The Full Belmonte. 8/14/2022
Material the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago. Photo: Jim Bourg/Reuters
A lawyer for former President Trump ‘signed a written statement in June asserting that all material marked as classified and held in boxes in a storage area at ... Mar-a-Lago ... had been returned to the government,’ the N.Y. Times' Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush report (subscription).
Why it matters: The signed declaration, based on material the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago on Monday, ‘is a possible indication that Mr. Trump or his team were not fully forthcoming with federal investigators about the material.’
Between the lines: The statement also could help explain why the Justice Department, in seeking the search warrant, cited a potential violation of a criminal statute related to obstruction, The Times notes.
Screenshot: CNN
Behind the scenes: Former national security adviser John Bolton told The Washington Post that Trump sometimes asked to keep highly classified visual aids, pictures, charts and graphs that augmented the President's Daily Brief (PDB), which he did not typically read.
‘People were nervous enough about his lack of concern for classification matters that the briefers typically said, 'Well, we need to take it back,’ Bolton said. ‘He’d usually give it back — but sometimes he wouldn’t give it back.’
What we're watching: The Post reports that after the search, Trump's allies began a hunt for new attorneys with more experience for the big, complex battle with the Justice Department that has just begun.
‘As the week progressed, Trump grew angrier, at times screaming profanities to advisers about the FBI,’ The Post added.
What's next: Two top House Democrats asked the Director of National Intelligence for a ‘damage assessment’ after the Trump seizures.
A classified briefing on the assessment’s progress was sought ‘as soon as possible’ by House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney and Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, in a letter yesterday to DNI Avril Haines, Bloomberg reports.” Read more at Axios
“Republicans are dividing over how or whether to defend former President Trump after the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago — and what to do about some members' heated rhetoric toward law enforcement, Axios' Andrew Solender reports.
Some senior Republicans have been warned by Trump allies not to continue to be aggressive in criticizing the Justice Department and FBI "because it is possible that more damaging information related to the search will become public," the N.Y. Times reports (subscription).
During a press conference yesterday before the documents' release, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee cast the search as politically motivated.
But even some Intelligence Committee Republicans who participated struck a more measured tone in interviews afterward.
Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), a member of the Intelligence Committee, told Politico: ‘I mean, if he had actual Special Access Programs — do you know how extraordinarily sensitive that is? ... If that were actually at his residence, that would be a problem.’
Some Republican members disagree with right-wing colleagues' attacks on the FBI and DOJ amid rising threats to federal law enforcement, and an attack on the FBI building in Cincinnati.
‘I'm impressed Democrats finally got us to say, 'Defund the FBI,’ Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) told Axios. ‘That makes you look unserious.’” Read more at Axios
Man fatally shoots self after crashing car into barricade near US Capitol Building
The US Capitol Building in Washington on Friday, August 12, 2022.
Ting Shen/Bloomberg/Getty Images
WashingtonCNN —
“A man shot and killed himself after driving into a vehicle barricade near the US Capitol Building early Sunday morning, US Capitol Police said.
The incident happened shortly after 4 a.m. ET, when the man drove his car into a barricade at East Capitol Street and Second Street. He then exited his car, which became ‘engulfed in flames,’ and fired several shots into the air, Capitol Police said in a statement.
He then fatally shot himself when authorities approached him. There were no additional injuries and the man’s name was not immediately released, according to the statement.
‘At this time, it does not appear the man was targeting any Members of Congress, who are on recess, and it does not appear officers fired their weapons,’ the statement read. ‘Our investigators are looking into the man’s background.’
DC’s Metropolitan Police Department is handling the death investigation, the statement said.
CNN has reached out to Capitol Police for additional comment.” Read more at CNN
Author Salman Rushdie is able to speak after being attacked at a literary festival in New York state on Friday. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
“Salman Rushdie has been taken off a ventilator and was able to talk on Saturday, his agent has confirmed, as the US president hailed the writer’s courage and voiced horror at the attack on him.
The Indian-born British novelist remains hospitalised with serious injuries, but fellow author Aatish Taseer tweeted on Saturday evening that he was ‘off the ventilator and talking (and joking)’. Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, confirmed that information without offering further details.
