memeorandum: Amazon's Tax Breaks and Incentives Were Big. Hudson Yards' Are Bigger. (Matthew Haag/New York Times)

4:20 PM ET, March 9, 2019

Top Items:

David Corn / Mother Jones:

A Florida Massage Parlor Owner Has Been Selling Chinese Execs Access to Trump at Mar-a-Lago — The latest Trump political donor to draw controversy is Li Yang, a 45-year-old Florida entrepreneur from China who founded a chain of spas and massage parlors that included the one where New England …

Discussion: Raw Story, Vanity Fair, Hullabaloo, Splinter, Political Wire, Daily Kos, POLITICUSUSA, The Daily Beast, Fox News, Balloon Juice, Mediaite, The Mahablog, miamiherald, KTLA, The Guardian, The Stranger, WTVR-TV and Polipace Insider …

Washington Post:

Is Paul Manafort's sentence too light? He fared worse than many fraudsters, data shows. — Paul Manafort's prison sentence of less than four years on bank- and tax-fraud charges Thursday sparked outrage from commentators who said it was too light a punishment for his crimes.

Discussion: RedState and Fox News

Ken White / The Atlantic:

6 Reasons Paul Manafort Got Off So Lightly — Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, entered Virginia federal court on Thursday facing a recommended sentence of 19 to 24 years, and left with a sentence of less than four years.

Discussion: Hit & Run, USA Today, New York Times and Forbes

Adam Rawnsley / The Daily Beast: Manafort's Judge Gave This Jamaican Woman More Time for Similar Crimes

New York Times:
Manafort's 47 Months: A Sentence That Drew Gasps From Around the Country

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

New York Times:

Bernie Sanders-Style Politics Are Defining 2020 Race, Unnerving Moderates — IOWA CITY — The sharp left turn in the Democratic Party and the rise of progressive presidential candidates are unnerving moderate Democrats who increasingly fear that the party could fritter away its chances …

Discussion: Mother Jones

Sydney Ember / New York Times:

A ‘Beat Trump’ Fervor Is Producing Big Turnouts for 2020 Democrats — COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — They dragged their friends to see Bernie Sanders in Iowa. In South Carolina, their unrelenting selfie requests made Cory Booker late. And in New Hampshire, so many showed up at a church for an event …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Axios and Raw Story

Dan Balz / Washington Post:

Yes, the Republican Party has changed since 2016. You think the Democratic Party hasn't? — The transformation of the Republican Party under President Trump is a well-told story. Less noted, but no less significant, is the change in the Democratic Party during the same period.

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Bret Stephens / New York Times:
Capitalism and the Democratic Party

Discussion: MSNBC

Washington Post:

Howard Schultz's ‘nightmare’: How his first big gamble outside Starbucks ended in defeat — When Howard Schultz bought the Seattle SuperSonics in 2001, his friends told the Starbucks chief he was overestimating what he could do to save the struggling basketball franchise.

Discussion: Splinter

Anne Applebaum / Washington Post:

The more we learn about Brexit, the more crooked it looks — Elements of the 2016 British referendum campaign have long seemed familiar to Americans. There was a close, controversial election, full of rancor and anger. There were a lot of wealthy men talking about “the people” and their “will.”

Discussion: Byline Times

WTOP:

Richmond's new FBI chief was lead agent in Mueller's office — RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The new special agent in charge of the FBI's Richmond, Virginia, field office was the lead FBI agent in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office. — FBI Director Christopher Wray named David Archey …

Jennifer Senior / New York Times:

Teen Fiction and the Perils of Cancel Culture — Readers, not a Twitter mob, should decide the fate of a book. — Late last month, a young man named Kosoko Jackson became the second young adult author in five weeks to pull a debut work just before it hit the shelves.

Discussion: Jihad Watch

Mary Papenfuss / HuffPost:

Ex-Mercenary CEO Erik Prince Admits To Trump Tower Meet With Donald Jr. And Saudi Emissary — He said the campaign huddle focused on “Iran policy,” and suggested his congressional hearing transcript when he failed to mention it was inaccurate. — Erik Prince, former head of mercenary business Blackwater …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, POLITICUSUSA and The Independent

Al Jazeera:
Erik Prince acknowledges 2016 Trump Tower meeting for first time

Discussion: The Hill, Political Wire, Mother Jones and Raw Story

Al Jazeera English / YouTube: Blackwater's Erik Prince: Iraq, privatising wars, and Trump | Head to Head

Matthew Haag / New York Times:

Amazon's Tax Breaks and Incentives Were Big. Hudson Yards' Are Bigger. — At Hudson Yards, the expansive real estate development that is about to open in Manhattan, seven floors of retail are occupied by Fendi, Dior, Neiman Marcus and other high-end shops.

Sara Carter / Sara A. Carter:

Bruce Ohr's Testimony Contradicts Testimony Provided By Rosenstein And Simpson — Department of Justice senior official Bruce Ohr's testimony contradicts testimony given by other senior government officials and key witnesses who testified before Congress regarding the FBI's investigation …

Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:
In Surprise Move, House Republican Releases Bruce Ohr Transcript

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and twitchy.com

Maria Sacchetti / Washington Post:

In another blow to Trump, judge rules in favor of ACLU in family separations case — In a legal blow to the Trump administration, a federal judge ruled Friday that all migrant families separated during the government's border crackdown should be included in a class-action lawsuit.

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

NBC News:
Trump administration responsible for even more separated children, judge rules

Discussion: Mother Jones

Clark Pettig / American Oversight:

Sessions Letter Shows DOJ Acted on Trump's Authoritarian Demand to Investigate Clinton — American Oversight has uncovered the signed directive from former Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructing a federal prosecutor to carry out President Trump's authoritarian demand to investigate Hillary Clinton.

Alyza Sebenius / Bloomberg:

Russian Trolls Shift Strategy to Disrupt U.S. Election in 2020 — Hackers infiltrate computers to create fake social media users — Fake accounts are used to amplify divisive messages by others — Russian internet trolls appear to be shifting strategy in their efforts to disrupt …

Discussion: Raw Story

Laura Meckler / Washington Post:

Betsy DeVos effort to delay special-ed regulations rejected by court — A federal court ruled this week that an Obama-era regulation designed to ensure children of color are not disproportionately punished or sent to special-education classrooms must take effect immediately.

Discussion: Axios

Washington Post:

Trump invokes new demand for extracting billions of dollars from U.S. allies — In private discussions with his aides, President Trump has devised an eye-popping formula to address one of his long-standing complaints: that allies hosting U.S. forces don't pay Washington enough money.