De Blasio lets security haul away Post reporter for asking question

Aug 11: New York's Mayor Bill deBlasio addresses the media.  (NYC Mayor's Twitter)

Mayor de Blasio is a such a big believer in the free press that he let two bodyguards physically remove a credentialed Post reporter who had the temerity to ask him a question in public on Sunday.
The unusual muzzling unfolded at the start of the annual Dominican Day Parade in Manhattan, where the reporter sought de Blasio’s reaction to The Post’s front page story about his administration’s many meetings with lobbyists.
It also came after Hizzoner appeared on national TV Sunday to proclaim, “I believe in a free, strong media with diverse views — I’ll defend it with all I’ve got.”
Just two hours later, after de Blasio cut a ribbon to kick off the parade and was posing for photos near West 37th Street and Sixth Avenue, the reporter asked him to comment on the “CITY FOR SALE” Page One story.
Instead of answering or even declining to answer the question, the mayor watched as two members of his NYPD security detail approached the reporter — who was wearing a police-issued press pass around his neck — with one grabbing his shoulder and leading him away from the mayor.
“Kevin, you have to leave. You can’t be here,” the plainclothes cop said.
Both bodyguards then escorted the reporter about a half-block away, where a member of the NYPD’s public-information office, Officer Brian Magoolaghan, told him, “Come on, Kevin. No stunts today.”
City Hall had previously declined to discuss records that showed officials held 136 meetings with lobbyists during just three months earlier this year.
The incident was reminiscent of one last month when the White House barred a CNN reporter from a Rose Garden event for shouting “inappropriate” questions at President Trump in the Oval Office earlier in the day.
De Blasio’s press secretary referred questions about the incident at the parade to the NYPD, which said in an email: “The Department takes appropriate and necessary measures to protect dignitaries, including the Mayor of the City of New York.”

New LAPD chief collected $1.27M payout before being rehired: report ( Only in California )

LAPD Chief Michael Moore Moore joined the police force in 1981 and rose through the ranks.  (Chief Michael Moore/Twitter)

Michael Moore, the new chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, collected a one-time retirement payment of $1.27 million after he retired for a few weeks before being rehired for the same role and pay, The Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday.
Under the city’s controversial Deferred Retirement Option Plan, known as DROP, a veteran police officer or firefighter can-- for the last five years of service-- receive their pensions plus salaries. The pension payment is transferred to a special account as long as they retire.
The Times reported that Moore left his $240,000-a-year post as chief of operations and rejoined just a few weeks later for the same job at the same pay.

'You may call it suspicious timing, but I didn’t program it that way'
- Chief Michael Moore

The paper pointed out that if Moore had been promoted before retiring, he would have lost out on the money. Chiefs, the report said, are excluded from DROP.
He also managed to pull in $170,000 of unused sick and vacation days, the report said.
Since 2008, 51 “chiefs” at LAPD and LAFD have completed the program, the report said. The program paid more than $1.6 billion in extra pension checks since 2001.
 “You may call it suspicious timing, but I didn’t program it that way,” Moore said, according to the paper. He reportedly said in an interview that the plan to have him return was approved by the former police chief and Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Moore is widely respected, but the paper reported that his retirement and rehiring raised eyebrows.
Keith Comrie, a former L.A. chief administrative officer, told the paper that leaders at the police and fire departments carry “sharp pencils and they stay up all night trying to figure out how to suck as much out of the city as possible.”
Moore told the paper that he was approached by the former chief, Charlie Beck, and was asked to come back on the administrator role. Moore said he was unaware that Beck was going to retire.

