Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Doctor RJ, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) wader, planter, JML9999, 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 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
From the Los Angeles Times: Eleven coffins, all in a row: One of the worst of Mexico's earthquake tragedies unfolded at the church in Atzala
It was supposed to be a joyous occasion, the baptism of a baby girl in this sweltering sugar-cane hub south of Mexico City.
But the celebration at Santiago the Apostle Catholic Church turned abruptly tragic Tuesday when a massive earthquake rocked violently through the main square.
The colonial-style church shuddered, and chunks of masonry crashed to the ground. Eleven people were killed.
Among the victims: Three-month-old Elideth Torres de Leon, who was to be baptized; her sister, Maria, 8; and the girls’ mother, Manuela de Leon Garcia, 27.
From the New York Times: At Mexican School Hit by Quake, Heartbreak and Dwindling Hope
Gustavo López recognized the boy’s clothes first.
His tiny frame, pulled from the wreckage, lay over the jagged pieces of what remained of the school. It was his 7-year-old son.
He sat in shock for hours, quietly trying to maintain strength for his 9-year-old daughter, who had escaped the school unharmed. He wondered how to tell her that her younger brother, also named Gustavo, was dead — one of at least 30 children who perished at the Enrique Rebsámen school after it collapsed in the earthquake that devastated Mexico on Tuesday, killing more than 200 people.
Mr. López waited there for his cousin, Mauricio, who loved the boy and often took him on bike rides and to the movies. By the time Mauricio arrived a few hours later, hundreds of medical personnel, rescuers, volunteers and families were racing around, trying to unearth students still buried in the rubble.
“He was my son, too,” Mauricio screamed when he heard the news, collapsing onto the upturned earth as Mr. López tried to console him. “I can’t bear this; I can’t!”
From the Washington Post: Puerto Rico entirely without power as Hurricane Maria hammers island with devastating force
Hurricane Maria delivered a destructive full-body blow to this U.S. territory on Wednesday, ripping off metal roofs, generating terrifying and potentially lethal flash floods, knocking out 100 percent of the island's electrical grid and decimating some communities.
With sustained winds of 155 mph at landfall — a strong Category 4 storm and nearly a Category 5 — Maria was so powerful that it disabled radar, weather stations and cell towers across Puerto Rico, leaving an information vacuum in which officials could only speculate about property damage, injuries or deaths.
"Definitely Puerto Rico — when we can get outside — we will find our island destroyed," Abner Gómez, director of Puerto Rico's emergency management agency, said in a midday news conference here. "The information we have received is not encouraging. It's a system that has destroyed everything it has had in its path."
The entire island experienced hurricane conditions, with 20 inches or more of rain falling, often at torrential rates of up to seven inches per hour, leading to reports of raging floodwaters and people seeking help to escape them.
From TIME: During Trump's Campaign, Paul Manafort Offered to Privately Brief a Russian Billionaire Friend of Putin's
In the middle of Donald Trump's presidential run, then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort said he was willing to provide "private briefings" about the campaign to a Russian billionaire the U.S. government considers close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Manafort's offer was memorialized in an email exchange with a former employee of his political consulting firm in July 2016. It was first reported by The Washington Post, which said portions of Manafort's emails were read to reporters.
Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni confirmed to The Associated Press that the email exchanges were legitimate but said no briefings ever occurred. The email involved an offer for Oleg Deripaska, a wealthy Russian who made his money in the aluminum business.
From Bloomberg: Hack of SEC Corporate Filing System May Have Led to Illicit Trading Profits
The vulnerability of governments and businesses to cyberattacks was exposed again Wednesday when a top U.S. financial regulator said hackers had breached its electronic database of market-moving corporate announcements, and may have profited from the information they stole.
The hack of an aspect of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Edgar filing system occurred in 2016, the regulator said in a statement. But it wasn’t until last month that the agency concluded the cybercriminals involved may have used their bounty to make illicit trades.
Edgar houses millions of filings on corporate disclosures ranging from quarterly earnings to statements on mergers and acquisitions. Infiltrating the SEC’s system to review announcements before they are released publicly would serve as a virtual treasure trove for a hacker seeking to make easy money.
SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said the agency’s review of the breach is ongoing and that it’s “coordinating with the appropriate authorities.”
From CNN: Here's what would happen to Jimmy Kimmel's son if Graham-Cassidy passes
It was frightening news that every parent dreads: Hours after the birth of their son, Jimmy Kimmel and his wife were informed by doctors that Billy had a complex heart condition and would need immediate surgery.
That life-altering moment for the late-night comic has spurred a heated national debate about the ongoing Republican campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act. On his show Tuesday night, Kimmel blasted one Republican senator in particular -- Louisiana's Bill Cassidy -- for having "lied right to my face."
Kimmel was referring to Cassidy's vow earlier this year to only support a health care legislation if it passed a "Jimmy Kimmel test" -- that a child born with a congenital heart disease like Billy Kimmel would "be able to get everything she or he would need in that first year of life," the senator said on CNN in May.
