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.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
From the New York Daily News: NYPD cop who berated Uber driver in xenophobic rant transferred and put on modified assignment
The NYPD has brought the hammer down on the foul-mouthed detective who left an Uber driver shaken with his bias-fueled rant on the Internet.
Det. Patrick Cherry was put on modified assignment and transferred from his post with the Joint Terrorism Task Force, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton announced Wednesday afternoon.
Det. Cherry's actions were still being investigated by the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau and the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, officials said.
Board investigators interviewed Sanjay Seth, the man who recorded the heated, cringe-worthy exchange from the back of the Uber car in the West Village on Wednesday.
From
Los Angeles Times:
Brown orders California's first mandatory water restrictions: 'It's a different world'
Standing in a brown field that would normally be smothered in several feet of snow, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday ordered cities and towns across California to cut water use by 25% as part of a sweeping set of mandatory drought restrictions, the first in state history.
The directive comes more than a year after Brown asked for a 20% voluntary cut in water use that most parts of the state have failed to attain, even as one of the most severe modern droughts drags into a fourth year. It also came on the day that water officials measured the lowest April 1 snowpack in more than 60 years of record-keeping in the Sierra Nevada.
Wearing hiking shoes and a windbreaker in an area that normally requires cross-country skis this time of year, Brown announced the executive order in a Sierra Nevada meadow that provided a dramatic illustration of the state's parched conditions.
“We're standing on dry grass,” Brown said. “We should be standing on five feet of snow.”
From the
New York Times:
Atlanta Educators Convicted in School Cheating Scandal
Donald Bullock, a former Atlanta testing coordinator, was led to a holding cell after his conviction. A judge ordered most of the educators jailed immediately.
In a dramatic conclusion to what has been described as the largest cheating scandal in the nation’s history, a jury here on Wednesday convicted 11 educators for their roles in a standardized test cheating scandal that tarnished a major school district’s reputation and raised broader questions about the role of high-stakes testing in American schools.
On their eighth day of deliberations, the jurors convicted 11 of the 12 defendants of racketeering, a felony that carries up to 20 years in prison. Many of the defendants — a mixture of Atlanta public school teachers, testing coordinators and administrators — were also convicted of other charges, such as making false statements, that could add years to their sentences.
Judge Jerry W. Baxter of Fulton County Superior Court ordered most of the educators jailed immediately, and they were led from the courtroom in handcuffs. Judge Baxter, who presided over a trial that began with opening statements more than six months ago, will begin sentencing hearings next week.
From the
Washington Post:
Sen. Robert Menendez indicted on corruption charges
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) was indicted on federal corruption charges Wednesday, accused of using the influence of his office to advance the business interests of a longtime friend and political supporter in exchange for luxury gifts, lavish vacations and more than $750,000 in campaign donations.
Federal prosecutors laid out the charges in a 14-count indictment charging Menendez with using his office to help Salomon Melgen, a Florida-based eye doctor with whom Menendez had maintained a long personal and political friendship. Menendez intervened on Melgen’s behalf in at least two disputes, one with federal regulators over Medicare charges and the other involving a bid by Melgen to secure a port-security contract in the Dominican Republic, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors say that over a seven-year period, Menendez relied on Melgen for free private jets to weekend getaways at resorts in Florida, the Dominican Republic and Paris.
Menendez has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. He was defiant Wednesday night before a boisterous crowd of supporters, saying that Melgen’s gifts were a result of friendship dating to the early 1990s and not in exchange for political favors.
From
Deadline:
David Letterman Gets Advice On Next Career Move From Sen. Al Franken
David Letterman sought advice from Sen. Al Franken tonight in re his concern about his home state’s controversial “religious freedom” law, which has been blasted by many as an invitation for businesses to discriminate against LGBT people using religion as a cover. “I love Indiana and will probably be buried in Indiana,” Letterman said. “And I know I’ve embarrassed the state many many times.”
“And the entire country,” Franken added, helpfully. “What I want to know: What can I do now to make the governor feel uncomfortable?” Letterman said, of Gov. Mike Pence. “As a matter of fact, there’s an open seat there. The incumbent Sen. Dan Coats, says he’s not running next year,” Franken began. Wild applause from Letterman’s audience. Letterman announced in April, during a taping of Late Show, that he’s stepping down; his last broadcast will be this May; he’s turning the desk over to Stephen Colbert.
