The Ledes

Monday, October 7, 2024

Weather Channel: “H​urricane Milton has rapidly intensified into a Category 3 and hurricane and storm surge watches are now posted along Florida's western Gulf Coast, where the storm poses threats of life-threatening storm surge, destructive winds and flooding rainfall by midweek. 'Milton will be a historic storm for the west coast of Florida,' the National Weather Service in Tampa Bay said in a briefing Monday morning.”

CNN: “This year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their work on the discovery of microRNA, a fundamental principle governing how gene activity is regulated. Their research revealed how genes give rise to different cells within the human body, a process known as gene regulation. Gene regulation by microRNA – a family of molecules that helps cells control the sort of proteins they make – ... was first revealed by Ambros and Ruvkun. The Nobel Prize committee announced the prestigious honor ... in Sweden on Monday.... Ambros, a professor of natural science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, conducted the research that earned him the prize at Harvard University. Ruvkun conducted his research at Massachusetts General Hospital, and is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School.”

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The Ledes

Sunday, October 6, 2024

New York Times: “Two boys have been arrested and charged in a street attack on David A. Paterson, a former governor of New York, and his stepson, the police said. One boy, who is 12, was charged with second-degree gang assault, and the other, a 13-year-old, was charged with third-degree gang assault, the police said on Saturday night. Both boys, accompanied by their parents, turned themselves in to the police, according to Sean Darcy, a spokesman for Mr. Paterson. A third person, also a minor, went to the police but was not charged in the Friday night attack in Manhattan, according to an internal police report.... Two other people, both adults, were involved in the attack, according to the police. They fled on foot and have not been caught, the police said. The former governor was not believed to have been targeted in the assault....”

Weather Channel: “Tropical Storm Milton, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, is expected to become a hurricane late Sunday or early Monday. The storm is expected to pose a major hurricane threat to Florida by midweek, just over a week after Helene pushed through the region. The National Hurricane Center says that 'there is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and wind impacts for portions of the west coast of the Florida Peninsula beginning late Tuesday or Wednesday.'”

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

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.”

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The Commentariat -- June 3, 2013

Adam Clymer of the New York Times: "Frank R. Lautenberg, who fought the alcohol and tobacco industries and promoted Amtrak as a five-term United States senator from New Jersey, died Monday morning in Manhattan. He was 89." CW: in mid-April, the ailing Lautenberg returned to Washington to vote for gun control legislation. He also returned May 16, according to the Bergen Record, and "said he was feeling better and hoped to be in Washington more regularly." A brave man, right to the end. ...

... The Star-Ledger obituary is here.

... CW: worth noting: Gov. Chris Christie (R) will name his replacement. Not sure how New Jersey law works re: Senate vacancies, but we'll find out soon. Update: according to the Bergen Record, which was the first to report Lautenberg's death, Christie's "appointee would serve until a new senator is elected to a full six-year term in 2014." ...

     ... Update 2. Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Christie also will have broad authority to set a special election for the seat. Because of the high costs associated with holding an election, setting it for Nov. 5, 2013 seems like the natural choice. New Jersey is already holding its off-year state elections at that time.... But New Jersey special election law is a somewhat murky, with two provisions that are difficult to square up."

Jim Newell of Salon has a very good summary of the Sunday show folderol. Isn't it delightful that Stephanopoulos summoned Valerie Plame leaker Karl Rove to opine on the horrors of squelching leakers? CW: Newell is not as witty as Charles Pierce, but a reporter need only report what the gobshites are saying to get laughs. ...

... Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) claimed on Sunday that political officials in the Obama administration directed Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents in Cincinnati to target conservative groups applying for 501 (c)(4) status, but his charge fell apart when probed by CNN host Candy Crowley":

     ... Notice how, as Byron Tau of Politico points out, Issa "blasted White House press secretary Jay Carney on Sunday, calling him a 'paid liar' .... 'Their paid liar, their spokesperson, the picture behind, he's still making up things about what happened and calling this a local rogue,' Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), said..., gesturing to a graphic of Carney on the set." ...

