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 Besame. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) 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.
Apologies in advance for the length of this OND...was called in to work at the laat minute this evening.
Chicago Tribune: Madigan's leadership becomes Democratic primary litmus test amid harassment complaints by Monique Garcia
House Speaker Michael Madigan’s undisputed political power came under attack Tuesday amid new criticism over his handling of harassment complaints as the March Democratic primary increasingly turns into a referendum on his leadership.
Madigan faced increasing calls for him to step down from the state Democratic chairman post he has held for two decades, as well as demands for an independent investigation of complaints that have led him to shed two top loyal political lieutenants in a week. The misconduct scandal comes as the long-serving speaker and his private interests as a property tax appeals lawyer already had been a focal point in several races.
The 75-year-old veteran Southwest Side power broker quickly pushed back. The calls to step down as state party chairman? “That’s not going to happen,” Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said.
As for calls for an outside investigation, the closely guarded Madigan offered to have his self-appointed counsel “assist,” raising new questions about how independent the process of looking into sexual harassment complaints will be.
FiveThirtyEight: Pennsylvania’s New Map Helps Democrats. But It’s Not A Democratic Gerrymander. By Aaron Bycoffe
Pennsylvania’s new congressional district map, released Monday by the state Supreme Court, is sure to improve Democrats’ electoral outlook in the state. Over the long term, Democrats can expect to occupy one to two additional seats compared with the current map, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis. (The state’s congressional delegation currently has 12 Republicans and five Democrats. One seat is vacant.)
The court ordered that the map be redrawn after finding that the current one, which was enacted by the Republican state legislature in 2011, was a partisan gerrymander and violated the state’s constitution. (Republicans were given a chance to submit a substitute plan — which they did. And the Democratic governor, Tom Wolf, was given a chance to reject the plan — which he did.) The map submitted by Republicans probably would have benefited them less than the current map does, but it would still have been better for the GOP than what would be expected based on the partisan makeup of the state. Because the legislature and the governor couldn’t come to an agreement, the court stepped in.
Compared with the current map, the new one could easily be mistaken for a Democratic gerrymander. In reality, it gets much closer to matching the political makeup of Pennsylvania’s electorate,1 which is about evenly divided. (President Trump carried the Keystone State by less than 1 percentage point in 2016, for example.) The new map also splits fewer municipalities and has districts that are more compact than the current one.
Trigger Warning: Here’s the stenographer of Trump White House ‘’palace intrigue’’ Maggie Haberman (w/ Julie Hirschfeld Davis) on a bit of interesting news on the palace front.
New York Times: Kushner Resists Losing Access as Kelly Tackles Security Clearance Issues by Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Maggie Haberman
Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, is resisting giving up his access to highly classified information, prompting an internal struggle with John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, over who should be allowed to see some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets, according to White House officials and others briefed on the matter.
Mr. Kushner is one of dozens of White House officials operating under interim security clearances because of issues raised by the F.B.I. during their background checks, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the clearances. The practice has drawn added scrutiny because of Rob Porter, the former staff secretary who resigned under pressure this month after domestic abuse allegations against him became public.
Mr. Porter’s post entailed handling and reviewing the flow of documents to and from the president, which routinely includes highly classified material. He had been allowed to continue in the job for more than a year with a stopgap clearance even though the F.B.I. had informed the White House of the damaging accusations against him.
Mr. Kushner’s clearance has afforded him access to closely guarded information, including the presidential daily brief, the intelligence summary Mr. Trump receives every day, but it has not been made permanent, and his background investigation is still pending after 13 months serving in Mr. Trump’s inner circle.
Buzzfeed: People Are Pissed That Florida Lawmakers Declared Porn A Health Risk But Blocked An Assault Weapons Ban by Blake Montgomery
Less than a week after a shooter killed 17 people at a school in Florida, the state's House of Representatives voted not to discuss a ban on assault weapons after earlier declaring pornography a health risk, angering people on social media.
The gun bill in question would have banned the sale or possession of automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines, like the AR-15 rifle authorities say was used at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine's Day.
