Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, via Associated Press
The Masters Tournament heads into its final round today with Hideki Matsuyama of Japan on top of the leaderboard.
After a 78-minute rain delay, Matsuyama shot a sparkling 65 by playing his final eight holes in six strokes under par. At 11 under par for the tournament, Matsuyama, 29, will take an authoritative four-shot lead. Four golfers are tied for second: Justin Rose, Xander Schauffele, Marc Leishman and the Masters rookie Will Zalatoris.
Accurate putting is widely considered the most pivotal golf skill, and yet, every golfer at the Masters has a different way of doing it. Here’s what their grips look like.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Amazon’s defeat of a union organizing effort in Alabama on Friday was the latest setback for workers who have been clamoring to assert more control over the technology companies that depend on them — one that showed how Silicon Valley giants still have a major edge in determining where power resides in the modern economy.
Labor advocates expressed dismay after a push to organize Amazon’s Bessemer, Ala., warehouse was rejected by a surprisingly large margin of workers amid fierce opposition from the Seattle-based e-commerce giant. The advocates, who have complained for years about worker treatment at Amazon warehouses, came to see the Bessemer warehouse as a top prospect for gaining a foothold in one of America’s biggest and most powerful companies.
The defeat comes amid a series of clashes between the nation’s major technology companies and workers who say they are not reaping the rewards of the digital economy, at a time when the share prices of many tech giants have reached all time highs and created hundreds of billions of dollars in new wealth.
California voters approved a ballot initiative in November, Proposition 22, exempting Uber and Lyft from classifying millions of drivers as employees — in essence denying those gig workers a minimum wage and other benefits.” Read more at Washington Post
“Maryland lawmakers voted on Saturday to limit police officers’ use of force, restrict the use of no-knock warrants and repeal the nation’s first Bill of Rights for law enforcement, taking sweeping action to address police violence after nationwide demonstrations following the death of George Floyd.
The Democratic-led legislature enacted the changes by overriding Gov. Larry Hogan’s vetoes during a session in which some Black lawmakers read aloud the names of people they said had been killed by police officers in the state.
The changes placed Maryland at the forefront of a national debate over police brutality and the use of excessive force, a discussion that has gained intensity since Mr. Floyd was killed in police custody last year, setting off protests across the country. The legislation was passed in the middle of the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer who is accused of the murder of Mr. Floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes.” Read more at New York Times
The Biden administration is under pressure to address the crush of young migrants arriving at the border. The flow is only expected to increase in coming weeks.
The numbers are daunting. More than 20,000 children and teenagers are in the custody of a government system that is already overstretched. In March, border agents encountered nearly 19,000 children at the border — the largest number recorded in a single month — most of them fleeing poverty and violence in Central America.
By June, there could be more than 35,000 migrant children in need of care, according to government projections obtained by The Times — a prospect that one former senior official in the Department of Health and Human Services called ‘terrifying.’
The ability of the department to address the immigration surge — by building more shelters, moving children out of border jails and into new facilities quickly, and then reuniting them with relatives or sponsors in the U.S. — is the first major test of whether the Biden administration can respond swiftly and effectively to the crisis.” Read more at New York Times
“Michigan’s coronavirus outbreak is the worst in America, with more than 7,000 new cases daily.
But with residents weary of restrictions, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, above this month, has avoided calling for another lockdown and is instead appealing to personal responsibility. Her position reflects the shifting politics of the pandemic, which is increasingly being shaped by growing public impatience and the hope offered by vaccines.
Just as the national vaccination campaign was finding its footing, supplies of Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose vaccine will plunge next week after problems at a plant in Baltimore. Officials in some states are worried.
We also took a closer look at how the virus tore through the country’s prison system, tracking every known case for a year. Inmates have been infected with the virus at rates three times as high as others in the U.S. More than 2,700 inmates have died.” Read more at New York Times
“A Florida woman who, without wearing a mask, purposefully coughed on another customer in a Pier 1 store last year has been sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Debra Hunter, 53, will serve time in Duval County jail, followed by six months of probation, an anger management course and a $500 fine for second-degree assault, a misdemeanor.
Judge James A. Ruth said in the Thursday sentencing that Hunter’s mid-pandemic actions on June 25 could have had ‘deadly consequences’ for the victim, Heather Sprague — who was undergoing treatment after the removal of a brain tumor — or her family.
The judge also said that although Hunter was extremely concerned about the well-being of her own family, who had been ‘permanently scarred’ as a result of her actions, she showed little remorse for the trauma she inflicted on Sprague and her loved ones.” Read more at Washington Post
Erin Schaff/The New York Times
“Republican leaders and top donors are gathering in South Florida this weekend, and Donald Trump is the headliner.
The former president’s lingering presence on the political scene presents ‘a tremendous complication’ for the party, one veteran fund-raiser said. Mr. Trump, pictured above in February, is considering running again in 2024, and though few of his allies believe he will follow through, he could have a chilling effect on other potential candidates.
Also elbowing his way to the front of the 2024 pack is Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who has leveraged a brand of ‘competent Trumpism,’ as one ally put it, and continues to hit back at critics of his handling of the pandemic.” Read more at New York Times
Former president Donald Trump called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell a ‘dumb son of a bitch’ as he used a Saturday night speech to Republicans to blame him for not helping overturn the 2020 election and reiterated false assertions that he won the November contest.
Trump, speaking to a Republican National Committee gathering at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., excoriated a number of Republicans even as he publicly called for party unity — focusing on those who voted to convict him in impeachment proceedings. But he saved his sharpest vitriol for the Kentucky Republican.