... Alan Fram of the AP writes a report for the local papers, the gist of which is that Issa is blowing smoke &/or flat-out lying: "A government watchdog has found that the Internal Revenue Service spent about $50 million to hold at least 220 conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012, a House committee said Sunday. The chairman of that committee, Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, also released excerpts of congressional investigators' interviews with employees of the IRS office in Cincinnati. Issa said the interviews indicated the employees were directed by Washington to subject Tea Party and other conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status to tough scrutiny. The excerpts provided no direct evidence that Washington had ordered that screening. The top Democrat on that panel, Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, said none of the employees interviewed have so far identified any IRS officials in Washington as ordering that targeting." Fram also goes into Issa's calling Carney a "paid liar," noting that Carney didn't say what Issa claimed he said. Too bad he doesn't mention that all that IRS line-dancing was going on under a Bush-appointed IRS commissioner. ...

... Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) continues her anti-woman campaign, arguing yesterday on "Press the Meat" that "federal legislation on workplace equity is condescending to women." Contributor MAG suggested in yesterday's Comments "that the congresswoman's annual pay is immediately reduced to $140,766 since she is fine with women earning 80.9% of what men earn!" ...

... Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "The Senate's third-ranking Democrat predicted Sunday that a bipartisan immigration reform package will pass the full Senate with broad support by the Independence Day holiday. 'We're going to put immigration on the floor starting on June 10. I predict it will pass the Senate by July 4,' Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on NBC's 'Meet The Press.' 'We're hoping to get 70 votes -- up to 70 votes, which means a lot of Republicans.'"

** Steve Coll of the New Yorker: "It seems likely that Holder or his deputies have authorized other press subpoenas and surveillance regimes that have not yet been disclosed.... More than a million people now hold top-secret clearances." ...

... Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "... the strength of the government's case against Stephen Jin-Woo] Kim, which is clear in this newly disclosed search warrant, makes one wonder again why Attorney General Eric Holder allowed his prosecutors to take the unprecedented step of naming [James] Rosen as an 'aider, abettor, and/or co-conspirator' to the alleged crime in order to search Rosen's e-mails." Post includes a facsimile of the Kim warrant. ...

... Bill Keller: "Even an imperfect shield law would restore a little balance in the perpetual struggle between necessary secrets and democratic accountability."

David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "... one cockeyed farm-aid program that was supposed to end in 2003 ... is one of Washington's walking dead -- 'temporary' giveaway programs that have staggered on years beyond their intended expiration dates. Letting them live is an old and expensive congressional habit, still unbroken in this age of austerity. Now, both the House and Senate are trying to kill off this budget leftover, 10 years late.... In all, the program has cost at least $46 billion more than it was supposed to."

"The Geezers Are All Right." Paul Krugman: "... the long-term outlook for Social Security and Medicare, while not great, actually isn't all that bad. It's time to stop obsessing about how we'll pay benefits to retirees in 2035 and focus instead on how we're going to provide jobs to unemployed Americans in the here and now."

Krugman on "the spat" with Rogoff & Reinhart:

Katie Glueck of Politico: "The College Republican National Committee on Monday will make public a detailed report -- the result of extensive polling and focus groups -- dissecting what went wrong for Republicans with young voters in the 2012 elections and how the party can improve its showing with that key demographic in the future. It's not a pretty picture. In fact, it's a 'dismal present situation,' the report says." ...

... Maybe the Romney campaign, et al., should have invested more in listening to the kids instead of in counting their chickens ...

... Why Are They Doing This? Zeke Miller of Time: "On May 29, the Romney Readiness Project, the Republican candidate's transition organization known as R2P, published a 138-page report detailing how it prepared for a potential Romney victory. It is the product of a team of nearly 500, who labored in Washington and around the country to be ready to help Romney assume the reins of power on January 20th, 2013...."

... Erik Loomis of Lawyers, Guns & Money has one take on the Romney Readiness Project (which I can't publish because it's too short to excerpt). ...

