The Full Belmonte, 2/27/2023
Drivers pass through the snow-covered Sierra Pelona Mountains in Los Angeles County on Saturday.
Winter storm
“A barrage of snow, rain and harsh winds is forecast from the West Coast to the Great Lakes today, following a similar string of severe weather last week. Approximately 284,000 homes and businesses were without power across the US as of this morning, about half of which were in Michigan, where the region is bracing for another round of ice and snow, forecasts show. More than 100 other storm reports were recorded in parts of the Central US as hurricane-force winds and thunderstorms tore through various states overnight. A gust of 114 mph was recorded in Texas -- equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane. Meanwhile, the West is expecting a separate system of rain and high-elevation snow that will push from the Pacific Northwest down into California, where some rare blizzard warnings remain in effect.” [CNN]
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
“Americans are doing something weird. Despite high inflation, they've been spending like crazy, and personal spending went up 1.8% in January. Is this a good thing? It's hard to tell. If spending continues to grow, the Fed could raise interest rates again. But if spending cools, it would raise concerns of a recession.” [NPR]
Student Loan Case Before Supreme Court Poses Pressing Question: Who Can Sue?
Prompted by a 2007 decision giving states “special solicitude,” partisan challenges to federal programs from coalitions of state attorneys general have surged.
“WASHINGTON — When the Supreme Court hears arguments on Tuesday in a challenge from six Republican-led states to President Biden’s plan to wipe out more than $400 billion in student debt, the first question it will explore is not whether the plan is lawful. It will be whether the states are even entitled to sue.
For most of American history, partisan lawsuits by states challenging federal programs were rare. That changed after a 2007 Supreme Court decision gave states ‘special solicitude’ in determining when they have standing to sue, and the trend has been amplified by a rising partisan divide among state attorneys general.
‘State politicians are using state standing as a way of waging what are political or policy battles against the current administration in court as opposed to through the political process,’ said Jonathan H. Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University. ‘There is good reason to think that this special solicitude stuff has kind of gotten out of hand and it needs to be curtailed. But it’s hard to curtail it in a way that doesn’t come across as opportunistic for one side or the other.’
Partisan lawsuits by states challenging federal actions, which thrust the judiciary into all manner of political controversies and boost its power, have exploded in recent years, said Paul Nolette, a political scientist at Marquette University. He said the surge in such cases started after 2014, in the final years of Barack Obama’s presidency….” Read more at New York Times
DeSantis moves toward GOP presidential bid on his own terms
FILE - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at an annual leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Nov. 19, 2022, in Las Vegas. DeSantis has emerged as a political star early in the 2024 presidential election season even as he ignores many conventions of modern politics. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
“NEW YORK (AP) — Republican presidential contenders typically fight for prime speaking slots at the Conservative Political Action Conference. But as conservative activists gather in suburban Washington this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will be courting donors more than a thousand miles away in Texas and California.
The apparent CPAC snub is nothing new for DeSantis, who has emerged in the early phase of the 2024 presidential election as a leading contender for the GOP nomination even as he ignores many conventions of modern politics.
DeSantis is a frequent voice in conservative cultural fights on cable television, but he often avoids gatherings of fellow Republican governors and party leaders, who are quick to complain in private about his go-it-alone approach. He is the only top-tier presidential prospect yet to court voters in Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina, the states hosting the GOP’s opening presidential primary contests. And he is often at odds with the press, refusing even to notify local media of last week’s rare three-state tour with law enforcement.
Indeed, as DeSantis moves toward a White House run, it is becoming increasingly clear that the 44-year-old Republican governor will manage his presidential aspirations in his own way, on his own timeline, with or without allies in national GOP leadership or relationships with the press….” Read more at AP News
Lab Leak Most Likely Caused Pandemic, Energy Dept. Says
The conclusion, which was made with ‘low confidence,’ came as America’s intelligence agencies remained divided over the origins of the coronavirus.
“WASHINGTON — New intelligence has prompted the Energy Department to conclude that an accidental laboratory leak in China most likely caused the coronavirus pandemic, though U.S. spy agencies remain divided over the origins of the virus, American officials said on Sunday.
The conclusion was a change from the department’s earlier position that it was undecided on how the virus emerged.
