memeorandum: A Political Lifer, Scott Walker Has Long Been His Own Strategist (Jonathan Martin/New York Times)

5:15 PM ET, July 8, 2015

Top Items:

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

Ladies and Gentlemen, It's Time to Panic — Have you noticed anything odd going on this morning? Oh yes. Let us be the first to tell you that the time to panic is upon us. — ITEM: The New York City subway system suffered an atrocious commute today, with some trains being inexplicably stranded …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Fusion and Gothamist

CNNMoney:

New York Stock Exchange suspends trading — The New York Stock Exchange suspended trading at 11:32 a.m ET Wednesday. It's been down for over an hour. — In a brief announcement, the exchange said it was experiencing a “internal technical issue.” The NYSE said later in a tweet that it's “not the result of a cyber breach.”

Discussion: The Atlantic, Reuters, VICE, Wall Street Journal, Talking Points Memo, USA Today, Bloomberg View, Guardian, Courthouse News Service, Washington Post, KTLA, CBS New York, The Daily Banter, The Week and Business Insider

Jacob Pramuk / CNBC:

NYSE floor trading halted; no sign of cyberattack — CNBC's Bob Pisani reports on halted trading operations at the NYSE. — Trading in all symbols was halted on the New York Stock Exchange floor Wednesday due to an apparent technical issue. The NYSE tweeted that there was no sign of a cyberattack.

Discussion: Politico, Guardian, NBC News, Business Insider, Wall Street Journal, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, Chicago, VICE, WJLA-TV and Poynter.

Hadas Gold / Politico:
Wall Street Journal website down amid NYSE, United tech problems

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, ThinkProgress, CNNMoney, Washington Post, CANNONFIRE, CNBC and John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
New York Stock Exchange Resumes Trading

Discussion: Slate, USA Today, The Week and Associated Press

Business Insider:
The New York Stock Exchange is open after a 3-hour halt.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Business, The Daily Caller, Washington Post, American Spectator, WSLS-TV, The Verge and Hot Air

Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast:

Hillary Plays the Victim in CNN Interview — She may be the frontrunner in the presidential race, but Clinton still comes across as guarded, quibbling, and poker-faced under the TV lights. — Any Clinton supporters who hoped that a New Hillary would emerge from Tuesday's televised grilling …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Slate, Politico, Taylor Marsh, Poynter., New York Times, Patterico's Pontifications, Liberal Values, The Huffington Post, The Hill, Washington Post and CNN, more at Mediagazer »

Byron Tau / Wall Street Journal:

A Fact-Check of Hillary Clinton's CNN Interview on Her Personal Email — In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended her use of a personal email server and her larger record on transparency while running the department between 2009 and 2013.

Discussion: Hit & Run

NBC News:

Donald Trump: ‘I Will Win the Latino Vote’ — Donald Trump said Wednesday that he believes he will win the Latino vote, slamming Hillary Clinton for promoting what he called an immigration policy that would “let everybody come in... killers, criminals, drug dealers.” — “I have a great relationship with the Mexican people.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Guardian, OnPolitics and Mashable

Matt Hamilton / Los Angeles Times:

Tom Selleck ‘drought shamed,’ accused of using hydrant water — Actor Tom Selleck had truckloads of water from a public hydrant delivered to his sprawling Hidden Valley ranch, according to court documents filed against the veteran actor by a Ventura County water district.

Discussion: Guardian, Raw Story, Mediaite, The Daily Caller and The Week

Judicial Watch:

Judicial Watch: New Documents Reveal DOJ, IRS, and FBI Plan to Seek Criminal Charges of Obama Opponents — (Washington, DC) - Judicial Watch today released new Department of Justice (DOJ) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) documents that include an official “DOJ Recap” report detailing …

Discussion: RedState, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, BizPac Review, Washington Free Beacon and The PJ Tatler

Katie Pavlich / Townhall.com: New Documents Show Extensive Collaboration Between IRS, DOJ to Criminally Prosecute Conservative Groups

New York Post: The IRS scandal just got even worse

Ian Shapira / Washington Post:

Federal judge orders cancellation of Redskins' trademark registrations — The Washington Redskins lost their biggest legal and public relations battle yet in the war over its mascot after a federal judge in Northern Virginia on Wednesday ordered the cancellation of the NFL team's federal …

Discussion: SBNation.com, Talking Points Memo, Common Dreams, ProFootballTalk, Sporting News Feed RSS, NPR and The Week

Cristina Marcos / The Hill:

House votes to ban Confederate flags at federal cemeteries — After just two minutes of floor debate late Tuesday evening, the House passed a measure to prohibit the display of Confederate flags on graves in federal cemeteries. — Despite the lack of fanfare, the vote marked the House's …

Discussion: Red Alert Politics, The Daily Caller and Talking Points Memo

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Democrats' Views on Confederate Flag Increasingly Negative

Discussion: Politico and Talk Radio News Service

Reuters:

China stocks tumble as regulator warns of ‘panic’ — Chinese stocks dived on Wednesday after the securities regulator said the tumbling stock market in the world's second-biggest economy was in the grip of “panic sentiment” as investors ignored a battery of support measures from Beijing.

