Daniel Victor

Elijah Cummings, who died in October at age 68, had represented Baltimore’s 7th Congressional District for 13 terms beginning in 1996, and rose to become among the House’s most powerful Democrats. Cummings was a leading Democrat in the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump, and his funeral was attended by thousands of mourners, many who praised him as a champion of civil rights and working people.

Rockeymoore Cummings, 48, who founded the consulting firm Global Policy Solutions, said she would resign as chair of the state party, a role she held for a year.

She ran for governor of Maryland in 2017 but dropped out in January 2018, citing Cummings’ failing health. Rockeymoore Cummings holds a doctorate in political science from Purdue University, and was a legislative aide on Capitol Hill, at the National Urban League and for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.

Cummings told her six months ago that he wanted her to take over his seat, she said on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Monday. Rockeymoore Cummings said she had “fought right alongside Elijah for the last 12 years.”

“I believe very strongly that I have the background, and the focus, and the commitment, and the ability to take the reins and to make a good run for this seat,” she said.

A special election is planned for April 28, with primaries on Feb. 4. Several Democrats have already announced plans to run for the seat.

Rockeymoore Cummings told The Sun that she planned to have a preventive double mastectomy Friday, taking her off the campaign trail for as much as four weeks.

This article originally appeared in

Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, Widow of Elijah Cummings, Will Run for Congress

Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, a policy consultant and chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party, will run for the congressional seat vacated by her husband, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, who died last month. “I am, of course, devastated at the loss of my spouse, but his spirit is with me,” she told The Baltimore Sun on Monday. “I’m going to run this race and I’m going to run it hard, as if he’s still right here by my side.”

He was also the first black person to be independently elected to a statewide office in Kentucky, and the first Republican attorney general elected in the state in more than 70 years.

The current lieutenant governor, Jenean Hampton, is also a black Republican, but she was voted into office as Gov. Matt Bevin’s running mate in the 2015 election.

Cameron, 33, will replace Andy Beshear, a Democrat who defeated Bevin to become the state’s next governor. In his acceptance speech, Cameron said he would “get back to the bread-and-butter basics of being the chief law enforcement officer in defending and enforcing the laws.”

During his campaign, Cameron supported President Donald Trump’s push for a border wall, and voiced traditional Republican views in opposing abortion and gun control. When Trump held a rally in Lexington on the eve of the election, he introduced Cameron by saying “a star is born.”

Cameron defeated Greg Stumbo, a Democrat who served as attorney general from 2004 to 2008 and was speaker of the state’s House of Representatives from 2009 to 2017.

Cameron, a former football player at the University of Louisville, overcame accusations that he was too inexperienced for the job, having graduated from law school just eight years ago. He served as McConnell’s legal counsel in Washington from 2015 to 2017, and since 2017 has worked at a private law firm.

He said in a recent interview with The Lexington Herald-Leader that his closeness with the Trump administration would help secure federal resources for the state’s fight against drugs.

“The time I spent working with our law enforcement community when I was Senator McConnell’s general counsel gave me the breadth of relationships, helping them confront what I, in many ways, think has become the public safety challenge of our lifetime — the drug epidemic,” he told the newspaper.

Daniel Cameron Becomes First Black Attorney General Elected in Kentucky

Daniel Cameron, a former legal counsel for Sen. Mitch McConnell, won his race for attorney general of Kentucky on Tuesday, making him the first black person to be elected to the office in the state.

It has the history. Paul Castellano, who led the Gambino crime family until he was murdered in Manhattan in 1985, conducted business from his Benedict Road mansion. It has also been the home of many other reputed mobsters, including Salvatore Gravano, known as Sammy the Bull, a onetime hit man who informed on his boss, John Gotti.

It also has the look. A Tudor-style house on Longfellow Avenue famously served as the setting of Vito Corleone’s home in “The Godfather,” where the Mafia don greeted guests during his daughter’s wedding in the opening scenes of the movie.

On Wednesday night, Francesco Cali, the reputed boss of the Gambino family, was fatally shot outside his home on Hilltop Terrace, opening a new chapter of Mafia folklore for a typically peaceful neighborhood with some of New York’s City’s finest views and homes. Cali was shot six times and pronounced dead at Staten Island University Hospital.

Topping out at about 400 feet, the highest point on the Eastern Seaboard south of Maine, the neighborhood’s homes offer panoramic vistas of the New York City skyline, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, New York Harbor and the New Jersey shore. It is filled with opulent, custom-built mansions currently listed for as much as $4 million.

It tends to attract doctors, lawyers and executives who value their privacy and aren’t planning any neighborhood cookouts. The irregular streets have no curbs or sidewalks. Well-aged trees offer natural separators between the large plots of land. One resident said Wednesday that he had lived in his house for 12 years and never met his neighbors.

