The Ledes

Thursday, September 19, 2024

New York Times: “A body believed to be of the suspect in a Kentucky highway shooting that left five people seriously injured this month was found on Wednesday, the authorities said, ending a manhunt that stretched into a second week and set the local community on edge. The Kentucky State Police commissioner, Phillip Burnett Jr., said in a Wednesday night news conference that at approximately 3:30 p.m., two troopers and two civilians found an unidentified body in the brush behind the highway exit where the shooting occurred.... The police have identified the suspect of the shooting as Joseph A. Couch, 32. They said that on Sept. 7, Mr. Couch perched on a cliff overlooking Interstate 75 about eight miles north of London, Ky., and opened fire. One of the wounded was shot in the face, and another was shot in the chest. A dozen vehicles were riddled with gunfire.”

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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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The Commentariat -- August 2, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

** Coral Davenport & Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "In the strongest action ever taken in the United States to combat climate change, President Obama will unveil on Monday a set of environmental regulations devised to sharply cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from the nation's power plants and ultimately transform America's electricity industry. The rules are the final, tougher versions of proposed regulations that the Environmental Protection Agency announced in 2012 and 2014. If they withstand the expected legal challenges, the regulations will set in motion sweeping policy changes that could shut down hundreds of coal-fired power plants, freeze construction of new coal plants and create a boom in the production of wind and solar power and other renewable energy sources." ...

... Steve Mufson of the Washington Post: Mitch McConnell "has urged states to rebel against the EPA plan, just as he encouraged states to withhold their cooperation with the Affordable Care Act. In the end, ironically, the states trying to assert their opposition will sacrifice the flexibility they have under the Clean Power Plan. The EPA is setting targets, but states can come up with their own strategies. If the states refuse, only then will federal regulators impose a plan of their own. In the end, the Republican resistance to the EPA's Clean Power Plan should find little basis in law. Whatever the quality of the EPA's plan may be, it has a legal responsibility to press ahead."

... Thanks to Victoria D. (oops! did it again) for the reminder. Sadly, Republicans missed the '60s. ...

** William Saletan of Slate covered Congressional hearings about the Iran nuclear deal: "In challenging Kerry and Moniz, Republican senators and representatives offered no serious alternative. They misrepresented testimony, dismissed contrary evidence, and substituted vitriol for analysis. They seemed baffled by the idea of having to work and negotiate with other countries.... The GOP ... seems utterly unprepared to govern." If you don't have time to read the whole article, check out Item 4, an exchange between Ted Cruz & Secretary Moniz. The video below covers Cruz's questioning. Here's his MO: he takes remarks completely out of context or just makes up something, then accuses the witnesses of being ignorant or craven based on his false assertions. On his final attempt to use this pointless technique, John McCain, who chaired the hearing, cut him off:

... ** Heather Richardson, in Salon, goes a long way toward explaining how we got from issues-oriented, reality-conscious senators to Ted Cruz, et al.: "Fox News will air the first Republican presidential debates this week, choosing 10 out of 17 current candidates according to unspecified polls and permitting each candidate just one minute to answer questions. Donald Trump will hold center stage. This scenario, where a TV network calls the shots in a presidential debate and a consummate brand maker is the leading candidate, is the culmination of Movement Conservatism. Politics is no longer about policy or nuance, or even reality. It is simply a storyline designed to appeal to voters' emotions." ...

... CW: I have been debating with myself about whether or not to watch the Fox "News" "debate" or rely on media reports & analysis. What's your plan?

Nicholas Kristof: "... Conservative Republicans, indignant about abortion, are trying to destroy a government program that helps prevent 345,000 abortions a year. Inevitably in politics there are good ideas and bad ideas. But occasionally there are also moronic ideas -- such as the House Republican proposal to kill America's main family planning program, Title X.... Title X isn't directly related to the furor over video footage showing Planned Parenthood staff members speaking cavalierly about fetal tissues; the Republican effort to eliminate Title X goes back much earlier."

