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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI."

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

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Arizona

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AP, November 12: "A measure that would legalize medical marijuana in Arizona pulled ahead for the first time Friday, with both supporters and opponents saying they believed the proposal that went before voters on Election Day would pass."

Epoch Times: "Ben Quayle, the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, won in Arizona’s 3rd congressional district on Tuesday."

NBC News projects that Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer will retain her governorship.

CBS News projects that Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain will retain his Senate seat.

"The Man Who Never Was." Todd Purdum in Vanity Fair: "Desperate to keep his Senate seat, John McCain repudiated his record, his principles, and even his maverick reputation, entrenching himself as the anti-Obama. Which raises the issue of whether the leader so many Americans admired—and so many journalists covered—ever truly existed."

Jason Linkins (October 5) has a pretty funny, & accurate, take on the candidacy of Ben Quayle.

Democratic Congressional candidate John Hulburd v. Republican Ben Quayle & TheDirty.com:

New York Times, September 13: Steve May, a Republican "former legislator who recruited several drifters to run for office as Green Party candidates has canceled his own run for the State House.... Besides facing an uproar over his recruitment efforts, he was criticized in the news media for having been arrested on charges of driving under the influence." His name & those of his drifter buddies will remain on the November ballot.

The New York Times picks up on this Arizona Republic story about the Arizona Republican party's "recruiting" sham candidates to run on the Green party slot with the idea the Green "candidates" will siphon votes from Democrats. The Times reports that among their "recruits" are homeless men. The Democratic party of Arizona has launched complaints with federal, state & local agencies.

Governor Headless. AP, September 4: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer finally admits she "misspoke" about headless bodies turning up in the desert: "That was an error, if I said that."

Gail Collins reports, "In her postdebate repair effort, Brewer told a radio interviewer that 'the bottom line is that there have been beheadings in the border region in Mexico.'” But later on Friday, the AP reports that Brewer did an about-face: "That was an error, if I said that."

No More Debates. The Arizona Star: "Incumbent Republican Jan Brewer said Thursday she has no intention of participating in any more events with Democrat Terry Goddard. She said the only reason she debated him on Wednesday is she had to to qualify for more than $1.7 million in public funds for her campaign."

In what was supposed to be her opening statement in a debate with her Democratic opponent Terry Goddard, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, freezes up:

... Brewer then refuses to answer questions about her false claims that police have found "headless bodies" in the desert:

Here's Gov. Headless making her beheading claims on Fox "News":

So first, she said, repeatedly, there were headless bodies in the desert, then she wouldn't say, the she said there were, then she said there weren't:

Running on Fear. Rachel Maddow reports on Queen Jan's fake campaign, her cozy relationship with a private prison company that benefits from the anti-immigration law, & her retribution againt a local CBS affiliate that has investigated that connection:

Arizona Republic, August 31: "The state Democratic Party is alleging possible voter fraud in what it called a scheme to undermine its candidates by recruiting "sham" Green Party hopefuls....

Marc Lacey of the New York Times profiles Ben Quayle. Jon Hulburd, Quayle's Democratic opponent, who has an uphill battle in a "safe" Republican district, said of the race, "This election is now between Jon Hulburd and Brock Landers,” referring to Quayle's porn star nom de plume.

AP: in Arizona, Ben Quayle, Son of Dan, won his congressional primary race in a heavily Republican district. CW: still the general election could be fun.

Today, the Republican party of Arizona nominated for Senate JD Hayworth in the shell of a politician that was once John McCain. The complete takeover of the Republican party by the Tea Party has included taking over the soul of a Senator who was once the face of comprehensive immigration reform and who now would just build the ‘danged fence;’ a man who once reveled in being a maverick and who now is a rubber stamp for the extreme rightwing; a man whose name was synonymous with campaign finance reform and who now barely registers a notice when the law that bears his name was gutted by the Supreme Court to favor corporate America. So, we congratulate JD Hayworth on his nomination tonight. -- Hari Sevugen, DNC National Press Secretary

AP: "U.S. Sen. John McCain has defeated conservative challenger J.D. Hayworth in the Republican primary in his bid for a fifth term."