Earlier on Saturday, Hadi Matar, the man suspected in Friday’s attack at a literary festival in upstate New York, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault at a brief court appearance where he was denied bail.
Joe Biden, the US president, praised Rushdie for ‘his refusal to be intimidated or silenced’ and said the author stood for the essential ideals of truth, courage and resilience. ‘These are the building blocks of any free and open society. And today, we reaffirm our commitment to those deeply American values in solidarity with Rushdie and all those who stand for freedom of expression,’ the president said in a statement. Biden also said he was ‘shocked and saddened to learn of the vicious attack’.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell ‘strongly’ condemned the attack on Saturday night. ‘International rejection of such criminal actions, which violate fundamental rights and freedoms, is the only path towards a better and more peaceful world’, Borrell tweeted.
Rushdie lived in hiding and under police protection for years after late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini put out a fatwa in 1989 calling for his death in retribution for Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses. Many Muslims interpreted the author’s book as blasphemous because it included a character they found insulting to the prophet Muhammad.
Rushdie, 75, was at the Chautauqua Institution to speak about the importance of America’s giving asylum to exiled writers when he was attacked, and said recently that he believed his life was ‘very normal again’.
On Saturday, district attorney Jason Schmidt alleged that Rushdie’s alleged attacker took steps to purposely put himself in position to harm Rushdie, getting an advance pass to the event where the author was speaking and arriving a day early bearing a fake ID. ‘This was a targeted, unprovoked, preplanned attack on Mr Rushdie,’ Schmidt alleged.
Public defender Nathaniel Barone complained that authorities had taken too long to get Matar in front of a judge while leaving him ‘hooked up to a bench at the state police barracks’. ‘He has that constitutional right of presumed innocence,’ Barone said.
Matar allegedly rushed on stage and stabbed Rushdie repeatedly before being tackled by spectators, institution staffers and two local law enforcement officers providing security.
Rushdie suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye, Wylie said on Friday evening. He was likely to lose the injured eye.” Read more at The Guardian
“Two top Democrats wrote to the director of National Intelligence on Saturday to request a damage assessment and review be conducted after the unsealed search warrant on Friday revealed classified and top secret documents had been taken by FBI officials during their search at former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chair of the House Oversight Committee, and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, wrote to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines asking for a damage assessment to be conducted in addition to a classified briefing ‘on the conduct of the damage assessment.’
Earlier this week, Trump announced that the FBI had executed a search warrant at his Florida residence and The Washington Post reported that officials were looking for documents, including nuclear weapons information that would have been classified.
The search warrant was unsealed Friday, indicating that officials believed Trump may have violated several laws, including the Espionage Act. It is not clear if documents pertaining to nuclear weapons were among the items seized by officials.
An unsealed search warrant showed that 33 items had been taken by the FBI, including ‘various classified/TS/SCI documents,’ referring to secret/sensitive compartmentalized information.” Read more at The Hill
“Republicans are coming under fire for their rhetoric over $80 billion in funding for the IRS included a massive climate, tax and health care bill that Democrats in Congress are sending to the White House.
The funding, over 10 years, is intended to help the IRS enforce various provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, which would raise more than $700 billion in new revenue by instituting a 15-percent corporate minimum tax, taxing stock buy backs and extending a cap on deductions for business losses, in addition to helping the IRS enforce existing tax law. Of the $80 billion, more than half would go to increased enforcement, like audits.
Republicans, who have nursed grievances over the IRS going back to the Obama administration that were inflamed further by fights over former President Trump’s tax returns, have taken aim at the funding, arguing it amounts to creating a new army of IRS agents to go after taxpayers.
But the IRS, Democrats and outside experts all say the new enforcement money will mostly allow the IRS to focus on audits of the wealthy.
‘Contrary to the misinformation from opponents of this legislation, small business or households earning $400,000 per year or less will not see an increase in the chances that they are audited,’ Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig in a letter dated Aug. 11.
In an appearance on Fox & Friends this week, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) questioned whether the IRS was ready to send in armed units of agents into small Iowa businesses.
‘Are they going to have a strike force that goes in with AK-15s already loaded, ready to shoot some small business person in Iowa with these, because I think they’re going after middle class and small business people, because they think that anybody that has pass-through income is a crook, and they aren’t paying their fair share, and we’re going to go after them,’ he said.
