Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, JML9999 and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
From Reuters: Authorities study plane debris found off Madagascar for links to missing MH370
France's air crash investigation agency is studying a piece of plane debris found on Reunion Island off the east coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean for possible links to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
A person familiar with the matter told Reuters the part was almost certainly from a Boeing 777 but that it had not yet been established if it came from MH370.
A U.S. official said air safety investigators had a "high degree of confidence" the debris was from the same model as MH370, the Associated Press reported.
No trace has been found of MH370, which disappeared in March last year carrying 239 passengers and crew while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, in one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history. Most of the passengers were Chinese.
Search efforts led by Australia have focused on a broad expanse of the southern Indian Ocean off Australia.
"In the event that the wreckage is identified as being from MH370 on La Reunion Island, it would be consistent with other analysis and modeling that the resting place of the aircraft is in the southern Indian Ocean," Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said in a statement.
From the
New York Times:
University of Cincinnati Officer Charged in Shooting Death of Unarmed Man
A University of Cincinnati police officer was indicted Wednesday on a murder charge in what a prosecutor called “a senseless, asinine shooting” of an unarmed man during a minor traffic stop. Officials say it was the first time such a charge had been leveled against an officer in the county.
The Hamilton County prosecuting attorney, Joseph T. Deters, released a much anticipated video of the shooting of Samuel Dubose taken by the officer’s body camera which he described as crucial evidence that Mr. Dubose did not act aggressively or pose a threat to Officer Ray Tensing, and that Officer Tensing had lied about being dragged by Mr. Dubose’s car. A grand jury, Mr. Deters announced, indicted the officer on a murder charge, punishable by life in prison, and a voluntary manslaughter charge.
“It was a senseless, asinine shooting,” Mr. Deters said at a news conference, using stark terms to denounce the July 19 shooting, the officer’s claims and the officer himself. “This doesn’t happen in the United States, OK?” he said. “This might happen in Afghanistan. People don’t get shot for a traffic stop.”
“This office has probably reviewed 100 police shootings, and this is the first time we’ve thought, ‘This is without question a murder,’ ” he said.
In an interview with an Ohio television station, a lawyer for Officer Tensing, Stew Mathews, disputed Mr. Deters’s comments and said that other video of the shooting would tell a different story. He said his client cried when he heard of the indictment.
From the
Washington Post:
What it's like to be a transgender woman when you’re not Caitlyn Jenner
Seventeen days after Caitlyn Jenner appeared in airbrushed glory on the cover of Vanity Fair, Sara Simone woke up in her rented Alexandria bedroom and considered the tools at her own disposal: a $9 bottle of Revlon ColorStay foundation — “Mahogany” — a spritz of Paris Hilton perfume, a plunging black T-shirt showcasing the breasts she had patiently earned with hormones. Was the shirt too racy? Maybe. But it was better, she’d decided when she transitioned four years ago, to have men stare at her chest than to have them scrutinize her face and ask whether she was a man or a woman. “Better they whistle at me than jump me,” she sometimes said, because in her particular existence as a transgender woman, catcalling seemed the lesser and safer of possible indignities.
Sara added a set of false eyelashes, one retrieved from the carpet where it had escaped. Two tan hormone patches, one for each buttock.
She slid gold sandals onto her feet, a gold ring onto her toe, and onto her lower half, a pair of snug neon pants which she planned to keep in rotation “as long as my legs can pull it off.”
“Pretty cute,” she declared, clipping back her long hair before heading into a world she was still learning to navigate, which was still learning to understand her.
From the
Los Angeles Times:
Maddy Middleton killing: 'We are going to bring him to justice,' DA says
A 15-year-old boy has been charged as an adult with murder in the death of 8-year-old Madyson “Maddy” Middleton in Santa Cruz, the district attorney said Wednesday.
Adrian Jerry Gonzalez of Santa Cruz faces one count of murder with the special circumstance that he kidnapped, sexually assaulted and tied up Maddy before killing her, Santa Cruz County Dist. Atty. Jeffrey Rosell said Wednesday. He is also accused of lying in wait.
