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 Associated Press: Police: Parking spat sparks 3 North Carolina killings; some call for hate-crime investigation
Deah Barakat, his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, were killed Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015
Police are trying to determine whether hate played any role in the killing of three Muslims, a crime they said was sparked by a neighbor's long-simmering anger over parking and noise inside their condominium complex.
Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, describes himself as a "gun toting" atheist. Neighbors say he always seemed angry and confrontational. His ex-wife said he was obsessed with the shooting-rampage movie "Falling Down," and showed "no compassion at all" for other people.
His current wife, Karen Hicks, said he "champions the rights of others" and said the killings "had nothing do with religion or the victims' faith." Later Wednesday, she issued another statement, saying she's divorcing him. Hicks appeared in court Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder in the deaths Tuesday of Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad, 21, and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19. He pleaded indigence and was appointed a public defender.
From the
New York Times:
Obama Asks Congress to Authorize Three-Year ISIS Fight
President Obama formally asked Congress on Wednesday to authorize a three-year military campaign against the Islamic State that would avoid a large-scale invasion and occupation. The offensive could include limited ground operations to hunt down enemy leaders or rescue American personnel from the Sunni militants.
A proposal sent by the White House to Capitol Hill on Wednesday would formally give the president the power to continue the airstrikes he has been conducting since last fall against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, as well as “associated persons or forces.” The measure would set limits that were never imposed during the wars of the last decade in Afghanistan and Iraq by expiring in three years and withholding permission for “enduring offensive ground combat operations.”
“I do not believe America’s interests are served by endless war or by remaining on a perpetual war footing,” Mr. Obama said in a televised statement in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Wednesday afternoon. He added that the three-year time frame was not a timetable announcing how long the mission would last. “What it is saying is that Congress should revisit the issue at the beginning of the next president’s term.”
From
Rolling Stone:
Jackie Robinson West: The Little League Dream That Ended in a Nightmare
Jackie Robinson West coach Darold Butler, right, and players, during their victory parade
It seemed like the entire city of Chicago turned up at the victory parade for the Jackie Robinson West Little League team, the kids from the South Side who had just completed an unlikely run to the United States championship. Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who needed support in the black community, was there. Struggling Governor Pat Quinn, who was wearing a Jackie Robinson West shirt, was at the rally too. He was trying to ride these kids to re-election. It didn't work. Aldermen, state officials, appellate court judges, dignitaries of varying degrees, they all put in appearances. Jesse Jackson was there.
The celebration didn't end that August afternoon, either. It went on for weeks, then months. The kids headed to the White House to meet President Obama. Chicago sports teams had to get them to their stadiums for PR appearances. They went to Disney World. They made the rounds.
On Wednesday, they made the news.
The Jackie Robinson West team was stripped of its U.S. Little League title this morning, for using star players that lived in other teams' districts. They cheated. It seems almost inconceivable when you think back to this summer, when the celebrations were going on in this town. Back then, you noticed all those politicians and celebs, but they almost didn't matter. This was about Chicago, and they couldn't steal this moment from a city that really, really needed it ... According to Little League, the team's manager and officials re-drew district boundary lines and met with neighboring Little League districts to claim their players. Ignoring the rules, they created an all-star team, and then tried to cover it up.
From
Wired:
The Sickeningly Low Vaccination Rates at Silicon Valley Day Cares
The scientists, technologists, and engineers who populate Silicon Valley and the California Bay Area deserve their reputation as innovators, building entire new economies on the strength of brains and imagination. But some of these people don’t seem to be vaccinating their children.
A WIRED investigation shows that some children attending day care facilities affiliated with prominent Silicon Valley companies have not been completely vaccinated against preventable infectious diseases. At least, that’s according to a giant database from the California Department of Public Health, which tracks the vaccination rates at day care facilities and preschools in the state. We selected more than 20 large technology and health companies in the Bay Area and researched their day care offerings. Of 12 day care facilities affiliated with tech companies, six—that’s half—have below-average vaccination rates, according to the state’s data.