Some officials briefed on the intelligence said that it was relatively weak and that the Energy Department’s conclusion was made with ‘low confidence,’ suggesting its level of certainty was not high. While the department shared the information with other agencies, none of them changed their conclusions, officials said.
Officials would not disclose what the intelligence was. But many of the Energy Department’s insights come from its network of national laboratories, some of which conduct biological research, rather than more traditional forms of intelligence like spy networks or communications intercepts….” Read more at New York Times
Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
“Energy Department scientists concluded in a "low confidence" assessment that COVID most likely arose from a lab leak in China, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times report.
Why it matters: The department was previously undecided on a cause. The new report underscores how American intelligence agencies have split over the question, which is key to preventing future pandemics.
State of play: The Energy Department joins the FBI in saying the virus likely spread via a mishap at a Chinese lab. Four agencies and the National Intelligence Council say it was likely the result of natural transmission, and two agencies are undecided, The Journal reports.
Intelligence agencies say they don't see any evidence the virus was created deliberately as a biological weapon, The Times notes.
The Energy Department news added to Republican anger over the handling of the COVID origins debate — even as many scientists remain convinced the virus most likely emerged naturally, Axios' Tina Reed, Caitlin Owens and Adriel Bettelheim report.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who raised the lab leak theory in 2020, tweeted: ‘Being proven right doesn’t matter. What matters is holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable so this doesn't happen again.’
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) tweeted: ‘So the government caught up to what Real America knew all along.’
What's next: Tomorrow, the House Oversight Committee holds a hearing to examine COVID policy decisions.” [Axios]
Musk defends ‘Dilbert’ creator, says media is ‘racist against whites’
The Tesla and Twitter chief blasted media outlets for dropping Scott Adams’s comic strip after the cartoonist’s rant against Black people
“Twitter and Tesla chief Elon Musk defended Scott Adams, the under-fire creator of “Dilbert,” in a series of tweets Sunday, blasting media organizations for dropping his comic strip after Adams said that White people should ‘get the hell away from Black people.’
Replying to tweets about the controversy, Musk said it is actually the media that is ‘racist against whites & Asians.’ He offered no criticism of Adams’s comments, in which the cartoonist called Black people a ‘hate group’ and said, ‘I don’t want to have anything to do with them.’
Musk previously tweeted, then later deleted, a reply to Adams’s tweet about media outlets pulling his comic strip, in which Musk asked, ‘What exactly are they complaining about?’
The billionaire’s comments continue a pattern of Musk expressing more concern about the ‘free speech’ of people who make racist or antisemitic comments than about the comments themselves. Musk’s views on race have been the subject of scrutiny both at Twitter, where he has reinstated far-right accounts, including those of neo-Nazis and others previously banned for hate speech, and at Tesla, which has been the subject of multiple lawsuits alleging a culture of rampant racism and sexual harassment in the workplace….” Read more at Washington Post
New evidence of CIA role in Mandela's arrest
Richard Stengel and Nelson Mandela at Cape Town, South Africa, airport in 1992. Photo courtesy Richard Stengel
“New evidence being revealed today by Richard Stengel on TIME.com strengthens claims that the CIA helped South Africa's racist regime capture anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela in 1962, Axios' Russell Contreras writes.
Why it matters: The report adds to evidence that President John F. Kennedy's administration played a role in Mandela's arrest, at a time when U.S. officials were coming to grips with an increasingly intense civil rights movement in America.
Mandela wound up spending 27 years in prison for leading the African National Congress (ANC), which opposed apartheid policies that kept South Africa's Black residents segregated.
He was released in 1990 as apartheid crumbled, and was elected South Africa's first Black president in 1994. He died in 2013 at age 95.
Stengel — the collaborator on Mandela's autobiography, ‘Long Walk to Freedom,’ and former editor of TIME — discloses a previously unpublished interview he taped with Mandela in 1993. The interview surfaced as Stengel sifted his decades-old interview tapes while preparing a podcast series out now from Audible, ‘Mandela: The Lost Tapes.’
Stengel reveals that Mandela told him that he had heard an American consul with CIA connections had tipped off South African authorities about Mandela's travel habits.
