The Full Belmonte, 6/8/2022
“LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. House battles took shape in heavily Democratic California that could tip the balance of power in Congress, while former Trump administration Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was in a tight match to claim the Republican nomination for a new House seat in Montana.
In Mississippi, Republican U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo was forced into a runoff after a congressional ethics watchdog raised questions about his campaign spending and he faced his largest-ever field of primary challengers.
Primary elections across seven states Tuesday set up November contests in dozens of races, as Democrats look to protect the party’s fragile majority in the House.
In a diverse district anchored in California’s Orange County, Republican U.S. Rep. Michelle Steel, a South Korean immigrant, will face Democrat Jay Chen. The district, which includes the nation’s largest Vietnamese American community, is widely considered a toss-up.
In Iowa, Republican state Sen. Zach Nunn won the GOP spot to take on the state’s lone Democratic House member, Rep. Cindy Axne, in a newly drawn district with a stronger GOP tilt.
A look at results in key U.S. House races Tuesday:
BATTLEGROUND CALIFORNIA: TRUMP HISTORY LOOMS IN KEY DISTRICTS
In 2020, Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Garcia won a narrow victory in a Democratic-leaning district north of Los Angeles. The former Navy fighter pilot was endorsed by Trump that year, then joined House Republicans who rejected electoral votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania and opposed Trump’s impeachment after the Capitol insurrection. That record will be a focus for Democrat Christy Smith, who earned a chance for a rematch with Garcia, after losing two years ago.
In a Democratic-tilting district in the state’s Central Valley farm belt, Republican Rep. David Valadao is highlighting an independent streak while contending with GOP fallout for his vote to impeach Trump over the Jan. 6 insurrection. Preliminary returns showed him holding an edge over Republican Chris Mathys, who made Valadao’s vote a centerpiece in his campaign to oust him. The winner will face Democrat Rudy Salas, a state legislator.
California uses a top-two election format in which only the two leading vote-getters advance to the November general election, regardless of party.
In the Central Valley, Republican Connie Conway won a special election to complete the term of former Rep. Devin Nunes, who resigned to head Trump’s media company.
MISSISSIPPI CONGRESSMAN WITH ETHICS TROUBLE TO FACE RUNOFF
Republican U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo of Mississippi is headed to a June 28 runoff.
The congressman first elected in 2010 failed to win the GOP nomination outright on Tuesday, earning less than 50% of the vote.
His opponent will either be Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell, who is also campaigning on border security, or Clay Wagner, a retired banker who says he wants to limit taxation and regulation.” Read more at AP News
“High-profile races in California — a San Francisco district attorney recall and a mayor's race in Los Angeles headed to a runoff — could signal trouble for Democrats in the November general elections.
Voters hit the polls for primary elections and other races not just in California, but also in Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota on Tuesday.
Unlike previous primaries in Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, former President Donald Trump's shadow didn't loom particularly large.
One of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him last year – David Valadao of California – doesn't even have a challenge from a Trump-endorsed opponent.
Here are the key developments:
Los Angeles sets mayor's race: Karen Bass vers. Rick Caruso
No one received 50% of the vote in the Los Angeles mayor's race, so the top two finishers will now face off in a November runoff election: U.S. Rep Karen Bass, D-Calif., and first-time candidate Rick Caruso.
Bass, a popular progressive who was on Joe Biden's short list for vice president, could become the city's first female mayor.
Caruso, a billionaire Republican-turned-Democrat who made crime rates a big issue, zoomed into contention by spending millions in advertising and pledging to increase funding for Los Angeles police.
The November winner will replace Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is term limited.
-- David Jackson
California Gov. Gavin Newsom to face long-shot Republican Brian Dahle in the fall
California Gov. Gavin Newsom topped all rivals in a primary and moves to the general election against little-known Republican Brian Dahle.
Dahle, a state senator, was projected to finish second in California's all-party primary, earning him a runoff election with the incumbent Newsom.
With a third of vote counted, Newsom had around 60% of the vote in the Democratic-leaning state.
-- David Jackson
S.D. Rep. beats election denier
South Dakota’s lone congressman, Rep. Dusty Johnson, defeated state Rep. Taffy Howard, who falsely believes there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
Johnson voted to certify the 2020 election results and to create the independent commission to investigate January 6th.
With 56% of the district reporting, Johnson led Howard 60.9%-39.1%.
-- Dylan Wells
Ronchetti wins New Mexico GOP gubernatorial primary
Former meteorologist Mark Ronchetti easily won the Republican primary for governor in New Mexico. He will face incumbent Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in November.
