April 1, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Marie: I found it! I found it! Here's where to begin to look for your family records in the 1950 Census. ~~~

Click to see larger image.

President Biden speaks about the March jobs report:

Elisabetta Povoledo & Ian Austen of the New York Times: "Pope Francis apologized on Friday for the Roman Catholic Church's involvement in a system of Canadian boarding schools that abused Indigenous children for 100 years, an announcement that comes after the discovery last year of signs of unmarked graves with the remains of hundreds of people, many of them children. 'I feel shame -- sorrow and shame -- for the role' that Catholics played 'in the abuses you suffered and in the lack of respect shown for your identity, your culture and even your spiritual values,' Francis said. Francis also promised he would travel to Canada, where he would be better able to 'express to you my closeness' as part of a process of healing and reconciliation."

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Clifford Krauss & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "... President Biden announced on Thursday that the United States would release up to 180 million barrels of oil from a strategic reserve to counteract the economic impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.... Gasoline prices have risen nearly $1.50 a gallon over the last year, undercutting consumer confidence. And the cost of diesel, the fuel used by most farmers and shippers, has climbed even faster, threatening to push up already high inflation on all manner of goods and services.... Mr. Biden has few tools to control commodity prices that are set on global markets, so he is turning to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, ordering the largest release since that emergency stockpile was established in the early 1970s. But the move will most likely have a modest impact because it cannot make up for all the oil, diesel and other fuels that Russia used to sell to the world but is no longer able to." ~~~

~~~ Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "President Biden took steps on Thursday to try to increase domestic production of critical minerals and metals needed for advanced technologies like electric vehicles, in an attempt to reduce America's reliance on foreign suppliers. Mr. Biden invoked the Defense Production Act, a move that will give the government more avenues to provide support for the mining, processing and recycling of critical materials, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and manganese. Those are used to make large-capacity batteries for electric cars and clean-energy storage systems. Yet except for a handful of mines and facilities, they are almost exclusively produced outside the United States. 'We need to end our long-term reliance on China and other countries for inputs that will power the future,' Mr. Biden said during remarks at the White House, where he also announced the release of one million barrels of oil per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve."

Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Weeks into a relentless Russian siege of the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, there were hopeful signs on Friday amid the deepening humanitarian crisis there, with an aid convoy on its way to the port city. Peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials were also expected to resume by video link on Friday. Ukraine's government has said it is willing to discuss forsaking any aspirations of joining NATO, as well as making territorial concessions if other nations provide security guarantees.... As Russian troops pulled out of Ukraine's shuttered Chernobyl nuclear plant five weeks after seizing it, an international nuclear watchdog agency is looking into reports that some of the soldiers are experiencing radiation poisoning.... A Pentagon spokesman, John F. Kirby, cast doubt on the reports..., saying in a news conference on Thursday that ... the troop movement appeared to be 'a piece of this larger effort to refit and resupply and not necessarily done because of health hazards or some sort of emergency or a crisis at Chernobyl.'" MB: I heard on TV that the Russian troops had dug trenches around the plant in soil that had high levels of radiation. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here. The Guardian's live updates for Friday are here: "Russia has accused Ukraine of sending attack helicopters across the border to strike an oil storage facility in what would be the first raid on Russian soil since the outbreak of the war if confirmed. Ukraine has not confirmed that it launched the attack, raising questions about whether Russian negligence may be to blame. A Russian governor in the border region of Belgorod said that early on Friday two Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopters crossed the border at low altitude before firing rockets at an oil facility 25 miles from the border. Video posted to social media on Friday appeared to show a helicopter strike using air-to-ground missiles and then a major fire at the facility said to be in Belgorod, with flames reaching dozens of metres into the air." MB: I have been wondering why Ukraine had not attacked Russian facilities & military encampments near their border.

Matt Viser, et al., of the Washington Post: "Russian and Ukrainian officials agreed to a temporary cease-fire in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, with evacuations planned for Friday, even as the Pentagon reported devastating airstrikes there and in Kyiv, the capital, over the previous 24 hours. Dozens of buses began arriving in the area around Mariupol on Thursday to deliver humanitarian aid and transport civilians, an effort that a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross called 'desperately important' for a city that has borne the worst of Russia's invasion and where 100,000 residents may still be trapped.... A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon, said Moscow could be planning to seize Mariupol as a springboard into the eastern Donbas region, where Russians troops may try to envelop Ukrainian forces. Russia's military has increasingly tried to seize towns in that part of Ukraine, the Pentagon has said, and forces pulled from the country's north appear to be heading there." ~~~

~~~ Bethan McKernan, et al., of the Guardian: "An aide to the mayor of Mariupol has said the besieged southern Ukrainian city remains closed for anyone trying to enter and is 'very dangerous' for anyone trying to leave. Petro Andryushchenko said Russian forces had since Thursday been preventing even the smallest amount of humanitarian supplies reaching trapped residents, making clear a planned 'humanitarian corridor' had not been opened. 'The city remains closed to entry and very dangerous to exit with personal transport,' he said on the Telegram messaging app on Friday. 'In addition, since yesterday the occupiers have categorically not allowed any humanitarian aid -- even in small quantities -- into the city.' A convoy of buses that set out for Mariupol did not reach the city, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday evening. Russia had promised a limited ceasefire along the route from Mariupol to the Ukraine-held city of Zaporizhzhia."

Helene Cooper & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Russia is running its military campaign against Ukraine out of Moscow, with no central war commander on the ground to call the shots, according to American officials who have studied the five-week-old war. That centralized approach may go a long way to explain why the Russian war effort has struggled in the face of stiffer-than-expected Ukrainian resistance, the officials said. The lack of a unifying military leader in Ukraine has meant that Russian air, ground and sea units are not in sync. Their disjointed battlefield campaigns have been plagued by poor logistics, flagging morale and between 7,000 and 15,000 military deaths, senior U.S. officials and independent analysts say. It has also contributed to the deaths of at least seven Russian generals as high-ranking officers are pushed to the front lines to untangle tactical problems that Western militaries would leave to more junior officers or senior enlisted personnel."

<>Meryl Kornfield & Amy Cheng of the Washington Post: "Russian soldiers short on morale and weapons have refused orders, sabotaged their own equipment and shot down one of their own aircraft, Britain's spy chief said Thursday, painting a picture of chaos on Russia's front lines as the war in Ukraine drags into its second month. The efforts are evidence of ... Vladimir Putin's miscalculation when he decided to invade Ukraine, Jeremy Fleming, head of Britain's signals intelligence agency, said in a speech Thursday at Australian National University.... But other observers have cautioned against dismissing the strength of the Russian military, warning that the Kremlin has shown little sign of backing down from its war efforts."

Claire Parker of the Washington Post: "For Syrians, the accounts of life in ... [Mariupol], besieged by Russian forces, sound eerily familiar. Rights groups, officials and observers have drawn comparisons to the brutal tactics Russia deployed to turn the tide of the Syrian civil war in favor of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.... The conflicts are not the same.... But Russia continues to employ weapons and strategies honed on Syrian cities to deadly effect.... Ukrainian officials have warned that Mariupol is 'becoming a second Aleppo.'... In Mariupol, Russian forces have surrounded and bombarded the city, cutting off communications, water, gas and electricity, and preventing aid convoys from entering.... Other Ukrainian cities, such as Chernihiv, face similar conditions. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia this month of 'starving' Ukrainian cities."

Ben Hubbard, et al., of the New York Times: "Hundreds of Syrian fighters are en route to join Russian forces in Ukraine, effectively returning the favor to Moscow for helping President Bashar al-Assad crush rebels in an 11-year civil war, according to two people monitoring the flow of mercenaries. A first contingent of soldiers has already arrived in Russia for military training before heading to Ukraine, according to a Western diplomat and a Damascus-based ally of the Syrian government. It includes at least 300 soldiers from a Syrian army division that has worked closely with Russian officers who went to Syria to support Mr. al-Assad during the war. And many more could be on the way...."

France. BBC: "The head of French military intelligence, Gen Eric Vidaud, is losing his job after failing to predict Russia's war in Ukraine, reports say. Seven months after he took on the role, one report said he was blamed for 'inadequate briefings' and a 'lack of mastery of subjects'. The US correctly assessed that Russia was planning a large-scale invasion, while France concluded it was unlikely. Gen Vidaud was blamed for that by France's military chief, a source said. However, the military source told AFP news agency that his job was to provide 'military intelligence on operations, not on premeditation'."

