News you might have missed: Morning links for Tuesday, June 5

It's primary day for eight states (Vox)

Alabama, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota all have primary elections today. Seats in the Senate, the House of Representatives, and governorships are up for grabs, and many of those races look close. In California, a surge of Democrats running for office could end up hurting that party. California has a "jungle primary" system, where the top two candidates from any party move on to the general election. So, if the Democrat candidates for any one seat split their party's vote too much, two Republicans could end up running against each other in November.

A group of fake police operated in Michigan for three years (Washington Post)

In a bizarre story, a group of people in Genesse County, Michigan, were able to impersonate police officers for nearly three years. In some instances, they showed up to crime scenes and cooperated with actual police, who apparently thought they came from a different department or agency. Now three members of the group are in jail, while authorities try to figure out just how this charade managed to go on for so long.

Mexico slaps retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. (Reuters)

On June 1, Mexico lost its exemption to the Trump administration's steep tariffs on aluminum and steel. Now the Mexican government is returning a favor, with a 20 percent tariff on pork imports from the United States. Reuters reports that Mexico imports $1.07 billion worth of pork annually, 90 percent of which comes from the United States.

David Koch retires from his political network (Wall Street Journal)

The libertarian billionaire Koch brothers have been influential in politics for decades, using their resources to promote causes they believe in and earning the hatred of many on the left. Now the younger brother, David, is stepping back from the family business and from politics, citing health concerns.

Kurdish forces pull out of Syrian city, easing tensions (Chicago Tribune)

Turkey had threatened that it might attack the city of Manbij in Syria, which was controlled by a Syrian Kurdish militia. Turkey views all Kurds, an ethnic group that lives in several countries in that region, as terrorists because of the actions of a single Kurdish group in Turkey. Despite this, the Kurds in Syria and Iraq have proven to be invaluable U.S. allies. U.S. forces are also present in Manbij, raising tensions between the U.S. and Turkey. Now the Kurds say that they believe that local forces can control the town on their own, and announced that they will be leaving Manbij shortly.

Chuck Schumer said he thinks Trump did more about China than Obama, Bush (NPR)

While he stressed repeatedly that he strongly disagrees with Trump on most things and he thinks that the president is damaging the country long term, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) admitted that he thought the president was actually following through when it came to China. "I don't think either previous president did much to show China they meant business. Trump has talked about it," Schumer said.

Bayer to get rid of the name Monsanto (USA Today)

Monsanto has long been a name that anti-GMO activists love to throw around as a scare term. Now, in an understandable marketing move, Monsanto's parent company, Bayer, will scrap the Monsanto's name. Products and processes will stay the same, only the name itself will disappear.