Hillary Clinton accepted her party’s nomination in a forward-looking speech at the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention Thursday night. “We will not build a wall. Instead we will build an economy where everyone who wants a good job can get one. And we’ll build a path to citizens for millions of immigrants who are already contributing to our economy,” Clinton said, hitting on Trump’s trademark platforms. “Every generation of Americans has come together to make our country freer, fairer, and stronger. None of us can do it alone. That’s why we are stronger together.” Clinton also paid tribute to Senator Bernie Sanders, the main competitor of her primary campaign.

*Trump Team: Hil Spoke From ‘Fantasy Universe’:

Donald Trump’s campaign shot back at Hillary Clinton’s historic DNC speech on Thursday night, calling it an “insulting collection of clichés and recycled rhetoric.” Stephen Miller, Trump’s Senior Policy Advisor, said it was “delivered from a fantasy universe.” He added, “She spent the evening talking down to the American people she’s looked down on her whole life.” Clinton, the first female major party nominee for president in the history of the United States, said about Trump: “A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.” Still, Thursday evening, Trump took to Twitter to slam Clinton and her speech, writing, “Hillary’s vision is a borderless world where working people have no power, no jobs, no safety,” and “No one has worse judgement than Hillary Clinton—corruption and devastation follows her wherever she goes.”

*French PM Predicts More ISIS Attacks:

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said the government is considering banning the foreign financing of mosques in the country in a bid to prevent more ISIS-style attacks. “We live in a changed era and we must change our behavior. This is a revolution in our security culture… the fight against radicalization will be the task of a generation,” he said in an interview with LeMonde published Thursday. “This war, which does not only concern France, will be long and we will see more attacks,” he said. His comments came as the French government faces heated criticism for its handling of recent attacks, including the attack in Normandy earlier this week in which an ISIS fanatic murdered a priest. Security services were reputedly aware that the suspect was planning an attack but were unable to stop him. Earlier this month, French authorities were urged to take drastic measures after 84 people were killed at a celebration in Nice.

*Weak Spending by Businesses Hinders 2nd-Quarter Growth:

The American economy barely rebounded last quarter from its winter doldrums, weighed down by anemic business spending, overstocked shelves at factories and warehouses, and a surprisingly weak housing sector. Consumer spending remained healthy but it was swamped by the poor showing in other sectors of the economy. Besides the drop in corporate investment, weaker government spending also held back growth, reinforcing a trend that has hobbled the recovery in recent years. The number was well below the 2 percent pace of expansion that economists had been looking for, highlighting the economy’s continued ability to disappoint experts who have been confident that better times are around the corner.

*LBN-WHERE THE ELITE AND UNDERDOGS MEET:

*Terrorism Scares Away the Tourists Europe Was Counting On:

The shocks have come one after another: Islamic State killings of civilians in Brussels and Nice. A deadly outburst of terrorism in Germany. A fresh terror-linked atrocity in a small French town. Warnings abound that more may be on the way. The surge of attacks in Europe has raised questions over whether a potentially durable new threat to stability is settling in. The political challenges for Europe’s leaders are stark, and the impact on the region’s economy may be just as profound. “We are experiencing a structural change, a phenomenon of war on our doorstep that didn’t exist before,” said Georges Panayotis, the president of the MKG Group, a tourism consulting company based in Paris. “If it’s not resolved, the problem will continue.” The effects of that shift on businesses, large and small, have been deep.

