The Ledes

Friday, September 27, 2024

New York Times: “Maggie Smith, one of the finest British stage and screen actors of her generation, whose award-winning roles ranged from a freethinking Scottish schoolteacher in 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' to the acid-tongued dowager countess on 'Downton Abbey,' died on Friday in London. She was 89.”

The Washington Post's live updates of developments related to Hurricane Helene are here: “Hurricane Helene left one person dead in Florida and two in Georgia as it sped north. One of the biggest storms on record to hit the Gulf Coast, Helene slammed into Florida’s Big Bend area on Thursday night as a Category 4 colossus with winds of up to 140 mph before weakening to Category 1. Catastrophic winds and torrential rain from the storm — which the National Hurricane Center forecast would eventually slow over the Tennessee Valley — were expected to continue Friday across the Southeast and southern Appalachians.” ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates are here.

Mediaite: “Fox Weather’s Bob Van Dillen was reporting live on Fox & Friends about flooding in Atlanta from Hurricane Helene when he was interrupted by the screams of a woman trapped in her car. During the 7 a.m. hour, Van Dillen was filing a live report on the massive flooding in the area. Fox News viewers could clearly hear the urgent screams for help emerging from a car stuck on a flooded road in the background of the live shot. Van Dillen ... told Fox & Friends that 911 had been called and that the local Fire Department was on its way. But as he continued to file the report, the screams did not stop, so Van Dillen cut the live shot short.... Some 10 minutes later, Fox & Friends aired live footage of Van Dillen carrying the woman to safety, waking through chest-deep water while the flooding engulfed her car in the background[.]”

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The Ledes

Thursday, September 26, 2024

The New York Times:' live updates of Hurricane Helene developments today are here. “Hurricane Helene was barreling through the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday en route to Florida, where residents were bracing for extreme rain, destructive winds and deadly storm surge ahead of the storm’s expected landfall. The storm could intensify to a Category 4, if not higher, before making landfall late Thursday, and forecasters warned Helene’s anticipated large size could make its impacts felt across an extensive area. Areas as distant as Atlanta and the Appalachians are at risk for heavy rains.... Many forecast models show the storm making landfall late Thursday near Florida’s Big Bend Coast, a sparsely populated stretch....” ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post has forecasts for some cites in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina & Tennessee that are in or near the probable path of Helene. ~~~

     ~~~ This morning, an MSNBC weatherperson said Tallahassee (which is inland) would experience wind gusts of up to 120 m.p.h. and that the National Weather Service said expected 20-foot storm surges near the coast would be “unsurvivable.”

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

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

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

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

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

Click on photo to enlarge.

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

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

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

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

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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Apr292023

April 29, 2023

The White House Correspondents' Dinner is tonight.

Late Morning Update:

Marie: Here's an important Senate vote I missed. Thanks to Forrest M. for highlighting it. Forrest is wondering when Republicans will deem women and minorities to be more than 3/5ths persons. And Patrick, in a comment, is wondering why CNN didn't notice that it was Senate Republicans, not "the Senate" that blocked passage. ~~~

~~~ Al Weaver & Mychael Schnell of the Hill (April 27): "Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a measure that would have allowed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to be added to the Constitution. Senators voted 51 to 47 to invoke cloture on a motion to proceed, falling short of the 60 votes it it needed. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine) were the lone Republicans to vote with every Democrat. The ERA passed Congress in 1972, having been first proposed in 1923. Constitutional amendments, under U.S. law, must be ratified by three-quarters of all state legislatures, meaning 38 states. In 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA, but it did so after the 1982 deadline to ratify the amendment.... The Senate resolution would have removed the deadline so that the ERA could become the 28th Amendment. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Murkowski were the resolution's lead co-sponsors. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) argued throughout the week that the legislation was needed followin the Supreme Court's ruling last summer that overturned Roe v. Wade. 'This resolution is as necessary as it is timely. America can never hope to be a land of freedom and opportunity so long as half of its population is treated like second class citizens,' Schumer said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is infuriating. I don't think Chuck & Friends were serious about passage. Otherwise, they would have raised a stink twice a day every day about Republicans who would not support the most fundamental right of all Americans to be treated equally under the law. Moreover, they should have been educating Americans about what the ERA actually says. There's nothing vaguely radical about it -- unless you're one of those who think women, Black people and others should be chattel.

From Trump Honcho to Starbucks Barista Trainer. Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "About six months ago, Will Wilkerson was the executive vice president of operations for ... Donald Trump's media business, a co-founder of Trump's Truth Social website and a holder of stock options that might have one day made him a millionaire. Today, he is a certified barista trainer at a Starbucks inside a Harris Teeter grocery store, where he works 5:30 a.m. shifts..., making Frappuccinos for $16 an hour. Wilkerson, 38, has become one of the biggest threats to the Trump company's future: a federally protected whistleblower whose attorneys say has provided 150,000 emails, contracts and other internal documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission and investigators in Florida and New York.... Wilkerson last year publicly accused Trump Media and Technology Group of violating securities laws, telling The Washington Post he could not stay silent while the company's executives gave what he viewed as misleading information to investors, many of whom are small-time shareholders loyal to the Trump brand." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I see where Wilkerson also enjoys the non-exclusive distinction of being sued for defamation by Devin Nunes. (Last week, a federal judge tossed a Nunes (or Devin Nunes' cow) defamation suit against Esquire after the judge determined that the supposedly defamatory story by Ryan Lizza was "substantially, objectively true.")

