The Ledes

Monday, June 30, 2025

It's summer in our hemisphere, and people across Guns America have nothing to do but shoot other people.

New York Times: “A gunman deliberately started a wildfire in a rugged mountain area of Idaho and then shot at the firefighters who responded, killing two and injuring another on Sunday afternoon in what the local sheriff described as a 'total ambush.' Law enforcement officers exchanged fire with the gunman while the wildfire burned, and officials later found the body of the male suspect on the mountain with a firearm nearby, Sheriff Robert Norris of Kootenai County said at a news conference on Sunday night. The authorities said they believed the suspect had acted alone but did not release any information about his identity or motives.” A KHQ-TV (Spokane) report is here.

New York Times: “The New York City police were investigating a shooting in Manhattan on Sunday night that left two people injured steps from the Stonewall Inn, an icon of the L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement. The shooting occurred outside a nearby building in Greenwich Village at 10:15 p.m., Sgt. Matthew Forsythe of the New York Police Department said. The New York City Pride March had been held in Manhattan earlier on Sunday, and Mayor Eric Adams said on social media that the shooting happened as Pride celebrations were ending. One victim who was shot in the head was in critical condition on Monday morning, a spokeswoman for the Police Department said. A second victim was in stable condition after being shot in the leg, she said. No suspect had been identified. The police said it was unclear if the shooting was connected to the Pride march.”

New York Times: “A dangerous heat wave is gripping large swaths of Europe, driving temperatures far above seasonal norms and prompting widespread health and fire alerts. The extreme heat is forecast to persist into next week, with minimal relief expected overnight. France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are among the nations experiencing the most severe conditions, as meteorologists warn that Europe can expect more and hotter heat waves in the future because of climate change.”

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Marie: Sorry, my countdown clock was unreliable; then it became completely unreliable. I can't keep up with it. Maybe I'll try another one later.

 

Commencement ceremonies are joyous occasions, and Steve Carell made sure that was true this past weekend (mid-June) at Northwestern's commencement:

~~~ Carell's entire commencement speech was hilarious. The audio and video here isn't great, but I laughed till I cried.

CNN did a live telecast Saturday night (June 7) of the Broadway play "Good Night, and Good Luck," written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, about legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow's effort to hold to account Sen. Joe McCarthy, "the junior senator from Wisconsin." Clooney plays Murrow. Here's Murrow himself with his famous take on McCarthy & McCarthyism, brief remarks that especially resonate today: ~~~

     ~~~ This article lists ways you still can watch the play. 

New York Times: “The New York Times Company has agreed to license its editorial content to Amazon for use in the tech giant’s artificial intelligence platforms, the company said on Thursday. The multiyear agreement 'will bring Times editorial content to a variety of Amazon customer experiences,' the news organization said in a statement. Besides news articles, the agreement encompasses material from NYT Cooking, The Times’s food and recipe site, and The Athletic, which focuses on sports. This is The Times’s first licensing arrangement with a focus on generative A.I. technology. In 2023, The Times sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, for copyright infringement, accusing the tech companies of using millions of articles published by The Times to train automated chatbots without any kind of compensation. OpenAI and Microsoft have rejected those accusations.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I have no idea what this means for "the Amazon customer experience." Does it mean that if I don't have a NYT subscription but do have Amazon Prime I can read NYT content? And where, exactly, would I find that content? I don't know. I don't know.

Washington Post reporters asked three AI image generators what a beautiful woman looks like. "The Post found that they steer users toward a startlingly narrow vision of attractiveness. Prompted to show a 'beautiful woman,' all three tools generated thin women, without exception.... Her body looks like Barbie — slim hips, impossible waist, round breasts.... Just 2 percent of the images showed visible signs of aging. More than a third of the images had medium skin tones. But only nine percent had dark skin tones. Asked to show 'normal women,' the tools produced images that remained overwhelmingly thin.... However bias originates, The Post’s analysis found that popular image tools struggle to render realistic images of women outside the Western ideal." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The reporters seem to think they are calling out the AI programs for being unrealistic. But there's a lot about the "beautiful women" images they miss. I find these omissions remarkably sexist. For one thing, the reporters seem to think AI is a magical "thing" that self-generates. It isn't. It's programmed. It's programmed by boys, many of them incels who have little or no experience or insights beyond comic books and Internet porn of how to gauge female "beauty." As a result, the AI-generated women look like cartoons; that is, a lot like an air-brushed photo of Kristi Noem: globs of every kind of dark eye makeup, Scandinavian nose, Botox lips, slathered-on skin concealer/toner/etc. makeup, long dark hair and the aforementioned impossible Barbie body shape, including huge, round plastic breasts. 

New York Times: “George Clooney’s Broadway debut, 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' has been one of the sensations of the 2024-25 theater season, breaking box office records and drawing packed houses of audiences eager to see the popular movie star in a timely drama about the importance of an independent press. Now the play will become much more widely available: CNN is planning a live broadcast of the penultimate performance, on June 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern. The performance will be preceded and followed by coverage of, and discussion about, the show and the state of journalism.”

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. -- Magna Carta ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “Bought for $27.50 after World War II, the faint, water stained manuscript in the library of Harvard Law School had attracted relatively little attention since it arrived there in 1946. That is about to change. Two British academics, one of whom happened on the manuscript by chance, have discovered that it is an original 1300 version — not a copy, as long thought — of Magna Carta, the medieval document that helped establish some of the world’s most cherished liberties. It is one of just seven such documents from that date still in existence.... A 710-year-old version of Magna Carta was sold in 2007 for $21.3 million.... First issued in 1215, it put into writing a set of concessions won by rebellious barons from a recalcitrant King John of England — or Bad King John, as he became known in folklore. He later revoked the charter, but his son, Henry III, issued amended versions, the last one in 1225, and Henry’s son, Edward I, in turn confirmed the 1225 version in 1297 and again in 1300.”

NPR lists all of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners. Poynter lists the prizes awarded in journalism as well as the finalists in these categories.

 

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Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. — Anonymous

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. — Edward R. Murrow

Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns

I have a Bluesky account now. The URL is https://bsky.app/profile/marie-burns.bsky.social . When Reality Chex goes down, check my Bluesky page for whatever info I am able to report on the status of Reality Chex. If you can't access the URL, I found that I could Google Bluesky and ask for Marie Burns. Google will include links to accounts for people whose names are, at least in part, Maria Burns, so you'll have to tell Google you looking only for Marie.

Friday
Oct152021

October 16, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "Framed by the Capitol, President Joe Biden paid tribute Saturday to fallen law enforcement officers and honored those who fought off the Jan. 6 insurrection at that very site by declaring 'because of you, democracy survived.' Biden spoke at the 40th Annual National Peace Officers' Memorial Service to remember the 491 law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty in 2019 and 2020. Standing where the violent mob tried to block his own ascension to the presidency, Biden singled out the 150 officers who were injured and the five wh died in the attack's aftermath.... Biden also underscored the heavy burden placed on law enforcement officers, and rebuked the 'defund the police' political movement, saying that those gathered before him would get 'more resources, not fewer, so you can do your job.'... At the ceremony, Biden expressed concerns for all officers in the line of duty and mentioned the three constable deputies shot in an ambush early Saturday while working at a Houston bar. One deputy was killed." ~~~

~~~ Marie: This might be a good place to mention that "COVID-19 has killed nearly 500 law enforcement officers, between 2020 and 2021, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a database that tracks line of duty officer deaths.... COVID-19 accounts for 65% of law enforcement officer deaths since 2020, data shows." This makes police unions' opposition to vaccine mandates seem all the more stupid.

Shawna Chen of Axios: "The Pentagon has offered unspecified payments as a condolence to the families of 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children, who were killed in an Aug. 29 U.S. drone strike in Kabul.... The U.S. offered the payments in a virtual meeting on Thursday between Colin Kahl, the under secretary of defense for policy, and Steven Kwon, the founder and president of Nutrition & Education International, a nonprofit focused on women in children in Afghanistan that had employed [Zemari] Ahmadi before he was killed [in the drone strike].

