The Ledes

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Washington Post: “Rescue teams raced to submerged homes, scoured collapsed buildings and steered thousands from overflowing dams as Helene carved a destructive path Friday, knocking out power and flooding a vast arc of communities across the southeastern United States. At least 40 people were confirmed killed in five states since the storm made landfall late Thursday as a Category 4 behemoth, unleashing record-breaking storm surge and tree-snapping gusts. 4 million homes and businesses have lost electricity across Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, prompting concerns that outages could drag on for weeks. Mudslides closed highways. Water swept over roofs and snapped phone lines. Houses vanished from their foundations. Tornadoes added to the chaos. The mayor of hard-hit Canton, N.C., called the scene 'apocalyptic.'” An AP report is here.

The Wires
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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 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
Nov072011

The Commentariat -- November 8

If you live in Ohio, be sure to vote today. Andy Kroll of Mother Jones on why labor is likely to win this one, while unions had less success in Wisconsin. Politico story here. ...

... AND Washington Post: "Virginians go to the polls today to elect state senators, state delegates, county supervisors and school boards." ...

... Ballot Box: In fact, "There are three states holding state legislative elections [today]. A total of 434 seats will be won in Mississippi, New Jersey and Virginia." The New Jersey Star-Ledger story is here: "Voters in the Garden State will also have their say on whether New Jersey should pursue legalized sports betting." Also on the ballot in Mississippi today is the odious "personhood amendment," which defines life as beginning at conception and would make all abortion illegal in the state.

... AND there are local elections in North Carolina. One that has received national attention is the Wake County (Raleigh) school board runoff, pitting Tea Party candidate Heather Losurdo, who is backed by the "Pope Machine," against Democrat Kevin Hill. NPR story here. ...

David Catanase & Alex Isenstadt of Politico have a tip sheet on "what to watch for on election night." It's Politico, so take it with a grain of salt, but it should serve as a handy guide.

Foreclosure. Artist Unknown. Sand sculpture, Fort Myers Beach, Florida. Photo by "The Doktor."John Aravosis of AmericaBlog: the public sees Barack Obama as a weak leader because he is a weak leader.

Glenn Thrush of Politico: "Embattled White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley will hand off some day-to-day responsibilities to presidential confidante Pete Rouse after coming under fire from West Wing officials for his management style and ineffectual relationship with Congress, according to administration sources.... Rouse, a longtime Hill aide once known as the '101st Senator' for his stature among congressional heavyweights in both parties, will assume a far greater role in legislative affairs — easing growing tension between the White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who complained to President Barack Obama personally about Daley’s performance, according to congressional sources."

Steve Benen illuminates the Republicans' idea of a "balanced" deficit-reduction deal: it's unclear "how much revenue would the GOP be prepared to accept ... but all of it would come from limiting tax deductions [like the one on second homes], and none of it would come from actually increasing anyone’s taxes. In exchange some undetermined amount of revenue, Democrats on the super-committee would be expected to accept massive spending cuts, including cuts to entitlements, and Dems would have to agree to make all of the Bush tax cuts permanent. That’s just crazy."

Right Wing World

Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "The secretive oil billionaires the Koch brothers are close to launching a nationwide database connecting millions of Americans who share their anti-government and libertarian views, a move that will further enhance the tycoons' political influence and that could prove significant in next year's presidential election.... The voter file was set up by the Kochs 18 months ago with $2.5m of their seed money, and is being developed by a hand-picked team of the brothers' advisers.... In classic Koch style, the project is being conducted in great secrecy." ...

     ... CW: the reader who sent me this link wrote, "Sinclair Lewis once said 'when fascism comes to america it will wrapped in the flag and bearing a cross.' If he were alive today he might substituted cross for 'corporate logo'."

“You Want a Job, Right?” Juana Summers & Maggie Haberman of Politico: "A Chicago woman accused Herman Cain of sexually inappropriate behavior Monday, claiming at a news conference that the presidential candidate pushed her to perform a sex act in exchange for his help in landing a job while he ran the National Restaurant Association. In stepping forward, Sharon Bialek, a middle-aged single mother who appeared with celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred in New York, became the first woman to speak on the record about what she claims happened over a decade ago." ...

... New York Times story here. Money quote:

In an interview after Ms. Bialek’s news conference, Joel P. Bennett, a lawyer for one of Mr. Cain’s anonymous accusers, said that Ms. Bialek’s claims were 'very similar' in nature to the incident that occurred between his client and Mr. Cain. CW: that is, I guess, Cain allegedly tried to force Bennett's client to give him a blow job in exchange for some "favor."