~~~~~~~~~~

We Have Seen the Culprits, and They Are Us. Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "The Federal Reserve on Friday faulted itself for failing to 'take forceful enough action' to address growing risks at Silicon Valley Bank ahead of the lender's March 10 collapse, which raised turmoil across the global banking industry. A sweeping -- and highly critical -- review conducted by Michael S. Barr, the Fed's vice chair for supervision, identified lax oversight of the bank and said its collapse demonstrated 'weaknesses in regulation and supervision that must be addressed.'... The review ... painted a picture of a bank that grew rapidly in size and risk with limited intervention from supervisors who missed obvious problems and moved slowly to address the ones they did recognize. And it outlined a range of potential changes to bank oversight and regulation -- from stronger rules for midsize banks to possible tweaks to how deposits over the $250,000 federal insurance limit are treated -- that the Fed will consider in response to the disaster." ~~~

     ~~~ The Times' “key takeaways” report is here.

Antonio Olivo of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Army garrison in Central Virginia once known as Fort Lee was renamed Fort Gregg-Adams on Thursday, honoring two Black former officers who helped pave the way for more racial inclusivity in the military.... Pentagon officials said the post is one of nine Army installations being re-designated to remove names, symbols and other displays commemorating the Confederacy. The historic figures now honored in the fort's name are Lt. Gen. Arthur J. Gregg and Lt. Col. Charity Adams. Gregg, the first African American officer to receive such a high rank, began his service in the Army just after World War II.... During his 36-year career, he experienced the backlash of a desegregating military, which began shortly after he enlisted in 1946, Gregg has said. After becoming an officer in 1949, his first assignment was at Fort Lee in 1950. He retired in 1981 as the highest-ranking Black officer in the U.S. military. At age 94, he is now the only living person in modern Army history to have an installation named after him, the Army said. In 1942, Adams became the first Black officer in the newly created Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, also experiencing racism during a short military career that ended in 1946."

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: Passage of Kevin McCarthy's debt-ceiling bill "... has achieved one thing that cannot be undone: It has put 217 House Republicans on record in favor of demolishing popular government services enjoyed by their constituents.... Even ... after all the reversals and surrenders, the bill came within one vote of failing. The lawmaker who cast the final, deciding vote? Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.). How apt that this legislation, built on one broken promise after another, should be carried over the finish line by the world's most famous liar.... At the start of this manufactured debt-limit crisis, I worried that ideological extremism might drive the nation to a first-ever default. But an equal threat to America's full faith and credit may be incompetence. Those in the House majority don't know what they don't know."

MTG Explains Motherhood. Althea Legaspi of Rolling Stone, republished by Yahoo! News: "Mother's Day is just around the corner, and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) would like stepmoms to know that, no, that doesn't count as motherhood. In a hearing for the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Select Coronavirus Crisis on school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Georgia congresswoman attacked the American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten for not being 'a biological mother.' 'Are you a mother?' Greene asked. Weingarten responded that she is a 'mother by marriage.' Weingarten is married to Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, and a stepmother to Kleinbaum’s children from her previous marriage. 'I see,' Greene responded. She's 'not a medical doctor, not a biological mother, and really not a teacher either,' Greene went on to say. 'People like you need to admit that you're just a political activist, not a teacher, not a mother, and not a medical doctor,' Greene added." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     I will never leave that woman. I will always take care of her. -- Kevin McCarthy, speaking of MTG in January 2023

     ~~~ Marie: I wonder what Miss Margie would decree about women who give birth through C-sections. Are they "real mothers"? Shakespeare, after all, has an Apparition allude to Macduff as "not of woman born," because Macduff was "untimely ripped" from the womb; i.e., by C-section. I think Miss Margie needs to enter into the Congressional Record a full definition of "mother" and spare us so much uncertainty.

Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "Led by the special counsel Jack Smith, prosecutors are trying to determine whether [Donald] Trump and his aides violated federal wire fraud statutes as they raised as much as $250 million through a political action committee by saying they needed the money to fight to reverse election fraud even though they had been told repeatedly that there was no evidence to back up those fraud claims. The prosecutors are looking at the inner workings of the committee, Save America PAC, and at the Trump campaign's efforts to prove its baseless case that Mr. Trump had been cheated out of victory.... Prosecutors have been looking at the nexus between research the Trump campaign commissioned almost immediately after the election to try to prove widespread fraud, public statements that he and his allies made at the time, the fund-raising efforts and the establishment of Save America.... The possibility that the fund-raising efforts might have been criminally fraudulent was first raised last year by the House select committee investigating Mr. Trump's efforts to retain power." ~~~

~~~ Trump Embraces Woman Who Wants Mike Pence, MOCs Executed. Ryan Reilly & Olympia Sonnier of NBC News: "... Donald Trump embraced a Jan. 6 defendant at a [Manchester, N.H.] diner during a campaign stop Thursday night, calling the woman, who served prison time for her actions during the Capitol attack and wants former Vice President Mike Pence executed for treason, 'terrific.'... Micki Larson-Olson ... was convicted last year of unlawful entry on Capitol grounds.... On Jan. 6, Larson-Olson climbed the scaffolding set up for Joe Biden's inauguration and held on when police tried to remove her; she later bragged on social media and in an interview that it took six officers to remove her.... Larson-Olson said she believes that the members of Congress who voted to certify Biden's presidential election should be executed.... Larson-Olson added that she 'would like a front seat of Mike Pence being executed' and that he should be the 'No. 1' person on her list of those who committed treason....

"Larson-Olson was introduced to Trump as a 'Jan. 6er,' and he signed the backpack that she said she was carrying with her that day and waived [waved!] her past security so he could embrace her. 'Listen, you just hang in there,' Trump said, calling her a 'terrific woman' and kissing her on the cheek. Trump said it was 'so bad' what has been done to Jan. 6 'patriots.'... The meeting comes as Trump has said he may pardon those charged in the Capitol attack and just a month after he opened a campaign rally with a song performed by the 'J6 choir' made up of Jan. 6 defendants who are incarcerated awaiting trial." A related WashPo story was linked earlier today, but it lacked the details of Larson-Olson's views & actions. I've skipped some stuff the reporters cover, so it's worth your reading their story. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Andrew Weissmann noted on MSNBC last night that, after January 6, Trump had a choice: he could condemn the insurrection or he could embrace it. Obviously, Trump chose the latter, and as Weissmann remarked, Jack Smith is making a list of incidents like the diner hug to bolster the case against Trump. So why, years out, would Trump keep implicating himself? I think it's the P.T. Barnum angle. Trump believes he can beat the raps, just as he has usually done in the past. He thinks lawsuits are merely a cost of doing business, and in most Trump cons, what Trump rakes in is greater than the costs they engender. Those money-raising schemes Smith is exploring are the engines that drive the big con; they're not just gigantic gift cards to Trump; they're also funding the defense of the big con.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., the author of the majority opinion that overruled Roe v. Wade last June, told The Wall Street Journal's opinion pages that he had 'a pretty good idea who is responsible' for leaking a draft of his opinion to Politico. Justice Alito added that he did not have 'the level of proof that is needed to name somebody.' That echoed language in the Supreme Court's report on its investigation of the leak, which said that 'investigators have been unable to determine at this time, using a preponderance of the evidence standard, the identity of the person(s) who disclosed the draft majority opinion.'... Justice Alito rejected the theory that the Politico leak had come from the right side of the court.... 'Look,' Justice Alito said in the new interview, 'this made us targets of assassination. Would I do that to myself? Would the five of us have done that to ourselves? It's quite implausible.'...

"He added that he was disappointed that lawyers had not come to the defense of the court, which has faced mounting scrutiny for what critics say are serious ethical lapses. 'This type of concerted attack on the court and on individual justices' is, he said, 'new during my lifetime.' He added: 'We are being hammered daily, and I think quite unfairly in a lot of instances. And nobody, practically nobody, is defending us. The idea has always been that judges are not supposed to respond to criticisms, but if the courts are being unfairly attacked, the organized bar will come to their defense.' Instead, Justice Alito said, 'if anything, they've participated to some degree in these attacks.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Self-serving prick. First, Alito uses innuendo to slander & implicate some unknown liberal (so suspect all liberals of being criminals!), then he has the temerity to whine that lawyers are not sticking up for the corrupt members of the court. Besides being a preposterous complaint, it comes across as a threat, IMO. You won't help us out? Watch us rule against your clients. Liptak, BTW, implies that Alito -- if not the leaker of the Dobbs decision -- is a leaker.

I Will Not Speak, and You Cannot Make Me. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "... the framers trusted Congress -- the representative branch -- with far more authority than it did the president or the Supreme Court.... When Congress calls, the other branches are supposed to answer -- not as a courtesy, but as an affirmation of the rules of the American constitutional order.... Last week, Congress called the chief justice.... He said, in a word, no. 'I must respectfully decline your invitation,' Roberts wrote. 'Testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee by the chief justice of the United States is exceedingly rare as one might expect in light of separation of powers concerns and the importance of preserving judicial independence.'... It is with real chutzpah ... that Roberts has claimed judicial independence in order to circumvent an investigation into judicial independence.... Roberts is essentially using this letter to make plain to Congress the reality of the situation: I will not speak, and you cannot make me. And he's right, not because Congress doesn't have the power, but because it doesn't have the votes." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It strikes me that the vast majority of the GOP Congressional caucus are sadomasochists. Even as they relentlessly bully those who are not able to stand up to them, they give up almost all of their power to the rulers of the other branches of government, so long as the MOCs can convince themselves that those rulers really are on their side. So the kaiser of the executive can send a mob to kill MOCs & within days, the masochists are again pledging allegiance to the Great One. And the caesar of the judiciary can diminish senators with a threatening letter, and the Senate masochists go into hiding & cede their legal power. ~~~