In using the phrase ‘pass-through,’ Grassley was referring to owners of certain types of companies, like partnerships and sole proprietorships, that allow for income to be reported on the tax returns of their owners. The Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act extends a limitation on the ability of pass-throughs to use losses to write off costs like salaries and interest. The limits were initially set up by the Trump administration’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Democrats said that such views should be considered cockamamie.
‘The incendiary conspiracy theories Republicans are pushing about armed IRS agents are increasingly dangerous and out of control,’ Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement.
‘High-ranking Republicans, including the former chair of the Finance Committee, are saying shockingly irresponsible things,’ he continued, seeming to refer to Grassley’s remarks. ‘It’s unbelievable that we even need to say this, but there are not going to be 87,000 armed IRS agents going door-to-door with assault weapons. This is funding for answering phone calls and upgrading computer systems. I would hope that House Republicans act responsibly today as the House considers the Inflation Reduction Act.’
Grassley’s office fired back at the statement from Wyden. A Grassley aide said in a statement to The Hill that ‘Democrats’ partisan bill includes an additional $80 billion to beef up IRS enforcement, including hiring an additional 87,000 IRS employees, which will undoubtedly result in more audits targeting American small businesses – at their expense. Unfortunately, Democrats’ focus is on IRS enforcement rather than providing badly needed tax services. It’s shockingly disingenuous to argue all of these new agents will only be answering phone calls.’” Read more at The Hill
Idaho Supreme Court Rules That Strict Abortion Ban Can Take Effect
In a late Friday ruling, the state’s highest court said that a ban could begin at the end of the month while legal challenges are reviewed.
“Idaho’s near-total ban on abortion can go into effect at the end of August while legal challenges to the restrictions are reviewed, the Idaho Supreme Court said in a ruling late Friday.
As a result of the decision, the ban is scheduled to begin on Aug. 25.
The Court issued the decision based on three lawsuits filed by a Planned Parenthood chapter and a local doctor this year to block three Idaho laws that were to take effect if the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade, which it did in June. The petitioners had asked the court not enforce the abortion restrictions until the suits were settled.
The first lawsuit was aimed at halting a law that would make it a felony to perform an abortion, though it allows doctors to cite rape, incest or an effort to save the life of a pregnant woman as a defense in a trial. Another suit sought to curb a law that criminalizes abortions after six weeks of a pregnancy. The chapter had also filed a suit against a law that allows relatives of a fetus or embryo to sue the abortion provider, and establishes a reward of at least $20,000, plus legal fees, within four years of an abortion.” Read more at New York Times
Defamation Suit About Election Falsehoods Puts Fox on Its Heels
The suit, filed by Dominion Voting Systems, could be one of the most consequential First Amendment cases in a generation.
“In the weeks after President Donald J. Trump lost the 2020 election, the Fox Business host Lou Dobbs claimed to have ‘tremendous evidence’ that voter fraud was to blame. That evidence never emerged but a new culprit in a supposed scheme to rig the election did: Dominion Voting Systems, a maker of election technology whose algorithms, Mr. Dobbs said, ‘were designed to be inaccurate.’
Maria Bartiromo, another host on the network, falsely stated that ‘Nancy Pelosi has an interest in this company.’ Jeanine Pirro, a Fox News personality, speculated that ‘technical glitches’ in Dominion’s software ‘could have affected thousands of absentee mail-in ballots.’
Those unfounded accusations are now among the dozens cited in Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against the Fox Corporation, which alleges that Fox repeatedly aired false, far-fetched and exaggerated allegations about Dominion and its purported role in a plot to steal votes from Mr. Trump.
Those bogus assertions — made day after day, including allegations that Dominion was a front for the communist government in Venezuela and that its voting machines could switch votes from one candidate to another — are at the center of the libel suit, one of the most extraordinary brought against an American media company in more than a generation.
First Amendment scholars say the case is a rarity in libel law. Defamation claims typically involve a single disputed statement. But Dominion’s complaint is replete with example after example of false statements, many of them made after the facts were widely known. And such suits are often quickly dismissed, because of the First Amendment’s broad free speech protections and the high-powered lawyers available to a major media company like Fox. If they do go forward, they are usually settled out of court to spare both sides the costly spectacle of a trial.
