DIRE STRAITS: Control of the Strait of Hormuz was one of the demands made by Iran in the peace proposal abruptly rejected yesterday by President Trump. Iran also wanted war reparations and an end to American sanctions and blocked assets, according to a social media post by Iranian state media.

  If Iran had made any demands about  its possession of enriched uranium there was no mention of it.

  “It’s unbelievably weak,” Trump said to reporters about the Iranian reply. “After reading that piece of garbage they sent, I didn’t even finish reading it. … I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support.”

  Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei on state media described his country’s proposal as “reasonable and generous” and called on the United States to meet Iran’s demands: “ending the war, lifting blockades, halting maritime piracy, freeing frozen assets and ensuring security in the Strait of Hormuz and security in Lebanon and the region.”

  Trump also claimed that “two days ago” Iran had agreed to allow the US to enter the country and remove what he calls nuclear “dust” — the 900 pounds of enriched uranium buried under bomb rubble last June. “Just to put it on the record,” Trump said, “they said to me, ‘There are only two countries in the entire world that could ever get that stuff out of there … China and the United States, because we don’t have the equipment.’”

THE FIX: The conservative majority of the Supreme Court voted to allow Alabama to use a new congressional district map that would eliminate one of the state’s two Black majority districts that elected Democrats in 2024.

  It’s not final.  A lower court will have to reconsider the legality of the Alabama map in light of the court’s recent decision that punched a big hole in the 1965 Voting Rights Act that established majority Black districts.

  In Virginia, Democrats appealed to the Supreme Court to restore a Democrat-favorable district map just thrown out by their own state supreme court.

INFINITE SCROLL:

— President Trump is proposing suspension of the 18 cent a gallon federal gas tax until prices come down. The current AAA national average is $4.52.

  It’s over $6 in California and close to $5 in Illinois.

— A no-bid contract for repair and resurfacing of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool that President Trump had said would cost $1.8 million has ballooned to $13.1 million. Trump personally awarded the contract to a company that worked on the swimming pools at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia.

  The President is having the pool’s bottom painted “American Flag Blue.” A Washington-area nonprofit sued yesterday to stop that,  saying that the president failed to get required federal reviews. 

  Trump early this morning posted a 400-word screed about “the failing New York Times” and its coverage of the reflecting pool. 

— While Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tones down his criticisms of vaccine, The NY Times reports, “Kennedy is spearheading an intense push, across health agencies under his purview, for government scientists and federal data contractors to examine his long-held theory that vaccines are helping to fuel an epidemic of chronic disease, according to multiple people familiar with the effort.”

— The Justice Department subpoenaed records from reporters at The Wall Street Journal in a hunt for government employees leaking information to the press. The subpoenas are related to a February 23^rd article about debate within the administration about taking military action against Iran.

  Dow Jones, which publishes The Journal, said in a statement that the subpoenas “represent an attack on constitutionally protected newsgathering.” 

REAL ESTATE: Actress Angelina Jolie listed her Los Angeles estate for sale at  $29.85 million. The sprawling compound in the Los Feliz neighborhood was once owned by Cecil B. DeMille. Jolie is reported to be considering moving out of the US, having said, “I love my country, but I don’t at this time recognize my country.”

THE SPIN RACK:  Israeli lawmakers approved a bill to establish a special tribunal for trial and possible imposition of the the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of taking part in the October 7^th attack that triggered the war in Gaza. Israel’s only execution of a prisoner was that of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1962. —The family of a victim in last year’s Florida State University mass shooting has sued OpenAI, charging that the artificial intelligence engine  ChatGPT “inflamed and encouraged” the shooter’s “delusions” ahead of the attack. — NBC announced that it will produce a prime time game show based on the NY Times daily word puzzle “Wordle” with “Today Show” host Savannah Guthrie hosting.   

BELOW THE FOLD:  LA Times Food Editor Daniel Hernandez reports that a 16-course meal at the restaurant Noma LA lasting 4 hours and 37 minutes including a beverage pairing, taxes, tip, and valet cost $1,500 per person.

  He concluded that, “It feels like I’ve now been admitted into some happy, self-satisfied cult. That, I guess, is what you pay for.”

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