Eugene Scott & John Wagner of the New York Times: "President Biden is marking Transgender Day of Visibility by celebrating the contributions that transgender Americans have made to the country while criticizing Republican-led efforts to pass legislation that the White House says is 'dangerous' to transgender people." ~~~

At Long Last. Yonat Shimron of Religion News Service: "After an eight-month delay, noted antisemitism scholar Deborah Lipstadt was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, in a late-night voice vote Wednesday (March 30). The Senate vote was required because the position was recently elevated to the rank of ambassador. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday approved the nomination, sending it to the full Senate on a vote of 13-9 with only two Republican senators, Mitt Romney from Utah and Marco Rubio from Florida, voting in favor. Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff introduced the motion on behalf of Lipstadt who lives in his state. She teaches at Emory University, located in Atlanta. Ossoff, who is Jewish, mentioned his great-grandparents, Israel and Annie, who fled Eastern Europe because of antisemitism in the 1910s." Also published in the Washington Post.

Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times: "When Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court nomination reaches the Senate floor soon, every Republican who votes against her confirmation will be complicit in the abuse that the Republican members of the Judiciary Committee heaped on her. Every mischaracterization of Judge Jackson's record on the bench. Every racist dog whistle about crime. Every QAnon shout-out about rampant child pornography. Every innuendo that a lawyer who represents suspected terrorists supports terrorism.... The Republicans' role in the Jackson hearing was ... about concocting a scary version of a Black woman to serve up to their base." MB: Greenhouse, who has proved over decades of writing about the Court that she is a remarkably temperate woman, really lets it loose here. Good for her.

Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times: "A bill to limit the cost of insulin to $35 a month for most Americans who depend on it passed the House on Thursday, raising Democrats' hopes that the party could take at least one step toward fulfilling its promise of lowering drug costs. The bill attracted unanimous support from Democrats who voted, as well as from 12 Republicans, making it a rare piece of bipartisan policy legislation. To become law, the bill will need to attract at least 10 Republican votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster..., but few Republican senators have publicly endorsed the bill yet.... The bill would have substantial benefits for many of the nearly 30 million Americans who live with diabetes." An AP story is here. MB: If there are not ten Republican senators who have family members who require insulin, the bill likely is dead. Republicans do not vote for humanitarian bills unless they can personally identify with those who would benefit from the legislation.

lan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors have substantially widened their Jan. 6 investigation to examine the possible culpability of a broad range of figures involved in ... Donald J. Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, people familiar with the inquiry said on Wednesday. The investigation now encompasses the possible involvement of other government officials in Mr. Trump's attempts to obstruct the certification of President Biden's Electoral College victory and the push by some Trump allies to promote slates of fake electors, they said." This is sort of a follow-up to the WashPo scoop linked below. MB: The report seems to indicate -- IMO -- that DOJ is still nibbling around the edges, going after "organizers and prominent participants in the rally on the Ellipse, and potential criminality in the promotion of pro-Trump slates of electors to replace slates named by states won by Mr. Biden." (Also linked yesterday.) See also Akhilleus' commentary in yesterday's thread.

About Those Phone Logs -- a Plausible Explanation (But Not an Excuse). Zachary Cohen, et al., of CNN: "The mystery of the seven-hour [White House telephone call log] gap has fueled furious speculation as to why calls are missing. According to multiple sources familiar with Trump's phone behavior and the White House switchboard records, the January 6 log reflects Trump's typical phone habits. He mainly placed calls through the switchboard when he was in the residence but rarely used it when he was in the Oval Office. The fact the log does not show calls on January 6, 2021, from the Oval Office is not unusual, said the sources, because Trump typically had staff either place calls directly for him on landlines or cell phones. Those calls would not be noted on the switchboard log. The six pages of White House switchboard logs for January 6, 2021, are completely based on an official review of White House records, according to a source familiar with the matter. There are no missing pages...." ~~~

     ~~~ Jonathan Swan & Alayna Treene of Axios: "On Jan. 6, 2021, during an apparent seven-hour gap in White House call logs that the House select committee investigating the attack is now trying to piece together, then-President Trump's executive assistant, Molly Michael, was absent for most of the day, three sources with direct knowledge tell Axios.... Though sources said the Trump White House's already spotty record-keeping operation had virtually collapsed by the final weeks of his presidency, Michael's absence is a previously unreported detail that may play a role in explaining the incomplete records for a key stretch of time."

I've heard people say from time to time, 'Well, it's a personal decision of a judge as to whether he should recuse himself.' Well, if your wife is an admitted and proud contributor to a coup of our country, maybe you should weigh that in your ethical standards. -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Thursday ~~~

~~~ Felicia Sonmez & Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday renewed her call for the Supreme Court to institute a code of ethics, citing the recent revelations that Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed the Trump White House to try to overturn President Biden's 2020 victory.... Pelosi on Thursday declined to say whether Thomas should recuse himself or resign from the court, telling reporters, 'I don't think he should have ever been appointed, so, we could take it back to there.'... Pelosi noted that H.R. 1, the For the People Act, includes language calling for the establishment of a judicial code of ethics. The measure passed the House this month in a largely party-line vote, but its chances are dim in the Senate."

Dareh Gregorian & Kyle Stewart of NBC News: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol interviewed its first Trump family member and the highest-ranking official from the previous administration by meeting with Jared Kushner on Thursday for more than six hours, a source inside the room told NBC News. The panel met virtually with Kushner -- Donald Trump's son-in-law and a former top White House adviser -- after he voluntarily agreed to speak with the committee.... The source described Kushner as being cooperative and friendly, adding that he did the talking, as opposed to having his lawyers speak for him. The committee did not immediately comment on Kushner's appearance." MB: But I promise you his appearance was excellent: he was clean-shaven, wore a nice suit & tie, and his smile was ever-so winning.

News Flash! Donald Trump Is a Cheap, Mean, Greedy SOB. Eric Lipton & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "As ... Donald J. Trump's tenure came to an end, the chief White House photographer [Shealah Craighead], who had traveled the world with him and spent countless hours inside the White House snapping pictures, notified Mr. Trump's aides that she intended to publish a book collecting some of her most memorable images. This was hardly a radical idea: Official photographers from every White House since President Ronald Reagan's have published their own books. Barack Obama and George W. Bush were so supportive that they wrote forewords for them.... [BUT] aides to Mr. Trump asked her for a cut of her book advance payment, in exchange for his writing a foreword and helping promote the book, according to former associates of Mr. Trump. Then Mr. Trump's team asked Ms. Craighead to hold off on her book project to allow the former president to take Ms. Craighea's photos and those of other White House staff photographers and publish his own book, which is now selling for as much as $230 a copy. That the profits from Ms. Craighead's labor are now going into Mr. Trump's pocket has left several of Mr. Trump's former aides upset -- but not exactly surprised."

California, Here They Come, Right Back Where They Started From. Ellie Silverman of the Washington Post: "The trucker group calling itself the 'People's Convoy,' which protested vaccine mandates and aired other right-wing grievances by driving around the D.C. region for more than three weeks, left its temporary base in Western Maryland on Thursday morning to head across the country to challenge proposed coronavirus vaccine and health-related bills in California. The protest failed to accomplish any of its stated demands and recently saw a dwindling number of participants, fractures among supporters, pushback from local residents and activists and road blockages by D.C. police."

Eeew! Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "The police said on Thursday that five fetuses had been removed from a home in Washington[, D.C.,] that, according to an anti-abortion group, belonged to an activist who was charged by the Justice Department this week with blocking access to an abortion clinic in October 2020. The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia would release only the address where the fetuses were found. Terrisa Bukovinac, the founder and executive director of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, confirmed that the home belonged to Lauren Handy, 28, the group's director of activism, who was arrested and charged with federal civil rights offenses this week.... The police said they had gone to the home ... to investigate a tip about 'potential biohazard material' when officers found the fetuses inside.... An investigation was continuing. No charges have been announced in connection with the discovery." A WUSA story is here.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Amy Goldstein & Dan Keating of the Washington Post: "Pregnant people who are vaccinated against the coronavirus are nearly twice as likely to get covid-19 as those who are not pregnant, according to a new study that offers the broadest evidence to date of the odds of infections among vaccinated patients with different medical circumstances. The analysis, based on medical records of nearly 14 million U.S. patients since coronavirus immunization became available, found that pregnant people who are vaccinated have the greatest risk of developing covid among a dozen medical states, including being an organ transplant recipient and having cancer. The findings come on top of research showing that people who are pregnant or gave birth recently and became infected are especially prone to getting seriously ill from covid-19. And covid has been found to increase the risk of pregnancy complications, such as premature births." Free to nonsubscribers.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona has signed legislation requiring voters to prove their citizenship in order to vote in a presidential election, swiftly drawing a legal challenge from voting rights activists who argued that it could keep tens of thousands of voters from casting a ballot. The Arizona measure, passed into law on Wednesday, also requires newly registered voters to provide a proof of address, which could have a disproportionate impact on students, older voters who no longer drive, low-income voters and Native Americans. Legal experts said the new rules might run afoul of both federal law and recent Supreme Court decisions. On Wednesday, Mi Familia Vota, a voting rights group, filed a federal lawsuit challenging the law."

Florida. "A Horrendous History of Racial Discrimination in Voting." Gary Fineout of Politico: "A federal judge on Thursday struck down key provisions of a 2021 Florida election law championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and, in a remarkable move, ruled the state must get court approval for the next 10 years before it enacts further changes in three areas. Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, in a blistering 288-page decision, said the law placed restrictions on voters that were unconstitutional and discriminated against minority citizens. Those included limits on drop boxes used for mail-in voting, on giving items to voters waiting in line and new requirements placed on voter registration groups.... Walker, who was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama, framed Florida's law as another in a long line of changes that were aimed at Democrats but wound up placing an illegal burden on minorities.... '... this court finds that, in the past 20 years, Florida has repeatedly sought to make voting tougher for Black voters because of their propensity to favor Democratic candidates. In summation, Florida has a horrendous history of racial discrimination in voting.'" Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Reid Epstein, et al., of the New York Times: "The sharply worded 288-page order, issued by Judge Mark E. Walker of the Federal District Court in Tallahassee, was the first time a federal court had struck down major elements of the wave of voting laws enacted by Republicans since the 2020 election.... Judge Walker's decision is certain to be appealed and is likely to be overturned either by the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, which tends to lean conservative, or the Supreme Court, which has sharply limited the federal government's power to intervene in state election law."

New York. Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "A New York State judge ruled on Thursday that Democrats had unconstitutionally drawn new congressional districts for partisan advantage, and he blocked their use in this year's election, potentially throwing the midterm contests into turmoil. In a sweeping ruling, Justice Patrick F. McAllister of State Supreme Court concluded that Democrats who control Albany had drawn the congressional lines for partisan advantage, violating a new constitutional prohibition on partisan gerrymandering adopted by New York voters. Justice McAllister, a Republican in rural Steuben County, accused Democrats of embracing tactics they have denounced Republicans for using in order to create a map that gave them an advantage in 22 of 26 New York seats. He called such gerrymandering a 'scourge' on democracy.... The judge also tossed out fresh State Senate and Assembly districts that he said were the product of an irrevocably tainted mapmaking process." Democrats will appeal.

Way Beyond

Ireland. Ed O'Loughlin of the New York Times: "Ireland's last surviving 'Magdalene laundry,' where thousands of unmarried mothers and other unwanted women were forced to work without pay in abject conditions, often until they died, is to be preserved as a state-funded memorial to all victims of incarceration and abuse in church and state-run institutions, the Irish government has announced. The government's move on Tuesday overturned a previous decision by Dublin City Council, the owner of the former convent and laundry, which closed down in 1996, to sell the site for redevelopment as a budget hotel. Operated most recently by the Sisters of Charity and Refuge, an order of Roman Catholic nuns, the high-walled compound in Dublin's deprived north inner city was the last 'Magdalene laundry' to close down, and is the only one that has not been demolished." MB: A budget hotel??? Who wouldn't enjoy sleeping in a room where young women were effectively incarcerated, enslaved & tortured? But, hey, at a reasonable price!

News Ledes

CNBC: "Amid soaring inflation and worries about a looming recession, the U.S. economy added slightly fewer jobs than expected in March as the labor market grew increasingly tighter. Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 431,000 for the month, while the unemployment rate was 3.6%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 490,000 on payrolls and 3.7% for the jobless level." ~~~