Police, Sessions slam Elizabeth Warren for calling criminal justice system 'racist'

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., takes part in a Q-and-A with Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., at Dillard University in New Orleans earlier this month.  (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Top police officials in Massachusetts have accused Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of insulting rank-and-file officers when she said the criminal justice system was "racist ... front to back" earlier this month.
Warren made the remarks Aug. 3 at Dillard University, a historically black college. She cited disproportionate arrests of African-Americans for petty drug possession; an overloaded public defender system; and state laws barring convicted felons from voting after their sentences are complete.
In response, Yarmouth Police Chief Frank Frederickson called Warren's comments "an insult to the hard working men and women of the Yarmouth Police Department, as well as other Local, State and Federal Law Enforcement Agencies who are part of the criminal justice system."
In a letter to Warren, Massachusetts Chief of Police Association President Steven Wojnar said he was "extremely troubled" by the senator's comments.
"Labeling the entire criminal justice profession as 'racist' spreads false and damaging information about our members," Wojnar wrote. "When our elected officials make generalized and inflammatory statements about our entire profession, without any information to back their position, it creates further hostility toward our officers and can damage the positive relationships with our residents that we have worked long and hard to establish."
Attorney General Jeff Sessions also called out Warren during a speech in Georgia on Thursday, calling her statement "a slander of every law officer and every prosecutor in America. And, frankly, I think it is an insult to their families and to the crime victims they have helped to face their attacker."
In a statement obtained by The Boston Globe this weekend, Warren said: "I spoke about an entire system — not individuals — and will continue to work on reforms to make the criminal justice system fairer.
"The entire law enforcement system has a lot of good people who get up every day and try to make this a more just, a more fair, more responsive system. And they say over and over, the system needs reform. It needs change."
A spokeswoman for Warren's Senate re-election campaign told the Globe that Warren spoke to Frederickson on Saturday. Warren's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Fox News.
Warren is heavily favored to win a second Senate term in deep-blue Massachusetts this November. She is also considered a top contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.

Boston Globe Fake News Cartoons

Two Jewish leaders denounced a Boston Globe editorial cartoon that they said uses a caricature of Jewish billionaire Sheldon Adelson with antisemitic tropes. The cartoon that appeared Friday, Dec. 1 was titled “Murder on the tax-cut express” and shows Adelson aboard a train conducted by President Donald Trump labeled as riding in the section for “priority passengers.” Adelson is shown in a dining car reading a newspaper headlined “Estate Tax Repealed,” and a waiter is serving him a large sack labeled “$14.6 billion.”
In a letter to the editor published Monday in the newspaper, Robert Trestan, regional director of the New England region of the Anti-Defamation League, and Jeremy Burton, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, said they were “deeply disturbed and offended” by the Ward Sutton cartoon.
“The portrayal — singling out, among all the donors and interests who stand to benefit, a prominent Jewish individual, Sheldon Adelson; depicting him with an exaggerated hooked nose; linking him with money; and positioning him as hidden inside the train while others conduct — evokes classic anti-Semitic imagery and reinforces existing stereotypes,” they wrote.
“At a time when hatred and bigotry of all forms are seeping into the mainstream, it is critical that the Globe and other responsible media outlets refrain from giving additional aid to those who no doubt will see this cartoon’s publication as further verification of long-established anti-Semitic views.”
The U.S. Senate early Saturday morning passed a sweeping tax bill along party lines that critics charge would benefit the wealthy and raise taxes on the middle class.
Published on December 6th, 2017

Boston paper presses coordinated response to Trump's media criticisms

President Trump, preparing to board Marine One last month. His criticisms of "fake news" are spurring a response from some news media outlets.  (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

A Boston newspaper is calling for publications nationwide to take a coordinated editorial stand against President Trump's attacks on the media.
"We are not the enemy of the people," The Associated Press quoted Marjorie Pritchard, deputy managing editor for the editorial page of The Boston Globe, as saying. AP said she was referring to a characterization of journalists that Trump has used in the past.
The president, who regularly declares that his administration is getting unfair media coverage, has made frequent speeches and tweets decrying "fake news" and fabricated sources. After his recent summit in Singapore with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, he assailed fake news as "our country's biggest enemy."
The Globe has reportedly reached out to editorial boards around the U.S. to run editorials this Thursday denouncing what the newspaper called a "dirty war against the free press" -- regardless of the respective publications' political leanings.
Pritchard said about 70 outlets had committed to editorials as of Friday, with the list expected to grow, AP reported. The publications ranged from large metro dailies, such as The Houston Chronicle, The Minneapolis Star Tribune and and The Denver Post, to small weekly periodicals.
The newspaper's request was being promoted by industry groups including the American Society of News Editors.
"Our words will differ. But at least we can agree that such attacks are alarming," the appeal said.
Pritchard said the decision to seek the coordinated response was reached after Trump appeared to step up his rhetoric of late.
At an Aug. 2 political rally in Pennsylvania, for instance, he told his audience that the media was "fake, fake disgusting news."
Pritchard said she hoped the editorials would make an impression on Americans.
"I hope it would educate readers to realize that an attack on the First Amendment is unacceptable," she said. "We are a free and independent press; it is one of the most sacred principles enshrined in the Constitution."

