The Commentariat -- April 10, 2021

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here.

Douglas Martin of the New York Times: "Ramsey Clark, who championed civil rights and liberties as attorney general in the Johnson administration, then devoted much of the rest of his life to defending unpopular causes and infamous people, including Saddam Hussein and others accused of war crimes, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 93.

Shayna Jacobs, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald Trump's company paid a skating rink manager more than $200,000 in annual salary, $40,000 yearly bonuses and provided free company-owned apartments for his family, according to testimony of the employee, Barry Weisselberg, and his financial documents. Such payments and perks, as well as other financial support provided to Weisselberg and his family, have drawn new scrutiny from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. (D) as a potentially key component of his ongoing criminal investigation into the former president's business activity and finances. Barry Weisselberg is the son of Trump's longtime confidant and chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, whose cooperation prosecutors are maneuvering to secure, a person familiar with the investigation said, as they evaluate whether there is sufficient evidence to charge Trump, or members of his family or inner circle."

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Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Friday asked Congress to authorize a massive $1.5 trillion federal spending plan later this year, seeking to invest heavily in a number of government agencies to boost education, expand affordable housing, bolster public health and confront climate change. The request marks Biden's first discretionary spending proposal, a precursor to the full annual budget he aims to release later in the spring that will address programs including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The president's early blueprint calls for a nearly 16 percent increase in funding across nondefense domestic agencies, reflecting the White House's guiding belief that a bigger, better-resourced government in Washington can help address the country's most pressing political and economic challenges." An AP report is here. ~~~

~~~ Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: "Not since Lyndon Baines Johnson's momentous civil rights and anti-poverty legislation has an American president so pointedly put racial and economic equity at the center of his agenda.... Yet as ambitious as [Joe Biden's] efforts are, academic experts and some policymakers say still more will be needed to repair one of the most stubborn and invidious inequalities: the gap in wealth between Black and white Americans. Wealth -- one's total assets --is the most meaningful measure of financial strength. Yet for every dollar a typical white household has, a Black one has 12 cents, a divide that has grown over the last half-century. Latinos have 21 cents for every dollar in white wealth." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Cohen's number may be skewed by the super-wealthy -- Jeff Bezos, Bill & Melinda Gates, etc. -- almost all of whom are White. One would not consider these families to fit into the "typical white household" box. Nonetheless, if you correct for super-rich White people, I assume there will still be a startling difference between the wealth of "typical" White & minority American families.

Michael Shear & Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "President Biden on Friday ordered a 180-day study of adding seats to the Supreme Court, making good on a campaign-year promise to establish a bipartisan commission to examine the potentially explosive subjects of expanding the court or setting term limits for justices, White House officials said. The president acted under pressure from activists pushing for more seats to alter the ideological balance of the court...." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday.) The AP's story is here.

Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "Roberta S. Jacobson, the former ambassador to Mexico whom President Biden chose as his 'border czar' on the National Security Council, will step down at the end of the month, she said on Friday, even as the administration struggles to confront a surge of migrants at the nation's southwestern border. Ms. Jacobson, who had been described as one of the Biden administration's key players in dealing with the governments in the Northern Triangle area of Central America, praised what she called Mr. Biden's efforts to repair and recast the nation's immigration system after four years under ... Donald J. Trump.... Ms. Jacobson said that her appointment as a special assistant to the president and as the border coordinator in the White House was always intended to last for only about 100 days -- a period that will expire at the end of April, when she intends to leave government."; UPI's story is here.

Jeremy Herb & Annie Grayer of CNN: "The House Ethics Committee said Friday it was opening an investigation into the allegations surrounding embattled Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican facing a federal investigation into whether he violated sex trafficking laws. The top Democrat and Republican on the Ethics Committee said they were examining Gaetz for a host of potential offenses, including both potential illegal activity and violations of House rules. 'The Committee is aware of public allegations that Representative Matt Gaetz may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct,' Ethics Chairman Ted Deutch of Florida and ranking Republican member Jackie Walorski of Indiana said in a joint statement Friday." ~~~

~~~ Eric Tucker, et al., of the AP: "Federal agents have, in recent months, been examining [Matt] Gaetz's connections to several other influential Florida political figures. They include Florida state senator Jason Brodeur; Halsey Beshears, the state's former top business regulator; Chris Dorworth, a lobbyist who had served in the state House of Representatives; and Jason Pirozzolo, a hand surgeon and Gaetz campaign donor who served on the board of the Orlando Airport Authority, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.... Gaetz, who has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, has retained two prominent New York attorneys while facing a Justice Department investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls.... a spokesperson for Gaetz said attorneys Marc Mukasey and Isabelle Kirshner will lead his legal team.... During a high-profile appearance Friday night at ... Donald Trump's Doral golf club in Miami, he vowed, 'I have not yet begun to fight.'"

Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "Trump appointees in the Department of Health and Human Services last year privately touted their efforts to block or alter scientists' reports on the coronavirus to more closely align with ... Donald Trump's more optimistic messages about the outbreak, according to newly released documents from congressional investigators.... Even as career government scientists worked to combat the virus, a cadre of Trump appointees was attempting to blunt the scientists' messages, edit their findings and equip the president with an alternate set of talking points." ~~~

~~~ Among those cited in Diamond's report is Michael Caputo, then HHS's public affairs director. ~~~

~~~ I Forgot??? Scott Stedman & Matt Bernardini of Forensic News: "Michael Caputo, a former senior aide to Donald Trump, who spent decades working in Russia and former Soviet states, failed to disclose a lavish painting gifted to him by a Ukrainian lobbying group in 2020. The review of Caputo's lobbying comes after a recent report from the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. election which revealed that Russian intelligence assets 'helped produce' a documentary created by Caputo and aired on One America News Network (OANN) in January 2020. The documentary ... spread numerous unfounded theories about the uprising in Ukraine in 2014 that ousted the pro-Russian President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, as well as Hunter and Joe Biden's dealings in Ukraine.... The failure to report his gift to the Justice Department ... coupled with the fact that he was paid just $1 for his lobbying efforts, has raised numerous questions about the true purpose of Caputo's work given his concurrent work with Russian spies ... Konstantin Kilimnik and Andriy Derkach" on the so-called documentary.

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Karen Weise & Michael Corkery of the New York Times: "Amazon appeared to beat back the most significant labor drive in its history on Friday, when an initial tally showed that workers at its giant warehouse in Alabama had voted decisively against forming a union. Workers cast at least 1,608 votes against a union, giving Amazon enough to defeat the effort, as ballots in favor of a union trailed at 696, according to a preliminary count. Hundreds of votes remained to be tallied, but are not enough to bridge Amazon's margin of victory. Once the count is complete, the results will still need to be certified by federal officials." MB: First, I'm gonna vote for Donald Trump; second, I'm gonna vote for Jeff Bezos; third, I'm gonna whine about Blacks & Latinos keeping me from getting ahead. (Also linked yesterday.)