... Steve M. of No More Mister Nice Blog hypothesizes, "I think it's meant to impress us, not make us laugh (even though we already knew about the alleged brilliance this project after word of it was spoon-fed to the press shortly after the election)." ...

... CW: it's still creepy. What do the ghost Romney presidency & Al-Qaeda have in common? Corporate style! ...

... Adam Martin of New York: "Not only does Al Qaeda have its share of HR headaches to deal with while trying to take over the world, it has a complaints department in case people have issues with its brand of militancy." CW: the fact that a complainant has to go to "an Islamic state HQ" to file his grievance probably cuts down a tad on complaints. ...

... ALSO CREEPY. McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed has a long piece on Strategy Group for Media, a conservative, Christian, right-wing, Republican consulting firm. Fairly fascinating, in a sickening way.

Cashing In -- Secretly. Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Maureen McDonnell, the wife of Virginia's governor, was paid $36,000 last year to attend a handful of meetings as a consultant to the philanthropic arm of one of the state's major coal companies, a top coal company official said. Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) indicated on his annual financial disclosure forms for 2011 and 2012 that his wife served as a paid trustee of a family charity, the Frances G. and James W. McGlothlin Foundation. But in an interview, James McGlothlin said the $21 million family foundation never named McDonnell to its board. Instead, McGlothlin said, the family asked Maureen McDonnell to become an adviser to the charitable efforts of both the family foundation and the United Co., a natural resources and real estate company in Bristol, Va., that has made the McGlothlins one of the wealthiest families in the state.... By reporting that his wife was on the board, the governor never had to say on his financial disclosure form how much she was paid." ...

Gubernatorial Race

Zeke Miller & Alex Rogers of Time recount a few of the lowlights of "The Dirtiest Low-Down Campaign in America: Cuccinelli vs. McAuliffe." ...

Errin Whack of the Washington Post: "E.W. Jackson, the Republicans' choice for lieutenant governor [of Virginia], said Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II ... in 2010 ... suggested that he consider a run for lieutenant governor." Cuccinelli's campaign said Jackson "misconstrued" Cuccinelli's comments during the conversation.... Jackson has called homosexuality 'perverse,' compared Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan, and sharply criticized Obama over same-sex marriage and foreign policy. But the former Marine said that his remarks were not meant to be offensive and that as lieutenant governor he would strive to represent all Virginians, including homosexuals."

News Ledes

Reuters: "The manufacturing sector contracted in May, driving activity to the lowest level in nearly four years, in the latest sign the economy is encountering a soft patch. Still, growth is not expected to pull back sharply, and separate data on Monday showed construction spending rose slightly in April though it trailed expectations."

Boston Globe: "Boston Fire Chief Steve E. Abraira resigned today after less than two years on the job, following a clash with his command staff over his management style and handling of the Boston Marathon bombings, officials said."

AP: "The Army psychiatrist charged in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage will represent himself at his upcoming murder trial, meaning he will question the more than two dozen soldiers he's accused of wounding, a military judge ruled Monday. Maj. Nidal Hasan's attorneys will remain on the case but only if he asks for their help, the judge said. Hasan, 42, faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole...."

Reuters: " The American soldier accused of providing more than 700,000 secret documents to the WikiLeaks website goes on trial in Maryland on Monday charged with the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history. Private First Class Bradley Manning, 25, faces a possible life sentence without parole if convicted for the 2010 leak that outraged the U.S. government." ...

     ... New York Times Update here.

AP: " Violence has flared in Istanbul [for a 4th day] between a group of demonstrators and police on the fourth day of protests set off by a brutal police crackdown of a peaceful environmental protest." ...