Anti-Trump media manages to spin electoral victories into defeats

Candidates supported by President Trump did well in a special congressional election in Ohio and in primaries Tuesday, although some races remained too close to call. But the anti-Trump media did their best to paint the outcome of the voting as bad news for the president.
Journalists worked hard to spin a pro-Democratic narrative before the voting. For example, CNN anchor Don Lemon said Republicans are “people who will lie, steal, and cheat, lie to their mother, lie to themselves about what's right of this country, about truth and facts.” Neutral objective journalism, right?
Journalists also talked a lot about a “blue wave” and “a major sign of trouble for Republicans” before the votes were counted. Politico wrote of “Democrats surging.” Sort of like what they predicted back in 2016 when they said President Hillary Clinton would be occupying the Oval Office in January 2017.
They were wrong this time, too.
That didn’t stop the typical spin. CNBC’s John Harwood used Twitter to say winning was a sign the GOP was going to lose in November. He retweeted a comment saying, “it’s hard to remember when so many victories were such a bad omen going into November.” Harwood even claimed the “GOP has a corruption problem in mid-term elections.”
Election season makes people say stupid things. That’s why Democratic socialist media darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compared a request that she debate to “catcalling.” The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro made the invitation and even offered to pay $10,000 to her campaign or a charity of her choosing.
The result was just the latest public relations disaster for the lefty candidate. (You know it’s a bad move when even The New York Times makes you look bad for your comment.)
Incredibly, Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan gave a one word support of Ocasio-Cortez, writing simply: “Preach.” Apparently, even asking a liberal millennial woman to debate is now a #MeToo moment.
One final point about the media’s post-election distortions. It’s widely known and little reported (now) that midterms are typically bad for the party in power. Here’s NPR back in 2014 explaining: “History tells us that midterm elections are bad – sometimes very bad – for the party that controls the White House.”
So, yes, the rules say the GOP is supposed to lose seats in Congress in November. But journalists want to treat the voting as a referendum on President Trump and not politics as usual. It’s almost like they’re whistling past the graveyard of their predictions. Maybe that’s why Don Lemon is now thanking politicians who even watch CNN.
2. Are They Press or Suppress? Imagine the news coverage if the son of a popular evangelical pastor was arrested for training children to be school shooters in an underground desert compound. Imagine what would happen if the remains of a dead child were also found at the site. And envision that the father had been an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorist trial.
Journalists would turn it into the crime of the century. With good reason.
Only that wasn’t the story. One of the people arrested was the son of Brooklyn Imam Siraj Wahhaj, “an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing,” according to The New York Post. The Islamic connection was so uncomfortable for the press that ABC and CBS censored it entirely for two straight nights.
CNN tried the same lack of disclosure. “CNN, for example, did not mention the words ‘Muslim’ or ‘extremist’ in a Tuesday article about the discovery of the 11 missing children, wrote The Daily Caller’s Amber Athey
CNN also got flamed by Twitchy for not referring to occupants of the compound as “extremist of the Muslim belief.’” That reference was actually removed from a story.
3. Journalists Are Neutral? The news media now face more allegations of liberal bias than ever before. Naturally, journalists want to fend off that criticism, especially from President Trump, with calm, rational journalism.
Nahhhhhhh.
Instead, a Boston Globe editor is trying to organize the press into one might super PAC (Sen. Marco Rubio, this Bud’s for you!) against the president – to prove it’s not biased.
Marjorie Pritchard, deputy managing editor for the editorial page of The Boston Globe, got commitments from 70 different newspaper editorial pages to do what they would do anyhow – attack President Trump.
“The newspaper's request was being promoted by industry groups such as the American Society of News Editors and regional groups like the New England Newspaper and Press Association,” according to The Associated Press.
And the proposal “suggested editorial boards take a common stand against Trump's words regardless of their politics.” Because fighting the president of one political party isn’t “politics,” apparently.
4. NBC? Them, too: So much for NBC clearing NBC of sexual misconduct allegations. Mediaite is reporting that NBC has another firestorm getting ready to strike – this one courtesy of the Daily Beast.
Here’s the Mediaite take: “The story involves varying allegations against senior NBC News executives, and relates to alleged misconduct from years ago as well as more current allegations against network brass. One source told Mediaite that executives at NBC News are ‘panicked’ by the reporting. NBC News did not provide comment.”
On its own, that might be bad. But context matters and NBC has been embarrassed by #MeToo revelations. Think back to the Variety report that cost “Today” host Matt Lauer his high-paying network job.
Variety reported: “As the co-host of NBC’s ‘Today,’ Matt Lauer once gave a colleague a sex toy as a present. It included an explicit note about how he wanted to use it on her, which left her mortified.”
That story got worse: “On another day, he summoned a different female employee to his office, and then dropped his pants, showing her his penis. After the employee declined to do anything, visibly shaken, he reprimanded her for not engaging in a sexual act.”
The Peacock Network also passed on the sexual misconduct investigation by contributor Ronan Farrow that has had extensive impact throughout the industry. NBC also dropped the contract of political analyst Mark Halperin after sexual misconduct allegations against him surfaced.
Media outlets like Esquire continue to dig through the disastrous way NBC has handled such situations. These latest claims could further undermine the network’s waning credibility.

