The Ledes

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Washington Post: “Rescue teams raced to submerged homes, scoured collapsed buildings and steered thousands from overflowing dams as Helene carved a destructive path Friday, knocking out power and flooding a vast arc of communities across the southeastern United States. At least 40 people were confirmed killed in five states since the storm made landfall late Thursday as a Category 4 behemoth, unleashing record-breaking storm surge and tree-snapping gusts. 4 million homes and businesses have lost electricity across Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, prompting concerns that outages could drag on for weeks. Mudslides closed highways. Water swept over roofs and snapped phone lines. Houses vanished from their foundations. Tornadoes added to the chaos. The mayor of hard-hit Canton, N.C., called the scene 'apocalyptic.'” An AP report is here.

The Wires
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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 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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Thursday
Mar232023

March 23, 2023

Marie: Reposted here from Reality Chex Annex:

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Colby Hall of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump ramped up his inciteful rhetoric in a social media post that pushed back on calls for peaceful protest amid reports of his impending arrest.... Trump called for [Alvin] Bragg to drop the case in an ALL CAPS rant posted Thursday morning[.]... Trump's rejection of those calling for calm -- 'THEY TELL US TO BE PEACEFUL!' -- comes as political tensions remain high in the country.... It does not take a genius to see that Trump is suggesting that a violent approach to protest -- like the one that struck the Capitol on Jan. 6 -- is still very much on the table. In classic Trump fashion, however, he is also not saying that." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump made his remarks in two all-caps posts, which Hall republishes here. I am not reproducing them, but both posts are worth reading. He calls Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg "a Soros backed animal" and says the justice system Bragg represents 'is the Gestapo."

Zach Montague of the New York Times: " A Pennsylvania woman who steered a group of rioters toward Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office on Jan. 6, 2021, and directed others inside the Capitol to steal a laptop computer was sentenced in Federal District Court in Washington on Thursday to three years in prison. The woman, Riley June Williams, 24, was convicted in November of several charges including felony civil disorder and impeding officers trying to defend the Capitol Rotunda. The jury deadlocked on whether she had played a role in the theft of the computer, which Ms. Pelosi used for Zoom calls during the coronavirus pandemic, and whether her actions amounted to obstruction of Congress's certification of the 2020 electoral vote." The NBC News report is here.

Florida. Sarah Boboltz of the Huffington Post: "The principal of Florida's Tallahassee Classical School is out of a job after parents complained that their sixth-grade children were shown Michelangelo's 16th century 'David' sculpture, with one parent calling it 'pornographic,' the Tallahassee Democrat first reported. The now-former principal, Hope Carrasquilla, told HuffPost the situation was also 'a little more complicated than that,' noting that the usual protocol is to send parents a letter before students are shown such classical artwork. Due to 'a series of miscommunications,' the letter did not go out to the sixth-grade parents, and some complained, Carrasquilla said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Gosh, I sure hope none of those parents ever takes their impressionable children on an educational tour of Italy, because there are naked statues everywhere. Standing in Florence's main square -- the Piazza della Signoria -- right in front of the town hall -- the Palazzo Vecchio -- is a copy of the David, where the original once stood. Both are huge, BTW, but you do have to go into a museum to see the original.

Michigan. CBS/AP: "The parents of a teenager who killed four students at a Michigan high school can face trial for involuntary manslaughter, the state appeals court said Thursday in a groundbreaking case of criminal responsibility for the acts of a child. The murders would not have happened if the parents hadn't purchased a gun for Ethan Crumbley or if they had taken him home from Oxford High School on the day of the shooting, when staff became alarmed about his extreme drawings, the appeals court said."

New York Times: "Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are questioning Shou Chew, the C.E.O. of the viral video app. Their main concerns are data privacy and its Chinese ownership." This is a liveblog of the hearing.

From an NBC News liveblog: "The Manhattan grand jury that has been investigating the hush money case involving [Donald] Trump is not expected to consider it today, NBC News has confirmed. The grand jury was set to return to court in lower Manhattan on Thursday, but it is expected to meet about a different case, according to three sources familiar with the matter.... Members of the jury have been meeting Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told them to stay home yesterday." ~~~

     ~~~ Update from the liveblog: "The Manhattan District Attorney's Office sent a lengthy letter today to three House GOP committee chairmen arguing that they are overstepping their bounds in their quest to obtain information related to the hush money case involving [Donald] Trump. General counsel Leslie B. Dubeck, writing on behalf of [DA Alvin] Bragg, said in the letter that the Republican chairmen are embarking on an unprecedented inquiry 'into pending local prosecution.... [Your] letter seeks non-public information about a pending criminal investigation, which is confidential under state law,' Dubeck wrote, adding that 'it is clear that Congress cannot have any legitimate legislative task relating to the oversight of local prosecutors enforcing state law.'"

