As many of you will remember, davefromqueens (David Weintraub) was a very long-term honored member of Daily Kos with more than 700 diaries, many of which were recommended. He was very frequently on the recommended list. He was famous for confrontations with Sean Hannity, among other things. He was a very great Kossack.
Last October he was banned after acrimonious direct challenges to the admins about the way certain users were operating as diary police.
He went on to ferociously counterattack, to the best of his ability, on his own website (www.davefromqueens.com).
It is now reported that he has just died of an apparent heart attack. [some people suspect foul play, but I don't think anybody has evidence of that at present]
See http://davefromqueens.com/... (comment by ProfJonathan (Jonathan Ezor) a law school professor and friend of Dave's.
If this is true, and I think it is, it is a very great loss to the blogosphere.
[last part of diary removed after post from Meteor Blades]
Update at 5 a.m.: Sofia reports below, and it has been reported on other websites in the last hour, that calls to the Medical Examiner in New York confirm that Dave is dead. Again, this is all electrons. I haven't seen the body. But the evidence is becoming overwhelming, in my mind at least.
Update at 6 a.m.: blueness has posted this very nice short diary called "He's Gone: http://www.dailykos.com/...