~~~ Same data, rosier take: ~~~

~~~ New York Times: "A continued torrent of consumer demand, paired with an emerging atmosphere of normalcy as coronavirus caseloads and health restrictions fade away, led to a burst of new jobs last month, giving reason for optimism despite the year's increasingly uncertain economic outlook. U.S. employers added 431,000 jobs in March on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said Friday. The figure was just shy of forecasts, and there was an upward revision of 95,000 for the previous two months of this year. The unemployment rate was 3.6 percent, down from 3.8 percent a month earlier and just a touch higher than its levels right before the pandemic." From an NYT liveblog.

March 31, 2022

Late Morning Update:

Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors have substantially widened their Jan. 6 investigation to examine the possible culpability of a broad range of figures involved in ... Donald J. Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, people familiar with the inquiry said on Wednesday. The investigation now encompasses the possible involvement of other government officials in Mr. Trump's attempts to obstruct the certification of President Biden's Electoral College victory and the push by some Trump allies to promote slates of fake electors, they said." This is sort of a follow-up to the WashPo scoop linked below. MB: The report seems to indicate -- IMO -- that DOJ is still nibbling around the edges, going after "organizers and prominent participants in the rally on the Ellipse, and potential criminality in the promotion of pro-Trump slates of electors to replace slates named by states won by Mr. Biden."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here.

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"Worse Than Watergate," Ctd.

** Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "The criminal investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has expanded to examine the preparations for the rally that preceded the riot, as the Justice Department aims to determine the full extent of any conspiracy to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's election victory, according to people familiar with the matter. In the past two months, a federal grand jury in Washington has issued subpoena requests to some officials in ... Donald Trump's orbit who assisted in planning, funding and executing the Jan. 6 rally, said the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The development shows the degree to which the Justice Department investigation -- which already involves more defendants than any other criminal prosecution in the nation's history -- has moved further beyond the storming of the Capitol to examine events preceding the attack." The Hill has a summary report here.

** About Those Missing Call Logs. Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "Donald Trump used an official White House phone to place at least one call during the Capitol attack on January 6 last year that should have been reflected in the internal presidential call log from that day but was not, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The former president called the phone of a Republican senator, Mike Lee, with a number recorded as 202-395-0000, a placeholder number that shows up when a call is incoming from a number of White House department phones, the sources said. The number corresponds to an official White House phone and the call was placed by Donald Trump himself, which means the call should have been recorded in the internal presidential call log that was turned over to the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack.... The origin of the call as coming from an official White House phone, which has not been previously reported, raises the prospect of tampering or deletion by Trump White House officials." Emphasis added.

George Conway in a Washington Post op-ed: "'A coup in search of a legal theory.' That was the sober, and apt, assessment made this week of ... Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election ... in an opinion by a federal judge. And although that ruling, by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, did not decide a criminal case, it ought to presage one.... Carter's decision was at once pedestrian and remarkable. Pedestrian, because all the 44-page opinion did was methodically recite the law and apply it to the facts. Remarkable, because of where its analysis inexorably led: that a sitting president of the United States, with the help of his lawyer, 'more likely than not' violated two federal criminal laws in a desperate effort to keep himself illegally in power... [Attorney General Merrick Garland promised in January that DOJ was] 'committed to holding all Jan. 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law -- whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy.'... For the attorney general's commitment to be met, the Justice Department's criminal investigation of Jan. 6 must focus closely on Trump."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post is extremely skeptical that Donald Trump doesn't know what a burner phone is. MB: It does seem possible to me that Trump wasn't familiar with the term "burner phone." I think I've known of it for a long time because I watch a lot of police procedurals. Trump might have called burner phones "disposable phones" or something like that. But whether or not he is familiar with the term "burner phone" has nothing to do with the fact that 7-1/2 hours of the White House call logs on January 6 are missing. And, as the Guardian reports (linked above), it appears Trump White House officials tampered with/deleted the most relevant pages of the calls logs for January 6, 2021. When he was president*, Trump was required under the law to make sure records of his phone calls were preserved. But, hey, maybe Trump thought it was okay to rely on Russian & Chinese hackers to keep track of his calls. And they probably have, as contributor Patrick suggested Tuesday. But the House committee won't have much luck subpoenaing foreign hackers' records. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "White House communications director Kate Bedingfield on Wednesday slammed former President Trump for encouraging Russian President Vladimir Putin to release potentially damaging information about President Biden's son Hunter Biden. 'What kind of American, let alone an ex-president, thinks that this is the right time to enter into a scheme with Vladimir Putin and brag about his connections to Vladimir Putin?" Bedingfield said at a press briefing."

Russia calls for its 'partner Trump' to be installed as President. Trump calls for Russia to help him politically. All this while Russia commits war crimes through a brutal, unprovoked invasion of another democratic nation. This is the leader of the Republican Party. -- Attorney Daniel Goldman, House Counsel during Trump's impeachments ~~~