*Pope Francis, Visiting Auschwitz, Asks God for the ‘Grace to Cry’:

Pope Francis walked in the footsteps of his two predecessors on Friday as he visited the former concentration and extermination camp at Auschwitz, where he paid silent homage to the more than one million victims, mostly Jews, who perished there during the Holocaust. Right before his visit, Francis told reporters that he “would like to go to that place of horror without speeches, without crowds.” He said he intended to go “alone, enter, pray,” adding: “And may the Lord give me the grace to cry.” The pope began his visit to Auschwitz — in what is now the Polish town known as Oswiecim, about 30 miles west of Krakow — by meeting 12 survivors of the camp. He greeted them, one by one, mostly in silence, expressing his sorrow and respect just by clutching their hands, looking into their eyes and kissing them tenderly, once on each cheek. Francis was the third pope to visit Auschwitz. Pope John Paul II visited on June 7, 1979, declaring “No more war!” and “Only peace!” Pope Benedict XVI, who as a young man was inducted unwillingly into the Hitler Youth and the German Army, went on May 28, 2006, and asked: “Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate this?

*CHARGED: Six current and former Michigan state employees have been charged in a widening criminal investigation into the Flint water crisis, according to a source close to the investigation. The six people face charges ranging from willful neglect of duty to conspiracy for allegedly withholding information from the public about lead contamination of the city’s drinking water.

*Cosby Drops Federal Suit Against Accuser:

Bill Cosby has dropped the last of the federal suits he filed against a woman accusing him of sexual assault. Cosby—who faces at least 50 sexual assault accusations by as many women—had claimed that Andrea Constand violated the terms of a settlement in a 2006 suit. Several others were named in his complaint, including Constand’s attorneys and American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer. Last week, U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno ruled that the 78-year-old cannot sue Constand for talking to investigators about the accusations, and on Thursday Cosby gave up the remainder of the suit, which he filed in February. Those claims included that Constand violated the confidentiality agreement via Twitter comments and through an interview she gave to the Toronto Sun.

*U.S. Navy to Name Ship After Harvey Milk:

The U.S. Navy is naming a ship after Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person elected to public office in California. Milk was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1955 after serving for four years. “When Harvey Milk served in the military, he couldn’t tell anyone who he truly was,” said San Francisco politician Scott Wiener. Wiener wrote the resolution requesting that the Navy name a ship after Milk. “Now our country is telling the men and women who serve, and the entire world, that we honor and support people for who they are.” The Harvey Milk Foundation posted on Facebook, “Hope is never silent and will be represented in a world port soon via the USNS Harvey Milk.” Women’s rights activist and abolitionist Sojourner Truth will also be granted this honor.

*WHO READS LBN? Basketball legend Kareem-Abdul Jabbar:

*U.S. Drops Snark in Favor of Emotion to Undercut Extremists:

The Obama administration has revamped a program designed to lure foreign fighters away from extremist groups like the Islamic State, focusing on a series of new advertisements and social media posts that seek to appeal to emotion rather than logic. Money for the program, which is managed by the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, tripled this year, to $16 million, after administration officials concluded that past efforts that had attempted to scare potential militants away from the extremist groups were not working. It is the latest in a long series of efforts from the Obama administration at what diplomats and other officials euphemistically call “public engagement,” and the multiple reboots have shown how hard it has been for these programs to find traction. Recent attacks in Turkey, Iraq, France and Bangladesh seemed to show extremism has been spreading.

*LBN-INVESTIGATES: During the Great Depression, many people tried apple selling to avoid the shame of panhandling. In New York City alone, there were as many as 6,000 apple sellers.

*DO YOU READ LBN? Send us your photo (make it a good one) along with your name and city and we may use it in the future in LBN. E-mail: 

*LBN-SPOTLIGHT: 

An Incredible Conversation With An Incredible Women —–Prize-winning legal journalist Linda Deutsch discusses with Michael Levine her experiences covering the murder trial of O.J. Simpson and the molestation trial of Michael Jackson.  .

*THINK FREELY – READ LBN:

*3 Kids Found Living in Shed in KY:

Police in Kentucky say they found three children living in a shed with no electricity, no water, and a bucket where they were forced to go to the bathroom. The Boyle County Sheriff’s Office released a statement Thursday saying they discovered the children on Tuesday after receiving a complaint of child abuse. The children have been taken into protective custody and treated for rashes and bed bug bites. The children’s caretakers have been charged with three counts of first-degree criminal abuse of a child.