Beth Reinhard, et al., of the Washington Post: "A wealthy Trump donor who helped finance the rally in Washington on Jan. 6 also gave $150,000 to the nonprofit arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association, records show, funds that a person familiar with the contribution said were intended in part to promote the rally. The nonprofit organization paid for a robocall touting a march that afternoon to the U.S. Capitol to 'call on Congress to stop the steal.' On Dec. 29, Julie Jenkins Fancelli, daughter of the founder of the Publix grocery store chain, gave the previously undisclosed contribution to RAGA's nonprofit Rule of Law Defense Fund, or RLDF.... Funding for the events in Washington that day is a focus of the House select committee investigating the violent riot at the U.S. Capitol that followed the rally.... The leaders of Women for America First have been subpoenaed by the committee, as has Caroline Wren, a Republican fundraiser who was listed on that group's permit as a 'VIP ADVISOR.' Both of Fancelli's donations were arranged by Wren.... Fancelli ... is not involved in Publix business operations...."

Robert Reich, in a Guardian op-ed (Oct. 13): "... American workers are now flexing their muscles for the first time in decades. You might say workers have declared a national general strike until they get better pay and improved working conditions.... In its own disorganized way it's related to the organized strikes breaking out across the land -- Hollywood TV and film crews, John Deere workers, Alabama coal miners, Nabisco workers, Kellogg workers, nurses in California, healthcare workers in Buffalo. Disorganized or organized, American workers now have bargaining leverage to do better. After a year and a half of the pandemic, consumers have pent-up demand for all sorts of goods and services. But employers are finding it hard to fill positions.... Corporate America wants to frame this as a 'labor shortage.' Wrong. What's really going on is more accurately described as a living-wage shortage, a hazard pay shortage, a childcare shortage, a paid sick leave shortage, and a healthcare shortage."

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

~~~~~~~~~~

Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Friday sought to reassert America's leadership in the fight for human rights around the world, but he acknowledged that depends in part on the country's performance at home and said the best course is for the United States to be honest about its flaws. Speaking at a center dedicated to Thomas Dodd, a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders after World War II, Biden tied the horrors unveiled there to current human rights violations around the world. 'We see human rights and democratic principles increasingly under assault, and we feel the same charge of history upon our own shoulder to act,' Biden said. 'We have fewer democracies today than we did 15 years ago. Fewer. Not more -- fewer. It cannot be sustained.'" ~~~

Ann Marimow & Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Department of Justice said Friday that it will go back to the Supreme Court to request that it put on hold Texas's restrictive abortion law while legal battles continue. In a different case, the Supreme Court last month allowed the law to go into effect on a divisive 5 to 4 vote. The DOJ has filed a separate challenge to halt the law, which bars abortion as early as six weeks into the pregnancy and makes no exceptions for rape or incest.... Last week, a federal judge in Austin temporarily suspended enforcement of the abortion ban.... But the U.S. Court of Appeals of the 5th Circuit quickly put Pitman's order on hold, and on Thursday said the law would remain in effect, setting a hearing the week of Dec. 6. and reinstated the law pending further review.... 'The Justice Department intends to ask the Supreme Court to vacate the Fifth Circuit's stay of the preliminary injunction against Texas Senate Bill 8,' Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley said in a brief statement Friday." The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Betsy Klein & Kate Sullivan of CNN: "Foreign visitors who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will be able to travel to the United States starting on November 8, the White House said Friday.... The move would relax a patchwork of bans that had begun to cause fury abroad and replacing them with more uniform requirements for inbound international air passengers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Donald Judd of CNN: "Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed a Hatch Act complaint against White House press secretary Jen Psaki, alleging that she appeared to have endorsed Terry McAuliffe during a White House press briefing on Thursday. According to the US Office of Special Counsel, the agency charged with investigating Hatch Act violations, the law prohibits federal employees from 'using their official titles or positions while engaged in political activity,' including 'any activity directed at the success or failure of a political party, candidate for partisan political office, or partisan political group.' During the briefing, Psaki acknowledged that she could not make an endorsement from the podium, saying, 'I have to be a little careful about how much political analysis I do from here, and not, not traipse into that too much.' She then told reporters: 'We're going to do everything we can to help former Governor McAuliffe, and we believe in the agenda he's representing.'"

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The most powerful part of President Biden's climate agenda -- a program to rapidly replace the nation's coal- and gas-fired power plants with wind, solar and nuclear energy -- will likely be dropped from the massive budget bill pending in Congress, according to congressional staffers and lobbyists familiar with the matter. Senator Joe Manchin III, the Democrat from coal-rich West Virginia whose vote is crucial to passage of the bill, has told the White House that he strongly opposes the clean electricity program, according to three of those people. As a result, White House staffers are now rewriting the legislation without that climate provision, and are trying to cobble together a mix of other policies that could also cut emissions." ~~~

~~~ Hailey Fuchs of Politico: "Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) raised more campaign money in the last three months than in any quarter since she became a senator. And she hit that $1.1 million haul with a big assist from the pharmaceutical and financial industries, whose political action committees and top executives stuffed her coffers in the middle of negotiations on Democrats' massive infrastructure and social spending bills.... Little of the $1.1 million Sinema raised came from her constituents. Nearly 90 percent of Sinema's cash from individual contributors came from outside Arizona." ~~~

~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-Az.) "and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) are the two holdouts keeping President Biden's 'Build Back Better' agenda (and with it a $1 trillion infrastructure bill) from passage. But while Manchin has consistent (conservative) positions and has been negotiating in good faith with the White House, Sinema chose this week to fly off to the land of Marie Antoinette. Yes, Sinema is in Paris -- doing a fundraiser.... The peasants need a child tax credit, Internet access and tuition assistance, and Sinema responds: Qu'ils mangent de la brioche. Alas, we have seen entirely too much Sinema vérité of late.... Her staff says she's conducting 'remote' legislative negotiations while this is going on. Very remote. Biden, CNN reported, complained to progressives that Sinema didn't reliably return phone calls from the White House.... The person who poses the greatest threat to the Democrats' agenda -- and the democratic agenda -- appears to be dangerously irrational." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Milbank is right. I think the "solution" would be for Senate Democrats to corner Sinema and hold an intervention. She needs help. And so does the nation.

Michael Balsamo & Colleen Long of the AP: "A U.S. Capitol Police officer has been indicted on obstruction of justice charges after prosecutors say he helped to hide evidence of a rioter's involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection. The officer, Michael A. Riley, is accused of tipping off someone who participated in the riot by telling them to remove posts from Facebook that had showed the person inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack, according to court documents.... Riley, who responded to a report of a pipe bomb on Jan. 6 and has been a Capitol Police officer for about 25 years, had sent the person a message telling them that he was an officer with the police force who 'agrees with your political stance,' an indictment against him says." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ellie Kaufman of CNN: "A Marine who was found guilty after posting a series of videos on social media criticizing top military leaders' handling of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan received a sentence of one month forfeiture of $5,000 in pay and a direction to receive a letter of reprimand from a military judge on Friday. Marine Corps Judge Col. Glen Hines said he was considering giving Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller two months of docked pay but decided to limit it to one month because Scheller spent nine days in pre-trial confinement.... On Thursday, Hines found Scheller guilty after he entered guilty pleas to all five charges he faced -- including 'contempt towards officials,' 'disrespect toward superior commissioned officers' and 'failure to obey order or regulation' -- after videos of Scheller criticizing military leaders about their handling of the withdrawal went viral.... Scheller has yet to receive his characterization of discharge. As a part of the plea deal, he will likely receive either an honorable discharge or a general discharge under honorable conditions. The characterization of discharge will be decided by the secretary of the Navy, the military judge said in court on Thursday."