With survivors of the shooting looking on, Florida House Democrats moved that the bill be brought to the floor for a debate and consideration, but Republicans voted the motion down.
A resolution on possible risks associated with pornography, however, passed the Florida House earlier in the day, with the state Senate scheduled to also hear a similar version. According to the Tampa Bay Times, the resolution on pornography "states a need for education, research and policy changes to protect Floridians, especially teenagers, from pornography."
I can’t even...
Bloomberg: Florida Teachers’ Pension Fund Invested in Maker of School Massacre Gun by Neil Weinburg and Polly Mosendz
As Florida teachers grieve over the mass shooting that left 17 students and colleagues dead last week, some of them may be surprised to learn they’ve been helping fund the firearms industry—including the company that made the gun used that bloody Wednesday.
A state pension plan for Florida teachers held 41,129 shares in American Outdoor Brands Co. valued at more than a half-million dollars, according to a Dec. 31 securities filing listing the plan’s
holdings. Formerly known as Smith & Wesson, Springfield, Massachusetts-based American Outdoors manufactured the semiautomatic AR-15 assault rifle that was used in the Feb. 14 attack on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
The securities filing, posted on the pension plan’s web site, shows that the Florida Retirement System Pension Plan also invested in gun company stock issued by Sturm & Ruger Co., Vista Outdoor Inc. and Olin Corp. All of these companies manufacture firearms or ammunition, including assault rifles.
DW: Far-right trolls active on social media before German election: research by Nik Martin
Right-wing internet trolls sought to influence Germany's federal election in September by setting up dozens of fake YouTube, Twitter and Facebook accounts to help them manipulate the online political debate, two studies released on Tuesday revealed.
One study, published by several German public broadcasters and the Süddeutsche Zeitungnewspaper, revealed how some 5,000 users on the "Reconquista Germanica" (Germany's recapture) platform planned their social media campaigns.
According to the research, the group launched a daily election countdown just three weeks before the vote, which included daily attacks on Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats/Christian Social Union alliance (CDU/CSU), the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the left-wing Die Linke party.
BBC: WHO warns of soaring rates of measles in Europe
Europe has seen a big surge in measles cases in 2017, which the World Health Organization says is a tragedy after a record low of 5,273 cases in 2016.
Cases increased four-fold, with more than 20,000 people affected and 35 deaths.
Fifteen European region countries, including the UK, had large outbreaks. Measles cases were highest in Romania, Italy and Ukraine.
People shunning vaccination is part of the problem, say experts.
Although research published 20 years ago about a possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism has been discredited, the scare it created damaged some people's trust of the vaccine.
Measles is a highly infectious viral illness that can be deadly.
The MMR vaccine can prevent it.
AlJazeera: Duterte bans Rappler reporters from presidential palace by Ted Regencia
The president of the Philippines has ordered that two journalists be banned from entering the presidential palace, an act one Filipino reporters' rights group described as "appalling and extremely unbecoming" of a president.
Independent news website Rappler reported on Tuesday that Rodrigo Duterte directly ordered his presidential security team to bar the organisation's CEO and one of its reporters from covering events at the palace.
The report was later confirmed by state television PTV.
Rappler said the president made the decision after watching a Senate hearing, in which his most trusted aide, Christopher Go, was questioned for his role in a questionable military contract.
New York Times: The Scion of a Pakistani Political Dynasty Comes Out by Saira Khan
The video, posted on the internet last summer, wasn’t supposed to be the coming-out story of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
It opens with the voice of a man wryly narrating a fictional encounter in which he is asked to leave an airplane for “speaking Arabian.” The words “Queer Muslim Proud” appear on the screen, followed by an introduction to the subject, in neon letters. As audience members in a dimly lit club cheer, Mr. Bhutto appears in a silky dress, dancing to the 1980s hit, “Disco Deewane,” by the Pakistani singer Nazia Hassan. He shimmies and sways, a pink scarf pinned to his hair, light-blue eye shadow reaching up to his eyebrows.