Hawaii's Ige staves off challenge, will face GOP's Tupola in November

Hawaii lawmakers applaud after Gov. David Ige, who is running for a second term in office, signed legislation in Honolulu, June 13, 2018.  (Associated Press)

Hawaii Gov. David Ige won the state's Democratic primary Saturday in his bid for a second term, overcoming sharp criticism after a false missile alert in January.
Ige defeated U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, who gave up her seat in Congress to run for governor.
"I just got off the phone with Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa, and she wished us congratulations and more importantly, she pledged her support to make sure that we can elect a democratic governor," Ige said in a victory speech after Hanabusa conceded, according to a Hawaii News Now tweet.
The incumbent in November will face state Rep. Andria Tupola, who won the Republican gubernatorial primary.

U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, D-Hawaii, who is giving up her seat in Congress to run for Hawaii governor, talks with a guest at an event in Honolulu, April 28, 2018.  (Associated Press)

Tuopla defeated former state Sen. John Carroll for the party's nod.
Tupola told Hawaii News Now that her goal "at the end of the day is to serve the people."
Ige faced a tough primary challenge after a 38-minute delayed response to Hawaii's false missile alert. The incident was expected to loom large on voter's minds Saturday.

A small surge of voters take to the polls, Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018, at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School, in Puhi, Kauai, Hawaii.  (The Garden Island via AP)

Officials mistakenly sent an a warning of an imminent missile attack, promising “THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” to cellphones, radios and televisions on Jan. 13.
Hanabusa used the false alarm as a key camapaign cudgel against Ige.
But the governor's handling of Kilauea volcano's latest eruption, which destroyed more than 700 homes and displaced thousands, as well as devastating flooding on Kauai improved his stature.
U.S. House primaries
In the state's U.S. House primaries, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has won the Democratic nomination in Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District.
Gabbard will face singer Brian Evans of Maui in the general election in November. He ran unopposed for the Republican Party's nomination.
In the 1st District, former U.S. Rep. Ed Case defeated Lt. Gov. Doug Chin in the Democratic race, while candidate Cam Cavasso was leading opponent Raymond Rene Vinole by a large margin on the Republican side.
Gabbard defeated Sherry Alu Campagna to be her party's candidate to represent rural Oahu and the neighbor islands in Congress.
Campagna had criticized Gabbard for refusing to debate her, noting that Gabbard had argued in the past that candidates should participate in debates to present their positions and be held accountable for their opinions.
Gabbard was first elected to the U.S. House in 2012. She is one of the first female combat veterans to serve in Congress. She deployed to Iraq and Kuwait with the Hawaii National Guard.
Other races
In Hawaii's U.S. Senate race, Democratic incumbent Maize Hirono was running unopposed in her primary, while Ron Curtis won the Republican nod.
Hirono was first elected to the Senate in 2012. She's the country's first Asian-American female senator.
Curtis faces an uphill battle. The winner of the Democratic primary is almost guaranteed to win in the general election in Hawaii.
In the lieutenant governor's race, Democrat Josh Green is leading in the polls by a few percentage points, while Republican Steve Lipscomb leads by a small margin.
The winners of most of the Democratic Party's primary races will be the favorites to win the general election in November.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe blasts off on epic journey to 'touch the Sun'