He has also been charged with one count of kidnapping and four other sexual assault-related offenses, he said. If convicted of the charges, he faces life in prison, Rosell said.
“We have charged this individual as an adult with the crimes for which he is responsible,” he said. “We are going to bring him to justice.”
From
CNN Money:
Rolling Stone sued by UVA frat members over bogus rape story
Three members of a University of Virginia fraternity sued Rolling Stone magazine Wednesday for a discredited story accusing frat members of gang raping a woman. The suit also names the magazine's publisher, Wenner Media, and the reporter, Sabrina Erdely.
The suit was filed in Manhattan federal court on behalf of George Elias IV, Stephen Hadford and Ross Fowler. The three men, who graduated in 2013, were members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity that was cited in the Rolling Stone story.
They are seeking unspecified damages for defamation.
The Rolling Stone article did not name the three men, but Elias lived in the frat's bedroom that fit the description of the room "most likely" to be where the rapes took place, the suit states. It claims that the three former students were "devastated" and "humiliated" by the magazine's allegations.
From
ESPN:
Patriots stiff-arm Deflategate questions, still give (some) people what they want
As great as the Patriots are at football, they're even better at not answering questions.
Just look at this clinic they put on Wednesday. It started with Tom Brady hauling off on Facebook about how neither he nor the Patriots did anything wrong (which doesn't explain why they suspended "The Deflator" and his buddy) and how the league is out to get him (which makes no sense at all).
But then the Super Bowl champs took it up several notches, with a two-front assault on the concept of public accountability.
The owner went first, reading a prepared statement about just how wicked crushed he is by this whole thing, how awesome a guy Brady is, and how lawyers always mess everything up. "I was wrong to put my faith in the league," Robert Kraft said. "Personally, this is very sad and disappointing to me."
Heavy stuff. Somber stuff. Sad owner. Angry owner. Everything Patriots fans want in an owner at this terrible moment in which they and their beloved team are feeling so persecuted.
Then Bill Belichick took the podium and went Full Marshawn -- handling the issue in the exact opposite way from Kraft, saying absolutely nothing and pretending he didn't have an opinion on any of it.
From the
Providence Journal:
Ex-NBA star Vin Baker conquers demons and shoots for success in Starbucks management
The world’s tallest, and perhaps most famous, barista is stationed behind a busy coffee counter. His smile and easy-going style welcome customers looking for their Starbucks fix as they fastbreak to work or South County’s beaches. “I love North Kingstown. It reminds me of my hometown, so it’s comfortable,” says the man, who stretches to 6-feet-11. “I like this community. Starbucks draws a lot of repeat customers and so many know me now.”
This is Vin Baker’s world these days. This is the same Baker who grew up in Old Saybrook, Conn., and went on to become one of New England’s all-time great collegiate basketball players at the University of Hartford. It’s the same Baker who won Olympic gold in 2000, played in four NBA All-Star Games and spent 13 years in the pros, including parts of two seasons with the Celtics.
It’s also the same Baker who battled alcoholism toward the end of his career. That addiction, plus a series of financial missteps ranging from a failed restaurant to simply too many hands dipping into his gold-plated cookie jar, combined to wipe out nearly $100 million in earnings.
Now 43, newly married and with four children, Baker is training to manage a Starbucks franchise. He thanks CEO Howard Shultz, the former Seattle SuperSonics owner, with this opportunity. He’s also a trained minister who savors work at his father’s church in Connecticut. Most important, he has been sober for more than four years.
From
NBC News:
Albuquerque Dispatcher Who Hung Up on 911 Caller Resigns
An Albuquerque Fire Department dispatcher under investigation for allegedly hanging up on a 911 caller seeking help as her friend was dying from a gunshot wound has resigned, a fire official said.
"Driver Matthew Sanchez tendered his resignation of employment from the Albuquerque Fire Department effective immediately," on Tuesday night, fire department Chief Administrative Officer Rob Perry said in a statement.
Sanchez, who had been with the fire department for 10 years and had been a dispatcher for the last 3 years and 5 months, allegedly told a distraught woman tending to a 17-year-old who was shot on June 26, "OK, you know what, ma'am? You can deal with yourself, I'm not going to deal with this, OK?" shortly before the line disconnects.
