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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Monday
Aug222011

The Commentariat -- August 23

I'm extending yesterday's Open Thread on Off Times Square.

President Obama, speaking yesterday about Libya:

     ... The transcript is here.

... Ben Smith of Politico: "leading from behind" works. "... the low-profile, inexpensive ouster of Col. Muammar Qadhafi marks an important milestone for the administration, foreign policy analysts say — perhaps the most concrete evidence that the more modest American foreign policy approach that has become Obama’s hallmark and perhaps his biggest area of contrast with his more interventionist predecessor might actually work."

Economist Dean Baker: "Joe Nocera ... really misses the boat in today's complaint about the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) costing jobs. The basic story is that the NLRB is obstructing Boeing's efforts to move production facilities from their unionized facilities in Washington State to non-union South Carolina. There are several aspects to the issue that are misrepresented in the column." Read Baker's entire post. See also my comment and Karen Garcia's in today's Off Times Square. Nocera's column is here. Thanks to commenter Kat for the link.

No Labels called every [Congressional] office, and only 40% are scheduling open town hall meetings.... No Labels activists spoke to all ... current members of the House of Representatives to find that only 175 of them scheduled meetings. The results of the phone survey also reveal that members of both parties share the blame, with 67% of Democrats and 50% of Republicans stating they had no town hall meetings scheduled for the recess period." The post includes a list of representatives who are and are not holding public townhalls this month.

Right Wing World

Alex Pareene of Salon: the view from the right: President Obama is far too weak to have accomplished what just actually happened in Tripoli.... There's no point in countering [their] arguments with reason, of course, because these are not actually fact-based responses to news, they're just rote recitations of Republican dogma: Obama weak! (Except domestically, where he is an autocrat.)" ...

... Steve Benen calls out Sens. John McCain and Lindsay Graham for their craven, obvious hypocrisy. Read the whole post. ...

... Weasels. Sarah Wheaton of the New York Times: Republican presidenial candidates "sought to offer tentative praise for the developments in the region without giving [President] Obama any commendation, as the president is now poised to claim credit for eliminating both Osama bin Laden and Colonel Qadaffi." ...

.. Thomas Lane of TPM: "The main GOP presidential candidates' responses to events in Libya were strikingly diverse. However, one factor they had in common was the lack of any mention of one person: the President who actually committed US forces to the conflict. The exception to this was former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. 'Ridding the world of the likes of Gadhafi is a good thing,' he wrote. 'But this indecisive President had little to do with this triumph.'"

... A least one right-winger has the guts to tell the truth: Eli Lake of the Washington Times:

Art by a friend.Dave Weigel of Slate: "Republicans have finally found a group they want to tax: poor people." Weigel, by the way, is a conservative/libertarian, but even he sees this as crazy.

 

 

David Savage of the Los Angeles Times: "Texas Gov. Rick Perry, faulting much of what the federal government did in the 20th century, has called Social Security a 'failure' and 'an illegal Ponzi scheme' and also cast doubt on the constitutionality of federal laws on food safety, minimum wages, bans on child labor, environmental protection and Medicare.... Now that he is running for the Republican nomination for president, his views on Social Security and other federal programs will be carefully scrutinized."

Greg Sargent: "So Paul Ryan has now made it official: After a period of deliberation, he really, truly, definitely, absolutely will not run for President. His decision is final. That means he won’t be reconsidering it next week, or the week after that, or the week after that."

The Romneys' Cheesy La Jolla Tear-down. San Diego Union-Tribune.... When One of Your Luxury Homes Just Isn't Big Enough. Christopher Cadelago of the San Diego Union-Tribune: "GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney ... is ... working on plans to nearly quadruple the size of his $12 million oceanfront manse in La Jolla. Romney has filed an application with the city to bulldoze his 3,009-square-foot, single-story home ... and replace it with a two-story, 11,062-square-foot structure." ...

... Julie Weiner of Vanity Fair: "Large Things That Could Fit Inside Mitt Romney’s New House." Includes "The top-of-the-line luxury spa at the Trump International™ Hotel & Tower Las Vegas."

CW: this post is pretty ancient, but I just found the site, thanks to a friend. The issue is well-worh discussing, even now. Historian Ann Little on Michele Bachmann's flexible fundamentalism: "This seems to me like just another example of the rhetorical and moral flexibility of some evangelical Christians who think that biblical and moral rules only apply to the little people, and that Great Leaders whose salvation is utterly assured can indulge in the very things they rail against because, well, they know they’re saved." Read the whole post.

