The Full Belmonte, 7/13/2022
Four takeaways from the latest hearing of the House Jan. 6 committee.
“The seventh public hearing by the House committee investigating the election after they had exhausted all legal avenues. Relying on testimony from Trump aides, right-wing media commentators and militia members, the committee demonstrated how Mr. Trump’s public statements led his supporters to believe the election had actually been stolen and storm the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification.
Here are the four main takeaways from the hearing:
A Trump Tweet Mobilized the Crowd for Jan. 6
In the early morning hours of Dec. 19, 2020, Mr. Trump put out a tweet calling on his supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6.
‘Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,’ Mr. Trump tweeted. ‘Be there, will be wild!’
The committee demonstrated how the tweet served as a rallying cry for Mr. Trump’s supporters — including extremist organizations and right-wing media commentators.
They immediately began whipping up support, both within far-right groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys and among ordinary citizens who believed Mr. Trump’s lies about the election. And in many cases, the online commentary that followed what Mr. Trump’s supporters heard as a call to arms was infused with talk of violence.
‘We are going to only be saved by millions of Americans moving to Washington, occupying the entire area, if necessary, storming right into the Capitol,’ Matt Bracken, a right-wing commentator, said in a video clip posted soon after Mr. Trump’s tweet and played on Tuesday by the committee. ‘We know the rules of engagement. If you have enough people, you can push down any kind of a fence or a wall.’
Once the crowd came to Washington, testimony on Tuesday showed, Mr. Trump’s supporters continued to take their cues from him.
‘I was hanging on every word he was saying,’ said one supporter, Stephen Ayres, who has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly and disruptive conduct for his role in attacking the Capitol.
Mr. Ayers said that he had not planned to rush the Capitol but decided to do so after hearing Mr. Trump address the crowd on the Ellipse, near the White House.
‘Well, basically, you know, the president, you know, he got everybody riled up, told everybody to head on down, so we basically were just following what he said,’ Mr. Ayers said.
Mr. Ayers said that he was angry because he was convinced the election had been stolen and something had to be done to right that wrong. He said that the crowd believed Mr. Trump was going to meet them at the Capitol.
‘I think everybody thought he was going to be coming down,’ Mr. Ayers said. ‘You know, he said in his speech, you know, kind of like he’s going to be there with us. So I mean, I believed it.’
New Evidence Showed Plans to Go to the Capitol
The committee presented new evidence that showed Mr. Trump and his allies had more extensive plans than previously known for him and his supporters to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Documents obtained by the committee showed that a tweet was drafted for Mr. Trump — which he saw — that called on his supporters to march to the Capitol after his address.
‘Making a big speech at 10:00 A.M. January 6 south of the White House,’ the draft tweet said. ‘Please arrive early. Massive crowds expected. March to the Capitol after. Stop the Steal!!’
The tweet was never sent, but the committee suggested it was just one piece of evidence showing that, in the days leading up to Jan. 6, Mr. Trump and his allies had discussed plans for him to go to the area around the Capitol after the rally on the Ellipse.
The committee showed a text message that a Trump ally, Michael J. Lindell, the head of the company My Pillow, had received from a rally organizer on Jan. 4 in which the organizer said that a second stage was going to be set up at the Supreme Court, across the street from the East Front of the Capitol.
The rally organizer, Kylie Kremer, wrote: ‘It cannot get out about the second stage because people will try and set up another and Sabotage it. It can also not get out about the march because I will be in trouble with the national park service and all the agencies but POTUS is going to just call for it ‘unexpectedly.’’
Other text messages sent around that time showed that right-wing activists also believed Mr. Trump would be joining them as they massed at the Capitol.
‘Trump is supposed to order us to the capitol at the end of his speech but we will see,’ said Ali Alexander, who led the ‘Stop the Steal’ campaign.
The committee also cited a deposition by the White House photographer, Shealah Craighead, who was present at an Oval Office gathering on the evening of Jan. 5, when Mr. Trump and some of his aides could hear a crowd of his supporters who were gathered nearby. Ms. Craighead testified that Mr. Trump was saying, ‘We should go up to the Capitol. What’s the best route to the Capitol?’