*LBN- SITE OF THE DAY:

“Explore Gallup data on presidential job approval ratings from Truman to Obama.”

*LBN-SPOTLIGHT: The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget. ———-

*DID YOU KNOW? Did you know that 16 member of the Manhattan Club staff in New York City read LBN daily?

*LBN-R.I.P.: Two years ago, Matilda Rapaport, a Swedish extreme skier, survived an avalanche in Haines, Alaska. “I was dragged all the way down the mountain, partially buried and couldn’t get myself out,’’ she said later. “That was a very scary experience. But I don’t want memories of being scared of avalanches.” Rapaport continued to ski on peaks that could be reached only by helicopter and aspired to be next year’s Freeride World Tour ski champion. But another avalanche, this time in the Chilean Andes, claimed her life this month. She was 30. She died on July 18 in a hospital in Santiago, four days after she was buried in snow. The cause was brain damage from oxygen deprivation, said her husband of only three months, Mattias Hargin, a Swedish Alpine World Cup skier and her high school sweetheart.

*LBN-COMMENTARY by David Brooks: Donald Trump has found an ingenious way to save the Democratic Party. Basically, he’s abandoned the great patriotic themes that used to fire up the G.O.P. and he’s allowed the Democrats to seize that ground. If you visited the two conventions this year you would have come away thinking that the Democrats are the more patriotic of the two parties — and the more culturally conservative. Trump has abandoned the Judeo-Christian aspirations that have always represented America’s highest moral ideals: toward love, charity, humility, goodness, faith, temperance and gentleness. He left the ground open for Joe Bidento remind us that decent people don’t enjoy firing other human beings. Trump has abandoned the basic modesty code that has always ennobled the American middle class: Don’t brag, don’t let your life be defined by gilded luxuries.

*LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:…

*LBN-OVERHEARD:   ***Lindsay Lohan may need to review her life choices. The troubled star, whose father Michael Lohan told “Page Six TV” she was pregnant, was photographed smoking and drinking beer on a yacht in Italy Thursday. Lohan, 30, has been in the Mediterranean most of the week following an explosive fight and breakup with fiancé Egor Tarabosov.   ***Nearly eight months after finalizing her divorce from Antonio Banderas, Melanie Griffith is still struggling to find herself. “I’m having a very introspective time right now,” Griffith told People Thursday. “It’s an interesting time … I’m single, and lonely, and bored, and confused – but then at the same time, totally curious. It’s almost like I have to throw myself out of the nest.”

*U.S. Secures Vast New Trove of Intelligence on ISIS:

The United States is poring over a vast trove of new intelligence about Islamic State fighters who have flowed into Syria and Iraq and some who then returned to their home countries, information that American officials say could help fight militants on the battlefield and prevent potential plotters from slipping into Europe. American-backed Syrian Kurdish and Arab militias have seized more than 10,000 documents and 4.5 terabytes of digital data in recent weeks while fighting insurgents in Manbij in northern Syria, near the Turkish border, a major hub for Islamic State fighters entering and leaving Syria, American officials said. An initial American review of the material offers new clues about “foreign fighters, the networks, where they’re from,” according to Brett McGurk, President Obama’s special envoy for combating the Islamic State. Other officials said the information included the fighters’ identities, countries of origin, routes into Syria and the illicit networks that recruited and ferried them to the region. Those details are being shared with allies to help stanch the flow of militants.