Discussion: Bloomberg Business, Hot Air, CNNMoney, Guardian, NO QUARTER USA NET, Wall Street Journal, Zero Hedge, The Last Refuge, The Gateway Pundit and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

David Barboza / New York Times:
Stock Sell-Off Is Unabated in China

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Outside the Beltway and The Week

Emily Badger / Washington Post:

Obama administration to unveil major new rules targeting segregation across U.S. — Cabrini-Green public housing project, which has been mostly demolished and redeveloped, is seen against the Chicago Skyline in May 1996. (AP Photo/Beth A. Keiser) — CHICAGO — When the Fair Housing Act …

Discussion: National Review, Reuters, The Atlantic, ThinkProgress, The Daily Caller, The Moderate Voice, US News, Liberaland, The Week, New York Times and Booman Tribune

Andrew Kirell / Mediaite:

Trump Steamrolls NBC Reporter, Takes Shots at Krauthammer and Jonah Goldberg — For those who didn't watch Donald Trump's lengthy interview with NBC's Katy Tur this afternoon, here's a one-sentence summation: The Republican candidate constantly chided and condescended to his interviewer …

Discussion: Business Insider

Tierney Sneed / Talking Points Memo:

Chaos In Maine: Gov. LePage Botches Veto Of 19 Bills He Opposed — The office of Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) and the clerk in the Maine House are in disagreement over the fate of 19 bills that the governor apparently did not veto in time to prevent them from becoming law.

Discussion: State & Capitol, Bangor Daily News, Raw Story, David Farmer and Daily Kos

The Nation:

Austerity Has Failed: An Open Letter From Thomas Piketty to Angela Merkel — Five leading economists warn the German chancellor, “History will remember you for your actions this week.” — The never-ending austerity that Europe is force-feeding the Greek people is simply not working.

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Common Dreams, BillMoyers.com, The Mahablog, Instapundit and Associated Press

Eduardo Porter / New York Times:
Germans Forget Postwar History Lesson on Debt Relief in Greece Crisis

Discussion: Washington Post, Prairie Weather, Wall Street Journal and The Week

Jake Pearson / Associated Press:

APNewsBreak: NYC to offer non-bail option for some suspects — 4 photos — NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of New Yorkers accused of low-level or non-violent crimes won't face the prospect of raising cash for bail under a plan that seeks to keep such suspects out of the troubled Rikers Island jail complex.

Discussion: VICE, Fusion and The Week

Carimah Townes / ThinkProgress:
New York City To Stop Jailing Some Nonviolent Offenders For Being Poor

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Daniel Strauss / Politico:

Donald Trump declines to rule out third-party bid — Donald Trump is almost completely shutting the door on the possibility of switching to a third-party presidential bid in the 2016 presidential cycle — almost. — “I've had many, many people ask me about running as an independent,” …

Discussion: Bloomberg Business, Washington Monthly and Naked Politics

Sarah Ferris / The Hill:

GOP blames ObamaCare for health insurance merger-mania — A frenzy of healthcare mergers has given Republicans' a new line of attack against ObamaCare, which they say is boosting profits for insurance giants at a cost to consumers. — The merger mania — evidenced most recently …

Discussion: Bloomberg View and Daily Kos

Samantha Lachman / The Huffington Post:
Women Are Spending $1.4 Billion Less On Birth Control Due To Obamacare: Report

Discussion: Kaiser Health News, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos, NPR and The Week

Caitlin Winner / Medium:

How We Changed the Facebook — Friends Icon — Facebook headquarters is an amazing place. The snacks are free, the sun always shines and everyone is full of the best intentions. During my first week I encountered hundreds of people earnestly trying to to make the world a better place.

Discussion: US News, Guardian, The Verge, Mashable and Daily Mail

Emily E. Smith / Oregonian:

Priest pretended to notify police after teen found camera in church bathroom, records say — In the 24 days he waited to report that a boy had found a hidden camera in a men's bathroom at his Sherwood church, Father Ysrael Bien pacified parishioners with a tall tale about a nonexistent police investigation, according to court records.

Discussion: Friendly Atheist and Raw Story

Javier Panzar / Los Angeles Times:

It's official: Latinos now outnumber whites in California — The demographers agreed: at some point in 2014, Latinos would pass whites as the largest ethnic group in California. — Determining when exactly that milestone would occur was more of a tricky question. Counting people isn't like counting movie ticket receipts.

Discussion: Fusion, Washington Post and Liberaland

John Podhoretz / New York Post:

Homelessness and empty stores becoming the new normal in NYC — “Eileen,” a familiar panhandling presence on Broadway in the 90s, is one of a growing number of homeless people amid shuttered businesses, raising the sense of neighborhood unease. — If you've been out and about in Manhattan …

Discussion: protein wisdom