‘If that were Schumer instead of this dumb son of a bitch Mitch McConnell they would never allow it to happen. They would have fought it,’ he said of election certifying on Jan. 6, the day his supporters led an insurrection on the Capitol to block Joe Biden’s formal victory.” Read more at Washington Post
Hannah Mckay/Reuters
“The death of Prince Philip, pictured above in 2017, opens up an uncertain chapter for the House of Windsor.
Prince Harry plans to return to Britain for Philip’s funeral on April 17, raising hopes that a deep rift in the royal family might heal. His wife, Meghan, who is pregnant, will remain at the couple’s California home.
The private funeral, to be held at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, comes a month after Harry accused his family of emotional abandonment in an interview. No question was more on the minds of royal watchers than whether Harry would make peace with his brother, Prince William, after a monthslong feud.
Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II and a staunch defender of the monarchy, died Friday. He was 99. Read his full obituary and have a look at his life in pictures.” Read more at New York Times
“Four members of an armed right-wing group linked to the anti-government ‘boogaloo’ movement have been charged with conspiring to destroy evidence related to the fatal shooting of a Federal Protective Service officer and the wounding of another in Oakland, Calif., last May, prosecutors announced Friday.
A federal grand jury indictment says members of the Northern California-based Grizzly Scouts tried to cover for one of their own after he allegedly gunned down the officers, deleting chat histories that included a message reading, ‘Dudes i offed a fed.’
Jessie Alexander Rush, 29, Robert Jesus Blancas, 33, Simon Sage Ybarra, 23, and Kenny Matthew Miksch, 21, are accused of conspiracy to destroy records and destruction of records in official proceedings. Rush faces an additional count of obstruction of official proceedings, and Blancas is charged with an additional count of destruction of records in official proceedings.” Read more at Washington Post
Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark in 1974.JACK MANNING/NYT
“Ramsey Clark, who championed civil rights and liberties as attorney general in the Johnson administration, then devoted much of the rest of his life to defending unpopular causes and infamous people, including Saddam Hussein and others accused of war crimes, died Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 93.
His niece Sharon Welch announced the death.
In becoming the nation’s top law enforcement official, Mr. Clark was part of an extraordinary father-and-son trade-off in the federal halls of power. His appointment prompted his father, Justice Tom C. Clark, to resign from the US Supreme Court to avoid the appearance of any conflict of interest involving cases in which the federal government might come before that bench.” Read more at Boston Globe
“A U.S. Army officer is suing two Virginia police officers after a December traffic stop in which the officers drew and pointed their weapons, pepper-sprayed him and used a slang term to suggest he would face execution as he purposefully held both hands aloft in attempts to defuse the situation.
Police in Windsor, in southeast Virginia, have yet to issue any comment about the incident involving second lieutenant Caron Nazario, a Black and Latino man who was in uniform when officers ordered him to exit his Chevrolet Tahoe as he held his hands up through the driver’s side window outside a local gas station.
The lawsuit, filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Norfolk and obtained by The Washington Post, alleges the officers violated Nazario’s constitutional rights during the stop and that the officers further threatened to destroy the lieutenant's military career ‘with a series of baseless criminal charges’ if he reported them for misconduct.” Read more at USA Today
“At least 82 people were killed in one day in a crackdown by Myanmar security forces on pro-democracy protesters, according to reports Saturday from independent local media and an organization that keeps track of casualties since the military’s February seizure of power.
Friday’s death toll in Bago was the biggest one-day total for a single city since March 14, when just over 100 people were killed in Yangon, the country’s biggest city. Bago is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Yangon. The Associated Press is unable to independently verify the number of deaths.
The death toll of 82 was a preliminary one compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which issues daily counts of casualties and arrests from the crackdown in the aftermath of the Feb. 1 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.” Read more at Boston Globe
“A hearing is scheduled Monday in the case of Robert Durst, a New York real estate scion charged in the killing of a longtime friend. He allegedly killed his confidante, Susan Berman, to prevent her from incriminating him in the 1982 disappearance of his first wife.” Read more at CNN
“A public health alert has been issued for approximately 211,406 pounds of raw ground turkey products potentially linked to salmonella hadar illness.
The Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service issued the alert Saturday night for the products that were produced by Plainville Brands, LLC, which is based in New Oxford, Pennsylvania.
The affected products were shipped to stores nationwide and have January ‘use by/freeze/sell by’ dates. The health alert said there were concerns that ‘some product may be frozen and in consumers’ freezers.’
According to the USDA health alert, a recall was ‘not requested because it is believed that the products are no longer available for consumers to purchase.’” Read more at USA Today
“The feud between Republicans and major corporations over voting laws is creating an opportunity for Democrats and President Biden to build new political ties.
GOP ties with big business frayed during the Trump era, when corporations sometimes found themselves at the end of then-President Trump’s barbs, and were often uncomfortable with his rhetoric about women, minorities and immigrants.
Now the tensions are rising again as companies speak out against Georgia’s voting law, and Major League Baseball pulls its All-Star Game from Atlanta in protest.
Democrats are seeing an opportunity to build inroads with business, despite real differences over some policies.” Read more at The Hill
“As President Biden races ahead with a mammoth plan to bolster the nation's infrastructure, Democrats are gambling they'll get a political boost from an accompanying proposal: the tax hikes designed to defray the massive costs.
Biden on Wednesday outlined a slate of tax reforms aimed at raising $2.5 trillion — much of it from large corporations — to underwrite the new infrastructure spending. The proposal was quickly roasted by Republicans, who have long portrayed Democrats as the party of higher taxes and are now warning that Biden's plan would hurt small businesses and kill American jobs.
Yet national polls have consistently revealed that tax hikes on corporations and other wealthy taxpayers enjoy strong support among a broad array of voters, including independents. And some Democrats are practically drooling at the prospect of bringing that debate to the national stage to highlight the GOP's resistance to a popular concept.” Read more at The Hill