It's Not Easy Being White -- Tucker the Toad

Nikki Ramirez of Media Matters: "For decades, white nationalists have invoked the specter of nonwhite immigration, multiculturalism, and declining birthrates to argue for the existence of a vast conspiracy aimed at eliminating white populations as a dominant demographic. On Fox News, Tucker Carlson is distributing the language, grievances, goals, and inherent call to action of the conspiracy theory to massive audiences. On the April 8 broadcast of Fox News Primetime, Carlson offered perhaps his most explicit justification yet for the core belief of the 'great replacement' conspiracy theory: that a wave of 'Third World' invaders is coming to replace you and reshape your environment, and that you, the audience, should do something about it. The Fox News host claimed that 'what's true' is that 'the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World,' and no one should 'sit back and take that.'"

Max Boot of the Washington Post: "On Thursday night, [Tucker] Carlson moved even closer to white supremacist ideology by explicitly endorsing the Great Replacement theory, which holds that shadowy elites are orchestrating a plot to replace native-born White people with immigrants of color. The New Zealand shooter's manifesto was literally headlined 'The Great Replacement,' and the neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville chanted 'Jews will not replace us.'" Boot name-checks a number of "senior directors and managers of Fox who are immigrants -- and even more who are the children or grandchildren of immigrants," including of course Rupert Murdoch. "The irony, of course, is that, by their very success in America, so many senior Fox leaders disprove Carlson's bigoted assumption that immigration is a source of weakness for this country."

You Will Not Replace Us. Brian Stelter of CNN: "The Anti-Defamation League is calling for Fox News to fire Tucker Carlson. 'Given his long record of race-baiting, we believe it is time for Carlson to go,' ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt says. There is zero indication that Fox will take such a step -- or even reprimand Carlson. But the ADL's call, delivered in a letter to Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott, underscores the extreme and unsettling nature of Carlson's anti-immigration commentary.... No one is being 'replaced.' Existing voters are not being exchanged for the 'more obedient' migrants Carlson imagines. But Carlson has raised this notion repeatedly on his own 8 p.m. program. In Friday's letter to Fox, Greenblatt said 'at ADL, we believe in dialogue and giving people a chance to redeem themselves, but Carlson's full-on embrace of the white supremacist replacement theory on yesterday's show and his repeated allusions to racist themes in past segments are a bridge too far.' The letter pointed out that 'replacement theory' is what 'undergirds the modern white supremacist movement in America.'"

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court late Friday night lifted California's restrictions on religious gatherings in private homes, saying they could not be enforced to bar prayer meetings, Bible study classes and the like. The court's brief, unsigned order followed earlier ones striking down limits on attendance at houses of worship meant to combat the coronavirus. The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joining the court's three liberal members in dissent."

Julie Bosman & Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "Nowhere in America is the coronavirus pandemic more out of control than in Michigan.... Hospitals are overwhelmed with patients. Officials are reporting more than 7,000 new infections each day, a sevenfold increase from late February. And Michigan is home to nine of the 10 metro areas with the country’s highest recent case rates. During previous surges in Michigan, a resolute Gov. Gretchen Whitmer shut down businesses and schools as she saw fit -- over the din of both praise and protests. But this time, Ms. Whitmer ... [said,] 'Policy change alone won't change the tide,' Ms. Whitmer said on Friday, as she asked -- but did not order -- that the public take a two-week break from indoor dining, in-person high school and youth sports. 'We need everyone to step up and to take personal responsibility here.' It is a rare moment in the pandemic: a high-profile Democratic governor bucking the pleas of doctors and epidemiologists in her state and instead asking for voluntary actions from the public to control the virus's spread."

Sean Burch of the Wrap: "YouTube has deleted a video in which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and a handful of medical experts questioned the effectiveness of having children wear masks to stop the spread of COVID-19." MB: One of the "medical experts" was Scott Atlas. (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Minnesota. Tim Arango, et al., of the New York Times: "In a trial where many key figures have spent hours on the stand, the prosecution whipped through one of their most anticipated witnesses, the doctor who performed George Floyd's official autopsy, in a mere 50 minutes on Friday. The reasons for their haste became clear as the witness, Dr. Andrew Baker, the Hennepin County medical examiner, refrained from placing the sole blame for Mr. Floyd';s death on the police as he testified in the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former officer charged with murder. In his testimony, Dr. Baker said police restraint was the main cause of Mr. Floyd's death, but he also cited drug use and heart disease as contributing factors, saying that Mr. Floyd died 'in the context of' the actions taken by three police officers as they pinned Mr. Floyd to the street for more than nine minutes." The AP's report is here.

Virginia. D.W.B. Emma Ockerman of Vice News: "Caron Nazario was driving his newly-purchased Chevy Tahoe home when two police officers pulled him over in Windsor, Virginia, whipped out their guns, and started barking orders. With their weapons raised, the officers demanded that Nazario, a Black and Latino man, get out of the SUV. Nazario ... placed his cellphone on his dashboard to film the December 5 encounter. He repeatedly asked to know what was going on. At one point, he even admitted to being afraid to leave the vehicle. 'Yeah, you should be,' one of the officers responded. Nazario, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, was coming home from work and in full uniform at the time.... By the end of the incident, the cops would threaten Nazario, pepper-spray him in the face, and knee-strike him in the legs, according to body camera footage, Nazario's cellphone video, and legal filings." Nazario was pulled over supposedly because his new vehicle did not have a permanent plate. However, the car had visible temporary plates taped to the windows.

Way Beyond

Russia. Washington Post Editors: "Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime is slowly but very intentionally murdering his leading political opponent, Alexei Navalny.... The Kremlin has done this before. In 2009, Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who had uncovered a massive fraud perpetrated by a group of senior government officials, died in prison following gross mistreatment like that Mr. Navalny is enduring.... The United States and other Western governments have taken some steps to support Mr. Navalny.... But if his life is to be saved, much stronger action is needed. [William Browder, who has sought justice for Mr. Magnitsky,] argues that the right targets are the 35 oligarchs whom Mr. Navalny himself has identified as the holders and protectors of Mr. Putin's massive private fortune. Start freezing assets and applying visa bans to those tycoons and their families, he advises, and keep going until Mr. Navalny is released."

