October 14, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Jacqueline Alemany & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol announced on Thursday that it will move to hold Stephen K. Bannon in criminal contempt for not complying with its subpoena as it seeks to force former Trump administration officials to cooperate with its inquiry. Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) said the panel will meet Tuesday when the House returns to Washington to vote to adopt a contempt report.... The panel has opted to give other former Trump officials more time to comply with its subpoenas. Mark Meadows and Kash Patel were both scheduled to appear before the committee by the end of this week for closed-door interviews and are now expected to be provided an extension or continuance, according to three people familiar with the matter...." A CNN report is here.

Carolyn Johnson & Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: "An independent advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday unanimously recommended a booster dose of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine for people 65 and older and adults who are at high risk of severe illness or are exposed at work. The recommendation mirrors the eligibility criteria for the Pfizer-BioNTech booster, which was authorized in September. Nearly 70 million Americans have received both doses of the Moderna vaccine. The vote comes after a full-day examination of data on the safety and effectiveness of a booster, and the recommendation will now be considered by FDA officials, who are expected to reach a decision on the Moderna booster within days. An advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that makes recommendations on how vaccines should be used is scheduled to meet Wednesday."

South Carolina. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "Alex Murdaugh, the South Carolina lawyer who has endured a dramatic downfall since his wife and son were shot in an unsolved killing in June, was arrested on Thursday and charged with swindling millions of dollars from the sons of his former housekeeper. Mr. Murdaugh, 53, was taken into custody at a drug detox center in Orlando, Fla., and charged with two counts of obtaining property by false pretenses, a felony with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. He was booked into a jail in Orlando. The charges stem from a settlement that Mr. Murdaugh and his insurers reached with the sons of the housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who died in 2018 after falling on the front steps of the Murdaugh family's rural home in Islandton, S.C. After her death, Mr. Murdaugh referred her two sons to a lawyer he promised would help them, the sons claimed in a recent lawsuit, but he did not disclose that the lawyer, Cory Fleming, was a close friend and former college roommate."

Virginia Republicans Pledge Allegiance to January 6 Flag. John Amato of Crooks & Liars: "During a rally for Republican Virginia Gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin..., an American flag was brought out onto the stage and the host said praised the flag thusly, 'That was carried at the peaceful rally with Donald Trump on January 6.'... Someone named Mark Lloyd then led the crowd with the Pledge of Allegiance.... Rolling Stone writes, 'Youngkin was not present at the 'Take Back Virginia' rally, but it was headlined by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who cited the close race between Youngkin and his Democratic opponent, Terry McAufflife, to argue that the state's 2020 election results were illegitimate."

Amy Wang & Chico Harlan of the Washington Post: "President Biden will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Oct. 29 during a trip to Europe for two high-profile global summits, the White House announced Thursday. Biden and Francis will discuss 'working together on efforts grounded in respect for fundamental human dignity, including ending the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling the climate crisis, and caring for the poor,' White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. Biden, the United States' second Catholic president, has been at the center of a debate within the Catholic Church about whether he should be able to receive Communion because of his support for abortion rights.... . Francis said that abortion is 'murder' but also that the decision to grant Communion should be a pastoral, not political, one. First lady Jill Biden will join her husband in meeting Francis."

Paul Duggan of the Washington Post: "A Texas woman who was charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and boasted on social media, 'Hell yes, I'm proud of my actions,' pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Jenny Cudd, a 36-year-old florist and former mayoral candidate in the western Texas city of Midland, is one of more than 600 people charged so far in what federal authorities have called the largest investigation in U.S. history. She is among more than 70 defendants who have pleaded guilty in deals with the U.S. attorney's office in the District."

** Sen Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) in Salon: "Justice Samuel Alito wants desperately for us to believe that everything is just fine at the Supreme Court. Indeed, in his view the court is a victim.... [But] Americans' perception that the court lacks independence, and the court's related drop in approval, doesn't flow from some left-wing conspiracy. It's a recognition that the evidence shows a pattern whenever certain interests come before the court.... During Chief Justice John Roberts' tenure, the Court has issued more than 80 partisan decisions, by either a 5-4 or 6-3 vote, involving big interests important to Republican Party major donors. Republican-appointed justices have handed wins to the donor interests in every single case.... [The complex, multi-faceted mechanisms put in place to engineer the Court's capture] required boatloads of anonymous money; what people who study this clandestine activity call 'dark money.'... Perhaps Justice Alito is so touchy because his fingerprints are all over this pattern of Republican judicial activism." Worth reading the whole post.

** Ariane de Vogue of CNN: "Justice Sonia Sotomayor told an audience Wednesday that recent changes in the format of oral arguments were instituted in part after studies emerged showing that female justices on the court were interrupted more by male justices and advocates. Sotomayor said the studies, including one by researchers Tonja Jacoby and Dylan Schweers in 2017, have had an 'enormous impact' and led to Chief Justice John Roberts being 'much more sensitive' to ensuring that people were not interrupted or at least that he would play referee if needed. She also said that it is a dynamic that exists not only on the court but in society as well. 'Most of the time women say things and they are not heard in the same way as men who might say the identical thing,' she said." MB: If you're an adult women, you figured this out long ago.

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

Alaska. How Could This Have Happened? Derek Hawkins & Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "An Alaska GOP lawmaker banned from flying on the state's leading airline for refusing to wear a mask, and therefore unable to travel to and from the state capital, has now tested positive for the coronavirus, she said. State Sen. Lora Reinbold, a Republican representing an Anchorage suburb, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday night that it was her 'turn to battle Covid head on.... Game on! Who do you think is going to win?' Reinbold wrote of her infection. 'When I defeat it, I will tell you my recipe.' Another Republican state senator, David Wilson of Wasilla also tested positive this week and is quarantining at home."

Arizona U.S. Senate Race. Kevin Robillard of the Huffington Post: "Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) is deeply unpopular with Democratic primary voters in her home state and would be vulnerable against a number of intra-party challengers, according to a new poll from a progressive group. The poll, from Data for Progress, comes with heavy caveats. The 2022 midterms aren't even here yet, never mind the 2024 election. And Arizona's primaries are open to independent voters ― meaning the exact makeup of the electorate is hard to nail down even in the weeks leading up to an election, let alone three years in advance. But the numbers for Sinema ... are grim. They show widespread discontent with her performance, making her vulnerable to nearly any Democratic challenger."