Jessica Taylor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report said that they will shift the ranking of the election from ‘likely D’ to ‘lean D’ because of Ronchetti's win, noting that "Ronchetti is the only candidate who could make it competitive."
Ronchetti was the GOP Senate nominee in 2020, but lost the race to Sen. Ben Ray Lujan.
-- Dylan Wells
Thune wins Senate GOP primary in South Dakota
U.S. Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the chamber, won his primary against two challengers who joined the race after Thune drew the ire of former President Donald Trump.
Trump speculated the senator's career was ‘over’ after he made public statements dismissing the former president's lies about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
-- Associated Press
Two GOP members who voted for infrastructure bill survive challenges
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who famously switched parties to become a Republican in 2019, won the GOP primary in NJ-02. Van Drew was expected to win but faced criticism from two challengers because he was one of only 13 House Republicans to vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who earned Donald Trump's ire by backing the infrastructure bill, survived a challenge from a Trump supporter in his primary.
Thompson wins Mississippi Democratic House primary
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chair of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection and the longest serving congressman from Mississippi, won the primary election to represent District 2 against a single rival.
Thompson led opponent Jerry Kerner with 96% of the vote. The congressman, who first took office in 1993, will face conservative Republican Brian Flowers in November.
Thompson will lead the Jan. 6 committee in the first of a series of public hearingsin Congress beginning Thursday.
-- Chelsey Cox
Chuck Grassley sails past Jim Carlin in GOP Senate primary in Iowa
Chuck Grassley has captured the Republican Party’s nomination, cruising past state Sen. Jim Carlin in Tuesday’s primary election as he seeks an eighth term in the U.S. Senate.
The Associated Press called the race in favor of Grassley.
Grassley, 88, will take on the winner of a Democratic primary race that included former U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer, retired Navy Admiral Mike Franken, and physician and city council member Glenn Hurst.
Carlin, a 59-year-old trial lawyer and Army veteran from Sioux City, jumped into the race in February 2021 — well before Grassley had announced he planned to seek reelection. It is the first primary challenge Grassley has faced since his 1980 election to the U.S. Senate.
— Brianne Pfannenstiel, Des Moines Register
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem wins GOP primary: Is the White House in her future?
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a big backer of Donald Trump, has been declared the winner of her state's Republican gubernatorial primary.
Noem, who easily defeated South Dakota state Rep. Steve Haugaard in the GOP contest, will face Democratic state legislator Jamie Smith in the fall general election.
If Noem wins that, speculation will mount about her next possible race: A presidential bid in 2024. Noem, who has raised more than $15 million for her South Dakota re-election bid, has also been mentioned as a possible running mate for Trump, should he win re-nomination as president.
Haugaard, her Republican primary opponent, accused Noem of using the South Dakota statehouse as a stepping-stone to a presidential campaign.” Read more at USA Today
– David Jackson
“Voters have recalled San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin in a blow to a national movement toward more lenient prosecution.
Boudin was toppled by a campaign fueled by crime concerns and funded by business groups. Former prosecutors from his office had publicly joined the recall push, lending credibility to the recall effort.
The result is likely to reverberate far beyond San Francisco. Opponents of criminal justice reform and Republicans seeking to depict Democrats as weak on public safety will likely cite Boudin’s rejection in a deeply liberal city as evidence that voters are balking at efforts to ease sentencing and reduce incarceration.” Read more at POLITICO
“KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia drew closer to its goal of fully capturing Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of coal mines and factories as the Kremlin claimed to have taken control of 97% of one of the two provinces that make up the Donbas region.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that Moscow’s forces hold nearly all of Luhansk province. And it appears that Russia now occupies roughly half of Donetsk province, according to Ukrainian officials and military analysts.
After abandoning its bungled attempt to storm Kyiv two months ago, Russia declared that taking the entire Donbas is its main objective. Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian government forces in the Donbas since 2014, and the region has borne the brunt of the Russian onslaught in recent weeks.
Early in the war, Russian troops also took control of the entire Kherson region and a large part of the Zaporizhzhia region, both in the south. Russian officials and their local appointees have talked about plans for those regions to either declare their independence or be folded into Russia.” Read more at AP News
PHOTO: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Janet Yellen told lawmakers that she expects inflation to remain high.
