March 29, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Jan Hoffman of the New York Times: "Narcan, a prescription nasal spray that reverses opioid overdoses, can now be sold over the counter, the Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday, authorizing a move long-sought by public health officials and treatment experts, who hope wider availability of the medicine will reduce the nation's alarmingly high drug fatality rates. By late summer, over-the-counter Narcan, could be for sale in big-box chains, vending machines, supermarkets, convenience stores, gas stations and even online retailers.... Narcan is a nasal spray version of the drug naloxone, which blocks an opioid's effect on the brain.... But for people who use drugs, as well as for their friends and relatives, ready access to the prescription medication has been elusive." An NPR report is here. MB: Not a solution to the opioid crisis, but this could be a real life-saver.

Bernie, for the People. Lauren Gurney of the Washington Post: "Former Starbucks executive Howard Schultz unequivocally denied that the coffee giant had broken the law in its fight against unionization during a tense questioning from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday.... 'Over the past 18 months, Starbucks has waged the most aggressive and illegal union-busting campaign in the modern history of our country,' Sanders said on Wednesday. 'That union-busting campaign has been led by Howard Schultz, the multibillionaire founder and director of Starbucks who is with us this morning only under the threat of subpoena.'... Schultz said he was not involved in decisions to discipline or fire union activists or close unionizing stores, though he said he had conversations that may have been interpreted as threatening to workers.... Schultz initially declined to testify at Wednesday's hearing, but he relented after Sanders, the committee's chairman, threatened to hold a vote earlier this month to subpoena him.... Organizers of the Starbucks Workers United campaign accuse Starbucks of stalling contract negotiations and continuously retaliating against employees engaged in labor organizing."

Zoë Richards of NBC News: "Twitter temporarily restricted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's congressional account Tuesday after she repeatedly posted a graphic that referred to a 'Trans Day of Vengeance.' According to a screenshot Greene, R-Ga., posted on her personal account, Twitter said it had 'temporarily limited' some of her account's features, with full functionality scheduled to be restored in seven days. The post in question, which Twitter has since removed, included a graphic that Greene said was for an antifa event in Washington, D.C., next month. 'Antifa is organizing a Trans Day of Vengeance,' Greene wrote in accompanying text.... 'We do not support tweets that incite violence irrespective of who posts them,' [a Twitter veep] tweeted. '"Vengeance" does not imply peaceful protest. Organizing or support for peaceful protests is ok.'"

** Happy Holidays, Everybody! Erica Orden of Politico: "The Manhattan grand jury examining Donald Trump's alleged role in a hush money payment to a porn star isn't expected to hear evidence in the case for the next month largely due to a previously scheduled hiatus, according to a person familiar with the proceedings. The break would push any indictment of the former president to late April at the earliest, although it is possible that the grand jury's schedule could change."

Trump v. the People. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Wherein Donald Trump tells Sean Hannity how much he admires "Chinese democracy": "... They have a caste system. And the smartest person gets to the top. The smartest and most vicious," Trump says. Bump: "What Trump appears to have been trying to describe is the stratified system of political ascent in the Chinese Communist Party, in which potential leaders work their way up through the ranks to power.... Trump's praise for the Chinese system ... was simply praise for a process in which ruthless actors can scramble for power and climb their way up to the top.... He was the autocratic leader of the Trump Organization and, save a bankruptcy or two, that worked out. Why not be the autocratic leader of the United States?... His view of democratic elections was not of an electorate empowered to choose its leaders but, instead, a process to be manipulated for power." ~~~

     ~~~ MB: Bump's brief post may explain most of Trump's "philosophy" and why he thinks he has a right to do whatever he wants, why everyone who defers to laws and norms is corrupt.

Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times: "On March 17, the Biden administration asked the [Supreme Court] justices to overturn an appeals court decision that can charitably be described as nuts, and accurately as pernicious. The decision by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit invalidated a federal law that for almost 30 years has prohibited gun ownership by people who are subject to restraining orders for domestic violence.... Now it is up to the justices to say whether that analysis is correct.... The government's petition points out that there are more than one million acts of domestic violence in the United States every year 'and the presence of a gun in a house with a domestic abuser increases the risk of homicide sixfold.' Will a fact like that matter to the Supreme Court? Do facts still matter at all?"

Marie: In today's Comments, Forrest M. suggests an excellent solution to the problem of the naked David. But I must offer an apology for mocking the prudes who consider the David to be not an ideal body but a pornographic monstrosity. It turns out the all-seeing God appreciates the concern and has an improvement for those who wish to gaze up without shock and horror at another Michelangelo masterpiece:

“Put these on. A group of American tourists is coming.” pic.twitter.com/Wlg8ryPW48

— Thee Rev. Dr. Boudyka (@bdk1521) March 26, 2023

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Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "An enormous swathe of the Gulf of Mexico, spanning an area the size of Italy, will be auctioned off for oil and gas drilling on Wednesday morning, in the latest blow to Joe Biden's increasingly frayed reputation on dealing with the climate crisis. Biden's department of interior is offering up a vast area of the central and western Gulf, including plunging deep water reaches, for drilling projects that will stretch out over decades, despite scientists' urgent warnings that fossil fuels must be rapidly phased out if the world is to avoid disastrous global heating. The auctions also come despite Biden's own pre-election promise to halt all drilling on federal lands and waters. In all, 73.3m acres (30m hectares), an area roughly the size of Italy, will be made available to drilling companies.... The auctions come just two weeks after Biden's administration approved the controversial Willow project, a drilling endeavor in the remote tundra of Alaska's arctic...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As far as I can tell from a couple of searches, neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post reported on this story. It seems like a big deal to me.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "After walking down a path where enslaved people once marched in chains to waiting ships, Vice President Kamala Harris entered a dungeon in Cape Coast, Ghana, where captive women had sung songs praying for death.... Ms. Harris, wiping her face and visibly emotional, walked outside this former slave port and connected the past to the present. 'The descendants of the people that walked through that door were strong people, proud people, people of deep faith who loved their families, their traditions, their culture,' Ms. Harris said during her visit to the port, called Cape Coast Castle, used for the slave trade in the 17th century. Those people, she added, 'went on to fight for civil rights, fight for justice in the United States of America and around the world.' Ms. Harris, who is on a tour of three countries in Africa -- Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia -- has been focused on promoting investments in the continent and collaboration with the United States. She has sought to showcase young artists by posting a Spotify playlist of her favorite African music and appearing with musicians at a studio in Accra, the capital of Ghana."

Lorena Figueroa, et al., of the Washington Post: "A fire at a migrant detention facility just south of the U.S. border killed at least 38 people, who appeared to be trapped in locked cells as flames spread Monday night and guards left the scene.... Security-camera footage began to circulate in Mexican media showing at least two guards walking past a large cell that was on fire. One prisoner tried desperately to kick open a locked door, but the guards ignored him.... In a Tuesday morning news conference, [Mexico's] President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the fire was apparently sparked during a protest by migrants who had learned they were going to be deported. 'In the door of the shelter they put some mattresses and set them on fire,' he said. 'They never imagined that would cause this tragedy.'" MB: The victims were in U.S. "protective" custody. Looks like negligent homicide to me, if not outright mass murder. ~~~

     ~~~ A related Guardian story by Marisol Chávez, which concentrates on the protest, is here.