“Look, when people come to me, young people say, ‘How do you become a United State Senator?’ I say, ‘Do about 35-40 years of comedy and then run for the Senate. And it’s worked every time. So, I think you should run.”
From the
Associated Press:
Arkansas Moves to Revise Legislation
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson backed away Wednesday from his promise to sign a controversial religious-objections bill, bowing to pressure from critics that included his own son and some of the state's biggest employers, who say the legislation is anti-gay.
The Republican governor said he wants the Legislature either to recall the bill from his desk or pass a follow-up measure that would make the proposal more closely mirror a federal religious-freedom law. Arkansas lawmakers moved quickly to advance a new version aimed at addressing the governor's concerns.
Hutchinson said his son, Seth, was among those who signed a petition asking him to veto the bill.
"This is a bill that in ordinary times would not be controversial," the governor said. "But these are not ordinary times."
Hutchinson initially supported the bill, and on Tuesday, his office said he planned to sign it into law. But a day later, his position had changed.
From
NPR:
In Battered Tikrit, Iraqi Forces Claim Much, But Not All Of City
Iraqi Shiite fighters in Tikrit pose in front of a former presidential palace that had been held by the so-called Islamic State, which had painted its black banner at the entrance.
Driving from Baghdad north to Tikrit, we speed up a main road Wednesday through small towns that have been won back from the self-declared Islamic State, or ISIS. Some still have smoking buildings.
On the outskirts we pass through places that have obviously seen heavy fighting. Half-built houses are pocked with bullet holes, their windows shattered.
As we move into Tikrit proper, the excited fighters begin celebrating, Iraqi style, with gunshots into the air. They have reason to celebrate. A hard-fought battle appears to be nearing a conclusion.
But it's still not clear what's coming next.
From
BBC News:
Yemen crisis: Fighting intensifies in Aden
Fighting in the Yemeni city of Aden has intensified as Houthi rebels try to seize control of the city.
Concern is growing over the number of casualties after heavy clashes between local militia fighters and rebel forces. Witnesses have reported bodies lying in the street after rebel shelling and sniper attacks. The fierce fighting has continued despite airstrikes on Houthi forces by a Saudi-led coalition.
Houthi rebels allied with troops loyal to the former President Ali Abdullah Saleh have reportedly advanced deeper into Aden to try and wrest control of the city from fighters loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.
The BBC's Security Correspondent Frank Gardner says that if reports of rebel tanks entering the centre of the southern port city are confirmed, then the rebels will have consolidated their grip on the most important parts of Yemen.
From the
New York Times:
Obama Told Iran Nuclear Negotiators to Disregard Deadline in 11th Hour
If American negotiators are ultimately able to conclude a “political understanding” with Iran on its nuclear program, as they said they were striving to do Thursday morning, the seeds might have been planted earlier in the week.
With only hours to go on Tuesday night before the end-of-the-month deadline that had been set by the White House, Secretary of State John Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest J. Moniz stepped into a large tent erected in a luxury hotel here and dialed into a video conference with President Obama.
There was no way to meet the deadline, Mr. Kerry said from the tent, which was designed to defeat eavesdropping. The Iranians, he said, perhaps sensing that the deadline meant a lot in Washington and little in Tehran, were intransigent.
“They were turning our own deadline against us to see if we would give ground,” just to be able to claim that the March 31 date had been met, said one senior official, who would not be identified because of the secrecy surrounding the talks.
From
The Guardian:
Ultra-traditional Catholics rebel against pope in Brazil: ‘He is less Catholic than us’
In a secluded monastery in south-eastern Brazil, a breakaway group of ultra-conservative Catholics gathered to participate in an act of rebellion against the pope.
The setting could hardly have been more tranquil: rolling green hills, purple-glory trees, palm leaves swaying in the wind and a temporary chapel made of breeze block walls and a tin roof left partially open to the elements.
But the 50 or so priests, Benedictine monks, nuns and other worshippers who file into Santa Cruz monastery on Saturday were no ordinary congregation. Hailing from Europe, the US and Latin America, they described themselves as a “resistance” movement against Vatican reforms.
In favour of Latin services – and fiercely opposed to ecumenism, freedom of religion and closer relations with Judaism – they had come to defy the authority of Rome with the ordination of a new priest by an excommunicated bishop, Jean-Michel Faure.