“The Treasury secretary testified before the Senate Finance Committee. With inflation running at above 8% on an annual basis, the highest rate in four decades, she faced repeated questions about rising prices, which the Biden administration has said is its top economic priority.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“A teacher wounded in last month’s mass shooting at a Texas elementary school said he will never forgive law enforcement for waiting more than an hour to stop the gunman who killed 19 students and two teachers.
Arnulfo Reyes, hospitalized after being shot twice during the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School, spoke of his anger toward police during an emotional interview that aired Tuesday. He described feeling abandoned by officers who stood in a hallway even as students begged for help in repeated calls to 911.
‘After everything, I get more angry, because you have a bulletproof vest. I had nothing! I had nothing,’ a crying Reyes said in a segment broadcast on ‘Good Morning America.’ ‘You’re supposed to protect and serve. There is no excuse for their actions.’
The police response to the Uvalde shooting has faced mounting scrutiny and criticism amid revelations about the officers’ delay and other missteps. A timeline laid out by state officials revealed that officers retreated when the gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, shot at them. A phalanx of police waited more than an hour for backup before a group led by federal Border Patrol agents breached the classroom where Ramos was holed up with students he had shot.” Read more at Washington Post
“Actor Matthew McConaughey, a native of Uvalde, Tex., urged lawmakers to act on gun control Tuesday in impassioned remarks delivered in a surprise appearance on the White House briefing room’s podium, adding another twist in the tumultuous debate over firearms that has roiled Washington in the wake of several mass shootings.
McConaughey emotionally told the stories of the 19 children and two teachers killed by a shooter at an elementary school in the small South Texas city on May 24. He said he and his wife, Camila Alves, spent most of last week with the victims’ families in his hometown.
‘You know what every one of these parents wanted, what they asked us for? What every parent separately expressed in their own way to Camila and me? That they want their children’s dreams to live on,’ McConaughey said. ‘They want to make their loss of life matter.’” Read more at Washington Post
“Few convictions | A year and a half after Donald Trump’s die-hard supporters overran the US Capitol, prosecutors have scored relatively few convictions and face growing pressure to target the former president and his allies. The Justice Department has won about 50 felony guilty pleas for the most serious attack on American democracy in the modern era, but the only charges brought against Trump aides have been for failing to respond to demands for information.” Read more at Bloomberg
Photo: Marco Ugarte/AP “Above: Several thousand migrants — many from Central America and Venezuela — started walking before dawn today along the Huehuetan highway in Chiapas state, southern Mexico. It's the largest migrant caravan of the year. Go deeper.” Read more at Axios
The CDC increases monkeypox alert for US travelers
“The CDC raised the monkeypox alert level to 2 on Monday, urging US travelers to take ‘enhanced precautions’ — though the risk for Americans remains low.” [Vox] Read more at CNN / Forrest Brown
“Under the new guidance, people should seek medical help if experiencing symptoms, including skin rashes, lesions, and fever. The treatable monkeypox virus spreads through close bodily contact.” [Vox] Read more at CNBC / Karen Gilchrist
“On Monday, there were 1,019 confirmed cases in 29 countries outside Africa. (Monkeypox typically appears in some west and central African countries.) The UK led with 302 cases while the US has reported 30” [Vox] Read more at CDC
“There’s concern the US may be missing cases, however, due to a testing bottleneck. Health experts say more widespread testing is needed to contain the virus.” [Vox] Read more at StatNews / Helen Branswell and Andrew Joseph
“WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors have obtained records indicating that John R. Allen, the retired four-star Marine general who commanded all American troops in Afghanistan and now heads a venerable Washington think tank, secretly lobbied for the government of Qatar, lied to investigators about his role and tried to withhold evidence sought by a federal subpoena, according to court documents.
The court records are the latest evidence of a broad investigation by the Justice Department and F.B.I. into the influence that wealthy Arab nations like Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia wield in Washington.
The records about General Allen were filed in April in Federal District Court in central California in an application for a warrant to search General Allen’s electronic communications.
Other filings in the case appear to remain sealed, and the public release of the warrant application may have been accidental. The filing lays out evidence that General Allen joined in the secret lobbying plan along with Richard G. Olson, a former United States ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, and Imaad Zuberi, a business executive with ties in the Middle East.
Mr. Zuberi is serving a prison sentence for violating foreign lobbying, campaign finance and tax laws, as well as for obstruction of justice. Mr. Olson has agreed to plead guilty for participating in the Qatari lobbying effort in violation of a prohibition on such activity during the first year after leaving diplomatic service.