Oregon Gubernatorial Race. Marc Tracy of the New York Times: "After 37 years at The New York Times as a reporter, high-level editor and opinion columnist, Nicholas Kristof is leaving the newspaper as he considers running for governor of Oregon, a top Times editor said in a note to the staff on Thursday. Mr. Kristof, 62, has been on leave from The Times since June, when he told company executives that he was weighing a run for governor in the state where he grew up. On Tuesday, he filed to organize a candidate committee with Oregon's secretary of state as a Democrat, signaling that his interest was serious." ~~~

~~~ Sky Palma of the Raw Story: "Friends and allies of Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema are mystified by her maneuvering around President Joe Biden's legislative agenda, according to people speaking to The Daily Beast.... 'A lot of people who have considered her a friend, or confidant, or someone she'd go to for donor support or political support, she won't talk to those people anymore,' said Matt Grodsky, a former communications director for the Democratic Party of Arizona. 'She had a big network of people who liked her -- establishment Democrats, progressives -- everyone marveled at her ability to win in Arizona,' said one Arizona Democratic strategist. 'A lot of her longtime friends and confidants are no longer there. No one knows, to be honest, where she's at.'"

Wisconsin. GOP, the Party of Incompetence. Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "The glaring errors became clear soon after ... former Wisconsin judge [Michael Gableman] issued subpoenas earlier this month in a Republican review of the state's 2020 presidential election. Some of the requests referred to the wrong city. At least one was sent to an official who doesn't oversee elections. A Latin phrase included in the demands for records and testimony was misspelled.... Gableman ... admitted days later that he does not have 'a comprehensive understanding or even any understanding of how elections work..' He then backed off some of his subpoena demands before reversing course again, telling a local radio host that officials would still be required to testify. The latest round of reversals and blunders is intensifying calls to end the probe, one of several recent efforts around the country to revisit Joe Biden's win in states where ... Donald Trump and his supporters have leveled baseless accusations of voter fraud. Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) this week called the subpoenas unlawful and 'dramatically overbroad,' and he urged Republicans to 'shut this fake investigation down.'"

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David Lynch & Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "On Wednesday, President Biden moved to address costly traffic jams in the nation's freight-moving system, convening a virtual industry roundtable and speaking at the White House. He announced that the Port of Los Angeles would 'begin operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week' in a bid to clear bottlenecks.... Rising prices, product shortages and labor market tumult are making for a surprisingly rocky economic recovery, testing the political skills of the Biden White House.... Administration officials are confronting an unfamiliar economic landscape of strong growth and rising wages, even as the highest inflation in 13 years and persistent problems moving goods from overseas factories to American doorsteps spark public unease."

News You Can Use. Madeleine Ngo of the New York Times: "Benefits from Social Security ... will increase by 5.9 percent in 2022, the Social Security Administration said on Wednesday. It is the biggest boost in 40 years as prices for food, cars and rent keep climbing. The increase, known as a cost of living adjustment, is the largest since 1982, when the adjustment was 7.4 percent, according to data from the administration. The average benefit -- 70 million Americans receive them -- would climb to $1,657 a month, up $92 from this year. The adjustment is a response to consumer prices in the United States that have jumped at their fastest pace in years. It is tied to the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index, which rose 5.4 percent in September from a year earlier." A CNBC report is here.

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration announced on Wednesday a plan to develop large-scale wind farms along nearly the entire coastline of the United States, the first long-term strategy from the government to produce electricity from offshore turbines. Speaking at a wind power industry conference in Boston, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said that her agency will begin to identify, demarcate and hope to eventually lease federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Maine and off the coasts of the Mid-Atlantic States, North Carolina and South Carolina, California and Oregon, to wind power developers by 2025. The announcement came months after the Biden administration approved the nation's first major commercial offshore wind farm off the coast of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts and began reviewing a dozen other potential offshore wind projects along the East Coast. On the West Coast, the administration has approved opening up two areas off the shores of Central and Northern California for commercial wind power development." A CNN story is here.

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The Justice Department said on Wednesday that it was investigating juvenile correctional facilities in Texas over allegations of physical violence, sexual abuse and other mistreatment of children held there. The investigation, which will also examine the state's use of isolation and chemicals like pepper spray, is part of a broader effort to overhaul the criminal justice system and address conditions in prisons, a goal that in recent years has had bipartisan support and was pursued by the Obama and Trump administrations before President Biden took office. And it follows other recent Justice Department investigations into adult correctional facilities in states including Georgia and New Jersey." The Guardian's story is here.

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot issued a subpoena on Wednesday to Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official under ... Donald J. Trump who was involved in Mr. Trump's frenzied efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The subpoena seeks testimony and records from Mr. Clark, a little-known official who repeatedly pushed his colleagues at the Justice Department to help Mr. Trump undo his loss. The panel's focus on him indicates that it is deepening its scrutiny of the root causes of the attack, which disrupted a congressional session called to count the electoral votes formalizing President Biden's victory.... The Senate Judiciary Committee said last week that there was credible evidence that Mr. Clark was involved in efforts to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power, citing his proposal to deliver a letter to state legislators in Georgia and others encouraging them to delay certification of election results." The AP's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to Rachel Maddow, Jeremy Clark has been unceremoniously "disappeared" from the Website of the crazy right-wing "think" tank (or whatever it is), which proudly announced his employment earlier this year.

Betsy Swan of Politico: "Jeff Rosen, the acting attorney general during the final days of the Trump administration, sat for an interview with the Jan. 6 select committee on Wednesday, according to two sources familiar with the matter."

Kaitlin Collins of CNN: "The White House formally rejected the request by ... Donald Trump to assert executive privilege to shield from lawmakers a subset of documents that has been requested by the House committee investigating January 6, and set an aggressive timeline for their release. The latest letter came after the Biden administration informed the National Archives on Friday that it would not assert executive privilege over a tranche of documents related to January 6 from the Trump White House."

Andrew Feinberg of the (U.K.) Independent, republished in Yahoo! News: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday predicted that Republican voters will sit out the 2022 and 2024 elections if the GOP doesn't somehow manage to reverse the results of the election he lost in 2020.... 'If we don't solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented), Republicans will not be voting in '22 or '24,' the former president wrote. 'It is the single most important thing for Republicans to do'." MB: Not sure if that's a prediction, a directive or a threat from the Dear Leader.

While Dangling the Fate of the Nation on Her Little Finger, Krysten Goes on a European Jaunt. Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Senator Kyrsten Sinema ... [is] in Europe on a fund-raising trip.... The chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, is also in Europe this week and headlined a dinner on Wednesday in London, with contribution levels as much as $36,500, according to a copy of an invitation. Ms. Sinema's name does not appear on that invitation.... Ms. Sinema's office declined to say how long she would be abroad, what countries she was visiting, how the trip was being paid for and whether she was doing any additional fund-raising for her own campaign." The Hill's summary report is here. MB: Sinema is not merely an unserious person; she's a nut.

Connecticut, Beware of Brazilian Terrorists Carrying Gucci Bags! Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, an outspoken critic of President Biden's immigration policies, said affluent Brazilians were illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and heading to Connecticut 'wearing designer clothes and Gucci bags.'... The senator, who recently visited the border in Arizona, [told Fox 'News' personality Sean Hannity on Tuesday]: 'We had 40,000 Brazilians come through the Yuma Sector alone headed for Connecticut wearing designer clothes and Gucci bags. This is not economic migration anymore.... People see an open America,' he continued. 'They're taking advantage of us. And it won't be long before a terrorist gets in this crowd.'"

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed prepared to reinstate the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, despite aggressive questioning from the court's liberals about whether crucial evidence was kept from jurors who decided not to spare his life. The court was reviewing a decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit. In July, the panel agreed with Tsarnaev's lawyers that the judge overseeing his 2015 trial did not adequately question potential jurors for bias in the case, which received massive publicity. In overturning Tsarnaev's death sentence, the panel also said some evidence was improperly withheld that might have indicated his older brother, Tamerlan, was more culpable for the bombing. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed as police closed in on the brothers days after the April 2013 attack." CNN's story is here.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Wednesday are here.

News You Can Use. Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "Recipients of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine may need a booster shot -- and while they could benefit from a second dose of the original vaccine, they may derive even greater protection if the boost comes from a different vaccine technology, according to data that emerged Wednesday. The documents include an FDA review of Johnson & Johnson's tests of a second dose of its own vaccine and a separate preprint study that tested mixing booster doses from different companies. The data could provide a road map for the 15 million people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the United States, many of whom have felt left out because the vast majority of U.S. vaccine recipients received messenger RNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna." An NPR story is here.

Beyond the Beltway

