memeorandum: SURRENDERS CONTROL OF CLIPPERS (Donald Sterling/TMZ.com)

7:20 PM ET, May 23, 2014

Top Items:

Piketty findings undercut by errors — Thomas Piketty's book, ‘Capital in the Twenty-First Century’, has been the publishing sensation of the year. Its thesis of rising inequality tapped into the zeitgeist and electrified the post-financial crisis public policy debate.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Daily Surge, NPR, Hot Air, The Week, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The PJ Tatler

Financial Times:

Central bank blog … Welcome. If you have yet to register on FT.com you will be asked to do so before you begin to read FT blogs. However, our posts remain free. — Opinions on market-moving economics and central banks around the world. — Gold fix pricing faces abolition call

Discussion: Washington Post and PolicyShop

Ramona Shelburne / ESPN:

Shelly Sterling to negotiate sale — Disgraced Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has agreed to allow his wife, Shelly, to negotiate a forced sale of the team, sources with knowledge of the situation told ESPN. — Shelly Sterling and her lawyers have been negotiating with the NBA since …

Discussion: USA Today, Bloomberg View, The Moderate Voice, Taylor Marsh, Outside the Beltway, Guardian, Mashable, Talking Points Memo, The Week, Deadspin, ABC News and abc30.com

Donald Sterling / TMZ.com:

SURRENDERS CONTROL OF CLIPPERS — ... to Shelly — Donald Sterling is no longer the controlling owner of the Los Angeles Clippers ... TMZ Sports has learned he just surrendered control to his estranged wife, Shelly Sterling, and she is now secretly negotiating with the NBA to sell the team ... ON HER TERMS.

Discussion: Hot Air, Mediaite and bet.com

Los Angeles Times:

Mark Cuban discusses his own prejudices in startling terms — It turns out, regarding race-related views among NBA owners, Donald Sterling may have company. — Less than a month after Sterling rocked the sports world with racist remarks, Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has openly acknowledged his own prejudices.

Discussion: National Review, CNN, Shakesville, Rush Limbaugh, ThinkProgress and abc30.com

Mark Cuban / USA Today:
'I'm bigoted in a lot of different ways'

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, bet.com, Tennessean.com, Patterico's Pontifications, The Daily Caller, Mediaite and Talking Points Memo

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Morning Plum: Obama slams ‘false equivalence’ media — At a fundraiser last night, President Obama unleashed a surprisingly spirited and comprehensive attack on both-sides-to-blame media coverage. While he has taken issue with Beltway coverage before, what was particularly noteworthy …

Discussion: NBC News, Bloomberg View, Mediaite, Liberal Values, National Review, Washington Monthly, Balloon Juice and Booman Tribune

Glenn Greenwald / The Intercept:

A Response to Michael Kinsley — In 2006, Charlie Savage won the Pulitzer Prize for his series of articles in The Boston Globe exposing the Bush administration's use of “signing statements” as a means of ignoring the law. In response to those revelations, Michael Kinsley …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Freedom of the Press …, Scripting News, Power Line, Talking Points Memo, Little Green Footballs, Eschaton, Firedoglake, Gawker, New York Times and Instapundit, more at Mediagazer »

Joel Gehrke / Washington Examiner:

Nancy Pelosi blames George W. Bush for Veterans Affairs scandal — BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL VETERANS AFFAIRS AFGHANISTAN IRAQ NANCY PELOSI GEORGE W. BUSH VETERANS — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., repeatedly put the blame for the Veterans Affairs scandal on former President George W. Bush …

Discussion: CNN and BizPac Review

Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:
Barack Obama's early VA response: Executive inaction

Discussion: Hot Air and Towleroad News #gay

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Senate Dems close ranks on VA

Discussion: Hot Air and The PJ Tatler

Rasmussen Reports:

Georgia Senate: Nunn (D) Holds Slight Edge Over GOP Finalists — Georgia Republicans won't have a specific nominee for a couple more months, but the final two contenders are running slightly behind Democrat Michelle Nunn in Rasmussen Reports' first look at the U.S. Senate race in Georgia.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Wall Street Journal, Outside the Beltway and Political Insider blog