U.K. Tina Brown, in a New York Times op-ed, remembers Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who died Friday morning. MB: Rather fun, reading avid snobs applauding the monarchy. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Cause of Death: Black Woman. Kaity Assaf of Salon: "On Friday, "Fox and Friends" host Brian Kilmeade wasted no time in placing the blame of 99-year-old Prince Philip's death on none other than Meghan Markle. Kilmeade seemed to indicate that Markle and her husband's interview with Oprah Winfrey while Philip was ill, affected his recovery process which ultimately led to his death. Kilmeade said on Friday's show: 'There are reports that [Philip] was enraged after the interview and the fallout from the interview with Oprah Winfrey, so here he is trying to recover and he's hit with that.'" Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead.~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What's really great about white people is that we don't have to play "Six Degrees of Separation" to find the connection between minorities & whatever ill may befall us. Nope, it only takes one degree. I lost my job ... because a Mexican took it. Prince Philip died ... because a black woman upset him.

The Commentariat -- April 9, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' liveblog of developments on Day 10 in the Derek Chauvin murder trial is here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. CNN's updates are here.

Michael Shear & Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "President Biden on Friday will order a 180-day study of adding seats to the Supreme Court, making good on a campaign-year promise to establish a bipartisan commission to examine the potentially explosive subjects of expanding the court or setting term limits for justices, White House officials said. The president acted under pressure from activists pushing for more seats to alter the ideological balance of the court...."

Karen Weise & MIchael Corkery of the New York Times: "Amazon appeared to beat back the most significant labor drive in its history on Friday, when an initial tally showed that workers at its giant warehouse in Alabama had voted decisively against forming a union. Workers cast at least 1,608 votes against a union, giving Amazon enough to defeat the effort, as ballots in favor of a union trailed at 696, according to a preliminary count. Hundreds of votes remained to be tallied, but are not enough to bridge Amazon's margin of victory. Once the count is complete, the results will still need to be certified by federal officials." MB: First, I'm gonna vote for Donald Trump; second, I'm gonna vote for Jeff Bezos; third, I'm gonna whine that Blacks & Latinos are keeping me from getting a better job & a raise.

Sean Burch of the Wrap: "YouTube has deleted a video in which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and a handful of medical experts questioned the effectiveness of having children wear masks to stop the spread of COVID-19." MB: One of the "medical experts" was Scott Atlas.

Tina Brown, in a New York Times op-ed, remembers Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who died Friday morning. MB: Rather fun, reading snobs applauding snobbery.

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Annie Karni of the New York Times: "President Biden, calling gun violence in the United States 'an international embarrassment,' took a set of initial steps on Thursday to address the problem, starting with a crackdown on the proliferation of so-called ghost guns, or firearms assembled from kits.... While the moves the president announced fall far short of the broad legislative changes long sought by proponents of making it harder to buy guns, especially semiautomatic weapons often used in mass shootings, they addressed narrower issues also of intense concern to many Democrats and supporters of gun regulations." ~~~

~~~ Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "President Joe Biden announced a series of executive actions on Thursday to reduce gun violence and urged Congress to pass broader gun-control legislation.... 'This is an epidemic, for God's sake, and it has to stop,' Biden said in a Rose Garden speech. The White House's moves include directing the Department of Justice to craft a rule addressing the spread of untraceable 'ghost guns' and publish an example of 'red flag' legislation for states to follow." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Washington Post Editors: "Kudos ... to Mr. Biden for using his limited unilateral authority, for calling on Congress to do more and for nominating the well-qualified David Chipman to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The agency has not had a permanent director since 2015 and has been hobbled by the national gun lobby and its Republican allies.... His resolve was heartening...." MB: What's most heartening to me is that once again we have a President who gets up every day to work for the American people, something we have missed since noon on January 20, 2017.

Joe to Joe. Jim Tankersley & Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia flashed a warning sign for President Biden's infrastructure ambitions this week, renewing his pleas for fellow Democrats not to ram through a large spending bill without first working to compromise with Republicans who have panned the president's plans.... Mr. Manchin's calls for bipartisanship were less an insurmountable obstacle for Democrats than a road map for Mr. Biden if he wants his party's tiny congressional majorities to deliver him another economic policy victory. It involves reaching out to Republicans to explore possible areas of compromise while laying the groundwork to steer around them if no such deal materializes. Mr. Biden has already begun the outreach to Republicans, while senior Democrats in Congress are exploring a budget maneuver that would allow the infrastructure bill to pass quickly with only Democratic votes."

Patricia Mazzei & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "A former local official in Florida who faces an array of federal charges, including a sex trafficking count, is expected to plead guilty in the coming weeks, a prosecutor and a defense lawyer said on Thursday in an indication that the defendant could cooperate as a key witness against Representative Matt Gaetz, who is under investigation. A plea by the former elected official, Joel Greenberg, could significantly strengthen the Justice Department's hand as it investigates Mr. Gaetz and others.... The prosecutor, Roger Handberg, made the disclosure about Mr. Greenberg's case at a six-minute status hearing at the federal courthouse in Orlando, as did Mr. Greenberg's lawyer, Fritz Scheller. Mr. Greenberg had been scheduled to go on trial in June, but both sides set a May 15 deadline for a plea deal. If they do not reach an agreement, the case would go to trial, they agreed.... 'I'm sure Matt Gaetz is not feeling very comfortable today,' Mr. Scheller told reporters outside the courthouse after the hearing."; CNN's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hmm. If Greenberg wasn't prepared to flip on Gaetz, I doubt Greenberg's lawyer would have tagged Gaetz. So another bad day for Congressman Elvis. BTW, much has been made of the fact that Bill Barr approved the Gaetz investigation. But it's my opinion -- not shared by anyone whose opinion I've read -- that Barr didn't have much of a choice, once Gaetz's name came up in connection with evidence previously gathered against Greenberg. So I would not give Barr any props for applying "equal justice under the law" to a Trump supporter. Rather, he was stuck with evidence inadvertently obtained against Gaetz. ~~~

Each time a new revelation surfaces in the Gaetz/Greenberg sex scandal, Matt's office puts out a statement that begins, "Rep. Gaetz has never paid for sex, nor has he had sex with an underage girl." Well, what about this, Matt? ~~~

     ~~~ Jose Pagliery & Roger Sollenberger of the Daily Beast: "In two late-night Venmo transactions in May 2018, Rep. Matt Gaetz sent his friend, the accused sex trafficker Joel Greenberg, $900. The next morning, over the course of eight minutes, Greenberg used the same app to send three young women varying sums of money. In total, the transactions amounted to $900.... In the second [transaction, Gaetz] wrote 'hit up ___.' But instead of a blank, Gaetz wrote a nickname for one of the recipients.... Greenberg and Gaetz are also connected on Venmo to at least one other woman that Greenberg paid with taxpayer funds using a government-issued credit card. Seminole County auditors flagged hundreds of those payments as 'questioned or unaccounted for,' and in total found more than $300,000 in suspicious or unjustified expenses.... Gaetz and Greenberg share two direct Venmo connections with women who received payments from Greenberg. In 2018, Greenberg paid one of those women several thousand dollars using his taxpayer-backed Seminole County-issued Wells Fargo Visa card, according to county financial records obtained by The Daily Beast. Auditors flagged the transactions, saying that, despite having a contract and invoice from the company, they 'do not know what it was for.'" MB: This story is firewalled. I copied it before the firewall went up. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In case Matt doesn't understand the implications here, paying somebody to pay somebody to have sex with you is called a "conspiracy"; it's not a get-out-of-jail card.