     ... Here's a partial transcript of Bialek's statement. CW: As probably hundreds of thousands of women could tell you, Bialek's account is oh-so plausible. It has happened to us. ...

... Lisa Lerer of Bloomberg News: "Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain denied a former employee’s allegation that he groped her after she sought his help in finding a job in 1997." ...

... Ben Smith: In 1999, Bialek had a child by a media executive who filed a paternity suit against her, a case that was ongoing for a decade. The media executive now works for News Corp. CW: somehow Rupert Murdoch gets into every story. ...

... Susan Archer of ABC News: Herman Cain appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel show last night, joked about the accusations against him (because sexual assault is hilarious) and said he would hold a press conference today. CW: watch for the smearing of Sharon Bialek. ...

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

... Reid Epstein of Politico: "Offering a vigorous denial of Sharon Bialek’s sexual harassment accusations for the first time, GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain said he didn’t remember the Illinois woman and said he has never acted inappropriately around any woman." CW: Cain also said "God didn't make little green apples and it don't rain in Indianapolis in the summertime." You can watch Cain's "vigorous denial" here; I'm just not going to post it here. ...

     ... Also, Cain held a news conference today which you can view here on C-SPAN. ...

     ... James Grimaldi of the Washington Post: "One of the women who accused GOP presidential contender Herman Cain of sexual harassment in the 1990s said she wants to go public -- now that her name has been revealed -- and hold a joint news conference with all of the women making similar allegations. Karen Kraushaar, 55, an employee with the Treasury Department’s inspector general office, said she never wanted her name to be made public as one of Cain’s accusers. But a news organization published her name Tuesday and she now says she is ready to go before cameras." New York Times story here.

... AND this guy should be taken off the air. NOW:

Think Progress: 99 facts you should know about Mitt Romney, with links to sources. CW: I'd call it 99 reasons to despise that lying creep.

News Ledes

New York Times: "United Nations weapons inspectors released a trove of new evidence on Tuesday that they say makes a 'credible' case that ' has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear device' and that the project may still be under way. The long-awaited report relies on evidence of far greater scope and depth than any the International Atomic Energy Agency has made public before, and represents the harshest judgment the agency has ever issued in its decade-long struggle to pierce the secrecy surrounding the Iranian program." The report (pdf) is here.

New York Times: "Joe Paterno’s tenure as coach of the Penn State football team will soon be over, perhaps within days or weeks, in the wake of a sex-abuse scandal that has implicated university officials.... The board of trustees has yet to determine the precise timing of Mr. Paterno’s exit, but it is clear that [he] ... will not survive to coach another season."

AP: "Attorney General Eric Holder says an investigation of arms traffickers called Operation Fast and Furious was flawed in concept as well as in execution, never should have happened and 'it must never happen again.' Facing tough questioning by Senate Republicans, the attorney general said in remarks prepared for a hearing Tuesday that he wants to know why and how firearms that should have been under surveillance could wind up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels."

Washington Post: "Joe Frazier, 67, the former heavyweight boxing champion who was known for his fighting spirit, powerful punch and intense rivalry with Muhammad Ali, died Monday night in a hospice in Philadelphia. He had been suffering from liver cancer."

Washington Post: "With his nation swept up in a mounting debt crisis, Italy’s embattled Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is scrambling to shore up his political base ahead of a vote in Parliament later Tuesday that could expose just how much support he has lost within his ruling coalition and set the stage for a confidence vote on his government. Berlusconi, facing intensifying calls to resign, is vowing to hold on even as larger Italy overtakes tiny Greece as the focus of Europe’s debt crisis." ...

     ... Reuters Update: "Silvio Berlusconi's closest coalition ally, Umberto Bossi, told him to resign on Tuesday in what could be a mortal blow to the Italian prime minister before a crunch vote in parliament. Bossi, head of the devolutionist Northern League, said the 75-year-old media magnate should be replaced by Angelino Alfano, secretary of the premier's PDL party." ...

     ... AP Update: "Italian Premier Minister Silvio Berlusconi said for the first time Tuesday that he would resign once parliament approves economic reforms, and Greek politicians said they were close to agreeing on a new government to lead their country through painful cutbacks."

Haaretz: "French President Nicolas Sarkozy told U.S. President Barack Obama last week he was fed up with dealing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and considered him a liar.... 'I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar,' Sarkozy told Obama...." ...

     ... BBC News: "'You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day,' Mr Obama replied." ...

     ... CW: the original report, which is in French, is here. According to the report, Sarkozy said, "Je ne peux plus le voir, c'est un menteur."

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