THE ETHICS DOCKET: On the eve of ProPublica publishing a report on how he accepted an expense-paid trip from a billionaire with cases before the Supreme Court, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. took the unusual step of placing a pre-emptive defense in the Wall Street Journal, which is a part of the Fox News empire.

  ProPublica delved into a 2008 Alaska fishing trip Alito took with hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, noting that the charter flight alone would have cost $100,000. “In the years that followed, Singer’s hedge fund came before the court at least 10 times in cases where his role was often covered by the legal press and mainstream media,” their report says. Alito did not report the trip on his annual disclosure form. ProPublica says, though, “In 2014, the court agreed to resolve a key issue in a decade-long battle between Singer’s hedge fund and the nation of Argentina. Alito did not recuse himself from the case and voted with the 7-1 majority in Singer’s favor. The hedge fund was ultimately paid $2.4 billion.”

  The justice’s defense reads like a legal brief, but basically he says he had no way of knowing Singer’s interest in court cases and he had no obligation to recuse himself. What Alito, Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts have all failed to address is why billionaires who otherwise wouldn’t care who they are love the company of Supreme Court justices.

20,000 LEAGUES: Time is up for the five occupants of the submersible Titan which went down in 13,000 feet of water in the Atlantic for a tour of the Titanic wreckage. Their oxygen supply was expected to run out at 8 this morning eastern time.

  Now when it seems apparent that there’s been a tragedy, the shortcomings of the company OceanGate and its CEO Stockton Rush are the subject of 20/20 hindsight. The 22-foot craft was made in part with off-the-shelf parts, including a computer console joystick for control. It has no seats, a 21-inch viewing bubble, and a toilet behind a curtain.

  The Titan has a limited system for communication with its mother ship and no emergency locator transmitter. In a 2022 story with CBS Sunday Morning, Rush said, “You know, there’s a limit. At some point, safety is just pure waste. I mean if you don’t just want to be safe, don’t get out of bed. Don’t get in your car. Don’t do anything. At some point, you’re going to take some risk and it really is a risk-reward question. I think I can do this just as safely by breaking the rules.”

  Rush is one of the five on board.

BAD BOY: The Republican-controlled House yesterday voted 213-209 to censure California Democrat Adam Schiff for pushing accusations that Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign coordinated with Russian influencers. Six Republicans voting “present,” which translates to “we don’t want anything to do with this.”

  A censure is a formal reprimand which is only a punishment if the target feels bad about what he did, but this is rarely done in Congress. In a raucous session, the Democrats shouted “Shame! Shame! Shame!” 

  The obvious question came up that if the Republicans are so concerned about truth and morality, they’ve done nothing about New York Rep. George Santos, who lied his way into Congress and has shady finances.

  Schiff said he would wear the censure vote “as a badge of honor.”

CURRYING FAVOR: President Biden is hosting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for meetings and a state dinner. Facing increasingly aggressive China and Russia, Biden is trying to bolster relations with other major countries.

The Obit Page: Charles Murphy, a former correspondent for NBC and ABC News and one of the greats of his time, has died in hospice care in Arlington, Texas at age 94. Charlie was smart, funny, experienced, and one of the best writers in network news.

  He covered the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the American Civil Rights Movement and for his last years made people laugh at the end of ABC’s World News Tonight with oddball feature stories.

  There’s not enough space here for Charlie. In 30 years with ABC, he covered central American civil wars and the Arab-Israeli conflict in which his car was blown up by an Israeli fighter jet. After opening the Dallas bureau in 1977, his stories included the Oklahoma City bombing, the Challenger explosion, and the Branch Davidian siege in Waco. 

 His southern drawl was best put to use for such things hunting dog graveyards in East Texas, cowboy Christmas balls in West Texas, and frog jumping competitions in Arkansas. 

THE SPIN RACK: The Federal Trade Commission is suing Amazon, claiming the company illegally used “manipulative, coercive, or deceptive” designs to enroll shoppers into the company’s auto-renewing Prime subscriptions, and making them difficult to quit. — The January 6^th rioter who used a stun gun on Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone has been sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison. Daniel Joseph “DJ” Rodriguez, 40, of Fontana, California, pled guilty in February. Fanone left the Metro PD and has been a prominent figure demanding that the Capitol rioters be brought to justice. — The search has resumed for actor Julian Sands who went missing this past winter during a hike in the snow laden San Bernardino mountains. Sands was in “A Room With a View,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” and has been a working actor with many credits. — Geraldo Rivera, a fixture on television news since the 1970s and now one of the liberal voices on Fox News’ political combat show “The Five,” says he’s quitting because “a growing tension that goes beyond editorial differences” makes it no longer tolerable for him.

BELOW THE FOLD: The Agriculture Department has approved the sale of chicken made from animal cells, allowing two California companies to offer “lab-grown” meat to restaurants tables and eventually, supermarkets. And you know, they say it tastes just like chicken.

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