ORANGE ALERT: The start of trial for Donald Trump on charges of possessing and mishandling top secret government documents after he left the White House has been set for May 20, 2024, near the end of the primary season but less than two months before the Republican National Convention in July. Trump had asked for the trial to be delayed until after the 2024 election and the Justice Department wanted it to be in December.

  Federal Judge Aileen Cannon said the trial is to be held in her home courthouse in the coastal city of Fort Pierce, Florida north of Miami. The jury would be drawn from several counties that went for Trump in 2024.

  Trump will be required to be in court for the trial, and that’s going to interfere with campaigning for president. Trump will fight for acquittal, but his backup strategy is to win the election then pardon himself after taking office.

  He said on an Iowa radio show this week that it would be “very dangerous” if he were sent to prison, since his supporters have “much more passion than they had in 2020.”

THE WAR ROOM: Russian authorities arrested Igor Girkin, a former Russian commander in Ukraine and prominent war blogger who has been critical not of the war, but of how it’s being fought. Criticizing the war and the military is illegal in Russia.

  His arrest is a sign of continuing internal political conflict in Russia. Girkin is a former officer in the Federal Security Service, or FSB. He played a role in Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014 and then served as a commander in Russian-controlled areas of Donbas in eastern Ukraine, where he helped foment a separatist war and was accused of extrajudicial killings.

  Girkin was sentenced to life in prison at The Hague for having a hand in the 2014 shoot down of a Malaysia airlines jet.

WEATHER REPORT: The dangerous heat wave that has engulfed the Southwest and Southeast is expected to abate this weekend, at least for a few days. By late next week excessive heat and humidity is expected to return to the Southern Plains and Deep South.

  July is shaping up to be the planet’s hottest month on record as global warming, El Niño, and regional heat waves cook Earth. Government officials say that 2023 and 2024 may end up being the hottest years ever.

THE OBIT PAGE: Tony Bennett, one of the last of the greats from the golden age of vocalists who sang the works of Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Duke Ellington, and Rodgers and Hammerstein, has died at age 96. Bennett sang in a league with the likes Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, and Frank Sinatra. 

  He had an indefinable but distinctive grain in his voice. There’s hardly a lover of music who does not know Bennett’s rendition of “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” but in a career that lasted more than 70 years, he kept alive what’s known as The Great American Songbook. “Rags to Riches,” “The Good Life,” “The Best is Yet to Come,” “Stranger in Paradise.”:

  In the 60s and 70s when rock music was pushing aside his genre, he refused to change his tune. “I wanted to sing the great songs, songs that I felt really mattered to people,” he said in his autobiography, “The Good Life.”

  He kept an open mind, notably in his album collaborations and tours with, of all people, Lady Gaga.

  Bennett served in the Army near the end of World War II, seeing action in the Battle of the Bulge and liberating a concentration camp. He was demoted after being seen having dinner with a fellow soldier who was Black.

  Although Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, his last public performance was in August 2021 with Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall in a show titled “One Last Time.”

THE SPIN RACK: The Justice Department has notified Texas that it plans to sue if the state doesn’t remove Gov. Greg Abbott’s border barrier floating in the Rio Grande to block illegal migrants.  The DOJ letter to Abbott says, “The State of Texas’ actions violate federal law, raise humanitarian concerns, present serious risks to public safety and the environment, and may interfere with the federal government’s ability to carry out its official duties.” — Alabama’s Republican Gov. Kay Ivey approved a new congressional map with just one majority-Black district, ignoring a court order to redraw the lines creating two majority-Black districts or “something quite close to it.” Ivey said in a statement, “The Legislature knows our state, our people and our districts better than the federal courts or activist groups, and I am pleased that they answered the call, remained focused and produced new districts ahead of the court deadline.” — A black bear that was being tracked and studied by the National Park Service was hit and killed this week on California’s 101 Freeway in Ventura County. The 3-4 year old bear known as BB-12 had been captured, tagged, and was being GPS-tracked in its the range. 

BELOW THE FOLD: Amidst the Hollywood writers and actors strike, the movie Barbie based on the ubiquitous Mattel doll is predicted to gross as much as $150 million at the box office. 

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