*France Was Warned of 2nd Church Attacker:

French officials have identified the second man involved in the Normandy church attack during Mass on Tuesday. Authorities say his photo was distributed to French police on July 22 with a warning that he might be planning an attack. The 19-year-old, Abdel-Malik Nabil Petitjean, was identified by DNA testing on his corpse. The French anti-terrorism agency, UCLAT, reportedly warned officials that Petitjean “could be ready to participate in an attack on national territory.” Petitjean was spotted in Turkey last month, and officials said he appeared to be heading to Syria before he turned around and returned to France. Another 19-year-old, Adel Kermiche, perpetrated the attack with him, in which they held several nuns and priests hostage before ultimately slashing the throat of Father Jacques Hamel, 86, after forcing him to kneel. ISIS released a video on Wednesday that evidently shows the two suspects pledging allegiance to the Islamic State. News broke on Wednesday that Kermiche was freed from jail before the attack despite his recorded attempts to join militants in Syria. He was awaiting trial. An acquaintance who knew Kermiche said he wasn’t surprised to hear about his involvement in the church attack. “He talked about it all the time. He talked about Islam, the things like this he was going to do. He talked about the Quran and Mecca and he told me ‘I’m going to attack a church.’ He said this two months ago on leaving the mosque. On my mother’s life, I didn’t believe him.”

*N. Korea: U.S. Has Declared War:

A top North Korean diplomat said on Thursday that the U.S. has “crossed the red line” and declared war against the country by placing the country’s leader Kim Jong Un on a list of sanctioned individuals in connection with alleged human rights abuses in the authoritarian state. Han Song Ryol, the top diplomat in charge of U.S. affairs at the North’s Foreign Ministry, said, “The Obama administration went so far to have the impudence to challenge the supreme dignity of [the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea].” He added, “The United States has crossed the red line in our showdown. We regard this thrice-cursed crime as a declaration of war.” North Korea, as a nation, has been sanctioned several times for its nuclear weapons, but Kim Jong Un had not been personally sanctioned before the U.S. announced this new measure on July 6.

*Putin Calls Athlete Ban ‘Discrimination’:

At a Kremlin ceremony to send off Olympic athletes on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out over a ban on Russia’s track and field athletes. “We can’t accept indiscriminate disqualification of our athletes with an absolutely clean doping history,” Putin said, in reference to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s allegations that Russia’s Olympic athletes were part of a state-sponsored doping scheme. “We cannot and will not accept what in fact is pure discrimination,” he said. All of Russia’s track and field athletes, with the exception of one, have been banned from taking part in the Rio Games next month, and Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has been blocked by the International Olympic Committee from attending the games over allegations that he personally oversaw the widespread doping of athletes. While sending off those athletes who have been allowed to participate—fencers, triathletes, and table tennis players—Putin described the ban as part of a conspiracy to make Russia look bad on the world stage. “The situation went beyond the legal field as well as common sense,” Putin said. “It’s a well-planned campaign which targeted our athletes, which included double-standards and the concept of collective punishment which has nothing to do with justice or even basic legal norms.”

*WHO READS LBN? Political consultant Mark McKinnon:

*Backpacks Banned from French Beaches:

Backpacks have been banned from some French beaches, as authorities implement new rules in the wake of recent deadly terror attacks in the country. In particular, large, “non-transparent” bags will be banned from beaches in Cannes. Any bag that could conceal “weapons or explosive substances” will not be permitted, and security has been tightened in other public spaces. Officials said armed police and soldiers will be patrolling beaches, festivals, stations, and airports throughout the summer. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told local officials that any events should be canceled “if conditions do not allow for optimal security.”

*WikiLeaks Releases DNC Voicemails:

WikiLeaks has released what appears to be 50 voicemail recordings from Democratic National Committee members. This latest leak, published on the WikiLeaks website during the third night of the Democratic National Convention, follows a larger leak of DNC emails, which lead to the resignation of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz. The leaks have become a national security interest, after U.S. intelligence organizations announced that the hack on DNC servers appears to have been perpetrated by the Russian government.