Sanchez made the comment after appearing to get frustrated after he asked the caller whether the gunshot victim, 17-year-old Jaydon Chavez-Silver, was breathing, and after the caller reacted with foul language.
From
USA Today:
Hundreds protest Cecil the lion killing at dentist's office
A group of protesters outside the office of a suburban Minneapolis dentist who killed a protected lion in Zimbabwe has grown to a couple of hundred people.
Demonstrators carried signs Wednesday and chanted outside the Bloomington office of Walter Palmer.
Palmer has said he believed the hunt was legal and didn't know about the lion's status. Some of Palmer's patients are among the protesters.
Signs read "Killer" and "I am Cecil" - the name of the slain lion. Members of the crowd chanted, "Justice for Cecil."
Signs also were taped on Palmer's office door, including "ROT IN HELL" and "PALMER There's a deep cavity waiting for you!"
From
Entertainment Weekly:
Jimmy Kimmel gets emotional during monologue on Cecil the lion's death
Jimmy Kimmel got emotional during a three-minute monologue about the death of Cecil the lion, the African big cat that was killed by U.S. hunter Walter Palmer on July 1 in Zimbabwe.
Cecil’s killing sparked a wave of outrage: As reported by CNN, Cecil, 13, was lured out of his home in Hwange National Park, and shot by Palmer with a bow and arrow. Cecil survived for 40 more hours before the hunters tracked him down and killed him with a gun. The lion was later skinned and decapitated.
During his monologue on Tuesday, Kimmel criticized Palmer, who has since gone into hiding and released this statement to the media: “I had no idea that the lion I took was a known, local favorite, was collared and part of a study until the end of the hunt. […] I relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt.”
“Stop saying you took the animal. You take aspirin. You killed the lion. You didn’t take it,” Kimmel said. He then wondered why Palmer would shoot a lion at all.
“I’m honestly curious to know why a human being would feel compelled to do that,” Kimmel said. “How is that fun? Is it that difficult for you to get an erection that you need to kill things that are stronger than you?” After the audience’s laughter died down, Kimmel made a reference to Bill Cosby: “If that’s the case, they have a pill for that. It works great. Just stay home and swallow it, and you save yourself a lifetime of being the most hated man in America who never advertised Jell-O pudding on television.”
From
The Guardian:
Mullah Omar – the evasive ghost who led the Taliban through secrecy
Since 2001, Mullah Omar had been little more than a ghost, almost as elusive to his own rank and file as he was to the Taliban’s enemies. He was a cipher, figurehead and inspiration, but left the day-to-day military and political decisions to a circle of senior commanders.
“I have asked around a lot and there was no military strategy coming from Mullah Omar, not in 2001, not in 2005, not in 2010,” said Bette Dam, a journalist and author who has been researching a biography of Omar for several years.
That remove from power appears to have made it possible for the group to keep Omar officially “alive” long after his death, putting out an annual message for the Eid holidays in his name, for example. It also makes it hard to judge exactly how his absence will affect the group’s strategy, or the prospects for embryonic peace talks with the Afghan government.
At a time when the movement was at odds about whether to pursue those negotiations and more extreme commanders were already being lured away to join Islamic State, Omar’s name was used by top commanders to unite feuding factions. Now, that might change – and a struggle over succession could ensue.
From
Al Jazeera:
Michigan Supreme Court rules state employees don't have to pay union dues
The Michigan Supreme Court says state workers can't be forced to pay labor unions for negotiating contracts and providing other services.
In a 4-3 decision Wednesday, the court says the state Civil Service Commission lacks the authority to impose mandatory fees on about 36,000 of civil servants.
It's a big defeat for unions, especially the United Auto Workers, which have been collecting fees from state workers, even if workers didn't want full membership.
Michigan has had a right-to-work law since 2013. It says public and private employees don't have to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment.
A union coalition sued in 2013 on the grounds that the Michigan constitution gave the bipartisan Civil Service Commission, not the legislature, the power to "regulate all conditions of employment."