~~~ AND No, Caesar's Wife Is Not Above Reproach. Julia Conley of Common Dreams: "A whistleblower from the legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa says Jane Sullivan Roberts, the wife of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, earned $10.3 million in commissions over seven years from her job as a headhunter at the company, where she placed attorneys with law firms -- including at least one that argued a case before the Supreme Court after the placement was made. Sullivan Roberts earned the money between 2007 and 2014, having taken a job with the company two years after her husband was confirmed to the Supreme Court, according to a report out Friday from Business Insider. The whistleblower, Kendal Price, said in a sworn affidavit in December that he believed 'at least some of [Roberts'] remarkable success as a recruiter has come because of her spouse's position.' Price's complaint was reported on earlier this year by Politico and The New York Times, and Insider published new documents regarding the case."

Jane Coaston of the New York Times: "There's a direct line from ['The Jerry Springer Show'] -- which peaked in 1998 as the most-watched daytime television program in America, entertaining and horrifying nearly seven million Americans every single day -- to the semi-staged mayhem of reality TV, which exploded following ]Big Brother' and 'Survivor' in 2000 and continues today with shows like 'Real Housewives.'... [Springer] was showing Americans [not as they were but] as they quickly learned to portray themselves to be, to an eager audience that wanted to see people at their most base.... But the social media era has smashed that barrier between performative awfulness and its audience.... We're no longer just watching a version of 'The Jerry Springer Show.' We're trapped inside one."

Presidential Race 2024. Justice McDaniel of the Washington Post: "Florida lawmakers on Friday cleared the path for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to run for president without resigning as governor, approving the measure as part of a broader elections bill. The bill, which passed on a party-line vote in the Republican-controlled legislature, stipulates that a rule requiring political candidates already holding office to resign does not apply to anyone running for president or vice president."

Beyond the Beltway

Emmanuel Felton & Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff of the Washington Post: "Black politicians and activists [in states across the South & Midwest] say that Republican lawmakers have used racial gerrymandering and voter suppression to secure those majorities and are using their political might to further consolidate power among mostly White Republicans. This also has meant there has been little movement on issues that matter most to members of the Black community and other groups, issues including gun control, low wages and police violence, said Todd Shaw, a University of South Carolina political science professor.... 'The tactic of expulsion, like excessive registration requirements, purging voter rolls and other tactics we're seeing today, echo the kind of disenfranchisement that we saw during Reconstruction and its aftermath,' said Ariela Gross, a historian at the University of Southern California...."