And those six have a level of measles vaccination that does not provide the “herd immunity” critical to the spread of the disease. Now, this data has limitations—most critically, it might not be current. But it also suggests an incursion of anti-science, anti-vaccine thinking in one of the smartest regions on Earth.
From
The Daily Beast:
Scott Walker Goes for ‘Bland,’ Ends Up ‘Moronic’ on Evolution Softball
Governor Scott Walker was so determined not to make news during his trip to London this week, he made news.
A week after Chris Christie’s disastrous trip to London, Walker was desperate to avoid the kind of slip that cost the New Jersey governor any positive headlines back home.
“I’d rather be bland than stupid or moronic,” he said.
Sadly, he may have been all three.
He was attempting to bolster his foreign policy credentials by saying nothing at all, and during a question and answer session at a foreign policy think tank he refused to be drawn on whether he believed in evolution.
“I’m going to punt on that one as well,” he said, which was met by harrumphs in the audience at a foreign policy think tank. It was suggested that pretty much any politician on earth could manage to answer that one. Walker changed tack, but only slightly: “I like the evolution of trade in Wisconsin.”
From the
Washington Post:
As Scott Walker mulls White House bid, questions linger over college exit
Scott Walker was gone. Dropped out. And in the spring of his senior year.
In 1990, that news stunned his friends at Marquette University. Walker, the campus’s suit-wearing, Reagan-loving politico — who enjoyed the place so much that he had run for student body president — had left without graduating.
To most of the Class of 1990 — and, later, to Wisconsin’s political establishment — Walker’s decision to quit college has been a lingering mystery. Not even his friends at Marquette were entirely sure why he never finished. Some had heard that a parent had fallen ill, or maybe there was some financial strain. Others thought he had simply had enough of school.
Walker clearly liked college politics more than college itself. He had managed to line up 47 campaign endorsements, including ones from the ski team and the varsity chorus, but he had trouble showing up on time for French. And, after four years, he had faltered on both fronts. He’d lost an ugly race for president. And he apparently had far too few credits to graduate.
From
The Globe and Mail:
Canada accuses EPA of ‘distortion and omission’ in Keystone XL assessment
The Canadian government attacked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday over its assertion that the Keystone XL pipeline might worsen greenhouse-gas emissions.
In a letter signed by Ambassador Gary Doer, the Canadian government accused the EPA of “significant distortion and omission” in its assessment of TransCanada Corp.’s proposed pipeline from Alberta, across the United States, to the Gulf Coast.
Hours later, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed 270-152 the Keystone XL approval bill. The same bill passed 62-36 last month in the Senate, where the new Republican majority has tipped the balance in favour of Keystone XL, and sets the stage for a showdown with U.S. President Barack Obama, who has vowed to veto it. Keystone XL’s backers – the Republican majorities in both the House and Senate along with some Democratic supporters – fall short of the two-thirds majority required to override a presidential veto.
Republicans are already planning a second effort, tucking a Keystone XL approval bill into “must-pass” legislation, such as a spending bill, and thus setting up a higher-stakes confrontation with Mr. Obama, whose presidential veto might shut down the government.
From the
Los Angeles Times:
Ports to stop unloading cargo for four days amid labor dispute
Shipping companies said they will stop unloading ships at West Coast ports for four of the next five days because they don’t want to pay overtime to workers they allege have deliberately slowed operations.
The Pacific Maritime Assn., which represents shipping lines and terminal operators, said ship unloading will stop on Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, when dockworkers are entitled to overtime pay.
Thursday is Lincoln’s Birthday and Monday is Presidents Day.
Employers said workers will still move cargo containers from congested docks onto trucks and rail cars.
Employers and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have been locked in bitter contract talks for nine months, a period marked by brutal congestion up and down the coast.