California. Alexander Nieves of Politico: "Los Angeles City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas was indicted on federal charges Wednesday for his role in an alleged bribery scheme that landed his son a professorship at USC. Federal prosecutors alleged in a 20-count indictment that Ridley-Thomas helped direct funding and contracts to USC's school of social work while serving on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. In exchange, his son, former state lawmaker Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, was guaranteed graduate school admission and a paid teaching position by the school's then-dean, Marilyn Louise Flynn. Mark Ridley-Thomas also moved $100,000 from a campaign committee through USC and eventually into the account of a nonprofit that employed his son, the indictment alleges.... Flynn, who has since retired from USC, was also named in the indictment."

Colorado. Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "A Colorado judge on Wednesday prohibited a local official who has embraced conspiracy theories from overseeing November's election, finding she breached and neglected her duties and was 'untruthful' when she brought in someone who was not a county employee to copy the hard drives of Dominion Voting Systems machines. The effort by Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters (R) to ferret out supposedly hidden evidence of fraud amounted to an escalation in the attacks on the nation's voting systems, according to experts.... Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) filed a lawsuit in August seeking to formally strip Peters of her election duties after passwords for Mesa County's voting machines were posted online and copies of the hard drives were presented at a symposium hosted by MyPillow executive Mike Lindell.... Judge Valerie J. Robison found Peters and her deputy, Belinda Knisley..., are both 'unable or unwilling to appropriately perform the duties' of the county's chief elections official." Colorado Public Radio's report is here.

Georgia. Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "A fundraiser for Republican Herschel Walker, a [Trump-backed] U.S. Senate candidate in Georgia, was canceled Wednesday after its host was criticized for featuring an image that used a swastika made out of syringes on her Twitter profile. Bettina Sofia Viviano-Langlais, a Republican donor, was set to host a fundraiser for Walker this weekend in Parker, Tex., according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which first noted Wednesday morning that her Twitter profile picture resembled the symbol. That specific rendering of the vaccine-needle swastika has been co-opted by activists nationwide who oppose coronavirus vaccine mandates and compare them to Nazi treatment of the Jews. Within hours of the Journal-Constitution's report, the account's profile picture had been changed and Walker had called off the event despite initially standing by Viviano-Langlais." A Huffington Post report is here.

News Ledes

New York Times: “A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a former top pilot for Boeing, Mark Forkner, in connection with statements he and the company made about its troubled 737 Max jet, the culmination of a long investigation. Mr. Forkner is accused of deceiving the Federal Aviation Administration and of 'scheming to defraud Boeing's U.S.‑based airline customers to obtain tens of millions of dollars for Boeing,' the Justice Department said in a statement. Prosecutors contend that Mr. Forkner provided the aviation agency with 'materially false, inaccurate and incomplete information' about flight control software implicated in two crashes in 2018 and 2019 in which 346 people were killed. That software, known as MCAS (for Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) was designed to push down the plane's nose in certain situations."

New York Times: "Nearly four decades after his wife's abrupt disappearance cast a cloud of suspicion that would make his case one of the most notorious in the country, Robert A. Durst was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison for the execution-style killing in 2000 of a close confidante. The 78-year-old Mr. Durst, whose life story inspired a Hollywood movie and an HBO documentary, will not be eligible for parole. The jury that convicted him of first-degree murder in Los Angeles last month found that the prosecution had proven special circumstances: Namely, that Mr. Durst shot Susan Berman, a journalist and screenwriter, because he feared she was about to tell investigators what she had learned as his liaison with the news media after the 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathie McCormack Durst."

AP: "A Danish man who is in custody in Norway suspected of a bow-and-arrow attack on a small town that killed five people and wounded two others is a Muslim convert who had previously been flagged as having being radicalized, police said Thursday. The man is suspected of having shot at people in a number of locations in the town of Kongsberg on Wednesday evening. Several of the victims were in a supermarket, police said.... The victims were four women and one man between the ages of 50 and 70, Saeverud said. Officials believe that the man didn't start killing people until police arrived on the scene." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. The New York Times story is here.

October 13, 2021

Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration Tuesday ordered a halt to large-scale immigration arrests at job sites, and said it is planning a new enforcement strategy to more effectively target employers who pay substandard wages and engage in exploitative labor practices. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas's memo ordered a review of enforcement policies and gave immigration officials 60 days to devise proposals to better protect workers who report on their bosses from facing deportation.... Immigrant advocates and many Democrats who oppose the raids say they punish vulnerable workers, sow fear in immigrant communities and rarely result in consequences for employers." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Is it true that the raids "punish vulnerable workers, sow fear in immigrant communities and rarely result in consequences for employers"? Or not? If true, why not say so in the report, rather than attribute these claims to "immigrant advocates & many Democrats"? Every once in a while, I write to reporters about their lazy reporting, and this was one of those times. ~~~

     ~~~ NPR's report is here.

Kasha Patel of the Washington Post: "The White House announced Tuesday that it would work to revise building standards for flood-prone communities across the country in the face of climate change, while launching tools to make climate information more accessible to the public. The move is part of the Biden administration's broader effort to push the United States to reckon with the costs of global warming by factoring in the long-term consequences of decisions being made today.... The Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a request for information Tuesday to guide how it would update the National Flood Insurance Program's flood plain management standards, which have not been changed substantially since 1976. It is also seeking input on better protecting the habitats and populations of threatened and endangered species in the face of these risks."

Caitlin Emma & Jennifer Scholtes of Politico: "The House approved a bill on Tuesday to briefly alleviate the squeeze of the debt limit, warding off an economically destructive default for just over seven weeks. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the legislation in short order, allowing the Treasury Department to keep paying loans for the nation's more than $28 trillion in debt. The extra borrowing power is estimated to last until about Dec. 3, the same day government funding will expire. That patch is far shorter than the 14-month fix Democrats had to abandon after Senate Republicans repeatedly sunk the majority party's long-range plan for lifting the cap on the nation's credit." The New York Times story is here.

Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday sought to steel Democrats for coming cuts to their $3.5 trillion tax-and-spending package, stressing the process to whittle down the party's landmark proposal would not 'diminish the transformative nature of what it is.' The renewed warning came as negotiations continued between Democratic lawmakers and the White House over the future of President Biden's economic agenda. Appearing at her weekly news conference, Pelosi said there are 'important decisions to make in the next few days' if they hope to forge a legislative compromise that the fuller party, including its spending-weary centrists, ultimately can support. 'I'm very disappointed we're not going with the original $3.5 trillion,' Pelosi told reporters."

Alice Ollstein of Politico: "A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday weighed which state officials can defend abortion bans in court -- a procedural question with implications that extend beyond reproductive health in states where the governor and attorney general hail from opposing parties. The arguments marked the first abortion case to be argued in full before the court's 6-3 conservative majority and centered on whether Republican Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron could defend his state's ban on some forms of abortion after two courts found it unconstitutional and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear refused to defend it further."

Joshua Douglas in the Washington Monthly: "... conservative jurists only approve state restrictions over individual freedoms when it suits their purposes.... When a plaintiff challenges a state law as unconstitutional, the Court must decide whether the law actually infringes an individual right and whether the state has a good enough reason for doing so. If the right is deemed 'fundamental,' then the state must satisfy a high bar to justify it. That's because various parts of the U.S. Constitution (especially the Bill of Rights and other amendments) are designed to protect individual rights against government encroachment. But in case after case involving voting rights, abortion, and other hot button issues, the newly emboldened conservative majority has simply deferred to a state's rules. That is, they have approved of laws that infringe individual liberties without requiring much justification from the state on why those laws are necessary given the specific circumstances. They have credited a state's rules over fundamental rights."

Zach Montague & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The Maryland couple accused of trying to sell some of America's most closely guarded nuclear submarine secrets made their first appearance in court since they were arrested over the weekend. The couple, Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, were accused of selling nuclear propulsion secrets to an undercover F.B.I. officer through a series of dead drops featuring memory cards hidden in peanut butter sandwiches, gum packages and Band-Aid wrappers. Though they appeared separately on Tuesday, each was charged individually with communication of restricted data and conspiracy to communicate restricted data, charges that could lead to life in prison. Neither of them was asked to enter a plea during their short initial appearances."

Take This Job & Shove It. Eli Rosenberg, et al., of the Washington Post: "The number of people quitting their jobs has surged to record highs, pushed by a combination of factors that include Americans sensing ample opportunity and better pay elsewhere. Some 4.3 million people quit jobs in August -- about 2.9 percent of the workforce, according to new data released Tuesday from the Labor Department. Those numbers are up from the previous record, set in April, of about 4 million people quitting, reflecting how the pandemic has continued to jolt workers' mind-set about their jobs and their lives. The phenomenon is being driven in part by workers who are less willing to endure inconvenient hours and poor compensation, who are quitting instead to find better opportunities.... Even in a time of records, the speed of quitting among low-wage service workers stands out." ~~~