Show Me the Money. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday demanded a meeting with President Biden to discuss the nation's debt limit -- a move that the White House and Democrats suggested was premature until House Republicans overcome delays and produce their own budget proposal. In a letter, McCarthy sought to pin blame on Biden for the continuing standoff, saying he was putting the president 'on the clock' to find a meeting time so the two could discuss spending cuts that Republicans want in exchange for their support of legislation to raise the debt ceiling. But Biden and fellow Democrats suggested there is little point in an Oval Office meeting until House Republicans produce a budget document that can be compared to one issued by the White House nearly three weeks ago.... House Republicans are already behind schedule in crafting a budget plan, and lawmakers are about to take a scheduled two-week recess -- which Biden highlighted in his response letter to McCarthy on Tuesday evening."

Laura Reiley of the Washington Post: "Frank Yiannas, the [Food and Drug Administration's] deputy commissioner for food policy until his resignation earlier this year, testified before a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee that the agency was slow to act when concerns about sanitation arose at the Abbott Nutrition formula plant in Sturgis, Mich., sparking a chain reaction that dramatically reduced the U.S. supply of formula. The agency also failed to monitor the food supply chain, despite glaring deficiencies exposed by the pandemic, he said in written testimony.... The testimony comes during a period of upheaval at an agency that has been accused of giving short shrift to its role overseeing of the nation's food supply in favor of its drug approval side. Yiannas resigned in February, citing shortcomings in the FDA's ability to handle foodborne illness crises. His was among several recent departures of top officials at the FDA." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sen. Potatohead Causes National Security Threat Because Abortion. Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The Pentagon is raising alarm over one Republican senator's bid to block the promotion of nearly 160 senior U.S. military officers in a dispute arising from the Defense Department';s abortion policy, joining top Democrats in labeling the political showdown a threat to national security. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, warned that by impeding these officers' promotions, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) had caused a 'ripple effect in the force that makes us far less ready than we need to be.'The remarks were Austin's most direct in a dispute that has grown increasingly acrimonious since Tuberville, earlier this month, promised he would require the promotions to be approved one-by-one, rather than in batches -- what Congress calls unanimus consent. The nominations can still move ahead, but would require time-consuming steps by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D.-N.Y.), who complained Tuesday that Tuberville's gambit was tantamount to 'hostage taking.'" An NBC News story is here.

Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "A top regulator at the Federal Reserve on Tuesday blamed Silicon Valley Bank's executives for its collapse and provided little explanation for why supervisors had failed to stop its demise, saying that the central bank was examining what went wrong. Michael S. Barr, the Fed's vice chair for supervision, testified for more than two hours before the Senate Banking Committee alongside Martin Gruenberg, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Nellie Liang, the Treasury's under secretary for domestic finance. They faced skeptical questioning from lawmakers about why their agencies -- in particular the Fed, which was Silicon Valley Bank's main regulator -- had not done more to stop the bank from imploding."

The Tiny Hand That Guides Them. Annie Grayer, et al., of CNN: "Donald Trump continues to wield enormous power on Capitol Hill as House Republicans seek to curry favor with the former president, pursuing his fixations through their investigations and routinely updating him and his closest advisers on their progress. A number of top House GOP lawmakers have disclosed in recent days their efforts to keep the former president informed on the pace and substance of their investigations. Lines of communication appear to go both ways. Not only are Trump, his aides and close allies regularly apprised of Republicans' committee work, they also at times exert influence over it, multiple people familiar with the talks tell CNN. The constant, and sometimes direct, communication between Trump and the committees has emerged as a crucial method for Trump to shape Republicans' priorities in their newly-won House majority."

