The Breakdown: The Virginia Beach Shooting and What You Can Do About It

Getty Images: Chip Somodevilla / Staff

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The One Big Thing

Virginia Beach Shooting: What Happened and What You Can Do About It

On Friday afternoon, a Virginia Beach city employee opened fire on his colleagues, killing 11 other employees and 1 local contractor. As Buzzfeed News reports, City Manager Dave Hansen told reporters Saturday, “I have worked with most of them for many years. They leave a void that we will never be able to fill.” This was the 150th mass shooting of 2019 and the deadliest this year. Heartbreaking tributes to the victims, who had provided more than 150 years of city service in total, began spreading across social media. The news of constant shootings -- in schools, in homes, in workplaces -- are visibly taking a toll on our communities and our mental health. It’s time to stand up and demand action from our lawmakers to do what they were elected to do: make our communities safer and better to live in.

TAKE ACTION: Call your senators about universal background checks -- something 90% of Americans support. Dial +1 202-831-0125.

(Pop) Culture Shock

Game of Thrones Fans Raise More Than $125,000 for Stars’ Charities

In the past couple of weeks, the hit HBO show Game of Thrones had its series finale bringing an end to years of one of the most popular TV shows. As a “thank-you” to the show’s stars, Reddit user elle_ellaria launched a fundraising campaign for star Emilia Clarke’s SameYou charity, which raises money for brain injury rehabilitation. Fans raised nearly $80,000 for SameYou to which Clarke responded via Instagram, saying, “I can’t believe — I’m so incredibly moved and blown away and grateful and thank you and thank you and thank you.” After the wildly successful fundraiser for SameYou, fans began donating to other charities, including Mencap, on org for people with learning disabilities, which is supported by Kit Harrington.

The Good News Is...

As Pride Month Begins, Colorado Bans Conversion Therapy for Minors

On Friday ringing in Pride month, Colorado governor Jared Polis signed a bill into law that bans conversion therapy in the state for minors. Conversion therapy is a very controversial set of practices that aim at changing someone’s sexuality or gender expression. Polis, who is gay, stated, “Colorado is a state where everyone can be their true selves and live the life they want.” The governor also signed a second bill into law, which now allows transgender individuals to update their birth certificates without having to provide proof of surgery or submitting a public notice. Colorado isn’t the only state making gains -- check out these nine other places that are having their first Pride celebrations ever.

That's What She Said

“I wanted to give it everything I had. And I feel like it was a project that I was meant to do, because everything that I’d done up until then had led me to do it.”

-Ava DuVernay, Director of When They See Us, about a group of young men -- known as “The Central Park Five” -- who were wrongly convicted of a brutal rape and assault in 1989

Quick Hitters

Why aren’t more people talking about… the El Paso facility where immigrants are being detained in overcrowded and dangerous cells with some standing on toilets to breathe?

Meanwhile, in Vietnam... a new law requires that all high school and college students plant at least 10 trees each before they can graduate.

My hero today is… supermarkets are taking a lesson from Thailand and using banana leaves instead of plastic packaging as an alternative.

I’m obsessed with… the video of Lil Nas X performing Old Town Road for elementary school kids…and they went WILD. So wholesome and so funny.