Andy Borowitz: "The mystery surrounding Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s whereabouts was resolved today as the dictator announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in a town hall meeting in Concord, New Hampshire." Thanks to reader Bonnie for the link.

News Ledes

Al Jazeera: "Australian police are investigating claims that a government MP [Craig Thomson] allegedly misused his trade union credit card to pay for sex with prostitutes. An accusation which, if proven, could bring down the minority government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard." ...

... Sydney Morning Herald: "Craig Thomson has resigned as the chairman of a parliamentary committee as the NSW Fraud Squad began examining allegations of credit card misuse when he was a union official. Mr Thomson stepped down as chairman of the House Economics Committee last night after police agreed yesterday to ''assess'' a dossier of information provided by the shadow attorney-general, George Brandis. Mr Thomson continued to deny any wrongdoing but said the controversy surrounding him was distracting the committee from its work."

New York Times: "The National Science Foundation has found no evidence of research misconduct by Michael Mann, the Pennsylvania State University climatologist who has faced waves of attacks from foes of action to curb greenhouse gases.... The office’s inquiry, limited to research done using science foundation money, went several steps beyond the investigation of Mann conducted by his university, which also cleared him."

New York Times: "Stock indexes advanced more than 2 percent Tuesday, partly helped by stronger economic data in Asia and Europe. It was the second consecutive day of gains for many stocks after weeks of turmoil that were fueled by concerns about slowing economic growth and the widening impact of sovereign debt problems."

New York Times: "An earthquake sent tremors from the nation’s capital to New York City and New England Tuesday afternoon, the result of what officials said was a 5.9 magnitude temblor based in Virginia. Buildings throughout major metropolitan centers in the northeast were evacuated after the quake, and tremors were felt as far north as Bath, Me., and as far south as Hampstead, N.C., with some limited reports of damage reported near the quake’s epicenter in Virginia, where a nearby nuclear power plant was taken offline. AMtrak trains were temporarily halted, and cellphone service was disrupted as calls flooded cellular systems." The Washington Post has updates here. ...

     ... The Washington Post now has a story here.

New York Times: "The criminal case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, officially ended Tuesday after a Manhattan judge dismissed all charges at the prosecution’s request."

New York Times: "The crackle of gunfire and the rumble of explosions spread across Tripoli in renewed fighting on Tuesday and Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi remained at large hours after his son Seif al-Islam made a surprise appearance at a hotel with foreign journalists, taunting the rebels and urging loyalist forces to resist." ...

     ... New Lede: "Rebel fighters flooded into Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s sprawling compound on Tuesday, overwhelming what remained of its defenses and running pell-mell through the grounds, as the crackle of gunfire and rumble of explosions spread across a confused and wary Libyan capital in spasms of renewed fighting."

... Al Jazeera: "Heavy fighting is taking place in areas of Tripoli for a second day, with opposition forces concentrating their firepower on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's compound in the Bab al-Azizya district of the Libyan capital. The al-Mansoura district was also the focus of fierce clashes between government forces and opposition fighters on Tuesday, two days after the rebels marched into the heart of the city, prompting scenes of jubiliation." With video. ...

... Al Jazeera's liveblog on Libya is here. ...

New York Times: "Immigration officials have issued their first reprives for undocumented workers under a new policy put into effect by the Obama Administration. "Under the policy, immigration authorities will use powers of prosecutorial discretion in existing law to suspend the deportations of most immigrants who, although they have committed immigration violations (which generally are civil offenses), have not been convicted of crimes. In particular, officials will look to halt deportations of longtime residents with clean police records who came here illegally when they were children, or are close family of military service members, or are parents or spouses of American citizens."

New York Times: "Emergency officials from Florida to the Carolinas were closely watching Irene Tuesday as the first hurricane to seriously threaten the U.S. in three years churned over energizing tropical waters. The storm has already cut a destructive path through the Caribbean. Forecasters say the hurricane could grow to a monstrous Category 4 storm...."

 

New York Times: Naoto Kan, the embattled Japanese prime minister, is likely to step down by early next week, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday, a long-expected resignation that will nevertheless bring uncertainty to a country still reeling in the aftermath of its natural and nuclear disasters.

Cape Cod Times: "President Barack Obama ... spent much of his time ...dealing with the evolving situation in Libya [yesterday], then segued into an afternoon session of basketball at a local school. In the morning and early afternoon, the president stayed home, but tuned in to national and international developments. According to pool reports, Obama was briefed on Libya and the stormy possibilities of Hurricane Irene, now churning near Florida."

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