In 2017, the CIA declassified documents — described by Stengel for the first time — that identified Mandela as a ‘probable communist,’ and showed the agency was tracking the ANC leader as he traveled outside South Africa.
Stengel says these details add significantly to evidence that the CIA was tracking Mandela — and helped South African authorities arrest him as he traveled from Durban to Johannesburg in 1962.
The CIA declined to comment.” [Axios]
Space mission
“SpaceX and NASA called off an astronaut launch to the International Space Station this morning with about two minutes left on the countdown clock. Engineers put the mission on hold at 1:45 a.m. ET after an issue was detected with the rocket's ignition fluid. Once the problem is resolved, the rocket will launch two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut, and an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates to the ISS, where they will spend up to six months carrying out science experiments and maintaining the two-decade-old space station. NASA said it will aim to launch on Thursday, ‘pending resolution of the technical issue preventing Monday's launch.’” [CNN]
The FDA cleared the first home test for both the flu and coronavirus.
“What to know: You’ll be able to check for flu without going to a doctor’s office for the first time ever. The test, made by Lucira, uses a nasal swab and provides results in about 30 minutes.
Why it matters: It could be particularly helpful in winters such as this one, when flu, covid-19 and RSV surged simultaneously.
In other health news: The CDC warned Friday about a sharp risein a highly drug-resistant stomach bug.” [Washington Post]
Marianne Williamson Says She Will Run for President Again
Ms. Williamson, a self-help author, called Trumpism a symptom of a disease in the American psyche during her last bid for the Democratic nomination.
“Marianne Williamson, the self-help author and spiritual adviser who ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, will run again in 2024, she told supporters this weekend.
‘Since the election of 2016 it’s odd for anyone to think they can know who can win the presidency,’ she said in a statement that was emailed to supporters and posted on Facebook. ‘And I’m not putting myself through this again just to add to the conversation. I’m running for president to help bring an aberrational chapter of our history to a close, and to help bring forth a new beginning.’ She added, ‘Washington is filled with good political car mechanics, but the problem is that we are on the wrong road.’
She will formally announce her campaign in a speech on Saturday.
Four years ago, Ms. Williamson was one of more than 25 candidates for the nomination that Joseph R. Biden Jr. ultimately won. This time around, so far, she is the only candidate — entering the 2024 race before even Mr. Biden has done so, though he is widely expected to run for re-election.
Ms. Williamson, 70, became famous within the self-help world as an author of several best-selling books and a spiritual adviser to Oprah Winfrey. In the 1980s, she founded the Los Angeles and Manhattan Centers for Living, which supported people with H.I.V. and AIDS, and Project Angel Food, which provides free meals to people with serious illnesses….” Read more at New York Times
Putin says Russia will 'take into account' NATO's nuclear capability
“Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview broadcast Sunday that after Russia suspended its participation in the last arms control agreement with Washington, it would ‘take into account’ the nuclear weapons capabilities not only of the United States but of other NATO countries. Putin had said in a speech suspending Russia's role in the 2010 New START treaty last week that France and Britain, not parties to the agreement, had joined the U.S. in targeting Russia with nuclear weapons. In an interview with Russian TV, he said he took the action to ‘preserve our country, ensure security and strategic stability.’ Putin repeated his common theme that the West is bent on destroying Russia and that his one-year-old war in Ukraine is part of a battle for Russia's very survival.” Read more at USA Today
Russian citizens take part in a protest against the war and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in front of the Russian embassy in Mexico City on February 24, 2023, on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
RODRIGO ARANGUA, AFP via Getty Images
Tens of thousands of people in Mexico protested an electoral overhaul yesterday.
“What’s going on? A law that passed last week will let President Andrés Manuel López Obrador slash the budget of the agency in charge of Mexico’s elections.
Why it matters: People are worried that this threatens Mexico’s democracy and could return the country to one-party rule.” [Washington Post]
Dozens of Migrants Killed Off Coast of Italy
“Almost 60 people were killed after a wooden boat carrying migrants crashed into reefs off the coast of Italy, authorities said. Dozens more were missing. The boat is believed to have had up to 200 passengers, and over 100 could have been killed, officials fear.
At least 80 people were found alive. A local priest said he blessed the bodies that were lying on the beach. Pope Francis mourned the children among the victims.