~~~ "Our Partner Trump." Igor Derysh of Salon: "Russian state TV ... perhaps in an attempt to troll American officials, suggested that Russia should push to overthrow Biden and help 'our partner Trump' replace him, especially after Biden's remark in a speech last week in Warsaw that Putin 'cannot remain in power.'... Retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, one of the impeachment whistleblowers who reported Trump's infamous phone call with [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy, called Trump a 'traitor' in response to his latest comments and said his security clearance should be revoked. 'He openly conspires with the enemy, when the U.S. is attempting to steer clear of a war with Russia,' Vindman tweeted." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the lead. MB: You can see why Trump feels comfortable asking his "partner" Vlad to dig up dirt on the Biden family even as Putin is otherwise occupied murdering Ukrainians & leveling Ukrainian cities. ~~~

~~~ Aw, Republicans Find the Trump-Putin Partnership Awkward. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Republicans are finding themselves on defense again after former President Trump urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to release dirt on the Biden family. The remarks are the latest Trump-fueled headache for Republicans this week and the most recent entry in a years-long fissure between Trump and many congressional Republicans over Russia. Trump's comments also come at a politically awkward moment for GOP lawmakers trying to push the Biden administration to do more in response to Putin's weeks-long, bloody invasion of Ukraine." ~~~

Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "The war in Ukraine entered its sixth week with no end in sight and its catastrophic effects widening, as Russia steps up bomb and artillery attacks a day after saying it would drastically scale back its offensive and decamp to the separatist east. A senior Ukrainian official and the Pentagon spokesman confirmed that some Russian troops were indeed moving away from Kyiv and Chernihiv, but suggested it was for repositioning or resupply, not withdrawal.... Germany is taking its first steps toward rationing natural gas, in anticipation of Russia's potentially cutting off deliveries. The number of Ukrainian refugees has surpassed four million -- half of them children. And the United Nations is forecasting the most dire world hunger crisis since World War II. Ukraine and Russia are ordinarily major suppliers of the world's wheat and other grains.... The Biden administration released intelligence suggesting that ... Vladimir V. Putin of Russia <had been misinformed by his aides about the Russian Army's struggles,giving him overly optimistic reports. According to declassified U.S. intelligence, the misinformation has created mistrust and stoked tensions between Mr. Putin and his defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, who was once among the most trusted members of the Kremlin's inner circle." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here: "Ukrainian and Russian negotiators are set to resume talks online Friday, head Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said in an overnight Telegram post...." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Thursday are here: "In a virtual speech to MPs and senators in Canberra, the Ukrainian president requested Australia send Bushmaster armoured vehicles to assist in the fight against Russia, saying they would 'do much more for our common freedom and security than staying parked on your land.... You have very good armoured personal vehicles, Bushmasters, that could help Ukraine substantially, and other pieces of equipment that could strengthen our position in terms of armaments,' [President] Zelenskiy said. Zelenskiy accused Vladimir Putin of 'nuclear blackmail' and said that an unchecked Russia was a 'threat' to the world, suggesting its actions may inspire other nations to follow suit, in a thinly veiled warning to the parliament he was addressing."

Michael Birnbaum, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Vladimir Putin's advisers are shielding him from how badly the invasion of Ukraine is going, top U.S. officials said Wednesday, as the conflict raged on despite peace talks and the number of Ukrainians who have fled their country topped 4 million. Putin's advisers may be afraid to deliver bad news to a leader who has been willing to take increasingly extreme measures against people who dissent within the Russian system, U.S. intelligence officials said. One worrisome consequence, Pentagon officials said, was that negotiations underway between Russia and Ukraine to end the nearly five-week-old invasion could be undermined by misinformed expectations and directives from the Russian side. 'We have information that Putin felt misled by the Russian military, which has resulted in persistent tension between Putin and his military leadership,' White House spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield told reporters." A New York Times story is here.

Luis Martinez of ABC News: "Over the last 24 hours, the Pentagon has seen 'less than 20%' of the Russian troops that had been around Kyiv moving northward as they 'reposition' into Belarus so they can be re-equipped for possible action in eastern Ukraine, the Pentagon's top spokesman said Wednesday.... Specifically, [Pentagon press secretary John] Kirby said the Russian troops near the Hostomel airport north of the city have been seen moving north towards Belarus. The airport had been the scene of heavy fighting from the opening hours of Russia's invasion. Separately, a senior U.S. defense official said some Russian troops had also been seen moving out of the Chernobyl nuclear facility. However, it remained unclear if they would all be leaving.... 'If the Russians are serious about de-escalating, because that's their claim here, then they should send them home, but they're not doing that, at least not yet,' Kirby said. 'That's not what we're seeing.'"

Kevin Liptak & Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for nearly an hour Wednesday as airstrikes near Kyiv seemed to bear out Western skepticism that peace talks could ease Russia's assault on Ukraine. Biden told his counterpart the US would provide Ukraine another $500 million in 'direct budgetary aid,' the White House said afterward, and discussed 'how the United States is working around the clock to fulfill the main security assistance requests by Ukraine.'... A day after Russia claimed it was scaling back its military operation near the Ukrainian capital, strikes continued in the suburbs of Kyiv as well as in Chernihiv, whose mayor said the city was under 'colossal attack.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden is considering a plan to release one million barrels of oil a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for as long as 180 days, a move that would add a large amount of oil to the global market, according to a person familiar with the White House deliberations on the issue. Mr. Biden could announce the plan to tap the reserve as soon as Thursday, said the official, who requested anonymity.... The idea would be to combat rising prices at the pump." ~~~

~~~ Monika SCcislowska & Frank Jordans of the AP: "Germany and Austria activated early warning plans Wednesday amid concerns that Moscow could cut natural gas deliveries, while Poland announced steps to end all Russian oil imports by year's end, in fresh signs of how Russia's war in Ukraine is affecting Europe's energy security. The German government said it was establishing a crisis team to step up monitoring of the gas supply, and called on companies and households to conserve energy following demands by Russia that deliveries should be paid in rubles. Western nations have rejected that demand, arguing it would undermine sanctions imposed because of the war." ~~~

     ~~~ Phillip Inman of the Guardian: "Why does Putin want payment in roubles? In the aftermath of the Russian invasion the value of the rouble fell off a cliff. It fell from about 85 to the euro last year to 110 as the tanks rolled across Ukraine's borders.... With the rouble trading at such low levels, Russian exports were going to bring in less money to subsidise state services and fund the war than previously expected. A higher valued rouble will not only bring in more cash, it is also a matter of pride that trading nations are prepared to pay for Russian exports in the Russian currency. A larger pool of roubles, generated by the demand from foreign countries and companies for Russian goods, would allow Moscow to challenge the US dominance, via the dollar, of global money markets, although it is not clear why China would support such a plan. Some analysts have also speculated that dollars and euros are less useful to Moscow while sanctions are tightening."

Paul Murphy, et al., of CNN: "The Red Cross warehouse in central Mariupol was hit by at least two military strikes, new satellite images from Maxar Technologies confirm. 'Under international humanitarian law, objects used for humanitarian relief operations must be respected and protected at all times,' [Red Cross spokesperson Jason] Straziuso said.... No Red Cross staff have been at the warehouse since March 15.... Straziuso said that intense fighting has prevented the Red Cross from bringing any humanitarian aid to the city.... Liudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament commissioner for human rights, called for the 'world community to condemn' the shelling of the building. 'This is another war crime of the Russian army in accordance with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and a gross violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions,' she said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Woo-Hoo! Jackson Overcomes Collins' "Concerns." Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Senator Susan Collins of Maine plans to vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, ensuring that President Biden's nominee and the first Black woman to be put forward for the post will receive at least one Republican backer. After a second personal meeting with the judge on Tuesday afternoon, Ms. Collins said Judge Jackson had alleviated some concerns that surfaced after last week's contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, when Republicans attacked the nominee for her record and grilled her on a host of divisive issues." An ABC News report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Steve M.: "... this vote will reinforce Collins's image as a non-partisan centrist. And then next year, when (in all likelihood) Republicans control the Senate and begin blocking all of Biden's judicial picks, Collins can go along with her party's blockade without a word of protest, and everyone will still remember this vote and see her as a foe of partisanship. She won't cast a consequential vote that defies her party; however, she'll cast this one, which is inconsequential but high-profile. That approaches continues to work for her, and her state's voters keep falling for it." MB: Steve is so cynical. And absolutely right.