     ... Update: "Secretary of State John Kerry..., who has traveled to Turkey three times since becoming America's top diplomat, said [Monday] the U.S. is following the situation closely and is troubled by reports of excessive force by the police. He also said Washington is 'deeply concerned' by the large number of people who have been injured. He called for an investigation into the violence and said respect for freedom of expression is critical to democracy."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (7)

I have been reading about the new documentary, "We Steal Secrets"--about Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and Wikileaks. After terrific reviews in Rolling Stone and New York Magazine, I planned to go to Portland to see it. Now comes this essay by Danny Schecter in Consortium, reprinted in RSN:
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/17734-a-new-front-in-war-on-wikileaks

and his observation:
..."With Private Bradley Manning’s leak trial about to start and with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange still holed up in the Ecuador Embassy in London, “We Steal Secrets,” a new big-budget documentary purports to explain the controversy but has more the look of a hit job, says Danny Schechter."

Read the article and see what you think. I am inclined, since it was funded by Comcast, to believe Schechter. And I am no longer so interested in making a special trip to see it, especially since Julian Assange was never even interviewed. HUH?

June 3, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

Allow me to fix my error from yesterday's comment re Marsha Blackburn and equal pay. Women don't earn 80.9% less than men, (they earn 19.1% less than men) - or I shudda said, 80.9% of what men earn! Yah!

June 3, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

@MAG: since I knew what you meant, I didn't even notice you "mis-phrased" it. Correction made in today's Commentariat.

Marie

June 3, 2013 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@MAG; On gender; species and salaries; Here at the Sperm Producers Institute or "SPI", we take our role as defenders of sperm supremacy pretty darn seriously. So when you pointed out in your comment that women or " Egg baskets" earn far less than men for the same type of work we have to respond with a big "DUH.".
There are thousands of reasons for this discrepancy in pay, I can only touch on a few of them because of the lack of focus and short attention span that we pride ourselves on here at SPI.
Egg baskets spend much of the working day thinking about what to prepare for dinner for their sperm provider.
Egg baskets fixate on their physical appearance and spend many of what could productive minutes on grooming and fashion.
Egg baskets are emotional; some times more that others; this attribute leads to crying, tearing up, or welling of the eyes, again at the cost of getting things done.
Egg baskets look at both sides of a situation, unlike sperm producers who just jump right in; At critical times we need knee jerk reactions not well thought out analyst.
I could go on but my gnat-like attention span is forcing me to think about other things; What was I talking about?... Oh, yea, what's for dinner?
Thanks, SPI

June 3, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJJG

@JJG, how does Scrambled Egg Basket à la Creamed Arsenic sound? Or Tear-Jerk Onion Frittata? Or just plain Jerk? More later, I have to go curl my eyelashes.

Funny, reminds me of when I asked for my first raise. The president of the company listened, nodded and gently explained that while I was certainly deserving...he had many in the company who were also deserving. I.e., "Charlie' who drove the delivery truck and supported a family of four. At that point, this twenty-something "egg basket" (who had mastered the cool, long stare and with a no-tears, no fluttery eyelash approach) trounced that argument with a solid and reasoned response. Charlie probably deserved more. But, I deserved more for the value of the contributions which my department added to the firm's bottom line. Yep. Got the the raise.

June 3, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Okey Dokey--I have my laugh for the day, probably for many days, thanks to Heather at Video Cafe. This is for all Tommy Freedom despisers--the Thomas Friedman op ed generator. No kidding.

You can switch around the site to find a topic of (um) interest. Here is one of today's:
http://thomasfriedmanopedgenerator.com/Afghanistan%3A+Look+in+Your+Mirror+177338

June 3, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

I think that Darrell Issa is juicy, lusciously, roundly and sweetly ripe for being "Ted Cruzed". That is to say there are a few questions that come to mind.......Naturally Mr. Issa, someone like yourself , who is of proud Lebanese descent might be subject to undo influence from Hezbollah. Given your enormous wealth, it seems reasonable to ask for financial records that may indicate monetary support of Hezbollah. I'm sure you understand how important your relationship with Hezbollah would be to the American people?

Although he was masterful when his demeanor didn't betray how pissed he was at Crowley's poking, it was his words that underscored his bitter partisanship, calling Carney "a paid liar". He is a desperate fool.

June 3, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDiane
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