~~~ One Reason Service Workers Are Quitting. Hope King & Niala Boodhoo of Axios: "The pace of the economic recovery hinges in part on workers returning to jobs that involve dealing with an unpredictable public. But many of those workers say increasingly combative customers -- angry about everything from long wait times to mask mandates -- have prompted them to quit.... Aggressive and violent clashes between customers and service workers over COVID safety protocols over the past nearly two years have led to prison sentences, fines and deaths. Many workers say they're simply not willing to put up with the abuse any longer -- and their employers are often taking their side, even in industries that have long deferred to their customers."

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "A Marine officer whose viral videos criticizing senior officials for how they withdrew from Afghanistan created a political uproar will plead guilty to several charges and seek a discharge that allows him to keep some military benefits, one of his lawyers said Tuesday. Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller is scheduled for court-martial at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina on Thursday, and faces charges that include disrespect toward superior commissioned officers, willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, and dereliction in the performance of duties. He burst into public view in August when, in the immediate aftermath of a suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. troops and about 170 Afghans, he posted a video while in uniform questioning why no senior leader had admitted making mistakes in how the withdrawal was carried out." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I must confess to having a certain sympathy for Scheller, even though his case has become a cause celebre of the right. Eleven of the troops killed in the August attack were Marines, and it's hard not to feel distraught over their murders. I understand that a colonel ought to keep his mouth shut when he finds fault with superior officers, and I get why Scheller is being court-martialed, but -- based on what I read about some of his statements -- it seems a medical discharge might be most appropriate. If you disagree with me, I find no fault with that, either.