From the
Houston Chronicle:
Lynchings in Jim Crow South more widespread than first thought
Jesse Washington, a teenage African-American farmhand, was castrated, lynched and burned in Waco, Texas, on May 15, 1916
A new report shows that lynchings in the South under Jim Crow were more prevalent than previously thought. The Equal Justice Initiative paper released Tuesday recorded almost 4,000 lynchings that occurred in 12 southern states prior to the Civil Rights movement – 20 percent more than what had been previously reported.
In total 3,959, African-Americans were lynched in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia from 1877 to 1950. The institute, led by attorney Bryan Stevenson, spent five years researching the history of lynchings and compiling the statistics.
Lynchings occurred for reasons as meek as casual social transgressions: In 1940, an Alabama man was killed for referring to a white police offer by his name without the title of “mister.” A soldier in Georgia was killed by a mob for refusing to take his uniform off after returning from World War I. And a Mississippi man was lynched after accidentally bumping into a white girl while running to catch a train. Often these events were public events – even advertised in newspapers – and large swathes of the community would attend the killings.
From
U.S. News and World Report:
Jeb Bush, Florida's "eGovernor," Gets a Social Media F
For Jeb Bush, who’s trying to build his brand (and a potential presidential candidacy) as a tech-savvy, 21st-century Republican – and by reminding everyone wary of his surname that he’s The Smart One, as opposed to The Decider, his gut-trusting older brother – this week’s had a few epic fails.
On Monday, the man who called himself Florida’s “first eGovernor” released a trove of emails he wrote and received when he held office there from 1999 to 2007, an effort to show transparency, and, arguably, how thoughtful he was when conducting state business.
"Email kept me connected to Floridians and focused on the mission of being their governor," said Bush, who famously bragged about spending 30 hours a week writing emails, largely on that quaint device oldsters will recognize as a BlackBerry.
Data dump’s a go: so far, so good.
Then, Bush’s high-profile transparency caravan hit something it should have seen: Before publishing the emails to the web, his team forgot to redact the senders’ personal information. Names, addresses, Social Security numbers in some cases – just out there for the taking, and the exploitation, by criminal types, without the hassle of hacking some multinational corporation’s state-of-the-art servers.
D’oh! Transparent, yes; smart, not so much.
From
ESPN:
Is this the end of Tiger Woods?
This is how Tiger Woods’ last tournament ended in La Jolla, Calif. There’s no telling when he plays again.
Tiger Woods said his golf is not acceptable for the PGA Tour and he will not return until it is.
Woods shot a career-worst 82 to miss the cut in the Phoenix Open by 12 shots. He was playing poorly at Torrey Pines when he withdrew after 11 holes because of tightness in his back.
Woods said Wednesday on his website that the injury is not related to the back surgery he had last spring. He said he is having physical therapy every day and feeling better.
"Right now, I need a lot of work on my game, and to still spend time with the people that are important to me," he said. "My play, and scores, are not acceptable for tournament golf. Like I've said, I enter a tournament to compete at the highest level, and when I think I'm ready, I'll be back."
He said he wants to play the Honda Classic that starts Feb. 26. But he won't play if he's not tournament-ready. Woods said he expects to be playing soon.
From
CNN:
Ex-UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian, 'Tark the Shark,' dies at 84
Jerry Tarkanian, the legendary men's basketball coach who won the 1990 national championship at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and who was known to battle with the NCAA, died Wednesday in Las Vegas. He was 84.
UNLV confirmed on its website the passing of the former Runnin' Rebels head coach.
"Coach Tark, my father, the greatest man I have ever known, passed today, to take his place in heaven," son Danny Tarkanian tweeted Wednesday.
"I will miss him every day of my life."
Tarkanian had been hospitalized since Monday with respiratory problems and had been hospitalized three times in the last 10 months for various ailments, including two heart attacks, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
"The UNLV community mourns the passing of Coach Jerry Tarkanian, and our condolences are with Jerry's wife, Lois, and the Tarkanian family," UNLV President Len Jessup said.
