School for Scandal: Federal authorities yesterday filed criminal charges against 50 parents, coaches, and college administrators in a scheme to get rich kids into college. Among the accused are prominent actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Laughlin, who is accused of paying half a million dollars to get her two daughters into USC posing as rowers.

  One of Loughlin’s daughters posted online that she doesn’t care about school, she just wants to go to parties.

  The colleges, which have not been accused of involvement, include Wake Forest, Yale, Stanford, and the University of Southern California. 

  At least 33 parents are accused of paying to get their kids admitted as talented athletes or had their academic credentials pumped up. In some cases, prosecutors said, the kids didn’t know what their parents were doing.

  At the heart of the biggest college admissions scam ever prosecuted is William Singer,  founder of a college preparatory business known as The Key. Singer, who has pleaded guilty and cooperated, was accused of helping students cheat on their admissions tests, and to pay bribes to the coaches who could get them into college with fake athletic credentials.

  The parents didn’t want to do it the old-fashioned way; buying the school a building.

  The indictment says Singer sometimes got a stand-in to take the kids’ college exams or correct their answers later. The charges also say Singer created fake athletic profiles, making teenage couch potatoes into star swimmers, water polo and soccer players. They photo-shopped pictures of the applicants onto photos  of real athletes. The FBI investigation was called “Operation Varsity Blues.”

Wheels Down:As the Federal Aviation Administration comes under increasing pressure to ground Boeing 737 Max 8 planes in the US, the European Union has ordered a halt to all flights by the Max 8. The FAA says it’s too early to ground the planes.

  Boing stock fell another 6 percent yesterday after a 5 percent drop Monday. The president of Boeing called President Trump after the President tweeted that passenger jets have become too technologically complicated for pilots to fly them.

  He wrote, “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Albert Einstein to be my pilot. I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of a plane!”

  Trump has a point. There is now a long history of passenger jets crashing when something goes wrong with the automation and the pilots are unable to take control

The Brexit Mess:Britain’s parliament for a second time yesterday rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan for exiting the European Union, potentially casting the country economically adrift as the march 29 exit date approaches.

  May had hoped that last-minute concessions from the EU might have put her over the top. What’s amazing here is that May keeps losing major votes and manages to keep her job.

  “Let me be clear that voting against leaving without a deal and for an extension does not solve the problems we face,” May said. “The EU will want to know what use we mean to make of such an extension and the House will have to answer that question.”

Blackout:As Venezuela’s national power blackout approaches a full week, the government says it’s investigating whether opposition leader Juan Guaidó is responsible. It seems pretty improbable.

  Food and water are growing scarcer during the outage. The US is leading an international effort to force President Nicolás Maduro from power and recognize Guaidó as the rightful president of the country. As the situation grows worse, Secy. of State Mike Pompeo announced that he’s pulling out his diplomatic personnel.

Penitent in the Penitentiary:Australian Cardinal George Pell, formerly the Vatican’s chief financial officer and a close adviser to Pope Francis, has been sentenced to six years in prison for sexually molesting two boys. The judge said, “I would characterize these breaches and abuses as grave” and, “Your conduct was permeated by staggering arrogance.”

Encore:Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is back in court today for sentencing in a second criminal case, this time in front of a tougher judge. He faces up to 10 years in prison on top of the four he’s already been given.

  The 69-year-old Manafort pleaded guilty to conspiracy, and this is the case in which he lied to prosecutors even after he agreed to cooperate.

Death be Not Proud:California Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected today to sign an order suspending the death penalty in his state for as long as he is governor. There are 737 inmates living on death row. 

  “Our death penalty system has been — by any measure — a failure,” Newsom said in a written statement. “It has provided no public safety benefit or value as a deterrent. It has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars. But most of all, the death penalty is absolute, irreversible and irreparable in the event of a human error.”

 President Trump registered his dissent on Twitter. “Defying voters, the Governor of California will halt all death penalty executions of 737 stone cold killers. Friends and families of the always forgotten VICTIMS are not thrilled, and neither am I!”

  Let’s remember that treason can also carry the death penalty.

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