An Epic Oval Office Clash
Four days after states voted in the Electoral College, essentially ending all legal challenges to Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory, a group of Mr. Trump’s outside advisers were hustled into the West Wing to meet with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office. The advisers — including the lawyer Sidney Powell and Michael T. Flynn, the retired general who had served briefly as Mr. Trump’s national security adviser — came armed with draft executive orders they wanted Mr. Trump to sign that would have used the Defense Department to seize voting machines to try to prove baseless claims of election fraud.
Shortly after the meeting began, the White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone — who did not believe the election had been stolen and had been pushing for Mr. Trump to concede — learned of it and rushed into the Oval Office so fast that Ms. Powell said he set ‘a new land speed record.’
‘I opened the door and I walked in and I saw General Flynn, I saw Sidney Powell sitting there — I was not happy to see the people who were in the Oval Office,’ Mr. Cipollone said in videotaped testimony he provided the committee last Friday, clips of which were played in Tuesday’s hearing.
Mr. Cipollone testified that he turned to one of the advisers he did not know and asked his identity. He turned out to be the founder of Overstock.com, Patrick Byrne. ‘I don’t think any of these people were providing the president with good advice,’ Mr. Cipollone said.
‘There is a way to contest elections that happens all the time, but the idea that the federal government could come in and seize election machines? No — I don’t understand why I even have to tell you why that’s a bad idea,’ Mr. Cipollone testified. ‘It’s a terrible idea.’
In the hours that followed, a meeting ensued that is considered among the most contentious of Mr. Trump’s presidency, as Mr. Cipollone and other White House lawyers, including Eric Herschmann, faced off against Ms. Powell, Mr. Flynn, and Mr. Byrne.
‘At times, there were people shouting at each other, hurling insults at each other. It wasn’t just people sitting around on a couch chitchatting,’ said Derek Lyons, who was then the White House staff secretary.
Ms. Powell testified that she thought Mr. Trump had appointed her as a special counsel to investigate the election fraud claims. But the testimony played by the committee revealed that Mr. Cipollone strongly objected to such a move and essentially killed it by refusing to do the paperwork needed for such an appointment.
After all the fighting between the outside advisers and the White House lawyers, Mr. Trump declined to go along with the plan of using the military or other federal agencies to seize the voting machines.
Hours later, he would turn to Twitter to post his call to his supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6.
More Warnings Against Witness Tampering
As she did at the end of the previous hearing two weeks ago, Representative Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair, warned against witness tampering in her closing statement — and this time her message was aimed directly at Mr. Trump.
Ms. Cheney said that a witness — whom she declined to identify other than to say the person’s testimony had not been made public so far — had gotten a call in the last two weeks from Mr. Trump. The witness, Ms. Cheney said, received the call after the last hearing, in which Cassidy Hutchinson, a former West Wing aide, provided damning testimony about Mr. Trump.
Ms. Cheney said that the witness declined to pick up Mr. Trump’s call or respond to it. But the witness told his or her lawyer, who alerted the committee. The committee then passed the information along to the Justice Department, which on Tuesday declined to comment.
‘Let me say one more time, we will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously,’ Ms. Cheney said.
After Ms. Hutchinson’s public testimony on June 28, the committee disclosed efforts by Trump allies to reach a witness, who turned out to be Ms. Hutchinson.
On Tuesday, a spokesman for Mr. Trump said on Twitter that Ms. Cheney was trafficking in ‘innuendo and lies,’ but did not directly address whether Mr. Trump had tried to reach out to a witness.” Read more at New York Times
Screenshot: ABC News
“The draft tweet above — ultimately not tweeted by @RealDonaldTrump — was memorialized in White House documents and sent to the National Archives.
Why it matters: The House Jan. 6 committee used this draft to allege at today's hearing that Trump was planning well in advance to urge the crowd to march on the Capitol, Axios' Erin Doherty reports.
Jan. 2: Rally organizer Katrina Pierson told fellow organizers after a call with Mark Meadows that Trump planned to ‘call on everyone to march to the Capitol.’