~~~ Nicholas Fandos & Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "A second senior aide to Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, abruptly quit in recent days as the congressman tries to fend off a Justice Department sex trafficking investigation and mounting public scrutiny, according to three people familiar with the decision. The aide, Devin Murphy, resigned as Mr. Gaetz's legislative director on Friday. He told associates that he was interested in writing bills, not working at TMZ -- equating the work that Mr. Gaetz's aides were now handling to the tabloid publication, according to one of the people, who all asked not to be identified discussing a sensitive personnel matter." ~~~

~~~ Gabby Orr & Meredith McGraw of Politico: "A boutique conservative consultancy group working on behalf of Rep. Matt Gaetz is threatening to sue journalists for their coverage of the embattled congressman. MB: Yeah, when in deep trouble, the best course is to follow Devin Nunes' playbook & bring nuisance lawsuits against everybody.

** Zachary Cohen & Whitney Wild of CNN: "A scathing report by the US Capitol Police watchdog ... reveals that there were even more law enforcement failures prior to January 6 than previously known, including new details about expired ammunition, ineffective shields and a previously unreported warning more than two weeks ahead of the insurrection about a map of the Capitol's underground tunnels that was posted on a pro-Donald Trump website.... Specifically, the summary [report] highlights significant problems with the department's vigilance when it came to equipment maintenance, policies for the Civil Disturbance Unit, and handling of intelligence prior to the attack."

Tucker Higgins of CNBC: "Kevin Seefried, who was photographed carrying a Confederate flag in the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots in Washington, has been indicted by a grand jury on five counts related to obstruction, entering restricted property and disorderly conduct. Seefried's son, Hunter Seefried, was also indicted. The younger Seefried faces the same five counts as his father in addition to three charges related to destruction of government property and violence on Capitol grounds."

Kara Scannell of CNN: "A former FBI forensic accountant key to ... Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election is one of several accountants working on the Manhattan district attorney's investigation into the Trump Organization, people familiar with the matter say. Morgan Magionos, who was a lynchpin to the prosecution of ... Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, is a member of the team of outside experts from FTI Consulting aiding New York prosecutors. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance brought on FTI Consulting last year as part of his office's wide-ranging investigation into possible insurance fraud, fraud involving lenders, and tax fraud." ~~~

~~~ Shayna Jacobs & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Investigators from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, acting on a grand jury subpoena, took possession of financial records Thursday morning from the apartment of Jennifer Weisselberg, the former daughter-in-law of a top Trump Organization officer. Jennifer Weisselberg was married to Barry Weisselberg -- the son of Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg -- from 2004 to 2018. She has previously said that she had seven boxes of financial records from both her ex-husband and his father, some of which were obtained through divorce litigation. On Thursday, she loaded three boxes and a laptop computer onto a valet cart and wheeled them from her building to a black Jeep with dark-tinted windows that was waiting outside." (Also linked yesterday.)