CAPE CANAVERAL –  NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force station on its historic mission to the Sun.
The probe lit up the night sky as it blasted off at 3:31 a.m. EDT.
“It was a really clean launch,” Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, told reporters. “It took off like it should.”
“Everything was exactly like we thought it would be – it really was textbook,” he added.
Carried by a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket, Parker lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 37. The launch had intially been scheduled for early Saturday, but last-minute technical glitches ate away at the launch window, prompting a 24-hour delay.
The $1.5 billion mission will take humanity closer to the Sun than ever before. Parker will be the first spacecraft to fly through the Sun’s corona, the outermost part of the star’s atmosphere. It is expected to reach the Sun in November.
NASA'S PARKER SOLAR PROBE: CAPE CANAVERAL PREPARES FOR EPIC MISSION TO THE SUN
Parker will face “brutal” heat and radiation during an epic journey that will take it to within 3.8 million miles of the Sun’s surface, according to the space agency. This is seven times closer than the previous closest spacecraft, Helios 2, which came within 27 million miles of the Sun in 1976.
The average distance between the Sun and Earth is 93 million miles.
Parker must withstand heat of nearly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit to complete its audacious mission. To achieve this, the probe will be protected by a special 4.5-inch-thick carbon-composite shield. Safe inside the spacecraft, however, the probe’s payload will be operating at room temperature.
NASA'S PARKER SOLAR PROBE SET TO WRITE NEW CHAPTER IN CAPE CANAVERAL HISTORY
Harnessing Venus’ gravity, Parker will complete seven flybys over seven years to gradually bring its orbit closer to the Sun. On its closest approach in 2024, the probe will be traveling at approximately 430,000 mph, setting a new speed record for a manmade object.
The Sun’s corona, which can be seen during a total solar eclipse, is usually hidden by the bright light of the star’s surface. The probe, named after pioneering solar physicist Dr. Eugene Parker, will provide a wealth of invaluable data.
Scientists expect to shed new light on the Sun’s potential to disrupt satellites and spacecraft, as well as electronics and communications on Earth.
NASA'S PARKER SOLAR PROBE SET TO 'TOUCH THE SUN' ON HISTORIC MISSION
It is also hoped that the probe will provide answers to what scientists describe as “the coronal heating problem.” One of the most unusual aspects of the Sun is that its atmosphere gets much hotter the farther it stretches from the star’s surface, according to NASA.
Instruments on board Parker will study magnetic fields, plasma and energetic particles as well as imaging solar wind, a flow of ionized gases that stream past the Earth at more than a million miles an hour.
Eugene Parker first theorized the existence of the solar wind. To honor his contribution to science, the probe is NASA’s first spacecraft to be named after a living person.
WEIRD SOLAR SCIENCE: HOW NASA'S PARKER PROBE WILL DIVE THROUGH THE SUN'S ATMOSPHERE
The probe, which was designed and built by the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, is also carrying more than 1.1 million names to the Sun. In March, members of the public were invited to be a part in the historic mission by submitting their names to be placed on a memory card that the spacecraft will take into space. In May, NASA confirmed that, over a seven-week period a total of 1,137,202 names were submitted.
The memory card also contains photos of Dr. Parker and his groundbreaking 1958 scientific paper on solar wind.