Sudhim Thanawala of the AP: "A federal judge in San Francisco on Friday blocked the release of any recordings made at meetings of an abortion providers' association by the anti-abortion group the Center for Medical Progress. Earlier in the week, a Los Angeles County judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the center from releasing any video of leaders of StemExpress, a California company that provides fetal tissue to researchers.... Judge William Orrick ... said absent a temporary restraining order, the federation would likely suffer irreparable injury 'in the form of harassment, intimidation, violence, invasion of privacy, and injury to reputation.' John Nockleby, a professor at Loyola Law School, said California privacy law is stricter than some other states. To record a confidential communication in California, all parties participating in it must agree to the recording."

New York Times Editors: "A recent leak of documents from the Fed shows that its staff economists have forecast more of the same modest growth and inflation for years to come. Nonetheless, the Fed seems determined to raise interest rates before the end of this year.... If it really intends to move ahead soon with interest-rate increases, it needs to explain how an economy in which wages are stagnating is as good as it gets."

Steve Benen: Rather than claim a religious exemption from directly providing contraceptive coverage under the ACA, Wheaton College of Illinois decided to stop providing any health insurance for students. They feel just terrible about it. But Jesus. CW: Yo, Wheaton, Jesus provided healthcare coverage under his trademark Miracle Plan for Believers. The plan also covered believers' family members & gay lovers (see the stories of the Syrophoenician woman & the centurion).

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) in a Huffington Post post: "The Times' Executive Editor has suggested that its reporters could not have done anything differently [in erroneously reporting requests for a "criminal investigation" of Hillary Clinton] because they relied on anonymous senior government officials, which the paper's Public Editor later explained included tips from 'Capitol Hill.' I disagree. The Times could have insisted on seeing the documents they were describing. Or, if the Times spoke with Republicans in Congress, even off the record, they could have checked their facts with me or other Committee Democrats. Unfortunately, this rush to print anonymous, unverified claims against Secretary Clinton is not unique." Cummings pretty much fingers Benghaazi! committee chair Trey Gowdy. as the Times' source.

Presidential Race

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his associates have begun to actively explore a possible presidential campaign, which would upend the Democratic field and deliver a direct threat to Hillary Rodham Clinton, several people who have spoken to Mr. Biden or his closest advisers say. Mr. Biden's advisers have started to reach out to Democratic leaders and donors who have not yet committed to Mrs. Clinton or who have grown concerned about what they see as her increasingly visible vulnerabilities as a candidate." CW: Okay, MoDo gets her way. ...

... Or maybe not. Karen Tumulty, et al., of the Washington Post: "At this point, however, Biden appears to be far from any decision...." ...

MoDo is desperately seeking Not-Hillary; she flirts with Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz -- a candidate with all the credibility of Donald Trump -- then settles on Vice President Joe Biden. Along the way, MoDo compares Hillary to patriots QB Tom Brady & his Ballghaaazi stunts.

All the Candidate's Lawsuits. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge has ordered the State Department to ask Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to certify under penalty of perjury that she has turned over some of the work-related emails she kept on a private server during the four years she served as secretary of state. U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan issued the order Friday in connection with a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit the conservative group Judicial Watch filed in 2013 seeking records about the employment status of Clinton aide Huma Abedin, who worked as Clinton's deputy chief of staff but later transferred to a part-time job as a so-called 'special government employee.'... State now faces about 30 lawsuits seeking some or all of the Clinton emails and playing out in front of a variety of different judges."

I will be the greatest jobs president that God every created. I will bring back our jobs from China, Mexico and other places. I will bring back jobs and our money. -- Donald Trump, presidential candidacy announcement

... Mica Rosenberg, et al., of Reuters: "... this month, one of [Donald Trump's] companies, the elite Mar-a-Lago Club resort in Florida, applied to import 70 foreign workers to serve as cooks, wait staff and cleaners. A Reuters analysis of U.S. government data reveals that this is business as usual.... Trump owns companies that have sought to import at least 1,100 foreign workers on temporary visas since 2000, according to U.S. Department of Labor data reviewed by Reuters. Most of the applications were approved.... U.S. government watchdogs have criticized the [work visa] ... programs [the Trump companies use] over the years for failing to protect foreign and American workers alike."

