It's become normal for Americans to demand—and receive-a professional assessment of the physical health of the candidates for president—just as they expect updates on the medical state of the president himself. After all, there have been many infamous cases of presidents, from Franklin Roosevelt to Jack Kennedy, who secretly endured serious debilitating illnesses.

Thus, the current crop of presidential hopefuls has provided medical information—though not necessarily from the most objective sources. Hillary Clinton's doctor, for instance, declared her "fit to serve as president". Donald Trump's physician, opined that Trump's blood pressure and lab results were "astonishingly excellent", his "physical strength and stamina are extraordinary." He concluded, "If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."

But what about Trump's mental health?

Surely, we care if a candidate is mentally deranged. If we consider it reasonable that someone with severe psychiatric problems be prevented from purchasing a firearm, why go along with a system that might permit a similarly disturbed individual to gain control over the largest military arsenal the world has ever known?

A small private plane has slammed into two buildings in a northern suburb of Sao Paulo, killing seven people on board, and injuring one person on the ground, according to Brazil's emergency services.

The plane crashed at around 3:20pm local time (6:20pm GMT), shortly after taking off from Campo de Marte airport, authorities have announced. All six of the aircraft's passengers as well as the pilot were killed in the accident.

According to local fire department officials, only one person inside the buildings which had been struck by the aircraft was injured, while the rest were evacuated safely.

The seven seater CA-9 model plane belonged to the former CEO of a mining company named Vale, Roger Agnelli. According to Brazilian O Globo Newspaper, the businessman was killed on board the aircraft.

Police in Los Angeles are investigating the discovery of a human skull by hikers near Los Angeles' famous Hollywood sign.

The skull was found on Saturday afternoon near the Brush Canyon hiking trail and is believed to be several years old, LAPD Lt. Ryan Schatz told AP.

Police in New York pepper sprayed a crowd of protesters marching toward Trump International Tower on Saturday after pushing and shoving broke out between the NYPD and some of the protesters.

Videos of #CrushTrump protesters cleaning their irritated eyes emerged online after the large group clashed with NYC police officers.

"The police pepper sprayed the crowd indiscriminately," according to eyewitness James Woods, a journalist at US Uncut. "Multiple officers used pepper spray, at least two were arrested, including one photographer."

Thousands of protesters held banners and signs as they walked from Central Park to the Trump Tower on 5th Avenue.

Using your cellphone while crossing a street could become illegal in New Jersey, US, with violators facing either a $50 fine or a 15 days incarceration, thanks to one enthusiastic lawmaker. "If a person on the road - whether walking or driving - presents a risk to others on the road, there should be a law in place to dissuade and penalize risky behavior," Pamela Lampitt, Democratic Assemblywoman, who sponsored the bill - which was introduced on Monday - told local media.

She claims that with more people becoming distracted by their evolving gadgets, laws managing their use have to follow. "Distracted pedestrians, like distracted drivers, present a potential danger to themselves and drivers on the road. A pedestrian distracted by their device and unaware of oncoming traffic may cause unsuspecting drivers to brake suddenly or swerve out of the way, creating a potentially deadly situation," Lampitt is quoted as saying.



Meanwhile, experts have been citing links between distracted walking and pedestrian injury for some time now. According to a study by Corey Basch, associate professor of public health at William Patterson University, based on observing the behavior of some 21,000 pedestrians at five busy Manhattan intersections, "it came as a surprise that there were so many pedestrians distracted by technology during the walk signal, but the fact that there were even more distracted by technology crossing on a 'don't walk' signal is astonishing. It's clearly a public health concern".

Demonstrating once again the sniveling and shameless fealty to the wealthy that she and her husband have elevated to a high art over the last 30 years, Hillary Clinton wrote a letter to Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban last July 6th in which she said that:

I know you agree that we need to make countering BDS a priority. I am seeking your advice on how we can work together across party lines and with a diverse array of voices to reverse this trend with information and advocacy, and fight back against further attempts to isolate and delegitimize Israel.

