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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Monday
May132013

The Commentariat -- May 14, 2013

"There's No There There." Michael Shear & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "President Obama, facing re-energized Republican adversaries and new questions about the administration's conduct, on Monday dismissed a furor over the handling of last year's attacks in Benghazi, Libya, as a political 'sideshow' but joined a bipartisan chorus of outrage over disclosures that the Internal Revenue Service had singled out conservative groups for special scrutiny.... Mr. Obama called the I.R.S. reports 'outrageous' and 'contrary to our traditions,' adding his voice to those of Republicans and isolating the agency as the House scheduled a hearing on Friday in what is likely to be an extensive Congressional review of the agency's actions." ...

... Here's the President's joint press conference -- in which he made the remarks about the controversies -- with U.K. PM David Cameron:

... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Obama, his troubles piling up in Washington, traveled to Manhattan for a busy evening of fundraising for the Democratic Party, telling audiences that progress was being stymied by a persistent wave of 'hyper-partisanship' in the Capitol." ...

... MEANWHILE, chief sideshow barker Darrell Issa keeps plugging along, Kathleen Hennessey of the Los Angeles Times reports. ...

... Alex Seitz-Wald of Salon profiles Victoria Nuland, the former Cheney aide at the center of the fake talking points scandal. ...

... Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post: "... by the ABC account, every draft of the talking points says that the attacks 'were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault....' That's what Rice said. It might have been wrong, but it was the intelligence assessment at the time. So what, exactly, is the scandal?" ...

... Joan Walsh of Salon: "Just like in the '90s, the American people may see through the GOP's effort to undermine Clinton and Obama. But just like in the '90s, they're not getting enough help sorting fact from fiction from Beltway reporters who can't resist a good scandal, even if it's fake." ...

... FreakOut Nation: "There are 16 issues which Republicans have brought up during various times suggesting they are worthy of impeaching President Obama -- including the fact he exists (seriously), and since we've observed their wrath over super important things such as the 'real birth certificate' ... While they're investigating the attack in Benghazi, in which 6 hearings have already been held with no conclusion to their favor, [maybe Issa should investigate this:] ... President Bush and his top aides publicly made 935 false statements about the security risk posed by Iraq in the two years following September 11, 2001, according to a study released by two nonprofit journalism groups...." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link. ...

... Juliet Eilperin & Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: "Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved with investigating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.... The White House is legally prohibited from contacting the IRS about a tax matter, under a prohibition adopted after the Watergate scandal. And although it can contact the Treasury Department about tax issues, neither Treasury nor the IRS can disclose specific taxpayer information. The IRS can release information only about a petition for tax-exempt status once it has been approved." ...

... Kim Barker & Justin Elliott of ProPublica: "The same IRS office that deliberately targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year." ...

... New York Times Editors: "... this is a far cry from President Richard Nixon’s interest in intimidating his political enemies through selective audits of personal tax records. There is no evidence President Obama knew about the audits by the I.R.S. The groups involved were seeking not to pay taxes on large amounts of income by claiming that they promote social welfare. No one has an automatic right to this tax exemption; those seeking one should expect close scrutiny from the government to ensure it is not evading taxes. For many years, however, the I.R.S. hasn't provided it. Democratic groups were the first ones to start abusing their social-welfare tax status in the 2004 election; the Republicans followed suit and became the biggest players in this field beginning in 2008. Far bigger than any Tea Party group, Crossroads GPS nakedly violated the tax code by spending tens of millions on behalf of Republican candidates, claiming it wasn't political because it ran only 'issue ads.' It never lost its tax exemption." ...

... Alec MacGillis of The New Republic has a good take on the IRS scandalette. ...

... This straight news report by Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times backs of MacGillis's critique: "The I.R.S. has done little to regulate a flood of political spending by larger groups -- like Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies co-founded by [Karl] Rove, and Priorities USA, with close ties to President Obama -- as well as Republican leaders in Congress and other elected officials. And an agency that is supposed to stay as far away from partisan politics as possible has been left in charge -- almost by accident -- of regulating a huge amount of election spending." ...

... Jonathan Bernstein, in the Washington Post: "Want a real Washington scandal -- one worse than the (phony) Benghazi scandal and the (apparently real, but apparently limited) IRS scandals combined? Try the continuing, and possibly accelerating, obstruction of executive branch nominees by Senate Republicans...: Republicans, by abusing their Constitutional powers, are -- deliberately, in several cases -- preventing the government from carrying out duly passed laws."

Mark Sherman of the AP: "The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a 'massive and unprecedented intrusion' into how news organizations gather the news.... In a letter of protest sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt said the government sought and obtained information far beyond anything that could be justified by any specific investigation. He demanded the return of the phone records and destruction of all copies." ...

... Justin Sink of The Hill: "The White House on Monday distanced President Obama from the Department of Justice's seizure of Associated Press telephone records. 'Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP,' White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement." ...

... Kevin Drum: "The government has been obtaining phone records like this for over a decade now, and it's been keeping their requests secret that entire time. Until now, the press has showed only sporadic interest in this. But not anymore. I expect media interest in terror-related pen register warrants to show a healthy spike this week. That could be a good thing. It's just too bad that it took monitoring of journalists to get journalists fired up about this."

Obama 2.Bro. Al Kamen of the Washington Post: "Commerce Department general counsel Cameron Kerry -- brother of Secretary of State John Kerry -- has been named acting secretary of Commerce when the outgoing acting secretary, Rebecca Blank, leaves at the end of this month. This may be the first time ever -- we're checking -- that two brothers served in the Cabinet at the same time.... Given the much-anticipated and likely lengthy Senate tussle over the nomination of Penny Pritzker to be Commerce secretary, Cam Kerry may be 'acting' for quite some time."