Arizona. Jacques Billeaud of the AP: "The Arizona Supreme Court has declined to hear most of Republican Kari Lake's appeal in a challenge of her defeat in the governor's race but revived a claim that was dismissed by a trial court. In an order Wednesday, the state&'s highest court said a lower court erroneously dismissed Lake's claim challenging the application of signature verification procedures on early ballots in Maricopa County. The court sent the claim back to a trial court to consider."

~~~~~~~~~~

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, moving forward with its fight against high inflation after taking dramatic steps to contain a banking crisis." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times story, by Jeanna Smialek, is here. ~~~

~~~ Alan Rappeport, et al., of the New York Times: "Two of the nation's top economic policymakers on Wednesday said they were focused on determining how the failure of Silicon Valley Bank had happened and suggested changes to federal regulation and oversight might be needed to prevent future runs on American banks. The discussion of stricter oversight by Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, and Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen came as lawmakers, the financial industry and investors are working to figure out why Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed and as policymakers try to ensure other firms don't suffer the same fate. At a news conference following the Fed's announcement that it would raise interest rates by a quarter percentage point, Mr. Powell said he was focused on the question of what had gone wrong at Silicon Valley Bank, which was overseen by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.... Ms. Yellen echoed his comments at a Senate hearing on Wednesday afternoon...."

"Ready for His Perp Walk," Ctd.

Katelyn Polantz & Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "... Donald Trump's defense attorney Evan Corcoran is scheduled to testify Friday before the grand jury investigating classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago after a new order from a federal appeals court, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. The US DC Circuit Court of Appeals said that Corcoran must provide additional testimony and turn over documents about the former president as part of the criminal investigation into possible mishandling of classified documents. The source said Trump's side is unlikely to appeal to the Supreme Court." ~~~

     ~~~ Katherine Faulders & Alexander Mallin of ABC News: "D.C. district judge Beryl Howell [had] ruled [last Friday] that prosecutors in special counsel Jack Smith's office had made a 'prima facie showing that the former president had committed criminal violations,' according to sources who described her Friday order, and that attorney-client privileges invoked by two of his lawyers, [Evan] Corcoran and Jennifer Little, could therefore be pierced. Sources ... further described to ABC New the six topics that Corcoran was ordered by Judge Howell to testify about, over which he had previously sought to assert attorney-client privilege. The topics indicate that Smith has zeroed in on [Donald] Trump's actions surrounding his response to a May 11 DOJ subpoena that sought all remaining classified documents in his possession -- which investigators have described as key to Trump's alleged 'scheme' to obstruct the investigation...."

Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime: "After forcing Department of Justice attorneys to burn the midnight oil, the D.C. Circuit quickly affirmed that ... Donald Trump's legal team must turn over 'documents' to special counsel Jack Smith. Details of the ruling are sparse, as it was filed pursuant to an appeal of a sealed case. The public portion makes clear, however, that it will fuel the special counsel's ongoing investigation into the former president's possession of highly classified documents, which sparked last year's FBI search at Mar-a-Lago." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

      ~~~ Update: The Washington Post's story by Josh Dawsey & others, is here: "The panel of three judges issued a brief order Wednesday afternoon directing the parties 'to comply with the district court's March 17, 2023, order to produce documents' and ending an emergency hold on a ruling last week by a lower-court judge." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "The Manhattan grand jury that has been hearing evidence about Donald J. Trump's involvement with a hush-money payment to a porn star will not meet on Wednesday, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, suggesting that any indictment of the former president would come Thursday at the earliest."

Chris Stokel-Walker of BuzzFeed News: "Many are envisioning -- some gleefully -- what a Trump arrest would look like. Among them is Eliot Higgins, best known as the founder of open-source investigative journalism website Bellingcat. This week, Higgins used the AI image generator Midjourney to depict Trump's arrest. He shared 50 images on Twitter, and they quickly went viral. As a result, he said on Wednesday, Midjourney appeared to have banned him from the service." To see Higgins' images, many of which are fairly convincing, click on the second link above (at "shared 50 images on Twitter").

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. DeSantis Plans to Expand "Don't Say Gay." Anthony Isaguierre of the AP: " Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis′ administration is moving to forbid classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in all grades, expanding the controversial law critics call 'Don't Say Gay' as the Republican governor continues to focus on cultural issues ahead of his expected presidential run. The proposal, which would not require legislative approval, is scheduled for a vote next month before the state Board of Education and has been put forward by the state Education Department, both of which are led by appointees of the governor.... The initial law that DeSantis championed last spring bans those lessons in kindergarten through the third grade." MB: Once you get a horrible idea, don't drop it. Expand it.

Mississippi. Sarah Fowler of the New York Times: "As residents [of Jackson, Mississippi,] had to boil their tap water and businesses closed because their faucets were dry, [a water-main] break at [a country club golf course] squandered an estimated five million gallons of drinking water a day in a city that had none to spare. It is enough water to serve the daily needs of 50,000 people, or a third of the city residents who rely on the beleaguered water utility.... Newly appointed water officials say the city discovered the broken mainline pipe in 2016 and left it to gush.... [Another recently-discovered leak] is spewing water 30 feet in the air like a geyser and losing the city as much as one million gallons a day.... In Jackson, the city's problems with leaks are so extensive, its systems so antiquated, its chronic staffing problems so overwhelming, that many leaks, seemingly of any size, have gone undetected or unaddressed.... Outside the country club on Tuesday afternoon, construction crews were preparing to begin repairs, which are expected to take a couple of weeks."