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Former Speaker John Boehner, Republican of Ohio, says in a new memoir that he regrets supporting the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, calling it a partisan attack that he now wishes he had repudiated. In his book 'On the House: A Washington Memoir,' a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Boehner blames Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, then the No. 2 Republican, for leading a politically motivated campaign against Mr. Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern.... 'I was on board at the time,' Mr. Boehner went on. 'I won't pretend otherwise. But I regret it now. I regret that I didn't fight against it.' Mr. Boehner's memoir, whose cover is a photograph of the former speaker holding a glass of merlot, with a lit cigarette in an ashtray beside him -- his natural habitat for decades -- is full of colorful stories from his time in Congress.... Mr. Boehner also details on the record some of Capitol Hill's most talked-about exchanges, including the time that Representative Don Young, Republican of Alaska, pulled a knife on Mr. Boehner on the House floor after a critical speech about sweetheart projects going to Alaska." ~~~

~~~ David Corn of Mother Jones: "So now we have to hear John Boehner whine about what happened to the Republican Party?... What he did not say ... is that he shares the blame for the rise of extremism in the Republican Party.... Boehner became speaker in 2011 because of the tea party.... Boehner never tried to to tamp down conservative anger and paranoia. He did not tell the birthers to knock it off. He egged on the Obama hatred, allowing the Benghazi-istas to run free and wild. He whipped up extremism on the right to achieve power and then discovered he couldn't ride that tiger. In 2015, he left the House for calmer days as a merlot-sipping (gulping?) lobbyist.... The beast Boehner fed ... became the base for Trump and Trumpism." Thanks to unwashed for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) For context, see this NYT story by Maggie Haberman, also linked here yesterday. Corn also summarizes the Times' story in his post.

Shannon Liao of the Washington Post: "In a viral video with over 300,000 views since it was posted to Twitter April 6, professional esports player Lee 'Fearless' Eui-seok spoke out against hateful, anti-Asian acts he has experienced since coming to the United States. His comments have attracted attention across the esports industry and provided another example of the harassment and violence Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have faced throughout the country, particularly during the covid-19 pandemic. Lee, a professional esports player and a member of the Overwatch League's Dallas Fuel team, was asked by a fan during a live stream what it's been like for him since moving to Texas this year. 'Being Asian here is terrifying, seriously,' he said in comments translated from Korean. 'People keep trying to pick fights with us. Every time they see me, it's like Americans will come up to us and there's even people who cough on us.... It's my first time ever experiencing racism. And it's always -- it's pretty severe. And ... lots of them just try to scare us.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Florida. Hannah Sampson of the Washington Post: "... Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Thursday that the state has filed a lawsuit against the federal government demanding that cruises be allowed to resume from the United States immediately.... The lawsuit against the Biden administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls the agency's actions 'arbitrary and capricious' and asks the court to 'set aside the CDC's unlawful actions and hold that cruises should be allowed to operate with reasonable safety protocols.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Jeff Burlew of the Tallahassee Democrat: "The top lawyer for the Florida commission that investigates and prosecutes election law violations is facing charges of possession of child pornography. Eric M. Lipman, general counsel for the Florida Elections Commission, was arrested Wednesday on 11 counts of the crime. [After receiving a tip,] nvestigators obtained 19 files allegedly sent by Lipman's email account and confirmed that each one contained child sexual abuse material, according to the arrest report. They also found a number of internet searches on his work laptop involving child sexual abuse, pedophiles and ;children between the ages of 3 and 5, the report says.... [Lipman] also served as an officer with the Capital Soccer Association, a nonprofit soccer league for boys and girls ages 4 to 17, according to Florida corporate filings."

Georgia. Sara Murray & Jason Morris of CNN: "A top Georgia Republican said Wednesday that Rudy Giuliani's false claims of election fraud -- which were presented before state lawmakers -- created momentum for a package of voting rights restrictions that recently became state law. 'This is really the fallout from the 10 weeks of misinformation that flew in from former President Donald Trump,' Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said on CNN's 'New Day.' 'I went back over the weekend to really look at where this really started to gain momentum in the legislature, and it was when Rudy Giuliani showed up in a couple of committee rooms and spent hours spreading misinformation and sowing doubt across, you know, hours of testimony.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Kansas. Sherman Smith & Tim Carpenter of the Kansas Reflector: "Senate Majority Leader Gene Suellentrop [R] reeked of alcohol, struggled to speak or walk, and threatened the Kansas Highway Patrol officer who stopped him in the early hours of March 16 for driving the wrong way on Interstate 70 in Topeka. The details of the arrest were made available Thursday following the release of his charging affidavit in Shawnee County District Court.... Suellentrop ... faces a felony charge for fleeing a police officer, misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence and reckless driving, and traffic infractions for driving the wrong way on a divided highway and speeding." Driving westbound in an eastbound lane on I-470, Suellentrop "narrowly missed multiple vehicles while fleeing police at 90 mph."

Minnesota. Shaila Dewan of the New York Times: During testimony Thursday in Derek Chauvin's murder trial, "Dr. [Martin] Tobin, a pulmonologist who specializes in the mechanics of breathing, presented the prosecution's first extended testimony on a central question in the murder trial of Mr. Chauvin: how George Floyd died. 'You're seeing here fatal injury to the brain from a lack of oxygen,' Dr. Tobin said[, explaining a snippet of video]. Dr. Tobin said that Mr. Chauvin and other police officers had restricted Mr. Floyd's breathing by flattening his rib cage against the pavement and pushing his cuffed hands into his torso, and by the placement of Mr. Chauvin's knees on his neck and back.... After two days of sometimes tedious law enforcement testimony on procedures and policy, jurors appeared to be riveted by Dr. Tobin's ability to break down complex physiological concepts, at times scribbling notes in unison." The AP's story is here.

Texas. The GOP's Racist Voter Intimidation Plan. Teo Armus & Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: "In a leaked video of a recent presentation, a man who identifies himself as a GOP official in Harris County, Tex., says the party needs 10,000 Republicans for an 'election integrity brigade' in Houston. Then he pulls up a map of the area's voting precincts and points to Houston's dense, racially diverse urban core, saying the party specifically needed volunteers with 'the confidence and courage to come down here,' adding, 'this is where the fraud is occurring.' The official cites widespread vote fraud, which has not been documented in Texas, as driving the need for an 'army' of poll watchers to monitor voters at every precinct in the county.... 'It's very clear that we're talking about recruiting people from the predominantly Anglo parts of town to go to Black and Brown neighborhoods,' Anthony Gutierrez..., executive director [of Common Cause Texas], told The Washington Post."

Way Beyond

Marilyn Berger of the New York Times: "Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, father of Prince Charles and patriarch of a turbulent royal family that he sought to ensure would not be Britain's last, died on Friday at Windsor Castle in England. He was 99." ~~~

The Commentariat -- April 8, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "President Joe Biden announced a series of executive actions on Thursday to reduce gun violence and urged Congress to pass broader gun-control legislation.... 'This is an epidemic, for God's sake, and it has to stop,' Biden said in a Rose Garden speech. The White House's moves include directing the Department of Justice to craft a rule addressing the spread of untraceable 'ghost guns' and publish an example of 'red flag' legislation for states to follow." ~~~