A spokesman for General Allen, Beau Phillips, said in a statement: ‘John Allen voluntarily cooperated with the government’s investigation into this matter. John Allen’s efforts with regard to Qatar in 2017 were to protect the interests of the United States and the military personnel stationed in Qatar. John Allen received no fee for his efforts.’
The court documents were reported earlier on Tuesday by The Associated Press.
Federal law requires that anyone lobbying for a foreign government register with the Justice Department. The department has been cracking down in recent years on violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA. There is no record of General Allen registering to lobby for Qatar.
Federal prosecutors have signaled a particular interest in potential violations involving Persian Gulf nations, which have developed close ties to business and political figures in the United States. Last month, the Justice Department filed a new indictment in an ongoing case against Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a friend and informal adviser to President Donald J. Trump, for working on behalf of the United Arab Emirates to steer American foreign policy during the Trump administration.
The plan described in the documents involving General Allen unfolded around the beginning of the Trump administration five years ago, after he had left the military and before he became president of the Brookings Institution think tank. Qatar was frantically trying to fend off a pressure campaign and economic embargo by its Persian Gulf rivals, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Rumors were circulating of a possible Saudi ground invasion, Mr. Trump appeared to back the Saudis and Emiratis, and both sides of the dispute were spending heavily to win favor in Washington.” Read more at New York Times
“ALEXANDRIA, Va.—A 42-year-old woman from Kansas pleaded guilty Tuesday to working with Islamic State to run a female battalion and training more than 100 girls in how to use AK-47s, grenades and other weapons, in one of the first cases to detail an American woman’s extensive operational role in the terrorist group.
In court documents filed in connection with her plea, Allison Fluke-Ekren also admitted to helping a separate terror group, Ansar al-Sharia, which is suspected of being behind the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. She reviewed U.S. government documents her then-husband, a jihadist, allegedly took from the facility and helped prepare summaries of the material that were provided to the leadership of the terrorist group, the statement of facts said.
Ms. Fluke-Ekren appeared in federal court on Tuesday wearing a black hijab and white face mask over green prison attire. She softly replied “yes,” as U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema went through the plea documents with her and asked her if she agreed with the information in them.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“U.S. president Joe Biden welcomes some—but not all—Western Hemisphere leaders to the ninth Summit of the Americas today in Los Angeles, as he attempts to convince them that amid a war in Ukraine and a policy shift to Asia that the United States also has time, and energy, to engage the region.
The problem for Biden is that many Latin American leaders aren’t buying the pitch, and expectations are low heading into the event.
Despite some absences, 23 leaders are still expected to gather today as Biden unveils the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity, a proposal to boost trade and investment, while protecting the environment.
The most high-profile absentee today is Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who on Monday followed through on his threat to boycott the event over the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua from the proceedings.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said those countries were not asked to attend because ‘we just don’t believe dictators should be invited.’ (That democratic litmus test isn’t universally applied by the Biden administration, as the recent U.S.-ASEAN summit and a potential Saudi Arabia trip suggest).
A shaky commitment to democracy applies to some of those attending the summit, too. According to the Associated Press, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro only agreed to come to Los Angeles on the conditions that he would receive a one-on-one meeting with Biden and that two topics remain off the table: Amazon deforestation and Bolsonaro’s own questioning of the integrity of Brazil’s voting system (an issue on which CIA Director William Burns has already intervened personally to signal Washington’s displeasure).
On Venezuela, Washington is persisting in its support for Juan Guaidó, the opposition figure considered the country’s rightful interim leader by the United States. Guaidó and Biden are expected to speak via videolink this week, even as the United States slowly eases energy sanctions on the Venezuelan government led by President Nicolás Maduro.
Maduro won’t be waiting on a White House call either: He’ll be in Ankara today to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In a sign of more discord with the Biden administration, the leaders of the so-called Northern Triangle—Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador—will also skip the summit. The decision is a blow to U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been tasked with addressing the ‘root causes’ of migration flows from the Central American countries.
Dan Restrepo, a former Obama administration official writing in the Los Angeles Times, says it’s time to scrap the Summit of the Americas concept entirely, arguing that ‘trying to find consensus-driven common ground among these disparate states inevitably leads to pablum with no real-world effects’ and accounts for the ‘personality pageants’ that take away from a real discussion.
Restrepo calls for splitting the summit into three regions: The Caribbean, Central America, and South America, and hosting each on a rotating annual basis. That, along with the annual North American leaders summit, ‘would afford the Western Hemisphere the level of sustained high-level attention that U.S. interests in the region merit,’ Restrepo writes.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Brittney Griner is easily the most prominent American locked up by a foreign country. But the WNBA star’s case is tangled up with that of a lesser-known American also imprisoned in Russia.