Matt Gertz of Media Matters: "Fox News host Tucker Carlson dismissed the importance of paternity leave while taking an anti-gay swing at Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Thursday. But in corporate materials his employer touts its parental leave policy, which his male Fox colleagues have praised for allowing them to take time off to care for their spouses and infants.... 'Pete Buttigieg has been on leave from his job since August after adopting a child. Paternity leave, they call it, trying to figure out how to breastfeed. No word on how that went,' he snarled on his prime-time show, mocking both fathers who take paternity leave and gay fathers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Carolyn Johnson & Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: "A panel of outside experts on Friday advised the Food and Drug Administration to authorize a booster dose of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine for people 18 and older, with a recommendation it be given at least two months after the first shot. The unanimous recommendation on the Johnson & Johnson booster will be taken up by the FDA, which is expected to make a decision within days. The move will chart a path forward for the 14 million people in the United States who have received the vaccine, many of whom have felt left behind as widely used shots employing a different technology garner greater attention from researchers and the public."

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Michael Levenson & Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "The former student who was accused of shooting and killing 17 people at his high school in Parkland, Fla., in 2018 plans to plead guilty to 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder, one of his lawyers said on Friday. The rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018, killed 14 students and three faculty members and wounded 17 and was one of the deadliest school shootings in American history. The former student, Nikolas Cruz, who was 19 at the time and had a history of mental health and behavior problems, used a semiautomatic rifle that he had legally bought to carry out the assault, according to the police.... Prosecutors have vowed to pursue the death penalty and said that no agreement on a sentence had been reached." The AP report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

U.K. Megan Specia, et al., of the New York Times: "A Conservative Party lawmaker was stabbed to death on Friday afternoon as he was meeting with local constituents in southeast England.... Essex Police, the force that covers the area where the attack took place, identified the lawmaker as David Amess, 69, a long-serving member of the House of Commons. He was killed in the town of Leigh-on-Sea on the mouth of the Thames River, about 40 miles east of London.... A 25 year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of murder and was currently in custody." Update: "... the authorities declared [the murder] a terrorist attack early Saturday...."

     ~~~ The BBC News report is here.(Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In case you're inclined to feel, "Wow, they're just as bad in Britain as in the U.S.," there is a stark contrast here. You're right, per capita, there probably are as many murderous nut cases in the U.K. as in the U.S. But the Florida boy was about to murder 17 people & wound 17 more because he had legal access to a semi-automatic weapon; the U.K. man was able to senselessly murder only one person. On the other hand, I don't suppose many countries limit bow-and-arrow sales. ...

~~~ Norway. Cora Engelbrecht & Henrik Pryser Libell of the New York Times: "The man accused of killing five people and wounding two others with a bow and arrow in the small Scandinavian town of Kongsberg has confessed to the rampage, his defense lawyer said in an interview on Friday. Espen Anderson Brathen, 37, a Danish citizen and local convert to Islam, 'admits to committing the acts he is charged with,' said his lawyer, Fredrick Neumann, adding that his client was also undergoing a mental health evaluation 'by doctors and health personnel.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Afghanistan. Taimoor Shah & Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the New York Times: "A blast at a mosque in southern Afghanistan killed dozens of people and wounded dozens more during Friday Prayer, officials said, the second such attack on a Shiite place of worship on successive Fridays in the country. The attack, which witnesses said involved multiple explosions, took place in Kandahar city -- considered the heart of the re-established Taliban government. And though no group has yet claimed responsibility, the Islamic State said it was behind a similar strike last week on a Shiite mosque in Kunduz Province, in the north, that left more than 40 people dead. Hafiz Saidullah, a Taliban official in charge of the culture and information department in Kandahar, said that the latest attack killed 47 people and injured at least 68." An AP report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

New York Times: "As many as 17 Christian missionaries from the United States and their family members, including children, were kidnapped on Saturday by a gang in Port-au-Prince as they were leaving an orphanage, according to Haitian security officials."

So Then. Washington Post: "Robert Durst has tested positive for the coronavirus just days after the real estate heir was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a close friend, his attorney told The Washington Post on Saturday. Durst, 78, was reportedly placed on a ventilator shortly after his Thursday sentencing to life without parole for the 2000 murder of Susan Berman, 55, according to the Los Angeles Times, the first to report the story."

New York Times: "One Texas deputy was killed and two others were injured in an early-morning shooting outside a Houston bar, law enforcement officials said at a news conference on Saturday. Just after 2 a.m., three deputies with the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office working in a police-related job at the 45 Norte Sports Bar went outside to address a disturbance, according to Jim Jones, executive assistant chief of the Houston Police Department."

Comments Off
Thursday
Oct142021

The Ides of October 2021

Afternoon Update:

Ann Marimow & Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Department of Justice said Friday that it will go back to the Supreme Court to request that it put on hold Texas's restrictive abortion law while legal battles continue. In a different case, the Supreme Court last month allowed the law to go into effect on a divisive 5 to 4 vote. The DOJ has filed a separate challenge to halt the law, which bars abortion as early as six weeks into the pregnancy and makes no exceptions for rape or incest.... Last week, a federal judge in Austin temporarily suspended enforcement of the abortion ban.... But the U.S. Court of Appeals of the 5th Circuit quickly put Pitman's order on hold, and on Thursday said the law would remain in effect, setting a hearing the week of Dec. 6. and reinstated the law pending further review.... 'The Justice Department intends to ask the Supreme Court to vacate the Fifth Circuit's stay of the preliminary injunction against Texas Senate Bill 8,' Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley said in a brief statement Friday." The AP's report is here.

Michael Balsamo & Colleen Long of the AP: "A U.S. Capitol Police officer has been indicted on obstruction of justice charges after prosecutors say he helped to hide evidence of a rioter's involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection. The officer, Michael A. Riley, is accused of tipping off someone who participated in the riot by telling them to remove posts from Facebook that had showed the person inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack, according to court documents.... Riley, who responded to a report of a pipe bomb on Jan. 6 and has been a Capitol Police officer for about 25 years, had sent the person a message telling them that he was an officer with the police force who 'agrees with your political stance,' an indictment against him says."

Betsy Klein & Kate Sullivan of CNN: "Foreign visitors who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will be able to travel to the United States starting on November 8, the White House said Friday.... The move would relax a patchwork of bans that had begun to cause fury abroad and replacing them with more uniform requirements for inbound international air passengers."

Florida. Michael Levenson & Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "The former student who was accused of shooting and killing 17 people at his high school in Parkland, Fla., in 2018 plans to plead guilty to 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder, one of his lawyers said on Friday. The rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018, killed 14 students and three faculty members and wounded 17 and was one of the deadliest school shootings in American history. The former student, Nikolas Cruz, who was 19 at the time and had a history of mental health and behavior problems, used a semiautomatic rifle that he had legally bought to carry out the assault, according to the police.... Prosecutors have vowed to pursue the death penalty and said that no agreement on a sentence had been reached." The AP report is here.

Afghanistan. Taimoor Shah & Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the New York Times: "A blast at a mosque in southern Afghanistan killed dozens of people and wounded dozens more during Friday Prayer, officials said, the second such attack on a Shiite place of worship on successive Fridays in the country. The attack, which witnesses said involved multiple explosions, took place in Kandahar city — considered the heart of the re-established Taliban government. And though no group has yet claimed responsibility, the Islamic State said it was behind a similar strike last week on a Shiite mosque in Kunduz Province, in the north, that left more than 40 people dead. Hafiz Saidullah, a Taliban official in charge of the culture and information department in Kandahar, said that the latest attack killed 47 people and injured at least 68." An AP report is here.

Matt Gertz of Media Matters: "Fox News host Tucker Carlson dismissed the importance of paternity leave while taking an anti-gay swing at Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Thursday. But in corporate materials his employer touts its parental leave policy, which his male Fox colleagues have praised for allowing them to take time off to care for their spouses and infants.... 'Pete Buttigieg has been on leave from his job since August after adopting a child. Paternity leave, they call it, trying to figure out how to breastfeed. No word on how that went,' he snarled on his prime-time show, mocking both fathers who take paternity leave and gay fathers."

U.K. Megan Specia, et al., of the New York Times: "A Conservative Party lawmaker was stabbed to death on Friday afternoon as he was meeting with local constituents in southeast England.... Essex Police, the force that covers the area where the attack took place, identified the lawmaker as David Amess, 69, a long-serving member of the House of Commons. He was killed in the town of Leigh-on-Sea on the mouth of the Thames River, about 40 miles east of London.... A 25 year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of murder and was currently in custody." The BBC News report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In case you're inclined to feel, "Wow, they're just as bad in Britain as in the U.S.," there is a stark contrast here. You're right, per capita, there probably are as many murderous nut cases in the U.K. as in the U.S. But the Florida boy was about to murder 17 people & wound 17 more because he had legal access to a semi-automatic weapon; the U.K. man was able to senselessly murder only one person. On the other hand, I don't suppose many countries limit bow-and-arrow sales. ...