Not sure why Republicans are acting so shocked by Cawthorn's alleged revelations about their party. One of their members is being investigated for sex trafficking a minor and they've been pretty OK w/ that. They issued more consequences to members who voted to impeach Trump. -- Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), in a tweet ~~~

~~~ Republicans Don't Do Orgies & Blow. -- McCarthy. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Wednesday after meeting with Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) that the freshman lawmaker was not telling the truth when he made claims about an 'orgy' invitation and alleged drug use among unnamed members of Congress. Cawthorn's comments, which he made during a podcast interview last week, had outraged some of his fellow congressional Republicans, leading to Wednesday's meeting at the Capitol with McCarthy and other House GOP leaders.... Cawthorn also claimed that he had witnessed unnamed prominent figures in Washington doing cocaine." ~~~

     ~~~ Olivia Beavers, now of Politico: "The GOP leader said Wednesday -- after meeting with the North Carolina Republican that morning -- that Cawthorn has 'lost my trust' due to his repeated actions that were 'not becoming' for a congressman. And McCarthy warned the freshman he could face punishment if he doesn't take certain steps to turn himself around, which could include losing his committee spots.... McCarthy also cited Cawthorn's calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a 'thug' as problematic. Plus, Cawthorn had caused another controversy when he lied to an officer in the Capitol, saying GOP congressional candidate Robby Starbuck was one of his staffers to bring him onto the House floor. Additionally, McCarthy said it's unacceptable for a member of Congress to be caught driving without a license after failing to show up to court." ~~~

~~~ Melanie Zanona, et al., of CNN: "Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina is throwing his weight behind a primary opponent to freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn -- an extraordinary broadside against a fellow Republican from his home state, as internal frustration with the controversial MAGA firebrand reaches a boiling point.... Tillis ... is backing state Sen. Chuck Edwards in his primary against Cawthorn. Other GOP lawmakers who are at their wits' end with Cawthorn are considering endorsing one of his primary foes.... The two most powerful North Carolina Republicans in the state legislature -- Senate leader Phil Berger and House speaker Tim Moore -- are headlining a fundraiser for Edwards on Thursday, according to the Edwards campaign.... Retiring Sen. Richard Burr -- the senior GOP senator from North Carolina -- told CNN he won't be getting involved in Cawthorn's primary, but added: 'On any given day, he's an embarrassment.'"~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Of course Cawthorn is "an embarrassment." But that's not because he's so far-out. It's because his antics expose the rest of a party in which nearly all of its members are "an embarrassment" to democracy.

Presidential Election 2016. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic Party have agreed to pay $113,000 in fines to settle a Federal Election Commission investigation into whether they violated a campaign finance disclosure law when they funded an opposition research effort into Donald J. Trump and Russia that resulted in a discredited document known as the Steele dossier.... The commission has not yet made public the findings of its investigation.... So-called conciliation agreements attached to [an FCC] letter sent to [Dan] Backer [-- who filed a complaint against the Clinton campaign --] showed that the campaign and the party disagreed that they had inaccurately described the purpose of their spending.... Nevertheless, the documents said, the campaign and the party agreed in February to pay civil penalties totaling $113,000 -- $8,000 from the campaign and $105,000 from the party -- to resolve the matter 'expeditiously and to avoid further legal costs.'"

Matt Viser, et al., of the Washington Post: "Over the course of 14 months, the Chinese energy conglomerate and its executives paid $4.8 million to entities controlled by Hunter Biden and his uncle, according to government records, court documents and newly disclosed bank statements, as well as emails contained on a copy of a laptop hard drive that purportedly once belonged to Hunter Biden. The Post did not find evidence that Joe Biden personally benefited from or knew details about the transactions with CEFC, which took place after he had left the vice presidency and before he announced his intentions to run for the White House in 2020. But the new documents -- which include a signed copy of a $1 million legal retainer, emails related to the wire transfers, and $3.8 million in consulting fees that are confirmed in new bank records and agreements signed by Hunter Biden -- illustrate the ways in which his family profited from relationships built over Joe Biden's decades in public service." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Taylor Lorenz & Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "Facebook parent company Meta is paying one of the biggest Republican consulting firms in the country to orchestrate a nationwide campaign seeking to turn the public against TikTok. The campaign includes placing op-eds and letters to the editor in major regional news outlets, promoting dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that actually originated on Facebook, and pushing to draw political reporters and local politicians into helping take down its biggest competitor.... Employees with the firm, Targeted Victory, worked to undermine TikTok through a nationwide media and lobbying campaign portraying the fast-growing app, owned by the Beijing-based company ByteDance, as a danger to American children and society, according to internal emails shared with The Washington Post." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. The Continuing Foxification of CBS "News." Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: "CBS News's decision to hire former Trump administration official Mick Mulvaney as a paid on-air contributor is drawing backlash within the company because of his history of bashing the press and promoting the former president's fact-free claims. But a top network executive seemed to lay the groundwork for the decision in a staff meeting earlier this month, when he said the network needed to hire more Republicans to prepare for a 'likely' Democratic midterm wipeout.... The reaction from CBS News employees to Mulvaney's hiring was as chilly as the reaction on social media, where many journalists and political commentators suggested that the network was jeopardizing its long history of journalistic excellence." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As usual, the suits are crass, stupid AND ignorant. They cannot see the difference between partisan Democrats & immoral, anti-American Republican liars. There is no equivalency there. ~~~

~~~ Charles Pierce of Esquire: Mick Mulvaney "fibbed about the administration's healthcare plans. He claimed that the media was exaggerating the threat of COVID-19 in order to hurt the president*. But the high point of his tenure -- and the episode most clearly related to current events -- probably came when Mulvaney was central to the plan to knuckle Ukraine into helping ratfck Joe Biden's campaign, the attempted extortion that resulted in Impeachment I.... As you can imagine, giving a gig to Mick Mulvaney at the height of the bloodletting in Ukraine did not go down well among the more honest souls at CBS.... When, oh Lord, when will the elite political media treat the current Republican Party as the threat to the republic that it most obviously is?... Cronkite wept." Firewalled. ~~~

~~~ Jessica Corbett of Common Dreams: "CBS News faced a firestorm of criticism Tuesday for making Mick Mulvaney a contributor, with one opponent calling the network's decision to hire the ex-aide of former President Donald Trump'a new low.'... 'Normalizing the villains,' tweeted podcast host and writer Bob Cesca.... 'There are plenty of conservative budget experts who (1) chose not to serve as an apologist and lackey for the racist-in-chief, (2) have integrity, and (3) aren't clueless hacks who once wrote a budget with a $2 trillion math error,'... [tweeted] Seth Hanlon of the Center for American Progress."

1950 Census Data to Be Released Friday. Michael Ruane of the Washington Post: "Early on Friday, [the 72-year rule for release of U.S. Census data] will have elapsed and the National Archives will unveil a huge batch of the intimate details from the 1950 Census -- on 6.4 million pages digitized from 6,373 microfilm census rolls. The data will include names, ages, addresses and answers to questions about employment status, job description and income.... The information is expected to be available and searchable online after the release at 12:01 a.m. Friday, officials said.... It should be a gold mine for scholars and genealogists, the Census Bureau says, and will provide a fascinating look at America at the midpoint of the 20th century." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I thought the headline should be, "Marie Burns Featured in Census Release for First Time." Oddly, a search of the article reveals that the story doesn't even mention me. But it is the first time my name will appear in a Census report, and I'm just giddy about the anticipated publicity.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here: "President Biden stepped up pressure on Congress to approve billions of dollars in emergency coronavirus relief aid, using a speech at the White House on Wednesday to warn that U.S. progress against Covid-19 would be at severe risk if Congress failed to act right away. 'This isn't partisan. It's medicine,' Mr. Biden said, adding, 'Americans are back to living their lives again; we can't surrender that now. Congress, please act. You have to act immediately.' On Capitol Hill, senators of both parties said they hoped a deal could be struck before Congress leaves next week for a two-week April recess. Such a deal would likely be $15.6 billion, matching the size of the smaller package that Democrats abruptly removed from a catchall spending bill earlier this month when rank-and-file lawmakers and governors objected to clawing back state aid to help pay for the deal." (An earlier version also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Kate Sullivan of CNN: "After delivering his speech, the President received his second booster shot on camera. The US Food and Drug Administration said Americans 50 and older who received their first booster shot at least four months ago are eligible for a second booster shot of Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. The President received his first booster shot in September. ~~~

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "The Biden administration is expected to lift a pandemic-related public health order this week that has restricted immigration for the past two years, a change that could more than double what is already a historic number of migrants surging into the United States from Mexico. The change is to take effect in late May, according to people familiar with the planning, and should restore the right of migrants to request asylum once they are in the United States, just as they did before the pandemic. Even with the rule in place, the administration has struggled to manage a record spike in illegal migration along the border with Mexico, which Republicans have cast as out of control since President Biden took office. In recent days, border officials have encountered about 7,000 migrants daily." An AP story is here.