Patricia Mazzei & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "A former local official in Florida who faces an array of federal charges, including a sex trafficking count, is expected to plead guilty in the coming weeks, a prosecutor and a defense lawyer said on Thursday in an indication that the defendant could cooperate as a key witness against Representative Matt Gaetz, who is under investigation. A plea by the former elected official, Joel Greenberg, could significantly strengthen the Justice Department's hand as it investigates Mr. Gaetz and others.... The prosecutor, Roger Handberg, made the disclosure about Mr. Greenberg's case at a six-minute status hearing at the federal courthouse in Orlando, as did Mr. Greenber's lawyer, Fritz Scheller. Mr. Greenberg had been scheduled to go on trial in June, but both sides set a May 15 deadline for a plea deal. If they do not reach an agreement, the case would go to trial, they agreed.... 'I'm sure Matt Gaetz is not feeling very comfortable today,' Mr. Scheller told reporters outside the courthouse after the hearing." CNN's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hmm. If Greenberg wasn't prepared to flip on Gaetz, I doubt Greenberg's lawyer would have tagged Gaetz. So another bad day for Congressman Elvis. BTW, much has been made of the fact that Bill Barr approved the Gaetz investigation. But it's my opinion -- not shared by anyone whose opinion I've read -- that Barr didn't have much of a choice, once Gaetz's name came up in connection with evidence previously gathered against Greenberg. So I would not give Barr any props for applying "equal justice under the law" to a Trump supporter. Rather, he was stuck with evidence inadvertently obtained against Gaetz.

Shayna Jacobs & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Investigators from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, acting on a grand jury subpoena, took possession of financial records Thursday morning from the apartment of Jennifer Weisselberg, the former daughter-in-law of a top Trump Organization officer. Jennifer Weisselberg was married to Barry Weisselberg -- the son of Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg -- from 2004 to 2018. She has previously said that she had seven boxes of financial records from both her ex-husband and his father, some of which were obtained through divorce litigation. On Thursday, she loaded three boxes and a laptop computer onto a valet cart and wheeled them from her building to a black Jeep with dark-tinted windows that was waiting outside."

The New York Times' live updates of Day 9 of Derek Chauvin's murder trial are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. CNN's live updates are here.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here.

Sara Murray & Jason Morris of CNN: "A top Georgia Republican said Wednesday that Rudy Giuliani's false claims of election fraud -- which were presented before state lawmakers -- created momentum for a package of voting rights restrictions that recently became state law. 'This is really the fallout from the 10 weeks of misinformation that flew in from former President Donald Trump,' Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said on CNN's 'New Day.' 'I went back over the weekend to really look at where this really started to gain momentum in the legislature, and it was when Rudy Giuliani showed up in a couple of committee rooms and spent hours spreading misinformation and sowing doubt across, you know, hours of testimony.'"

David Corn of Mother Jones: "So now we have to hear John Boehner whine about what happened to the Republican Party?... What he did not say ... is that he shares the blame for the rise of extremism in the Republican Party.... Boehner became speaker in 2011 because of the tea party.... Boehner never tried to to tamp down conservative anger and paranoia. He did not tell the birthers to knock it off. He egged on the Obama hatred, allowing the Benghazi-istas to run free and wild. He whipped up extremism on the right to achieve power and then discovered he couldn't ride that tiger. In 2015, he left the House for calmer days as a merlot-sipping (gulping?) lobbyist.... The beast Boehner fed ... became the base for Trump and Trumpism." Thanks to unwashed for the link.

Shannon Liao of the Washington Post: :In a viral video with over 300,000 views since it was posted to Twitter April 6, professional esports player Lee 'Fearless' Eui-seok spoke out against hateful, anti-Asian acts he has experienced since coming to the United States. His comments have attracted attention across the esports industry and provided another example of the harassment and violence Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have faced throughout the country, particularly during the covid-19 pandemic. Lee, a professional esports player and a member of the Overwatch League's Dallas Fuel team, was asked by a fan during a live stream what it's been like for him since moving to Texas this year. 'Being Asian here is terrifying, seriously,' he said in comments translated from Korean. 'People keep trying to pick fights with us. Every time they see me, it's like Americans will come up to us and there's even people who cough on us.... It's my first time ever experiencing racism. And it's always -- it's pretty severe. And ... lots of them just try to scare us.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Today's so-called news is chockful of politicians embarrassing themselves in sleazy sex stories: Matt Gaetz cavorting in the Bahamas with "female escorts" paid for by a weed enthusiast' Andrew Cuomo groping an unwilling aide in his office; an erstwhile Alabama U.S. Senate candidate lying about, then admitting, an extramarital affair. So is it relatively sweet that a husband and wife schemed to stay together by faking her death after she cheated the federal government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars?

Jim Tankersley & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Large companies like Apple and Bristol Myers Squibb have long employed complicated maneuvers to reduce or eliminate their tax bills by shifting income on paper between countries.... President Biden sees ending that practice as central to his $2 trillion infrastructure package, pushing changes to the tax code that his administration says will ensure American companies are contributing tax dollars to help invest in the country's roads, bridges, water pipes and in other parts of his economic agenda. On Wednesday, the Treasury Department released the details of Mr. Biden's tax plan, which aims to raise as much as $2.5 trillion over 15 years to help finance the infrastructure proposal. That includes bumping the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 21 percent, imposing a strict new minimum tax on global profits and cracking down on companies that try to move profits offshore."

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "President Biden is expected to unveil a series of executive actions addressing gun violence on Thursday, weeks after back-to-back mass shootings left 18 people dead and pushed the issue of gun legislation to the forefront for an administration tackling multiple crises. Mr. Biden is also expected to announce his intent to nominate David Chipman, a gun control advocate, to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, officials said. The bureau has not had a permanent director since 2015. The moves come as Mr. Biden has been under pressure to address gun violence, but has made clear that pushing legislation through a blockade of Republican opposition is not currently feasible. Officials reiterated on Wednesday that the proposals the president planned to unveil with Merrick B. Garland, the attorney general, were only a start and that the president would continue to call on Congress to take action." Politico's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "David Chipman, President Joe Biden's planned nominee for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, has a long history at the agency and sports credentials in gun control advocacy sure to excite firearm safety groups. If confirmed, Chipman will lead the agency that enforces gun laws at a critical point in Biden's early tenure, as the President looks to take fresh action on the issue in the wake of two deadly shootings last month.... Chipman, if confirmed, would return to the agency where he worked for 25 years as a special agent.... He currently serves as a senior policy adviser at the organization led by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who became a gun control advocate after being shot in 2011."

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia ... on Wednesday reaffirmed his vow to protect the filibuster in the evenly divided Senate and suggested reluctance to his party repeatedly using a fast-track budget process to advance legislation without Republican votes. Mr. Manchin has long been one of the most stalwart defenders of the 60-vote threshold needed to end debate in the upper chamber, even as it threatens to derail key elements of President Biden's agenda. Despite previously toying with possible reforms to the procedural hurdle, he has repeatedly swatted away queries about what could drive him to vote to outright abolish the filibuster, even as Democrats have gamed out various scenarios in which he might relent. In an opinion piece published in The Washington Post, Mr. Manchin vowed that there was 'no circumstance in which I will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster,' and he urged party leaders to compromise on legislation instead of trying to work around Republican opposition." The Hill has a story here.

Major Garrett, et al., of CBS News: "Federal investigators are looking into a Bahamas trip Matt Gaetz allegedly took in late 2018 or early 2019 as part of an inquiry into whether the Florida representative violated sex trafficking laws, multiple sources told CBS News. Gaetz was on that trip with a marijuana entrepreneur and hand surgeon named Jason Pirozzolo, who allegedly paid for the travel expenses, accommodations, and female escorts, the sources said. Investigators are trying to determine if the escorts were illegally trafficked across state or international lines for the purpose of sex with the congressman.... Investigators also want to know if Gaetz was accepting paid escorts in exchange for political access or legislative favors, the sources said. In a July 2018 podcast, Pirozzolo told Ganjapreneur.com that Gaetz was working to introduce federal legislation that would boost medical research of cannabis.... Gaetz introduced the Medical Cannabis Research Act in April 2018 and again in January 2019, though it never came to a vote." ~~~