Virginia. Laura Vozzella, et al., of the Washington Post: "Newly released surveillance video shows a group of law enforcement officers in Virginia enter Irvo Otieno's cell in the Henrico County Jail, and at least one appears to throw several punches in an encounter just hours before Otieno’s death at a mental hospital. Otieno, a 28-year-old Black man, died at Central State Hospital as sheriff's deputies from Henrico County and hospital staff piled on him for approximately 11 minutes on March 6.... Mark Krudys, a lawyer for the family, has said that video of the jail shows Henrico County sheriff's deputies beating and pepper-spraying Otieno."

Wyoming. Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "Abortion will remain legal in Wyoming -- at least temporarily -- after a judge on Wednesday ordered that a newly enacted ban be blocked until further court proceedings in a lawsuit challenging it. After a three-hour hearing, Judge Melissa Owens of Teton County District Court granted a temporary restraining order, pausing a law that took effect Sunday. The law would make providing almost all abortions a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. The lawsuit ... also challenges another law, scheduled to take effect on July 1, that would make Wyoming the first state to explicitly ban the use of pills for abortion. Now, the medication abortion ban and the overall ban will be considered at a hearing where the plaintiffs will seek an injunction to suspend both laws until the full lawsuit can be heard."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "European Union leaders are meeting in Brussels for a two-day summit, which will include continued E.U. support for Ukraine, measures to increase 'collective pressure' on Russia, and decisions on sending more ammunition to Kyiv. The United Nations' Secretary-General, António Guterres, will also attend.... Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu handed out medals to the two fighter pilots responsible for dumping fuel and then hitting the propeller of a U.S. surveillance drone over the Black Sea, according to the Russian state news agency, Tass.... Lawmakers in Sweden formally voted to allow the country to join NATO.... Russia and Belarus have been barred from the ice hockey world championships, the international federation announced.... The International Olympic Committee cannot be a referee in global political disputes, the president of its ruling body Thomas Bach said, after backlash for refusing to bar Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Games...." ~~~

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

Marc Santora, et al., of the New York Times: "Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, made a rare and defiant trip near the front line on Wednesday, personally thanking soldiers who have been fighting in the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, which has become a potent symbol of Ukrainian resistance. The trip to the Bakhmut area came on a day when air and seaborne drones attacked the Russian-occupied peninsula of Crimea and a Russian missile ripped into a nine-story apartment complex in Zaporizhzhia, in the south, killing at least one person and injuring more than 30 others. At least seven other people were killed, including an ambulance driver, and nine others wounded when a drone strike hit a college in Rzhyshchiv, about 50 miles southeast of the capital, Kyiv, military officials said on Wednesday."

Ron the Uncertain. Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times: "Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida this week clarified his description of the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a 'territorial dispute' and said that Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, was a 'war criminal' who should be 'held accountable.' Mr. DeSantis, a Republican who is expected to announce a presidential campaign in the coming months, made his latest comments in an interview with the British broadcaster Piers Morgan, who shared them with The New York Post and Fox News, both owned by Rupert Murdoch." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: No, DeSantolini did not "clarify" his position. Instead, he tried one tack and when that bombed, he tried another. Like most tin-pot dictatorial types, Ron has no principles, so he just test-runs crap and has no qualms about contradicting himself. He is trying to define himself as a "winner," as he said elsewhere in his interview with Morgan, and "winning" means "whatever works." ~~~

     ~~~ David Kihara of Politico: "... during an interview with Morgan set to air this week, DeSantis called Putin ... 'a gas station with a bunch of nuclear weapons,' repeating a similar line he had used in early March.... Both lines echoed a 2014 quip from then-Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in which he said, 'Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country.'" MB: What DeSantis lacks in gravitas, he makes up for in banality.

U.K. Rob Picheta & Luke McGee of CNN: "Boris Johnson admitted he misled lawmakers but claimed he did so unintentionally, as the former British prime minister fought to save his political career at a tense and combative hearing into the 'Partygate' scandal that contributed to the collapse of his government. Johnson, flanked by lawyers in a packed committee room, sparred with lawmakers during a heated three-hour grilling at the hands of members of parliament (MPs) on the Privileges Committee on Tuesday afternoon. He was rebuffed by members of the panel, whose televised interrogation of Johnson is the major spectacle of a months-long investigation...."

The following link belongs in "Infotainment," but I don't have an Infotainment section today, so here ya go:

Gina Kolata of the New York Times: "By analyzing seven samples of hair said to have come from Ludwig van Beethoven, researchers debunked myths about the revered composer while raising new questions about his life and death."

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