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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Friday
Oct012010

The Commentariat -- October 1

Gene Robinson of the Washington Post: "... this war is only tangentially about Afghanistan. The real problem is nuclear-armed Pakistan, our supposed ally, which has played a double game -- accepting billions of dollars from the United States to fight terrorism while giving clandestine advice and support to the Taliban and tolerating the presence of al-Qaeda's senior leadership.... I the purpose of this war is really to influence events in Pakistan, we're not doing a very good job.... Isn't it time for another strategy review?"

Sherly Gay Stolberg of the New York Times profiles Pete Rouse, the "anti-Rahm" who will replace Rahm Emanuel as President Obama's chief-of-staff.

CW: I'd better post this or I'll be taken as an "irresponsible" member of the "professional left":

... Keith Hagey of Politico on the White House's relationship with the "professional left." ...

... So let's see what the professional left is up to today:

... After reading in USA Today that there's "new push by federal law enforcement agencies to hunt down war criminals and human rights abusers who have found refuge in the United States," Glenn Greenwald does his civic duty & helps the feds locate one such individual.

... Jane Hamsher, one of the most "ungrateful" of "whiners," zeroes on this New York Times article that reports, 

Many wealthy Democratic patrons, who in the past have played major roles financing outside groups to help elect the party’s candidates, are largely sitting out these crucial midterm elections.

Democratic donors like George Soros ... and his fellow billionaire Peter B. Lewis, who each gave more than $20 million to Democratic-oriented groups in the 2004 election, appear to be holding back so far.

       Hamsher writes, "I personally can’t wait till the White House press office releases Obama’s speech to millionaires in Greenwich calling Soros and Lewis 'ungrateful whiners.'”

... John Aravosis agrees with Hamsher that, "liberals are being set up to take the fall for the (possibly) looming election disaster." ...

... AND Digby remarks,

When you hear the administration and the leadership complaining about the left failing to fall in line, you might want to ask them about why they are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting Democratic politicians who actively run against them. I could be wrong, but I think it might not turn out so well once they get elected.

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: TARP, "the $700 billion lifeline to banks, insurance and auto companies — will expire at a fraction of that cost and could conceivably earn taxpayers a profit." ...

... Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "... the report [on TARP] challenges public perceptions of the stimulus aid as slow-moving and wasteful - an image that has fueled voter anger with the dominant party; [i.e., Democrats]." ...

... CW: for many teabaggers, TARP was their raison dêtre, & they're still yelling about it. The tea party is largely a movement about nothing. If they had any sense -- which most don't -- they would say ...

... BUT Hugh Son of Bloomberg: "U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner’s plan to recoup taxpayer bailout funds is increasingly dependent on the stock price of insurers American International Group Inc. and MetLife Inc. The government’s stake in AIG will rise to 92 percent from about 80 percent under the revision to the New York-based insurer’s rescue announced yesterday. The Treasury Department must find buyers for $49.1 billion in AIG stock and $8.7 billion in MetLife equities starting next year."

Stephen Colbert discusses the Pew Research poll on Americans' knowledge of religions:

David Streitfeld of the New York Times: Home "evictions are expected to slow sharply ... as state and national law enforcement officials shine a light on questionable foreclosure methods revealed by two of the country’s biggest home lenders in the last two weeks.... "If completed foreclosures were not properly done, families who bought the troubled homes could be vulnerable to claims by the former owners."

Here's some fun reported by Elise Foley of the Washington Independent: "California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman lost the support — and then some — of conservative group Americans for Legal Immigration PAC after allegations surfaced that she employed an undocumented housekeeper for nine years. But the pro-enforcement group isn’t just calling for her to lose the election: They want her arrested."

Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "Mr. Paladino’s near-physical confrontation with a New York Post reporter on Wednesday night, along with his unsubstantiated assertions about the private life of his opponent, Andrew M. Cuomo, which he later retracted, have the political world grappling with this difficult question: In an election season defined by anger, how much is too much?" ...

... The New York Times Editorial Board on Republican gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino: "... bullying, it is increasingly clear, is Mr. Paladino’s standard operating procedure. The last thing this state needs is an out-of-control governor who can’t take the heat.

New York Times: "The News Corporation, whose holdings include The Wall Street Journal and the Fox News Channel, has donated $1 million to the United States Chamber of Commerce, the business advocacy group that is among the heaviest anti-Democratic advertisers in this year’s elections.... In August, News Corp. confirmed that it had donated $1 million to the Republican Governors Association." Here's the Politico story which first broke the news. ...

Catherine Herridge.... Politico reports that "The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing Fox News for retaliating against its reporter, Catherine Herridge, after she complained that she was discriminated against because of her age and gender, according to an EEOC complaint filed Thursday."

Sorry, Catherine, you aren't blond enough:

 

Other Fox "News" personalities.

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