A Red Cross volunteer has said that all survivors were adults. Doctors Without Borders is offering assistance to survivors.
The boat reportedly set off from Turkey, carrying passengers from Afghanistan and Iran.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni shared ‘her deep sorrow for the many human lives torn away by human traffickers.’
Meloni, who came to power vowing to take a hard line on illegal migration, has promised to crack down on human smugglers and go to the European Union for help with migrants. Meloni’s government believes charity rescue ships encourage more people to make the dangerous journey, and has imposed restrictions on NGOs. Over 14,100 migrants have nevertheless managed to get to Italy since Jan. 1.
NGOs have stressed that vilifying them will not stop people from attempting to come to Europe.
‘The discretional targeting of NGOs is not going to solve the much more complex and wide issue of migration flows,’ said Juan Matias Gil of Doctors Without Borders’ Mediterranean operations. ‘But preventing us from being in the sea is going to continue contributing to more deaths.’
Opposition politicians have also pointed out the limits of her plan.
‘The truth is that the EU today doesn’t offer effective alternatives for those who are forced to abandon their country of origin,’ Laura Ferrara, a European Parliament lawmaker from Italy’s populist Five Star Movement, said in a statement.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted that the deaths were a tragedy.” [Foreign Policy]
“Nigerians await presidential election results. Nigerians continue to wait for the counting of votes in Saturday’s presidential election. Saturday’s vote spilled over into Sunday, and technical issues were an impediment. A final tally to reveal who will replace Muhammadu Buhari is now expected at some point this week.
Further delays are expected to further exacerbate tensions. The three candidates expected to have a real shot at succeeding Buhari are Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress; Atiku Abubakar, of the People’s Democratic Party; and Peter Obi of the Labour Party.
Early results show Tinubu leading overall, followed by Abubakar. However, in Lagos state, the current count shows Obi leading Tinubu by a slim margin; votes have not yet been reported in many of Obi’s potential southeastern strongholds.” [Foreign Policy]
Iraqi president says country now peaceful, life is returning
Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid is interviewedby The Associated Press in Saddam Hussein's former palace in the old Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023. Nearly 20 years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid says he wants the world to know that his country now is at peace, free and rebuilding its economy and agriculture. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
“BAGHDAD (AP) — Nearly 20 years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by U.S.-led forces, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid wants the world to know his country now is at peace, democratic and intent on rebuilding economic life while maintaining a government that serves the whole country and the region.
Rashid told The Associated Press on Sunday that after overcoming the hardships of the past two decades, Iraq is ready to focus on improving everyday life for its people. Those hardships included years of resistance to foreign troops, violence between Sunnis and Shiites, and attacks by Islamic State group extremists who once controlled large areas, including Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul.
‘Peace and security is all over the country, and I would be very glad if you will report that and emphasize on that, instead of giving a picture of Iraq ... still (as) a war zone, which a lot of media still do,’ Rashid said.
While Iraq’s major fighting has ended, there have been some recent outbreaks of violence — including on the day of Rashid’s election, which came after a yearlong stalemate following the October 2021 election. Ahead of the vote, at least nine rockets targeted Iraq’s Parliament inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone.
After Rashid’s election, he nominated Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who formed a government with the backing of a coalition of Iran-backed parties and with promises of improving security and public services.
Despite its oil wealth, Iraq’s infrastructure remains weak. Private generators fill in for the hours of daily state electricity cuts. Long-promised public transportation projects, including a Baghdad metro, have not come to fruition….” Read more at AP News
“Scottish would-be first ministers argue over equal marriage. SNP leadership candidate Humza Yousaf has said that someone who would vote against same sex marriage should not be first minister of Scotland. Kate Forbes, his main rival to replace Nicola Sturgeon, said last week that she would not have supported same sex marriage legislation had she been a member of Scotland’s legislature at the time. Asked by the BBC whether such a position was acceptable, Yousaf said, ‘Not if they would roll back on those rights, I don’t think that’s acceptable.’” [Foreign Policy]
“Turkey investigates building collapses. Turkey is investigating more than 600 people over building collapses in the aftermath of this month’s deadly earthquakes. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Saturday that 184 people had already been arrested.” [Foreign Policy]
“China refuses to condemn Russian invasion of Ukraine. G-20 finance ministers were at an impasse in India after China declined to sign onto a statement condemning Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in the ‘strongest terms.’ Russia, for its part, blamed western countries for destabilizing the G-20. According to a footnote, all members but Russia and China agreed.