But the Graham-Cassidy Obamacare repeal bill, Kimmel argued this week, doesn't even come close to fulfilling that promise of protecting people with pre-existing conditions. "Not only did Bill Cassidy fail the Jimmy Kimmel test, he failed the Bill Cassidy test," Kimmel said in a lengthy monologue Tuesday night. "He failed his own test."
From NBC News: ‘He Can’t Hear You!’: Deaf Man Shot Dead by Oklahoma City Police as Neighbors Scream in Horror
A deaf man carrying a metal pipe was fatally shot by Oklahoma City police on Tuesday night as neighbors frantically tried to tell officers that he couldn't hear their commands.
Magdiel Sanchez, 35, was shot and Tasered on a porch on Tuesday around 8:15 p.m. after he allegedly advanced toward officers following a hit-and-run involving his father, Police Capt. Bo Mathews said Wednesday.
The encounter unfolded after witnesses called police to report the hit-and-run, and said the driver, Sanchez's father, had fled the scene and driven to the residence. Mathews did not know if anyone was injured in the crash, but said the car hadn't struck anyone. Sanchez was not in the car at the time of the hit-and-run and had no criminal history, officials said.
From BBC News: UK scientists edit DNA of human embryos
The blueprint for life - DNA - has been altered in human embryos for the first time in the UK.
The team at the Francis Crick Institute are unravelling the mysteries of the earliest moments of life.
Understanding what happens after a sperm fertilises an egg could lead to ways of improving IVF or explain why some women miscarry.
The embryos were modified shortly after fertilisation and allowed to develop for seven days.
The researchers are exploring one of the most astounding of transformations.
We have all journeyed from a single fertilised egg to a human being - built from myriad different tissues ranging from bone to those needed to read this page.
The first few steps on that journey are as critical as they are poorly understood.
From Variety: MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell Apologizes for Leaked Tirade
MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell has issued an apology after a clip leaked of him verbally berating his staff while taping his nightly news show.
“A better anchorman and a better person would’ve had a better reaction to technical difficulties,” O’Donnell wrote on Twitter. “I’m sorry.”
Earlier on Wednesday, a series of clips obtained by Mediate show O’Donnell repeatedly cursing at his staffers for problems with his earpiece. The clips seem to be from the August 29 episode of “The Last Word,” which O’Donnell anchors for MSNBC.
In the clips, O’Donnell becomes visibly angry after complaining multiple times that he is hearing someone in the control room speaking about matters unrelated to that night’s show in his earpiece. At one point he slams his fists on his desk and is heard muttering “God dammit.” He becomes more and more upset until finally standing up and screaming, “Stop the hammering up there! Who’s got a hammer? Where is it? Where the hammer? Go up on the other floor…I’ll go down to the goddamned floor myself and stop it! Keep the goddamned commercial break going! Call f—ing [MSNBC president] Phil Griffin! I don’t care who the f—k you have to call!”
Later, O’Donnell throws a pen violently to the floor, saying, “Jesus Christ, crazy f—ing sound coming in my ear, this f—ing stupid hammering…It just f—ing sucks. It f—ing sucks to be out here with this out of control s–t.”
From the Los Angeles Times: California to sue Trump administration over plan for U.S.-Mexico border wall
California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra plans to announce a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of the state that will challenge President Trump’s proposal to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, a project Becerra has called “medieval.”
Becerra is scheduled to travel to Border Field State Park near San Diego to announce that a lawsuit is being filed in federal court over construction of border wall projects in San Diego and Imperial counties.
The lawsuit, which includes the California Coastal Commission as a plaintiff, states its purpose is "to protect the State of California’s residents, natural resources, economic interests, procedural rights, and sovereignty from violations of the United States Constitution" and federal law. It adds that the wall would have a chilling effect on tourism to the United States from Mexico.
The state's lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration has failed to comply with federal and state environmental laws and relied on federal statutes that don't authorize the proposed projects. The brief alleges the federal government violated the U.S. Constitution's separation-of-powers doctrine "by vesting in the Executive Branch the power to waive state and local laws, including state criminal law." The lawsuit also says the Department of Homeland Security decided to build the walls without complying with the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
From SF Gate: Suspect in Starbucks robbery may sue man who stopped him
A man credited with stopping a robbery of a Starbucks in July might now be sued by the suspect, over wounds the would-be robber received from the Good Samaritan.
Ryan Flores, 30, is facing charges for second-degree robbery and assault with a deadly weapon, stemming from a robbery of a Fresno Starbucks. Flores was arrested after he allegedly tried to rob a barista with a fake gun and wearing a Transformers mask — and in the process, he was subdued by a customer and stabbed with his own knife.
Cregg Jerri, 58, was that customer, and he intervened in the attempted robbery by hitting Flores with a chair from behind. Flores pulled out a knife and fought back, with the two men wrestling over the weapon. Jerri sustained a stab wound to the neck, but was able to take the knife away, and stab Flores an apparent 17 times during the fight.
Flores's mother, Pamela Chimienti, described Jerri's actions as "excessive force" and told KSEE that Flores planned to file a lawsuit. "The guy, in my opinion, went from a Good Samaritan to a vigilante," Chimienti told the broadcast news station. "Stabbing somebody that many times, it doesn't take that many stab wounds to get somebody to succumb to you."