“It’s not very conducive to bringing people pumpkin pies,” Ella Goldin, a Todt Hill resident, told The New York Times in 2011.

The neighborhood is seen as a serene getaway from the bustling city. About 20 miles from midtown Manhattan — about an hour and 15 minutes by car, or an hour and 45 minutes by train and ferry — it has no restaurants or shopping, mostly just trees and homes. Centers of activity include the Richmond Country Club and the elite Staten Island Academy.

“It is charming and elegant, and sometimes when I come up the hill, I feel like I’m in Europe,” Michelle Nicolo told The Times in 2005, shortly after moving in.

Though the neighborhood has generally low crime rates, a brazen crime spree in the 1990s laid bare the neighborhood’s Mafia connections. Investigators tracking a series of burglaries learned that several organized crime members had been victims, leading to an uneasy chase between police and the mobsters to find the burglars first. The thieves had made off with more than $2 million in cash, electronics and jewelry, including pinkie rings.

The culprits, Michael McLean and Robert Mede, were eventually caught after McLean used two Broadway tickets he had stolen. The Todt Hill victim went to the theater, tipping off a police officer after they took their seats.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/nyregion/todt-hill-staten-island.html" id="5e666660-8100-35ca-ae33-e30dfd8d1c47">The New York Times</a>.

Todt Hill on Staten Island: Frank Cali's Neighborhood Is Known for Mob Ties

NEW YORK — Cloaked in green, perched high above the city and offering the kind of privacy that would appeal to mob bosses, Todt Hill on Staten Island would in many ways be a fitting location for an old-fashioned Mafia hit.

Even the right-wing publication’s audience of more than 36 million people, eclipsing many of the nation’s largest news organizations, doesn’t know much about the company or who’s behind it.

In a New York Times investigation, Nicholas Confessore and Justin Bank found that the site, which stokes outrage and curates a narrative in which conservatives and their values are under constant assault, is caught in a high-stakes clash between Silicon Valley and Washington. The site has struggled to maintain its audience through Facebook’s and Google’s algorithmic changes aimed at reducing disinformation — actions the site’s leaders see as evidence of political bias.

Here’s what the Times reporters learned.

— The Western Journal’s audience is huge but precarious.

The publication does almost no original reporting, instead repackaging stories found elsewhere that fit into right-wing narratives chosen by the site’s editors. After an editor finds a worthy story, it is handed off to a pool of contract writers who typically have 30 minutes to write a story. Most work remotely.

It was a model that worked strikingly well — for a while. In the three years ending in March, Western Journal posts on Facebook earned three-quarters of a billion shares, likes and comments, nearly as many as the combined tally of 10 leading U.S. news organizations.

But each of the tech giants began limiting its reach. Google News blacklisted it for what it considered deceptive business practices, Apple News followed after saying it produced stories that promoted “views overwhelmingly rejected by the scientific community,” and Facebook downgraded The Western Journal after it was repeatedly dinged on fact-checking sites.

— Its founder has a history of divisive politics.

Floyd G. Brown, who founded the site, is a political activist who has chosen writing as his weapon. He began his career with the race-baiting “Willie Horton” ad during the 1988 presidential campaign, which used mug shots of a black convicted murderer to stoke fears that the Democratic candidate, Michael Dukakis, was soft on crime.

In the 1990s, he peddled opposition research and conspiracy theories about Bill Clinton. In the 2000s, he helped form a network of political action committees that made ads attacking Barack Obama, including one that questioned whether Obama was a secret Muslim.

The company also has unusually close ties with a pro-Trump PAC, America Fighting Back. Brown is the PAC’s chairman.

Brown’s son Patrick served as chief executive of the site until he stepped down in August to take a medical leave. Early in his publishing career, Patrick Brown initially focused on uplifting and nonpolitical stories but eventually adopted a right-wing focus.

— The site has amplified claims of political bias in Big Tech.

The Western Journal’s leaders didn’t buy explanations from the technology companies on why the publication had been downgraded or suspended, echoing the common complaint in conservative media that Big Tech was biased against them.

To cope with the changes, it began, in the words of Patrick Brown, “backing into something that looks more like a traditional media company.” It launched a corrections page and hired copy editors with traditional journalism training. It removed thousands of old stories, published editorial standards and renamed its army of related Facebook pages to tie them to a single brand.

It has now rebounded but is about half its prior size. Later this year, the Browns will release a smartphone app intended to sidestep the gatekeeping of Big Tech.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/22/us/western-journal-highlights.html" id="bca50304-dd9d-32e4-a8d0-ad3a5a62fcae">The New York Times</a>.