South Asian viewers might not have recognized Mr. Bhutto’s face but they certainly knew his name. In his native Pakistan, the news media voraciously covered the short film. The reaction focused, in a negative way, on him being a queer Muslim man.
“Perhaps I was a bit naïve,” Mr. Bhutto said in a phone interview. “I had been under the radar for so long, I didn’t think people cared as much as they did.”
AUSTIN, Texas — An analysis of the metals in dozens of Picasso’s bronze sculptures has traced the birthplace of a handful of the works of art to the outskirts of German-occupied Paris during World War II.
This is the first time that the raw materials of Picasso’s sculptures have been scrutinized in detail, conservation scientist Francesca Casadio of the Art Institute of Chicago said February 17 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. And the elemental “fingerprints” help solve a mystery surrounding the sculptures’ origins.
“In collaboration with curators, we can write a richer history of art that is enriched by scientific findings,” Casadio said.
Casadio and colleagues from the Art Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., studied 39 bronzes in the collection of the Picasso Museum in Paris. The team used a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer to record the amount of copper, tin, zinc and lead at several points on each sculpture.
Guardian: I didn't give a damn if it didn't sell': how Isaac Hayes helped create psychedelic soul by Jim Farber
Fifty years ago, psychedelia met soul. The genres’ first flirtation came courtesy of The Chambers Brothers, whose 1968 chart hit Time Has Come Today used a fuzz-toned guitar, ominous tick-tock effects and echoing reverb to create a portentous, 11-minute trip into the unknown. Sly and his Family Stone extended the link between the genres the next April with their 13-minute soul jam Sex Machine, but only Isaac Hayes had the vision and moxie to create the first album-length marriage of soul’s roots and psychedelia’s ambition.
When Hayes released Hot Buttered Soul in September of 1969, it ripped apart the rules for what kinds of music black artists could market. Comprised of just four sprawling tracks, the album liberated commercial black artists from the singles-driven mandate that had yoked them for so long. In the process, Hayes inspired a renaissance in black album-oriented releases from artists like Curtis Mayfield, George Clinton, Marvin Gaye, the Isley Brothers and more. Better, Hayes created a work seminal enough to be sampled by over 89 hip-hop stars decades down the line, including Tupac, Biggie Smalls and Wu-Tang Clan.
Now, a decade after Hayes’ death from a stroke at the age of 65, Hot Buttered Soul is getting a fresh reissue via the historically minded Craft Recordings. The new package, which arrives 23 February, will come in sterling 180g vinyl form with remastered sound and handsome packaging. Simultaneously, Craft will issue pristine versions of Hayes’ Theme from Shaft soundtrack, which made him one of the few black stars of his day to win an Oscar, plus a remastered take on his double album follow-up, Black Moses. That trio of re-releases follows a four CD set of Hayes’ work which arrived last fall, tied to the 60th anniversary of the label where he rose to prominence, Stax Records.
ESPN: NCAA denies Louisville's appeal, rules Cardinals must vacate 2013 national title by Mark Schlabach
The Louisville men's basketball program will have to vacate its 2013 national championship and 2012 Final Four appearance after the NCAA denied its appeal of what the school described as "draconian penalties" levied against the team last year.
The NCAA announced its ruling Tuesday. Louisville interim president Greg Postel said in a statement Tuesday that the school still disagrees with the NCAA's ruling.
"I cannot say this strongly enough: We believe the NCAA is simply wrong," Postel said. "We disagree with the NCAA ruling for reasons we clearly stated in our appeal. And we made a strong case -- based on NCAA precedent -- that supported our argument."
The Cardinals will become the first NCAA Division I men's basketball program to vacate a national title during the Final Four era, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
"We'll remove the official recognition, but it won't remove it from our hearts and minds," Louisville interim athletics director Vince Tyra said during a news conference held shortly after the NCAA's announcement. "It brings closure to one of these situations. It's not going to bring closure to the successes and memories our teams had. I'm sad for our players and certainly our staff members."
Yeah, you know what else won’t be removed from my mind and heart?
That wasn’t a foul.
Don’t forget that Mr. Meteor Blades is hosting an open thread for night owls tonight.
Everyone have a great evening!