memeorandum: At the Capital Gazette, the Death of a Reporter's Reporter (Laura Lippman/New York Times)

3:05 AM ET, June 30, 2018

Top Items:

Lili Loofbourow / Slate:

The America We Thought We Knew Is Gone — Because countries are not people, it's tricky to translate whatever “loving one's country” means—it's quite abstract—into the language of heartbreak. It sounds melodramatic. What can heartbreak mean as a civic matter? And yet it is what I feel.

Discussion: Jezebel, Fox News, Daily Kos, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES and Hullabaloo

Daily Mail:

BREAKING NEWS: Trump says he's cut his Supreme Court short-list down to five candidates including TWO women and he'll announce a nominee July 9 - but he doesn't plan to ask any of them about Roe v. Wade — President is under pressure from conservatives to pick a reliably right-wing Supreme Court justice …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Bloomberg:

Trump Says He'll Announce Supreme Court Nominee July 9 — President says his Supreme Court finalists include two women — Five top candidates said to be federal appeals court judges — President Donald Trump said Friday he has narrowed down his search for a nominee to fill …

Washington Post:
Top Supreme Court prospect has argued presidents should not be distracted by investigations and lawsuits

Discussion: Washington Press, CNBC, Raw Story, The Hechinger Report, Townhall and LifeNews.com

Wall Street Journal:
Trump Says He Has Narrowed List of Possible Supreme Court Picks to Five

Discussion: Washington Times

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Trump says he is considering two women for Supreme Court, will announce pick July 9

Discussion: Politico, Vox, Hot Air and NBC News

Katherine Burgess / Wichita Eagle:
HHS official to abortion opponents: 'We're just getting started'

Discussion: Raw Story

Associated Press: Trump's on a hot streak: Court rulings, vacancy, summit plan

NBC News:

North Korea has increased nuclear production at secret sites, say U.S. officials — “Work is ongoing to deceive us on the number of facilities, the number of weapons, the number of missiles,” said one U.S. official — WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies believe that North Korea …

Discussion: Mother Jones, BloombergQuint, The Guardian, Mediaite, Axios, Financial Times and HuffPost

Daily Mail:

Comedian John Melendez ‘hoax calls President Trump on Air Force One and chats with him about controversial family separation policy while pretending to be a New Jersey senator’ — A voice sounding very much like that of President Donald Trump is heard in a phone call a comedian claims …

Discussion: New York Daily News, New York Times, BuzzFeed, Washington Press, Hot Air and Political Wire

John Harwood / CNBC:

Trump's White House has been a money-making machine — Although Donald Trump handed over control of his businesses to his sons, the president still collects on their profits. Here's how Trump's White House is a money-making machine.

Alexi McCammond / Axios:

Prank caller patched through to Trump on Air Force One — The host of “The Stuttering John” podcast, John Melendez, got President Trump on the phone yesterday by pretending he was New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez. “This is how easy it is to infiltrate the administration.” Melendez said in the podcast episode.

Discussion: CNN, ABC News, The Guardian, Breitbart, New Republic, Joe.My.God., Gizmodo, Boing Boing and Shakesville

Toluse Olorunnipa / Bloomberg:
Trump Apparently Duped by Prankster on Air Force One Phone Call

Discussion: The Stuttering John Podcast, The Root, Washington Post, Mashable and Raw Story

Louis Nelson / Politico:
White House scrambles to figure out how prankster got on the phone with Trump

Discussion: Fox News, IJR, ThinkProgress, HuffPost, TheBlaze, Law & Crime and The Stuttering John Podcast

Annie Karni / Politico:
Why a new chief of staff wouldn't change Trump's White House

Discussion: One America News Network

Robbie Gramer / Foreign Policy:

U.S. Ambassador to Estonia Resigns in Disgust After Trump Anti-Europe Rants — James Melville is the latest in a string of career diplomat resignations over Trump's comments and policies. — The U.S. ambassador to Estonia, James D. Melville Jr., a career diplomat and member …

Discussion: Washington Press, National Review and Politico

New York Times:

‘Shaken’ Rosenstein Felt Used by White House in Comey Firing — WASHINGTON — In the days after the F.B.I. director James B. Comey was fired last year, the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, repeatedly expressed anger about how the White House used him to rationalize the firing …

Discussion: Raw Story, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo and Mediaite

Washington Post:

U.S. assessing cost of keeping troops in Germany as Trump battles with Europe — The Pentagon is analyzing the cost and impact of a large-scale withdrawal or transfer of American troops stationed in Germany, amid growing tensions between President Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to people familiar with the work.

Discussion: AOL, Talking Points Memo and The Local

Rebecca Traister / The Cut:

Summer of Rage — It shouldn't have been such a shock. After all, many of those most painfully poleaxed by the news of Anthony Kennedy's retirement on Wednesday were the same ones who'd always understood the stakes; we knew that this was the risk, we've been scared for a long time.

The Babylon Bee: Democratic Socialist Candidate's Primary Win Revoked After All Her Votes Forcibly Redistributed

Tiffany Hsu / New York Times:

G.M. Says New Wave of Trump Tariffs Could Force U.S. Job Cuts — General Motors warned Friday that if President Trump pushed forward with another wave of tariffs, the move could backfire, leading to “less investment, fewer jobs and lower wages” for its employees.

