SMITHBITS: Some major shift appears to be happening to a lot of white people

by Korva Coleman and Jill Hudson

First Up

Former national security adviser John Bolton, seen in February, is scheduled to publish a memoir of his time with the Trump administration on June 23, and the Justice Department is trying to block publication.

Mark Humphrey/AP

Here's what we're following today.

A week before the scheduled June 23 release of a tell-all book of John Bolton's tenure as President Trump's national security adviser, the Trump administration mounted a last-ditch effort to block its publication. The Justice Department’s civil lawsuit says the publication of Bolton’s memoir, The Room Where It Happened, would be a violation of nondisclosure agreements and compromise national security. Publisher Simon & Schuster said the book, "shows a President addicted to chaos, who embraced our enemies and spurned our friends, and was deeply suspicious of his own government."

President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday encouraging police departments to improve training — a step critics say falls short of what is needed to curb police officers' use of force against people of color. The order will create a database to track police officers with multiple instances of misconduct, and use federal grants to encourage departments to meet certain higher certification standards on use of force. The president is facing fierce political pressure to take action following the national outcry over the killing of George Floyd and others by police.

A record-setting number of women are running for the House this year, fueled by a surge in Republican candidates. Why? GOP leadership set out to recruit more women to run — and it worked. Many women who were thinking about running on the GOP ticket also “wanted to change the narrative to say: ‘The Republican Party isn’t bad for women,’” said Professor Kelly Dittmar with the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. (Listen here or read the story)

Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has an advantage over President Trump in the states likely to tip the presidential race, but he's still short of solidifying 270 electoral votes needed to win in November. Support for Trump is slipping in the key states he won in 2016 and his disapproval rating is at near record-highs as voters gauge his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and protests over racism and police brutality.

California’s largest utility company, Pacific Gas & Electric, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter and one felony count of unlawfully starting a fire. It marks the first time that any major utility has been charged with homicide. In 2018, a horrific blaze destroyed much of the town of Paradise in Northern California. The fire was determined to have been sparked by the utility’s faulty equipment.

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Today's Listens

LA Johnson/NPR

Some major shift appears to be happening to a lot of white people. Protests and marches have erupted across the country in broad support of the Black Lives Matter movement, even in alabaster-white cities with negligible black populations. The New York Times' bestseller list has been topped with books that have titles like White Fragility, Me And White Supremacy, How To Be An Antiracist and So You Want To Talk About Race. And several major polls show that white support for the Black Lives Matter movement, which was underwater at the time of the Ferguson protests in 2014, has spiked around the world in recent weeks. Code Switch podcast host Gene Demby wants to know: Why now? (Listen here or read the story)

Climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions are not part of the $3 trillion in U.S. relief packages passed so far — despite a long history of funding energy programs after economic crises. For years, scientists have been warning that carbon emissions must be reduced dramatically to avoid the worst effects of climate change. (Listen here or read the story)

Before You Go

NPR

Although sisters Este, Danielle and Alana — the trio known as HAIM — are self-quarantining in separate residences, their Tiny Desk set from home is a reminder that California is a state of mind.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says he is on board with any of the NFL's 32 franchises signing former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. In an interview with ESPN earlier this week, Goodell admitted the league was "wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier" on racial injustice issues.
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with cellist Yo-Yo Ma about his reunion with Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer and Stuart Duncan and their new upcoming album, Not Our First Goat Rodeo.
The new book by journalist Chase Purdy, Billion Dollar Burger: Inside Big Tech's Race for the Future of Food, wants readers to ask: What is meat, exactly?