From
Sports Illustrated:
TNT's Charles Barkley rants about basketball analytics, jabs Rockets GM
In an extended monologue on Tuesday night's edition of "Inside The NBA," TNT commentator Charles Barkley questioned the use of analytics in basketball and fired some shots at Rockets GM Daryl Morey, one of the leading minds in the advanced statistics community.
Barkley, a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and an 11-time All-Star, argued that "analytics is crap" because the NBA is all about talent, that Morey is "one of those idiots," and that proponents of analytics are "a bunch of guys who ain't never played the game [and] they never got the girls in high school."
The discussion broke out after Barkley criticized Houston's defense, which ranks seventh in defensive rating even though starting center Dwight Howard has missed considerable time this season. In response, Morey wrote on Twitter that Barkley was "spewing misinformed, biased vitriol disguised as entertainment."
From
BBC News:
Samsung investigates why its TVs put ads in others' apps
Samsung says it is investigating why some of its smart TVs are adding adverts to television programmes and films played via third-party apps.
Owners have complained of a silent ad for Pepsi interrupting playback several times an hour. A spokeswoman for Samsung said it was only aware of the glitch affecting customers in Australia at this time.
The fault comes days after the company faced controversy over the way its TVs made use of voice recordings. "We are aware of a situation that has caused some smart TV users in Australia to experience programme interruption in the form of an advertisement," the spokeswoman said. "This seems to be caused by an error, and we are currently conducting a full and thorough investigation into the cause as our top priority. This situation has so far been reported only in Australia. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience experienced by our customers."
From
Reuters:
Costa Concordia captain sentenced to 16 years for 2012 shipwreck
The former captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Wednesday for his role in the 2012 shipwreck, which killed 32 people off the Tuscan holiday island of Giglio. Francesco Schettino was commanding the vessel, a floating hotel as long as three football pitches, when it hit rocks off the island, tearing a hole in its side.
A court in the town of Grosseto found him guilty of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his passengers in one of the highest-profile shipping disasters in recent years.
However the judges rejected a request that Schettino begin his sentence immediately. They ruled instead that would not go to prison until the appeals process is completed, which can take years. The captain wept during his final testimony on Wednesday but did not return to the court to hear the verdict.
From the
Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Leads Western Exodus Out of Yemen
Houthi rebels drive through Yemen’s capital San’a on Wednesday amid rival protests for and against them. Uncertainty has deepened in the country since January, when the president abruptly resigned when the rebels overran government buildings and put him under house arrest
The U.S. and other Western nations shut their embassies in Yemen, risking the loss of vital international support to the new rebel government, as demonstrations swelled amid mounting political tensions.
Thousands demonstrated on Wednesday both for and against the Houthi rebels, who dissolved Yemen’s parliament and took over the government on Friday after their militants overran the capital San’a in September.
The U.S. cited deteriorating security on Tuesday night when it announced it would close its embassy, with the U.K., France, Germany and Italy following suit on Wednesday.
“We were not the only country that moved our staff out of Yemen last night,” said Jen Psaki, State Department spokeswoman. “There’s a great bit of volatility.”
From
Bloomberg:
China’s Rising Military Not Ready to Win Wars, U.S. Report Says
China’s military isn’t ready to win wars despite spending heavily to modernize, according to a report commissioned by a U.S. congressional committee.
The People’s Liberation Army suffers from “potentially serious weaknesses” that could limit its ability to conduct the operations required to fight and win future conflicts, the report by Rand Corp. a Santa Monica, California-based research group said.
“Although the PLA’s capabilities have increased dramatically, its remaining weaknesses increase the risk of failure to successfully perform the missions the Chinese Communist Party leaders may task it to perform,” the report said. It cited Taiwan contingencies, maritime claim missions, protecting sea lines of communications and some non-war military operations.
