Since no one has put one up, I thought I would fill in for tonight.
Welcome to Overnight News Digest, where the usual crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, side pocket, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, Interceptor7, jlms qkw, and ScottyUrb, guest editors annetteboardman and Doctor RJ, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you with tonight's news.
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.
From the Los Angeles Times: Sterling tape was unleashed as friendship with Stiviano frayed
V. Stiviano had grown accustomed to being the glamorous companion of Donald Sterling, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. Once a catering truck operator from Boyle Heights, now she lived in a house Sterling bought her, drove a red Ferrari that he gave her and sat courtside at Staples Center.
In early April, though, their relationship became strained. Sterling's wife, Shelly, had sued Stiviano in March, charging that the 31-year-old had extracted four luxury cars, $240,000 in cash and the $1.8-million house from her 80-year-old husband. Shelly Sterling also put a lien on the house that her husband had given Stiviano. Six days later, on April 9, Stiviano got a text from a Clippers employee: Donald Sterling had ordered the tickets, parking pass and luxury suite access he had given her for that night's game to be sold.
Stiviano texted that it didn't matter — another regular had given her tickets. The employee texted back: "Mr. Sterling said to let me know if you need anything. We don't want to have any issues at the game." Stiviano responded: "No tell Mr. Sterling that I don't need anything nor do I want anything…But thanks for asking. LET THE GAMES BEGAN. . . ."
Two minutes later, Stiviano sent the employee an audio file. In it, Sterling could be heard making disparaging remarks about Magic Johnson, blacks and other minorities, and how he didn't want Stiviano associating with them publicly.
From
Associated Press:
Tennessee Brings Back Electric Chair
Tennessee has decided how it will respond to a nationwide scarcity of lethal injection drugs for death-row inmates: with the electric chair.
Republican Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill into law Thursday allowing the state to electrocute death row inmates in the event prisons are unable to obtain the drugs, which have become more and more scarce following a European-led boycott of drug sales for executions.
Tennessee lawmakers overwhelmingly passed the electric chair legislation in April, with the Senate voting 23-3 and the House 68-13 in favor of the bill.
Tennessee is the first state to enact a law to reintroduce the electric chair without giving prisoners an option, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that opposes executions and tracks the issue
From the
New York Times:
Thailand’s Military Stages Coup, Thwarting Populist Movement
The Thai military seized control of the country on Thursday and detained at least 25 leading politicians in a culmination of months of maneuvering by the Bangkok establishment to sideline a populist movement that has won every national election since 2001.
It was the second time in a decade that the army had overthrown an elected government, but there were signs that this takeover could be more severe and include sharp curbs on Thailand’s freewheeling news media.
The coup was seen as a victory for the elites in Thailand who have grown disillusioned with popular democracy and have sought for years to diminish the electoral power of Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister who commands support in the rural north. Unable to win elections, the opposition has instead called for an appointed prime minister, and pleaded with the military for months to step in.
As soldiers spread out throughout Bangkok on Thursday, the generals issued a series of announcements, declaring most of the Constitution “terminated,” banning gatherings of more than five people, imposing a curfew and shutting schools.
From
Deadline:
‘X-Men’ Expected $100M Memorial Day Weekend
X-Men: Days Of Future Past is going to be the Memorial Day box office mutant king with a huge $100M expected opening for 20th Century Fox over the four-day weekend. It’s debuting tonight to fanboys on about 2,700 theaters starting at 10 PM. In comparison, Godzilla bowed last weekend on a similar number of theaters but starting at 7 PM and stomped through with $9.3M.
From the
New York Daily News:
'Duck Dynasty' patriarch Phil Robertson restates views and slams 'homosexual offenders,' media in Easter Sunday sermon
He just can’t stop quacking.
“Duck Dynasty” patriarch Phil Robertson — who was briefly suspended by A&E for likening homosexuality to bestiality in the December edition of GQ — doubled down on his comments in an Easter Sunday sermon at his hometown church. A video of the sermon was posted on YouTube and now has gone viral.
In the fiery speech, Robertson defended his controversial comments on homosexuality and blasted the media coverage that followed as “absurd” and of “blurring” the lines between “sinners” and homosexuals.
In the video filmed at Whites Ferry Road Church in his hometown of West Monroe, La., Robertson told the congregation that he refuses to back down on his beliefs.
From
CNN:
Spacey's selfie creates political controversy in Mexico
It seemed innocent enough: two famous men running into each other at a public event by coincidence, exchanging pleasantries and small talk, and posing for a selfie later posted on Twitter.