Marie: It's a sad, sad day when our justice system forces a good, Christian man to testify against the man who tried to have a mob hang him by the neck until dead. ~~~

~~~ ** Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "A federal judge has decided that former Vice President Mike Pence must testify to a grand jury about conversations he had with Donald Trump leading up to January 6, 2021, according to multiple sources familiar with a recent federal court ruling. But the judge said -- in a ruling that remains under seal -- that Pence can still decline to answer questions related to his actions on January 6 itself, when he was serving as president of the Senate for the certification of the 2020 presidential election, according to one of the sources." At 1:20 pm ET, this is a breaking story. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "A federal judge has ordered former Vice President Mike Pence to appear in front of a grand jury investigating ... Donald J. Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election, largely sweeping aside two separate legal efforts by Mr. Pence and Mr. Trump to limit his testimony, according to two people familiar with the matter. The twin rulings on Monday, by Judge James E. Boasberg in Federal District Court in Washington, were the latest setbacks to bids by Mr. Trump's legal team to limit the scope of questions that prosecutors can ask witnesses close to him.... While Judge Boasberg issued a clear-cut ruling against Mr. Trump's attempts to assert executive privilege, his ruling on the 'speech or debate' clause was more nuanced.... The judge affirmed the idea that Mr. Pence had some protection under 'speech or debate' based on his role in overseeing the certification of the election.... But Judge Boasberg also said that Mr. Pence would have to testify to the grand jury about any potentially illegal acts committed by Mr. Trump...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump Can't Handle Softball Questions. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's long-awaited return to Fox News's airwaves on Monday night after a months-long absence occasioned an altogether familiar exercise: His longtime ally Sean Hannity helpfully tries to coach him to give the right answers, and Trump utterly fails to oblige.... [Hannity] suggested both that Trump wouldn't deliberately possess the documents and that he didn't prevent federal authorities from searching for them. In both cases, Trump repeatedly declined to confirm Hannity's thesis." MB: When you read the Q&A, you may conclude that Trump's defense in the classified docs heist will run along the lines of, "I am too stupid and obstinate to knowingly commit theft and obstruction." My favorite part is where Trump claims that the Presidential Records Act gives him "the right to take stuff," when that, of course, is exactly the opposite of what the act requires.

Jonathan O'Connell & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "Supreme Court justices and all federal judges must provide a fuller public accounting of free trips, meals and other gifts they accept from corporations or other organizations, according to revised regulations quietly adopted this month. The new requirements mark a technical but significant change that lawmakers and court transparency advocates hope will lead to more disclosure by judges and justices and also make it easier for parties in specific cases to request that judges remove themselves from cases when potential conflicts arise. Gifts such as an overnight stay at a personal vacation home owned by a friend remain exempt from reporting requirements. But the revised rules require disclosure when judges are treated to stays at commercial properties, such as hotels, ski resorts or corporate hunting lodges. The changes also clarify that judges must report travel by private jet."

Shawn Boburg & Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "A little-known conservative activist group led by Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, collected nearly $600,000 in anonymous donations to wage a cultural battle against the left over three years, a Washington Post investigation found. The previously unreported donations to the fledgling group Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty were channeled through a right-wing think tank in Washington that agreed to serve as a funding conduit from 2019 until the start of last year, according to documents and interviews. The arrangement, known as a 'fiscal sponsorship,' effectively shielded from public view details about Crowdsourcers' activities and spending, information it would have had to disclose publicly if it operated as a separate nonprofit organization, experts said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Senate Chaplain Barry Black opened Tuesday's Senate session with this prayer:

Thom Hartmann, published by the Raw Story: "Republicans are trying to distract America from the easy access Audrey Hale had to weapons of war by discussing Hale's personal life, but the availability of guns and the Republican embrace of death as a political weapon are the only real issues here. We're the only developed country in the world that unconditionally allows civilians to own military-style assault weapons, that allows 'open carry,' and that lets gun manufacturers openly buy politicians (thanks, Republicans on the Supreme Court). As a consequence, we're also the only country in the world where the leading cause of death for children is being blown apart by bullets.... There are two simple reasons why Republicans want America drenched in guns and the deaths they bring. The first is that they've been taking piles of money from explicit peddlers of death: the NRA and gun manufacturers.... The second is that there's a substantial part of the violent white racist GOP base that is actively arming in preparation for a civil racial war in America, egged on by multiple Republican members of Congress."

N. Kirkpatrick, et al., of the Washington Post: "The AR-15 fires bullets at such a high velocity -- often in a barrage of 30 or even 100 in rapid succession - that it can eviscerate multiple people in seconds. A single bullet lands with a shock wave intense enough to blow apart a skull and demolish vital organs. The impact is even more acute on the compact body of a small child.... The carnage is rarely visible to the public. Crime scene photos are considered too gruesome to publish and often kept confidential.... The Washington Post sought to illustrate the force of the AR-15 and reveal its catastrophic effects." MB: The Post published this article shortly before the mass murder in a Nashville, Tennessee, grade school.

The Murdoch Effect. Elias Visontay of the Guardian: "Speaking to a capacity crowd of about 9,000 people at Sydney[, Australia]'s Aware Super Theatre on Tuesday night..., the former US president Barack Obama has suggested that Rupert Murdoch's media empire has led to greater polarisation in western societies through news coverage designed to 'make people angry and resentful'.... '... if all you're doing is, in America it's Fox News, here I guess it's Sky, whatever it is, if all you're doing is watching one source of news..., you no longer have a joint conversation and a shared story.... The easiest way to attract attention without having to have a lot of imagination, thought, or interesting things to say, is just to make people angry and resentful and to make them feel as if somebody's trying to mess with them and take what's rightfully theirs. And if you throw in some good old-fashioned racism and xenophobia and sexism and homophobia, all of that, because now we're in the realm of identity politics. And it's very difficult to compromise around identity politics.'"

Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "Lawyers for Fox News were met with skepticism Tuesday when they argued that Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch should be excused from testifying in court as part of Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the company. At a hearing in Delaware Superior Court, Judge Eric Davis said he'd received a letter from Fox saying it would be an 'inconvenience' for Murdoch, 92, to provide testimony in the courtroom.... The judge said that after receiving the letter he was told that Murdoch had just gotten engaged and was discussing plans to travel more in the coming years.... The judge did not rule on whether Murdoch will be required to testify in person...."

Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors added a foreign bribery charge to the growing list of crimes already pending against the FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, according to a new indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday. Federal prosecutors said that in 2021 Mr. Bankman-Fried instructed those working for him to pay a bribe of $40 million to one or more Chinese officials to help unfreeze trading accounts maintained by Alameda Research, FTX's sister company, that held about $1 billion in cryptocurrencies. The bribe money was paid to the Chinese officials in cryptocurrency, the document said. The indictment said the effort to pay off the unnamed Chinese officials was successful in getting the trading accounts unfrozen." The AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Idaho. Alana Vaglanos of the Huffington Post: Idaho state "House Bill 242, which passed through the state House and is likely to move quickly through the Senate, seeks to limit minors' ability to travel for abortion care without parental consent. The legislation would create a whole new crime -- dubbed 'abortion trafficking' -- which is defined in the bill as an 'adult who, with the intent to conceal an abortion from the parents or guardian of a pregnant, unemancipated minor, either procures an abortion --- or obtains an abortion-inducing drug' for the minor.... Abortion trafficking would be a felony, and those found guilty would face two to five years in prison.... The legislation doesn't actually say anything about crossing state lines, but ... State Rep. Barbara Ehardt (R), one of the sponsors of the abortion trafficking bill, said plainly that the intent of the legislation is to limit minors' ability to travel out of state without parental consent." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I can't picture how the state will enforce the law. Will officers stop everybody traveling with a teenaged girl? Will everybody be stopped at state borders, creatiing a sort of Independent Sovereign State of Idaho?

North Dakota, California. Luz Lazo of the Washington Post (March 27): "A freight train derailed in rural North Dakota late Sunday, spilling hazardous materials, officials said. Another derailment hours later in Southern California brought no threat to the public or the environment, authorities said. In North Dakota, the Canadian Pacific train was traveling ... in the southeast part of the state when 31 of 61 cars derailed. The railroad said there were no injuries and there was no danger to residents. [A] Canadian Pacific spokesperson ... said ... that four cars filled with liquid asphalt and two cars filled with ethylene glycol spilled part of their loads, while a car carrying propylene sustained a small puncture and released some vapor. He said the spills have been mitigated. [He] said the railroad's environmental teams at the site have begun cleanup efforts and are working with the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality on a remediation plan.... [A] Union Pacific train was carrying iron ore ... when 55 cars derailed near Kelso, [California,] the San Bernardino County Fire Department said. Officials said fire engines and a hazmat team were responding to the incident, adding that one car had a minor fuel leak...."