From
The Atlantic:
The Many Causes of America’s Decline in Crime
The dramatic rise of incarceration and the precipitous fall in crime have shaped the landscape of American criminal justice over the last two decades. Both have been unprecedented. Many believe that the explosion in incarceration created the crime drop. In fact, the enormous growth in imprisonment only had a limited impact. And, for the past thirteen years, it has passed the point of diminishing returns, making no effective difference. We now know that we can reduce our prison populations and simultaneously reduce crime.
This has profound implications for criminal justice policy: We lock up millions of people in an effort to fight crime. But this is not working.
The link between rising incarceration and falling crime seems logical. Draconian penalties and a startling expansion in prison capacity were advertised as measures that would bring down crime. That’s what happened, right?
Not so fast. There is wide agreement that we do not yet fully know what caused crime to drop. Theories abound, from an aging population to growing police forces to reducing lead in the air. A jumble of data and theories makes it hard to sort out this big, if happy, mystery. And it has been especially difficult to pin down the role of growing incarceration.
From the
New York Daily News:
Dominique Strauss-Kahn trial: Orgy witness claims former IMF chief forced ‘impalement’ on her
A Belgian call girl claimed philandering French pol Dominique Strauss-Kahn forced her to perform an “animal” sex act — and would not take non for an answer.
“Every time I see his photo or see him, I revisit this impalement that tears me up inside because no other client would dare do that to me,” Sandrine Vandenschrik testified Wednesday at Strauss-Kahn’s trial.
Vandenschrik claimed the disgraced former International Monetary Fund boss did not seek her permission “probably because I was a prostitute.”
Strauss-Kahn, who testified earlier that he was a “libertine who likes to party,” did not deny he had sex with Vandenschrik and admitted he likes it “rougher” than most guys.
“But I have the same sexual behavior with all the women I have met,” he said.
From
CBS News:
CBS News correspondent Bob Simon, 1941-2015
Bob Simon, the longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent and legendary CBS News foreign reporter died suddenly tonight in a car accident in New York City.
The award-winning newsman was 73.
Simon's career spanned five decades, from covering the war in Vietnam to a piece on "60 Minutes" this past weekend on the Academy Award-nominated film "Selma."
From
Fortune:
Jon Stewart just punched a $350 million hole in Viacom’s value
The late-night host announced he will leave The Daily Show and Viacom’s stock dipped, erasing millions from the media company’s market value.
First Stephen Colbert, now Jon Stewart.
Shares of Viacom, the media conglomerate that owns cable network Comedy Central, dipped on Wednesday following news that the company is preparing for the departure of yet another major comedy personality.
Stewart’s announcement Tuesday night that he is stepping down as host of The Daily Show sometime later this year sent Viacom’s stock down by nearly 1.5% Wednesday. That decline erased roughly $350 million from the company’s market value over the course of the day.
From
Slate:
Why Jon Stewart Was Bad for the Liberals Who Loved Him
As a liberal, college-educated millennial—the almost prototypical viewer for The Daily Show—I’m thrilled Stewart is leaving.
I’m not saying this because Stewart has given his time or deserves to try something new. I’m saying this because Jon Stewart, with his brand of left-leaning cynicism (sprinkled with occasional earnestness), is a bad example for the liberals who watch and love him.
The emblematic Stewart posture isn’t a joke or a witticism, it’s a sneer—or if we’re feeling kind, a gentle barb—coupled with a protest: I’m just a comedian. Sometimes, this is refreshing. Of everything Stewart can be proud of in his professional career, special attention goes to his appearance on an Oct. 15, 2004, episode of CNN’s Crossfire, then-hosted by Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson. In his now famous rant, Stewart goes after the two hosts—and cable news writ large—as bad for the country. “Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America. … Right now, you’re helping the politicians and the corporations. And we’re left out there to mow our lawns,” he said.