Jan. 4: "POTUS is going to just call for it 'unexpectedly,' rally organizer Kylie Jane Kremer told activist and pillow salesman Mike Lindell.
Screenshot: ABC News
Jan. 5: Steve Bannon and Trump spoke, after which Bannon said on his podcast that ‘all hell is going to break loose tomorrow.’
Between the lines: Some of Trump's own staff and family testified that they tried to get him to accept reality ahead of Jan. 6.
Former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone testified that Meadows indicated around late November that Trump would eventually leave office gracefully.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr testified that, around that time, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner said he and Meadows were ‘working on’ getting Trump to accept the reality.
Former Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia testified that in mid-December, he ‘communicated to the president ... what had to be done was concede.’
Screenshot: NBC News
Cipollone also described an ‘unhinged’ December 2020 meeting in the White House during a clip of a closed-door interview that the Jan. 6 select committee shared today.
Cipollone testified that some Trump allies, including election lawyer Sidney Powell and Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn, exhibited a ‘general disregard for backing what you actually say with facts.’” Read more at Axios
The cosmos, as you've never seen them
A star-forming region in the Carina Nebula, captured in infrared light. Photo: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI via AP
“The Hubble Telescope walked so that James Webb Space Telescope could run, Axios Space editor Miriam Kramer reports.
Today, the Hubble and Webb are set to work in tandem to observe the universe, beaming back new photos and data to waiting astronomers on Earth and giving everyone a more holistic view of the cosmos.
Photo: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Above: Hubble's view of the Carina Nebula in 2007.
Below: The Carina Nebula, captured in infrared light by the James Webb Space Telescope in 2022.” Read more at Axios
Photo: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI via AP
Video shows officers' delayed response to Uvalde shooting
“A 77-minute video recording captured from below a surveillance camera in Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, along with body camera footage from one of the responding officers, shows in excruciating detail what happened when dozens of officers entered the school. USA TODAY has published an edited version of the video to show how the law enforcement response unfolded. The video was obtained exclusively by The Austin American-Statesman, part of the USA TODAY Network, and TV station KVUE. Here's a description of video from inside the school.
What this means: Gunshots, delays and a political debate
The footage tells in real time the brutal story of how heavily armed officers failed to immediately launch a cohesive and aggressive response to stop the shooter and save more children if possible.
In the video, officers walk back and forth in the hallway, some leaving the camera frame, then reappearing, others training their weapons toward the classroom, talking, making cellphone calls, sending texts or looking at floor plans. None enters or attempts to enter the classrooms. Even after hearing more shots, they wait.
Officers rushed into the classroom and killed the gunman an hour and 14 minutes after police arrived on the scene. Nineteen fourth graders and their two teachers died in the massacre May 24.
The video has been the subject of an intense political debate: Gov. Greg Abbott and Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin urged its public release, and Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee opposed releasing it.
Read why the USA TODAY Network decided to publish the video.” Read more at USA Today
Twitter sued Elon Musk to enforce the terms of his $44 billion takeover offer after the Tesla CEO said he was terminating the deal over fake accounts.
PHOTO: CONSTANZA HEVIA H. FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
“Twitter sued Elon Musk to force him to honor the terms of his $44 billion deal to buy the company.
The suit comes days after the Tesla CEO said the social-media company hadn’t provided the information he needed to assess the prevalence of fake or spam accounts and was ‘in material breach of multiple provisions’ of the merger agreement. Twitter has said it hasn’t breached its obligations.
The Musk-Twitter Deal Saga: What’s Happened So Far (Read)” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Alex Murdaugh is expected to be indicted this week by South Carolina prosecutors for his involvement in the 2021 shooting deaths of his wife and son.PHOTO: MIC SMITH/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“Prosecutors in South Carolina intend to seek murder indictments later this week against disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh for the deaths of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul, according to Mr. Murdaugh’s lawyer and another person familiar with the matter.
The presentation of evidence by law-enforcement authorities to a grand jury is expected to come Thursday, after which jurors will be asked to hand down indictments, according to two people familiar with the matter.
‘I am aware that SLED advised the family that they intend to seek murder indictments from a grand jury later this week,’ said Jim Griffin, a lawyer for Mr. Murdaugh, referring to the state police, known as the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. ‘We won’t have any comment until charges are actually brought against Alex.’
Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were found dead on June 7, 2021, at the family’s hunting estate in southeast South Carolina, each a victim of multiple gunshot wounds. The deaths sent shock waves through the state’s legal community, in which the Murdaughs have played a central and powerful role for decades.
The deaths of Maggie and Paul capped a broader unraveling of the Murdaugh family that is believed to include multiple deaths, one attempted assisted suicide, a half-dozen state and federal investigations and millions of dollars in missing money.
Richard Alexander “Alex” Murdaugh, 54 years old, has been in a Columbia, S.C., jail since October and already faces 81 felony charges primarily related to alleged financial crimes, including breach of trust, forgery and money laundering. Prosecutors say Mr. Murdaugh defrauded clients of his personal-injury practice of at least $8.5 million primarily by taking settlement payments meant for client trust accounts and depositing the money for his own use.
Last month, Mr. Murdaugh was also charged with a felony count of possessing and distributing oxycodone.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“The World Health Organization urged governments and health care systems to take steps to curb Covid-19 transmission as a fresh wave of infections moves across Europe and the US. Sub-variants of the omicron strain are lifting case numbers and leading to further fatalities, Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a briefing in Geneva on Tuesday. Tedros recommended the revival of protocols like mask-wearingto stop the spread.” Read more at Bloomberg
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Photographer: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP
Image caption, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has fled Sri Lanka ahead of his expected resignation as president
“President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has fled Sri Lanka on a military jet, amid mass protests over the island's economic crisis.
The country's air force confirmed the 73-year-old flew to the Maldives with his wife and two security officials.
In his absence, he has appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as acting president.
Mr Rajapaksa's departure ends a family dynasty that has dominated Sri Lanka's politics for the past two decades.
The president had been in hiding after crowds stormed his residence on Saturday, and had pledged to resign on Wednesday 13 July.
A source told the BBC that Mr Rajapaksa will not remain in the Maldives and intends to travel on to a third country. Read more at BBC News
“Biden met with Mexico's Andrés Manuel López Obrador yesterday — and he got an earful. The president was seen smirking, grimacing, fidgeting and taking notes as Obrador launched into remarks that went on for more than half an hour.” Read more at NPR
“Rishi Sunak, whose resignation last week helped trigger Boris Johnson’s downfall, heads a final list of eight candidates seeking to become the next Tory leader and UK prime minister.” Read more at Bloomberg
Rishi Sunak Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg
Biden's Middle East tour starts in Israel
“President Joe Biden will begin his first presidential trip to the Middle East in Israel, America's closest ally in the region, and the emphasis will be security. The United States has long had an outsized commitment to Israel. But Biden’s relationship with the nation has been strained by his attempts to restart a 2015 deal with Iran that was meant to curb its nuclear activities. The U.S. and Israel are expected to announce a “Jerusalem Declaration” committing both countries to use “all elements of their national power against the Iranian nuclear threat,” the Associated Press reported. In addition, Biden continues to look for ways to expand defense cooperation in the region.” Read more at USA Today
President Joe Biden boards Air Force One for a trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, July 12, 2022, at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland.Gemunu Amarasinghe, AP
“Wales is to become the world’s first country to introduce a default 20 miles per hour speed limit on roads in its towns and cities, effective September 2023. The move is intended to cut down on traffic accidents, noise pollution, and to encourage alternative forms of transportation.
Washington D.C. residents will be familiar with the 20 mph limit, if not its application. Even though the measure was introduced on residential roads in 2020, driving deaths in the district still increasedthe following year.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Democrats now have a bigger advantage among white college graduates than they do with nonwhite voters, Axios' Josh Kraushaar writes from a New York Times/Siena College poll.
Why it matters: We're seeing a political realignment in real time.
Democrats are becoming the party of upscale voters concerned more about issues like gun control and abortion rights.
Republicans are quietly building a multiracial coalition of working-class voters, with inflation as an accelerant.
What's happening: House Republicans boast this year's class of new candidates is the most diverse in history.
The NRCC notes that 29 of its 75 House targets have a Hispanic population over 15%.
