memeorandum: Man who plotted to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sentenced to over 6 years in prison (Pete Williams/NBC News)

7:10 PM ET, August 25, 2021

Top Items:

In Kabul, Private Rescue Efforts Grow Desperate as Time to Evacuate Afghans Runs Out — Defense contractor Erik Prince charges $6,500 a person, other groups' planes leave Kabul empty — A disparate group of American veterans, military contractors, aid workers and former spies is scrambling …

Sami Sadat / New York Times:

The Afghan Army Collapsed Against the Taliban. Here's Why. — General Sadat is a commander in the Afghan National Army. — For the past three and a half months, I fought day and night, nonstop, in southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province against an escalating and bloody Taliban offensive.

Discussion: The Drive, Boston.com, Vanity Fair, Insider, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, Politico, Washington Post, HotAir, The Moderate Voice, POLITICUSUSA, National Review, Digby's Hullabaloo, Washington Examiner, NaturalNews.com and Foreign Affairs

David Leonhardt / New York Times:
A Better Afghan Policy

Discussion: HotAir, Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Politico, Reuters, Mexico News Daily, Insider, Front Page Magazine, Washington Post, The White House, HotAir, Washington Post and Politico

Allahpundit / HotAir:
Team Biden wonders: Why isn't the media giving us more credit for our amazing Kabul evacuation?

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications, Instapundit, Breitbart and Townhall

Ben Smith / New York Times:
How Mexico Helped The Times Get Its Journalists Out of Afghanistan

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Washington Post and Breitbart, more at Mediagazer »

Select Committee to Investigate …:

Select Committee Issues Sweeping Demand for Executive Branch Records — Bolton, MS—Today, Chairman Bennie G. Thompson announced the Select Committee's first round of demands for records as the committee expands its investigation into the January 6th violent attack on the U.S. Capitol and its causes.

Discussion: CNN, HuffPost, Insider, UPI, Raw Story and Washington Times

Christina Wilkie / CNBC:
Jan. 6 committee demands a huge trove of Trump White House records

Discussion: NBC News, Wall Street Journal, Politico, The Daily Beast, Roll Call, Bloomberg, Associated Press, CBS News, NPR, Talking Points Memo, Becker News, The Hill and ABC News

Politico:
Secret Service warned Capitol Police about violent threats 1 day before Jan. 6

Discussion: Bipartisan Report, The Western Journal, Talking Points Memo, Washington Examiner, IJR, Raw Story, Political Wire and Mediaite

Pete Williams / NBC News:

Man who plotted to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sentenced to over 6 years in prison — A Michigan man who admitted taking part in an extremist group's plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in retaliation for Covid restrictions was sentenced Wednesday to over 6 years in prison.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Bridge Michigan

Neil MacFarquhar / New York Times:

Defendant in Plot to Kidnap Michigan Governor Sentenced to Six Years — Ty G. Garbin, 25, had pleaded guilty to taking part in an extremist plot driven by anger at the governor's efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. — The only defendant to plead guilty to taking part in a plot …

Discussion: ABC News and WGN-TV

Associated Press:
Man gets 6 years in prison in Michigan governor kidnap plot

Discussion: Detroit Free Press, Insider, Talking Points Memo, Forbes and New York Post

Karen Pearlman / Los Angeles Times:

Students from San Diego County school district stranded in Afghanistan — At least 24 students from the Cajon Valley Union School District in El Cajon and 16 parents are stranded in Afghanistan after taking a summer trip abroad. — They are among thousands of individuals waiting to leave …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Fox News, The Daily Caller, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, New York Post, TheBlaze, Townhall and Althouse

Karen Pearlman / San Diego Union-Tribune:

San Diego County students, parents stranded in Afghanistan — An estimated 40 Afghans living in East County have been unable to get to airport in Kabul — At least two dozen San Diego County students and 16 parents are stranded in Afghanistan, unable to get to the airport in Kabul after a summer trip to visit relatives.