But the meeting between "House of Cards" actor Kevin Spacey and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto this month in Cancún is at the center of a political controversy in Mexico that caught both the Hollywood star and Mexican government by surprise.
Spacey, who plays a president on the Netflix series, posted the selfie with the Mexican leader on May 7. "1 President is real. W/Pres Nieto in #Mexico. Good meeting a man also making progress in 1st year in office. @EPN" was the caption on Twitter.
Controversy erupted May 12 after Mexican columnist Salvador García Soto wrote in the 24 Horas newspaper that Spacey had been paid $8 million by the Mexican federal government. Political analysts immediately started questioning whether the meeting had truly been "a coincidence" or a shameless, self-promotional ploy by the President, paid for by Mexican taxpayers.
Spacey was the first to react to the storm of criticism in Mexico. "Story about Mex Gov paying 8m or any amount for selfie not true! Was In Mex for Tourist Board event. Meeting President not planned at all," Spacey tweeted May 16.
From the
Washington Post:
Tea party makes its last stand in Mississippi, targeting longtime Sen. Thad Cochran
After a string of humbling defeats in Republican primaries this spring, the tea party’s last best hope to oust a lawmaker is in Mississippi.
But things are not going well for the movement’s Chris McDaniel, who is challenging longtime senator Thad Cochran.
The race has been roiled over the past week by a bizarre incident in which a pro-McDaniel blogger was arrested in connection with taking an illicit photo of Cochran’s bedridden wife, Rose, who has dementia and lives in a nursing home. More arrests were made on Thursday, including a Mississippi tea party activist who is closely connected to McDaniel.
From the
New York Times:
U.S. Case Offers Glimpse Into China’s Army of Hackers
One man accused of being a hacker for the Chinese military, Wang Dong, better known as UglyGorilla, wrote in a social media profile that he did not “have much ambition” but wanted “to wander the world with a sword, an idiot.”
Another, Sun Kailiang, also known as Jack Sun, grew up in wealthy Pei County in eastern China, the home of a peasant who founded the ancient Han dynasty and was idolized by Mao.
They and three others were indicted by the United States Justice Department this week, charged with being part of a Chinese military unit that has hacked the computers of prominent American companies to steal commercial secrets, presumably for the benefit of Chinese companies.
Much about them remains murky. But Chinese websites, as well as interviews with cybersecurity experts and former hackers inside and outside China, reveal some common traits among those and other hackers, and show that China’s hacking culture is a complex mosaic of shifting motivations, employers and allegiances.
From
CBS News:
House passes watered down NSA reform bill
The House on Thursday passed a watered down version of the USA Freedom Act, even though some privacy advocates say the amended version of the bill may no longer achieve its stated goal of curbing the National Security Agency's bulk data collection.
The new version of the Freedom Act, passed by a vote of 303 to 121, does still prohibit the government's direct bulk collection of phone metadata. Under the legislation, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) will have to approve any government requests for phone records data from telecommunications firms.
Still, even Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., the sponsor of the Freedom Act, acknowledged on the House floor Thursday, "Perfect is rarely possible in politics, and this bill is no exception."
From
Deadline:
Full 2013-2014 TV Season Series Rankings
NBC has won the 2013-14 TV season — but you already knew that — with Sunday Night Football finishing the season as the No. 1 show in primetime in total viewers (21.528 million viewers) and among adults 18-49 (9.971 million viewers), based on Live+Same Day data from Nielsen. NBC’s The Blacklist and ABC’s Resurrection are the only freshman series to make the Demo Top 1o List for the season that officially wrapped last night. And Blacklist alone makes the Total Viewer Top 10 among newbies. Historically, Fox’s American Idol fell off both lists, making room for adds. In its defense, Idol’s two nights landed in the Top 20 in the demo — and Top 25 in total viewers — which puts it ahead of most broadcast primetime programming. Meanwhile, CBS’ The Big Bang Theory, in its seventh season, maintained its No. 2 status in overall audience (19.960 million viewers) and the demo (7.88 million), and rose to No. 2 in the demo — behind only NBC’s football in both.
From
/Film:
‘Big Hero 6′ Trailer: Disney Teases Their Animated Marvel Superhero Team-Up
2014 has already seen the premieres of two Marvel adaptations, with a third on the way this weekend and a fourth arriving later this summer. Today, we have a new look at yet another one, which premieres this fall. But this one’s a little different from all the others.
Big Hero 6 isn’t a live-action CG spectacle, but an animated movie — the first animated Marvel feature film from Disney, in fact. Directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams, it centers on a young robotics prodigy who builds his own superhero team to try and save his futuristic hometown of San Fransokyo. The first Big Hero 6 trailer has finally arrived.