AP: "Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer is headed to the general election after handily winning a GOP primary marked by a surge in her popularity after she signed a tough law targeting illegal immigration."

AP: "Gov. Jan Brewer faces a little-known moderate Tuesday in a Republican primary election contest in that saw her prospects boosted by her signing of a controversial law targeting illegal immigration. Meanwhile, Attorney General Terry Goddard is unopposed for the Democratic nomination."

Marc Lacey of the New York Times on John McCain's primary campaign: "The question now is whether Mr. McCain’s sharp shift to the right during the campaign — the onetime maverick declared at one point that he no longer wanted anything to do with that label — will ultimately come back to haunt him and perhaps tarnish his legacy as a pragmatist willing to reach across the aisle."

CW: I'm no fan of Mark Halperin's or Chris Matthew's, but when they're knocking John McCain, I'm flexible:

I’m a tall drink of water who is easy on the eyes. Plus, my moral compass is so broken I can barely find the parking lot. Long story short, on a scale of 1-to-10, I’m awesome. -- Ben Quayle, Arizona Congressional family-values candidate (& Son of Dan), using the pseudonym "Brock Landers," a character in a porn film, on the DirtyScottsdale.com Website ...

... Anyway, after concluding that sipping mint juleps dockside had been replaced with taking body shots off of scantily clad ladies, it was time to lose my yachting attire–and that’s when things started to get interesting. -- Ben Quayle, as Brock Landers, on a day at the lake

Another Republican Demonstrates How Not to Handle an Embarrassing Revelation. Rachel Slajda of Talking Points Memo: after the owner of a somewhat raunchy website outed family values Congressional candidate Ben Quayle as a writer for and "one of the original creators of the site," Quayle first denied it, later admitted he knew the site's founder, still later said he had written "two, possibly three" posts. ...

... The Arizona Capitol Times has more. Quayle categorically denied he wrote under the pseudonym "Brock Landers," the name of a porn-film character, but seems to have backed off that denial, too. ...

... TheDirty.com Webmaster Nik Ritchie (surprisingly, not his real name) posts Quayle's literary efforts in a post called "Ben Quayle is Brock Landers."

... Update: So now the whiney boy awesome dude tells Politico his political enemies are trying to "assassinate my character." CW; why would they, Mr. Easy-on-the-Eyes, when you're killing yourself with a thousands cuts?

ABC News: is Ben Quayle a chip off the old block- potatoe-head?

This is nauseating: Dan Quayle's son Ben is running for Congress.

... Update: this ad has been subscriber-firewalled. That's okay; the parody below is even funnier.

... BUT this is funny: Andy Cobb of Second City wants Ben's old job, whatever it is:

GQ artwork.Robert Draper has an excellent, long piece in GQ about the Arizona Republican primary battle between Sen. John McCain & former Rep. J. D. Hayworth. Draper & his subjects employs such images as "like a buzzard on desert carrion," "a mosquito at a nudist colony," & "going batshit about the border."

New York Times, July 17: Arizona Republican primary candidates John McCain, J. D. Hayworth & tea partier Jim Deakin faced off in a nasty debate. The Arizona Republic story is here.

AP: Scott Rothstein, "a now-disbarred Florida lawyer who admitted to orchestrating a huge Ponzi scheme, gave more than $180,000 to Arizona Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign contributions that McCain's Senate rival [J. D. Hayworth] is now making an issue in their competitive primary.... Rothstein was sentenced Wednesday to 50 years in prison after he confessed to running a $1.2 billion fraud using faked legal settlements."

Los Angeles Times: "Late Friday night as the Memorial Day weekend began, Arizona's Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, in effect, suspended the state's Democratic attorney general from defending the new law in upcoming legal challenges." The AG, Terry Goddard, is also running for governor & likely will be Brewer's opponent. He opposes the immigration legislation.

Public Policy Polling: "The Governor's race in Arizona continues to shape up as a rare opportunity for Democrats this year to pick up a major office they don't already have control of."