memeorandum: Biden officials see a second chance to promote last year's infrastructure law with projects underway (Edward-Isaac Dovere/CNN)

7:55 AM ET, August 22, 2022

Top Items:

Anton Troianovski / New York Times:

Hawkish Russian Commentator Is Killed in Car Bombing — The daughter of a prominent ultranationalist, herself a hawkish commentator, was killed by a car bomb deep in Russian territory. — A brazen car bombing in a Moscow suburb that killed the daughter of a prominent backer …

Discussion: Telegraph, All that has been hidden …, Alexander Ziperovich, The Bona Fide, The Hill, The Daily Wire, The Guardian and WGN-TV

Neil MacFarquhar / New York Times:

What Russians See in the News: A War Over Western Plans to Subjugate Them — In the Kremlin-controlled news media, the war is not about Ukraine, but about a long history of enemies trying to keep Russia down. — “Vesti Nedeli,” the flagship weekly roundup of Kremlin-controlled television news …

Discussion: NaturalNews.com

Mark Galeotti / Spectator:
What the Dugin assassination tells us about Russia

Discussion: Insider, Telegraph, National Review, The Guardian, ABC7, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, Associated Press and NBC Connecticut

Anton Troianovski / New York Times: Who Was Daria Dugina and What Were Her Beliefs?

Kansas City Star:

Kansas recount confirms landslide win for abortion rights, but highlights risk to democracy — Kansas reaffirmed its landslide vote to uphold abortion rights after election officials on Sunday finished a recount that never had any chance of changing the outcome but was sought by an election denier …

Discussion: Raw Story

Justin Phillips / San Francisco Chronicle:

A coalition of AAPI groups says the far right is targeting its communities with disinformation — A first-of-its-kind study this month examines how disinformation is being used, often online, to sow discord between the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and other ethnic or racial groups.

New York Times:

An Unusual $1.6 Billion Donation Bolsters Conservatives — A low-profile Republican financier donated his company to a new group run by the influential operative Leonard A. Leo. — WASHINGTON — A new conservative nonprofit group scored a $1.6 billion windfall last year via a little-known donor …

Discussion: Alternet.org

Marianne Levine / Politico:

Senate prepares to pick up the judicial-pick pace as November looms — Joe Biden has more federal court nominees confirmed at this point in his presidency than predecessors did. But progressives are angsty over possible lost opportunities. — So far, the Senate has confirmed 76 judicial picks …

Discussion: The Hill, NPR and The Federalist

Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: A shifting center of attention reshapes 2022 — With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross — DRIVING THE DAY — THE WEEK —Today: U.S. and South Korea begin largest joint military exercises in half a decade (more from Reuters). ... Tuesday: Statewide primaries in New York and Florida. ...

Discussion: Washington Post, The Hill and CNN

Hannah Knowles / Washington Post:
2024 meets 2022: Trump, Pence, others ramp up for allies in midterms

Discussion: Washington Examiner, USA Today, The Daily Caller, Washington Post, Associated Press and San Diego Union-Tribune

Politico:

‘We got rolled’: How the conservative grassroots lost the fight with Biden because it was focused on Trump — In years past, it would have been a political Waterloo moment for Republicans: President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats racing frantically to finalize sweeping legislation …

Discussion: Raw Story, New York Times and Battleground

New York Times:

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Charged Under Terrorism Act — The move against Imran Khan is a major escalation of the power struggle between the government and the former leader and risks renewed public unrest. — ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan's former prime minister, Imran Khan …

Discussion: BBC, Financial Times, CBS News, Fox News, Al Jazeera, Voice of America, Associated Press, Bloomberg and The Hill

Edward-Isaac Dovere / CNN:

Biden officials see a second chance to promote last year's infrastructure law with projects underway — Most of the money from President Joe Biden's massive infrastructure bill is being handed out this summer and fall, nearly a year after passage, just in time for a campaign season he hopes will keep his fellow Democrats in power.

Discussion: AOL

Andrew Stanton / Newsweek:

Trump Allies Will Betray Him, Former Lawyer Predicts: ‘So Much Flipping’ — Former President Donald Trump's allies will eventually turn on him to avoid prison, his former attorney Michael Cohen said on Sunday. — Cohen's comment came nearly two weeks after FBI agents executed a search warrant …

Mary Ilyushina / Washington Post:

A Russian soldier's journal: ‘I will not participate in this madness’ — RIGA, Latvia — Russian paratrooper Pavel Filatyev spent more than a month fighting in Ukraine after his poorly equipped unit was ordered to march from its base in Crimea for what commanders called a routine exercise.

Sarah Maslin Nir / New York Times:

In the Lanternfly War, Some Take the Bug's Side — Even as the invasive pest spreads across 11 states and threatens agriculture, lanternflies are winning sympathizers who resist kill-on-sight orders. — When Lee Weiss, 31, sees a spotted lanternfly — an invasive pest so voracious …

David Edwards / Raw Story:

Ron Johnson says he only participated in election overthrow plot for ‘a couple seconds’ — Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) has refused to speak to the Jan. 6 Committee because his participation in a plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election only lasted “a couple seconds.”

Jacob Kornbluh / The Forward:

What CNN's Dana Bash learned after being assigned a project on the rise in antisemitism — When Dana Bash was in her early 20s, her grandfather Frank Weinman took her on a family trip through his childhood towns in Vienna, Hungary and Slovakia along with a Nazi ghetto in Czechoslovakia to give …

Discussion: Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jonathan Allen / NBC News:

Dennis Rodman says he's going to Russia to seek release of Brittney Griner — WASHINGTON — Former NBA player Dennis Rodman said Saturday that he plans to visit Russia to seek the release of Brittney Griner, the WNBA star who was sentenced to nine years in prison on drug charges earlier this month.