In the Times/Siena poll, Ds hold a 20-point advantage over Rs among white college-educated voters — but are statistically tied among Hispanics.
Hispanic voters backed Democrats by a nearly 50-point margin in the 2018 midterms. In the 2016 congressional elections, Dems lost white voters with a bachelor's degree.
President Biden's job approval sank to 33%.
But Ds and Rs are in a statistical tie on the congressional ballot.
Between the lines: Dems' fortunes are bolstered by a slice of well-off socially liberal voters who disapprove of Biden's performance — yet strongly support Democrats for other races.” Read more at Axios
A Latinos for Trump demonstration in Miami in 2020.Mario Cruz/EPA, via Shutterstock
A tight race
“My colleague Nate Cohn, The Times’s chief political analyst, has spent a lot of time thinking about the changing politics of economic class in the U.S. College graduates used to favor Republicans, while blue-collar voters favored Democrats. Increasingly, though, the opposite is true.
The social liberalism of Democrats — on immigration, marijuana, L.G.B.T. rights, affirmative action, abortion and more — has simultaneously attracted progressive college graduates and repelled more culturally conservative working-class voters. If you’re trying to figure out why Latino voters have shifted right in the past few years, even during the Trump presidency, this dynamic offers an explanation.
In this year’s midterm elections, the changing politics of class may get supercharged, Nate notes. Why? Look at the stories in the news. Many working-class voters are frustrated over inflation and other economic disruptions, making them unhappy with the Biden administration and Democrats. Many college graduates are angry about the recent decisions from a Supreme Court dominated by Republican appointees.
These attitudes are evident in the first New York Times/Siena College poll of the midterm cycle: Among registered voters who never attended college, Republicans lead by almost 20 percentage points. Among college graduates, Democrats lead by almost 30 points. One startling comparison is that Democrats lead by almost as much among white college graduates as among all voters of color.
To give you a clearer sense for what these patterns mean for the likely outcome of the November midterms — and which party will control the House and the Senate for the next two years — I’m turning over the rest of today’s lead item to Nate.
With President Biden’s approval rating sagging into the low 30s and nearly 80 percent of voters saying the country is headed in the wrong direction, the ingredients would seem to be in place for a Republican landslide in this year’s midterm elections.
But the first Times/Siena survey of the cycle shows something else: a close, competitive race for Congress.
Overall, voters prefer Democrats to control Congress over Republicans by one point among registered voters, 41 to 40 percent. Once we exclude those people who are unlikely to vote, Republicans lead by one point, 44 to 43 percent.
It’s a pretty surprising result, given the circumstances. Analysts have all but written off the Democrats in the race for House control, not only because Biden’s ratings are so poor but also because there’s a long history of the president’s party getting pummeled in midterm elections. These factors help explain why FiveThirtyEight’s statistical forecast gives the Republicans an 88 percent chance of winning House control.
But the Times/Siena poll is not alone in showing a competitive race at this stage. Since the court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, most polls have shown a tight race on the so-called ‘generic ballot,’ which asks whether voters would prefer Democrats or Republicans to control Congress. The race has shifted about three points in the Democrats’ direction, compared with surveys by the same pollsters before the court’s ruling.
At least for the moment, conservative policy victories — on abortion, climate policy, religious rights and gun laws — and a spate of mass shootings seem to have insulated Democrats. State polls have also looked good for Democrats. The party has led just about every poll of a hotly contested Senate race over the last few months, including polls of Republican-held states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.
If all this good polling for the Democrats reminds you of a story you’ve heard before, there is a reason. The polls have overestimated Democratic support for much of the last decade, partly because polls have a harder time reaching working-class voters, who have been trending Republican. It’s hard not to wonder whether the good news for Democrats might simply be a harbinger of yet another high-profile misfire.
It could also mean that the Democrats are at a high-water mark that will not last. Republicans will try to make the races a referendum on the president, and only 23 percent of undecided voters in the Times/Siena poll approve of Joe Biden’s performance. If inflation remains high this year, as many economists expect, undecided voters might have further reason to break against the Democrats.