Paul Whelan has been held in Russia since his December 2018 arrest on espionage charges he and the U.S. government say are false. He was left out of a prisoner exchange in April that brought home yet another detainee, Marine veteran Trevor Reed. That has escalated pressure on the Biden administration to avoid another one-for-one swap that does not include Whelan — even as it presses for the release of Griner, an Olympic gold medalist whose case has drawn global attention.
For Griner and Whelan, the other’s case injects something of a wild card into their own, for better or worse.
The U.S. government may not agree to a deal in which just one of them is released, potentially complicating negotiations. But Whelan could also benefit from the attention given to Griner, which has cast a spotlight on his case. And though the U.S. may hesitate to give up a high-level Russian prisoner in exchange for Griner, who’s charged with a relatively minor drug offense, it’s possible it would be more inclined to do so if both she and Whelan were part of any deal.” Read more at AP News
“TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A passenger train traveling through eastern Iran struck an excavator and derailed nearly half its cars before dawn Wednesday, killing at least 21 people and injuring another 47, officials said.
The train derailment near the desert city of Tabas was the latest disaster to strike the Islamic Republic in recent weeks as Tehran struggles under U.S. sanctions and any return to its nuclear deal with world powers remains in doubt.
The train operated by the state-run Islamic Republic Railway carried some 350 people as it traveled from Tabas, some 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Tehran, to the city of Yazd. It struck the excavator as the train traveled over a railroad underpass in the rural scrubland, sending cars and its passengers flying.
‘Passengers were bouncing in the car like balls in the air,’ one unnamed injured passenger told Iranian state television.
The state-run IRNA news agency gave the casualty figures, citing emergency officials.” Read more at AP News
“One person is dead and at least 30 are injured after a vehicle drove into a crowd near a church in Berlin, Germany, authorities say.
The vehicle struck people outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for the Berlin Fire Brigade told CNN.
The brigade was alerted to the incident at around 10:30 a.m. local time.
It is unclear whether the incident was an accident or deliberate.” Read more at CNN
“The European Union will require all new smartphones and tablets sold within its borders to have a common charging port by the fall of 2024 — and laptops by 2026 — under a new provisional agreement, pushing technology companies such as Apple to fall in line with other smartphone makers that have widely adopted a universal port in recent years.” Read more at Washington Post
“They once sat atop the thrones of global soccer’s highest governing bodies, but today Ex-FIFA boss Sepp Blatter and his former heir apparent, Michel Platini, are set to appear in a Swiss court accused of corruption. As Hugo Miller explains, the case revives past scandals immediately ahead of this year’s controversial World Cup in Qatar. Both men deny wrongdoing.” Read more at Bloomberg
Blatter and Platini after a vote to decide on the FIFA presidency in Zurich on May 29, 2015. Photographer: Michael Buholzer/AFP/Getty Images
“The group of lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot would like as many Americans as possible to learn jarring and unknown details about the attack. So they decided to hold a public hearing on Thursday during prime time, when many people are sitting in front of their TVs.
Fox News, the nation’s top cable news channel, has other plans.
When the hearing begins at 8 p.m. Eastern, NBC will go into special report mode. CBS will air a special called “Capitol Assault Hearings,” while ABC will run “Attack on the Capitol: The Investigation — An ABC News Special.” MSNBC and CNN will have wall-to-wall coverage all night.
But Fox News will not carry the hearing. Instead, the network will stick with its prime-time lineup of opinionated conservative hosts: Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, who have repeatedly downplayed the assault as a mere “footnote” to American history and tried to discredit the congressional inquiry as a ruse to “purge” former President Donald J. Trump and his supporters from the Republican Party.
The network said on Monday that its prime-time hosts would cover the event “as news warrants.” Live news coverage will be left to Fox Business, a sister network with much smaller viewership. Last month, Fox News averaged 1.5 million viewers at any given time during the day; Fox Business averaged 136,000. Mr. Carlson regularly draws more than three million viewers for his show at 8 p.m.” Read more at New York Times
Dustin Johnson spoke to the media on Tuesday about his decision to join the LIV Golf series.PHOTO: STEVEN PASTON/ZUMA PRESS
“HEMEL HEMPSTEAD, England—Back in February, Dustin Johnson said he was ‘fully committed’ to the PGA Tour. Then in a stunning pivot last week, he became the face of the rival Saudi-backed LIV Golf venture.