More often however, Stewart’s stance is frustrating. His protests to the contrary, Stewart is a pundit, and like many pundits, he’s wed to a kind of anti-politics, where genuine difference doesn’t exist (or isn’t as relevant as we think) and political problem-solving is mostly a matter of will, knowledge, and technocratic know-how.
From the
New York Times:
Frantic Efforts at NBC to Curb Rising Damage Caused by Brian Williams
Hours before Brian Williams took the anchor’s chair for the nightly newscast on Feb. 4, a sense of dread began to spread through the Rockefeller Plaza offices of NBC News.
The military newspaper Stars and Stripes had just published an article in which Mr. Williams acknowledged that he had exaggerated an account of a helicopter journey in Iraq. Worse, Mr. Williams had written a weak apology, reading it first to the newspaper, then posting it on Facebook. None of his superiors knew about it.
Alarmed, the news operation immediately began scrambling to contain the damage, according to people with knowledge of the events of the last week. A team was quickly assembled to draft a statement that Mr. Williams could read during his “NBC Nightly News” show that evening to address the issue. But the Facebook post boxed them in. The explanations had to match.
Mr. Williams went on the air hours later and delivered the statement, including an apology.
From
Gizmodo:
Carriers Now Have to Agree to Unlock Your Phone Once the Contract's Paid
In the past, one of the most obnoxious things about buying a phone on contract was how carriers could allow or deny requests to unlock it, even after you paid it off. But starting today, once you've paid off your contract or owned a pre-paid phone for a year, all major US carriers have to unlock your phone for you if you ask.
Carriers also have to tell you when your phone is eligible to be unlocked, and they have to unlock phones for deployed military personnel.
This is great news. It means that if you bought an iPhone on contract with AT&T a few years ago, finished your contract, and now want to take the phone on a trip to Germany, AT&T can't refuse to unlock a post-paid phone. (AT&T has been the most difficult to deal with about unlocking phones.)
It's been a long time coming: Today is the deadline for an agreement reached between the Federal Communications Commission and wireless carriers back in 2013.
From
Entertainment Weekly:
Netflix briefly releases third season of House of Cards early
Netflix briefly released the third season of House of Cards online on Wednesday, two weeks before it was slated to premiere on the streaming site.
The season was supposed to drop on February 27, but users noticed that it became available Wednesday afternoon. After a short period of time, the list of episodes disappeared. However, episodes that were already streaming remained streaming—so those who loaded the episodes before they were yanked presumably can still watch them.
In a statement, Netflix said: “”Due to a technical glitch some Frank Underwood fans got a sneak peak. He’ll be back on Netflix on Feb. 27.“
From the
A.V. Club:
Florida senator wants to make Dinesh D’Souza’s America mandatory for students
Dinesh D’Souza, a disruptive rant at a local city council meeting that poured itself into a suit and became a filmmaker, has long stood for presenting an alternative to the mainstream version of history, whether it’s directing a movie suggesting that the genocide of Native Americans was going to happen anyway—because of diseases, and arrows—or comparing himself to Martin Luther King Jr. Traditionally that presentation has been limited to the audiences who specifically sought those movies out, eager to have their eyes opened to the imaginary truth they already believed. But now one brave lawmaker is hoping to change that history as well, in the state where D’Souza’s philosophy of divisiveness, paranoia, and not thinking things all the way through is already a proud way of life: Florida.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Florida State Senator Alan Hays has proposed a bill that would require public school students to watch D’Souza’s 2014 effort America: Imagine A World Without Her—a film that is to American history what Troy McClure’s Meat And You: Partners In Freedom is to the beef industry. By making America mandatory viewing for Florida teenagers, Hays says he hopes to counteract the message spread by their history books, which teaches them that our ancestors slaughtered indigenous tribes, brought African slaves to their shores, and stole territories from Mexico, yet neglect to say that these things were totally awesome because America is awesome.