~~~ Gail Collins of the New York Times wishes for a better sex scandal than slimy Matt Gaetz's contribution to our national oeuvre. "If Americans love a sex scandal, they prefer it to involve somebody who's reasonably important.... As it stands, Gaetz is a spectacularly unproductive Florida Republican who never managed, during his first two terms in the House, to get a single bill that he sponsored signed into law. (We are still crossing our fingers for that post-office-naming he co-sponsored.) Meanwhile, by Forbes's count, he has appeared on Fox News at least 179 times since taking office." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: My problem with the Gaetz scandal is that it involves at least one actual victim: a teenaged girl. The same was true of Anthony Weiner's offences. Or Gary Condit's, whose lover was a young adult but was also a murder victim, and there's nothing remotely funny about that. Way back in the late 1970s John Jenrette did a little better when he had sex on the Capitol steps; alas, the real scandal was that he took bribes (oh, and shoplifted a necktie) and, to make matters even less spicy, the lady on the steps was his Playboy-"model" wife. Today's Congressmen simply are not very good at cooking up sex scandals that give us the freedom to laugh our heads off. Collins kindly provides us with a brief history of better American sex scandals.

And the Grift Goes On. Tim Miller of the Bulwark shares a fundraising text message he received from the National Republican Congressional Committee that is a knock off those deceptive fundraising emails the Trump campaign sent out. Thanks to RAS for the link. Marie: The post is kind of a fun read, especially because Miller -- a Republican who looks like a Democrat -- is a good writer. But for me, the bottom line is this: it's not easy being a Republican. Those who are plugged in to social media must get "offers" like this 20 times a day. And they may get plenty through the mail, too, especially if they ever "accepted" such an "offer." You can see why so many Republicans "don't trust the government" when the very government men who promise to "get the government out of my Medicare" are constantly scamming them. ~~~

     ~~~ Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "The political arm of House Republicans is deploying a prechecked box to enroll donors into repeating monthly donations -- and using ominous language to warn them of the consequences if they opt out: 'If you UNCHECK this box, we will have to tell Trump you're a DEFECTOR.' The language appears to be an effort by the National Republican Congressional Committee to increase its volume of recurring donations, which are highly lucrative, while invoking ... Donald J. Trump's popularity with the conservative base. Those donors who do not proactively uncheck the box will have their credit cards billed or bank accounts deducted for donations every month.... The Democratic platform, ActBlue, also allows some groups to precheck recurring donation boxes, including the political arm of House Democrats, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The D.C.C.C. noted that it has a pop-up window telling donors who made a recurring donation that they did so immediately after the contribution is processed." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If the recurring donation is revealed "after the contribution is processed," that's a hassle. You would have to figure out how to contact ActBlue & order them to undo your unintended repeat donations. So not a lot better than the GOP grift. I have made numerous contributions to Democrats thru ActBlue, and they have not caught me up -- yet -- in this scam. I can't recall if I had to uncheck a box or if I just didn't check the recurring donation box.

Quint Forgey of Politico: "Twitter will not allow the National Archives to make ... Donald Trump's past tweets from his @realDonaldTrump account available on the social media platform..., in the latest display of Silicon Valley's power over communications channels used by the U.S. government. The statement came as the National Archives and Records Administration has been working to create an official online archive of Trump's tweets as president, including those that prompted Twitter to permanently suspend him earlier this year as a threat to public safety. NARA already maintains archives for the institutional and personal accounts of many other former Trump administration officials, in which the old tweets live on the Twitter platform and users can retweet, like and otherwise interact with them.... NARA spokesperson James Pritchett said that while the National Archives 'is still exploring the best way' to make the @realDonaldTrump archival content public, the agency would defer to Twitter on whether that archive should be available on the social media site and would still post the preserved tweets to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library website.”

Trump Crime Family Hires Criminal Defense Attorney. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that ... Donald Trump's family business has retained Ronald Fischetti, a high-powered criminal defense lawyer, as New York prosecutors continue to investigate Trump's finances."

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "John Boehner, the Republican former House speaker, issues a stinging denunciation in his new book of Donald J. Trump, saying that the former president 'incited that bloody insurrection' by his supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and that the Republican Party has been taken over by 'whack jobs.' The criticism from Mr. Boehner in his book, 'On the House: A Washington Memoir,' represents an extraordinary public rebuke by a former speaker of the House toward a former president from his own party and shows how much the Republican Party has shifted since Mr. Boehner left Congress in 2015.... Nodding to the divisions between the parties in Congress now, he writes, 'Whatever they end up doing, or not doing, none of it will compare to one of the lowest points of American democracy that we lived through in January 2021.' Mr. Trump, he goes on, 'incited that bloody insurrection for nothing more than selfish reasons, perpetuated by the bullshit he'd been shoveling since he lost a fair election the previous November.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Unlike many "memoirs" that are ghostwritten, Boehner's book appears to be written "in his own words."

White House Mystery Solved. Lee Moran of the Huffington Post: "Dave Chappelle appears to have cleared up the curious case of the 'dirty notes' that were found in the White House by Donald Trump's incoming aides. Celebrities left mocking messages for the new Trump administration during one of the last White House parties thrown by the Obamas, the comedian said on the new episode of supermodel Naomi Campbell's 'No Filter' YouTube series, released Tuesday. 'Remember when the Trump administration moved in, they said the Obama staff left dirty notes for us in all the drawers and all the cabinets?' Chappelle recalled. 'I saw this happening. I'm not going to say who did it,' he continued. 'But it was celebrities, writing all this crazy shit and putting them all over there. I saw them doing it, so when I saw it on the news I laughed real hard.'"

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "A highly infectious variant of the coronavirus that was first identified in Britain has now become the most common source of new infections in the United States, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday -- a worrisome development that comes as officials and scientists warn of a possible fourth virus surge. Federal health officials said in January that the B.1.1.7 variant, which began surging in Britain in December and has since slammed Europe, could become the dominant source of coronavirus infections in the United States, leading to a wrenching increase in cases and deaths." A UPI story is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Connor Sheets & Kyle Whitmire of AL.com: "After initially denying reports of an affair, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill [R] on Wednesday afternoon told AL.com that he had 'an inappropriate relationship' with a 44-year-old woman and will not make an anticipated run for the U.S. Senate.... In an interview with AL.com on Wednesday morning, Merrill denied having had an affair and accused [the woman,] Cesaire McPherson, of 'stalking' and 'harassing' him.... McPherson provided Al.com with a recording of an October 2020 conversation between her and Merrill.... In the 17-minute recording, Merrill and McPherson discuss various sexual acts they performed during dozens of romantic encounters that McPherson says took place between November 2017 and November 2020. During the conversation, Merrill ... told her they had met for the last time and that he was seeking help from the Lord to stay away from her. After being played a portion of the recording Wednesday, Merrill, who is married with two children, told AL.com 'there's no excuse' for his extramarital relationship." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I really don't know why people so often give God & Jesus the responsibility to end "inappropriate relationships."