A Business Built on Disinformation: Highlights From The Times' Investigation

It may not be a household name, but few publications have had the reach, and potentially the influence, in U.S. politics as The Western Journal.

Police in Los Angeles said Edwin Hiatt, who lives in North Carolina, admitted during a police interview in March to killing Crane in 1985. Talking to reporters as he was guided into a jail in Burke County, Hiatt was asked by a WSOC-TV reporter if he could have been the killer.

“Anything is possible back then,” he said, because “I was big into drugs.”

The case went cold for decades, but investigators were led to North Carolina in 2018 when a fingerprint specialist matched a print from Crane’s car to Hiatt, according to The News-Herald. An FBI surveillance team took a disposable coffee cup and discarded cigarette butts without Hiatt’s knowledge, according to court documents seen by the newspaper.

Hiatt’s DNA matched cigarette butts recovered from the ashtray of Crane’s stolen car, the court documents said, according to the newspaper.

Hiatt was charged with murder and is scheduled to appear in court Friday morning.

Crane, who was born Barry Cohen, directed episodes of several popular television shows in the 1970s and 1980s, including “The Incredible Hulk,” “Hawaii Five-O” and “The Six Million Dollar Man.” He produced “Mission Impossible” and “The Magician.”

On weekends, he traveled across the country to play bridge, and rose through the ranks to become one of the game’s greatest players. At the time of his death, he was the career leader in master points, which are awarded to bridge players to rank their performance. He was crowned national champion 13 times.

He remains a recognizable name among elite bridge competitors. The person who wins the most master points in a year wins the Barry Crane Trophy, and the list of top players is known as the Barry Crane Top 500.

“By a wide margin the 57-year-old Crane played more tournament bridge, won more titles and collected more master points than anyone else,” The Times wrote in 1985 after his killing.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/10/us/barry-crane-murder.html" id="dbceb0af-1c88-330b-a0b3-3ec871ad38ee">The New York Times</a>.

A man in North Carolina was arrested on Thursday for the murder of Barry Crane, a renowned Hollywood director and bridge player who was bludgeoned and strangled to death more than three decades ago in his Los Angeles home.

Arrest Made in 1985 Murder of Barry Crane, TV Director and Bridge Champion

Crane was inducted into the American Contract Bridge League Hall of Fame in 1995. The organization said he was “widely recognized as the top matchpoint player of all time” and that he arranged his television production schedule so he could play in tournaments.

The arrest of Hiatt brought few answers to the decades-old question of why Crane was killed. A housekeeper discovered Crane’s body wrapped in bedding on the floor of his garage, according to the Los Angeles police.

Hiatt told reporters he had no memory of the attack and did not recognize Crane from a photograph. He said he lived “a different life today” and thanked God for “the miracles he’s given me.”

“Everything that I’m at today is a totally different lifestyle from where I was before,” he told reporters.

When Edd Sorenson, a diver who flew in from Florida for the rescue, arrived at an air pocket of Mill Pond Cave in Jackson County, Tennessee, he found Bratchley sitting down, covered head to toe in mud. He looked “like a snowman” if snowmen were made of mud, Sorenson said.

“There he was, calm as could be,” Sorenson said. “He just said, ‘Thank you, thank you. Who are you?’”

By 7 p.m., more than a day after Bratchley entered the cave with four other divers, Sorenson emerged with Bratchley, who was in good spirits and refused medical treatment. The other four divers had unsuccessfully tried to rescue Bratchley, who had become separated from a line used to guide divers through low-visibility waters. He had no food or water, but enough oxygen to survive in a fortuitously large air pocket.

“He was awake, alert and oriented,” Derek Woolbright, a spokesman for the Jackson County Emergency Management Agency, said at a news conference. “His only request when he got to the surface was that he wanted some pizza.”

Much like the Thai rescue, which attracted international attention as the world hoped for the boys’ safe return despite seemingly long odds, rescuers feared Wednesday’s operation would not end well. The other divers believed Bratchley might have been unable to get out of the 55-degree water, which most likely would have led to fatal hypothermia. Sorenson said he could have gotten to the air pocket sooner, but he had first searched nooks and crannies for a body.

The cave is about 400 feet long with little visibility, sharp turns and tight passages that required divers to move single file. It is not yet known how Bratchley got separated from the line, but Sorenson found it broken.

Bratchley’s group first emerged from the cave at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, and realized they had not all come out. After several unsuccessful attempts at rescue, the other divers called 911 around 1 a.m. Wednesday, Woolbright said.