But Dominion’s $1.6 billion case against Fox has been steadily progressing in Delaware state court this summer, inching ever closer to trial. There have been no moves from either side toward a settlement, according to interviews with several people involved in the case. The two companies are deep into document discovery, combing through years of each other’s emails and text messages, and taking depositions.
These people said they expected Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, who own and control the Fox Corporation, to sit for depositions as soon as this month.
The case threatens a huge financial and reputational blow to Fox, by far the most powerful conservative media company in the country. But legal scholars say it also has the potential to deliver a powerful verdict on the kind of pervasive and pernicious falsehoods — and the people who spread them — that are undermining the country’s faith in democracy.” Read more at New York Times
As Right-Wing Rhetoric Escalates, So Do Threats and Violence
Both threats of political violence and actual attacks have become a steady reality of American life. Experts blame dehumanizing and apocalyptic language.
“The armed attack this week on an F.B.I. office in Ohio by a supporter of former President Donald J. Trump who was enraged by the bureau’s search of Mr. Trump’s private residence in Florida was one of the most disturbing episodes of right-wing political violence in recent months.
But it was hardly the only one.
In the year and a half since a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, threats of political violence and actual attacks have become a steady reality of American life, affecting school board officials, election workers, flight attendants, librarians and even members of Congress, often with few headlines and little reaction from politicians.
In late June, a former Marine stepped down as the grand marshal of a July 4 parade in Houston after a deluge of threats that focused on her support of transgender rights. A few weeks later, the gay mayor of an Oklahoma city quit his job after what he described as a series of ‘threats and attacks bordering on violence.’
Even the federal judge who authorized the warrant to search for classified material at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s beachfront home and club, became a target. On pro-Trump message boards, several threats were issued against him and his family, with one person writing, ‘I see a rope around his neck.’
While this welter of events may feel disparate, occurring at different times and places and to different types of people, scholars who study political violence point to a common thread: the heightened use of bellicose, dehumanizing and apocalyptic language, particularly by prominent figures in right-wing politics and media.
Several right-wing or Republican figures reacted to the search of Mar-a-Lago not only with demands to dismantle the F.B.I., but also with warnings that the action had triggered ‘war.’
‘This just shows everyone what many of us have been saying for a very long time,’ Joe Kent, a Trump-endorsed House candidate in Washington State, said on a podcast run by Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former chief political strategist. ‘We’re at war.’
On Thursday, a 42-year-old Ohio man, identified as Ricky W. Shiffer, showed up at the Cincinnati field office of the F.B.I. with an AR-15-style rifle and was subsequently shot to death after firing multiple times at the police during a standoff. There is no evidence of what prompted Mr. Shiffer to act. But Mr. Shiffer’s social media posts later revealed that he was full of rage about, among other things, the search at Mar-a-Lago — and that he wanted revenge.
‘Violence is not (all) terrorism,’ he wrote — on Mr. Trump’s own social media app, Truth Social. ‘Kill the F.B.I. on sight.’
Despite that threat, one day later, when the right-wing media outlet Breitbart News published the warrant underlying the Mar-a-Lago search, it did not redact the names of the F.B.I. agents on the document. Almost immediately afterward, posts on a pro-Trump chat board referred to them as ‘traitors.’
According to the F.B.I., there are now about 2,700 open domestic terrorism investigations — a number that has doubled since the spring of 2020 — and that does not include lesser but still serious incidents that do not rise to the level of federal inquiry. Last year, threats against members of Congress reached a record high of 9,600, according to data provided by the Capitol Police.” Read more at New York Times
FILE - Anne Heche arrives at the 74th annual Directors Guild of America Awards on March 12, 2022, in Beverly Hills, Calif. A spokesperson for Heche says the actor is on life support after suffering a brain injury in a fiery crash a week ago and isn't expected to survive. The statement released on behalf of her family said she is being kept on life support to determine if she is a viable organ donor. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
“LOS ANGEAug. 5.
Heche, 53, is brain dead and on life support, pending evaluation for organ donation.