California. Kevin Draper of the New York Times: "Tiger Woods was speeding when he crashed his sport-utility vehicle in February, reaching speeds of more than 80 m.p.h. in a 45 m.p.h. zone on winding road near Los Angeles, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva. The vehicle struck a tree at an estimated 75 m.p.h. and was sent airborne, eventually stopping in some brush.... He added that there were no signs of impairment or intoxication, and that Woods was wearing his seatbelt. The captain of the Lomita Sheriff's Station, James Powers, said that data was obtained from the vehicle's event data recorder.... The data showed that Woods had hit the accelerator throughout the crash, and that the pressure applied to the pedal was 99 percent. Powers said he believed that Woods inadvertently hit the accelerator while trying to brake.... Woods was not cited, Villanueva said, because under California law that typically requires either an independent witness or a law enforcement officer to witness the excessive speed. He said that Woods did not receive any special treatment.... Woods crashed his car on a windy and tricky stretch of Hawthorne Boulevard that is known for car crashes near Rancho Palos Verdes...." An AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Georgia. Ha! Kate Brumback of the AP: "A district attorney in Atlanta said Wednesday that she will not pursue charges against a Georgia state lawmaker who was arrested during a protest of the state's sweeping new election law. 'After reviewing all of the evidence, I have decided to close this matter,' Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in an emailed statement. 'It will not be presented to a grand jury for consideration of indictment, and it is now closed.' Rep. Park Cannon, a Democrat from Atlanta, was arrested March 25 after she knocked on the door to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp's office while he was on live television speaking about the voting bill he had just signed into law. Police charged her with obstruction of law enforcement and disruption of the General Assembly. She was released from jail later that evening." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Kentucky. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Kentucky on Wednesday became the only state in the country with a Republican-controlled legislature to expand voting rights after a bitter presidential election that tested the country's democratic institutions and elevated ballot access as an animating issue for both parties. In a signing ceremony on Wednesday, Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, hailed the bill as a bipartisan effort that cut against the push in other Republican legislatures to put up barriers to voting.... The reasons that Kentucky Republicans have diverged on voting rights range from the political to the logistical. For one, they had an easier sell: With sweeping new rules allowing the election to be held safely during the coronavirus pandemic, Republicans in Kentucky had one of their best cycles in years, with both Senator Mitch McConnell and Mr. Trump easily winning in the state. And expanding voting access in Kentucky was a low bar to clear; the state had some of the tightest voting laws in the country before 2020, with not a single day of early voting, and strict limits on absentee balloting." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Minnesota. Amy Forliti, et al., of the AP: "Officer Derek Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd's neck area -- and was bearing down with most of his weight -- the entire 9 1/2 minutes the Black man lay facedown with his hands cuffed behind his back, a use-of-force expert testified at Chauvin's murder trial. Jody Stiger, a Los Angeles Police Department sergeant serving as a prosecution witness, said Wednesday ... that the force used against Floyd was excessive." The Washington Post's story is here.

New York. Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: "A woman who has accused Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of groping her in the Executive Mansion gave a fuller account in a published report on Wednesday, detailing how she believed the governor had groomed her for months with a series of tight hugs and sexually suggestive comments. She said in an interview with The Times Union of Albany that Mr. Cuomo asked invasive questions about her personal life, recalling that at one point last year, the governor told her, 'Oh, if you were single, the things that I would do to you.'... [Then,] in late November, she said the governor summoned her to his ... office at the Executive Mansion. The woman told The Times Union that Mr. Cuomo closed the door and reached under her blouse.... The governor grasped one of her breasts over her bra.... In a text exchange with The New York Times on Wednesday, the woman confirmed the details that she told the Times Union, as well as the fact that she had spoken to investigators deputized by [New York AG Letitia] James." Both this story & the Times Union story are subscriber-firewalled. Politico's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Battle of the Sleazy Scions? Ivana Saric of Axios: "Andrew Giuliani, a former Trump White House staffer and the son of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, told the Washington Examiner he plans to run for governor of New York in 2022.... Despite a flood of sexual misconduct allegations and a federal investigation into his handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is still expected to run for reelection next year." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

West Virginia, Mountain Mama. Andrea Sacedo of the Washington Post: "Last May, Rodney Wheeler dialed 911 with a frantic plea for help: His wife had just plunged hundreds of feet over a steep cliff in a West Virginia national park. Authorities quickly launched a massive search for Julie Wheeler, 44. For days, hundreds of volunteers, police, and professional rescuers trekked along the base of the New River where her husband said she had fallen.... But ... three days after she supposedly fell off a cliff, authorities found her hiding inside a closet in the couple's Beaver, W.Va., home. In fact, the couple had tried to elaborately fake her death to help her avoid federal sentencing in a health-care fraud scheme.... On Monday, a federal judge sentenced Rodney Wheeler, 48, to two months in prison and six months of home confinement for his role in the plot.... In 2016, a Veterans Affairs office hired [Julie's] company to help a veteran diagnosed with spina bifida. But investigators later found that Wheeler inflated her work hours to get nearly $470,000 in inappropriate fees...." Julie previously was sentence to 54 months in prison for the healthcare & fake death frauds. "A judge also ordered her to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm thinking a fake drowning would have worked better, since a body could float be carried away. I suppose the problem is that West Virginia is landlocked. Still, the couple could have taken a trip to, say, the Chesapeake Bay to go sailing. Apparently this couple is not too bright.

Way Beyond

Russia. AP: "A lawyer for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has complained of serious back and leg pain in custody, says doctors have found him to be suffering from two spinal hernias. Vadim Kobzev told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday that Navalny also has a spinal protrusion and is beginning to lose sensation in his hands. Navalny went on a hunger strike last week to protest what he called poor medical care in a Russian prison. On Tuesday, the leader of the Navalny-backed Alliance of Doctors union was detained by police after trying to get into the prison to talk to doctors." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A Washington Post story is here.

News Ledes

CNBC: "First-time claims for unemployment insurance rose more than expected last week despite other signs of healing in the jobs market, the Labor Department reported Thursday. First-time claims for the week ended April 3 totaled 744,000, well above the expectation for 694,000 from economists surveyed by Dow Jones. The total represented an increase of 16,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised 728,000. The four-week moving average edged higher to 723,750."

Two People Who Should Not Have Had Guns:

AP: "A man opened fire Thursday at a [Bryan,] Texas cabinet-making company where he worked, killing one person and wounding five others before shooting and wounding a state trooper prior to his arrest, authorities said. Bryan Police Chief Eric Buske told reporters he believes the suspect, whose name wasn't immediately released, is an employee at the Kent Moore Cabinets location where the shooting happened."

CNN: &"Five people were killed -- including a prominent doctor, his wife and their two young grandchildren -- in a shooting at a home near the South Carolina city of Rock Hill on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said. A sixth person also was injured in the shooting, and authorities eventually found a suspect in the suspect's home nearby, York County sheriff's officials said early Thursday without elaborating. Investigators believe the suspect was the only assailant, and are trying to figure out why anyone would have gunned down Dr. Robert Lesslie and some members of his family, sheriff's spokesman Trent Faris said. The slain grandchildren were ages 5 and 9, the York County Coroner's Office said." ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: "Former NFL player Phillip Adams fatally shot five people, including a prominent doctor, his wife and their two grandchildren before killing himself early Thursday. York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson told a news conference that investigators had not yet determined a motive for Wednesday's mass shooting."