Around 2:30 a.m., Sorenson’s phone rang in Marianna, Florida. He quickly packed up his diving gear and booked a flight; the Tennessee Highway Patrol greeted him at the airport with a helicopter to take him to the cave.

Though Sorenson brought enough air to get both men out of the cave, Bratchley had conserved enough for himself, Sorenson said. Bratchley had unsuccessfully tried three times to find his way out, and decided he should save any remaining air for a potential rescue, Sorenson said.

The operation lasted about an hour, much faster than Sorenson had expected, he said. Those in need of rescue are often hysterical or panicked, but Bratchley’s mental state was “impeccable,” leading to a smoother rescue, Sorenson said.

Bratchley, who dives as a hobby, is a meteorologist at the Met Office, Britain’s national weather service. He said after the Thai rescue that he was “directly involved in the operation as a cave rescue diver, working in the dive team to get the children out one at a time.”

Sorenson, a regional coordinator for the International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery Team, has rescued five other people stuck in caves, he said. He told the Jackson County Floridan in March that he has never asked for payment or expense reimbursements.

Rescues are rare; he is called far more often to recover bodies, he said.

“Putting people in body bags all the time is no fun,” he said. “And when you get to send one home, it’s an exceptional feeling.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/us/cave-diver-rescued.html" id="f82cf4c6-ef27-3a34-ae58-a45d1f3aef8e">The New York Times</a>.

Josh Bratchley, a British diver who helped rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach from a Thai cave in July, was himself rescued from a Tennessee cave on Wednesday.

Diver Who Helped Thai Cave Rescues Is Himself Rescued in Tennessee

The defamation lawsuit seeks $150 million and the deletion of an article in The Fresno Bee, a McClatchy newspaper, about Alpha Omega Winery, a company that Nunes partially owns. The article, published last May, described a lawsuit by a server who was aboard a San Francisco Bay cruise in 2015 attended by some of the winery’s top investors, which she said included drugs and prostitution.

The article said it was “unclear” whether Nunes “was aware of the lawsuit or was affiliated with the fundraiser” at which the cruise was auctioned.

The lawsuit filed by Nunes, a loyal ally of President Donald Trump and former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, says he was not involved in the incident on the yacht and that he considers the article part of a politically motivated scheme to “destroy his reputation” and derail the committee’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Nunes has long sought to discredit The Bee, which covers his congressional district. His campaign against the paper has included television ads and a 40-page mailer sent to voters last year.

“This is a case about character assassination and a public company that weaponized its powerful pen and used it as a terrible sword,” his lawsuit says.

Nunes did not respond to The Bee’s questions during the reporting of its article, and the newspaper wrote Monday that he had never asked for a correction.

“With the limited opportunity we have had to review this claim, it is wholly without merit and we stand behind the strong reporting of The Fresno Bee,” said Jeanne Segal, a McClatchy spokeswoman.

McClatchy is one of the nation’s largest newspaper chains, owning dozens of publications, including The Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Charlotte Observer.

The lawsuit also names as a defendant Liz Mair, a Republican strategist who was also named in the Twitter lawsuit. Nunes accuses Mair of offering “egregious sound bites to McClatchy,” referring to critical comments she made in a separate article. She tweeted a link to the Fresno Bee article about the cruise, suggesting that she was working in a “conspiracy” with McClatchy, the lawsuit claims.

On Twitter, Mair responded by asking supporters to donate to her legal defense fund.

The lawsuit did not appear in online court records in Virginia as of early Tuesday, but Nunes said in a Fox News appearance Monday that he had filed it. A copy of the lawsuit was posted by Fox News.

“If you’re out there and you lied and you defamed, we’re going to come after you,” Nunes said to Sean Hannity, a Fox News host.

Lots of politicians seethe about the news media, but not many channel their frustrations through lawsuits. That is partly because the standard for a public figure to prove defamation against a news outlet is high: It is not enough to simply show that an error was made. Public figures must show that the publication operated with a “reckless disregard” for the truth and with “actual malice,” and there are few examples of politicians successfully suing.

Press advocates consider those high standards essential to the ability to report on public figures without facing constant lawsuits, which can be costly for cash-strapped media companies to defend themselves against.

This is the second defamation lawsuit in a month for Nunes, whose $250 million lawsuit against Twitter, Mair and two anonymous accounts portrayed critical tweets directed at him as evidence of an effort by the tech giant to silence conservative voices. Twitter has repeatedly denied having any political bias or agenda.

The suit against Twitter included a long list of insults lobbed by a parody account, @DevinCow, whose visibility skyrocketed after news coverage of the lawsuit. The account now has more than 600,000 followers, up from about 1,200.