“It’s dishonest and insulting. The students need to see the truth without political favoritism,” Hays said of the film whose back half delves into how Saul Alinsky was a literal devil-worshipper whose puppets Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will destroy the nation, then ends with D’Souza, handcuffed for self-confessed campaign finance fraud, suggesting he is a political martyr. “We live in the finest country in the world and our students need to be taught the truth, not some politically slanted opinion of a textbook author,” Hays concluded of these lies perpetrated by notoriously pompous, self-aggrandizing textbook writers.
From the
Associated Press:
Kanye West retreats on Grammys diss of Grammy winner Beck
Kanye West says he has nothing but respect for Beck. The Grammys? Not so much.
West paid a visit on Ryan Seacrest and his "On Air" radio show Wednesday to expound on his post-Grammy diss of the surprise Album of the Year winner.
The rapper walked up the steps at the Staples Center in Los Angeles as Beck was accepting his award Sunday night but retreated before re-enacting his interruption of Swift at the VMAs. During an aftershow on E!, West ranted that Beck should "respect artistry" and turn over his statue to fellow nominee Beyonce.
West told Seacrest of his stair-climbing antics: "It was kind of a joke like the Grammys themselves."
And the post-show rant?
"This is our Super Bowl, you know, and someone's gotta be mad that Marshawn didn't get the ball," he said. Marshawn being Beyonce in this scenario but Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch in actual life.
From
Cinema Blend:
How Andrew Garfield Found Out He's Not Spider-Man Anymore
According to a source, there was apparently some talk at first about a way that could see The Social Network star "continue his involvement" with the new Marvel Cinematic Universe-direction that Spider-Man is taking. Ultimately, however, it was decided that it "didn't make sense" for Garfield to stay on and it was agreed that the parties would be splitting ways.
In the time since the big announcement from Marvel Studios and Sony, we've heard a good amount of information regarding the new direction that the Spider-Man character will go in, and it does make sense that Andrew Garfield will be cut loose. After all, it is being planned that the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the webslinger will be very young, and the Amazing Spider-Man star will be turning 32 this year. If the idea is to have the wall-crawling superhero's age be a sharp contrast to the likes of Captain America and Thor, it would be helpful to get an actor who is only one year younger than Chris Evans and almost exactly the same age as Chris Hemsworth.
Leaving Andrew Garfield behind is the right move for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it is a shame that it has to happen. While The Amazing Spider-Man movies were built on a poor foundation narrative-wise, Garfield was one of the best elements in both films and really put his own twist on both the Peter Parker and Spider-Man characters. Basically, he deserved a lot better than the quality that the two blockbusters ended up having.
From
Collider:
THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. Trailer: Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer Are Spies in the 60s
Warner Bros. has released the first The Man from U.N.C.L.E. trailer for director Guy Ritchie’s adaptation of the 1960s TV series of the same name. Set during the height of the Cold War, the film stars Armie Hammer and Henry Cavill as a KGB agent and CIA agent, respectively, who are forced to team up in a joint mission to stop a mysterious criminal organization from proliferating nuclear weapons and technology. If you’ve seen Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes films, then this trailer will probably look familiar. He’s essentially pulling the same schtick, only this time in a 1960s setting. That’s not inherently a bad thing, but I’d be lying if I said this trailer didn’t make me really want to see what Steven Soderbergh had planned for the film.
Nevertheless, Cavill looks like he’s having a lot of fun and his debonair American attitude is spot on (it’s easy to see why Tom Cruise was initially cast in this role). I’m a fan of Hammer’s as well, and while he doesn’t say much in this trailer, he does the “quiet Russian” thing really well. All in all Ritchie looks to have put together a period-set action movie with a comedic twist, all done in his signature style. In other words, if you liked the Sherlock Holmes movies, I imagine you’ll like Man from U.N.C.L.E. as well.