Horse Dewormer Is for Horses with Worms. Carl Zimmer of the New York Times: "The anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, which has surged in popularity as an alternative treatment for Covid-19 despite a lack of strong research to back it up, showed no sign of alleviating the disease, according to results of a large clinical trial published on Wednesday. The study, which compared more than 1,300 people infected with the coronavirus in Brazil who received either ivermectin or a placebo, effectively ruled out the drug as a treatment for Covid, the study's authors said. 'There's really no sign of any benefit,' said Dr. David Boulware, an infectious-disease expert at the University of Minnesota."

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona. Bob Christie & Jonathan Cooper of the AP: "Arizona's Republican governor signed a series of bills Wednesday targeting abortion and transgender rights, joining a growing list of GOP-led states pursuing a conservative social agenda. The measures signed by Gov. Doug Ducey will outlaw abortion after 15 weeks if the U.S. Supreme Court allows it, prohibit gender confirmation surgery for minors and ban transgender girls from playing on girls and women's sports teams."

Kentucky. Maria Cramer of the New York Times: "The Republican-controlled legislature in Kentucky passed sweeping legislation this week that would make abortion illegal after 15 weeks of pregnancy and grant no exemptions in cases of rape or incest. The legislation, which resembled a restrictive Mississippi law that is being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, folded together half a dozen bills that were introduced by Republicans in the state House and Senate. Opponents of the bill, passed on Tuesday, said the legislation is even more restrictive than measures passed in Mississippi, Idaho, Florida and Texas and could effectively end abortion in Kentucky, where there are two abortion providers for the entire state.... Opponents of the bill in Kentucky have called on Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat who has expressed support for abortion rights, to veto the legislation.... 'We easily have the votes to override his expected veto,' [state Senator Max Wise (R), the bill's Senate sponsor,] said in his statement."

March 30, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Kevin Liptak & Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for nearly an hour Wednesday as airstrikes near Kyiv seemed to bear out Western skepticism that peace talks could ease Russia's assault on Ukraine. Biden told his counterpart the US would provide Ukraine another $500 million in 'direct budgetary aid,' the White House said afterward, and discussed 'how the United States is working around the clock to fulfill the main security assistance requests by Ukraine.'... A day after Russia claimed it was scaling back its military operation near the Ukrainian capital, strikes continued in the suburbs of Kyiv as well as in Chernihiv, whose mayor said the city was under 'colossal attack.'"

Paul Murphy, et al., of CNN: "The Red Cross warehouse in central Mariupol was hit by at least two military strikes, new satellite images from Maxar Technologies confirm. 'Under international humanitarian law, objects used for humanitarian relief operations must be respected and protected at all times,' [Red Cross spokesperson Jason] Straziuso said.... No Red Cross staff have been at the warehouse since March 15.... Straziuso said that intense fighting has prevented the Red Cross from bringing any humanitarian aid to the city.... Liudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament commissioner for human rights, called for the 'world community to condemn' the shelling of the building. 'This is another war crime of the Russian army in accordance with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and a gross violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions,' she said."

Woo-Hoo! Jackson Overcomes Collins' "Concerns." Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Senator Susan Collins of Maine plans to vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, ensuring that President Biden's nominee and the first Black woman to be put forward for the post will receive at least one Republican backer. After a second personal meeting with the judge on Tuesday afternoon, Ms. Collins said Judge Jackson had alleviated some concerns that surfaced after last week's contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, when Republicans attacked the nominee for her record and grilled her on a host of divisive issues." An ABC News report is here.

Matt Viser, et al., of the Washington Post: "Over the course of 14 months, the Chinese energy conglomerate and its executives paid $4.8 million to entities controlled by Hunter Biden and his uncle, according to government records, court documents and newly disclosed bank statements, as well as emails contained on a copy of a laptop hard drive that purportedly once belonged to Hunter Biden. The Post did not find evidence that Joe Biden personally benefited from or knew details about the transactions with CEFC, which took place after he had left the vice presidency and before he announced his intentions to run for the White House in 2020. But the new documents -- which include a signed copy of a $1 million legal retainer, emails related to the wire transfers, and $3.8 million in consulting fees that are confirmed in new bank records and agreements signed by Hunter Biden -- illustrate the ways in which his family profited from relationships built over Joe Biden's decades in public service."

Taylor Lorenz & Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "Facebook parent company Meta is paying one of the biggest Republican consulting firms in the country to orchestrate a nationwide campaign seeking to turn the public against TikTok.The campaign includes placing op-eds and letters to the editor in major regional news outlets, promoting dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that actually originated on Facebook, and pushing to draw political reporters and local politicians into helping take down its biggest competitor.... Employees with the firm, Targeted Victory, worked to undermine TikTok through a nationwide media and lobbying campaign portraying the fast-growing app, owned by the Beijing-based company ByteDance, as a danger to American children and society, according to internal emails shared with The Washington Post."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here: "President Biden will step up the pressure on Congress to approve billions of dollars in emergency coronavirus relief aid, using a speech at the White House on Wednesday to deliver what an official described as an urgent and direct message that will warn that U.S. progress against Covid-19 would be at severe risk if Congress fails to act. Mr. Biden will also spotlight a new one-stop-shopping coronavirus website, aimed at helping Americans navigate access to testing, treatment, vaccines and masks, and to assess the risk of Covid-19 in their neighborhoods, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the president's remarks. The site went live Wednesday morning."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post is extremely skeptical that Donald Trump doesn't know what a burner phone is. MB: It does seem possible to me that Trump wasn't familiar with the term "burner phone." I think I've known of it for a long time because I watch a lot of police procedurals. Trump might have called burner phones "disposable phones" or something like that. But whether or not he is familiar with the term "burner phone" has nothing to do with the fact that 7-1/2 hours of the White House call logs on January 6 are missing. When he was president*, he was required under the law to make sure records of his phone calls were preserved. But, hey, maybe Trump thought it was okay to rely on Russian & Chinese hackers to keep track of his calls. And they probably have, as contributor Patrick suggested Tuesday. But the House committee won't have much luck subpoenaing foreign hackers' records.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Worse Than Watergate," Ctd.

Say, remember that infamous 18.5-minute gap in the Nixon tapes? Trump beat that by more than seven hours! ~~~

~~~ Bob Woodward of the Washington Post & Robert Costa of CBS News in the Washington Post: "Internal White House records from the day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol that were turned over to the House select committee show a gap in ... Donald Trump's phone logs of seven hours and 37 minutes, including the period when the building was being violently assaulted.... The lack of an official White House notation of any calls placed to or by Trump for 457 minutes on Jan. 6, 2021 -- from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. -- means the committee has no record of his phone conversations as his supporters descended on the Capitol, battled overwhelmed police and forcibly entered the building, prompting lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence to flee for safety.... The seven-hour gap ... stands in stark contrast to the extensive public reporting about phone conversations he had with allies during the attack, such as a call Trump made to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) -- seeking to talk to Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) -- and a phone conversation he had with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). The House panel is now investigating whether Trump communicated that day through backchannels, phones of aides or ... 'burner phones.'... One lawmaker on the panel said the committee is investigating a 'possible coverup' of the official White House record from that day." CBS News has an abbreviated version of the report here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Several funny comments on this at the end of yesterday's thread.

The Washington Post has published the White House call logs for January 6, 2021 here. The Post also publishes the "The Daily Diary of President Donald J. Trump" here. It turns out Trump did absolutely nothing between 1:21 pm ET when he met with his valet and 4:03 pm ET when he went to the Rose Garden. ~~~

     ~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The gap somehow neatly breaks down with the last recorded call -- with [then Sen. David] Perdue [R-Ga.] at 11:04 a.m. -- at end of a page, and the next one -- the request for [Trump aide Dan] Scavino at 6:54 p.m. -- at the top of the next page. We don't yet know if this gap is truly Nixonian. But it certainly raises all kinds of questions about whether people deliberately shielded Trump's actions on Jan. 6."

BUT. Trump couldn't possibly have done anything wrong because ~~~

~~~ Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "'I have no idea what a burner phone is, to the best of my knowledge I have never even heard the term,' Trump said in a statement after the report was published by CBS News and the Washington Post. A spokeswoman for the former president added that Trump had nothing to do with the records and had assumed any and all of his phone calls were recorded and preserved. [BUT!] Contradicting that statement, Trump's former national security adviser, John Bolton, said Tuesday that he had heard the former president discuss burner phones. [According to tweets from Robert Costa, Bolton said] 'that he recalls Trump using the term "burner phones" in several discussions and that Trump was aware of its meaning.... Bolton also said he and Trump have spoken about how people have used "burner phones" to avoid having their calls scrutinized.'" Update: Here's a CBS News article by Costa on Bolton's remarks.