One of the key reasons for the extraordinary success of the Zionist lobby in America over the last six decades or so has been its ability to generate and repeat sound bites whose discursive purpose is not to enrich the breadth and texture of a debate on the Middle East, but rather to impoverish and attenuate it.

Long before GOP operative Frank Luntz began trawling focus groups for emotionally-charged terms capable of crippling the public's rational faculties during political campaigns, the people at AIPAC and the many pundits in the mainstream media who faithfully carry their water (e.g. ex-AIPAC employee Wolf Blitzer) were already experts at this game.

Authorities in several Florida cities have seen an increase in emergency calls related to people being slumped over in a stupefied state, as they have overdosed on the dangerous drug known as spice, or synthetic marijuana.

Police in Tampa say that more people than ever before are overdosing on the drug, as investigators in Clearwater say they've received dozens of calls for people who have had to be rushed to the hospital because of suspected spice use.

WTVT reported that Tampa medical and law enforcement professionals warned last week about the dangerous uptick in overdoses that is possibly linked to a bad batch of spice that's being sold.

A video of Austin Police, taken by the cop watching group, the Peaceful Streets Project, was published to YouTube this weekend, showing them pepper spray a handcuffed man in the back of a police van.

Austin police have provided no other information other than they have launched an internal investigation.

The Peaceful Streets Project is known for actively filming police and the group, founded by police accountability activist Antonio Beuhler, said they stepped up their efforts to film during the 10-day SXSW festivities.

Beuhler said that he has seen many instances of police officers unnecessarily using pepper spray and tasers on people during SXSW.

As we've seen in recent months, the Chicago police are anything but honest when it comes to officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths. In only a short period, multiple videos were released showing Chicago cops gun down men as they ran away - contradicting their original stories of having a gun pointed at them.

From revelations about the department operating a black site at Homan Square, to multiple incidents of police destruction of records, to officer's general tendency for lying until video reveals otherwise — Chicago police could easily be described as a dangerous gang.

Last December, Spencer Ackerman, a reporter for The Guardian who exposed the Homan Square scandal, testified before the Cook County Commission revealing that more than 7,000 people had disappeared within the black site between August 2004 and June 2015. Instead of formally arresting suspects at Homan Square, Chicago cops are accused of shackling suspects to the wall for hours without bathroom breaks while violating their constitutional rights by threatening and beating them without the presence of an attorney.

Twenty-two patients, most of them children, were taken to hospitals in Colorado following a chemical incident, initially reported to be a chlorine gas spill, at a Lafayette recreation center's pool. The facility has been closed to the public. The patients reported symptoms such as coughing and nausea, Lafayette Fire Chief David Friedel said, adding he had "no clue why those people took ill."

He couldn't confirm what type of chemical spill took place inside either. Multiple agencies appeared at the scene, Friedel said. The Boulder County Sheriff's office had a Hazmat crew investigating the nature of the incident, Denver TV reported. "It was very hectic originally," Friedel told journalists during a press conference when asked whether the incident was a serious one.

"Whenever you have 22 patients, that's a big deal. We're a small community. That's definitely a mass casualty incident," Lafayette Fire Chief added. Friedel said that no other areas were affected by the incident, which occurred at 4:10pm in the pool area of the Bob L. Burger Recreation Center on Saturday. According to the Daily Camera, one witness, Mike Dufresne said he was getting ready to walk into the locker room when he saw people "coming out coughing and choking and having a hard time breathing." All rec center visitors inside were immediately evacuated and taken to the adjacent Pioneer Elementary School.

The Boulder County Health Department will be carrying out tests on the pool water on Monday. Initial monitoring tests performed at the recreation center by the Lafayette Fire Department and the Boulder County Hazardous Materials Team were unable to detect any lingering gas or chemical levels, the Daily Camera said.