memeorandum: Sheriff Confirms Seven Dead in Isla Vista Shootings (Beth Farnsworth/KEYT-TV)

3:00 PM ET, May 24, 2014

Top Items:

Beth Farnsworth / KEYT-TV:

Sheriff Confirms Seven Dead in Isla Vista Shootings — “Mass Murder Situation” — ISLA VISTA, Calif. - — Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown revealed new details about Friday night's drive by shootings in Isla Vista during a Saturday morning news conference, including a new death toll …

Discussion: CNN, Washington Post, No More Mister Nice Blog, ThinkProgress, Hinterland Gazette, Scared Monkeys, Gawker, The Mahablog, WGN-TV, Pressing Issues, Mashable and NPR

Daily Mail:

‘I will slaughter every single blonde s**t I see’: Seven people killed as son of Hunger Games assistant director carries out drive-by shooting ‘because women rebuffed his advances and he was a virgin at 22’ — Rodger also died of gunshot wound to the head; authorities have not confirmed if it was self-inflicted

Discussion: Daily Kos, The Moderate Voice, The Gateway Pundit, BizPac Review, TMZ.com and ABC News

George F. Will / Washington Post:

The 2016 presidential candidate we need — All modern presidents of both parties have been too much with us. Talking incessantly, they have put politics unhealthily at the center of America's consciousness. Promising promiscuously, they have exaggerated government's proper scope and actual competence …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Ezra Klein / Vox:

Veterans aren't the only ones waiting for health care — TWEET SHARE LINKEDIN EMAIL PRINT — In 2005, Phillip Longman, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, published an article entitled “Best Care Anywhere” in the Washington Monthly. The article, which later became a book …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Sam Foote / New York Times:

Why I Blew the Whistle on the V.A. — PHOENIX — MY decision to become a whistle-blower after 24 years as a physician in a Veterans Affairs hospital was, at first, an easy one. I knew about patients who were dying while waiting for appointments on the V.A.'s secret schedules, and I couldn't stay silent.

Discussion: Liberaland

Joel Gehrke / Washington Examiner:
Nancy Pelosi blames George W. Bush for Veterans Affairs scandal

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, CNN, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and BizPac Review

Elias Isquith / Salon:

Greenwald's haters, exposed: The real reason Michael Kinsley hates him — In his New York Times attack, the former “Crossfire” star reveals some of the elite media's deepest insecurities — People tell me — they insist, in fact — that there was a time, long ago, when Michael Kinsley wrote …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Washington Monthly, Hullabaloo, EconLog and neo-neocon

Larry Rohter / New York Times:

Eduardo Galeano Disavows His Book ‘The Open Veins’ — For more than 40 years, Eduardo Galeano's “The Open Veins of Latin America” has been the canonical anti-colonialist, anti-capitalist and anti-American text in that region. Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's populist president …

Chris Giles / Financial Times:

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.

Financial Times:
Central bank blog

Associated Press:

New president Robert Gates: I would have allowed gay men in Boy Scouts — Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates speaks during a news conference in New York.AP — DALLAS - Robert Gates, the new president of the Boy Scouts of America, said Friday that he would have moved last year …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Towleroad News #gay and Scouting Newsroom

Dave Philipps / Gazette:

Accusations cloud Sheriff Terry Maketa's future: Commanders' complaint alleges affairs, budget improprieties — Updated: — El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa is embroiled in accusations of sex with subordinates, abusive treatment of employees and dismantling oversight of the office budget …

Discussion: Daily Surge, American Spectator and Twitchy

Molly Redden / Mother Jones:

Someone Just Spent $1.5 Million on a GOP Senate Candidate. We'll Probably Never Know Who. — Was it you? — One of the super-PAC ads blanketing Arkansas. Courtesy Government Integrity Fund Action Network — Arkansas is witnessing what may be the most expensive political ad campaign …

Laura Barron-Lopez / The Hill:

Delay EPA power plant rules, senators demand — Forty-five senators are pressing the Environmental Protection Agency to delay new rules on limiting carbon emissions from power plants. — The senators are asking the EPA to extend a public comment period for the rules, which could also delay their issuance.

Discussion: Hot Air