India, which hosted, issued a ‘chair’s summary’ that concluded there were ‘different assessments’ of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Senior Indian official Ajay Seth said Russia and China insisted the summit should only be about financial matters, while other countries felt it was relevant as Russia’s war in Ukraine impacted the global economy.” [Foreign Policy]
‘Never Seen Anything Like It’: New Bill Would Write DeSantis’s Higher-Ed Vision Into Law
“Gov. Ron DeSantis announces his proposed legislation to reform higher education in Florida.
In recent months, Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has laid out a comprehensive vision that would place public higher education under extraordinary state control. A bill introduced this week would write that vision into law.
House Bill 999 takes up almost every bullet-pointed goal that DeSantis included for public higher education in a press release last month. It would prohibit public colleges from funding any projects that ‘espouse diversity, equity, and inclusion or Critical Race Theory rhetoric,’ no matter the funding source; allow boards of trustees to conduct a post-tenure review of faculty members at any time for cause; and put faculty hiring into the hands of trustees. It also has new specifics DeSantis hadn’t proposed, such as a ban on gender studies as a major or minor.
‘This bill will be a gut punch to anyone who cares about public education in a democracy or academic freedom or the fact that our system of higher education is the envy of the world,’ said Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors. ‘Because higher ed in America is organized around the fact that research and teaching and decisions involving research and teaching are best made by experts and scholars in the field.’
‘We need to protest, we need to vote, we need to make our voices heard,’ Mulvey added, acknowledging a student protest on Thursday. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it. The future of higher education is at stake. If it works in Florida, you know it’ll spread to other red states.’
In a news conference in January, DeSantis said his proposals would help Florida ‘continue to lead in the area of higher education,’ and the governor has expressed a desire to rein in public spending on campus initiatives related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Neither DeSantis nor Robert Alexander ‘Alex’ Andrade, HB 999’s sponsor, returned requests for comment.
The bill is very early in the legislative process. Andrade, a Republican representative in the Florida House who has filed other bills closely aligned with DeSantis’s agenda, filed HB 999 on Tuesday, and the legislative session doesn’t start until March 7. HB 999 may yet change before it passes, if it passes at all, but at least one politics expert in Florida saw it as a sign of what’s to come.
‘My hope is that we get at least some of the more alarming things that are in these bills toned down a little bit, but, at the same time, I think there’s definitely a lot of momentum among Florida Republicans to do something here,’ said Nicholas R. Seabrook, a professor of political science at the University of North Florida who has been critical of DeSantis’s posture on higher ed. ‘We’re definitely going to see something come out of this legislative session.’
Although he expects legal challenges to HB 999 if it passes, Seabrook also thought it could better pass legal muster than last year’s ‘Stop WOKE’ Act, which has its higher-ed portions under injunction. HB 999 takes aim at funding for programs, curriculum, and hiring, issues in which the state ‘legitimately has a greater role,’ Seabrook said.
Among the specifics of the bill: It directs trustees to remove from their universities majors and minors ‘in Critical Race Theory, Gender Studies, or Intersectionality, or any derivative major or minor of these belief systems.’ It’s not clear whether any public Florida university has a critical race theory or intersectionality major or minor, but a majority of the 12 institutions offer gender studies as either a major or a minor or both.
(Critical race theory refers to a set of ideas that arose from legal scholars decades ago that, among other things, positions racism as a structural force. Intersectionality is a theory that refers to ‘the idea that forms of prejudice overlap.’ Both resist simple definition.)
HB 999 would make boards of trustees responsible for hiring faculty members, and while it would allow boards to delegate that task to the college president, it prohibits the president from further delegating hiring to, say, faculty members. It clarifies that while ‘diversity’ programs are banned, that doesn’t include support for ‘military veterans, Pell Grant recipients, first generation college students, nontraditional students, ‘2+2’ transfer students from the Florida College System, students from low-income families, or students with unique abilities.’