‘As of today, there will be no further investigative efforts made in this case,’ the department announced Friday. ‘Any information or records that have been requested prior to this turn of events will still be collected as they arrive as a matter of formalities and included in the overall case. When a person suspected of a crime expires, we do not present for filing consideration.’
Detectives looking into the crash had said narcotics were found in a blood sample taken from Heche. She has been hospitalized at a Los Angeles burn center.” Read more at AP News
Johnson & Johnson Will Discontinue Talc-Based Baby Powder Globally in 2023
The company, sued by cancer patients who claimed its talc was contaminated with asbestos, stopped using the ingredient in North America in 2020.
“Johnson & Johnson will start using cornstarch in all the baby powder it sells around the world, shifting away from the talcum powder that put the popular product at the center of tens of thousands of lawsuits filed by customers.
The company discontinued North American sales of its talc-based baby powder in 2020 after recalling some bottles in 2019, but will stop sales of the product globally in 2023, it said on Thursday. Johnson & Johnson said it was already selling baby powder using cornstarch in countries around the world.
More than 40,000 lawsuits, many from women with ovarian cancer or mesothelioma, have accused Johnson & Johnson of selling talc baby powder while being aware of its links to health risks, such as possible asbestos contamination.” Read more at New York Times
Sacramento to Pay $1.7 Million to Stephon Clark’s Parents
The payment brings an end to a lawsuit brought by the family of Mr. Clark, an unarmed Black man who was fatally shot by police officers in 2018.
“The city of Sacramento on Friday said it had agreed to pay $1.7 million to the parents of Stephon Clark, an unarmed Black man who was shot seven times by city police officers in March 2018.
The payment settled the final portion of a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by his parents and ends the family’s legal action against the city, the city attorney, Susana Alcala Wood, said in a statement.
Mr. Clark was 22 years old when two officers in the Sacramento Police Department chased him into his grandmother’s backyard and shot at him 20 times, killing him. His death ignited widespread protests in the capital city and prompted the city and the state to change their policies around the use of deadly force by police officers.” Read more at New York Times
“HONOLULU (AP) — For their 16th wedding anniversary, Democrats in Hawaii gifted Josh Green and his wife, Jaime, a comfortable margin of victory in the gubernatorial primary Saturday.
Green, the state’s current lieutenant governor, handily defeated former first lady Vicky Cayetano and Kaiali’I Kahele, who decided to seek the governor’s office instead of a second term in the U.S. House.” Read more at AP News
Illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios
“The continental United States set a record in July for overnight warmth.
The average low temperature for the Lower 48 states in July was 63.6 degrees — beating the previous record, set in 2011, by a few hundredths of a degree, AP's Seth Borenstein reports.
NOAA says that's the hottest nightly average for any month in 128 years of record-keeping.
July's nighttime low was more than 3 degrees warmer than the 20th-century average.
Context: For decades, climate scientists have said global warming from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas would make the world warmer.
In Texas, the July daytime average high was over 100 degrees for the first time. The average nighttime temperature was 74.3 degrees.” Read more at Axios
Los Angeles and Orange counties could be devastated by a megaflood within the century.
“A disastrous megaflood is coming to California, experts say, and it could be the most expensive natural disaster in history.” Read more at CNN
“Officials refuse to answer key questions about the Uvalde school massacre response investigation as anger in the community grows.” Read more at CNN
Security personnel stand at the scene where a massive fire broke out during a Sunday service at the Abu Sefein church.
“(CNN)At least 41 people were killed, and at least 14 injured after a fire broke out at a church in Giza's Imbaba neighborhood in greater Cairo on Sunday, according to a spokesperson for the Egyptian Coptic Church citing health officials.
At least two officers and three civil protection service members were injured responding to the fire at Abu Sefein church, Egypt's interior ministry announced in a Facebook post.
The statement added that the fire started around 9 a.m. local time and was caused by an electrical failure in an air conditioning unit on the church's second floor.
Most of the deaths and injuries were caused by smoke inside church classrooms after the electric failure, the interior ministry said.” Read more at CNN
“The prisoners at the penal colony in St. Petersburg were expecting a visit by officials, thinking it would be some sort of inspection. Instead, men in uniform arrived and offered them amnesty — if they agreed to fight alongside the Russian army in Ukraine.