Americans are paying more for groceries.Alisha Jucevic for The New York Times
The general election campaign might be especially helpful to the Republican Senate candidates coming out of bruising primary elections. It’s understandable why Republican voters who just voted against damaged or flawed candidates — like J.D. Vance in Ohio and Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania — may be reluctant to embrace these candidates immediately. Yet that could change when the race focuses on partisan issues and the stakes of congressional control, reminding these voters why they are Republicans.
For the moment, the Democrats are benefiting from a favorable news environment. The recent Supreme Court rulings, the mass shootings and even the Jan. 6 hearings have focused national attention on a relatively favorable set of issues for Democrats. For them to stay competitive, they might need to keep those issues in the limelight until November.” Read more at New York Times
As of 7:30 a.m. Eastern on July 12, 2022. | Source: FactSet
“One U.S. dollar is worth almost as much as a euro for the first time in nearly 20 years.” Read more at New York Times
Brian Cox of “Succession.”Macall Polay/HBO, via Associated Press
The Emmy nominations
““Succession” dominated the Emmy nominations, which were announced yesterday, earning 25. In the best drama category, it will square off against the South Korean thriller “Squid Game,” which secured 14 nominations, the most ever for a foreign-language show. Other highlights:
Repeat nominees: Last year’s best actor and actress in a comedy, Jason Sudeikis (for “Ted Lasso”) and Jean Smart (for “Hacks”), received nominations. Sudeikis will be up against Steve Martin, for his role in “Only Murders in the Building.” The last time Martin won an Emmy was 1969.
Breakout star: Quinta Brunson, from the rookie hit “Abbott Elementary,” got her first nominations.
Hulu: The streaming service could score its biggest Emmys haul with nominations for the limited series “Dopesick,” “The Dropout” and “Pam & Tommy.”
Snubs: Neither Sterling K. Brown nor Mandy Moore were recognized for the final season of “This Is Us.”
Full list: Here are all the nominees.” Read more at New York Times
“A year into the new rule allowing college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL), there's a ‘King of the Nil’:
After NIL went live last summer, 21-year-old Norfolk State University running back Rayquan Smith reached out to 100 companies, hoping to strike a few deals, Axios Sports' Jeff Tracy reports.
He has since signed at least 70 deals, running into five figures, Forbes reports — including Arby’s, Boost Mobile and Pedialyte.
Why it matters: 100,000+ athletes have signed modest endorsement deals, ranging from local car dealerships to Buffalo Wild Wings.
What keeps the NCAA up at night are ‘athletics-driven’ deals — boosters and booster collectives (groups of donors who pool resources) inducing recruits to sign with their schools under the guise of NIL.
Data: Opendorse. Chart: Axios Visuals
College athletes pocketed $917 million during Year 1 of NIL, Opendorseestimates.
The average transaction was $1,815, according to INFLCR, another marketplace.
Football players were higher ($3,396), but not the highest. Female gymnasts earned over $7,000 per deal.” Read more at Axios
“About 20 million Americans quit their jobs in the first five months of this year in what’s come to be known as the Great Resignation. Many now regret the decision. More than one-quarter of those who left work are reconsidering whether they made the right move.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Peloton Interactive rallied on Tuesday after announcing plans to cease in-house manufacturing and rely solely on partners for production, marking one of the most dramatic steps yet to simplify its operations and cut costs.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Starbucks is planning to close at least 16 locations across various cities, citing safety concerns. ‘After careful consideration, we are closing some stores in locations that have experienced a high volume of challenging incidents that make it unsafe to continue to operate,’ a spokesperson told CNN. The stores are in Seattle; Los Angeles; Philadelphia; Washington, DC, and Portland, Oregon. They will be closed by the end of July. In a letter to employees this week, Starbucks executives said a rising number of workers are ‘seeing firsthand the challenges facing our communities -- personal safety, racism, lack of access to healthcare, a growing mental health crisis, rising drug use, and more.’ The move comes as Starbucks employees across the country have been voting to unionize.” Read more at CNN
“K2, the brightest comet in our solar system, will swing by Earth this week. There's a chance of spotting the comet on Wednesday or Thursday as it makes it final pass through the solar system, experts say. But you won't see it the naked eye: experts say people will need at least a small telescope or binoculars to see it.” Read more at USA Today
In May 2017, astronomers using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) in Hawaii first spotted the comet known as C/2017 K2 PANSTARRS at a whopping 1.5 billion miles away between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus.Space Telescope Science Institute Office of Public Outreach, NASA, ESA, and David Jewitt (UCLA)
“Lives Lived: In 1975, the singer and actor Adam Wade became the first Black host of a network television game show. He died at 87.” Read more at New York Times
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
“Historians have known for a long time that ancient Greek statues were not originally white. A new exhibit at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art shows the statues how they actually looked — in all their garish, colorful glory.” Read more at NPR
“HAIFA, Israel (AP) — Curators at an Israeli museum have discovered three previously unknown sketches by celebrated 20th-century artist Amedeo Modigliani hiding beneath the surface of one of his paintings.