~~~ Norway. Cora Engelbrecht & Henrik Pryser Libell of the New York Times: "The man accused of killing five people and wounding two others with a bow and arrow in the small Scandinavian town of Kongsberg has confessed to the rampage, his defense lawyer said in an interview on Friday. Espen Anderson Brathen, 37, a Danish citizen and local convert to Islam, 'admits to committing the acts he is charged with,' said his lawyer, Fredrick Neumann, adding that his client was also undergoing a mental health evaluation 'by doctors and health personnel.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Amy Wang & Chico Harlan of the Washington Post: "President Biden will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Oct. 29 during a trip to Europe for two high-profile global summits, the White House announced Thursday. Biden and Francis will discuss 'working together on efforts grounded in respect for fundamental human dignity, including ending the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling the climate crisis, and caring for the poor,' White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. Biden, the United States' second Catholic president, has been at the center of a debate within the Catholic Church about whether he should be able to receive Communion because of his support for abortion rights.... . Francis said that abortion is 'murder' but also that the decision to grant Communion should be a pastoral, not political, one. First lady Jill Biden will join her husband in meeting Francis." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Biden Administration to Obey Deplorable Court Order. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration is prepared to reimplement the Trump-era border policy known as the Migrant Protection Protocols in mid-November if the Mexican government agrees to accept the return of asylum-seekers to its territory, administration officials said Thursday. In August, a U.S. District Court in Texas ordered the Biden administration to restart MPP, also known as 'Remain in Mexico,' faulting the White House for ending the program improperly. The Supreme Court upheld the decision, forcing Biden officials to restore a policy the president has deplored as inhumane. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement late Thursday it is 'taking necessary steps to comply with the court order, which requires us to reimplement MPP in good faith.' MPP cannot resume without Mexico's consent, as the court acknowledged in its ruling, and administration officials said they are taking steps to address the concerns of the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador by setting up better access to legal counsel for asylum seekers and exemptions for vulnerable migrants."

Wow! The Deal Comes with Cuff Links. Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "Hours before he was scheduled to retire in 2018, Andrew G. McCabe, then the F.B.I.'s deputy director, was fired by the Justice Department, depriving him of his pension and prompting cheers from ... Donald J. Trump, who had been hounding him over his role in the Russia investigation. On Thursday, the department reversed Mr. McCabe's firing, settling a lawsuit he filed asserting that he was dismissed for political reasons. Under the settlement, Mr. McCabe, 53, will be able to officially retire, receive his pension and other benefits, and get about $200,000 in missed pension payments. In addition, the department agreed to expunge any mention of his firing from F.B.I. personnel records. The agreement even made clear that he would receive the cuff links given to senior executives and a plaque with his mounted F.B.I. credentials and badge. The Justice Department did not admit any wrongdoing. But the settlement amounted to a rejection by the Biden administration of how Mr. McCabe's case had been handled under Mr. Trump, who perceived Mr. McCabe as one of his so-called deep-state enemies and repeatedly attacked him. A notice of the lawsuit's dismissal was also filed in federal court." The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Although it's clear DOJ had some pragmatic reasons to reverse McCabe's firing, this does seem like Merrick Garland's very polite "up yours" to JeffBo & former President* Vin Dictive.

Manu Raju of CNN: "The two leading Democratic moderates made clear to their colleagues this week that a deal on the party's sweeping economic package is far from secured, raising new questions about the fate of President Joe Biden's first-term agenda, according to sources familiar with the matter. Among the red flags: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona told lawmakers on a call that she would be hesitant to endorse a final deal on the social safety net plan until the House first passes the Senate's $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Sinema indicated there had been a 'breach in trust' following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to punt a vote on the infrastructure bill earlier this month after she had assured moderates her chamber would hold a final vote on the measure, one of the sources said.... The two senators said they believed that their party should drop some programs offered in the larger package to cut its cost...." More on Simena linked under Beyond the Beltway. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sinema, who has dropped most of her liberal campaign pledges & decided instead to cavort with donors at fancy spas and European soirees, is a fine person to talk about "breach of trust."

Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post calls out leading GOP liars who have been making false hair-on-fire claims that the DOJ is "spying" on local school boards, targeting free speech and interfering with their proceedings. But a memo from Merrick Garland and Senate testimony from his deputies "make clear that only criminal conduct would be targeted, not free speech.... [Further,] Garland's memo doesn't direct the FBI to 'spy' on parents, as Jordan claimed. Hawley claimed that, for the first time in American history, the FBI was being told to 'intervene' in local school board meetings. That's not accurate."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post outlines many ways Republicans have moved to give themselves the ability to overthrow future elections.... [The include] sidelining unhelpful secretaries of state..., installing Trumpy secretaries of state..., eliminating roadblocks to overturning results..., and creating more opportunities for wrongdoing." With examples. MB: These mechanisms, of course, do not apply only to presidential elections but to results for any election the ruling party doesn't like. These are officials acts designed to steal elections and further de-democratize states Republicans currently control. In the case of elections for national offices -- president and Congress -- these stunts can affect the entire nation.

Jacqueline Alemany & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol announced on Thursday that it will move to hold Stephen K. Bannon in criminal contempt for not complying with its subpoena as it seeks to force former Trump administration officials to cooperate with its inquiry. Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) said the panel will meet Tuesday when the House returns to Washington to vote to adopt a contempt report.... The panel has opted to give other former Trump officials more time to comply with its subpoenas. Mark Meadows and Kash Patel were both scheduled to appear before the committee by the end of this week for closed-door interviews and are now expected to be provided an extension or continuance, according to three people familiar with the matter...." A CNN report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal judge Thursday postponed the lead trial of accused Oath Keepers associates charged in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol from next January to April, conceding that continuing delays in the government's disclosure of a mountain of growing evidence made a trial this winter impossible."

Paul Duggan of the Washington Post: "A Texas woman who was charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and boasted on social media, 'Hell yes, I'm proud of my actions,' pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Jenny Cudd, a 36-year-old florist and former mayoral candidate in the western Texas city of Midland, is one of more than 600 people charged so far in what federal authorities have called the largest investigation in U.S. history. She is among more than 70 defendants who have pleaded guilty in deals with the U.S. attorney's office in the District." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jamie Gangel of CNN: "Former President Bill Clinton has been admitted to the University of California Irvine Medical Center's intensive care unit for a urinary tract infection that spread to his bloodstream, his doctors told CNN on Thursday.... 'After two days of treatment, his white blood cell count is trending down and he is responding to antibiotics well,' the doctors said. 'We hope to have him go home soon.'" MB: The story has been updated since I posted a developing story last night. The New York Times story is here.

Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump is expected to testify on Monday at Trump Tower as part of a lawsuit brought by a group of activists who said that they were violently attacked by his bodyguards in 2015. Less than a week after the incident in September 2015, a group of five activists sued, saying that security guards led by Mr. Trump's longtime bodyguard, Keith Schiller, had attacked them, ripping away signs they were holding, and punching and briefly choking one of the protesters. The activists' lawyers argued that Mr. Trump was responsible for his bodyguards' actions because he had explicitly authorized them to use force. Mr. Schiller testified that he was authorized to use force while on the job. Lawyers for Mr. Trump and other defendants moved to have the case dismissed in 2015, but were unsuccessful. Mr. Trump's lawyers then argued that he could not be held personally responsible for his bodyguards' actions. A judge rejected that argument too." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie's Note to Judge, Interested Parties: Everything Donald Trump says, under oath, will be a lie.