From the
Washington Post:
U.S. Navy alarmed at Beijing’s ‘Great Wall of sand’ in South China Sea
China is building a “Great Wall of sand” through an unparalleled program of land reclamation in the South China Sea, raising concerns about the possibility of military confrontation in the disputed waters, according to the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
In one of the strongest and highest-level criticisms of the reclamation project to date, Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. told a naval conference in Australia late Tuesday that competing territorial claims by several nations in the South China Sea continue to stoke “regional tensions and the potential for miscalculation.”
“But what’s really drawing a lot of concern in the here and now is the unprecedented land reclamation currently being conducted by China,” he added.
From
Mashable:
Duke University students react to noose found hanging on campus
School officials are investigating a noose found hanging on the Duke University campus in the early hours of Wednesday morning, an incident that comes amid rising tension at the university.
The noose, apparently made out of yellow tape, was found at the Bryan Center Plaza, an active student hub that houses many of the campus's fraternity and sorority communities as well as the Center for Multicultural Affairs.
"To whomever committed this hateful and stupid act, I just want to say that if your intent was to create fear, it will have the opposite effect," wrote Larry Moneta, Duke's vice president for student affairs to students on Wednesday morning.
From the
Indianapolis Star:
Marion Assistant Fire Chief accepts demotion after being accused of tossing noose at black firefighter
A February incident at Marion Fire Station No. 6 has conjured memories of two young black men lynched in the Grant County city decades ago.
Assistant Fire Chief Rick Backs, who is white, ended a Feb. 13 knot-tying exercise at the station by twisting and bending one of the ropes into a noose. He is accused of then tossing the noose at Mikel Neal, a black firefighter who was a part of the training exercise.
Neal’s wife said she is a distant relative of one of the men hanged on Aug. 7, 1930.
Backs, a 30-year-veteran, is now being demoted for his actions, but Neal and his attorney don’t believe that is enough.
They believe that termination is the only appropriate response.
From
CNN Money:
New Facebook app Riff lets you make viral videos with friends
Facebook launched a new mobile app on Wednesday called Riff.
With Riff, friends can collaborate on videos together by adding their own clips to the same project. Snapchat has a similar feature called Stories, a collection of footage from events put together by the disappearing messaging app.
With Riff, Facebook puts the power of stitching videos together in users' hands.
This video collaboration platform is the newest member of the social network's growing "family" of apps, which includes Instagram, Slingshot, WhatsApp, and Messenger among others.
This is all part of Facebook's strategy to attract a younger audience that increasingly use other apps that are dedicated to specific types of sharing, including Vine and Snapchat. Facebook's new apps, which purposefully don't carry the social network's name, give people more ways to share their lives and interact with one another.
From
Reuters:
Death toll rises to 54 after Russian trawler sinks in Western Pacific: rescue center
At least 54 people have died and 15 are missing after a Russian trawler sank late on Wednesday in the Western Pacific Ocean near the Kamchatka Peninsula, an officer at a maritime rescue coordination center in the area said.
Viktor Klepikov, coordinating captain of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky maritime rescue coordination center, told Reuters that there were 132 people on board the Dalniy Vostok freezer trawler. He said 63 people had been rescued.
From
ESPN:
Is LeBron James the de facto coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers?
LeBron James says he has "freedom" to call plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers during the course of the game, and coach David Blatt claims that the superstar dictating the action is business as usual.
"I don't think that's peculiar," Blatt said after Cavs practice Wednesday. "When the game is going on and you are in the heat of the battle at times, you can't get a message through or you don't want to stop the flow, so a guy may [call the play on his own].
"We have sets that we know what we're going to use going in. You know, we have a package that we're going to use going in and at times, according to the flow of the game, somebody may call out a play. I don't think that's unusual."
James and Blatt were responding to questions about the Cavs' offensive play calling, a topic that gained attention Wednesday following a recent ESPN podcast that featured commentary on their player-coach relationship in Cleveland.
Speaking on "The B.S. Report with Bill Simmons" on Tuesday, ESPN's Brian Windhorst discussed James' increasingly prominent role in the Cavaliers' play calling this season, saying that the four-time MVP regularly calls plays before Blatt relays the call to the rest of the team.
From
CNBC:
Another reason to cut Q1 growth
International trade data Thursday could provide a deeper look at the strong dollar's impact on the economy in the first quarter and may result in economists again slashing growth forecasts.
Trade is released at 8:30 a.m. ET, the same time as weekly jobless claims. Factory orders for February are reported at 10 a.m.
The consensus forecast puts February's trade gap at $41.5 billion from $41.8 billion in January, but economists say there's a good chance the number could come up short. In January, the gap narrowed as oil imports fell, creating the lowest deficit for petroleum products in years. But economists this month are focused on whether exports are weakening due to dollar strength.