From
/Film:
‘Aloha’ Trailer: Cameron Crowe’s Latest Features Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone
Cameron Crowe‘s latest film, Aloha, now has a trailer. It’s been a film somewhat shrouded in mystery. The project didn’t have a title for a long time, then was delayed, but now many questions about the film have been answered.
Aloha opens May 29. It stars Bradley Cooper, Rachel McAdams, Emma Stone, Danny McBride, John Krasinski, Alec Baldwin and Bill Murray ... basically the movie is what we’d heard. A military contractor screws up something royally, but then gets assigned to Hawaii to oversee a satellite launch. There, he has to deal with his ex-girlfriend, a new flame and more.
I mean – it’s a Cameron Crowe movie. That’s exciting. You can see those Crowe moments in there, the solid dialogue, the awesome use of music. But I really feel like one of two things is in play here. Either the movie is impossible to market or we have a problem. I’m gonna hope for the former. You don’t get a cast like that, a few of which are going to be coming off fresh Oscar-nominates, without a script that makes sense and works as an uplifting, unique story.
I keep thinking back to movies like Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous or Say Anything. Those are all pretty odd movies if you just write down their log lines but, ultimately, they work right? I’m hoping it’s the same for Aloha. A complicated movie that works when you watch it, but isn’t easily digestible in a 2 minute trailer.
From
Billboard:
The 20 Most Poignant Breakup Songs
Just like you can’t have love without romance, we can’t really have hearts without heartbreak, either. So it’s really no surprise that broken heart ballads have been all over the radio since the start of popular music.
So, who needs all those happy-in-love songs for Valentine's Day? Instead, we spotlight the 20 most poignant breakup songs of all time.
From
Rolling Stone:
On the Charts: Taylor Swift's '1989' Makes It 11 Weeks at Number One
One week after setting chart history by joining an elite club where only Whitney Houston was the only other female member, Taylor Swift continued her Billboard 200 reign as her 1989 stayed at Number One for an 11th non-consecutive week. Swift's fifth LP sold another 108,000 units in its 15th week on the charts.
Since its release 15 weeks ago, 1989 has topped the charts 11 times and finished Number Two four times, according to Billboard. Even after nearly four months, Swift won't drop out of the top two. Considering hers was the only album to sell over 100,000 copies last week, it doesn't seem like she'll be departing the upper echelon of the Billboard 200 anytime soon. Only four albums since 2000 have spent over 10 weeks at Number One: Adele's 21, the Frozen soundtrack, and Swift's Fearless and 1989.
As for this week's debuts, Now 53 entered the charts at Number Two with 99,000 copies sold and Fifth Harmony's Reflection bowed in at Number Five. Bob Dylan's Shadows in the Night, his collection of Frank Sinatra standards, debuted at Number Seven with 50,000 copies. That's a vast improvement over Dylan's last covers album Christmas in the Heart, which peaked at Number 23 on the Billboard 200 in 2009.
From
Cosmo:
Lawmaker Wants to Make Yoga Pants Illegal
A lawmaker in Montana is super pissed about your obscene yoga pants, you guys.
According to the Associated Press via the Billings Gazette, Rep. David Moore introduced a bill in the House Judiciary Committee designed to cut down on clothing that even hints at nudity. House Bill 365 aims to extend already existent indecent exposure laws in the state to cover nipples (including men's). The law would also make it illegal to wear certain clothes that look like or "simulate" genitals, buttocks and other naughty areas of the body. Tight fitting clothes that are nude colored or beige could also violate the law if the bill actually passes.
"Yoga pants should be illegal in public anyway," Moore told reporters after he presented his bill. LOL what?
Moore's bill is in response to outrage over a group of a naked bicycle riders who came through Missoula recently. The Bare as You Dare bicycle event was allowed to travel through the city because officials worried denying them a permit could lead to lawsuits over freedom of speech violations.