Extra, Extra

Chrome Home: Google gets to keep Chrome, a judge just ruled in the search antitrust case. There were some penalties handed down to Google, but the market let us know how light of a slap on the hand the company got. “The American Economic Liberties Project, a group that’s advocated for stronger antitrust enforcement against the tech industry, slammed Mehta’s ruling as an act of ‘cowardice.’ ‘You don’t find someone guilty of robbing a bank and then sentence him to writing a thank you note for the loot.'” (Actually, Gemini is gonna write the thank you note automatically.) The whole case is somewhat ironic given it’s about the monopolization of tools and services that have changed dramatically since the case was first brought. At this point, telling Google to give up exclusive search deals is like telling Yahoo to give up its web directory.

+ Loose Cannon: “President Trump said on Tuesday that the United States had carried out a strike against a boat carrying drugs and killed 11 ‘terrorists,’ the administration’s latest military escalation in Mr. Trump’s war against Venezuelan drug cartels that he has blamed for bringing fentanyl into the country … The strike is an astonishing departure from traditional drug interdiction efforts.” (Is Trump gaining a taste for bombing stuff?)

+ Epstein Accusers Speak: “A group of Jeffrey Epstein accusers on Wednesday told emotional, gut-wrenching stories of sexual abuse at the hands of the late convicted sex offender and his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, raising pressure on lawmakers to back the release of all of the files in the Justice Department’s years-long Epstein investigation.” (Trump called the press conference a hoax.)

+ Crime Wave: “From the top of Ralph Jenkins’s driveway in Southeast Washington, under the shade of a Kentucky coffee tree, he can look left and see the gleaming sports arena where the Washington Mystics play amid spanking new shops, or look right toward one of the city’s most crime-saturated neighborhoods. The cluster of blocks where he lives in Congress Heights has had nine homicides this year — the highest concentration in the District. What Jenkins doesn’t see is any sign of President Donald Trump’s federal policing surge.” WaPo (Gift Article): Where there’s no sign of the National Guard in DC. Meanwhile, Chicago sees its fewest summer murders since 1965.

+ Made in the Trade: “GOP Rep. Rob Bresnahan campaigned on ending the practice, but has become a top trader after entering office.” Why Lawmakers Don’t Want to Ban Their Own Stock Trading. (I’m gonna go out on a limb here and take a guess. The money?)

+ Stealy Resolve: Democrats confront limited options to block GOP’s spreading redistricting efforts.

+ Kawhi Bother? This is a really crazy NBA story. Kawhi Leonard reportedly paid $28 million for ‘no-show job’ with Clippers as way to get around NBA salary cap. “A clause in one of the contract documents … stated Leonard could ‘decline to proceed with any action desired by the Company,’ essentially giving Leonard the ability to get paid without doing anything.”