James Hibberd / PopWatch:

Morgan Freeman on helium — We could tell you that this clip below is from the fifth season of Science Channel's Through the Wormhole, a documentary series exploring the mysteries of of the universe that returns June 4. But all that does is delay getting to the point …

Discussion: The Week, The Verge and Mashable

Amanda Marcotte / Salon:

How right-wingers are amping up their war on science — From climate change to reproduction, Republicans are increasingly deciding “science” is whatever they say it is — No longer content just to claim to be “skeptical” of scientific findings they find disagreeable …

Discussion: LifeNews.com

Lydia Saad / Gallup:

U.S. Still Split on Abortion: 47% Pro-Choice, 46% Pro-Life — No decline in voters who prioritize abortion issue, now at 19% — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans remain divided on the abortion issue, with 47% of U.S. adults describing their views as “pro-choice” and 46% as “pro-life,” continuing a pattern seen since 2010.

Discussion: National Review, The Hill and ThinkProgress

Sam R. Hall / The Clarion-Ledger:

Connecting the dots: Mayfield, Sager, Mary and McDaniel — Mark Mayfield is an attorney, Madison County Republican Party leader and officer in multiple tea party organizations. — Richard Sager is an elementary school physical education teacher and high school soccer coach.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CNN, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, The Other McCain, The Daily Beast, The Raw Story, The Hill, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Roll Call

Nicholas Confessore / New York Times:
I.R.S. Delays New Rules on Taxation for Activists

Discussion: NewsBusters

New York Times:

Amazon Flexes Its Muscles in Fight Against Publishers — Amazon's power over the publishing and bookselling industries is unrivaled in the modern era. Now it has started wielding that might in a more brazen way than ever before. — Seeking ever-higher payments from publishers to bolster …

Discussion: Mashable, The Verge, Consumerist and Gigaom, more at Mediagazer »

Matt Chorley / Daily Mail:

‘The Ukip fox is in the Westminster hen house’: Jubilant Farage taunts Cameron, Clegg and Miliband after his party takes council seats from Tories in the south and Labour heartlands in the north — A surge in support for Ukip has cost all the mainstream parties seats and control of councils …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, National Review and Vox Popoli

Ronald Brownstein / NationalJournal.com:

The One Thing Each Party Needs to Overcome by 2016 — So far, neither side has made much progress toward solving its lingering challenge. — Each party emerged from the 2012 presidential election facing one key electoral challenge before the next contest in 2016.

Discussion: Booman Tribune

David H. Autor / sciencemag.org:

Skills, education, and the rise of earnings inequality among the “other 99 percent” — The singular focus of public debate on the “top 1 percent” of households overlooks the component of earnings inequality that is arguably most consequential for the “other 99 percent” of citizens …

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Wall Street Journal

Peter Dizikes / MIT News Office:
Q&A: David Autor on inequality among the “99 percent”

Discussion: Washington Post

Peter Burke / WPLG-TV:

Pompano Beach firefighter accused of shooting at man in drunken rage — Janeen McKenzie arrested on aggravated battery charge — WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - — A Pompano Beach firefighter was arrested in Palm Beach County after a night of boozing and foreplay with another man led her to open fire at him, deputies said.

Discussion: The Raw Story

Philip Elliott / Associated Press:

RNC FILES LAWSUIT TO RAISE UNLIMITED CASH — You are here — Home » AP Party » RNC files lawsuit to raise unlimited cash — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican National Committee on Friday sued the Federal Election Commission in an effort to raise unlimited cash like super PACs do.

Discussion: Sunlight Foundation Blog and PoliticusUSA

Reuters:

Pro-Ukraine forces clash with separatists, at least two dead — (Reuters) - Armed pro-Russian separatists clashed with Ukrainian self-defense fighters near the eastern city of Donetsk on Friday, two days before the presidential election, and at least two people were killed, a Reuters witness and militia sources said.

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, Firedoglake and Business Insider