Over the following days, about a dozen or so left the prison, according to a woman whose boyfriend is serving a sentence there. Speaking on condition of anonymity because she feared reprisals, she said her boyfriend wasn’t among the volunteers, although with years left on his sentence, he ‘couldn’t not think about it.’
As Russia continues to suffer losses in its invasion of Ukraine, now nearing its sixth month, the Kremlin has refused to announce a full-blown mobilization — a move that could be very unpopular for President Vladimir Putin. That has led instead to a covert recruitment effort that includes using prisoners to make up the manpower shortage.” Read more at AP News
An Afghan woman walks schoolgirls to their primary school in Kabul last week. Photo: Wakil Koshar/ AFP via Getty Images
“Tomorrow marks one year since the Taliban captured Kabul amid a chaotic U.S. withdrawal.
The Taliban has remained in power with a promise, so far undelivered, to govern differently than it did before the American invasion in 2001, Axios' Aïda Amer writes.
These photos offer a glimpse at life in today's Afghanistan.
Photo: Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images
Above, a girl studies in a secret school at an undisclosed location in Afghanistan on July 25.
Girls and young women have been deprived of education since the Taliban returned to power.” Read more at Axios
“JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian gunman opened fire at a bus near Jerusalem’s Old City early Sunday, wounding eight Israelis in an attack that came a week after violence flared up between Israel and militants in Gaza, police and medics said.
Two of the victims were in serious condition, including a pregnant woman with abdominal injuries and a man with gunshot wounds to the head and neck, according to Israeli hospitals treating them.
The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, tweeted that there were American citizens among the wounded. An embassy spokesperson disclosed no other information or details.
The shooting happened as the bus waited in a parking lot near David’s Tomb on Mount Zion, just outside the Old City walls. Israeli media identified the suspected attacker as a 26-year-old Palestinian from east Jerusalem.
Israeli police said forces were dispatched to the scene to investigate. Israeli security forces also pushed into the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan pursuing the suspected attacker.” Read more at AP News
Sexual Assault Revelations Turn Canada’s National Game Into the Nation’s Shame
Once a jewel of Hockey Canada’s schedule, the world junior tournament is playing to a largely empty arena as turmoil forces Canadians to rethink what they believe about the sport.
“EDMONTON, Alberta — The pandemic shifted one of Canada’s longstanding holiday rituals, the World Junior Championship, from December to the middle of summer. But even allowing for that, the absence of a crowd before the Canadian team’s first game this week was striking.
In a fan zone with sprawling television screens outside of the N.H.L. arena in downtown Edmonton, a D.J. entertained a group that never surpassed a dozen people in the hour before Canada took on Latvia in its first game. Up a long escalator, the number of open gates into Rogers Place often exceeded the number of people passing through them. And once inside, a preponderance of empty seats allowed the chants of eight enthusiastic Latvian supporters to be heard by all.
In a country that many claim is defined by hockey, there have traditionally been three mandatory rituals for fans: the Stanley Cup finals, men’s and women’s Olympic hockey and the men’s world juniors. Several of the spectators who did show up for Canada’s opening game said its transformation into a shadow of a tournament was only partly explained by its unseasonal rescheduling. In May, TSN, a sports television network, reported that Hockey Canada, the national governing body, paid 3.5 million Canadian dollars to settle a lawsuit by a woman who accused eight members of the world junior team of sexually assaulting her in 2018.
Matters only got worse. Hockey Canada acknowledged that the money came from a slush fund generated from hockey registration fees, including those for children. The fund, it also said, had been used to pay another 7.6 million dollars to settle nine sexual assault and sexual abuse claims since 1989. It then emerged that there were further allegations of sexual assault involving another national junior team in 2003.
While shocking, they are far from the first reports of sexual assault and abuse by and against hockey players. But the current scandal appears to have shaken the faith that some Canadians have in a sport that is almost as much an obsession as a national pastime.” Read more at New York Times
“Norway's beloved Freya the walrus could be put down for safety reasons, the country's Directorate of Fisheries warned Thursday.
The 1,300-pound female walrus has become an icon – capturing hearts (and making some mariner enemies) as she sunbathes and chows down on nearby boats, at times sinking them. In addition to Norway, Freya has made appearances to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden in recent years.
