memeorandum: After a rough year, NC Republicans want to do a better job reaching minority voters (The Charlotte Observer)

10:05 AM ET, June 8, 2019

Top Items:

White House blocked intelligence agency's written testimony saying climate change could be ‘possibly catastrophic’ — Officials sought to excise the State Department's comments on climate science on the grounds that it did not mesh with the administration's stance.

Discussion: Joe.My.God., Mediaite and Political Wire

Katelyn Polantz / CNN:

Mystery company off the hook from Mueller subpoena and contempt of court charge — Mystery company fighting Mueller: New details emerge — (CNN)The anonymous foreign-government-owned company that fought a subpoena in the special counsel investigation for months appears to be off the hook …

Grant Stern / Washington Press: A court just ordered the release of crucial documents in mysterious Mueller case

Natasha Bertrand / Politico: New subpoena for Roger Stone's former aide offers glimpse at ongoing investigation

Michael D. Shear / New York Times:

U.S.-Mexico Deal Leads Trump to Cancel Tariffs — WASHINGTON — President Trump called off his plan to impose tariffs on all Mexican goods on Friday night and announced on Twitter that the United States had reached an agreement with Mexico to reduce the flow of migrants to the southwestern border.

Discussion: USA Today, Outside the Beltway, Joe.My.God., Washington Monthly, Mother Jones, CBS Chicago, The Sun and The Guardian

United States Department of State:

U.S.-Mexico Joint Declaration — The United States and Mexico met this week to address the shared challenges of irregular migration, to include the entry of migrants into the United States in violation of U.S. law. Given the dramatic increase in migrants moving from Central America through Mexico …

Discussion: Fox News, RedState, Quartz, POLITICUSUSA, Wall Street Journal, twitchy.com, Breitbart, Associated Press, Marketplace and Washington Post

Bill Chappell / NPR:

Univ. Of Alabama Returns $21.5 Million Gift; Donor Urged Boycott Over Abortion Law — Updated at 2 p.m. ET — The University of Alabama's Board of Trustees has voted to return a $21.5 million gift from Hugh Culverhouse Jr. — the school's biggest donor — and take his name off its law school.

Discussion: New York Times, Conservative News Today, The Daily Caller, wabe.org and Daily Wire

Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr / Washington Post:
I gave the University of Alabama $26.5 million. They gave it back when I spoke out about abortion.

Discussion: WPMT FOX43

Washington Post:

Joe Biden asked for a pen. Then he reversed a position he'd held for four decades. — Joe Biden was in the car on the way to a Democratic gala in Atlanta on Thursday night when he turned to an aide and asked for a pen. The former vice president began scrawling his evolving thoughts on the Hyde Amendment …

Discussion: Breitbart, VICE News and Associated Press

National Review:
Joe Biden Embraces Taxpayer-Funded Abortion

Discussion: NB Blog, Fox News, Townhall and Bloomberg

The Hill:
Biden World shell-shocked amid Hyde furor

Discussion: Breitbart, CNN and twitchy.com

Ken Meyer / Mediaite:
CNN's Keilar Brutally Grills Biden Spox on Abortion Reversal: What Changed His Mind in One Day?

Discussion: Fox News, Daily Wire and Trending Home

Josh Lederman / NBC News:

Trump admin tells U.S. embassies they can't fly pride flag on flagpoles — The administration is rejecting requests from U.S. embassies to fly the rainbow flag on flagpoles during June, LGBTQ Pride Month, say 3 U.S. diplomats. — WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is rejecting requests …

Discussion: CNN, PinkNews, The Stranger, madison.com, POLITICUSUSA, Washington Blade, Daily Kos, Axios, ThinkProgress, KTLA, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, The New Civil Rights Movement, The Week and Joe.My.God.

David M. Halbfinger / New York Times:

U.S. Ambassador Says Israel Has Right to Annex Parts of West Bank — JERUSALEM — Israel has a right to annex at least some, but “unlikely all,” of the West Bank, the United States ambassador, David M. Friedman, said in an interview, opening the door to American acceptance of what would be an enormously provocative act.

Discussion: The Week

Eric Dexheimer / Houston Chronicle:

Banned from guns, Texas gave him a license anyway. Citizens paid the price. — If you wanted to invent an avatar to represent the type of person who should not have easy access to firearms, you might come up with someone like Heon “Hank” Yoo. — In 2013, after threatening to shoot …

Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:

New Election Security Bills Face a One-Man Roadblock: Mitch McConnell — WASHINGTON — A raft of legislation intended to better secure United States election systems after what the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, called a “sweeping and systematic” Russian attack in 2016 is running …

Discussion: Joe.My.God.