Tennessee. Silvia Foster-Frau, et al., of the Washington Post: "The attacker who killed six people at a small Christian school in Nashville had been receiving treatment for 'an emotional disorder' and hid several weapons from their parents before opening fire, police said Tuesday. The parents thought 28-year-old Audrey Hale 'should not own weapons' and wrongly believed Hale had only owned one gun, which was sold, according to John Drake, the Nashville police chief. But the shooter had legally purchased seven guns at five local gun stores, Drake said, and on Monday morning used three of them to attack the school Hale once attended, killing three small children and three adults.... It appears, police said, that the school itself was the shooter's target, rather than any individual people there." A CNN story is here.

Virginia State Senate Election. Gregory Schneider of the Washington Post: "Democrat Lamont Bagby was projected to defeat Republican Stephen Imholt in a special election Tuesday for the Richmond-based state Senate seat vacated by Jennifer McClellan (D), who was elected to Congress last month. Bagby's projected victory, declared shortly after polls closed at 7 p.m., ensures Democrats will maintain their 22-18 edge in the state Senate to offset Republican control of the House of Delegates."

Wisconsin, where school administrators deem the Dolly Parton/Miley Cirus song Rainbowland too "controversial" for first-graders to sing at a Waukesha grade-school assembly. María Luisa Paúl of the Washington Post reports, "Why the song was found contentious is still unclear."

Way Beyond

Israel. Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel responded defiantly on Wednesday to sharp criticism from President Biden over his government's contentious judicial overhaul plan.... As weeks of quiet diplomatic pressure burst into an open dispute between the allies, Mr. Netanyahu's opponents in Israel accused him of endangering the longstanding and critical relationship with the United States that could harm the country's ability to face daunting security challenges.... [In a statement, Mr. Netanyahu said,] 'Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends.' Mr. Netanyahu's remarks, first issued by his office at the unusual time of about 1 a.m. in Israel, came after Mr. Biden told reporters that he was 'very concerned' about the events in Israel. The president's comments came after suggestions on Tuesday by the U.S. ambassador in Israel that Mr. Netanyahu would be welcome in Washington sometime soon.... When asked whether Mr. Netanyahu would be invited to the White House, the president replied bluntly: 'No. Not in the near term.'"; The AP's story is here.

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Wednesday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Wednesday is here: "Russian forces now occupy about 65 percent of the city of Bakhmut, according to analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, citing geolocated footage. Russian-backed fighters continue to make gains within the front-line city.... A Russian victory in Bakhmut would increase the global and domestic pressure on Kyiv to concede to an unfavorable deal with the Kremlin, [President] Zelensky said in an interview.... [U.S. Secretary of State Antony] Blinken said a cease-fire in Ukraine could freeze the conflict where things stand, allowing Russia to consolidate the territory it has illegally seized and 'use the time to rest and refit and then reattack.'... Ukrainian officials say 4,390 children have been forcibly deported to Russia."

News Lede

Death of the Oldest Drag Queen. New York Times: "Walter Cole, otherwise known as Darcelle XV, a rhinestone-bedecked drag performer with an exuberant blonde beehive whose popular Portland, Ore., nightclub hosted what is believed to be the longest-running drag show west of the Mississippi, died on March 23 at a hospital in his hometown. He was 92.... Seven years earlier, when he was 85, Mr. Cole earned an entry in Guinness World Records as the world's oldest drag performer."

March 28, 2023

Afternoon Update:

** Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "A federal judge has decided that former Vice President Mike Pence must testify to a grand jury about conversations he had with Donald Trump leading up to January 6, 2021, according to multiple sources familiar with a recent federal court ruling. But the judge said -- in a ruling that remains under seal -- that Pence can still decline to answer questions related to his actions on January 6 itself, when he was serving as president of the Senate for the certification of the 2020 presidential election, according to one of the sources." At 1:20 pm ET, this is a breaking story. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "A federal judge has ordered former Vice President Mike Pence to appear in front of a grand jury investigating ... Donald J. Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election, largely sweeping aside two separate legal efforts by Mr. Pence and Mr. Trump to limit his testimony, according to two people familiar with the matter. The twin rulings on Monday, by Judge James E. Boasberg in Federal District Court in Washington, were the latest setbacks to bids by Mr. Trump's legal team to limit the scope of questions that prosecutors can ask witnesses close to him.... While Judge Boasberg issued a clear-cut ruling against Mr. Trump's attempts to assert executive privilege, his ruling on the 'speech or debate' clause was more nuanced.... The judge affirmed the idea that Mr. Pence had some protection under 'speech or debate' based on his role in overseeing the certification of the election.... But Judge Boasberg also said that Mr. Pence would have to testify to the grand jury about any potentially illegal acts committed by Mr. Trump...."

Laura Reiley of the Washington Post: "Frank Yiannas, the [Food and Drug Administration's] deputy commissioner for food policy until his resignation earlier this year, testified before a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee that the agency was slow to act when concerns about sanitation arose at the Abbott Nutrition formula plant in Sturgis, Mich., sparking a chain reaction that dramatically reduced the U.S. supply of formula. The agency also failed to monitor the food supply chain, despite glaring deficiencies exposed by the pandemic, he said in written testimony.... The testimony comes during a period of upheaval at an agency that has been accused of giving short shrift to its role overseeing of the nation's food supply in favor of its drug approval side. Yiannas resigned in February, citing shortcomings in the FDA's ability to handle foodborne illness crises. His was among several recent departures of top officials at the FDA."

The New York Times is liveblogging a Senate Banking Committee hearing on the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failures.

Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors added a foreign bribery charge to the growing list of crimes already pending against the FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, according to a new indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday. Federal prosecutors said that in 2021 Mr. Bankman-Fried instructed those working for him to pay a bribe of $40 million to one or more Chinese officials to help unfreeze trading accounts maintained by Alameda Research, FTX's sister company, that held about $1 billion in cryptocurrencies. The bribe money was paid to the Chinese officials in cryptocurrency, the document said. The indictment said the effort to pay off the unnamed Chinese officials was successful in getting the trading accounts unfrozen." The AP story is here.

Shawn Boburg & Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "A little-known conservative activist group led by Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, collected nearly $600,000 in anonymous donations to wage a cultural battle against the left over three years, a Washington Post investigation found. The previously unreported donations to the fledgling group Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty were channeled through a right-wing think tank in Washington that agreed to serve as a funding conduit from 2019 until the start of last year, according to documents and interviews. The arrangement, known as a 'fiscal sponsorship,' effectively shielded from public view details about Crowdsourcers' activities and spending, information it would have had to disclose publicly if it operated as a separate nonprofit organization, experts said."

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Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: “President Biden on Monday signed an executive order restricting American government use of a class of powerful surveillance tools that have been abused by both autocracies and democracies around the world to spy on political dissidents, journalists and human rights activists. The tools in question, known as commercial spyware, give governments the power to hack the mobile phones of private citizens, extracting data and tracking their movements. The global market for their use is booming, and some U.S. government agencies have studied or deployed the technology. Commercial spyware, including Pegasus, made by the Israeli firm NSO Group, has also been used against American government officials overseas." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "The United States and Japan have reached an agreement over supplies of the critical minerals used to make car batteries, a deal that will likely put to rest a contentious issue in the relationship with Japan and could be a model for resolving similar disputes with other trading partners.... While the scope of the agreement is limited, the Biden administration has also promoted the deal as the beginning of a new framework that the United States and its allies hope to build with like-minded countries to develop more stable supply chains for electric vehicles that do not rely as heavily on China."

