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 -- November 12

Paul Krugman couldn't be more disgusted with the draft proposal presented by the chairmen of the catfood commission. After lambasting it's major provisions, he concludes, "The deficit commission should be told to fold its tents and go away." ...

... CW: in The New Republic, economist Dean Baker teaches Econ 101 to Simpson & Bowles (and, frankly, to me, too). Baker excoriates the Catfood Boys on a number of basic, basic points, but this one stands out: Social Security is none of their goddamned business.

... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "By putting deep spending cuts and substantial tax increases on the table, President Obama’s bipartisan debt-reduction commission has exposed fissures in both parties.... Among Democrats, liberals are in near revolt against the White House over the issue, even as substantive and political forces push Mr. Obama to attack chronic deficits in a serious way. At the same time, Republicans face intense pressure from their conservative base and the Tea Party movement to reject any deal that includes tax increases, leaving their leaders with little room to maneuver in any negotiation and at risk of being blamed by voters for not doing their part." ...

... ** Steve Kornacki of Salon: the public doesn't really care about the deficit; never has. It's a Repubican talking point that Republicans, including Republicans who call themselves independents, parrot.

Ariana Eunjung Cha of the Washington Post: "Frustrated by the banks' response to the foreclosure mess, a growing number of public officials - including chief judges, attorneys general and sheriffs from jurisdictions big and small - are pushing the boundaries of their powers to slow down foreclosures in their areas." CW: it is just shocking that local sheriffs & judges must do this job because the federal government won't do it. The result, of course, is a completely slapdash, iniquitous method of handling foreclosures. Fire HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. Please.

     ... Patrick O'Connor of the Wall Street Journal reports on the highlights of the Pelosi interview.

Ezra Klein of the Washington Post finds another reason to despise Joe Lieberman: Lieberman's "incoherent intransigence" in killing what would have been a popular and cost-effective plan to allow 55+-year-olds to buy into Medicare probably cost Democrats seats in the midterm elections.

Perry Bacon of the Washington Post: "Democratic activists Thursday sharply criticized White House officials after a published report indicated that President Obama is likely to back a temporary extension of tax cuts for households with income over $250,000 a year."

Rachel Maddow interviews Jon Stewart (the full interview, runs 50 min.):

     ... James Poniewozik of Time: "I was disappointed that so much of Maddow's questioning — like the earlier complaints from Keith Olbermann and Bill Maher — boiled down to: 'But the other guys are worse, right? Say that they're worse than we are.'"

In GQ, Wil Hylton tries to write a positive piece on Attorney General Eric Holder. Hylton presents Holder as conflicted over the concessions he has made to political expediency. CW: but it's impossible not to see Holder as a sell-out.

Cindy McCain, wife of Sen. John McCain, participates in a campaign against bullying gay teens:

     ... as Ben Smith notes, "This is pretty sharp language. [Cindy] McCain isn't just opposing the [DADT] law -- she's attacking the politicians who support it." CW: one of those "politicians who support it"; in fact, the leading opponent to repeal is John McCain. ...

     ... Update: even the Gray Lady takes note.

Katy Steinmetz of Time: Niccolò Machiavelli assesses the midterms.

Mitch McConnell -- Even Worse than You Thought. The editors of the Louisville Courier-Journal read Dubya's book & find that in September 2006, even as he was excoriating Senate Democrats for asking the President to reduce troop levels in Iraq, McConnell privately urged Bush to bring home some troops to reduce the risk of Repubicans losing seats. "This incident," the editors write, "This incident, which Sen. McConnell's office has not denied, shines brightly on the contemptible hypocrisy and obsessive partisanship that have come to mark the senator's time in office."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times finds another Bush "misremembery" in Decision Points. Bush claims he "... resolved that I would not pardon anyone who went outside the formal channels." But Savage notes that Bush pardoned at least five people "who had gained special access to the White House," one of which he rescinded when it became a huge embarrassment.

Robert Mackey of the New York Times: "An English politician was arrested on Thursday for joking on Twitter that a columnist he disagreed with should be stoned to death. Gareth Compton, a 38-year-old member of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party who serves in local government in Birmingham, was suspended by the party following his arrest...." CW: a certain former governor & current reality TV star had better not move to England where her incendiary language could earn her a place in gaol. 

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