Robert Barnes & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "President Biden's commission evaluating potential reform of the Supreme Court cautioned that increasing the size of the court might be perceived as partisan maneuvering, but noted there is widespread support for term limits on the justices, who enjoy life tenure. The Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States will meet Friday to begin writing a report to the president, likely to be presented next month. Mostly made up of academics, the draft materials that the commission has collected so far, released Thursday night, read much like a textbook on history and available options, rather than a manifesto for change." The Hill's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Gosh, I wonder what the commission members think of Mitch McConnell's refusal to give Merrick Garland a hearing because Obama's presidency would end in about a year while pushing through Amy Phony Barrett's confirmation while people were voting in the presidential election. Could that be construed as "partisan maneuvering"?

** Ariane de Vogue of CNN: "Justice Sonia Sotomayor told an audience Wednesday that recent changes in the format of oral arguments were instituted in part after studies emerged showing that female justices on the court were interrupted more by male justices and advocates. Sotomayor said the studies, including one by researchers Tonja Jacoby and Dylan Schweers in 2017, have had an 'enormous impact' and led to Chief Justice John Roberts being 'much more sensitive' to ensuring that people were not interrupted or at least that he would play referee if needed. She also said that it is a dynamic that exists not only on the court but in society as well. 'Most of the time women say things and they are not heard in the same way as men who might say the identical thing,' she said." MB: If you're an adult women, you figured this out long ago.

** Sen Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) in Salon: "Justice Samuel Alito wants desperately for us to believe that everything is just fine at the Supreme Court. Indeed, in his view the court is a victim.... [But] Americans' perception that the court lacks independence, and the court's related drop in approval, doesn't flow from some left-wing conspiracy. It's a recognition that the evidence shows a pattern whenever certain interests come before the court.... During Chief Justice John Roberts' tenure, the Court has issued more than 80 partisan decisions, by either a 5-4 or 6-3 vote, involving big interests important to Republican Party major donors. Republican-appointed justices have handed wins to the donor interests in every single case.... [The complex, multi-faceted mechanisms put in place to engineer the Court's capture] required boatloads of anonymous money; what people who study this clandestine activity call 'dark money.'... Perhaps Justice Alito is so touchy because his fingerprints are all over this pattern of Republican judicial activism." Worth reading the whole post. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "... why are we experiencing what many are calling the Great Resignation, with so many workers either quitting or demanding higher pay and better working conditions to stay? Until recently conservatives blamed expanded jobless benefits, claiming that these benefits were reducing the incentive to accept jobs. But states that canceled those benefits early saw no increase in employment compared with those that didn't.... What seems to be happening instead is that the pandemic led many U.S. workers to rethink their lives and ask whether it was worth staying in the lousy jobs too many of them had. For America is a rich country that treats many of its workers remarkably badly."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Carolyn Johnson & Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: "An independent advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday unanimously recommended a booster dose of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine for people 65 and older and adults who are at high risk of severe illness or are exposed at work. The recommendation mirrors the eligibility criteria for the Pfizer-BioNTech booster, which was authorized in September. Nearly 70 million Americans have received both doses of the Moderna vaccine. The vote comes after a full-day examination of data on the safety and effectiveness of a booster, and the recommendation will now be considered by FDA officials, who are expected to reach a decision on the Moderna booster within days. An advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that makes recommendations on how vaccines should be used is scheduled to meet Wednesday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

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

Beyond the Beltway

Alaska. How Could This Have Happened? Derek Hawkins & Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "An Alaska GOP lawmaker banned from flying on the state's leading airline for refusing to wear a mask, and therefore unable to travel to and from the state capital, has now tested positive for the coronavirus, she said. State Sen. Lora Reinbold, a Republican representing an Anchorage suburb, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday night that it was her 'turn to battle Covid head on.... Game on! Who do you think is going to win?' Reinbold wrote of her infection. 'When I defeat it, I will tell you my recipe.' Another Republican state senator, David Wilson of Wasilla also tested positive this week and is quarantining at home." (Also linked yesterday.)