In yet another jarring twist, Johnson is now so fully committed to the LIV Golf series of events that he has resigned his membership from the PGA Tour. The extraordinary decision by one of the best golfers in the world to defect from the game’s most powerful tour reflects the chasm—and uncertainty—LIV has created in the industry.
Johnson and other golfers publicly, and in depth, addressed their decisions to join LIV for the first time at the Centurion Club, just northwest of London. They attempted to hype the tournament’s new format, awkwardly sounded optimistic views of doing business with Saudi Arabia and ultimately made clear their decisions to bolt to this new series was about money.
‘I thought it was best for me and my family,’ Johnson said. ‘I don’t want to play golf for the rest of my life, which I felt like I was probably going to have to do’….
All of the golfers who participate in the LIV Golf events will inevitably be subject to various consequences, whether that comes in the form of criticism for taking money from a venture backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund or punishment from bodies such as the PGA Tour. None, however, are taking a professional risk quite like Johnson, who has already lost a sponsorship deal with RBC after skipping the RBC Canadian Open for this event.
Most of the other big names who bolted to LIV are at far different stages of their careers. Phil Mickelson, 51 years old, remains the world’s second most famous golfer, but he is long past his prime. Louis Oosthuizen, the second highest ranked golfer here, is 39 years old and spoke of a desire to play less and farm more. Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia are all in their 40s. Others are younger and far less proven, taking a chance at paydays that they may never get on the PGA Tour.
Johnson, 37, was ranked No. 1 in the world as recently as last year. He’s a two-time major champion and still a threat to win every tournament he participates in. He had years of competitive golf on the PGA Tour ahead of him—which he has now traded in for the lucrative paydays offered by this new circuit.
Just how lucrative is not yet clear. But it would take a fortune to top the already extraordinary wealth that Johnson has accrued as a PGA Tour player.
Johnson made $74.3 million on the PGA Tour, ranking third all-time in career earnings behind Mickelson and Tiger Woods. That sum reflects just a portion of the financial windfall he has received by playing professional golf. Adding in other factors, such as his pension plan, his earnings associated with the PGA Tour were upwards of $107 million, a person familiar with the matter said. That doesn’t include the millions he has also earned through sponsorship deals.
Yet he gave up his Tour membership, saying his plan was to play in the LIV events for now. Kevin Na, who is also playing in this inaugural LIV event, had already said he was resigning to do the same. Talor Gooch, who’s just 30 years old and one of the best players in the field, said he hadn’t taken that step and that he was hopeful to play on the PGA Tour again.
The decision has a number of consequences for Johnson, most obviously that he won’t be playing with the best golfers on a weekly basis. Johnson is one of just two top-25 players in the field here. Just four players are ranked in the top 50. ” Read more at Washington Post
“Target says it plans to cut prices and cancel orders as it tries to ‘right-size’ its stock for the rest of the year. Go deeper.” Read more at Axios
“It’s the inflation you’re not supposed to see.
From toilet paper to yogurt and coffee to corn chips, manufacturers are quietly shrinking package sizes without lowering prices. It’s dubbed ‘shrinkflation,’ and it’s accelerating worldwide.
In the U.S., a small box of Kleenex now has 60 tissues; a few months ago, it had 65. Chobani Flips yogurts have shrunk from 5.3 ounces to 4.5 ounces. In the U.K., Nestle slimmed down its Nescafe Azera Americano coffee tins from 100 grams to 90 grams. In India, a bar of Vim dish soap has shrunk from 155 grams to 135 grams.
Shrinkflation isn’t new, experts say. But it proliferates in times of high inflation as companies grapple with rising costs for ingredients, packaging, labor and transportation. Global consumer price inflation was up an estimated 7% in May, a pace that will likely continue through September, according to S&P Global.
‘It comes in waves. We happen to be in a tidal wave at the moment because of inflation,’ said Edgar Dworsky, a consumer advocate and former assistant attorney general in Massachusetts who has documented shrinkflation on his Consumer World website for decades.” Read more at AP News
“No more 15-year-old Olympic figure skaters: Figure skating's governing body voted today to raise the minimum age for top competitions to 17. Go deeper.” Read more at Axios
“Former Marine Trevor Reed — just freed in April — called on the Biden administration and Congress to increase efforts to release WNBA player Brittney Griner from detention in Russia. Go deeper.” Read more at Axios