Local News

"Today, Love Wins." Rachel Stassen-Berger of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "With deafening cheers and overwhelming emotion, the Minnesota Senate voted 37-30 to legalize same-sex marriage.... The vote, on the heels of a vote last week in the House, brings to a close a decade of debate over marriage.... The measure next moves to Gov. Mark Dayton, who will welcome it with his signature in a celebratory ceremony at 5 p.m. Tuesday on the south steps of the Capitol."

More Evidence the Death Penalty Is a Travesty. Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times: "Seven years after he was sentenced to death in the fatal stabbings of two Florida women, Clemente Javier Aguirre appeared in a Seminole County courtroom on Monday to present DNA evidence that could win him a new trial."

News Ledes

ABC News: "Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell agreed today to serve two life sentences and waive his right to an appeal in order to avoid the possibility of being condemned to death. Gosnell was convicted of first degree murder on Monday in the deaths of three babies who were born live and then killed by severing their spinal chords with scissors."

New York Times: "Billie Sol Estes, a fast-talking Texas swindler who made millions, went to prison and captivated America for years with mind-boggling agricultural scams, payoffs to politicians and bizarre tales of covered-up killings and White House conspiracies, was found dead on Tuesday at his home in Granbury, Tex. He was 88."

New York Times: "... American ... Ryan C. Fogle, who had been officially posted in Russia as the third secretary of the political department of the United States Embassy, was ordered to leave the country by the Russian government, which officially declared him 'persona non grata.'" Russia accused him of being a CIA spy whose mission was to recruit a Russian security official.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (6)

Don't know if any of you entered Matt Taibbi's Rolling Stone contest:
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/276-74/17416-surprise-winner-in-thomas-friedman-porn-title-contest

Adolescent though this is, I luvvvvved it, since (as most of you know), I have a long-standing grudge against Tommy Freedom. I never, however, would have guessed the winner of the Tommy Freedom "porn title" contest.

Though, as Taibbi wisely says: "You mess with the bull, you get the antlers."

May 14, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

Re: two brothers serving an administration at the same time: How about Allen and Foster Dulles; Mac and Bill Bundy.

I agree totally with Marie's assessment of the IRS business. The problem, as I understand it, may be in their substituting the word"exclusively" with "primarily"––lots of leg room to wiggle around in by these groups that we know were trying to get away with a tax exempt status. And can someone explain why the outrage over this and not the off shore hide aways? what's happening with all that? And yes, a real scandal that should be front and center is
" Try the continuing, and possibly accelerating, obstruction of executive branch nominees by Senate Republicans...: Republicans, by abusing their Constitutional powers, are — deliberately, in several cases — preventing the government from carrying out duly passed laws."

May 14, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

P.S. And the most obvious: John and Bobby Kennedy.

May 14, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Just finished the Salon take down of "Barwa" Walters by Alex Pareene–(see side bar here). Now that's refreshing, although wonder how fair, but for someone to take down our lady of the slam bang weepy interviews through the years plus someone––a female––who managed to fight her way through the male hierarchy of TV anchors, takes a few balls of brass. Walters is truly an icon and I, for one, whose knowledge of the inner workings of celebrity lives is close to zero found this article fascinating. I must confess I do love gossip or as someone once called it, character analysis. And given that Babs knows the monsters/mobsters among us Alex better watch his back.

May 14, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

@PD read the Pareene article and also Mary Elizabeth Williams' counter. Both versions get a bit the Walter's personna right. Walters certainly has achieved a lot in her long career...though the weepy, "if-you-were-a-tree-what-kind?" interview technique was hard to take. (It was one cringe-inducing flaw that unfortunately Ann Curry adopted!)

Walters always managed "the get" with her interviews of prominent politicians or the hottest, new celebrity.

Funnily enough, in Pareene's article he mentions two other characters that tend to come to mind when I think of Walters. Yes, she was quite supportive of Roy Cohn as he began to emerge back on the New York scene in the 80's. It reminded me of a cocktail party where I turned to be introduced to two men—and found myself face to face with Cohn. I managed a slight nod, reluctant and unable to utter a 'nice-to-meet-you,'— and quite relieved to avoid a handshake — by having a glass of wine in one hand and an hors d'oeuvre in the other.

@Kate Love the contest results!

@Marie Bravo, you stated the IRS story with the best perspective about it.

May 14, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Don't know if it is just me that feels this way. It seems like an enormous amount of shit is being flung at Obama from a multitude of directions, splattering on Hilary Clinton too, as if there is a concerted full court poop press. Perhaps I am seeing gremlins in the bushes? When a group can't win on the issue, shiny objects will always distract the raccoons.

I understand the outrage over the AP stuff, 1st Amendment, freedom of the press. However, it is a struggle for me to see the news media as a clear eyed champions of truth and not just a bunch of hacks rooting around in the mud looking for the next irrelevant tidbit that can be spun up into endless breaking news. It seems awfully lopsided to me. Rights? hell yes - but where is the responsibility and integrity in return. In my mind, it is appropriate to be equally outraged about outing an operative who successfully thwarted a airplane bomb.

I'm on the cynical train today. Even Rachel Maddow got on my nerves last night. I turned to my husband and asked is it just me or is she overly loud and breathless with excitement a lot of the time? I feel like one of her biggest mistakes has been not to pursue the why-was-Stevens-there-on-9/11 question. Too bad I hate Wheaties - need something today.....

May 14, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDiane
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