Arizona U.S. Senate Race. Kevin Robillard of the Huffington Post: "Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) is deeply unpopular with Democratic primary voters in her home state and would be vulnerable against a number of intra-party challengers, according to a new poll from a progressive group. The poll, from Data for Progress, comes with heavy caveats. The 2022 midterms aren't even here yet, never mind the 2024 election. And Arizona's primaries are open to independent voters ― meaning the exact makeup of the electorate is hard to nail down even in the weeks leading up to an election, let alone three years in advance. But the numbers for Sinema ... are grim. They show widespread discontent with her performance, making her vulnerable to nearly any Democratic challenger." ~~~

~~~ Sky Palma of the Raw Story: "Friends and allies of Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema are mystified by her maneuvering around President Joe Biden's legislative agenda, according to people speaking to The Daily Beast.... 'A lot of people who have considered her a friend, or confidant, or someone she'd go to for donor support or political support, she won't talk to those people anymore,' said Matt Grodsky, a former communications director for the Democratic Party of Arizona. 'She had a big network of people who liked her -- establishment Democrats, progressives -- everyone marveled at her ability to win in Arizona,' said one Arizona Democratic strategist. 'A lot of her longtime friends and confidants are no longer there. No one knows, to be honest, where she's at.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Missouri Governor Unaware Almost All Websites Contain Publicly-Viewable HTML Code. Elahe Izadi of the Washington Post: "When a St. Louis Post-Dispatch journalist discovered that the Missouri state teachers website allowed anyone to see the Social Security numbers of some 100,000 school employees, he did what any reporter might do. He published a story about the security vulnerability -- though not before warning the state and giving it time to remove the affected webpages. Another official might have thanked the newspaper for spotting the flaw and giving a heads-up before publicizing it -- or at least downplayed what appears to be an embarrassing government mishap. But Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) did the opposite: He called the journalist 'a hacker' who may face civil or criminal charges for 'decod[ing]' HTML code on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website and viewing three Social Security numbers.... [Parson's] announcement immediately drew appalled reactions from the Post-Dispatch and other journalistic organizations.... Committee to Protect Journalists' U.S. and Canada program coordinator Katherine Jacobsen called Parson's legal threats 'absurd.'" The AP's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Mike Parson is 66 years old, so we might cut him a little slack for thinking that former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) was being helpful when he explained the Internet as "a series of tubes." But when you know you don't know much about a subject, it's a right good idea to find out what going on so you don't look like the out-of-touch nincompoop you are & go off half-cocked, threatening a reporter who has been helpful to your administration & protected teachers' privacy. No, Mike, the Post-Dispatch did not hack the tubes. And there's no "decoding" involved when you click on a link and up pops a teacher's Social Security number. Nitwit.

Oregon Gubernatorial Race. Marc Tracy of the New York Times: "After 37 years at The New York Times as a reporter, high-level editor and opinion columnist, Nicholas Kristof is leaving the newspaper as he considers running for governor of Oregon, a top Times editor said in a note to the staff on Thursday. Mr. Kristof, 62, has been on leave from The Times since June, when he told company executives that he was weighing a run for governor in the state where he grew up. On Tuesday, he filed to organize a candidate committee with Oregon's secretary of state as a Democrat, signaling that his interest was serious." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

South Carolina. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "Alex Murdaugh, the South Carolina lawyer who has endured a dramatic downfall since his wife and son were shot in an unsolved killing in June, was arrested on Thursday and charged with swindling millions of dollars from the sons of his former housekeeper. Mr. Murdaugh, 53, was taken into custody at a drug detox center in Orlando, Fla., and charged with two counts of obtaining property by false pretenses, a felony with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. He was booked into a jail in Orlando. The charges stem from a settlement that Mr. Murdaugh and his insurers reached with the sons of the housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who died in 2018 after falling on the front steps of the Murdaugh family's rural home in Islandton, S.C. After her death, Mr. Murdaugh referred her two sons to a lawyer he promised would help them, the sons claimed in a recent lawsuit, but he did not disclose that the lawyer, Cory Fleming, was a close friend and former college roommate." (Also linked yesterday.)

Texas. Katie Benner of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court said on Thursday that a near-total ban on abortions in Texas can remain in effect while the courts decide whether the law violates the Constitution. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit kept in place its own previous order last week that had temporarily allowed the law to be enforced again after a federal district judge had blocked it. The decision, which was 2 to 1 by a three-judge panel, is expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court." MB: The article doesn't explain why the Appeals Court needed to reaffirm its decision. Maybe the two judges just enjoyed dumping on Texas women. Update: A report by CNN's Dan Berman & Tierney Sneed explains it: "... two days after [a federal district judge blocked the Texas abortion ban], a three judge-panel of the appeals court put a brief administrative hold on the order. That appellate panel has now extended that hold to last while it considers Pitman's order on appeal."

In Texas, It's Springtime for Hitler (And the Grand Dragon, Too). Mike Hixenbaugh & Antonia Hylton of NBC News: "A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an 'opposing' perspective, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News. Gina Peddy, the Carroll school district's executive director of curriculum and instruction, made the comment Friday afternoon during a training session on which books teachers can have in classroom libraries. The training came four days after the Carroll school board, responding to a parent's complaint, voted to reprimand a fourth grade teacher who had kept an anti-racism book in her classroom."

Virginia Republicans Pledge Allegiance to January 6 Flag. John Amato of Crooks & Liars: "During a rally for Republican Virginia Gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin..., an American flag was brought out onto the stage and the host said praised the flag thusly, 'That was carried at the peaceful rally with Donald Trump on January 6.'... Someone named Mark Lloyd then led the crowd with the Pledge of Allegiance.... Rolling Stone writes, 'Youngkin was not present at the 'Take Back Virginia' rally, but it was headlined by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who cited the close race between Youngkin and his Democratic opponent, Terry McAufflife, to argue that the state's 2020 election results were illegitimate." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Wisconsin. GOP, the Party of Incompetence. Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "The glaring errors became clear soon after ... former Wisconsin judge [Michael Gableman] issued subpoenas earlier this month in a Republican review of the state's 2020 presidential election. Some of the requests referred to the wrong city. At least one was sent to an official who doesn't oversee elections. A Latin phrase included in the demands for records and testimony was misspelled.... Gableman ... admitted days later that he does not have 'a comprehensive understanding or even any understanding of how elections work..' He then backed off some of his subpoena demands before reversing course again, telling a local radio host that officials would still be required to testify. The latest round of reversals and blunders is intensifying calls to end the probe, one of several recent efforts around the country to revisit Joe Biden's win in states where ... Donald Trump and his supporters have leveled baseless accusations of voter fraud. Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) this week called the subpoenas unlawful and 'dramatically overbroad,' and he urged Republicans to 'shut this fake investigation down.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Lebanon. Sarah El Deeb of the AP: "Schools, banks and government offices across Lebanon shut down Friday after hours of gun battles between heavily armed militias killed seven people and terrorized the residents of Beirut. The government called for a day of mourning following the armed clashes, in which gunmen used automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades on the streets of the capital, echoing the nation's darkest era of the 1975-90 civil war. The gun battles raised the specter of a return to sectarian violence in a country already struggling through one of the world's worst economic crises of the past 150 years. The violence broke out Thursday at a protest organized by the two main Shiite parties - Hezbollah and the Amal Movement - calling for the removal of the lead judge investigating last year's massive explosion at Beirut port."

U.K./Earth. Caught on Mic: "We Are Not Amused." Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Queen Elizabeth II was caught on microphone criticizing world leaders who 'talk' but they 'don't do' on climate change, remarks that have been interpreted as indicating a degree of exasperation at possible no-shows for the upcoming COP26 climate conference. During the opening of the Welsh Parliament in Cardiff on Thursday, the queen was talking to her daughter-in-law, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, and Elin Jones, the parliament's president officer. Her comments were picked up on a live stream, and although parts are inaudible, she can be heard talking about the climate conference. 'Extraordinary isn't it. I've been hearing all about COP,' the queen says, according to video and audio recordings analyzed by the Daily Mirror. 'Still don't know who is coming ... We only know about people who are not coming ... It's really irritating when they talk, but they don't do.'"

News Lede

A Fun Story Takes a Sad Turn (Because of Some Jerk). New York Times: "One of the wayward zebras that have been running freely across the backyards and roads of suburban Maryland since they escaped from a farm in late August has been found dead in an illegal snare trap, the authorities said. A spokeswoman for the Maryland Natural Resources Police said in a statement on Thursday that officers had responded to a report on Sept. 16 of a dead animal on private property in Upper Marlboro, Md., about 20 miles southeast of Washington.... The chief of ... Prince George's County Animal Services ... agency ... had initially said that five zebras had escaped from a privately owned farm. But The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Linda Lowe, a spokeswoman for the Prince George's County Department of the Environment, said that, in fact, only three zebras had gotten loose. Now, just two remain alive and on the run." It's not clear why officials waited nearly a month to inform the public about the dead zebra.

Comments Off
Wednesday
Oct132021

October 14, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Jacqueline Alemany & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol announced on Thursday that it will move to hold Stephen K. Bannon in criminal contempt for not complying with its subpoena as it seeks to force former Trump administration officials to cooperate with its inquiry. Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) said the panel will meet Tuesday when the House returns to Washington to vote to adopt a contempt report.... The panel has opted to give other former Trump officials more time to comply with its subpoenas. Mark Meadows and Kash Patel were both scheduled to appear before the committee by the end of this week for closed-door interviews and are now expected to be provided an extension or continuance, according to three people familiar with the matter...." A CNN report is here.

Carolyn Johnson & Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: "An independent advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday unanimously recommended a booster dose of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine for people 65 and older and adults who are at high risk of severe illness or are exposed at work. The recommendation mirrors the eligibility criteria for the Pfizer-BioNTech booster, which was authorized in September. Nearly 70 million Americans have received both doses of the Moderna vaccine. The vote comes after a full-day examination of data on the safety and effectiveness of a booster, and the recommendation will now be considered by FDA officials, who are expected to reach a decision on the Moderna booster within days. An advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that makes recommendations on how vaccines should be used is scheduled to meet Wednesday."

South Carolina. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "Alex Murdaugh, the South Carolina lawyer who has endured a dramatic downfall since his wife and son were shot in an unsolved killing in June, was arrested on Thursday and charged with swindling millions of dollars from the sons of his former housekeeper. Mr. Murdaugh, 53, was taken into custody at a drug detox center in Orlando, Fla., and charged with two counts of obtaining property by false pretenses, a felony with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. He was booked into a jail in Orlando. The charges stem from a settlement that Mr. Murdaugh and his insurers reached with the sons of the housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who died in 2018 after falling on the front steps of the Murdaugh family's rural home in Islandton, S.C. After her death, Mr. Murdaugh referred her two sons to a lawyer he promised would help them, the sons claimed in a recent lawsuit, but he did not disclose that the lawyer, Cory Fleming, was a close friend and former college roommate."

Virginia Republicans Pledge Allegiance to January 6 Flag. John Amato of Crooks & Liars: "During a rally for Republican Virginia Gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin..., an American flag was brought out onto the stage and the host said praised the flag thusly, 'That was carried at the peaceful rally with Donald Trump on January 6.'... Someone named Mark Lloyd then led the crowd with the Pledge of Allegiance.... Rolling Stone writes, 'Youngkin was not present at the 'Take Back Virginia' rally, but it was headlined by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who cited the close race between Youngkin and his Democratic opponent, Terry McAufflife, to argue that the state's 2020 election results were illegitimate."

Amy Wang & Chico Harlan of the Washington Post: "President Biden will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Oct. 29 during a trip to Europe for two high-profile global summits, the White House announced Thursday. Biden and Francis will discuss 'working together on efforts grounded in respect for fundamental human dignity, including ending the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling the climate crisis, and caring for the poor,' White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. Biden, the United States' second Catholic president, has been at the center of a debate within the Catholic Church about whether he should be able to receive Communion because of his support for abortion rights.... . Francis said that abortion is 'murder' but also that the decision to grant Communion should be a pastoral, not political, one. First lady Jill Biden will join her husband in meeting Francis."

Paul Duggan of the Washington Post: "A Texas woman who was charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and boasted on social media, 'Hell yes, I'm proud of my actions,' pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Jenny Cudd, a 36-year-old florist and former mayoral candidate in the western Texas city of Midland, is one of more than 600 people charged so far in what federal authorities have called the largest investigation in U.S. history. She is among more than 70 defendants who have pleaded guilty in deals with the U.S. attorney's office in the District."

** Sen Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) in Salon: "Justice Samuel Alito wants desperately for us to believe that everything is just fine at the Supreme Court. Indeed, in his view the court is a victim.... [But] Americans' perception that the court lacks independence, and the court's related drop in approval, doesn't flow from some left-wing conspiracy. It's a recognition that the evidence shows a pattern whenever certain interests come before the court.... During Chief Justice John Roberts' tenure, the Court has issued more than 80 partisan decisions, by either a 5-4 or 6-3 vote, involving big interests important to Republican Party major donors. Republican-appointed justices have handed wins to the donor interests in every single case.... [The complex, multi-faceted mechanisms put in place to engineer the Court's capture] required boatloads of anonymous money; what people who study this clandestine activity call 'dark money.'... Perhaps Justice Alito is so touchy because his fingerprints are all over this pattern of Republican judicial activism." Worth reading the whole post.

** Ariane de Vogue of CNN: "Justice Sonia Sotomayor told an audience Wednesday that recent changes in the format of oral arguments were instituted in part after studies emerged showing that female justices on the court were interrupted more by male justices and advocates. Sotomayor said the studies, including one by researchers Tonja Jacoby and Dylan Schweers in 2017, have had an 'enormous impact' and led to Chief Justice John Roberts being 'much more sensitive' to ensuring that people were not interrupted or at least that he would play referee if needed. She also said that it is a dynamic that exists not only on the court but in society as well. 'Most of the time women say things and they are not heard in the same way as men who might say the identical thing,' she said." MB: If you're an adult women, you figured this out long ago.

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

Alaska. How Could This Have Happened? Derek Hawkins & Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "An Alaska GOP lawmaker banned from flying on the state's leading airline for refusing to wear a mask, and therefore unable to travel to and from the state capital, has now tested positive for the coronavirus, she said. State Sen. Lora Reinbold, a Republican representing an Anchorage suburb, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday night that it was her 'turn to battle Covid head on.... Game on! Who do you think is going to win?' Reinbold wrote of her infection. 'When I defeat it, I will tell you my recipe.' Another Republican state senator, David Wilson of Wasilla also tested positive this week and is quarantining at home."

Arizona U.S. Senate Race. Kevin Robillard of the Huffington Post: "Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) is deeply unpopular with Democratic primary voters in her home state and would be vulnerable against a number of intra-party challengers, according to a new poll from a progressive group. The poll, from Data for Progress, comes with heavy caveats. The 2022 midterms aren't even here yet, never mind the 2024 election. And Arizona's primaries are open to independent voters ― meaning the exact makeup of the electorate is hard to nail down even in the weeks leading up to an election, let alone three years in advance. But the numbers for Sinema ... are grim. They show widespread discontent with her performance, making her vulnerable to nearly any Democratic challenger."

Oregon Gubernatorial Race. Marc Tracy of the New York Times: "After 37 years at The New York Times as a reporter, high-level editor and opinion columnist, Nicholas Kristof is leaving the newspaper as he considers running for governor of Oregon, a top Times editor said in a note to the staff on Thursday. Mr. Kristof, 62, has been on leave from The Times since June, when he told company executives that he was weighing a run for governor in the state where he grew up. On Tuesday, he filed to organize a candidate committee with Oregon's secretary of state as a Democrat, signaling that his interest was serious." ~~~