Tots and Prayers. And Children's Blood on His Hands. Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "Rep. Andrew Ogles (R-Tenn.), who represents the Nashville district where the Covenant School is located, said Monday in a statement that he was 'utterly heartbroken' by the shooting that left six people dead, including three children.... 'We are sending our thoughts and prayers to the families of those lost,' he said.... Gun-control advocates and Democrats highlighted another post from Ogles -- a 2021 Christmas photo of his family posing with firearms.... The 2021 photo, which Ogles shared on Facebook, showed him, his wife and two of his three children holding weapons and smiling in front of a Christmas tree. 'MERRY CHRISTMAS!' Ogles wrote, adding a line that is often -- and dubiously -- credited to George Washington: 'The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference -- they deserve a place of honor with all that's good.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The shooter reportedly had two AR-15-type weapons and a pistol. There were no wounded victims. I heard a firearms expert say on TV that the reason all of the victims died is that the assault rifle bullets that hit them "tore them apart." Would some of them have survived had the killer had to rely on a typical handgun? I don't know. But I blame their immediate deaths on Andy Ogles and every other member of Congress who fetishizes lethal weaponry and refuses to vote for an assault rifle ban. In the 16 years I went to school more-or-less consecutively, I never once worried my childish head about getting murdered at school. Now, every schoolchild in the U.S. bears the burden of that concern. That, in itself, is an assault. And for that too Andy Ogles, et al., are responsible. ~~~

     ~~~ Hayes Brown in an MSNBC opinion piece: "... in the state of Tennessee, lawmakers have been working to make it even easier to own guns. Not that there's much more room to lower that bar. The state already has few restrictions in place as it is: no waiting period between between purchasing and receiving a firearm; no license or permit required to own a gun; no need to register a gun with the state; no need for a permit to carry a handgun, open or concealed, if you're over the age of 21.... That matches with the rhetoric around 'constitutional carry,' the gun lobby's lofty way of saying that no permit should be needed to carry a concealed firearm.... Much of our gun policy is presaged on the idea that guns are cool. That they're fun to own, fun to shoot and fun to pose with in the family Christmas card, like Rep. Andy Ogles did last year."

Brave GOP Senators Oppose Insurrection. But They're Good with Trump. Igor Bobic of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump's extraordinary tribute over the weekend to people convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol was a step too far for some Republican senators, including one of his top allies in Congress. 'I think the best thing for President Trump to do is to focus on the problems people are facing today. There is no way you're going to convince the American people that Jan. 6 was anything less than a horrible day,' Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is supporting Trump's 2024 campaign despite the former president's role in inciting the attack on Congress, told HuffPost on Monday.... 'I was disappointed to see the way that he utilized clips of that day. That was a bad day for this country,' [Sen. Mike] Rounds [R-S.D.] told HuffPost. 'What happened on that day was as close to an attempted insurrection as we've seen in a very long time, and I don't think any of us should be proud of that day.'" Rounds would not say whether or not he will support Trump if he wins the nomination. ~~~

     ~~~ Oh, and this from Sen. Potatohead: "... Hey, it's all about motivation and getting people fired up for a common cause.... Now is he right or wrong? I don't know.... The voters have to answer that.&" MB: What's the "common cause," Tommy? More mob violence? Another insurrection attempt? "Death and destruction," as Trump puts it?

Olafimihan Oshin of the Hill: "Authorities said that a suspect is in custody after a member of Sen. Rand Paul's (R-K,y.) congressional staff was the target of an attack in Washington, D.C. over the weekend.... The victim was ... transported to a local medical facility to be treated for life-threatening injuries. Authorities arrested Southeast, D.C. native Glynn Neal, 42, on Monday and charged him with Assault with Intent to Kill (Knife), according to the release."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "The reality of the 'parents' rights' movement is that it is meant to empower a conservative and reactionary minority of parents to dictate education and curriculums to the rest of the community. It is, in essence, an institutionalization of the heckler's veto.... 'Parents' rights.' in other words, is when some parents have the right to dominate all the others. And, of course, the point of this movement -- the point of creating this state-sanctioned heckler's veto -- is to undermine public education through a thousand little cuts.... The screaming over 'wokeness' and 'D.E.I.' is just another Trojan horse for a relentless effort to dismantle a pillar of American democracy that, for all of its flaws, is still one of the country's most powerful engines for economic and social mobility. Ultimately, then, the 'parents' rights' movement is ... about whether this country will continue to strive for a more equitable and democratic system of education...."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday seemed divided over whether a federal law that makes it a crime to encourage undocumented immigrants to stay in this country might be so broad it would jeopardize charitable groups that feed the hungry or a family's plan to have a grandmother keep living nearby. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit found the decades-old law 'overbroad and unconstitutional' because it potentially outlawed more free speech than needed to meet the law's goals. And during their nearly 1 1/2-hour hearing Monday, some justices had no trouble pinging Deputy Solicitor General Brian H. Fletcher, representing the Justice Department, with examples of who might fall on the wrong side of an immigration law that penalizes a person 'who encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: See link to an opinion piece about a related and more draconian Florida bill, under Beyond the Beltway. Yesterday's discussion of the Florida bill in the Comments section also is illuminating.

William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "The former publisher of The National Enquirer testified on Monday before the Manhattan grand jury hearing evidence about Donald J. Trump's role in a hush-money payment to a porn star, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The publisher, David Pecker, also testified in January, soon after the grand jury was impaneled by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg.... Mr. Pecker, who was seen leaving the building where the grand jury sits at about 3:30 Monday afternoon, was a key player in the hush-money episode. He and the tabloid's top editor helped broker the deal between the porn star, Stormy Daniels, and Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump's fixer at the time." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Shayna Jacobs & Elizabeth Gowen of the Washington Post: "A Manhattan grand jury considering possible criminal charges against Donald Trump, involving $130,000 paid to an adult film actress before the 2016 election, adjourned Monday without voting on whether to indict the former president, multiple people familiar with the case said.... The secret proceedings are expected to continue Wednesday.... It is possible that the panel will hear other matters that aren't related to the Trump probe." CNN's report is here.

Jeff Amy of the AP: "A Georgia judge on Monday ordered the Fulton County district attorney's office to respond to a motion by ... Donald Trump to throw out a report by a special grand jury that investigated attempts to interfere in the state's 2020 presidential election. The motion by Trump's legal team also seeks to toss out all testimony from the inquiry and to bar Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from continuing to investigate or prosecute Trump. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered Willis to respond by May 1...."

The News about Fox "News":

Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "Fox News Media has fired a producer who last week accused the network of discrimination and of coercing her into providing misleading testimony in a blockbuster defamation case, according to court documents filed on Monday. Lawyers for the producer, Abby Grossberg, who had worked for the hosts Maria Bartiromo and Tucker Carlson, said in the complaints that she was fired on Friday in retaliation for a pair of lawsuits she had filed against the company several days earlier." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "A woman on Monday hijacked a Fox News live broadcast of a school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, to make an impassioned case for gun safety legislation. As Fox News carried a live feed of the aftermath of a shooting at Nashville's Covenant School that left at least six people dead, Ashbey Beasley started speaking to reporters and asking them why they weren't tired of covering mass shootings involving school children. Beasley said ... that she has been lobbying for stricter gun safety measures for months after she survived a mass shooting last year. 'How is this still happening?' she demanded to know. 'How are our children still dying and why are we failing them? Gun violence is the number one killer of children and teens -- it has overtaken cars! Assault weapons are contributing to the border crisis -- we are arming cartels with our guns and our loose gun laws! And these mass shootings will continue to happen until our lawmakers step up and pass gun safety legislation!'" Includes video. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Colby Hall of Mediaite: "Fox & Friends" co-anchor Brian "Kilmeade really tore into [Donald] Trump for his celebration of January 6th rioters, calling it 'absolutely awful' and 'insane' that he would do such a thing.... '... the United States former president opened up with January Six video,' Kilmeade noted, adding, 'which is insane!... He should be running from that, period,' he continued. 'I don't care his point of view, that is not a good thing for him. I thought that was absolutely awful. Even though he is winning in the polls, that will not help.' Trump appeared for a political rally in Waco, Texas, this past weekend and opened with an anthemic pro-Trump song that is currently at the top of the iTunes charts. Images of January 6th were played on the video screens at that time, which many outlets deemed to be something of a celebration of the event." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "Hundreds of banks in the United States would be in danger of failing if they were hit by runs similar to the one that recently brought down Silicon Valley Bank, according to a study published Friday. Economists at Stanford, University of Southern California, Columbia and Northwestern found that because of rising interest rates hurting the value of certain assets such as bonds, U.S. banks hold $2 trillion less in assets than they appear to have on paper. As a result, the study found, some banks would not survive a scenario in which many customers withdrew some or all of their uninsured deposits." ~~~