Alyssa Lukpat of the New York Times: "Gabrielle Petito, the Florida woman whose disappearance led to a wide-ranging investigation into her fiancé, who returned home without her from a cross-country trip before disappearing himself, died from strangulation, the authorities said on Tuesday. Dr. Brent Blue, the Teton County, Wyo., coroner, did not disclose at a news briefing how Ms. Petito was strangled." An AP story is here.

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: Brian Stelter of CNN's "Reliable Sources" complained this weekend that there was no "New York Times of the right." Fox "News" host Tucker Carlson claimed on Fox "News" (where else?) that, "I gave up my New York Times and Washington Post subscriptions because it's just garbage." But Wemple points out time after time when Carlson cited NYT stories to make some right-wing point. Wemple cites other Fox "News" personalities who rely on Times reporting to bolster their own propaganda. So, Wemple concludes, "... there is a New York Times of the right. It's called ... the New York Times.... Of all the galling hypocrisies produced on a rolling basis by Fox News, its posture toward the Times -- and many other mainstream news outlets -- stands apart for its cynicism and destructiveness. The best that can be said for Fox News is that it does nothing to hide its two-faced, simultaneous effort to drag down and pivot off a vibrant news source. And viewers appear just fine with it."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Zeke Miller of the AP: "The U.S. will reopen its land borders to nonessential travel next month, ending a 19-month freeze due to the COVID-19 pandemic as the country moves to require all international visitors to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Vehicle, rail and ferry travel between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico has been largely restricted to essential travel, such as trade, since the earliest days of the pandemic. The new rules, to be announced Wednesday, will allow fully vaccinated foreign nationals to enter the U.S. regardless of the reason for travel starting in early November, when a similar easing of restrictions is set to kick in for air travel into the country. By mid-January, even essential travelers seeking to enter the U.S., like truck drivers, will need to be fully vaccinated.... Both Mexico and Canada have pressed the U.S. for months to ease restrictions on travel that have separated families and curtailed leisure trips since the onset of the pandemic."