Discussion: Raw Story and Hullabaloo

New York Times:

Russians Offered Business Deals to Brexit's Biggest Backer — LONDON — Arron Banks, a British financier who bankrolled the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, has long bragged about his “boozy six-hour lunch” with the Russian ambassador eight months before the vote.

Laura Lippman / New York Times:

At the Capital Gazette, the Death of a Reporter's Reporter — I believe there are two kinds of reporters — ones who can find a story by pointing to a random name in the phone book, and those who would rather impale themselves on an old-fashioned newsroom spike than do business that way.

Hadas Gold / CNNMoney:
Fundraisers set up for Capital Gazette shooting victims

Discussion: USA Today, Faithwire, The Atlantic and WWBT-TV, more at Mediagazer »

The Daily Beast:

Abolish ICE? Not So Fast, Says Congressional Hispanic Caucus in New Talking Points. … The preeminent coalition of Hispanic lawmakers on Capitol Hill is pushing back against mounting calls for abolishing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, arguing that lawmakers should instead focus …

Discussion: Washington Post

Alex Pappas / Fox News:
‘Abolish ICE’ goes mainstream as Gillibrand, de Blasio back calls

Discussion: The Hill, Breitbart, Trevor Loudon's New Zeal Blog, Fox News Insider, The Guardian, Sean Hannity, Front Page Magazine, Scared Monkeys, Washington Times and CBS New York

Natasha Korecki / Politico:

Ted Cruz: ‘Vote for the Democrat’ over the GOP Nazi — CHICAGO — Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz on Friday urged residents of a Chicago-area congressional district to vote for a Democrat if they must, to avoid giving even one vote to an avowed Nazi who won the GOP nomination.

Natasha Korecki / Politico:
‘I snookered them’: Illinois Nazi candidate creates GOP dumpster fire

Discussion: Raw Story, KTLA, Joe.My.God., twitchy.com and Mediaite

Adam Davidson / New Yorker:

The Inconvenient Legal Troubles That Lie Ahead for the Trump Foundation — Barring an unexpected change, the Donald J. Trump Foundation will be defending itself in a New York courtroom shortly before this fall's midterm elections. The proceedings seem unlikely to go well for the institution …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

HuffPost:

Our Hate Mail — Are these trolls? Actual threats? How can anyone tell the difference, anyway? — Up until the moment on Thursday he allegedly murdered five Capital Gazette employees, Jarrod W. Ramos was in many ways a kind of media consumer known to every journalist in America.

Hamilton Nolan / Splinter:
We Get Voicemails — This week I wrote something that got …

Discussion: Raw Story

Kate Rooney / CNBC:

Canada makes retaliatory tariffs official: ‘We will not back down’ — Canada's plan taking effect next week will include imports of U.S. products such as yogurt, caffeinated roasted coffee, toilet paper and sleeping bags. — Canada's foreign minister announced Friday that Ottawa plans …

Discussion: Bloomberg and Vox

Brad Reed / Raw Story:

12-year-old black kid gets cops called on him for cutting neighbors' grass — A 12-year-old black child had the police called on him simply for mowing the lawn as part of his summer business. — News 5 Cleveland reports that 12-year-old Reginald Fields was mowing the lawn of Lucille Holt …

Discussion: Washington Press, newsnet5, Q13 FOX News and CBS Sacramento

Michelle Kosinski / CNN:

Exclusive: Trump appointee guts UN document on racism, says leaders don't have duty to condemn hate speech — Washington (CNN)A Trump administration appointee to the State Department tore into standard UN documents that condemn racism as a threat to democracy.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money and New York Times

U.S. Department of Justice:

Man Arrested for Threatening to Murder Family of FCC Chairman — ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A California man was arrested today in Los Angeles on charges of threatening to kill the family of Ajit Pai, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, for Pai's role in repealing regulations relating to net neutrality.

Discussion: CNN, The Verge, Raw Story, Engadget and Daily Wire

Margaret Harding McGill / Politico:
Man charged with threatening to kill Ajit Pai's family

Discussion: Breitbart, Associated Press and Law & Crime

Michael Williams / Orlando Sentinel:

UCF professor accused of stalking student: ‘Be happy that somebody likes you this much to stalk you’ — A UCF professor was arrested on stalking charges, accused of sending a student hundreds of unwanted messages. — Privacy Policy — A University of Central Florida professor …

Discussion: Scared Monkeys

Romaissaa Benzizoune / New York Times:

How to Be a Hoejabi — A couple of years ago, Nadia Ali made international news for being a Muslim porn star. She was banned in Pakistan and began to receive death threats. (How many porn stars can say that they have graced ISIS's personal hit list?) So I don't think the conservative Muslim world liked her.

Seth Abramovitch / Hollywood Reporter:

Death in a Hollywood Sex Dungeon: How a Top Agency Executive's “Mummification” Ritual Ended in Tragedy — For years, WME vp Skip Chasey has led an openly double life as a “master” in L.A.'s BDSM community. But a role-playing encounter involving plastic wrap went horrifically wrong …

Parisa Hafezi / Reuters:

Iran's rulers face discontent as U.S. pressure mounts — ANKARA (Reuters) - Mounting pressure from the Trump administration combined with discontent among many Iranians at the state of the economy are rattling the Islamic Republic, with little sign that its leaders have the answers, officials and analysts say.

Discussion: Sean Hannity