Arizona. Yvonne Sanchez of the Washington Post: "... the case of the Arizona legislator [Sen. Liz Harris] who helped perpetuate the groundless belief that the Sinaloa drug cartel was orchestrating election fraud ended this month with an unusual twist: She was expelled from office by her colleagues, Republicans included. The story of how Republicans decided to oust Harris -- marking only the fourth time in history that an Arizona state House member has been expelled -- illuminates what it takes for GOP lawmakers to police their own when it comes to election-related misinformation.... [Republicans said] she was done in both by her dishonesty with colleagues about whether she knew in advance the substance of her witness's [conspiracy-drenched] testimony as well as her willingness to help spread conspiracy theories targeting her party's own leaders.... Democrats -- who also supported Harris's expulsion -- said they believed another factor was at play in the GOP. 'If Liz Harris had only gone after Democrats and not Republicans, particularly the House speaker, perhaps they would not have begged us to proceed with the expulsion,' said House Minority Leader Andrés Cano (D)."

Colorado. Adeel Hassan of the New York Times: "Gov. Jared Polis signed three bills into law on Friday that tighten restrictions on gun purchases and possession, as well as a fourth that makes it easier for victims of gun violence to sue firearm companies. The new laws will raise the age to buy any firearm to 21 from 18, and make it illegal to sell any gun to someone younger than 21; mandate a three-day waiting period between buying and receiving a gun; and expand the state's red flag law.... The fourth law makes it easier to sue gun manufacturers by eliminating the requirement that plaintiffs automatically pay the legal fees of gun-industry defendants when cases are dismissed. The law also will allow manufacturers to be sued under the Colorado Consumer Protection Act, which applies to all other businesses in the state."

Montana. Jim Robbins & Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: "The Republican governor of Montana, Greg Gianforte, signed a bill into law on Friday to restrict transition care for transgender minors, joining about a dozen states that have adopted similar laws since the beginning of the year. The bill, which prohibits transitional hormone treatments and surgeries for transgender people under 18, led to a standoff this month between House leadership and Representative Zooey Zephyr, one of the Legislature's only transgender lawmakers."

** North Carolina. Back to GOP Gerrymandering! Michael Wines of the New York Times: "Barely a year after Democratic justices on the North Carolina Supreme Court said new maps of the state's legislative and congressional districts were partisan gerrymanders that violated the State Constitution, a newly elected Republican majority on the court reversed course on Friday and said the court had no authority to overturn those maps. The practical effect is to enable the Republican-controlled State Legislature to scrap the court-ordered State Senate and congressional district boundaries that were used in elections last November, and draw new maps skewed in their favor for elections in 2024. Overturning such a recent ruling by the court was a highly unusual move, particularly on a pivotal constitutional issue in which none of the facts had changed." Politico's story is here. Voters in North Carolina are about evenly divided between Republicans & Democrats, but the gerrymandered districts that the state legislature will likely return to likely would give Republicans 10 of the 14 U.S. House seats. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's notable that when Democrats controlled the court, a court-appointed special master divided the districts fairly, and North Carolina sent seven Congressmembers from each party to Washington, D.C. That is, Democrats don't take advantage; they play fair.

Oregon. Mike Baker of the New York Times: Craig Coyner, once the mayor of Bend, Oregon, ended up in a homeless shelter.

Way Beyond

Sudan. Declan Walsh, et al., of the New York Times: "A convoy of buses carrying about 300 Americans left the war-torn capital of Sudan on Friday, starting a 525-mile journey to the Red Sea that was the United States' first organized effort to evacuate its private citizens from the country. The convoy was being tracked by armed American drones that hovered high overhead, watching for threats. The United Nations and many nations have also evacuated their citizens overland, after receiving security assurances from the warring sides. It renewed questions about why the United States had taken so long to organize a civilian evacuation from Sudan, home to an estimated 16,000 American citizens, many of them dual nationals, when Western and Persian Gulf allies have moved faster and evacuated far more people."