I love the poorly-educated. -- Donald Trump, February 2016 ~~~

~~~ Police Departments Choose Recruits Who Aren't Too Bright. Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "More than 460 American law enforcement officers have died from Covid-19 infections tied to their work since the start of the pandemic, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, making the coronavirus by far the most common cause of duty-related deaths in 2020 and 2021. More than four times as many officers have died from Covid-19 as from gunfire in that period. There is no comprehensive accounting of how many American police officers have been sickened by the virus, but departments across the country have reported large outbreaks in the ranks. While the virus has ravaged policing, persuading officers to take a vaccine has often been a struggle, even though the shots have proven to be largely effective in preventing severe disease and death.... As more departments in recent weeks have considered requiring members to be vaccinated, officers and their unions have loudly pushed back, in some cases threatening resignations or flooding systems with requests for exemptions."

Myah Ward of Politico: "The archbishop of the U.S. military said on Tuesday that Catholic troops could refuse the mandated Covid vaccine on religious grounds. 'No one should be forced to receive a COVID-19 vaccine if it would violate the sanctity of his or her conscience,' Timothy Broglio, archbishop for the military services, said in a statement.... Broglio has expressed support for President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for the military in the past -- citing guidance from Pope Francis, the Holy See and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that the Covid shots are morally acceptable. The archbishop has expressed preference for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines because of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine's remote link to human cells derived from abortions." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Wait. The Pope says get a shot & that means Roman Catholics can take a religious exemption from getting shots? How does that work? If I were Pope (oh, if only!), I'd call Archbishop Timmy to Rome, send him down to the basement of the Vatican library & make him Archbishop of the edicts of dead popes or something.

AP: "The Boeing Co. has told employees they must be vaccinated against COVID-19 or possibly be fired. The Seattle Times reports the deadline for workers at the aerospace giant is Dec. 8.... Boeing may face more resistance to the new policy in Republican-controlled states.... Boeing has more than 5,000 employees in Texas. It has about 32,000 more at facilities in Alabama, Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

Marie's Sports Report. Scott Cacciola & Jonathan Abrams of the New York Times: "As vaccine mandates roil workplaces across the country, a high-stakes stalemate in the N.B.A. took a dramatic turn on Tuesday when the Nets issued star [Kyrie] Irving an ultimatum: Get the shot, or stay home. In the process, the team has drawn a stark line over the issue of the vaccine with one of the more high-profile sports celebrities who has refused to get it.... The team also said Irving would be barred from practices as long as he remained unvaccinated.... Irving has not spoken publicly about his vaccination status, asking instead for privacy, and the Nets danced around the topic for weeks until Tuesday." MB: I'm sure a sports expert, I had to check to see where the Nets played. I thought they were the New York Nets, but it turns out they've been the Brooklyn Nets for more than ten years.

Texas. Mitchell Ferman of the Texas Tribune: "Companies doing business in Texas now face new and complicated challenges after Gov. Greg Abbott this week banned COVID-19 vaccine mandates for all entities in the state -- including private businesses -- for employees or customers.... Two prominent Texas-based companies, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, already require employees to be vaccinated. Spokespeople for the two airlines told the Tribune that requirement won't change despite Abbott's new order.... The Greater Houston Partnership, a leading business group in Harris County, also denounced Abbott's action." The article outlines some of the other parts of Abbott's order, which obviously is designed to kill as many Texans as possible. ~~~

     ~~~ AND, as Chris Hayes noted on MSNBC Tuesday night, Abbott came up with this dangerous order just hours after nutso gubernatorial challenger Allen West tweeted from his hospital bed -- where he is being treated for, ah, a severe case of Covid-19 -- that, as governor, he would "vehemently crush anyone forcing vaccine mandates." According to CBS News, "West also tweeted that the U.S. shouldn't be 'enriching the pockets of Big Pharma,' although he touted a monoclonal antibody infusion therapy treatment he took that is made by pharmaceutical company Regeneron. Regeneron's cocktail costs the U.S. $2,100 per dose. Pfizer's vaccine, the most expensive of the three used domestically, costs the U.S. $19.50/dose."

Beyond the Beltway

South Carolina. Southern Gothic. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs & Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "It is rare for the personal travails of one small-town lawyer to resonate so broadly. But [Alex] Murdaugh, 53, was for years a well-connected player in the clubby South Carolina legal world; the family law firm, based in the tiny city of Hampton, has long been considered a powerhouse on the state plaintiff's bar. In recent weeks, a dizzying series of criminal investigations and civil lawsuits has emerged, accusing Mr. Murdaugh of betraying friends, colleagues and clients. The police have opened previously closed cases, including one involving the death of a former classmate of Mr. Murdaugh's son and another involving a housekeeper who had long been thought to have fatally tripped and fallen on the front steps of the Murdaugh family's home. [Still open:] ... the unsolved killing of Mr. Murdaugh's wife and younger son -- and allegations of multimillion-dollar swindles and abuses of trust and power.... [Police] are also looking at allegations that Mr. Murdaugh stole millions of dollars from his law firm and millions more from a settlement intended for the housekeeper's children."

Texas. Jeremy Schwartz of the Texas Tribune & ProPublica: "An elections administrator in North Texas submitted her resignation Friday, following a monthslong effort by residents and officials loyal to ... Donald Trump to force her out of office. Michele Carew, who had overseen scores of elections during her 14-year career, had found herself transformed into the public face of an electoral system that many in the heavily Republican Hood County had come to mistrust.... Her critics sought to abolish her position and give her duties to an elected county clerk who has used social media to promote baseless allegations of widespread election fraud.... Critics accused Carew of harboring a secret liberal agenda and of violating a decades-old elections law, despite assurances from the Texas secretary of state that she was complying with Texas election rules.... Hood County would seem an unlikely place for disputes over the last presidential election given that Trump won 81% of the vote there, one of his largest margins of victory in the state." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure Carew fixed Hood County voting machines so they zapped every voter with "Democrat" lasers that can penetrate brains & turn rock-solid Republicans into spineless libs.

Texas. Marie: Oh, to be a young professional Texas woman. You have a promising entry-level job at a large, Houston-based company, But Greg Abbott won't let your employer impose a vaccine mandate, so the guy in the cubicle to your right keeps wheezing & coughing on you, and you're sure he has Covid. Greg Abbott & his cronies have banned abortions, and the guy in the cubicle to your left accidentally knocked you up and neither of you think it's health-safe or financially-feasible to have a child now. You would like to vote Greggers out of office, but he and his buddies have made it difficult to vote in Houston.

I love the poorly-educated. -- Donald Trump, February 2016 ~~~

~~~ Virginia. Extreme Drydocking. John Wright of the Raw Story: "A Republican state legislative candidate in Virginia posed an interesting question on Twitter recently. 'I'm curious, Do you think the sea level would lower, if we just took all the boats out of the water?...' wrote Scott Pio, who is challenging Democratic Del. David Reid in Loudoun County's District 32. Pio subsequently deleted his tweet, but not before it was picked up by the Democratic group Blue Virginia.... In its post, Blue Virginia pointed to some of Pio's other views, including his opposition to abortion in all cases, and his belief that there should be no restrictions on guns.... Pio later wrote in response to Blue Virginia's post, 'When you take things out of bath water, the bath water decreases, does it not? Got a lot of hate from your group for asking a question about taking things out of the water. Curious when you stopped believing in pure physics? I guess you don't believe in science experiments?'... Randall Munroe, an engineer who authors the award-winning webcomic XKCD, recently calculated ... that the impact [of banning boats] on sea levels would be 'about six microns -- slightly more than the diameter of a strand of spider silk.'"

Way Beyond

Afghanistan/E.U. Chico Harlan of the Washington Post: "With Afghanistan cut off from most of its foreign support and plunging into an economic and humanitarian crisis, the European Union pledged a major $1.15 billion aid package during a virtual Group of 20 summit, calling it a step to avoid 'catastrophe.' But for all of Europe's urgency -- part of it driven by anxiety about spillover migration -- other nations, representing the largest economies, did not step forward with comparable measures. The summit -- in which President Biden participated, but Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not -- ended with a general agreement about the importance of providing a lifeline to Afghanistan's people as conditions worsen."

Afghanistan/U.S. Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "The Afghan interpreter who in 2008 was part of a team that rescued then-Sen. Joe Biden when his helicopter got caught in a blinding snowstorm in Afghanistan safely left the country with his family last week. The interpreter, Aman Khalili, had been in hiding in the weeks after Kabul's fall to the Taliban in mid-August and the U.S. withdrawal from the country. Khalili, his wife and several of his children -- a number he did not want to disclose for safety reasons -- were rescued last week in a joint effort by a group of Arizona military veterans, aid organizations and, ultimately, the Department of State. Some of the U.S. veterans involved in the operation to get the family out had worked with Khalili on the 2008 operation to rescue Biden (D-Del.) and two other senators -- John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) -- when their helicopter was forced to land in an Afghan valley vulnerable to a Taliban attack.... After a few days in Pakistan, the family arrived in Doha, Qatar, on Monday after Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman asked for Pakistani approval to fly them to Qatar aboard a U.S. military plane."