The Post Millennial:

Vox journalists ruin people's lives then demand higher wages — Earlier this week, Vox's Carlos Maza succeeded in getting independent journalists and content creators demonetized across the YouTube platform in what has become known as the Vox Adpocalypse. These users, including Steven Crowder …

Discussion: Gizmodo, LewRockwell and Louder With Crowder

News 12 Brooklyn:

Nearly 800 signatures gathered in effort to block homeless shelters in Park Slope — PARK SLOPE - — Community members in Park Slope are pushing back against a plan to build two homeless shelters a block away from each other. — The proposed shelters, which will consist mainly …

William A. Jacobson / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion:

VERDICT: Jury awards Gibson's Bakery $11 million against Oberlin College — Punitive damage phase to start next Tuesday, which could increase the damages to $33 million. — The Jury in the Gibson's Bakery v. Oberlin College case has reached a verdict. — According to our reporter in the Courtroom, the jury awarded $11 million.

Discussion: Chronicle-Telegram Headlines, Don Surber, The Gateway Pundit, Daily Wire and The New Neo

Quinta Jurecic / New York Times:

4 Disturbing Details You May Have Missed in the Mueller Report — Some troubling-to-outright-damning episodes have been lost in the noise around its release. — Ms. Jurecic is the managing editor of Lawfare. — After two years of silence, the special counsel Robert Mueller recently …

HuffPost:

Trump's $3.6 Million Ireland Detour Brings Taxpayer-Funded Golf Tab To $105.8 million — His for-profit golf course there posted promotional videos of him teeing off and his helicopter's arrival — but deleted them after HuffPost began making inquiries. — President Donald Trump wrapped …

Washington Post:

Vatican cardinal, other priests to return cash gifts from ousted West Virginia bishop Michael Bransfield — A cardinal at the Vatican and eight other Catholic clerics pledged on Friday to return money to the diocese of West Virginia after revelations that the bishop there used church funds …

Dion Rabouin / Axios:

Too much money (and too few places to invest it) — A truly bizarre trend is having an impact on the economy — wealthy people and corporations have so much money they literally don't know what to do with it. — Why it matters: At a time when growing income inequality is fueling voter discontent …

Discussion: VICE

Jacob Bogage / Washington Post:

Dodgeball is a tool of ‘oppression’ used to ‘dehumanize’ others, researchers argue — One of gym classes' most common games is being used as a tool of “oppression,” according to a team of Canadian researchers. — Dodgeball in phys-ed classes teaches students to dehumanize and harm their peers …

Discussion: New York Post

Sarah Kaplan / Washington Post:

Fact check: What is the moon? — “For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon — We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!”

Discussion: The Atlantic, twitchy.com, Al Jazeera and New York Times

Bloomberg: Trump Chides NASA for Focus on Moon After Focusing NASA on Moon

Amy Zegart / The Atlantic:

Decades of Being Wrong About China Should Teach Us Something — Thirty years ago this week, I watched the news from Beijing and started shredding my bedding. It was the night before my college graduation, I had been studying Chinese politics, and news had just broken that college students …

Neil Irwin / New York Times:

Trump Is More Vulnerable to Democratic Attacks on Trade Than You Might Think — An opening to criticize him from the right as well as the left. — To President Trump, tariff “is a beautiful word indeed.” Just in the last few weeks, he increased tariffs on billions of Chinese imports and threatened Mexico with big new tariffs.

Ian Miles Cheong / Human Events:

Male Feminist Tech Journalist Charged With Soliciting Child Sex — The FBI has arrested Ars Technica writer and male feminist ally Peter Bright. He is charged with soliciting sex with children online. — Bright allegedly sought to molest a 7- and 9-year old and disclosed his intentions …

Discussion: The Daily Dot and twitchy.com, more at Mediagazer »

BBC:

London bus attack: Arrests after gay couple who refused to kiss beaten — Two women say they were subjected to a homophobic attack and left covered in blood after refusing to kiss on a bus. — Melania Geymonat, 28, said the attack on her and partner Chris happened on the top deck …

Discussion: CNN, Joe.My.God. and Mercury News

The Charlotte Observer:

After a rough year, NC Republicans want to do a better job reaching minority voters — Last November Republicans took a beating in urban counties like Mecklenburg, where they saw all but one incumbent fall in county and legislative races. It was a similar pattern in other cities.

Daniel Marans / HuffPost:

DNC Members Push For Climate Change-Centered Presidential Debate — But the party is holding its ground, saying the debates should be wide ranging. — Over 50 voting members of the Democratic National Committee have submitted a resolution calling on DNC Chairman Tom Perez to hold …

Discussion: Daily Kos

Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet:

Russian Navy Ship Maneuvers Unsafe, Unprofessional — At approximately 11:45 am on June 7, 2019 while operating in the Philippine Sea, a Russian destroyer (Udaloy I DD 572) made an unsafe maneuver against USS Chancellorsville (CG-62), closing to ~50-100 feet putting the safety of her crew and ship at risk.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Bloomberg, National Review, Reuters, TASS, Breitbart, wabe.org, The Diplomat and Radio Free Europe/Radio …

David M. Drucker / Washington Examiner:

Prominent Republicans move swiftly to shore up Trump in Wisconsin — Prominent Republicans are moving swiftly to shore up support for President Trump in Wisconsin, anxious that a state critical to his path to a 2020 Electoral College victory could slip away under the weight of political and organizational challenges.