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "A drone attack hit a fuel depot in Crimea on Saturday, sparking a fire and damaging four tanks, authorities in the Russian-occupied peninsula said. The fire came a day after Russian strikes killed at least 25 people in Ukraine, including children, highlighting the unrelenting toll on civilians of the war, now in its second year. In Uman, a city in central Ukraine far from the front lines, at least 23 people were killed in an attack that battered apartment buildings, Ukrainian officials said early Saturday.... South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said the world must ensure the invasion of Ukraine cannot succeed, in a Friday speech at Harvard University." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Saturday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

News Lede

Friday Night in Guns America. Washington Post: "A man using an AR-15-style weapon shot and killed five people Friday, including an 8-year-old -- an angry response to the neighbors' request that he stop shooting in his yard while their baby was trying to sleep, Texas authorities said Saturday. The gunman then fled, prompting an ongoing manhunt. Authorities charged Francisco Oropeza, 38, with five counts of murder and were searching for him Saturday morning, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers told The Washington Post. Ten people were in the home during the shooting. Three women, a man and an 8-year-old boy were killed, Capers said. Five others survived, including three children.... All five victims were shot in the head, he said. Two of the women who were killed were found lying on top of the surviving young children in a bedroom, 'trying to protect them,' Capers told The Post by phone from the scene.... The killings add to a growing list of recent shootings carried out by armed Americans who have shot people in response to what should have been normal, everyday interactions."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (7)

This may have been posted and I missed it. Been outside a lot lately,
weeding, transplanting, seeding lawn, etc.
Anyway: https://news.yahoo,.com/senate-gop-blocks-equal-rights-
173924048.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=0_01
Looks like women and other minorities are still 3/5ths of a person,
according to republicans.
But things will get much better when Biden is re-elected and Dems
control Congress.

April 29, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Alito - "this made us targets of assassination. Would I do that to myself? Would the five of us have done that to ourselves? It’s quite implausible"

That argument only works if they thought there was a real possibility of themselves being killed. All the Supremes have security. I'm sure all the conservatives have plenty of guns. They are also Republicans which means they simultaneously think they are always under threat and invincible. Sam whines about potential threats to himself while making every pregnancy a potential death sentence for those affected by his ruling. Not that he cares what the Real consequences of their ruling are.

Also Biden and Harris should add their names to the letter calling for Roberts to answer a few questions to the public's democratically elected representatives in the Senate. Part of that checks and balances the founding fathers talked about way back when. Then the Democrats should issue a subpoena and then send the sergeant at arms to drag his worthless ass over to Congress for a long talking to.

April 29, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

If you check out the Google pages of items that Forrest's link takes you to, you'll see most are some version of "Republicans Block ERA ..."

Howsomever -- the item from CNN says

" — The Senate on Thursday failed to advance a resolution to remove the deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, a proposed amendment to the Constitution."

"The Senate", a legislature containing members from the two major parties plus a few other affiliations, blocked it. Sounds vox pop.

Even though it was mostly a party line vote (Murkowski and Collins, members of the homogametic persuasion (i.e., XXers), broke ranks), CNN seeks unity and avoids the divisiveness of laying the cause at the feet of one party. Solons all.

Maybe in another 50 years or so, the GOP will let the law acknowledge women as full and equal persons under the law?

If "the Senate" will allow them.

April 29, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Crank up the old "T & P" machine. We'uns got us another mass shooting, in Texas again. Five killed, ages 8 to 40, with others wounded. Victims were all from Honduras with suspected shooter a Mexican national.

April 29, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

@Bobby Lee: Sorry, they won't be sending any Thoughts and Prayers.
That only applies when some straight, white, mostly men, get shot.
These victims were some of those 3/5ths like the rest of us minorities,
female, liberal, black, espanol, LGBTQ, etc.

Hey, we should all get together and vote like there's no tomorrow.

April 29, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Chuck Schumer is a disaster. One would think someone with years of experience in the Senate, a guy who is the majority leader, would know how to play hardball and make things happen. Schumer can barely manage badminton.

When the traitors ran the Senate they had Attila the Hun as their leader. We’ve got Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.

Whenever he tries to come off as tough he’s like one of the sons in The Godfather. Fredo, not Michael.

April 29, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Agree, AK, with your dismissal of Schumer. I ran into him at a block event in Brooklyn once, when my son lived there. But I declined to go meet him. Haven't changed my tune. Was it Marie talking about the tone being taken by the media? ...like the opposition to the stupid GQP budget thingie, is OUR problem... No, it is not Biden's problem to fix. It is their problem, as usual. Maybe as a fundraiser, they can put Perjury (not a fan of adoption or anything else, but with great noise and stink, "pro life" but huh?) in a dunk tank, make a lot of money and...what? You mean we already spent the money we need to raise the limit for? Yep, 'tis true, and apparently the warped lizard brains don't understand that. Nothing to do with budgets or cuts or not...gaaach. Not our problem.

April 29, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne
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