The unfinished works by Modigliani, an Italian-born artist who worked in Paris before his death in 1920, came to light after the canvas of “Nude with a Hat” at the University of Haifa’s Hecht Museum was X-rayed as part of a sweeping forensic study of his work for an upcoming exhibit in Philadelphia.
Inna Berkowits, an art historian at the Hecht Museum, said it was “quite an amazing discovery.”
“Through the X-rays, we are really able to make this inanimate object speak,” she told The Associated Press.
Modigliani is considered one of the 20th century’s great Modernist artists. His lived a short, turbulent, Bohemian life in France, where his nude paintings were controversial. His work is typified by slender, elongated necks and faces, a signature style influenced by African and Cycladic Greek art that was just starting to arrive in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.” Read more at AP News
“‘Most people know me as Mo Farah, but it's not my name — or, it's not the reality.’ The Olympic gold medalist recently revealed he was trafficked to the U.K as a child and forced into labor.” Read more at NPR
“Concessions workers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles have voted to authorize a strike, days before the venue is set to host the Major League Baseball's All-Star Game.” Read more at NPR
“The NBA will create a $24.5 million program to pay former American Basketball Association players.” Read more at USA Today
Court case over ownership of original copy of Don Henley’s lyrics for the epic Eagles song and album
“Three men have been charged in the US for possessing notes worth over $1m (840,000) belonging to one of the Eagles founding members Don Henley, including the handwritten lyrics to the band’s best-known song, Hotel California.
Prosecutors said that Glenn Horowitz, 66, Craig Inciardi, 58, and Edward Kosinski, 59, knew that the documents – which included the lyrics for other songs from the band’s Hotel California album such as Life in the Fast Lane, and New Kid In Town – were stolen.
The men attempted to sell the manuscripts, manufactured false provenance, and lied to auction houses, potential buyers, and law enforcement about the origin of the material, the New York district attorney’s office said.” Read more at The Guardian
The ‘Jetsons house’ in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Photograph: Ray Fetty/Courtesy Angela Barnett
“The Jetsons hailed from Orbit City in the year 2062 – but they might have felt right at home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 40 years earlier.
Tulsa hosts a building that looks a lot like George and Jane Jetsons’s home in the cartoon, or perhaps a squat version of Seattle’s Space Needle – shaped like a wheel on its side perched on a stick. It contains an elevator that lifts you up a 44ft tube to a round living area with windows all along the walls, commanding remarkable views of surrounding greenery. A balcony juts out on one side.
The house recently hit the market, with an asking price of $415,000. But unfortunately for any time travelers, it has already been snapped up.
The two-bedroom, three-bath house was completed in 2005 by Joe Damer, a local resident, with the help of Jeremy Perkins, a Tulsa architect.” Read more at The Guardian
Damer, who died in 2019 at the age of 78, was German and moved to the area after the second world war through the Displaced Persons Act, which helped resettle refugees. He had a welding business and built the house in his free time, Tulsa World reported.
Damer told Tulsa World in 2003 that he’d been inspired by a postcard he had kept since 1965. The photo in the postcard, according to the realtor, Angela Barnett of Chinowth and Cohen, shows a similar building in Arizona. The postcard is still on display in the home, she said.” Read more at The Guardian