U.K. I Say, Camilla, Toss the Dregs of This Bottle into the Car's Tank, Will You? Jennifer Hassan of the Washington Post: "Speaking to the BBC about his carbon footprint ahead of a U.N. climate summit later this month, [Prince Charles] said [his Aston Martin DB6], which he has owned for more than 50 years, runs on 'surplus English white wine and whey from the cheese process.'... The royal's car has been converted so that it runs on a biofuel known as E85 -- which is blended from 85 percent bioethanol and 15 percent unleaded gasoline. While this means the fuel is more sustainable, there are disadvantages to using the substitute, which is made from biomass such as sugar, wheat or corn. Vehicle engines need to be modified to be powered by the substance, and the need for biofuel crops means greater demands on forestland. 'On a large scale biofuels do more harm than good, driving deforestation and land use change that worsens the climate crisis,' Greg Archer, a director at a European clean transport group, told the Guardian newspaper."

News Lede

A Plausible Big Boom Theory. New York Times: "Satellite imagery suggests [to some metereologists] that a meteor might have exploded in the atmosphere over New Hampshire..., causing houses to shake in the state & even into Massachusetts.... This time of year, they pointed out, is known for intense meteor showers.... Greg Cornwell, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine," said that a blip was detected on their geostationary weather satellite at about the same time people started calling in about the big boom.

October 12, 2021

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "Jonathan and Diana Toebbe seemed like an ordinary suburban couple, but the F.B.I. said they were would-be spies -- and sloppy ones.... For now, the big questions surrounding the couple -- what country they are accused of trying to sell the nuclear secrets to, and what motivated them to take the risk -- remain unanswered." MB: I'm guessing Australia because (1) the country is an ally that cooperated with the FBI, (2) Australia needed some U.S. nuclear submarines to protect itself Chinese threats, and (3) Diana said she wanted to move to Australia. ~~~

~~~ When can you get $10,000 for half a peanut butter sandwich? When it
     (a) has an image of the Virgin Mary embedded in the Wonder Bread;
     (b) is signed by Donald Trump;
     (c) has an SD card containing nuclear sub secrets embedded in the peanut butter.

Kevin Freking of the AP: "Members of the House are scrambling back to Washington on Tuesday to approve a short-term lift of the nation's debt limit and ensure the federal government can continue fully paying its bills into December. The $480 billion increase in the country's borrowing ceiling cleared the Senate last week on a party-line vote. The House is expected to approve it swiftly so President Joe Biden can sign it into law this week."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: On his Sunday show, Fox "News" host Chris Wallace asked again and again "for a straight answer [from House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) on whether or not Joe Biden was legitimately elected president,] and, over and over, Scalise offered the same evasive one.... [Scalise is] intentionally trying not to say that Biden won fairly because that position is anathema to the loudest part of his party's base. And to avoid saying that, he's seizing not upon unproven claims of fraud but a similarly inflated assertion that states made it too easy to vote. He doesn't allege that this led to more fraud or anything along those lines, though others have; he]s simply claiming that because states made it easier to vote, that was the equivalent of an illegitimate Biden win or an election being stolen.... [That is,] elections in which Democrats vote more heavily should necessarily be treated as suspect. It's toxic and dangerous ... to suggest that the election was tainted by legally cast votes for the candidate you hoped would lose."

Marie: I'm not sure anyone is surprised by the likes of Steve Scalise & Chuck Snake-in-the-Grassley. Steve brought his KKK outfit to Washington, D.C. & still keeps it in his closet, even though two people of color saved his life a few years back. He and Chuck -- who, like Trump, thinks it's super-polite to compliment people who aren't white Christians by throwing stereotypes at them (Chuck: hard-working Koreans; Donald: good businessman Jews) -- both have been ardent supporters of Trump all along. The lot of them are contemptible foes of democratic principles. And they always have been.

Republicans Miles Taylor & Christie Todd Whitman, in a New York Times op-ed, urge Republicans to vote for "centrist" Democrats: "... for now, the best hope for the rational remnants of the G.O.P. is for us to form an alliance with Democrats to defend American institutions, defeat far-right candidates, and elect honorable representatives next year -- including a strong contingent of moderate Democrats.... Concerned conservatives must join forces with Democrats on the most essential near-term imperative: blocking Republican leaders from regaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives.... As long as [GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy] embraces Mr. Trump's lies, he cannot be trusted to lead the chamber, especially in the run-up to the next presidential election." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Conservative Max Boot of the Washington Post: "I'm a single-issue voter. My issue is the fate of democracy in the United States. Simply put, I have no faith that we will remain a democracy if Republicans win power. Thus, although I'm not a Democrat, I will continue to vote exclusively for Democrats -- as I have done in every election since 2016 -- until the GOP ceases to pose an existential threat to our freedom." ~~~

~~~ ** Conservative Michael Gerson of the Washington Post: "It is increasingly evident that the nightmare prospect of American politics -- unified Republican control of the federal government in the hands of a reelected, empowered Donald Trump in 2025 -- is also the likely outcome.... Every new tranche of information released about Trump's behavior following the 2020 election -- most recently an interim report from the Senate Judiciary Committee -- reveals a serious and concerted attempt to overthrow America's legitimate incoming government.... It is clear that this same lawless, reckless man has a perfectly realistic path back to power. The GOP is a garbage scow of the corrupt, the seditious and their enablers, yet the short- and medium-term political currents are in its favor.... Democrats need to significantly outperform Republicans in national matchups to obtain even mediocre results in presidential and Senate races." But they don't seem to be paying attention.

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The conservative Claremont Institute, which employs the lawyer who provided a road map for ... Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election, decided to issue a statement Monday defending Eastman.... The defense is among the most carefully worded straw-man arguments in modern political history. Essentially, the statement isn't disputing that Eastman provided a ready-made procedure for Trump and Pence to get the election overturned --; he clearly and unambiguously did so -- it's that he didn't explicitly say Pence should overturn it himself. This, though, is a distinction without much of a difference."

Sky Palma of the Raw Story: "The vice president the of Philadelphia chapter of the Proud Boys had his home in Newark, Delaware, raided by then FBI this Friday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Aaron Whallon Wolkind, 37, had his computer, phone, and other electronics seized by federal agents who were looking for evidence related to the alleged planning of the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Although Wolkind was handcuffed during the raid, he was not arrested or charged."

