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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Wednesday
Aug242011

The Commentariat -- August 25

Sorry for the delays in posting, which were caused by major technical difficulties. Since I didn't look at anything for five or six hours last night, I posted an Open Thread on Off Times Square. ...

... Update: See the very fine post by FromTheHeartland in today's Off Times Square about cuts in Medicaid and other healthcare safety-net programs in, well, the Heartland. FTH also zeroes in on the media's sloppy reporting of data, in this case, misinterpreting and vastly underreporting the true reduction in healthcare services. Once again, commentary on Off Times Square beats what you'll find in mainstream media outlets.

E. J. Dionne: "... no good Obama deed goes unpunished." Especially if you've been critical of Obama's Libya policy, read this. (I've been --and still am -- critical of his refusal to ask for Congressional approval, tho not of the overall policy.)

A Worthy Campaign. Mike Allen of Politico: "President Barack Obama's reelection campaign on Thursday announced 'Project Vote,' a campaign-within-a-campaign that is aimed at increasing registration and participation among Democratic base constituencies — including young voters, seniors, African Americans and Hispanics, plus Native Americans and gay and lesbian voters."

Kevin Drum: "Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has gotten a lot of press for his campaign to get CEOs to halt all political contributions until politicians in Washington DC stop their insane bickering.... And for some reason they've decided that Republicans will cave in on this if they announce their intention to withhold all political contributions to both parties this year. Seriously? My guess is that the GOP leadership is laughing its ass off over this." CW: some while back, when one of the NYT lunkheads -- don't recall if it was Nocera or Friedman, but they're peas in a pod -- wrote a fawning column on this brilliant "plan," & I wrote a comment saying it was the stupidest idea I'd ever heard. The Times responded by refusing to publish my comment.

Rachel Maddow talks to Jared Bernstein about a jobs program that some Republicans -- like Tea Party darling Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) -- might buy:

Crazy Scott Brown Operative. Glen Johnson of the Boston Globe: "Eric Fehrnstrom -- a senior campaign adviser to US Senator Scott Brown" admitted he has been tweeting unflattering and racy remarks under the twitternym "CrazyKhazei, which he pretended were tweets by Brown Democratic opponent Alan Khazei." Fehrnstrom didn't volunteer that he had perpetrated a hoax; rather, spokesmen for the Massachusetts Democratic party discovered Fehrnstrom when he accidentally "sent out a 'CrazyKhazei’'-type tweet Tuesday from his Twitter account." Creep. ...

... Krugman, Master of Disaster. Dave Weigel of Slate: another fake Paul Krugman hoax, and the genius pundits on the right fall for it. No, Real Krugman did not tweet: "... we would see a bigger boost in spending and hence economic growth if the earthquake had done more damage." Krugman responds on his own blog. Thanks to Bob M. for the link.

David Pogue of the New York Times on Steve Jobs' remarkable impact on "a stunning range of industries." ...

... Here's a New York Times interactive page on Jobs' patents. ...

... Michael Rosenwald of the Washington Post on Jobs' resignation as Apple CEO.

It Depends on What the Meaning of "Power" Is. Forbes names "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women." Really? Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook is #5, entertainer Beyonce Knowles is #18, & Nancy Pelosi is #52? Really? No. 1 is German Chancellor Angela Merkel & #2 is Hillary Clinton, so they probably got those right.

If We Could Talk with the Animals. Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "Orangutans, gorillas, flamingos and red-ruffed lemurs [at Washington, D.C.'s National Zoo] acted strangely before humans detected the historic magnitude-5.8 earthquake. Now the question hovering over the zoo is: What did the animals know, and when did they know it?" CW: I used to have Nubian goats who knew a storm was coming before I did.

Right Wing World *

Teabaggers Bag the GOP. Dave Weigel of Slate: "Tea Party candidates won't win any [primary] elections next year because mainstream Republicans now spout the same ideas."

"Know-Nothings Opt for Scary New Frontrunner." Steve Stromberg of the Washington Post: "It’s official: Rick Perry is the 'frontrunner' for the Republican presidential nomination.... A new Gallup poll has the Texas governor with the support of 29 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, compared to only 17 percent for heretofore 'frontrunner' Mitt Romney. A Public Policy Polling survey also came in ... with similar results.... Gallup conducted the poll from August 17 to 21. The 17th was just four days into Perry’s campaign, but by then the candidate had already managed to suggest that Ben Bernanke ... was 'treasonous,' imply that President Obama doesn’t love America, and speculate that climate science was an elaborate, cynical fraud."

* Where Know-Nothings are the deciders.

News Ledes

Boston Globe: "Nearly 10 years after a worldwide clergy sexual abuse crisis erupted in the Boston Archdiocese, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley today released a long-awaited roster of 159 archdiocesan clerics who have been accused of sexually abusing children. But O’Malley’s action was immediately criticized by Attorney General Martha Coakley and advocates for clergy abuse victims because it lists only those priests who have already been publicly accused, and omits the names of dozens of accused priests from religious orders and other dioceses, as well as those who left the priesthood before accusations were leveled againt them."

New York Times: "The Security Council committee that monitors sanctions against Libya agreed on Thursday to unfreeze $1.5 billion in Libyan assets for emergency aid to the country, where rebel forces that have ousted Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi are confronting a humanitarian crisis as they attempt to establish security and form a new government."

New York Times: "Rebels intensified their hunt for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and his sons on Thursday, engaging in an intense fight with loyalists in a neighborhood of apartment blocks near his former Tripoli fortress, as Western officials said NATO was actively helping in the effort to find the elusive leader. But in a new taunt, Colonel Qaddafi urged Libyans in a brief audio broadcast to cleanse Tripoli of the insurgents, whom he called 'rats, crusaders and unbelievers.'”

Buffett Bails out BoA. New York Times: "Warren E. Buffett comes to the rescue, again. On Thursday, Berkshire Hathaway, run by Mr. Buffett, announced plans to invest $5 billion in Bank of America, a vote of confidence for the beleaguered financial firm. The conglomerate has agreed to buy 50,000 preferred shares that will pay a 6 percent annual dividend. Bank of America has the option to buy back the shares at any time for a 5 percent premium."

New York Times: "The Obama administration is considering further actions to strengthen the housing market, but ... plans must help a broad swath of homeowners, stimulate the economy and cost next to nothing. One proposal would allow millions of homeowners with government-backed mortgages to refinance them at today’s lower interest rates, about 4 percent, according to two people briefed on the administration’s discussions who asked not to be identified because they were not allowed to talk about the information."

Al Jazeera: "Rebel reinforcements have streamed into the Libyan capital, Tripoli, to join in the fight against Muammar Gaddafi loyalists, who are putting up strong resistance in some pockets of the city." With video. ...

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

New York Times: Former Vice President Dick Cheney says in a new memoir that he urged President George W. Bush to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site in June 2007. But, he wrote, Mr. Bush opted for a diplomatic approach after other advisers — still stinging over 'the bad intelligence we had received about Iraq’s stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction' — expressed misgivings.."

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.

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