~~~ Christopher Rugaber of the AP: "The nation's top financial regulator is asserting that Silicon Valley Bank's own management was largely to blame for the bank's failure earlier this month and says the Federal Reserve will review whether a 2018 law that weakened stricter bank rules also contributed to its collapse.... Michael Barr, the Fed's vice chair for supervision, said in written testimony that will be delivered Tuesday at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee..., [cited] the bank's 'concentrated business model,' in which its customers were overwhelmingly venture capital and high-tech firms in Silicon Valley. He also contends that the bank failed to manage the risk of its bond holdings, which lost value as the Fed raised interest rates." The New York Times story is here.

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post:"'Wokeness' is winning, according to an illuminating new poll that should -- but probably won't -- make Republican politicians wary of hitching their wagon to the anger-fueled culture wars.The survey -- conducted this month by the nonpartisan research institute NORC at the University of Chicago, with funding from the Wall Street Journal -- found that on several hot-button issues related to 'wokeness', substantial majorities of Americans believe our progress toward inclusion and diversity is on the right track."

Paula Span of the New York Times: "Older people across the country describe ... maddening efforts to find 'door-through-door' escorts for outpatient surgery and screenings that involve anesthesia -- especially if facilities require those escorts to remain on the premises until the patient's discharge.... Doctors explain that door-through-door requirements are a safety measure. With a colonoscopy, for instance, patients often receive an anesthetic, like propofol, or a narcotic such as Demerol or fentanyl, combined with anti-anxiety medication like Versed or Valium.... Is such caution truly necessary? 'A very hard question,' said Thomas Oetting, an ophthalmologist at the University of Iowa School of Medicine...." MB: This already has happened to me. It was a costly requirement & one that required me to "scramble," as the reporter writes. I'd like a better solution than the one I put together. And I was just lucky to be able to find people to help.

Presidential Race 2024. Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "... on Monday night during a visit [to New Hampshire, former New Jersey Gov. Chris] Christie, a 2016 presidential candidate, made [a pitch] to the state, a testing-the-2024-waters trip in which he sharply criticized Donald J. Trump and waxed nostalgic for his own short-lived primary campaign seven years ago.... Ever since ... Mr. Trump signaled his intent to subvert the democratic results ... on election night in 2020..., he said, Republicans have been dragged into 'a sinkhole of anger and retribution' by the former president.... He blamed Mr. Trump's extreme divisiveness and vindictive style, along with his embrace of election falsehoods, for Republican losses in three straight cycles.... He lashed Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican of Florida, for downplaying Russia's invasion of Ukraine and for saying the United States should not get into a 'proxy war' with China."

Beyond the Beltway

Florida, the Cruelest State. Prof. Elizabeth Aranda in a Tampa Bay Times op-ed: "If passed, [Florida bill] SB 1718 would criminalize lending a helping hand if the object of that help is an undocumented immigrant.... Many believe SB 1718 will likely become law.... U.S. citizens [and DACA immigrants] could be convicted of a felony for simply taking their parents to the grocery store under this bill.... Understandably, religious leaders, lawyers and landlords are among those who are deeply concerned about this bill.... The medical community in particular, should also be alarmed.... But we should all be worried -- how do you even know that someone you are helping is undocumented?" Thanks to Bobby Lee for the lead. See also commentary in today's thread. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This bill strikes me as not only immoral, as commentators have pointed out below, but also essentially unconstitutional. If it passes, courts may strike it down, but think of all the harm that will transpire before that happens.

Mississippi. Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Rural hospitals are struggling all over the nation because of population declines, soaring labor costs and a long-term shift toward outpatient care. But those problems have been magnified by a political choice in Mississippi and nine other states, all with Republican-controlled legislatures. They have spurned the federal government's offer to shoulder almost all the cost of expanding Medicaid coverage for the poor. And that has heaped added costs on hospitals because they cannot legally turn away patients, insured or not. States that opted against Medicaid expansion, or had just recently adopted it, accounted for nearly three-fourths of rural hospital closures between 2010 and 2021, according to the American Hospital Association.... In Mississippi, one of the nation's poorest states, the missing federal health care dollars have helped drive what is now a full-blown hospital crisis." See related North Carolina story, linked below.

New York. Ed Shanahan & Karen Zraick of the New York Times: "New York State has agreed to pay $5.5 million to a man who spent 16 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of raping the author Alice Sebold when she was a college student in Syracuse, N.Y. The agreement would end a lawsuit filed by the man, Anthony J. Broadwater, 62, after his rape conviction was vacated in November 2021 by a state court judge who concluded that the case against Mr. Broadwater was deeply flawed."

North Carolina. Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "North Carolina on Monday became the 40th state to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, the latest sign of how Republican opposition to the health measure has weakened more than a decade after President Barack Obama signed it into law. Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, signed legislation expanding the state's Medicaid program during a sunny afternoon ceremony on the lawn of the Executive Mansion, days after the Republican-controlled legislature gave final approval to the measure. He was surrounded by patients, advocates and some of the same Republican leaders who had previously blocked expansion in the state.... Recently, progressives have helped to expand Medicaid in seven states -- all of them with either Republican-controlled or divided governments -- by putting the question directly to voters; in November, South Dakota adopted Medicaid expansion via the ballot box."