The Court, however, ruled the commission never had the power to mandate union fees in the first place. The power to tax, it pointed out, lies with the legislature.
From
Vice:
Goodbye, Android
Last week, I was hanging out with some hackers and security experts at a conference in Brooklyn when I took out my Sony phone.
“Oh! The journalist uses Android. That’s secure!” said one guy next to me, in a highly sarcastic tone.
I dismissed his sarcasm, even though, as someone who writes about information security, I knew that deep down he was right. Just a few days later, his joke now seems almost premonitory.
As you might have heard, a security researcher revealed on Monday that a series of bugs deep inside Android’s source code allow hackers to hack and spy on users with a simple multimedia message.
If you’re worried your Android device might be vulnerable to these bugs, collectively known as Stagefright, well, I've got bad news for you. It probably is. In fact, as many as 950 million phones likely are.
From
The Atlantic:
iTunes Really Is That Bad
iTunes is the glue of Apple’s software universe: It connects the company’s phones and tablets, desktops and laptops, and online media store and streaming service. It is also, in the inimitable judgement of the indie iOS developer Marco Arment, “a toxic hellstew.”
I agree: It’s why I wrote about how poorly iTunes performs for classical music listeners and, really, for anyone with a large music library.
But it’s worth spending time on iTunes’s specific design problems, which surpass those raised by managing a music library or listening to a specific genre. Toxic hellstew it may be, a new version of iTunes points at what kinds of technology are allowed to come out of Apple. Apple is the most valuable company in the world and an organization hailed for its good design. Why does iTunes fail at what it sets out to do?
Arment blames its failures on Apple’s decision to cram too many different features into one piece of software. He believes the company should have discontinued iTunes, its media management service, and rolled out a new Apple Music app. (Arment doesn’t say whether this new app would also play MP3s.)
iTunes’s user interface follows from this poor strategy, too. Its “design is horrible […] not because it has bad designers, but because they’ve been given an impossible task: cramming way too much functionality into a single app while also making it look ‘clean,’” writes Arment.
From
BBC News:
Epidemic of US children sold for sex
In the US, poverty, deprivation and exploitation draws thousands of its own children down into a dark underworld that offers few ways out.
It is a world few Americans are aware of. But tens of thousands of American children are thought to be sexually exploited every year.
It's believed that every night hundreds are sold for sex.
The FBI says child sex abuse is almost at an epidemic level, despite the agency rescuing 600 children last year.
"Trafficking" often conjures images of people from other countries being smuggled over land and across the sea and then forced to work against their will in foreign lands. People are trafficked into America from Mexico, Central and South America. But the vast majority of children bought and sold for sex every night in the United States are American kids.
From
The Daily Beast:
Feds Caved to Let Richard Branson’s Unsafe Spaceship Fly
The Federal Aviation Administration’s oversight of Richard Branson’s “space tourism” program was so lax that it granted Virgin Galactic waivers from safety regulations that Galactic never asked for.
That was one of the explosive findings announced by the National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday, nine months after the fatal crash of SpaceShipTwo. Although the NTSB confirms that copilot Mike Alsbury accidently caused the crash, the Board said FAA managers prevented inspectors from interrogating Galactic’s engineers due to unidentified “political pressure.” The NTSB further alleges the FAA allowed Galactic to make test flights even though the SS2’s design did not meet all required safety standards.
Turning to the crash itself, NTSB investigators found that the test pilots were given a very high workload during the critical first seconds after SpaceShipTwo fell free of its mother ship and fired up its rocket motor.
This workload contributed to a situation where a pilot could become what the NTSB identified as a “single point failure”—in this case not a failure of a system or structure but what is defined as a “human factors failure.”