~~~ Sky Palma of the Raw Story: "Friends and allies of Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema are mystified by her maneuvering around President Joe Biden's legislative agenda, according to people speaking to The Daily Beast.... 'A lot of people who have considered her a friend, or confidant, or someone she'd go to for donor support or political support, she won't talk to those people anymore,' said Matt Grodsky, a former communications director for the Democratic Party of Arizona. 'She had a big network of people who liked her -- establishment Democrats, progressives -- everyone marveled at her ability to win in Arizona,' said one Arizona Democratic strategist. 'A lot of her longtime friends and confidants are no longer there. No one knows, to be honest, where she's at.'"

Wisconsin. GOP, the Party of Incompetence. Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "The glaring errors became clear soon after ... former Wisconsin judge [Michael Gableman] issued subpoenas earlier this month in a Republican review of the state's 2020 presidential election. Some of the requests referred to the wrong city. At least one was sent to an official who doesn't oversee elections. A Latin phrase included in the demands for records and testimony was misspelled.... Gableman ... admitted days later that he does not have 'a comprehensive understanding or even any understanding of how elections work..' He then backed off some of his subpoena demands before reversing course again, telling a local radio host that officials would still be required to testify. The latest round of reversals and blunders is intensifying calls to end the probe, one of several recent efforts around the country to revisit Joe Biden's win in states where ... Donald Trump and his supporters have leveled baseless accusations of voter fraud. Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) this week called the subpoenas unlawful and 'dramatically overbroad,' and he urged Republicans to 'shut this fake investigation down.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

David Lynch & Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "On Wednesday, President Biden moved to address costly traffic jams in the nation's freight-moving system, convening a virtual industry roundtable and speaking at the White House. He announced that the Port of Los Angeles would 'begin operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week' in a bid to clear bottlenecks.... Rising prices, product shortages and labor market tumult are making for a surprisingly rocky economic recovery, testing the political skills of the Biden White House.... Administration officials are confronting an unfamiliar economic landscape of strong growth and rising wages, even as the highest inflation in 13 years and persistent problems moving goods from overseas factories to American doorsteps spark public unease."

News You Can Use. Madeleine Ngo of the New York Times: "Benefits from Social Security ... will increase by 5.9 percent in 2022, the Social Security Administration said on Wednesday. It is the biggest boost in 40 years as prices for food, cars and rent keep climbing. The increase, known as a cost of living adjustment, is the largest since 1982, when the adjustment was 7.4 percent, according to data from the administration. The average benefit -- 70 million Americans receive them -- would climb to $1,657 a month, up $92 from this year. The adjustment is a response to consumer prices in the United States that have jumped at their fastest pace in years. It is tied to the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index, which rose 5.4 percent in September from a year earlier." A CNBC report is here.

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration announced on Wednesday a plan to develop large-scale wind farms along nearly the entire coastline of the United States, the first long-term strategy from the government to produce electricity from offshore turbines. Speaking at a wind power industry conference in Boston, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said that her agency will begin to identify, demarcate and hope to eventually lease federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Maine and off the coasts of the Mid-Atlantic States, North Carolina and South Carolina, California and Oregon, to wind power developers by 2025. The announcement came months after the Biden administration approved the nation's first major commercial offshore wind farm off the coast of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts and began reviewing a dozen other potential offshore wind projects along the East Coast. On the West Coast, the administration has approved opening up two areas off the shores of Central and Northern California for commercial wind power development." A CNN story is here.

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The Justice Department said on Wednesday that it was investigating juvenile correctional facilities in Texas over allegations of physical violence, sexual abuse and other mistreatment of children held there. The investigation, which will also examine the state's use of isolation and chemicals like pepper spray, is part of a broader effort to overhaul the criminal justice system and address conditions in prisons, a goal that in recent years has had bipartisan support and was pursued by the Obama and Trump administrations before President Biden took office. And it follows other recent Justice Department investigations into adult correctional facilities in states including Georgia and New Jersey." The Guardian's story is here.