Way Beyond

Israel. Bibi Blinks. Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he was delaying his government's campaign to exert greater control over the judiciary, backing off in the face of furious public protest that has plunged Israel into one of the deepest crises of its history. In recent weeks, Mr. Netanyahu had been unyielding in his pursuit of the court overhaul, even as protests drawing hundreds of thousands have erupted across the country. On Sunday, he fired his defense minister for even suggesting that the plan be delayed. But on Monday, with civil unrest at new heights, with work stoppages hitting hospitals, airports and schools, and with dissent growing in the military, he relented -- if only for the moment." ~~~

~~~ Oliver Holmes of the Guardian & Agencies: "Israeli politics has descended into disarray with questions over whethe a fired defence minister is refusing to step down and concerns Benjamin Netanyahu may have promised too much to far-right politicians in exchange for a deal aimed at quelling nationwide demonstrations.... While Netanyahu's announcement [that he was delaying his campaign for 'judicial reforms'] has temporarily placated seething anger -- the country's main labour union called off the strike after his speech and Israeli streets were mostly quiet on Tuesday -- it has by no means ended the crisis.... Aides to the fired defence minister said that despite his dismissal, [Yoav] Gallant would remain in his post.... Meanwhile, protest organisers have promised to continue to rally, accusing the prime minister of deception."

Mexico. Suspicious. Mike Ives of the New York Times: "At least 39 people were killed on Monday night and 29 others injured when a fire broke out at a government-run migration facility in northern Mexico, near the border with the United States, the authorities said. The fire broke out at the National Migration Institute in Ciudad Juárez, a border city across from El Paso, Tex., shortly before 10 p.m. in the facility's accommodation area, according to a statement by the institute.... Several news outlets said that personnel from the institute had been cracking down on migrants in the city earlier in the day, and that there had been tension at the institute between migrants and the staff." An AP story is here. MB: I'm not saying there isn't a quasi-innocent cause of the fire, but Juarez is right across the bridge from El Paso, and many Americans go there to shop.

Scotland. William Booth of the Washington Post: "Humza Yousaf, the grandson of a Pakistani immigrant who arrived barely speaking English to work in a sewing machine factory in Glasgow, was named as the new leader of the Scottish National Party on Monday. Because of his party's majority, Yousaf will almost certainly be chosen as first minister -- the leader of Scotland -- by the Parliament on Tuesday. At age 37, Yousaf would be the youngest first minister of Scotland and the first Muslim to run the nation.... He promised Monday to continue his party's push to leave the United Kingdom and become a fully independent nation. 'We will be the generation that delivers independence,' he vowed. But the way forward is unclear. A spokesman for 10 Downing Street said that [U.K. Prime Minister Rishi] Sunak will not support another referendum."

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was 'the worst thing that could happen in the history' of Europe's nuclear energy sector. Russia is using the plant for 'radiation blackmail,' he said Monday. Russia claimed to annex the Zaporizhzhia region, in violation of international law, late last year, even though parts of the region including its capital remain under Ukrainian control.... Zelensky met with Rafael Mariano Grossi, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in the Zaporizhzhia region on Monday, touring areas near the Zaporizhzhia plant, the president's office said....

“Russian forces have made gains in and around Bakhmut in recent days, the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said late Monday.... Ukraine received its first batch of British Challenger tanks, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Monday. Ukraine has also received Stryker armored vehicles and Cougars, a mine-resistant ambush-protected infantry mobility vehicle, from the United States, as well as Marder infantry fighting vehicles from Germany, he said. Chancellor Olaf Scholz also confirmed a delivery of 18 Leopard tanks to Ukraine."

     ~~~ The Guardian's live briefings for Tuesday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

Matthew Bigg of the New York Times: "The United Nation's chief nuclear energy official met on Monday with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to discuss what he describes as increasingly dire fears about a battle-scarred nuclear plant on the front line of the war, ahead of his first visit to the plant in almost seven months. The official, Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, met with Mr. Zelensky in the battered Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia, about 35 miles northeast of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which invading Russian forces have held for more than a year. The plant, on the Dnipro River, is the first in the world to be engulfed by a war zone, raising fears of a catastrophic release of radiation. Shelling and shooting have repeatedly damaged the plant and temporarily knocked out vital supporting equipment. And reports that Ukraine is planning a major counteroffensive to retake southern territory that includes the plant have heightened fears of a disastrous strike, whether accidental or intentional."

March 27, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: “President Biden on Monday signed an executive order restricting American government use of a class of powerful surveillance tools that have been abused by both autocracies and democracies around the world to spy on political dissidents, journalists and human rights activists. The tools in question, known as commercial spyware, give governments the power to hack the mobile phones of private citizens, extracting data and tracking their movements. The global market for their use is booming, and some U.S. government agencies have studied or deployed the technology. Commercial spyware, including Pegasus, made by the Israeli firm NSO Group, has also been used against American government officials overseas."

William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "The former publisher of The National Enquirer testified on Monday before the Manhattan grand jury hearing evidence about Donald J. Trump's role in a hush-money payment to a porn star, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The publisher, David Pecker, also testified in January, soon after the grand jury was impaneled by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg.... Mr. Pecker, who was seen leaving the building where the grand jury sits at about 3:30 Monday afternoon, was a key player in the hush-money episode. He and the tabloid's top editor helped broker the deal between the porn star, Stormy Daniels, and Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump's fixer at the time."

The News about Fox "News":

Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "Fox News Media has fired a producer who last week accused the network of discrimination and of coercing her into providing misleading testimony in a blockbuster defamation case, according to court documents filed on Monday. Lawyers for the producer, Abby Grossberg, who had worked for the hosts Maria Bartiromo and Tucker Carlson, said in the complaints that she was fired on Friday in retaliation for a pair of lawsuits she had filed against the company several days earlier."

Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "A woman on Monday hijacked a Fox News live broadcast of a school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, to make an impassioned case for gun safety legislation. As Fox News carried a live feed of the aftermath of a shooting at Nashville's Covenant School that left at least six people dead, Ashbey Beasley started speaking to reporters and asking them why they weren't tired of covering mass shootings involving school children. Beasley said ... that she has been lobbying for stricter gun safety measures for months after she survived a mass shooting last year. 'How is this still happening?' she demanded to know. 'How are our children still dying and why are we failing them? Gun violence is the number one killer of children and teens -- it has overtaken cars! Assault weapons are contributing to the border crisis -- we are arming cartels with our guns and our loose gun laws! And these mass shootings will continue to happen until our lawmakers step up and pass gun safety legislation!'" Includes video.

Colby Hall of Mediaite: "Fox & Friends" co-anchor Brian "Kilmeade really tore into [Donald] Trump for his celebration of January 6th rioters, calling it 'absolutely awful' and 'insane' that he would do such a thing.... '... the United States former president opened up with January Six video,' Kilmeade noted, adding, 'which is insane!... He should be running from that, period,' he continued. 'I don't care his point of view, that is not a good thing for him. I thought that was absolutely awful. Even though he is winning in the polls, that will not help.' Trump appeared for a political rally in Waco, Texas, this past weekend and opened with an anthemic pro-Trump song that is currently at the top of the iTunes charts. Images of January 6th were played on the video screens at that time, which many outlets deemed to be something of a celebration of the event."

Florida, the Cruelest State. Prof. Elizabeth Aranda in a Tampa Bay Times op-ed: "If passed, [Florida bill] SB 1718 would criminalize lending a helping hand if the object of that help is an undocumented immigrant.... Mmny believe SB 1718 will likely become law.... U.S. citizens [and DACA immigrants] could be convicted of a felony for simply taking their parents to the grocery store under this bill.... Understandably, religious leaders, lawyers and landlords are among those who are deeply concerned about this bill.... The medical community in particular, should also be alarmed.... But we should all be worried -- how do you even know that someone you are helping is undocumented?" Thanks to Bobby Lee for the lead. See also commentary in today's thread. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This bill strikes me as not only immoral, as commentators have pointed out below, but also essentially unconstitutional. If it passes, courts may strike it down, but think of all the harm that will transpire before that happens.

Israel. Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel announced on Monday that he was delaying his government's contentious plans to overhaul the judiciary, which have set off civil unrest and work stoppages and incited one of the deepest domestic crises in the country's history." This is part of a liveblog also linked below.

~~~~~~~~~~

Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Abdi Dahir of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris has begun a weeklong tour of Ghana and two other African nations as the Biden administration hopes to set a new path for U.S.-Africa ties that focuses on collaboration rather than crises, a trip seen as a significant step toward revitalizing a relationship with Africa that was widely thought to be lagging in recent years. Ms. Harris, the highest-ranking Biden administration official to visit the continent, will hold an official meeting and news briefing with President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana on Monday before traveling to Tanzania and Zambia, where she had visited more than 50 years ago to learn about public service from her grandfather."

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "The worst-kept secret in Washington is that Democrats could not be more delighted with the inept, unhinged and entirely unproductive hearings that House Republicans insist on conducting in search of pay dirt on Democrats. For that, they can thank Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.... Comer has become infamous for making unfounded, cringeworthy allegations. He recently claimed with zero evidence that [President Biden's dead son, Beau, should have been prosecuted for campaign finance crimes.... Comer has not come up with anything to back up his accusation. Some of Comer's allegations have been downright absurd. He was among those Republicans who rushed forward to claim that Silicon Valley Bank failed because of 'wokeness.'... Even sillier, Comer went on Fox News to suggest that the Chinese balloon that floated over the United States contained 'bioweapons.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The problem with gloating over the GOP's fake scandal investigations is that sometimes the "investigations" lead to something they can hang their MAGA caps on. Oh, it doesn't have to be a real scandal; there just has to be a microscopic grain of truth to convince the gullible press there might be some there there. The best example in recent American history of a fake investigation leading to a fake scandal is "But Her Emails!," which arose out of the endless Benghaaazi! hearings. (A close cousin of the fake GOP Congressional investigation is the fake GOP special prosecutor/counsel investigation. Most famously, one of those nearly kayoed the Other Clinton when what was supposed to be a special counsel investigation of an Arkansas land deal ended up as the Big Blow Job scandal, for which Bill Clinton was impeached.) So Comer & Co. may bumble along, making fools of themselves, but somewhere in their fishing expeditions, they could come upon something they can spin into a history-changing event.

Stephen Collinson of CNN: Donald "Trump's wild rhetoric at his first official 2024 campaign rally Saturday previewed the divisive national moment ahead should he be indicted in any of multiple criminal probes. As he whipped up a demagogic fervor in Waco, Texas, to try to secure a new presidency dedicated to 'retribution,' Trump's extremism -- laced with suggestions of violence -- left no doubt he would be willing to take the country to a dark place to save himself.... An extraordinary prolonged character attack on Ron DeSantis, in which Trump depicted his biggest potential rival of 2024 tearfully begging for his endorsement in 2018, demonstrated the political firestorm the Florida governor will have to deal with if he jumps into the White House campaign."

