countygeneral | 7 points
The U.S. intelligence community has concluded there is no doubt the Russians meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, leaking stolen e-mails and inflaming tensions on social media. While Congress and special counsel Robert Mueller investigate Russian interference, including whether the campaign of Donald Trump colluded with Russia, we have been looking into another vector of the attack on American democracy: a sweeping cyber assault on state voting systems that U.S. intelligence tied to the Russian government. Tonight, you'll find out what happened from the frontline soldiers of a cyberwar that was fought largely out of public view, on digital battlegrounds in states throughout the country.
There is a reckoning taking place in America over how we remember our history. Much of the focus has been on whether or not to take down monuments that celebrate the Confederacy. But this story is about a new monument going up in Montgomery, Alabama. It documents the lynchings of thousands of African-American men, women and children during a 70 year period following the Civil War.
The project is being led by criminal defense attorney Bryan Stevenson, who is determined to shed light on a dark period in our past that most people would rather forget. It's a shocking and disturbing reality that lynchings were not isolated murders committed only by men in white hoods in the middle of the night. Often, they were public crimes, witnessed -- even celebrated -- by thousands of people. Stevenson believes if we want to heal racial divisions we must educate Americans -- of every color and creed.
It sounds like the set-up for a joke: at an illustrious Ivy League University, famous for taking itself seriously, one student magazine's staff devotes itself to publishing parody, pulling pranks and causing general mayhem. Yet here's the punchline: 142 years after its founding, The Harvard Lampoon, remains as relevant as ever, the wellspring of so much comedy in America today. Over the years, the Lampoon has changed in some ways: a long-time male preserve, three of its last five presidents have been women. In other ways, it has stayed true to its roots, poking fun at the powerful - including the current occupant of the Oval Office, the recent victim of a sly Lampoon prank. While their straight-laced and straight-faced classmates may aspire to become Supreme Court justices, hedge fund titans, and curers of cancer, for a core group of Harvard undergrads, the Lampoon offers vocational training for careers as comedy writers. We got a rare glimpse inside the place this winter and caught up with some of the Lampoon's cast of characters, past and present.