From
Slate:
How to Fix Our Interstates
In case you’ve missed the latest highway news, the Senate and the House have been battling it out over which idiotic short-term fix we ought to settle for in order to keep federal highway funding flowing for the next few months or the next few years. One group of lawmakers, led by Sens. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, and Barbara Boxer, D-California, has devised a grab bag of revenue-raisers, from selling off oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to hiking various custom fees to funky maneuvers involving the Federal Reserve that I won’t even pretend to understand. This deal, backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, would have financed the highways for the next three years. Another group, led by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, wants to link highway funding to a broader overhaul of corporate taxes, with an eye toward encouraging U.S. multinationals to bring profits back home from their foreign subsidiaries. For now, however, Republicans in both chambers appear to have coalesced around a short-term solution that will fund the highways for the next three months to buy time.
What’s so awful about these stopgap proposals? For one thing, they don’t fully account for the fact that most of the Interstate Highway System needs to be rebuilt, as the highways were built to last about 50 years, and the system was first established in 1956. Even with the best maintenance money can buy, you can only extend the life of these old roads by so much. How much will it cost to rebuild these highways, and to expand them to accommodate increases in traffic? Robert W. Poole Jr., a transportation expert at the Reason Foundation, estimates that it will take roughly $1 trillion. Others have estimated that reconstruction and modernization could cost as much as $3 trillion. You will be shocked to learn that Congress has barely begun to think through what it will take to rebuild and upgrade our highways.
But our real challenge is not squeezing out just enough money to keep our existing interstate highways in good working order. Nor is it figuring out how to find a trillion, or trillions, of dollars to pay for an upgrade. It is facing up to the fact that the Interstate Highway System has helped drain the life out of our big cities and figuring out a better, smarter, more sustainable way to connect Americans from one end of the country to the other.
From
Salon:
Cara Delevingne tangles with local morning show anchors in an interview gone off the rails: How did this TV trainwreck happen?
When an encounter goes off the rails, it’s natural to ask whose fault it was. But the interview actress/model/Friend of Taylor Cara Delevingne completed this morning with “Good Day Sacramento” was not only so clearly the result of bad behavior on both sides, it’s so painful to watch you wonder whose idea this disastrous blind date was.
The 22-year-old Delevingne was patched into the show from New York to do publicity for “Paper Towns,” the new movie based on a novel by Young Adult writer John Green. (She plays a Florida teenager named Margo who disappears after a brief road trip.) Even before the first question was thrown at her, she was just about rolling her eyes. It may be that this was not going to go well no matter what happened. But the fact that the show’s hosts kicked it off by addressing her as “Carla,” and then asked her if she’d read the book her movie was based on, sent things in a very hostile direction.
“No, I never read the book or the script,” Delevingne replied. It wasn’t just the bad question — meant, probably, to be a joke — or the sarcastic answer: This was like an Evelyn Waugh scene pitting a bored Brit against boorish Americans. It’s like they were all culturally programmed not to meet each other halfway.
From
The Hollywood Reporter:
Ghost of Amy Pascal Haunts Sony's Sad Summer
In November, as she attempted to revive Sony Pictures' fading fortunes, studio co-chair Amy Pascal emailed a note to her chief lieutenant Doug Belgrad. Assessing Sony's lineup for 2015, she wrote, in all caps, "THERE ARE TOO MANY DRAMAS/NOT ENOUGH TENTPOLES/NO OBVIOUS BREAKOUT HITS."
Those words would prove to be more than a little prescient. More than halfway through 2015, Sony barely is hanging on at the box office. The studio has fallen to seventh place in domestic market share — behind the five other majors and Lionsgate — with a mere $247 million in grosses, just 3.74 percent of the total pie. Globally, Sony has made a weak $564 million. (By comparison, leader Universal Pictures has pulled in $1.8 billion domestically and more than $5 billion worldwide.) As its peers all have released at least one film that has earned $300 million worldwide, Sony's highest-grossing movie, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, topped out at only $104 million. Its latest attempt to create a homegrown tentpole, Adam Sandler's Pixels, isn't reversing that downward trajectory. The sci-fi comedy about arcade game aliens, co-starring Josh Gad, Michelle Monaghan and Peter Dinklage and with a budget officially pegged at $88 million, opened July 24 to only $24 million domestic, picking up another $25 million overseas.