Mackenzie Mays, the author of the Bee article, who is now a reporter at Politico, said little in response to the suit on Twitter, but she reposted an image in support of journalists that has circulated since last year.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/us/politics/devin-nunes-fresno-bee-lawsuit.html" id="bebbe955-9245-3315-af79-799700ef493c">The New York Times</a>.

Less than a month after suing Twitter for allowing its users to insult him, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said he was suing the McClatchy Co., a newspaper chain, over what he called “character assassination.”

Devin Nunes Sues Newspaper Company, Alleging 'Character Assassination'

Authorities had long believed that Sarah Hart and her wife, Jennifer Hart, had purposely driven their SUV over a Northern California cliff with their six children in the car, days after learning they were under investigation by child welfare officials. The special coroner’s jury — which was empaneled to determine manner of death and not criminality — reached a unanimous decision in about an hour of deliberation after hearing chilling details over two days of testimony.

Investigators found Sarah Hart had recently performed internet searches about suicide, Benadryl dosages and whether drowning was painful, according to The Associated Press. Sarah Hart had 42 doses of generic Benadryl in her system, an investigator testified, while Jennifer Hart, the driver, had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.102 percent when she drove the car off the cliff. In California, it is illegal for drivers to have a level of 0.08 percent or higher.

An investigator said the driver deliberately stepped on the gas.

“They both decided that this was going to be the end,” said Jake Slates, a California Highway Patrol investigator, according to The Associated Press. “That if they can’t have their kids that nobody was going to have those kids.”

Authorities have discovered the remains of five of the children: Markis, 19; Hannah, 16; Jeremiah, 14; Abigail, 14; and Ciera, 12. A sixth child, Devonte, 15, is still considered missing but is presumed dead.

Such juries are highly unusual; it was the first one in Mendocino County in 52 years, said Thomas Allman, the county sheriff and coroner. Since the parents were dead and would not face criminal charges, the proceedings allowed more facts to come out in testimony, he said. Criminal charges cannot be brought against dead people, so the jury was assigned to determine cause rather than guilt.

Years before the crash, the family gained international notoriety from a widely shared photo of Devonte, who is black, hugging a white police sergeant during a 2014 demonstration in Portland, Oregon. Photos and videos portrayed a happy family, including a YouTube video in which four of the children sing “we are so provided for.”

But investigative documents showed the parents had been accused of abuse several times. In 2010, Minnesota’s child welfare agency received six reports of abuse or neglect, two of which were deemed to be founded; Sarah Hart admitted to physically harming Abigail and was convicted of misdemeanor domestic assault.

The family moved to West Linn, Oregon, where an anonymous person reported to officials that the children appeared malnourished. Investigators spoke to women who knew the family and said the parents harshly imposed discipline on the children, but officials said they could not identify a “safety threat.”

In 2017, after the family had moved to Woodland, Washington, neighbors said that one of the children, Hannah, rang their doorbell at 1:30 a.m., asking them to take her to Seattle. She was missing two teeth, appeared very thin and said she had jumped out of a second-story window to escape. Hannah hid in a bedroom when her parents arrived minutes later, but eventually went home.

In March 2018, Devonte began going to the neighbors’ home to ask for food, saying his parents withheld food as punishment. The neighbors contacted Washington state’s child welfare agency March 23, three days before the crash.

Later on March 23, a child welfare official knocked on the front door of the Harts’ home. There was no answer.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/us/hart-family-murder-suicide.html" id="6e31d279-4732-3d00-a77f-3d7c6c201500">The New York Times</a>.

A special jury in California ruled Thursday that two women killed themselves and their six adopted children in a murder-suicide in March 2018, officially determining the cause of the family’s fatal plunge over a 100-foot cliff.

Hart Family Parents Killed 6 Children in Murder-Suicide, Jury Determines

The former governor’s new memoir, released this week, depicts Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and adviser, as being hellbent on retribution for Christie’s prosecution of his father more than a decade ago, when Christie was a U.S. attorney. Christie says Steve Bannon, the former Trump strategist, told him that Kushner had directed his firing from the transition team, and he paints Kushner as a shadow campaign manager and chief of staff who offered questionable advice.

Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner, a multimillionaire real estate executive, pleaded guilty in 2004 to 18 counts of tax evasion, witness tampering and making illegal campaign donations. He admitted hiring a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, who was cooperating in a federal campaign finance investigation, then videotaping the sexual encounter and sending it to the man’s wife, Charles Kushner’s sister.

“Mr. Kushner pled guilty, he admitted the crimes. So what am I supposed to do as a prosecutor?” Christie said in an interview on “Firing Line With Margaret Hoover” on PBS. “If a guy hires a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, and videotapes it, and then sends the videotape to his sister to attempt to intimidate her from testifying before a grand jury, do I really need any more justification than that?”