With the help of viral social media posts, the friendly walrus has garnered fame worldwide. Flocks of fans have come to see Freya during her time on Norway's Oslofjord this summer – but are getting too close, the Directorate of Fisheries said.
Meet Freya:1,300-pound walrus capturing hearts, sinking boats and irking mariners
According to the government agency, the public has been going to the water's edge to pose for photos, sometimes trying to bathe with Freya, and throwing objects at her – failing to follow authorities' recommendations and, most importantly, endangering the health of the marine animal.
In addition to Freya's well-being, this behavior can put people in danger, senior communications advisor in the Directorate of Fisheries Nadia Jdaini explained in the Thursday statement.
Jadini said that the Directorate of Fisheries was looking into further action – and that euthanasia is now an option. A final decision has not been made yet.
‘There is a possibility to greenlight a controlled operation to put the animal down ‘as a ‘last resort,’ spokesman for the Directorate of Fisheries Vegard Oen Hatten, told The New York Times on Friday.
‘This is a unique situation,’ Hatten added. ‘It’s the first time an animal has stayed out of their natural habitat for so long.’” Read more at USA Today
Last month, the Directorate of Fisheries said that euthanasia was "out of the question" and again a last option, noting that walruses are a protected species in Norway. The agency added that if Freya, for example, had to be euthanized, they would collaborate with a veterinarian from the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research.
Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
“School districts nationwide are turning to extraordinary measures in a desperate effort to get enough teachers in classrooms before the academic year kicks off, Axios Local reporters found.
Why it matters: The teacher shortage — driven by burnout, low pay and ever-increasing demands — is a slow-motion crisis that's happening everywhere, and there's no easy way to reverse it.
Financial incentives are growing: Des Moines Public Schools is offering a $50,000 incentive to teachers, nurses and administrators who are nearing retirement to stay with the district through the 2022-2023 school year. At least 58 have taken the offer so far, according to records obtained by Axios.
Dallas Independent School District set aside $51 million for salary increases and $52 million for retention bonuses for 2022-2023. The district's starting pay for newly hired teachers is now $60,000; the minimum wage for staff is $15. That kicked off a recruiting arms race among school districts in North Texas, which has a population boom.
Sunbelt states are making exceptions to licensing requirements: The Florida Department of Education announced it would issue a temporary teaching certificate to veterans ‘who have not yet earned their bachelor's degree,’ based on a new law that took effect July 1.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) signed legislation last month to allow people without a bachelor’s degree to start training to become teachers, and complete their training while also finishing their degree.
Between the lines: These are all stopgaps, not solutions.” Read more at Axios
“NEW YORK (AP) — Serena Williams said it plainly: It isn’t really fair. A male athlete would never have to make the same choice.
But after a trailblazing career that both transformed and transcended her sport, Williams, who turns 41 next month, has told the world she’ll soon step away from tennis to focus on having a second child and making her daughter, Olympia, a big sister. Her explanation in a lengthy Vogue essay resonated with women in sports and well beyond, many of whom could relate only too well to her words, ‘Something’s got to give.’ And to the idea that, no, you really can’t have it all — at least, not all at the same time.
Many noted that Williams’ achievements, which included winning a major when two months pregnant, had made her seem superhuman. But, said Sherie Randolph, even ordinary women are expected to seamlessly combine work and motherhood.
‘Society makes women think they can have everything all at once — be the best hands-on-mom and at the top of the field,’ said Randolph, a history professor at Georgia Tech and founder of a Black feminist think tank who’s working on a book about African American mothers.
‘But that just is not borne out in reality for most women,’ she said. ‘What ends up happening is that working mothers are just worn out and overworked trying to labor at the highest level of two demanding jobs — motherhood and their profession.’ As if to prove her point, Randolph’s 4-year-old son constantly interrupted her thoughts about Williams’ decision as she tried to discuss them in a phone call.” Read more at AP News
Granger Wootz/Getty Images/Tetra images RF
“Your rewards card might know that you’re pregnant. Accounts on social media have swirled in recent weeks of people receiving marketing packages — like infant formula and pacifiers — after buying pregnancy tests or other items at big-box stores. The fine print of many reward programs allow corporations to share and collect this kind of data, experts say. And that’s raising the specter of surveillance in post-Roe America — with potentially grave implications for patients seeking abortions.” Read more at NPR
This prototype trash can, Salt and Pepper, is seen near the Embarcadero and Ferry Building in San Francisco. Photo: Eric Risberg/AP
“What takes four years to make and costs more than $20,000? A trash can in San Francisco.
