Hurricane Hits Florida, Space X Explosion

Heavy Weather: Hurricane Hermine made landfall overnight in the Florida panhandle bringing winds up to 80 mph. Power was knocked out, trees blown over, and a storm surge created flooding. Hermine is expected to move up the East Coast bringing as much as 10 inches of rain as far north as Maryland. CBS News reports that the hurricane may speed the spread of Zika virus.

Final Frontier: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blew up on the launching pad yesterday at Cape Canaveral in a test before the planned launch of a communications satellite. The rocket was being fueled when it erupted into flames. It’s a setback for both SpaceX and NASA, which is looking to private contractors to resupply the International Space Station.

The Money Poll: Hillary Clinton raised a whopping $143 million for her campaign and the Democratic Party in August, bulking up her war chest heading into the fall finals.

Clinton has been slipping a bit in the polls. The Real Clear Politics average has her at a 5.9 percent lead over Donald Trump.

It’s Political: Some Hispanic leaders who had supported Donald Trump expressed extreme disappointment after his Wednesday night immigration speech in which he said there would be no path to legal residency in the US for immigrants who entered the country illegally. They said they were “crushed,” ”disappointed” and “confused.” One said, “We heard a populist propaganda con artist and I’m done with it.”

Alfonso Aguilar, President of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, said, “I’m withdrawing my support. I was expecting something very different last night.” — Melania Trump is suing the British tabloid The Daily Mail and an American blog called Tarpley for $150 million, claiming they falsely reported that she once worked for an escort service. Both the Mail and Tarpley have retracted their stories — CBS Marketwatch notes that stocks in gun companies are rising, speculating whether that’s an indicator Hillary Clinton will be elected. Gun sales rise when people fear new restrictions on guns.

Late News: As a way of apologizing and trying to make good, Georgetown University is offering preferential admission to the descendants of 272 slaves the school sold to raise money in 1838. There are as many as 15,000. Georgetown held slaves until emancipation in 1862.

Get The Lead Out: More than 1,000 residents of a housing complex in East Chicago, Ind., are scrambling to find new homes after the mayor’s sudden decision to knock down the apartment buildings and an adjacent school because of dangerous amounts of lead found in the dirt surrounding the area. Children have tested with dangerously high lead levels.

The complex was built in 1972 on the site of an old lead smelting company. Government authorities have known the danger for years, but residents were not told until a month ago.

The Obit Page: Marc Riboud, the French photographer who snapped a picture that became an iconic symbol of the Vietnam peace movement, has died at age 93. The picture shows a young woman holding a flower near her face, standing just inches from the fixed bayonets of a line of National Guardsmen.

Prairie Home Advice: Garrison Keillor, the retired host of A Prairie Home Companion, wrote in the Chicago Tribune a note of advice to Donald Trump, without mentioning him by name. Keillor says, “The cap does not look good on you, it’s a duffer’s cap, and when you come to the microphone, you look like the warm-up guy, the guy who announces the license number of the car left in the parking lot, doors locked, lights on, motor running. The brim shadows your face, which gives a sinister look, as if you’d come to town to announce the closing of the pulp factory. Your eyes look dead and your scowl does not suggest American greatness so much as American indigestion. Your hair is the wrong color: People don’t want a president to be that shade of blond. You know that now.”

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Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Page Two

The Most Corrupt Justice

Monday, October 2, 2023

Democracy and Video in the Dark

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Page Two: Do the Right Thing

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Page Two: Sound Recall

Monday, September 13, 2021

Page Two: Cuomo Must Go

Friday, August 13, 2021

Trump and the Truth

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The “Great” President

Monday, March 30, 2020

The Wright Stuff

Saturday, February 29, 2020

It's Been Said

"In my mind, I’ve never crossed the line with anyone, but I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn. There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn’t fully appreciate, and I should have, no excuses."

-Andrew Cuomo, resigning as governor of New York after accusations of sexual harassment

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