Beyond the Beltway

Ha! Tanya Eiserer of WFAA Dallas-Fort Worth: "A grand jury has indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton [R] on multiple felony charges, according to several sources who are familiar with the complaints. The charges will be unsealed in McKinney on Monday about noon, and a Tarrant County judge has already been appointed to preside over the case, sources told News 8.... All indications are that charge is related to Servergy, a McKinney-based company that has been under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.... This indictment comes after the watchdog group Texans for Public Justice pushed for Paxton to face felony charges beyond the fine he paid to the securities board last year." ...

... Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "In the most serious charges, first-degree securities fraud, Mr. Paxton is accused of misleading investors in a technology company, Servergy Inc., which is based in McKinney, his hometown. He is accused of encouraging the investors in 2011 to put more than $600,000 into Servergy while failing to tell them he was making a commission on their investment, and misrepresenting himself as an investor in the company, said Kent A. Schaffer, one of the two special prosecutors handling the case.... As the state's top lawyer and law enforcement officer, Mr. Paxton has made headlines for challenging the Obama administration on its immigration and environmental policies and for encouraging county clerks to refuse to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples on religious grounds after the Supreme Court's ruling upholding same-sex marriage."

News Lede

Los Angeles Times: "The Rocky Fire exploded overnight, burning 47,000 acres as of Sunday morning and threatening 6,000 structures in [California's] Lake, Yolo and Colusa counties. The U.S. Forest Service said "fire activity dramatically progressed" late Saturday, forcing the closure of several state highways in the area. The fire is just 5% contained; about 12,000 people have been ordered to evacuate. Nearly 2,000 firefighters are battling the blaze and more are coming into the area."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (13)

Tried to read it but couldn't make it past halfway.

Poor Mo. Seems like a round of rehab is in order.

August 1, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterUnwashed

Marie,

Thanks for initiating a discussion of whether to watch the GOP Faux debates. I am undecided, but strongly leaning toward not. I really don't know if I can endure such a dose of Smear and Sneer, Slander and Pander, Bluster, Blather, and Bullshit.

Looking forward to learning what other CWs think.

August 2, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterD.C.Clark

Salon's Saletan's coverage of the congressional hearings on the Iran nuclear deal is as good as it is infuriating. As I have mentioned previously I watched these hearings and was left with a sense of bewilderment and fury that we have such dolts that people have elected to represent them. The only explanation for the republican's exchanges would be twofold: Just plain stupid or doing and saying anything that is counter to the Obama administration's agenda. And maybe both. Very likely both.

The words of Paul Kattenburg are recalled: After briefings to the Vietnam Task Force in 1963: "There was not a single person there that knew what he was talking about...they didn't know Vietnam. They didn't know the past. They had forgotten their history. They simply didn't understand the identification of Nationalism and Communism...I thought, 'God, we're walking into a major disaster."

Can you imagine the restraint that Kerry and Moniz must muster?

Yes, to answer the question re: the watching of the debates. I'm a sucker for them de minimus minutes of pure entertainment.

August 2, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

I was disappointed that no one gave Lindsey the right answer to "who wins a war with Iran?"

The only right answer is "no one". Nobody wins, everybody loses. Everybody involved, everybody in the region including Israel. In the long run, pretty much everybody in the world loses.

Graham and others seem to have this notion that the all mighty U.S. can just knock off any little country we wish to. Another good response might have been: "Who won the Korean war? the Vietnamese war? any other conflict since WW2?"

August 2, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterD.C.Clark

As a person with ALS, I can't help but be enraged by these stunts to defund Planned Parenthood. As the Slate article linked yesterday pointed out, stem cells from aborted fetuses offer the best hope for a cure for ALS. It's too late for me, but there's hope for future sufferers.

August 2, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterBarbarossa

Republicans' anti-science stance knows no bounds. As Barbarossa points out, they ignore the benefits of fetal research (interestingly while still claiming the moral high ground).
Climate change is another such issue. Bravo to President Obama for his proposed new energy plant regulations.
Here's yet another, and fairly wacky example: Both houses of the Texas legislature unanimously passed a bill that would allow mental hospitals to be able to hold for a modest four hours people who entered voluntarily and were deemed a danger to themselves or others. Governor Greg Abbott vetoed this sensible bipartisan measure, apparently after being lobbied hard by a front group for the anti-psychiatry Church of Scientology.
Abbott's weak rationale: only police should be able to lock people up.

