Daily Bread for 5.26.18

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of ninety.  Sunrise is 5:21 AM and sunset 8:22 PM, for 15h 00m 17s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 90.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1805, French dictator Napoleon declares himself ruler of the Kingdom of Italy (Emperor of the French and King of Italy).

Recommended for reading in full —

  Melena Ryzik reports Weinstein in Handcuffs Is a ‘Start to Justice’ for His Accusers:

It was, the women said, a foreign feeling, a twinned sense of disbelief and hope. Often, it spilled out physically, in shaking and tears: Hope d’Amore suddenly started sobbing in the middle of a Neiman Marcus in Texas; Dawn Dunning at her kitchen table in Los Angeles. On Friday, the news of Harvey Weinstein’s arrest wound its way through the lives of the many women who stepped forward to accuse him, over and over, of harassment, assault and abuse.

Most did not believe the day would ever come when they would see him marched into a courthouse, where he was charged with two counts of rape and a criminal sex act.

It was a stark — and to some, a long-delayed — reversal of fortune for Mr. Weinstein, the Hollywood mogul whose downfall helped usher in the global #MeToo movement.

(If, at last, some measure of justice reaches even a man so powerful as Weinstein, what dark hope do institutional offenders and their apologists have within the nine square miles of this small city?)

Damian Paletta reports Trump says he’ll spare Chinese telecom firm ZTE from collapse, defying lawmakers:

President Trump said late Friday he had allowed embattled Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE Corp. to remain open despite fierce bipartisan opposition on Capitol Hill, defying lawmakers who have warned that the huge technology company should be severely punished for breaking U.S. law.

Trump said on Twitter he was allowing it to “reopen with high level security guarantees, change of management and board,” a requirement that it must purchase U.S. parts, and a $1.3 billion fine.

Sensing such a move, top Democrats and at least one Republican on Friday said the White House’s decision was tantamount to a bailout of a large Chinese company with little benefit for the United States.

The requirement that ZTE purchase U.S. parts could draw criticism on Capitol Hill, as the company relies on U.S. parts to make its products. In fact, it was the Commerce Department’s April penalty that banned ZTE from buying U.S. parts that effectively put it on the brink of closure.

The Obama administration and Trump administration have repeatedly punished ZTE for violating sanctions laws by selling products to Iran and North Korea and then lying to federal investigators.

(Trump: Make China Great Again.)

 Marwa Eltagouri reports Publix halts donations to self-described ‘NRA sellout’ amid boycott, ‘die-in’ protests by David Hogg:

The supermarket chain Publix on Friday announced that it would suspend its political contributions to Adam Putnam, a Republican candidate for Florida governor, after being faced with overwhelming pressure to cut ties with him because of his fierce support for the National Rifle Association.

“We would never knowingly disappoint our customers or the communities we serve,’’ Publix said in a statement Friday. “As a result, we decided earlier this week to suspend corporate-funded political contributions as we reevaluate our giving processes.’’

The announcement came moments before “die-in” protests organized by 18-year-old gun-control activist David Hogg began at several Publix supermarkets, forcing store managers to reroute shoppers around the protesters, who lay on the floors of the aisles. At an Orlando supermarket, store managers fetched grocery items for customers who stood to watch but mostly went on shopping, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

At two Publix supermarkets in Parkland, survivors of the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shouted “USA, not NRA!” as customers navigated their shopping carts around them on the floor, according to the Associated Press. Counterprotesters supporting the NRA turned up at one of the stores, where a near-confrontation almost occurred between two men before police intervened.

(See also  The Pentagon Considers This Russian Sniper Rifle a Big Threat to US Soldiers. The NRA Helped Promote It. One can support responsible gun ownership without supporting the NRA – indeed, it’s not possible, reasonably, to support both.)

William K. Rashbaum, Ben Protess and Mike McIntire report At Trump Tower, Michael Cohen and Oligarch Discussed Russian Relations:

Eleven days before the presidential inauguration last year, a billionaire Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin visited Trump Tower in Manhattan to meet with Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, according to video footage and another person who attended the meeting.

In Mr. Cohen’s office on the 26th floor, he and the oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, discussed a mutual desire to strengthen Russia’s relations with the United States under President Trump, according to Andrew Intrater, an American businessman who attended the meeting and invests money for Mr. Vekselberg. The men also arranged to see one another during the inauguration festivities, the second of their three meetings, Mr. Intrater said.

Days after the inauguration, Mr. Intrater’s private equity firm, Columbus Nova, awarded Mr. Cohen a $1 million consulting contract, a deal that has drawn the attention of federal authorities investigating Mr. Cohen, according to people briefed on the inquiry.

Darryl Fears reports Here’s why there are so many coyotes and why they are spreading so fast:

For eons, coyotes roamed what is now the western United States, with its wide-open plains. Then came European settlers, who cut down forests for farms and ranches in a steady east-west march. Along the way, they killed large predators such as pumas and wolves to protect livestock and for their own safety.

The predators they obliterated were mortal enemies of the coyote, holding them in check, a new study in the journal ZooKeys says. As mountain lions and wolf packs disappeared from the landscape, coyotes took advantage, starting a wide expansion eastward at the turn of the last century into deforested land that continues today.

Coyotes are newly established in every state and several Canadian provinces and are rapidly moving south of Mexico into Central America, the study released Tuesday says. They have even been spotted by camera traps in Panama. They are in the District’s Rock Creek Park and New York’s Central Park, and they have been known to attack household pets and, on very rare occasions, people. Their rapid expansion into North Carolina in the past decade is a major reason a program to rehabilitate critically endangered red wolves there is on the brink of failure.

(At least readers of this publication were warned.)