…And the World:

We begin today in Syria, where an alleged chemical attack has the United States contemplating its options. Bashar al-Assad denies the use of chemical weapons in the slaughter. Inspectors mean to look over the site of the alleged attack faced sniper fire as they attempted to reach the location. Russia, Syria’s staunchest ally condemned potential intervention by the West, while the Times of Israel reports that Syria and Iran are warning of a counterattack should the West respond. Secretary of State John Kerry made it clear in a speech that the US will hold Syria accountable.

In Russian potpourri, a Russian Paper described how Edward Snowden’s stay in the world’s largest country was an accident, precipitated by Cuba caving to the US of all things.. Meanwhile, anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny was briefly detained by authorities after a rally.

The Canadian government is known to want the Keystone XL Pipeline to go through, and has been saying that it would not have any impact on global climate change. Now they seem to think different, per The New York Times.

The Feds:

In light of the weekend commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington, Alex Seitz-Wald, filling in for Greg Sargent at the Plum Line has some important thoughts about race in light of the right’s attempt gloss over the legacy of our institutional racism with assertions of colorblindness.  Meanwhile Steve Benen at the Maddow Blog has some thoughts about the right’s dishonest use of the murder of Australian baseball player Christopher Lane.  Spoiler for the right: one of his assailants actually were white.

Adam Liptak at The New York Times has a must-read interview with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  Forget the hair-pulling about Ginsburg’s insistence on staying put.  The most important part of her interview is the jab at how Congress’s failure to function has ruin the ability for the Court and the legislative branch to work together.

Democrat Newark mayor Cory Booker will almost certainly be the next US Senator from New Jersey and it is driving the left crazy.  Are they right?

Across the river in New York City, election day lumbers ever closer.  The New York Times and The New York Post endorsed City Council Speaker Christine Quinn for the Democratic nomination, like The Daily News did earlier.  Both the Post and Times also endorsed Jay Lhota for the Republican nomination.  Bill de Blasio, still among the frontrunners, was profiled by The Times specifically his turn at managaing Hillary Clinton’s successful 2000 US Senate campaign.

The State of Things:

With one rival nearly out the door, Treasurer Steven Grossman has announced his campaign team for the next year’s gubernatorial contest.  But Senator Dan Wolf, who has said he will resign from the Senate and end his campaign for Governor Thursday got some backup from a watchdog group, which asked the Ethics Commission to reconsider its ruling.  But the number of folks in the race has stayed the same as former Obama administration official Juliette Kayyem jumped in last week.  Grossman is also calling for a gubernatorial People Pledge to keep outside money out of the race.

In the Boston Mayoral race, The Globe looks at the candidate’ environmental credentials and stances.  Rep. Marty Walsh, one of the race’s frontrunners, is facing fresh calls, currently from Suffolk County D.A. Dan Conley, to sign onto the contest’s pledge to block outside money.  Walsh had called it a gimmick, but David Bernstein has video of Walsh saying he would join if his rivals did.  WBUR’s David Scharfenbarg, continuing his swing through the candidates, profiles the former head of Codman Square Health, Bill Walczak.

Mohegan Sun is poised to release its community host agreement with the Town Palmer.  The town voters will go to the polls 60 to 90 days after the Council votes on it.

City Slickers:

Ward 1 Councilor Zaida Luna’s crusade to close package store in her ward is getting the headlines that it seems meant to generate, like here in The Reminder.  The final result remains unknown.

Paul Tuthill at Northeastern Public Radio’s Paul Tuthill has an interview with Springfield School Superintendent Daniel Warwick.  Among the topics are how a special $14 million grant to close the achievement gap.

Twitter Chatter:

We are going a bit into the weeds of Twitter-diculousness tonight.  Apparently, in the last few minutes and hours, the former US Senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown has decided, to go on a blocking rampage.  When one blocks someone on Twitter it means that person cannot follow the one any longer.  However, they can still check the feed the old fashioned way—directly—unless the feed is then made private.  Among the blocked are David Bernstein and Adam Reilly, both reporters, if occasionally irreverent ones.  The reason for the blockages may be the mockery of Brown’s staccato, if incomprehensible, “maybe.” Today we award the tweet prize to one of the other blocking victims, Lauren Miller, Elizabeth Warren’s campaign digital director.  However, as her tweet notes, it sure took Brown a long time to get around to doing it, well after he and her boss were no longer rivals.  Miller’s response to Brown’s explanation also merits recognition.

To be fair, I’m a little surprised that it took @scottbrownma till 9 months AFTER the campaign to block me….

— Lauren Miller (@laurenm) August 26, 2013

Scott Brown was in a rush so he accidentally tweeted “maybe.” But not in so much of a rush that he couldn’t stop to block people.

— Lauren Miller (@laurenm) August 26, 2013