, left, helping volunteers in Nashville prepare for canvassing against a mass-transit proposal. (photo: William DeShazer/The New York Times)

How the Koch Brothers Are Killing Public Transit Projects Around the Country
Hiroko Tabuchi, The New York Times
Tabuchi writes: "The group, Americans for Prosperity, which is financed by the oil billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch to advance conservative causes, fanned out and began strategically knocking on doors. Their targets: voters most likely to oppose a local plan to build light-rail trains, a traffic-easing tunnel and new bus routes."
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National Law Journal: Inside the Court for Trump v. Hawaii | Shanmugam's Hat Trick | Feuding Footnotes: Alito v. .....

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National Law Journal: Inside the Court for Trump v. Hawaii | Shanmugam's Hat Trick | Feuding Footnotes: Alito v. .....

Whale carcass off Virginia was humpback

11 Buoyant Facts About Humpback Whales

Whale carcass off Virginia was humpback

By Mary Ann BraggPosted Jun 24, 2018 

Genetic tests conducted on a decomposed whale carcass reported May 31 on an island off the coast of Virginia have indicated the whale was a humpback, according to Jennifer Goebel, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The agency had tentatively identified the heavily decomposed carcass as a North Atlantic right whale based on photographs, but laboratory results from samples taken from the carcass indicated it was a humpback, Goebel said.

In 2016, NOAA Fisheries declared an unusual mortality event for humpback whales from Maine to Florida, and the deaths continue to remain elevated, according to the agency. There are an estimated 10,400 to 10,752 humpback whales in the northern Atlantic Ocean, including the U.S. Atlantic coast waters, according to NOAA. In 2016, the humpback whales along the Atlantic coast were removed from a listing under the Endangered Species Act but are still being monitored for 10 years.

http://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20180624/whale-carcass-off-virginia-was-humpback