From
TIME:
Texas Trooper Reprimanded for Picture With Snoop Dogg at SXSW
A Texas state trooper has been ordered to undergo counseling for posing in a picture with Snoop Dogg during South by Southwest.
Trooper Billy Spears was asked to pose for the snap by the rap megastar, full name Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr., at the music and film festival in Austin, Texas, the officer’s lawyer told the Dallas Morning News.
Spears claims that he did not know who the celeb was. Snoop Dogg posted the picture to Instagram with the caption, “Me n my deputy dogg” followed by the gun emoji and two star emojis.
Department of Public Safety (DPS) officials say the snap “reflects poorly on the agency,” though Spears will receive no formal disciplinary action for posing with a known felon. But they did call for “counseling,” a ruling which Spears cannot appeal.
From
Slate:
MTV’s True Life Shows Slut-Shaming in Action, and It’s Nauseating
Only one of MTV’s best three shows remains on the air. Daria left us long ago, and the gem Rich Girls lasted just one season. But True Life soldiers on. True Life launched in 1998 and its format hasn’t changed: Each hourlong episode addresses a theme in young people’s lives, from the trivial (“I Have a Summer Share”) to the serious (“I’m Placing My Baby for Adoption”). It’s voiceover-free, letting the shows’ subjects carry the narrative weight. New episodes air only sporadically, but Monday night’s installment—True Life: I’m Being Slut-Shamed—demonstrated that the trusty old show remains strong.
The title pretty much sums it up: The episode examined three young women who were facing social or familial pressure to change the way they dress and behave. The conclusion, that slut-shaming is bad, seems obvious, but the show demonstrates just how cruel people can be to a woman they have deemed loose. Case in point: Della ... Della, a beautiful 23-year-old who spends most of her segments with her eyes cast down, is meeting with her two “best friends,” Clint and Jason. She slept with one of them three years ago, another a few months ago—and since that fling, the two men appear to have treated her in a disgusting manner. They take every opportunity to stake the moral high ground. “I did not spend 12 months in Afghanistan for you to dress like that,” one scolds her after pulling her aside at a party.
From
The Atlantic:
How the Gluteus Became Maximus
What explains the rise of the rump? Is it an of-the-moment fixation brought on by celebrities who've got buns? Or is it more deep-seated, our desire for deep seats? Has humankind—or mankind, specifically—always preferred girls with cheeks? And if so, why?
Some men have trouble putting words to this predilection, as I learned when I conducted an unscientific survey of three straight males I know.
One could not lie: He liked big butts.
“Why though?” I pressed.
[[Hemming, hawing]]
“It’s like ... butt, but more butt,” he answered, suggesting that studies based on the behaviors of cavemen are applicable today, after all.
Another brother similarly could not deny: “A healthy, toned butt is great.”
The last interviewee was made visibly uncomfortable by the question.
“I don’t objectify women!” he prefaced. But then he quietly admitted that, if all the world’s behinds were lined up end to end, so to speak, he would likely gravitate toward the more voluptuous half.
On reflection, he added, “I think I’m more drawn to curve than size.”
From
Salon:
I called him pathetic, he accused me of ruining his life: What children did to our marriage
Do you remember the public service campaign from the 1980s? A man walks over to the stove, picks up an egg and holds it between forefinger and thumb. “This is your brain,” he says, before emptying the shell’s contents into a hot pan where it begins to fry. “This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?”
I think of that advertisement often when I try to explain to my childless friends, those on the brink of becoming unchildless, what having young kids does to a marriage. I don’t want to scare them, and I’m aware my experience is hardly universal. But I want to color a realistic picture, so they aren’t blindsided like I was. The same way I tell them about the blood after birth and the cracked nipples and the dark sea of exhaustion.
I’ve played around with different metaphors. Children are untold pressure, I say, lava bubbling beneath the surface of the otherwise unbroken rock of marriage. Children are a crucible, I say, able to withstand dizzyingly high temperatures themselves but drop a marriage in their midst and it will melt. Wherever the poetry takes me on a given occasion, I always come back to the image of the egg. What was once whole and smooth is now cracked and sizzling with resentment. Marriage on children is a process of irreversible change.