Dennis Aftergut in Slate: "The gap's importance is difficult to exaggerate.... If, as some analysts have hypothesized, Trump is so detached from the factual world that he actually believed his own Big Lie that the 2020 election was marred by fraud, that would make conviction for trying to steal the election difficult. Under this analysis, he would not have thought he was acting 'wrongfully,' a necessary element for conviction on the charges to which he is most vulnerable. Hiding one's calls and conduct on Jan. 6, 2021, as it appears Trump did, rebuts his potential defense that he thought he was acting righteously. People who believe that their behavior is law-abiding do not cover it up in this way.... One of my favorite jury instructions ... covered consciousness of guilt: 'If you believe that [the defendant sought to conceal evidence], then you may consider this conduct, along with all the other evidence, in deciding whether ... [he/she] thought [he/she] was guilty of the crime charged and was trying to avoid punishment.'... Tellingly..., there is no report that Trump denied using others' phones." Firewalled.

Luke Broadwater & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "As part of his frenzied attempt to cling to power..., Donald J. Trump reached out repeatedly to members of Congress on Jan. 6 both before and during the siege of the Capitol, according to White House call logs and evidence gathered by the House committee investigating the attack. The logs, reported earlier by The Washington Post and CBS and authenticated by The New York Times, indicated that Mr. Trump had called Republican members of Congress, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri and Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, as he sought to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to reject electoral votes from several states.... [Despite the long gap in record-keeping,] the call logs ... show how personally involved Mr. Trump was in his last-ditch attempt to stay in office."

Stephen Collinson of CNN: "... Donald Trump's attempt to steal the 2020 election is being revealed week-by-week to be deeper and broader than it initially appeared, sharpening the national dilemma of if and how he could ever be held to account. Even as a federal judge commented Monday that Trump 'more likely than not' sought to commit a crime to stay in office last year, the ex-President's attacks on democracy are intensifying. They were on display as recently as Saturday night in a lie-filled rally that underscored how his conspiracy to overturn the election -- whether it is criminal or not -- remains viscerally alive and able to damage future elections.... It's extraordinary that, more than 14 months on, new details of efforts by Trump and those around him to subvert President Joe Biden's victory are still emerging. It's also ironic that this threat to American democracy is being further exposed while Washington leads an international effort to save freedom in Ukraine, which is under much greater assault from Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Trump still seems to hero worship." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Marie: Of the many qualities Trump admires in Vladimir Putin, one must be Putin's apparent ability to multi-task. Because, while the Butcher of Moscow is engaged in bombing Ukraine & slaughtering Ukrainians daily ~~~

~~~ Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump in a new interview called on ... Vladimir Putin to release information regarding alleged dealings between Eastern European oligarchs and Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden's son. Trump's remarks, in an interview with discredited far-right journalist John Solomon, were published Tuesday by the 'Just the News' television show on the Real America's Voice network."

Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "A group of House and Senate Democrats sent a letter to the Supreme Court on Monday requesting that Justice Clarence Thomas recuse himself from any future cases involving the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol or efforts to overturn the 2020 election, along with a 'written explanation for his failure to recuse himself' in previous cases on those subjects. The letter, spearheaded by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), follows The Washington Post's reporting on repeated efforts by conservative activist Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas, the Supreme Court justice's wife, to pressure White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to pursue various avenues to overturn the 2020 election." (Also linked yesterday.)

Dan Mangan of CNBC: "The New York Attorney General's Office has 'uncovered significant evidence' suggesting that financial statements by the Trump Organization relied on misleading valuations of its real estate assets for more than a decade, the office said in a court filing Tuesday. Those potentially misleading valuations 'and other misrepresentations' were used by the company owned by ... Donald Trump 'to secure economic benefits -- including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions -- on terms more favorable than the true facts warranted,' the filing alleged. The claims by Attorney General Letitia James were made in response to an appeal by the Trump Organization and Donald Trump of last month's order by a Manhattan state court judge directing Trump and two of his adult children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump to submit to interviews by James' investigators." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "The first signs of significant progress emerged as Russia and Ukraine held three hours of peace talks in Istanbul on Tuesday, but Russia appeared determined to capture more territory in eastern Ukraine and officials predicted that weeks of further negotiation were needed." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Wednesday are here: "Russia pledged during Tuesday's peace talks in Turkey that it would 'drastically reduce' attacks near two Ukrainian cities as a confidence-building gesture. But Ukrainian military leaders said Russia was probably using the maneuvers to 'mislead' and was merely rotating its troops. Western leaders also expressed skepticism, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the Kremlin should be judged by 'their actions, not their words.' It was not immediately clear whether the negotiations in Istanbul would continue for a second day. Ukrainian assertions that it was pushing back Russian forces near Kyiv -- where Moscow said it would scale back its assault -- generally appear to be true, according to a Washington Post reporter on the ground. But heavy shelling continues elsewhere, and new satellite images of the bombed-out southern port city of Mariupol document severe damage to civilian infrastructure.... Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a video address released late Tuesday, said Moscow's assurances 'do not silence the explosion of Russian shells.'"

De=Escalation Is Another Word for Retreat. Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: "As envoys made progress in peace talks on Tuesday, Russia offered concessions that signaled a more realistic course for the war in Ukraine, while indicating it is also in no hurry to end the conflict, according to diplomats and analysts.... But the Russian advance in the north had already stalled, with troops around Kyiv taking up defensive positions in the face of Ukrainian counterattacks, both there and near Sumy, where Russia has been having trouble encircling the main Ukrainian army east of the Dnieper River. 'De-escalation is a euphemism for retreat,' said Lawrence Freedman, emeritus professor of War Studies at King's College London. 'Russia is adjusting its goals to reality, because war is quite empirical,' he said. 'It's not a ruse to say that they are concentrating on the Donbas, because in reality that's all they can do.' But retreat is hardly surrender, and others cautioned that the progress made Tuesday doesn't mean that Russia is ready for serious discussions on ending the war. That would require a better outcome for ... Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to sell at home as a victory."

The Man Who Came to Istanbul. Valerie Hopkins of the New York Times: Russian oligarch "Roman Abramovich, the 55-year-old owner of Britain's storied Chelsea Football Club soccer team, [mysteriously showed up at the talks in Istabul. He] is not a member of the Russian side of the talks. He has been sanctioned by the British government -- but, curiously, not the United States -- for ties with ... Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who started the war.... Ukraine's ambassador to Britain, Vadym Prystaiko, told the BBC that he had 'no idea what Mr. Abramovich is claiming or doing' at the talks. Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, would not specify what Mr. Abramovich was doing but said Moscow had 'approved' his participation to coordinate between both sides.... The oligarch, who did not comment on why he was attending the talks, appeared to be trying to present himself to the world as an earnest and trusted conduit between Kyiv and Moscow. Critics of Mr. Abramovich suggested he was grandstanding for publicity, part of an effort to save his empire."

Jim Sciutto of CNN: "Russia is beginning to withdraw some forces from the area around the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv in what the US assesses as a 'major' strategy shift by Moscow, two senior US officials tell CNN. The Russian forces now pulling back in some areas of the north will focus on gains in the south and east. The US is already observing these movements underway, including Russian Battalion Tactical Groups leaving the surrounding areas around Kyiv. The Russian Ministry of Defense said Tuesday that it has decided to 'drastically reduce hostilities' in the Kyiv and Chernigov directions, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said according to state media RIA." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Emma Bubola of the New York Times: "On Tuesday, the [Phi, a $50 million 192-foot] Russian-owned [superyacht], which is docked at London's Canary Wharf, was ... detained by the British authorities. The Phi is the first such vessel to be detained in British waters in what the government said was a warning to ... Vladimir V. Putin and his associates that Britain was going after those benefiting from their links to the Kremlin. Britain's National Crime Agency said the yacht was owned by a Russian businessman, whom it did not identify.... The [British National Crime A]gency said the ownership of the yacht had been deliberately well hidden...."

Greg Walters of Vice: "... Partying can be dangerous in the age of Instagram. Ask any oligarch. Their decades of fancy living at the highest possible level of luxury have turned out to be enormously useful for investigators tracking down the assets of Russia's sanctioned elite. That's because, in multiple cases, a few careless Instagram posts have blown up the best defense for their secret empires: Anonymity. Oligarchs themselves rarely use Instagram to accidentally crack open a window into their high living. Rather, it's the people partying with them...." Walters cites some examples.

Kate Sullivan & Maegan Vazquez of CNN: "President Joe Biden signed a bill into law on Tuesday that makes lynching a federal hate crime, acknowledging how racial violence has left a lasting scar on the nation and asserting that these crimes are not a relic of a bygone era. At a White House Rose Garden signing ceremony, the President ... said, 'Lynching was pure terror to enforce the lie that not everyone ... belongs in America, not everyone is created equal. Terror, to systematically undermine hard-fought civil rights. Terror, not just in the dark of the night but in broad daylight. Innocent men, women and children hung by nooses in trees, bodies burned and drowned and castrated.'" This is an update of a story linked yesterday. The New York Times' story is here.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday is set to sign into law a bill that would make lynching a federal hate crime after Congress approved the legislation earlier this month with overwhelming bipartisan support. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act of 2022 is named after a 14-year-old Black boy from Mississippi who was brutally murdered by a group of White men for allegedly whistling at a White woman in 1955. His murder sparked national outraged and was a catalyst for the emerging civil rights movement. The legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois and only three Republicans -- Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Chip Roy of Texas -- voted against the bill. The legislation then passed the Senate by unanimous consent." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Joe Realizes His Friends Are Rude SOBs. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said the way Republican senators treated Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson at last week's hearings was 'disgraceful' and 'embarrassing' after they repeatedly brought up her record of sentencing child pornography offenders. Manchin said the behavior of GOP colleagues who repeatedly cut off Jackson while she tried to answer their questions about her sentencing decision crossed the line to become inappropriate. 'It was disgraceful, it really was, what I saw. And I met with her and I read all the transcripts. I listened to basically the hearings and it just was embarrassing,' he told reporters Tuesday morning. 'It's not who we are. It's not what we were sent here to do, to attack other people and just try to tear them down. I won't be part of that. I think she's extremely well qualified and I think she'll be an exemplary judge,' he added." (Also linked yesterday.)

Let's All Go to an Orgy. Alex Griffing of Mediaite: "Controversial Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) ... told host John Lovell on the Warrior Poet Society podcast last week that Washington, D.C. is rife with 'sexual perversion' and drug use.... 'The sexual perversion that goes on in Washington, I mean, being kind of a young guy in Washington, the average age is probably 60 or 70,' Cawthorn said, adding, 'I look at a lot of these people, a lot of them that I've looked up to through my life -- I've always paid attention to politics -- then all of a sudden you get invited to, "Oh hey we're going to have a sexual get together at one of our homes, you should come." "What did you just ask me to come to?" And then you realize they're asking you to come to an orgy,' Cawthorn continued." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Who is it exactly who invited Madison to an orgy? Nancy Pelosi? Steny Hoyer? Nah, must have been a Republican. Mitch McConnell? Oh, I know: Chuck Grassley. ~~~