August 2, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterVictoria D.

I plan to record the "debates" so I can watch them over and over in case
I fall asleep and miss something truly important(?). Will be watching
something more educational, like the season premier of Project
Runway and Jon Stewart's finale.

August 2, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Thanks to PR Watch, which has published such masterpieces as "Banana Republicans" and "Trust Us We're Experts", I have been studying human behavior through media advertising and political process for years. Yes, I plan to watch the so-called debates - so I can further study how Fox media is learning just how it can best evoke and manage hot, murderous, and fearful emotions in large numbers of people. This puts Goebbels to shame: Fox already gets millions to froth at the mouth. What next?
The best answer to any question about the merits of war is in the song:
"WAR! (huh!) What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing."
(tried unsuccessfully to make the link. sorry. It's on youtube)

August 2, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterVictoria

@Marie: the link to "War" is from Victoria :-)

August 2, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterVictoria D.

An irony lost on the squeamish & all winger politicians is that the videos discussing fetal tissue donations have nothing to do with abortion. Once the technicians have the fetal tissue, the abortion is over & done with.

Whether or not one thinks a woman has a right to an abortion, the tissue issue that Republicans are wailing about has nothing to do with it. It has to do with whether or not that tissue can be used for the purposes of medical research or whether it is going to be trashed; that is, whether it's going to have a positive or negative value. Even Mitch McConnell knew that once (in 1993 he voted to legalize fetal tissue donations in 1993 as did many other Congressional Republicans).

I doubt if any American woman, in the two decades that donating fetal tissue has been legal here, has said, "I wasn't going to have an an abortion, but when I found out I could donate the fetal tissue to scientists & researchers, I changed my mind." These donations have the potential of saving or enhancing the lives of the living; they don't reduce the number of abortions.

Marie

P.S. If Little Randy -- one of the loudest voices against Planned Parenthood in the wake of the release of these videos -- were a real opthamologist, instead of a self-certified one, he would know that embryonic & fetal tissue have been important to researchers studying numerous types of eye diseases. He should turn in his license -- to himself, I guess.

August 2, 2015 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Not to quibble, but IMO the best anti-war song ever is 'Masters of War'
and the best performance is Eddie Vedder's here:

https://youtu.be/r8GHBk_HSXg

Also contains the best metaphor Dylan ever wrote, which is a tall pole:

"I see through your eyes
and I see through your brain,
like I see through the water that runs down my drain"

When Bush, Chaney, et al have died and gone to hell, their sentence should be to watch this video, endlessly, forever...

August 2, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterD.C.Clark

@DC: Have always been a fan of E.V. and after listening to "Masters of War" hopped over to Fallon and Vedder doing a duo of "Balls in your Mouth" (about the oil spill)–––De-lightful! But loved Victoria's (without the "D") "War"––have never seen that before. Very catchy and correct.

August 2, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Greetings & Mea Culpa if this was already posted by Marie:

From Truthout -"Scott Walker Is the Belle of the ALEC Ball" -

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/32083-scott-walker-is-the-belle-of-the-alec-ball

My system inclines toward Attention Deficit whenever reading about (let alone eyeballing) these imbeciles (generous understatement) . . . unless I'm compensated with some solid Schadenfreude). At present, unsure if I've the wherewithal to watch.

Thank you for posting the Edwinn Starr video! While I knew well this song, I'd never seen him in performance. (At the risk of kill-joying, I've gotta wonder if he was coaxed (coerced?) by the producers to modulate these fighting words - this referenced Vietnam, after all - with a smiling, nearly-joyful presentation.)

While not specifying "war", emblematic for me & mine was "Time (Has Come Today)" by The Chambers Brothers. Knew a wild-and-crazy-gal who was dating their drummer, Brian Keenan, and . . . (drifting off-topic) . . . Grazie Mille for the memories, Victoria!

Ophelia M.

August 2, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterOphelia M.
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