From
NBC News:
Indiana Sentences Purvi Patel to 20 Years for Feticide
On Monday, the state of Indiana sentenced 33-year-old Purvi Patel to 20 years in prison on charges of feticide - an act that causes the death of a fetus - and neglect of a dependent. She received a 30-year-sentence on the felony neglect charge, 10 of which were suspended. A six-year sentence for feticide will be served concurrently.
Patel is the first woman in the U.S. to be charged, convicted and sentenced on a feticide charge. Reproductive rights activists are outraged.
"What this conviction means is that anti-abortion laws will be used to punish pregnant woman," says Lynn Paltrow, Executive Director for National Advocates for Pregnant Women.
From
Rolling Stone:
Watch the Intense, Violent New 'Straight Outta Compton' Trailer
N.W.A's early years can be seen in the latest trailer for Straight Outta Compton, the upcoming biopic that follows the legendary West Cost rap group's fall and rise in the Eighties.
The new clip highlights Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson Jr.), Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins) and the late Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell) recording their canonical debut album, for which the film is named, and becoming superstars amidst the police brutality and gang warfare plaguing their California hometown. "Speak a little truth, and people lose their minds," says Jackson as Ice Cube following scenes of the incredible and often dangerous fervor surrounding their success.
Dr. Dre and Ice Cube produced the film, which also stars Paul Giamatti as their controversial manager Jerry Heller. The film's director, F. Gary Gray (Friday, Set It Off), is been a longtime collaborator of Dre and Cube's, having helmed several of their solo and collaborative music videos throughout the Nineties. In an interview with KCRW, Gray noted how important it was to emphasize the group's cultural importance. "It's not unlike Social Network or American Graffiti where you take a place and time in America, especially as it relates to popular culture, and you see the shift, and they were right there and created part of the pivot that America took in entertainment," he remarked.
From
E! Online:
Coachella Dos and Don'ts: How Not to Look Like a Tool at This Season's Hottest Music Festival
Coachella season is here, y'all, which means the greatest congregation of hippie-chic style is about to commence!
That of course also means that we're going to be overwhelmed with ensembles that feature superfluous fringe, American flags where the sun don't shine and more tired, tool-ish festival gear that we've become accustomed to from the Indio fête over the years.
But not to worry, we have some fool-proof fashion rules for you to follow so you don't fall into the festival tool trap. E! News' own Orly Shani and stylist Anita Patrickson gave us the scoop on which trends to rock and which to, well, never ever pack for Coachella.
From
Entertainment Weekly:
The View eyes Monica Lewinsky for hosting role
Could Monica Lewinsky join ABC’s The View?
There’s some degree of interest there. Lewinsky has been invited to be a guest on an upcoming episode to promote her anti-bullying campaign. Beyond that, a person close to the ABC daytime chat show says the production would “love” to have the former White House intern as a guest co-host. Such gigs can often serve as tryouts for more permanent positions on the series.
The View has been wounded in the last year by cast shake-ups, slipping ratings, and reports of backstage fighting. With the recent departure of Rosie O’Donnell, The View currently only has three co-hosts—actress Rosie Perez, analyst Nicolle Wallace, and comic actress Whoopi Goldberg. That leaves two seats vacant. Meanwhile, Lewinsky has re-emerged into the public eye over the last year by embracing an anti-cyber-bullying message, including penning a Vanity Fair essay about her affiar with Bill Clinton and giving a TED Talk.
From
Billboard:
'Uptown Funk' Is Longest-Leading Hot 100 No. 1 of the 2010s
Mark Ronson's "Uptown Funk!," featuring Bruno Mars, is the longest-leading Billboard Hot 100 of the 2010s, ruling the chart for a 13th week. It's also just the 10th single in the Hot 100's entire history to spend at least 13 weeks at No. 1.
Plus, newcomer Natalie La Rose reaches the top 10 with her debut hit "Somebody," featuring Jeremih.
As we do each Wednesday, let's run down all the songs in the top 10, and a bit beyond, on the sales/airplay/streaming-based Hot 100 (dated April 11).
"Funk," released on RCA Records, passes Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines," featuring T.I. and Pharrell to take sole possession of the Hot 100's longest command this decade. Here's an updated look at the hits to lead for the most weeks since the beginning of 2010:
Weeks at No. 1, Title, Artist, Date Reached No. 1
13 (to date), "Uptown Funk!," Ronson feat. Mars, Jan. 17, 2015
12, "Blurred Lines," Robin Thicke feat. T.I. + Pharrell, June 22, 2013
10, "Happy," Pharrell Williams, March 8, 2014
10, "We Found Love," Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris, Nov. 12, 2011