Even though the movies Pascal shepherded have determined the studio's 2015 standing, she is, of course, no longer at the helm. On Feb. 5, she transitioned into a four-year production deal worth as much as $40 million (four days later, speaking at a conference in San Francisco, Pascal admitted she'd been "fired"). While it widely was assumed that she had taken the fall for her handling of the destructive computer hack that hit Sony on Nov. 26 — as well as her embarrassing emails that it exposed — her exit now appears to be a precursor of what Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Michael Lynton suspected would be another difficult year.
From
Variety:
Ben Affleck on Playing ‘Older, More Broken, Kind of F—ed Up Batman’
If you were worried that Ben Affleck was too old to play Batman, you’re not alone. Affleck himself apparently harbored the same fear.
Affleck, 42, told Empire magazine that he initially thought the “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” role wasn’t “the right sort of fit” for him because of his age.
“Then [director Zack Snyder] pitched me his concept for this older, more broken, kind of f—ed up Batman,” Affleck told Empire. “It was something we haven’t seen. We have seen that Batman is willing to cross the line to protect people. That vigilantism has been a part of his character all along, and we are tapping into that mentality when faced by something as potentially as deadly as Superman.”
Snyder told the mag that Affleck’s Dark Knight is 45 or 46 years old, and is “having a crisis of conscience” after donning the cowl for 20 years and losing everyone near and dear to him (possibly including Robin).
“We want to assume that Batman has reached this point in his life and career as a superhero, and Superman represents a sort of philosophical change,” Snyder told Empire. “He is a paradigm shift for Batman: ‘I’ve been fighting criminals all my life, trying to find justice, and now I am confronted with a concept that is transcendent to me.’ In the face of Superman, a man robbing a bank doesn’t matter.”
From
io9:
What on Earth is Fake Cream Made Out Of?
The cream inside your Twinkie is not the same thing as the cream inside that eclair at the fancy French bakery—we know that, because real cream goes bad after a while, and can’t sit on shelves for months. So what’s really inside that Twinkie? (And are you sure you really want to know the answer?)
To understand what’s in fake cream, you first have to learn what’s in the real stuff.
From
People:
Bobbi Kristina Brown Funeral Plans 'Constantly Changing' Because of Family Tension, Sources Say
Those who loved Bobbi Kristina Brown want nothing more than to honor her spirit, but funeral plans for the aspiring singer have still yet to be set because of conflict in the family, multiple sources tell PEOPLE.
The only daughter of Bobby Brown and the late Whitney Houston is expected to be laid to rest in New Jersey next to her mother on Monday after a funeral on Saturday in Atlanta.
However "both sides [of the family] are still not happy and on the same page," says the source of the Browns and Houstons. "There is a lot going on behind the scenes. There is a lot to do in a very short time."
Adds another source: "Things are constantly changing."
From
Collider:
13 HOURS Red-Band Trailer Reveals Michael Bay’s Benghazi Movie
Paramount Pictures has released the red-band trailer for director Michael Bay’s Benghazi film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. Based on the non-fiction book by Michtell Zuckoff, the film tells the story of the six members of the security team that fought to defend the Americans stationed at the embassy in Benghazi when it came under attack. John Krasinski leads a cast that includes James Badge Dale, Max Martini (Pacific Rim), Pablo Schreiber (Orange Is the New Black), and David Denman (The Office), and the screenplay was penned by The Strain author/writer Chuck Hogan.
From the opening shots it’s clear that this is a Michael Bay movie through and through (there’s even time for product placement), but 13 Hours marks fascinating territory for Bay in that he’s not only telling a true story, but one that’s somewhat of a hot-button political issue. His filmography proves that he’s got the “heroism” thing down pat, but can 13 Hours transcend being just another action drama to touch on something more timely? Or is Bay content to just translate his handle on action to real-world scenarios without delving deeper into character? It’s tough to get an accurate read on the movie based on this action-heavy trailer, which frankly looks like Zero Dark Thirty without the nuance, but I’m incredibly curious to see what Bay has up his sleeve here.