The bill would create new rules around general-education courses. For example, they may not teach ‘American history as contrary to the creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.’ It continues: ‘Whenever applicable,’ gen-ed courses are to ‘promote the philosophical underpinnings of Western civilization and include studies of this nation’s historical documents, including the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments thereto, and the Federalist Papers.’
But teaching history well does include some realities that are contrary to the principles of the Declaration of Independence, according to James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association, who has written books about 20th-century African American history. Inviting students to wrestle with colonialism and slavery in early American history is both truthful and helps with ‘students learning how to think historically and students learning how no ideas exist outside of context. Their ideas, their parents’ ideas, their teachers’ ideas, no ideas exist outside of a context,’ Grossman said.
There are some parts of HB 999 that Seabrook, the University of North Florida professor, agrees with. The bill adds language to Florida law about how a part of public universities’ mission is to prepare students ‘for citizenship of the constitutional republic.’ He also thinks colleges could do more to foster intellectual diversity on campus, but HB 999 is not the way to go about it.
‘It’s identifying that there’s perhaps a problem with academia leaning one way on the ideological spectrum, and then you see what they’re doing at New College,’ he said. ‘They’re just replacing it with an even worse model that goes in the opposite direction.’” [Chronicle of Higher Education]
Memories of Wounded Knee reflect mixed legacy after 50 years
FILE - Dwain Camp of Ponca City, Okla. speaks Friday, Nov. 16, 2007 in Oklahoma City, during the Oklahoma Indians Survival Walk and Remembrance Ceremony near the state Capitol. Camp, a member of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, was in California when his younger brother, Carter, called to say he and other leaders of the American Indian Movement took a group of activists into Wounded Knee in 1973. “He was telling me they were in a hell of a fight,” Camp, now 85, recalled. “I heard the gunfire and that was all I needed. I went up there and stayed for the duration of the standoff.” (Jaconna Aguirre/The Oklahoman via AP, File)
“MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Tensions that had been smoldering on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota flared up 50 years ago Monday, when activists from the American Indian Movement took over the town of Wounded Knee.
In the view of the protesters, Oglala Sioux tribal chairman Dick Wilson was in cahoots with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and other federal authorities, and used threats of violence to intimidate his critics. But the 71-day occupation quickly morphed into an outpouring of anger with the federal government over decades of broken treaties, the theft of ancestral lands, forced assimilation and other injustices dating back centuries.
Two Native Americans died in the fighting, and a U.S. marshal was left paralyzed.
Wounded Knee had already been seared into history as the site of an 1890 massacre by U.S. Army cavalry troops in one of the last major military operations against Native Americans on the northern plains. Accounts vary, but the massacre left around 300 Lakota dead — including children, women and older people. Congress apologized in 1990….” Read more at AP News
Alabama papers say —30—
Images tweeted by Kelly Ann Scott, the Alabama Media Group's editor-in-chief and V.P. of content
“These Sunday front pages, lined up like tombstones, are the final print editions of three of Alabama's biggest newspapers. All printed for the last time yesterday, in a sad symphony that captures news-industry reality.
The work of their 102 journalists will live on at the AL.com website.
Why it matters: Print editions have been shrinking for years (both in heft and page size), printing plants have closed, and many papers now print only a few days a week. But few metro dailies that survived have gone to zero print.
Papers in Montgomery and Tuscaloosa, owned by Gannett, continue to offer print delivery.” [Axios]
‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ dominates at SAG Awards
Harry Shum Jr., from back left, Jenny Slate, Tallie Medel, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Michelle Yeoh, Brian Le, Andy Le, from front left, James Hong, and Jamie Lee Curtis pose with the award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion pictures for "Everything Everywhere All at Once," in the press room at the 29th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023, at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
"‘The unlikely awards season juggernaut ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ marched on at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, and even gathered steam with wins not just for best ensemble, Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan but also for Jamie Lee Curtis.
The SAG Awards, often an Oscar preview, threw some curve balls into the Oscars race in a ceremony streamed live on Netflix’s YouTube page from Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
But the clearest result of the SAG Awards was the overwhelming success of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s madcap multiverse tale, which has now used its hotdog fingers to snag top honors from the acting, directing and producing guilds. Only one film (“Apollo 13”) had won all three and not gone on to win best picture at the Oscars….” Read more at AP News