He continued: “It’s one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted when I was U.S. attorney. And I was U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Margaret, so we had some loathsome and disgusting crime going on there.”

Charles Kushner served 14 months of a two-year sentence in federal prison. It was the maximum sentence allowed under a plea agreement he had reached with Christie, but Christie sought a three-year sentence regardless, arguing that Kushner had violated the deal by failing to accept responsibility for his crimes.

“It shows that no matter how rich and powerful you are in this state, you will be prosecuted and punished for crimes you commit,” Christie said after the sentencing in 2005. “This sends a strong message that when you commit the vile and heinous acts that he has committed, you will be caught and punished.”

In his new book, “Let Me Finish,” Christie said that Jared Kushner had consistently tried to push him out. Bannon told him that Kushner was “obsessed with destroying me,” he wrote.

He said he watched in a meeting as Kushner denounced him to Trump, urging him to exclude Christie from the transition.

“He tried to destroy my father,” Kushner said, according to Christie.

Trump kept Christie at the time, and Kushner offered to put the episode behind them, Christie wrote. But he said he repeatedly heard from others that Kushner was working against him, and he was sidelined from the transition three days after Trump’s election.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/us/politics/chris-christie-charles-kushner.html" id="b95585e6-31f9-38ce-a89a-b158d7c3541f">The New York Times</a>.

Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who clashed with Jared Kushner during his brief stint running President Donald Trump’s transition team, issued a sharply personal attack on Kushner’s father Tuesday, saying he had committed a “loathsome” and “disgusting” crime.

Christie Says Kushner's Father Committed a 'Loathsome' Crime

But “Baby Shark,” a song as infectious as anthrax to which the caretakers of young children likely need no introduction, entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart at No. 32 this week, placing Pinkfong, a South Korean educational brand, alongside the world’s top musical artists.

“Baby Shark,” which Pinkfong says it based on a “traditional singalong chant,” has been viewed more than 2.1 billion times on YouTube, making it among the 30 most-viewed videos ever.

It was streamed 20.8 million times just in the past week, Billboard said, with 73 percent of those streams coming from video.

Its rise onto the charts comes long after SmartStudy, a Seoul-based company that has produced thousands of children’s videos under the Pinkfong brand, first posted it on YouTube in November 2015. The company remixed it, adding a new beat and melody, in the now-popular version posted in June 2016. It has now been adapted into more than 100 versions in 11 languages, the company said.

The song was helped along by attention from K-pop acts in Korea and spread throughout Southeast Asia before eventually finding its way to the United States in 2018, when a social media challenge invited people to post videos of themselves dancing to the song.

Making a Top 40 list is far from easy. Jimi Hendrix made it to Billboard’s just once. Wu-Tang Clan never made it.

But today’s charts are different, and often include an eclectic mix of music. Billboard has made a series of changes to its rankings for an era in which viral hits on social media can capture more attention than sustained radio airplay, and consumers download more music than they buy in record shops.

In 2012, Billboard began counting digital sales and online streams in its singles chart.

In 2014, Billboard and Nielsen SoundScan, the agency that supplies Billboard’s data, added streams and downloads to its album chart formula. Billboard and Nielsen tweaked the formula in July, making streams from paid services like Spotify and Apple Music worth about three times as much as those from “free” users, including YouTube viewers.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/arts/music/baby-shark-billboard.html" id="e54b8ac0-f7a5-3091-a080-5f209014aeab">The New York Times</a>.

We preemptively apologize for getting it stuck in your head.

Baby Shark (Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo) Billboard Chart (Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo)

The song was helped along by attention from K-pop acts in Korea and spread throughout Southeast Asia before eventually finding its way to the United States in 2018, when a social media challenge invited people to post videos of themselves dancing to the song. Participants included Ellen DeGeneres and James Corden, while Kylie Jenner and Cardi B made references.

It first appeared on Billboard’s Kid Digital Song Sales chart in July, followed by the Streaming Songs chart in November. It also made it to the U.K. Top 40, which is not produced by Billboard, in September.

In 2012, Billboard began counting digital sales and online streams in its singles chart, immediately lifting “Gangnam Style,” the YouTube hit by South Korean rapper Psy, to the top of the new Rap Songs chart.

Bin Jeong, chief executive of Pinkfong USA, said in an emailed statement that the digital content company is responding to the success of “Baby Shark” by creating toys, DVDs and other consumer products, including books and diapers. The company, which has about 200 employees in offices in South Korea, the United States and China, is also working on TV shorts and a movie, he said.