~~~ Oops! Paul Waldman & Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "It takes a lot to get Republican members of Congress angry at one of their own. But Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) managed to do it, not just by being a uniquely repugnant figure, but also by claiming to reveal the dark underbelly of official Washington in a way that Republicans apparently found offensive.... Cawthorn told a podcast host that the 'sexual perversion' in Washington is so rampant that even Republicans are involved. His fellow Republicans are aghast, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has vowed to discipline him.... While we can't prove Cawthorn made this up, let's just say the idea that he's being invited to orgies by lawmakers in their 60s and 70s strains credulity. And Cawthorn's long history of making up stories is precisely what turned him into a right-wing superstar.... As this latest episode shows, these tendencies can boomerang: The lure of depicting Washington as a kind of bottomless cesspool of degeneracy -- a guaranteed right-wing applause line -- led Cawthorn to accidentally hit his own colleagues with friendly fire...." ~~~

~~~ Olivia Beavers of Politico: "Kevin McCarthy isn't the only senior Republican who wants to have a talk with Rep. Madison Cawthorn about his claim that some of his colleagues invited him to orgies and used cocaine. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), who chairs the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus to which Cawthorn belongs, said he plans to speak to the North Carolina Republican one-on-one about the incendiary comment. Perry further indicated that Cawthorn should identify the individuals he alleges engaged in that behavior.... Cawthorn's claims caused an internal uproar at Tuesday's [House GOP] conference meeting. But as aggravated as Cawthorn's colleagues may be by his salacious tales, they also know that digging more deeply into his stories may cause them more political problems."

Ellen Gabler of the New York Times: Real estate companies are protecting their assets from liability for lead-paint poisoning "in a tangle of limited liability companies, and the property insurer[s are excluding] lead from [their] coverage. These practices are now the norm across the United States, The New York Times has found, part of a decades-long campaign by the real estate and insurance industries to shield themselves from liability in lead-poisoning cases. The effort has helped allow what is often considered a problem of the past to remain a silent epidemic today.... Not only is the illness a scourge in many of the country's poorer ZIP codes, but families ... have less recourse than ever.... With little public attention and the approval of state officials, insurance companies across the country [are] declining to pay out when children were poisoned on properties they covered.... The move also eased pressure on landlords to fix up their rentals."

Evan Perez & Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "A Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden's business activities has gained steam in recent months, with a flurry of witnesses providing testimony to federal investigators and more expected to provide interviews in the coming weeks, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The probe, led by the US Attorney in Wilmington, Delaware, began as early as 2018 and concerns multiple financial and business activities in foreign countries dating to when Biden's father was vice president. Investigators have examined whether Hunter Biden and some of his associates violated money laundering, tax and foreign lobbying laws, as well as firearm and other regulations, multiple sources said. To do so, law enforcement has gathered information from lobbyists connected to Hunter Biden, from his business partners, and from others who've observed his financial engagements, including a woman with whom he had a child."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Aidan McLaughlin of Mediaite: "CBS News is under fire for hiring Mick Mulvaney, the former congressman, and Trump administration official, as a contributor.... The hire quickly drew outrage from journalists and pundits. Many pointed out Mulvaney's role in downplaying the Covid-19 pandemic, his defending ... Donald Trump's attempt to withhold military aid from Ukraine in exchange for dirt on the Biden family, and his bold claim in an op-ed before the 2020 election that Trump would gracefully concede if he lost." Includes numerous tweets by horrified commentators.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized a second booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines for people 50 and older, a decision intended to help shore up protection against severe illness. The shots, which can be given at least four months after a first booster dose, are not a permanent solution to the pandemic. But with a still-more-transmissible version of the omicron coronavirus variant becoming dominant in the United States, even a short-term immunity boost among those at risk of severe illness could provide a valuable layer of protection." The article is free to nonsubscribers. (Also linked yesterday.)

Lori Aratani of the Washington Post: "Twenty-one states filed suit Tuesday seeking an immediate end to a federal mandate that requires people to wear masks when traveling on airplanes, buses, subways and other modes of public transportation. The effort in mostly Republican-led states is the latest effort seeking to abolish the mandate, put into place in February 2021, shortly after President Biden took office. The mandate was extended this month through April 18."

Way Beyond the Beltway

U.K. He Was Always My Favorite! Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Six weeks ago, Prince Andrew agreed to a multi-million-dollar legal settlement with a woman who accused him of raping her when she was a teenager. On Tuesday, he escorted his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, to a memorial service at Westminster Abbey to celebrate the life of her late husband, Prince Philip. The prince's very conspicuous public appearance on the queen's arm, his first since Philip's funeral last April, sent an unmistakable message of support by a 95-year-old mother for her disgraced son. But it struck some royal watchers as incongruous, given that she stripped Andrew of his military titles and all but banished him from public life after he was engulfed in the sexual abuse lawsuit. Andrew's sudden re-emergence came days after a trouble-prone tour of the Caribbean by Prince William and his wife, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, during which the couple confronted a backlash over issues of racial justice and rising sentiment to cast off the queen as head of state in Jamaica and other former colonies."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Six people were killed and two dozen others were injured in an 80-vehicle pileup on an interstate highway in Pennsylvania this week that began when a snow squall blinded drivers, the authorities said on Wednesday. The chain reaction started just after 10:30 a.m. Monday on Interstate 81 in Schuylkill County, about 50 miles northeast of Harrisburg, Pa., where an early spring burst of wintry weather overwhelmed drivers in the northbound lanes, who struggled to see past the wind-driven snow and fog in their path. The Pennsylvania State Police did not release details about the victims when it issued an update on deaths and injuries on Wednesday."

New York Times: Joan "Joyce, who died on Saturday in Boca Raton, Fla., at 81, was ... widely regarded as the most dominant player in the history of women's fast-pitch softball.... But softball was not the only arena in which Joyce excelled. As a rangy 5-foot-9 forward (some sources say 5 foot 10), she took multiple all-American honors in basketball playing for Connecticut teams in the Women's Basketball Association and the Amateur Athletic Union.... She was also a standout volleyball player.... And at 35, an age when many athletes are retiring, she tried her hand at golf.... Inducted into as many as 19 Halls of Fame, Joyce was frequently compared to Babe Didrikson Zaharias...." Joyce struck out legends Ted Williams & Henry Aaron in exhibition games. Williams once said she was the toughest pitcher he ever faced. Read on.