Discussion: KTLA and Mediaite

Cameron Jenkins / The Hill:
Dozens of California students, parents stranded in Afghanistan after summer trip abroad

Discussion: Washington Examiner

Daniel Dale / CNN:

Fact check: Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy makes at least 5 false claims in 7-minute Fox News interview — This is what Trump said about US' evacuation of Afghan allies — Washington (CNN)House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy made at least five false claims during a seven-minute Sunday interview on Fox News.

Matt Taibbi / TK News:

Enough is Enough: Antifa Attacks Reporter in Portland — Antifa's influence may be exaggerated, but it's not a mythical Snuffleupagus, either, as they showed in attacking reporter Maranie Staab from our partner News2Share this past weekend. — This past Sunday, while covering a protest in Portland …

Christopher Bedford / The Federalist: You Don't Need To Go To Kabul To See The End Of American Order. It's Right Here Among Us

Marina Villeneuve / Associated Press:

New NY governor adds 12,000 deaths to publicized COVID tally — ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul promised more government transparency on her first day in office and by day's end her administration had quietly delivered it by acknowledging nearly 12,000 more deaths in the state …

Stephen Groves / Associated Press:

Prosecutor: South Dakota AG to take plea deal in fatal crash — PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg will avoid a trial and take a plea deal for misdemeanor traffic charges in a crash last year in which he hit and killed a man who was walking along a rural highway, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, CBS News, The Hill, Raw Story, Law & Crime and Balloon Juice

Tom Kludt / Vanity Fair: “I Did Not Know It Was a Man”: The Surreal Story of How a Deadly Crash Upended South Dakota Politics

Leslie Josephs / CNBC:

Delta Air Lines is raising health insurance premiums for unvaccinated employees by $200 a month to cover higher Covid costs — Starting Nov. 1, unvaccinated Delta employees who have health insurance from the companywill face $200 monthly surcharges. — From Sept. 12 …

Discussion: HotAir, UPI, Morning Brew, Raw Story, Progress Pond, The Hill, Axios, Centers for Disease Control … and Political Wire

Delta News Hub:
Ed Bastian memo: COVID-19 update

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Bloomberg, Associated Press, National Review, Axios, The Daily Caller, Politico, The Guardian, CBS Dallas / Fort Worth, WCCO | CBS Minnesota, TheBlaze and CNBC

JoNel Aleccia / Kaiser Health News:
These Governors Push Experimental Antibody Therapy — But Shun Vaccine and Mask Mandates

Discussion: The Daily Caller, New York Times, Associated Press, WKMG, WND, TheBlaze, CNBC, Content Lab U.S., Axios, STAT, New York Times, New York Times and New York Post

Washington Post:

Pelosi assails two lawmakers who made unauthorized trip to Kabul — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blasted two lawmakers who surreptitiously flew into Kabul without approval to examine conditions at the international airport where a massive airlift is underway to evacuate U.S. citizens, allies and vulnerable Afghans.

Discussion: ABC News, Axios, Roll Call, Insider and Fox News

Catie Edmondson / New York Times:
Why Representatives Seth Moulton and Peter Meijer Secretly Traveled to Kabul

Discussion: The Western Journal, Political Wire and Washington Times

Maggie Fox / CNN:

Johnson & Johnson booster shot prompts large increase in immune response, company says — (CNN)Booster doses of Johnson & Johnson's one-shot coronavirus vaccine generated a big spike in antibodies, the frontline immune system defenses against infection, the company reported Wednesday.

Discussion: The Western Journal, KRQE-TV, UPI, NBC Chicago, CBS News, The Daily Caller, Washington Examiner and HotAir

Annie Karni / New York Times:

The Latest G.O.P. Schism: How to Handle Afghan Evacuees — The resettlement of Afghan allies in the U.S. is revealing an internal divide between the party's anti-immigrant wing and other conservatives who want to help the refugees. — WASHINGTON — The Republican Party is united …

Discussion: Media Matters for America

Andrew E. Kramer / New York Times:

In First Interview From Jail, an Upbeat Navalny Discusses Prison Life — Russian political prisoners today are subjected to “psychological” pressure, said the opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, who is forced to watch state TV for more than eight hours a day.