“We are not planning to settle for Baby Shark hitting the music charts and getting YouTube views, but we are developing Pinkfong and Baby Shark into an entertainment brand that will be enjoyed by generations to come,” she said.

We pre-emptively apologize for getting it stuck in your head.

... OK, are they gone now? Cool. Here’s what President Donald Trump said to a child on the phone about Santa Claus on Monday: “Are you still a believer in Santa? Because at 7 it’s marginal, right?”

“Yes, sir,” the child, Collman, responded twice. She had spoken with the president for at least 10 seconds before he suggested that her parents had been lying to her all her life.

She also told him she planned to put out cookies, according to The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina, which obtained video of Collman’s side of the conversation.

The president made the comments from the White House while he and the first lady, Melania Trump, fielded calls from a hotline for children wondering where Santa was.

Trump’s faux pas was roundly mocked on social media, where he was criticized for breaking the covenant in which we have all agreed to deceive our children.

But in case you’re wondering: The president was right. It is, indeed, marginal at 7.

Most children stop believing in Santa somewhere between 5 and 8 years old, according to several studies. That range has been largely consistent for decades; a 1978 study said that 85 percent of 5-year-olds believed, while just 25 percent of 8-year-olds kept the faith.

One 2015 study from Australia found that children are catching on earlier, perhaps because the internet is full of spoilers.

It appeared the Trumps were enjoying the occasion, which is part of the annual Santa-tracking program run by the North American Aerospace Defense Command, known as NORAD. Trump had an ear-to-ear smile during his discussion with Collman, while Melania Trump called it “one of my favorite traditions.”

And Collman, who was probably going to figure it out eventually anyway, will now have a story to tell for the rest of her life. Merry Christmas to all.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/25/us/politics/trump-santa-claus-believer.html" id="7174aa42-f48f-3095-a44c-b7221911ae90">The New York Times</a>.

Hey, kids under 8 years old, thanks for reading The New York Times. But this time, please don’t. Maybe go play Minecraft or something instead.

Kids, Please Don't Read This Article on What Trump Said About Santa Claus

... OK, are they gone now? Cool. Here’s what President Donald Trump said to a child on the phone about Santa Claus on Monday.

“Are you still a believer in Santa? Because at 7 it’s marginal, right?”

Sadly, we do not know how the 7-year-old, named Coleman, responded to the president of the United States’ suggestion that his parents had been lying to him all his life and that he would probably get wise to it soon. The president made the comments from the White House while he and the first lady, Melania Trump, fielded calls from a hotline for children wondering where Santa was.

It appeared the Trumps were enjoying the occasion, which is part of the annual Santa-tracking program run by the North American Aerospace Defense Command, known as NORAD. Trump let out an ear-to-ear smile during his discussion with Coleman, while Melania Trump called it “one of my favorite traditions.”

And Coleman, who was probably going to figure it out eventually anyway, will now have a story to tell for the rest of his life. Merry Christmas to all.

Hey, kids younger than 8 years old, thanks for reading The New York Times. But this time, please don’t. Maybe go play Minecraft or something instead.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the panic. Chief Michel Moore of the Los Angeles Police Department said on Twitter that initial reports of shots being fired were inaccurate.

Margaret Stewart, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, said at least 19 people had been transported to hospitals, including two in critical condition and two in serious condition. One of the patients in critical condition was hit by a car.

“The majority of the injuries are minor and as a result of trampling injuries from the crowd,” she said.

Hundreds of fans had been gathered outside the Marathon Clothing store, where mourners paid tribute to the rapper throughout the day. Nipsey Hussle, born Ermias Joseph Asghedom, was fatally shot outside the store he owned on Sunday. An autopsy found he had been shot in the head and torso.

Late Monday, the Los Angeles Police Department identified Eric Holder, 29, of Los Angeles, as a suspect in the shooting, which injured two other people. He was last seen in a white 2016 Chevy Cruze.

Nipsey Hussle’s death was felt deeply in Crenshaw, the neighborhood where he grew up and maintained a regular presence after becoming a Grammy-nominated artist. His fans said he offered hope, advocated self-improvement and financially invested in the community, which has long struggled with violent crime. He opened a coworking space dedicated to increasing diversity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and planned to meet Monday with police officials to discuss ways to prevent gang violence.

His debut studio album, “Victory Lap,” was nominated for best rap album at the Grammys last year and debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard chart. He had two children, Kross and Emani.

Suspect in Nipsey Hussle shooting is identified as vigil ends with stampede (NYT)

At least 19 people were injured at a memorial for the slain rapper Nipsey Hussle in Los Angeles on Monday night, as a stampede broke out when mourners tried to flee the area.