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot issued a subpoena on Wednesday to Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official under ... Donald J. Trump who was involved in Mr. Trump's frenzied efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The subpoena seeks testimony and records from Mr. Clark, a little-known official who repeatedly pushed his colleagues at the Justice Department to help Mr. Trump undo his loss. The panel's focus on him indicates that it is deepening its scrutiny of the root causes of the attack, which disrupted a congressional session called to count the electoral votes formalizing President Biden's victory.... The Senate Judiciary Committee said last week that there was credible evidence that Mr. Clark was involved in efforts to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power, citing his proposal to deliver a letter to state legislators in Georgia and others encouraging them to delay certification of election results." The AP's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to Rachel Maddow, Jeremy Clark has been unceremoniously "disappeared" from the Website of the crazy right-wing "think" tank (or whatever it is), which proudly announced his employment earlier this year.

Betsy Swan of Politico: "Jeff Rosen, the acting attorney general during the final days of the Trump administration, sat for an interview with the Jan. 6 select committee on Wednesday, according to two sources familiar with the matter."

Kaitlin Collins of CNN: "The White House formally rejected the request by ... Donald Trump to assert executive privilege to shield from lawmakers a subset of documents that has been requested by the House committee investigating January 6, and set an aggressive timeline for their release. The latest letter came after the Biden administration informed the National Archives on Friday that it would not assert executive privilege over a tranche of documents related to January 6 from the Trump White House."

Andrew Feinberg of the (U.K.) Independent, republished in Yahoo! News: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday predicted that Republican voters will sit out the 2022 and 2024 elections if the GOP doesn't somehow manage to reverse the results of the election he lost in 2020.... 'If we don't solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented), Republicans will not be voting in '22 or '24,' the former president wrote. 'It is the single most important thing for Republicans to do'." MB: Not sure if that's a prediction, a directive or a threat from the Dear Leader.

While Dangling the Fate of the Nation on Her Little Finger, Krysten Goes on a European Jaunt. Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Senator Kyrsten Sinema ... [is] in Europe on a fund-raising trip.... The chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, is also in Europe this week and headlined a dinner on Wednesday in London, with contribution levels as much as $36,500, according to a copy of an invitation. Ms. Sinema's name does not appear on that invitation.... Ms. Sinema's office declined to say how long she would be abroad, what countries she was visiting, how the trip was being paid for and whether she was doing any additional fund-raising for her own campaign." The Hill's summary report is here. MB: Sinema is not merely an unserious person; she's a nut.

Connecticut, Beware of Brazilian Terrorists Carrying Gucci Bags! Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, an outspoken critic of President Biden's immigration policies, said affluent Brazilians were illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and heading to Connecticut 'wearing designer clothes and Gucci bags.'... The senator, who recently visited the border in Arizona, [told Fox 'News' personality Sean Hannity on Tuesday]: 'We had 40,000 Brazilians come through the Yuma Sector alone headed for Connecticut wearing designer clothes and Gucci bags. This is not economic migration anymore.... People see an open America,' he continued. 'They're taking advantage of us. And it won't be long before a terrorist gets in this crowd.'"

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed prepared to reinstate the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, despite aggressive questioning from the court's liberals about whether crucial evidence was kept from jurors who decided not to spare his life. The court was reviewing a decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit. In July, the panel agreed with Tsarnaev's lawyers that the judge overseeing his 2015 trial did not adequately question potential jurors for bias in the case, which received massive publicity. In overturning Tsarnaev's death sentence, the panel also said some evidence was improperly withheld that might have indicated his older brother, Tamerlan, was more culpable for the bombing. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed as police closed in on the brothers days after the April 2013 attack." CNN's story is here.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

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

News You Can Use. Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "Recipients of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine may need a booster shot -- and while they could benefit from a second dose of the original vaccine, they may derive even greater protection if the boost comes from a different vaccine technology, according to data that emerged Wednesday. The documents include an FDA review of Johnson & Johnson's tests of a second dose of its own vaccine and a separate preprint study that tested mixing booster doses from different companies. The data could provide a road map for the 15 million people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the United States, many of whom have felt left out because the vast majority of U.S. vaccine recipients received messenger RNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna." An NPR story is here.

Beyond the Beltway

California. Alexander Nieves of Politico: "Los Angeles City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas was indicted on federal charges Wednesday for his role in an alleged bribery scheme that landed his son a professorship at USC. Federal prosecutors alleged in a 20-count indictment that Ridley-Thomas helped direct funding and contracts to USC's school of social work while serving on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. In exchange, his son, former state lawmaker Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, was guaranteed graduate school admission and a paid teaching position by the school's then-dean, Marilyn Louise Flynn. Mark Ridley-Thomas also moved $100,000 from a campaign committee through USC and eventually into the account of a nonprofit that employed his son, the indictment alleges.... Flynn, who has since retired from USC, was also named in the indictment."

Colorado. Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "A Colorado judge on Wednesday prohibited a local official who has embraced conspiracy theories from overseeing November's election, finding she breached and neglected her duties and was 'untruthful' when she brought in someone who was not a county employee to copy the hard drives of Dominion Voting Systems machines. The effort by Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters (R) to ferret out supposedly hidden evidence of fraud amounted to an escalation in the attacks on the nation's voting systems, according to experts.... Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) filed a lawsuit in August seeking to formally strip Peters of her election duties after passwords for Mesa County's voting machines were posted online and copies of the hard drives were presented at a symposium hosted by MyPillow executive Mike Lindell.... Judge Valerie J. Robison found Peters and her deputy, Belinda Knisley..., are both 'unable or unwilling to appropriately perform the duties' of the county's chief elections official." Colorado Public Radio's report is here.

Georgia. Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "A fundraiser for Republican Herschel Walker, a [Trump-backed] U.S. Senate candidate in Georgia, was canceled Wednesday after its host was criticized for featuring an image that used a swastika made out of syringes on her Twitter profile. Bettina Sofia Viviano-Langlais, a Republican donor, was set to host a fundraiser for Walker this weekend in Parker, Tex., according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which first noted Wednesday morning that her Twitter profile picture resembled the symbol. That specific rendering of the vaccine-needle swastika has been co-opted by activists nationwide who oppose coronavirus vaccine mandates and compare them to Nazi treatment of the Jews. Within hours of the Journal-Constitution's report, the account's profile picture had been changed and Walker had called off the event despite initially standing by Viviano-Langlais." A Huffington Post report is here.

News Ledes

New York Times: “A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a former top pilot for Boeing, Mark Forkner, in connection with statements he and the company made about its troubled 737 Max jet, the culmination of a long investigation. Mr. Forkner is accused of deceiving the Federal Aviation Administration and of 'scheming to defraud Boeing's U.S.‑based airline customers to obtain tens of millions of dollars for Boeing,' the Justice Department said in a statement. Prosecutors contend that Mr. Forkner provided the aviation agency with 'materially false, inaccurate and incomplete information' about flight control software implicated in two crashes in 2018 and 2019 in which 346 people were killed. That software, known as MCAS (for Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) was designed to push down the plane's nose in certain situations."

New York Times: "Nearly four decades after his wife's abrupt disappearance cast a cloud of suspicion that would make his case one of the most notorious in the country, Robert A. Durst was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison for the execution-style killing in 2000 of a close confidante. The 78-year-old Mr. Durst, whose life story inspired a Hollywood movie and an HBO documentary, will not be eligible for parole. The jury that convicted him of first-degree murder in Los Angeles last month found that the prosecution had proven special circumstances: Namely, that Mr. Durst shot Susan Berman, a journalist and screenwriter, because he feared she was about to tell investigators what she had learned as his liaison with the news media after the 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathie McCormack Durst."

AP: "A Danish man who is in custody in Norway suspected of a bow-and-arrow attack on a small town that killed five people and wounded two others is a Muslim convert who had previously been flagged as having being radicalized, police said Thursday. The man is suspected of having shot at people in a number of locations in the town of Kongsberg on Wednesday evening. Several of the victims were in a supermarket, police said.... The victims were four women and one man between the ages of 50 and 70, Saeverud said. Officials believe that the man didn't start killing people until police arrived on the scene." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. The New York Times story is here.

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