Kelly Garrity of Politico: "Joe Tacopina, an attorney for ... Donald Trump, on Sunday called Trump's social media attacks on the officials involved in New York's hush-money probe 'ill-advised,' but declined to directly condemn the posts. 'I'm not his social media consultant,' Tacopina said during an interview on NBC's 'Meet the Press' in discussing Trump's posts, one of which warned of 'death and destruction' should he face a criminal indictment.... In one post that has since been deleted, Trump shared an article with a picture of him holding a baseball bat next to a photo of [Manhattan DA Alvin] Bragg.' Joe Tapioca claimed one of Trump's aides was responsible for the re-posted tweet. ~~~

~~~ digby is reminded there was someone to corroborate Stormy Daniels' story.

Presidential Race 2024. Olafimihan Oshin of the Hill: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is leading former President Trump in a hypothetical head-to-head primary race in Iowa and tied in New Hampshire, according to new polls. The polls, which were provided to Axios, found that 45 percent of Iowa respondents said they would vote for DeSantis, while 37 percent said they'd cast their vote for Trump." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: There are a number of reasons I don't often report on poll results, but this story is an example of one of those reasons: Oshin treats the two "rivals" as if they were normal people, not menaces to society. So do most other reporters. The headline of every one of these Trumpolini v. DeSantolini poll-result stories should be "Which Fascist Will Win?" I'm fairly serious. Every story that doesn't mention the authoritarian extremism of these guys serves to normalize them.

To call a party democratic -- committed to democracy -- they've got to do three basic things: They have to unambiguously accept election results, they have to unambiguously renounce violence, and they have to consistently and unambiguously break with extremists or antidemocratic forces. -- Prof. Steve Levitsky ~~~

~~~ ** Thor Benson in Wired: "The US Republican Party has become increasingly authoritarian and extreme in recent years.... Nearly half of Republicans say they would prefer 'strong, unelected leaders' over 'weak elected ones,' according to a September Axios-Ipsos poll, and around 55 percent of Republicans say defending the 'traditional' way of life by force may soon become necessary. About 61 percent of Republicans don't believe the results of the 2020 presidential election." Read on.

Lauren Hirsch of the New York Times: "First Citizens BancShares will acquire Silicon Valley Bank, the California lender whose collapse this month sent shock waves across the financial sector."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Israel

Bethan McKernan of the Guardian: "Israel's embattled prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is expected to announce a halt to his far-right government's proposals to overhaul the judiciary after 12 weeks of escalating political crisis.... Israeli media outlets, citing sources in Netanyahu's Likud party, reported on Monday morning that in a televised address the prime minister was expected to announce a freeze to the bitterly contested legislation, which would limit the powers of the country's supreme court. Shortly before he was due to speak, the statement, originally announced for 10.30am (08.30am BST), was delayed, allegedly due to threats from the far-right of the coalition to bring down the government if he paused the judicial overhaul.... Even as protests raged across the country overnight, a parliamentary committee continued to approve parts of the legislation, meaning the bills can go to the Knesset plenum for new readings."

New York Times: "Israelis were bracing Monday for one of the most pivotal days in their domestic history, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said to be considering whether to delay a judicial overhaul that has divided society and set off civil unrest -- even as hard-line members of his coalition gathered in Parliament to proceed with the plan. Unrest broke out overnight in parts of Israel after Mr. Netanyahu fired his defense minister late Sunday for criticizing the overhaul, prompting demonstrators to surge into the streets, universities to shut their doors in protest at the judicial plan, and union leaders to hint of a looming general strike." This is part of a liveblog. ~~~

     ~~~ Steve Hendrix & Shira Rubin of the Washington Post: "Israeli universities, workers' unions and hospitals announced a general strike, and the international airport began freezing outgoing flights. Local council leaders began gathering in front of the prime minister's residence to begin what they said would be a hunger strike.... [Prime Minister Netanyahu's] nighttime dismissal [of his defense minister] rocked a country already in turmoil, ratcheting up the backlash to an excruciating pitch. Within minutes, protesters rushed into streets around the country, vowing to escalate demonstrations and public strikes until the legislative drive is frozen. Police clashed with protesters at several sites, using water cannons, cavalry and other unusually aggressive tactics to push thousands of demonstrators who blocked Ayalon Highway and who massed outside Netanyahu's Jerusalem residence. Israel's consul general in New York resigned in a tweet, and [Israeli President Isaac] Herzog ... pleaded with the prime minister and the coalition to stop their legislative push with the nation on the edge of catastrophe." An AP story is here.

Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Sunday fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, setting off raucous late-night protests, a day after Mr. Gallant became the first member of his cabinet to call for a halt to the government's contentious plan to weaken the country's judiciary. Announced in a one-line statement by the prime minister's office, the dismissal intensified an already dramatic domestic crisis -- one of the gravest in Israeli history -- set off by the government's proposal to give itself greater control over the selection of Supreme Court justices and to limit the court's authority over Parliament." CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "The European Union threatened sanctions against Belarus after Russia announced it would store tactical nuclear weapons in the Kremlin-aligned country, which shares a long border with northern Ukraine. Russia continued to attack the embattled city of Bakhmut as a Ukrainian counteroffensive looms. Ukraine's military said Monday that its forces still hold the eastern city." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Monday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

News Ledes

CNN is live-updating developments in a mass shooting at Covenant School, a Christian grade school in Nashville, Tennessee. The print updates don't say so yet (at 1:10 pm ET), but CNN is reporting on-air that the assailant murdered at least three children and two adults. Law enforcement officers reportedly killed the shooter. ~~~

     ~~~ CNN Update: "At least three children and three adults are dead after a shooting Monday at the Covenant School, a private Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, that teaches preschool through 6th grade, police said. The shooter, who was identified as a 28-year-old Nashville woman, was killed during gunfire with police, authorities said. Her identity and motive is yet to be confirmed." ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: "A former student shot through the doors of a Christian elementary school and killed three children and three adults after elaborately planning the massacre by drawing out a detailed map and conducting surveillance of the building, police said. The massacre at The Covenant School in Nashville was the latest in a series of mass shootings in a country that has grown increasingly unnerved by bloodshed in schools. The victims included three 9-year-old children, the school's top administrator, a substitute teacher and a custodian.... Police gave unclear information on the gender of the shooter. For hours, police identified the shooter as a 28-year-old woman and eventually identified the person as Audrey Hale. Then at a late afternoon press conference, the police chief said that Hale was transgender. After the news conference, police spokesperson Don Aaron declined to elaborate on how Hale currently identified."

New York Times: "The authorities continued to search for the cause of a powerful explosion that ripped through a chocolate factory in West Reading, Pa., on Friday, killing seven people, sending a plume of smoke into the air and shaking houses blocks away."

AP: "Philadelphia residents are being told that they may want to drink only bottled water following a chemical spill into the Delaware River in neighboring Bucks County. Bucks County health officials said Sunday that a leak late Friday evening at the Trinseo Altuglas chemical facility in Bristol Township spilled between 8,100 and 12,000 gallons of a water-based latex finishing solution into the river. Officials said it is non-toxic to humans and no known adverse health effects have been reported in the county."