The $20,900 can is among several prototypes the city rolled out this summer as part of the city's long search for the perfect can, AP's Olga R. Rodriquez writes.
Why it matters: Overflowing trash cans are a common sight in San Francisco, along with sometimes-impassable sidewalks.
What's happening: Last month, the city deployed 15 custom-made trash cans and 11 off-the-shelf trash cans — with QR codes affixed, asking residents to fill out a survey.
The Soft Square is seen here on Broadway Street in the North Beach area of San Francisco. Photos: Eric Risberg/AP
Above is the priciest prototype, the Soft Square, which ran $20,900 for the test.
The boxy stainless steel receptacle has openings for trash and for can and bottle recycling, and includes a foot pedal.
How it works: Officials say the current bins have too big a hole that allows for easy rummaging.
The city's target cost for the new trash can, when mass-produced, is $2,000 to $3,000 apiece.
The city created an interactive map so residents can track and test the different designs.
Three weeks after being unveiled, several of the cans have already been tagged with orange and white graffiti.” Read more at Axios
The Superbly Original, Gloriously Weird B-52’s Say Farewell to the Road
Forty-three years after their first album, the band that brought the world “Rock Lobster” and “Love Shack” is starting a tour for the last time.
From left: Keith Strickland, Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider and Cindy Wilson of the B-52’s. After nearly a half-century on the road, the band is wrapping up its touring career with a final run of shows.Credit...Mark Sommerfeld for The New York Times
“When the B-52’s played ‘Rock Lobster’ on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in January 1980, a few months after releasing their debut album, it was a lightning-strike moment for a generation of young misfits and oddballs.
The band’s uninhibited dancing, statuesque wigs and absurdist lyrics embraced the ecstatic, and its kinetically rhythmic guitar, precise drumming and bursts of Farfisa organ ensured a good time. Many of their campy, catchy songs celebrated people who seemed to be happily dislocated or disconnected from known dimensions (‘Planet Claire,’ ‘Private Idaho’). Several of the band’s members were queer and all five considered themselves ‘freaks.’ Over a period of decades, as they grew from a cult band to one with Top 40 hits — most notably ‘Love Shack’ in 1989 — they discovered how many others identified the same way.
‘This eccentric, downright lovable quintet,’ John Rockwell of The New York Times wrote in 1978, ‘provides about the most amusing, danceable experience in town.’ The B-52’s sustained that vigor through seven studio albums and an EP, as well as the 1985 death of Ricky Wilson, one of rock’s most inventive guitarists. Their spirit can be heard in the work of a wide range of artists who followed, including Deee-Lite, Le Tigre, LCD Soundsystem and Dua Lipa.
Culture made by and for misfits and oddballs is now a billion-dollar industry, but it wasn’t when the B-52’s played their first gig in 1977, in their Athens, Ga., hometown. Maybe that’s why, 45 years after they first played for a small number of friends, they’ve announced a farewell tour, which starts Aug. 20 in Vancouver and wraps with a three-night stand in Atlanta in November. It took a while, but the weirdos have won.
In late July, the singers Fred Schneider, 70; Kate Pierson, 74; and Cindy Wilson, 65, gathered in a SoHo hotel suite for an 80-minute free-for-all punctuated by raucous laughter, as well as somber reflections. Schneider dispensed deadpan punch lines, Pierson spoke with hippie beneficence and Wilson talked movingly about the death of her brother, Ricky. Keith Strickland, 68, a drummer and guitarist who stopped touring with the band in 2012, added his thoughts in a phone interview later.” Read more at New York Times
Jacqueline Larma/AP
“The mystery of the wild ponies on Assateague Island — off the coast of Maryland and Virginia — may be solved thanks to a chance scientific discovery: a fossilized tooth.” Read more at NPR