From
The Wrap:
Inside NBC News Turmoil: Deborah Turness Sidelined, Brian Williams Eyed as MSNBC’s ‘Face of Daytime’
An insider with knowledge of the NBC News executive suite told TheWrap that under new NBC News-MSNBC Chairman Andrew Lack, who took over in April after the removal of Pat Fili-Krushel, NBC News President Deborah Turness’ influence has been significantly diminished as Lack tries to break down the walls between NBC and MSNBC.
“Andy has taken the reins and allowed Deborah to stay as long as she’d like,” the insider said, adding that Lack isn’t imminently trying to oust her, but isn’t exactly pleading for her take on big decisions.
One of those personalities is popular “Today” and “Morning Joe” co-host Willie Geist, who was approached to gauge his interest in a role in MSNBC primetime, but didn’t ultimately express interest. It’s unclear whether the idea was for Geist to have his own show or contribute in some capacity.
Another revelation dates back to 2013, when MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki broke the “Bridgegate” scandal involving New Jersey Governor and current GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie. In an all-hands staff meeting, Turness openly voiced her displeasure with the story being broken on MSNBC.
From
Rolling Stone:
Dr. Dre to Release New Album as 'Straight Outta Compton' Soundtrack
Dr. Dre will finally end fans' 16-year wait for a new album when the rapper releases his Straight Outta Compton soundtrack, which will consist of new music entirely produced by The Chronic mastermind, a source tells Rolling Stone. Dre is expected to confirm the album, the companion piece to the N.W.A biopic, on his Beats 1 radio show The Pharmacy this Saturday.
Ice Cube appeared on Philadelphia's Power 99 Wednesday morning and let slip the news about Dre's Straight Outta Compton soundtrack. Despite Cube giving an August 1st release date for the album, multiple sources have told Rolling Stone that the album will not be released on Saturday.
"It's mega. It's Dr. Dre, it's what everybody’s been waiting for," Ice Cube told the Rise & Grind Morning Show. "It's definitely a dope record, and he's dropping it all on the same day."
From
Billboard:
'Hamilton' Creator & The Roots on How Obama, Trump Factor Into Hip-Hop Founding Fathers Musical
"Rapping Founding Fathers" might sound more like a viral YouTube clip than the basis of a new, important work of theater. At least, until you see it -- or listen to creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda describe it.
Hamilton, now on Broadway with $30 million in advance ticket sales (and a slew of VIP attendees, including President Obama), is anything but a one-note joke. An Alexander Hamilton-centered hip-hop musical with a mostly African-American and Latino cast, Hamilton just might be a new American classic.
In Billboard's upcoming cover story, out Thursday, July 30, Miranda and The Roots' Questlove and Black Thought (who are producing the cast album) sat down with Billboard to discuss how President Obama, Donald Trump and the $10 factor into all of this.
From
Cosmo:
11 Things Not to Do When You Share a Bed With Someone
1. Don't be the thief of sheets. Everyone has stolen all the covers involuntarily in the night before, but once you realize you've done it, give them back. Plus, it's pretty cute to cover up your partner with stolen covers when they're sleeping. It's like a non-verbal "I'm sorry."
2. Stop snoring like a train is barreling through your nose. I know snoring is involuntary, but there's nothing worse than sitting there hating your partner for snoring and wanting to love them but also the snoring. Talk to your doctor about ways you could manage it so you don't have some dumb fight at 3 a.m. for something that doesn't really matter (except that it totally does). Or wear a Breathe Right strip. Or just tell them to shove you if you start snoring.
3. If you know you drool, keep your puddle beside you at all times like a small child in a grocery store. No one wants to wake up next to a pile of spit cascading down their back like a waterfall because you're cuddling her and can't help it. Plus, at least if you made your little puddle over there and it's not touching me, we cool.
4. Avoid the temptation to slowly starfish out onto the whole mattress when they get up to go to the bathroom. You get one side and taking on anything more than that, intentional or not, makes you kind of the worst. Plus, we can tell when you're inching.
From
Buzzfeed:
Here’s A Graphic Of How Much Wedding Dresses Have Changed In A Century
Lucky for us, illustrator Shireen Baker has created an incredible graphic displaying how much wedding dresses have changed each decade since the 1900s