Luz Lazo & Ian Duncan of the Washington Post: "Southwest Airlines faced a fourth day of disruptions Monday -- after canceling hundreds of flights over the weekend -- a sign of airlines' struggles to capitalize on a growing appetite for travel amid a pandemic that has scrambled the industry and left some carriers stretched thin.... The airline on Monday canceled 363 flights -- about 10 percent of scheduled departures -- while more than 1,300 were delayed, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.... Southwest reiterated Monday that inclement weather and air traffic control disruptions in Florida on Friday triggered the problems. Federal regulators said that air traffic control staffing shortages caused delays out of Florida but that airlines generally are experiencing operational issues because of their own staffing and aircraft issues.... Southwest on Monday countered reports about employee protests [against the company's vaccine mandate], saying that 'the weekend challenges were not a result of Employee demonstrations, as some have reported.' The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association also rejected speculation of pilot protests as 'false claims.'"

Marie's Sports Report. Ken Belton & Katherine Rosman of the New York Times: "When the vaunted N.F.L. coach Jon Gruden was confronted with a racist email he had sent in 2011 to insult the head of the players' union, he said he went too far but didn't have 'a blade of racism' in him. But league officials as part of a separate workplace misconduct investigation that did not directly involve him have found that Gruden, now the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, casually and frequently unleashed misogynistic and homophobic language over several years to denigrate people around the game and to mock some of the league's momentous changes. He denounced the emergence of women as referees, the drafting of a gay player and the tolerance of players protesting during the playing of the national anthem, according to emails reviewed by The New York Times." ~~~

     ~~~ ** Update/New Lede: "Jon Gruden stepped down Monday as the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders football team hours after The New York Times detailed emails in which he had made homophobic and misogynistic remarks, following an earlier report of racist statements about a union leader. His resignation was a striking departure from the football league for a coach who had won a Super Bowl, been a marquee analyst on ESPN and returned to the N.F.L. in 2018 to lead the resurgent Raiders, which he had coached years before.... Mark Davis, the owner of the Raiders, said in a statement that he had accepted the resignation. Rich Bisaccia, the Raiders' special teams coordinator, was elevated to interim head coach, the team said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: AND there you have the difference between a flawed man and an utter jackass. Gruden quickly resigned in shame from what I assume was a high-paying & prestigious job. And then there's Donald Trump & 98% of Republican "leaders."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Tuesday are here.

Texas. Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday issued an executive order banning all state entities, including private employers, from enforcing vaccine mandates, the latest escalation in the Republican's resistance to public health measures during the Covid-19 pandemic.... Abbott also called on the Texas state Legislature to pass a law with the same effect.... The executive order is just the latest action from Abbott meant to hamper the adoption of public health measures that experts say are necessary to curb the pandemic. The Texas governor, who contracted Covid-19 in August, has previously banned government vaccine mandates, vaccine passport requirements and school districts from requiring masks."

U.K. Helen Collis of Politico: "Delaying a lockdown in the U.K. and failing to prioritize social care caused thousands of avoidable deaths, according to a parliamentary report on lessons learned to date from the coronavirus pandemic. The joint investigation published Tuesday by the House of Commons' science and health committees is lawmakers' first stab at digging into why the U.K., which was initially praised for its pandemic preparedness planning, saw cases skyrocket and deaths far outnumber many comparable countries. To date, deaths associated with the coronavirus in the U.K. stand at more than 150,000, placing the country in the Top 10 worldwide for total fatalities, according to World Health Organization data." MB: I wonder why our Congress doesn't do a study like this for the U.S.

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia. Michael Wines of the New York Times: "The elections office in Georgia's heavily Democratic Fulton County said on Monday that two workers had been fired for shredding voter registration forms, most likely adding fuel to a Republican-led investigation of the office that critics call politically motivated. The workers, at the Fulton County Board of Elections, were dismissed on Friday after other employees saw them destroying registration forms awaiting processing before local elections in November, the county elections director, Richard Barron, said. Both the county district attorney and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state's chief elections official, were asked to conduct inquiries into the matter, the chairman of the Fulton County Commission, Robb Pitts, said in a statement. But it was Mr. Raffensperger who first revealed the allegations of shredded registration forms, issuing a blistering news release demanding that the Justice Department investigate 'incompetence and malfeasance' in the agency."

Michigan. Eric Lutz & Erin McCormick of the Guardian: "Residents of a majority-Black city in Michigan have been advised by the state not to use tap water for drinking, bathing, or cooking 'out of an abundance of caution' owing to lead contamination. For at least three years, residents of Benton Harbor, Michigan, have been suffering from lead-contaminated water with what experts describe as insufficient intervention from state and local officials. This month, the state promised to expand free water distribution in the city and reaffirmed its commitment to comply with federal lead regulations. Activists, who say Benton Harbor's poor water quality is a sign of environmental injustice and have been calling on the state to take action for years, say these are steps in the right direction, but more remains to be done."

Way Beyond

Australia. Punctuation Matters! Livia Albeck-Ripka of the New York Times: "A missing apostrophe in a Facebook post could cost a real estate agent in Australia tens of thousands of dollars after a court ruled a defamation case against him could proceed. In the post last year, Anthony Zadravic, the agent, appears to accuse Stuart Gan, his former employer at a real estate agency, of not paying retirement funds to all the agency's workers.... The post ... read, 'Oh Stuart Gan!! Selling multi million $ homes in Pearl Beach but can't pay his employees superannuation,' referring to Australia's retirement system.... Less than 12 hours after the post was published on Oct. 22, Mr. Zadravic ... deleted it. But it was too late. Mr. Gan ... filed a defamation claim against Mr. Zadravic. On Thursday, a judge in New South Wales ruled that the lack of an apostrophe on the word 'employees' could be read to suggest a 'systematic pattern of conduct' by Mr. Gan's agency rather than an accusation involving one employee. So she allowed the case to proceed." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: More consequential punctuation: That extra comma in the poorly-worded Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which allowed the Supremes to decide that the Amendment applied to gun rights for individual citizens, not just "a well regulated militia."

U.K. AP: "British police have announced they will not take any action against Prince Andrew after a review prompted by a Jeffrey Epstein accuser who claims that he sexually assaulted her." A Washington Post story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)