*Debt Collectors’ Abuses Prompt Consumer Agency to Propose New Rules:

For the first time in nearly 40 years, federal regulators are preparing to significantly strengthen the rules that govern debt collection in an effort to clamp down on collectors who hound consumers for debts they may not even owe. Under the proposed regulations, which will undergo a lengthy review process, debt collection companies will have to more fully document the debt they are trying to collect, make it clear how a consumer can dispute the debt, and observe state statutes of limitations that bar them from legally pursuing older debts — all safeguards that are frequently flouted, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal agency that plans to put forth the new rules on Thursday. The regulations also take aim at the stereotype of the harassing debt agency: Collectors would be barred from trying to contact people more than six times in a week. And, after a debtor dies, the collectors would have to wait 30 days before contacting family members about paying up.

*LBN-HEALTH WATCH:   ***Learning requires more than the acquisition of unfamiliar knowledge; that new information or know-how, if it’s to be more than ephemeral, must be consolidated and securely stored in long-term memory.  Mental repetition is one way to do that, of course. But mounting scientific evidence suggests that what we do physically also plays an important role in this process. Sleep, for instance, reinforces memory. And recent experiments show that when mice and rats jog on running wheels after acquiring a new skill, they learn much better than sedentary rodents do. Exercise seems to increase the production of biochemicals in the body and brain related to mental function.

*WHO READS LBN? Best documentary award winning film producer, jewelry designer and actress, Sasa Blackoff:

*LBN-R.I.P.:   ***James Alan McPherson, who overcame segregation and the narrow prism of a legal education to become the first black writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, died on Wednesday in Iowa City. He was 72. His death was announced by the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, where he was a professor emeritus. The cause was complications of pneumonia, it said.   ***Forrest E. Mars Jr., a billionaire scion of the reclusive family that satisfied America’s sweet tooth with the Milky Way candy bar and M&M’s and who helped build Mars Inc. into the world’s largest confectionary company, died on Tuesday in Seattle. He was 84. The company, which he inherited with his brother and sister in 1973, said the cause was a heart attack.

*UNIQUELY, LBN: Sara R., an LBN reader from London, England.

*LBN-INVESTIGATES: The jump from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is 250 feet. Trauma from the jump is dramatic and can cause ripped blood vessels, demolished central nervous systems, and a transected spinal cord. While a few have died from drowning and one from a shark attack, most die from the impact of the body on the water. Only 1% who jump survive.

*LBN-NOTICED:   ***Sarah Silverman lunching alone at Maison Kayser across from Bryant Park in NYC on Wednesday after her DNC appearance in Philly.   ***Golfer Dustin Johnson and fiancée Paulina Gretzky working out at Equinox in Summit, NJ, ahead of this weekend’s PGA Championship. Rory McIlroy was also seen doing “an intense functional fitness workout”.   ***Lincoln Center’s “Merchant of Venice” star Jonathan Pryce doing karaoke at Birdland Jazz Club for Jim Caruso’s Cast Party.   ***L.A. power attorney Brian Pannish having lunch yesterday at 1 Pico at Shutter’s Hotel on the beach in Santa Monica.

*LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….

*LBN-OVERHEARD:   ***Heath Ledger’s death was his fault, the late actor’s father shared. “It was totally his fault. It was no one else’s — he reached for [the pills]. He put them in his system. You can’t blame anyone else in that situation,” Kim Ledger told the Daily Mail Australia earlier this week. Heath passed away in January 2008 after accidentally overdosing on a cocktail of oxycodone, diazepam, hydrocodone and doxylamine. He was 28.   ***Fifth time’s the charm, at least according to David Foster‘sdaughters. While speaking with Ryan Seacrest on KIIS FM Wednesday, “Famously Single” stars Erin and Sara Fosterrevealed dad David will likely walk down the aisle again after calling it quits with Yolanda Hadid. “We just want him to be happy,” 33-year-old Erin said. “We love when he is married, in a relationship. He is at his happiest when he is in a relationship. He will definitely get married again. He loves being married. Lucky No. 5!”