Suspect in Nipsey Hussle shooting is identified as vigil ends with stampede

It was not immediately clear what had caused the panic. Chief Michel Moore of the Los Angeles Police Department <a id="e5fd1e1c-3543-4887-bacb-07631300968d" href="https://twitter.com/LAPDChiefMoore/status/1112926893802643461">said on Twitter</a> that initial reports of shots being fired were inaccurate.

Margaret Stewart, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, said at least 10 people were transported to hospitals, including two in critical condition.

Hundreds of fans had been gathered outside the Marathon Clothing store, where mourners paid tribute to the rapper throughout the day. Nipsey Hussle, born Ermias Joseph Asghedom, was fatally shot outside the store he owned on Sunday.

This article originally appeared in <a id="c9f9f403-4340-452c-a8e9-74e3f82e0744" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/02/us/nipsey-hussle-stampede.html">The New York Times</a>.

Nipsey Hussle vigil ends with stampede and injuries

At least 10 people were injured at a makeshift memorial for the slain rapper Nipsey Hussle in Los Angeles on Monday night, as a stampede broke out when mourners tried to flee the area.

The complaint, which was filed in Henrico County Circuit Court in Virginia on Tuesday, seeks $250 million in damages. In making his case, Nunes, a loyal ally of President Donald Trump and the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, repeated several common Republican complaints that Twitter has repeatedly denied: that it censors Republicans, “shadow bans” their accounts and actively helps their opponents.

Although absorbing criticism comes with the territory for politicians, the complaint described the objectionable tweets from the three users as something “that no human being should ever have to bear and suffer in their whole life.”

To make his case, he cited a wide variety of tweets that included accusations of criminal misconduct, crude jokes at his expense and relatively banal criticism. The complaint says the tweets “falsely stated” that Nunes had brought “shame” to his family and that he was voted “Most Likely to Commit Treason” in high school, and that one of them included a cartoon image of a sexual act with Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia. The complaint lists dozens of other tweets he found insulting.

Nunes singled out Liz Mair, a Republican strategist who said on Twitter that she would not comment on the lawsuit, and two parody accounts: @DevinNunesMom, which was suspended last year, and @DevinCow, which is still active. The complaint says that Mair coordinated with the anonymous accounts on “a vicious defamation campaign” but did not offer evidence she was behind them or communicated with them, except for one tweet encouraging people to follow @DevinCow.

Experts generally say the law protects large internet platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube from liability based on what their users publish. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act says they should not “be treated as the publisher or speaker” of the content — allowing the platforms to exist without having to preapprove every post for potential legal issues.

But the complaint by Nunes seeks to portray the tweets directed at him as evidence of larger efforts by Twitter to undermine Republicans — a frequent rallying cry of conservatives. Nunes was a key figure in the House’s Russia investigation, and a frequent target for critics who said he was abusing his authority by impeding investigations to protect Trump.

“As part of its agenda to squelch Nunes’ voice, cause him extreme pain and suffering, influence the 2018 Congressional election, and distract, intimidate and interfere with Nunes’ investigation into corruption and Russian involvement in the 2016 Presidential Election, Twitter did absolutely nothing,” the complaint said.

Twitter declined to comment on the lawsuit. But in public statements, including contentious House committee hearings in September, executives have denied any political bias or agendas. Jack Dorsey, chief executive of Twitter, told the House committee they had found no difference in the reach of tweets by Democrats and those by Republicans.

Nunes repeated the debunked claim that the social network was “shadow banning” Republicans, including him. Shadow banning — the act of a platform allowing someone to post but not allowing others to see the post, effectively making them invisible — became a political catch phrase in July, when a Vice News article used the term to characterize a Twitter bug that was affecting some prominent conservatives.

In fact, the bug affected their accounts only briefly by not showing up on the network’s search results when a user searched for their names. The reach of their posts was unaffected. But the assertion was still used by many, including Trump, as evidence of bias against conservatives.

The lawsuit by Nunes had the perhaps unintended effect of sharply increasing the reach of @DevinCow, the parody account that had around 1,200 followers before the lawsuit was filed. The account was up to 46,000 followers as of Tuesday morning and rapidly growing.

“I’m not quitting my day job,” the account posted Monday.

This article originally appeared in <a id="b7ce9202-6d53-444e-a854-f572ed950dd9" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/19/us/politics/devin-nunes-twitter-lawsuit.html">The New York Times</a>.

Nunes Sues Twitter for Allowing Accounts to Insult Him

Stung by obscene and pointed criticism, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., has sued Twitter and three users for defamation, claiming the users smeared him and the platform allowed it to happen because of a political agenda.

Daniel Victor

Articles written by the author

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