Discussion: Al Jazeera

Craig McCarthy / New York Post:

NYPD's largest police union vows to sue over possible COVID vaccine mandate — The Big Apple's largest police union told its members Wednesday that it would sue the city if cops are required to get the COVID-19 vaccine, The Post has learned. — “If the City attempts to impose a vaccine mandate …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and POLITICUSUSA

Tom Jackman / Washington Post:

Sirhan Sirhan, convicted of Robert F. Kennedy assassination, seeks parole with no opposition from prosecutors — Attorneys say that 53 years behind bars is sufficient punishment for the 77-year-old; Kennedy family declines to weigh in — Sirhan B. Sirhan, convicted of the 1968 assassination …

Discussion: The Hill and Althouse

Glenn Greenwald:

The Bizarre Refusal to Apply Cost-Benefit Analysis to COVID Debates — Are those who oppose a ban on cars or a radical reduction in speed limits sociopaths, given the huge number of people they are knowingly consigning to death or maiming? — In virtually every realm of public policy …

Quinnipiac University Poll:

Florida Voters Give Governor DeSantis Mixed Grades, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Nearly 6 In 10 Don't Want DeSantis To Run For President In 2024 — mail_outline — With Florida currently struggling with one of the highest rates of COVID-19 in the country, slightly more than half of voters …

Discussion: Florida Politics and The Hill

Adam Klasfeld / Law & Crime:

‘This Case Was Never About Fraud’: Federal Judge Refers ‘Kraken’ Attorneys, Including Lin Wood and Sidney Powell, for ‘Possible Suspension or Disbarment’ — A federal judge sent a strong message to each of the so-called “Kraken” lawyers behind litigation to upend the 2020 election …

Discussion: The Hill, Talking Points Memo and Bipartisan Report

New York Times:

He's No Longer Host. But Mike Richards Is Still Running ‘Jeopardy!’ — Defying a backlash over sexist and crude comments, a top Sony TV executive told the show's staff that they were standing behind Mr. Richards as the executive producer. — Last week, Mike Richards lost his gig as the new host of …

Discussion: Vanity Fair, The US Sun and Vox

Jane Margolies / New York Times:

Offices Dangle Beehives and Garden Plots to Coax Workers Back — The latest perks include harvesting honey and digging in the dirt, part of a growing effort to give employees access to fresh air, sunlight and plants. — The investment company Nuveen has spent $120 million renovating …

Discussion: Althouse

Marion Koopmans / Nature:

Origins of SARS-CoV-2: window is closing for key scientific studies … Marion Koopmans is head of the Department of Viroscience at Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. — You can also search for this author in — PubMed Google Scholar — Peter Daszak is president …

Discussion: Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, National Review, HotAir, Centers for Disease Control … and Wall Street Journal

New York Times:

Facebook Said to Consider Forming an Election Commission — The social network has contacted academics to create a group to advise it on thorny election-related decisions, said people with knowledge of the matter. — Facebook has approached academics and policy experts about forming …

Discussion: The Verge, more at Mediagazer »

Eric Levitz / New York Magazine:

The Media Manufactured Biden's Political ‘Fiasco’ in Afghanistan “Straight news” has chosen sanctimony over circumspection. — America's withdrawal from Afghanistan has yet to cost our nation a single casualty. Evacuations of U.S. citizens and allies from Kabul's airport are proceeding …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, Fox News and Liberty Nation

Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:

Former Top Producer of ABC's ‘Good Morning America’ Accused of Sexual Assault in Lawsuit — Michael Corn departed in April and denies the allegations; suit accuses ABC of failing to investigate allegations promptly — An ABC News staffer filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Michael Corn …

Discussion: Fox News, The Daily Caller, TVNewser, Variety, Mediaite, The US Sun, Deadline, New York Post and The Hill, more at Mediagazer »

Nathaniel Rakich / FiveThirtyEight:

Where America Lost And Gained Population Could Help Democrats In Redistricting — With the release of block-level data from the 2020 census, we now have a much clearer picture of how and where the U.S. population has grown — and shrunk — over the past 10 years.