By Josh Voorhees (@JoshVoorhees)
LATE BREAKING: The Associated Press: "Prosecutors say the suspect in the Colorado theater shooting made threats and was banned from the University of Colorado after failing a key exam six weeks before the rampage. They made the accusations about James Holmes in court Thursday as they tried to convince a judge to let them see records from the university, where Holmes had been a graduate student. They also claim professors had urged Holmes to get into another line of work before the shooting."
RICK'S GOT THIS: Gov. Scott wants everyone to know that he and his team have things under control when it comes to Isaac and next week's GOP convention. "The possibility for a hurricane has been part of that planning process," the Florida Republican said at an afternoon briefing, as the technically-still-a tropical storm continued to make its way toward his state. "All that's required for those plans to be activated is there to be a hurricane, and hopefully that will not happen."
THE SHOW MUST GO ON: "We do have contingency plans to deal with weather related and other circumstances that may occur to ensure that the business can go on at the RNC and Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will become our nominees," a convention spokesman told CNN.
IN CASE THEY DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH TO WORRY ABOUT: The feds are concerned about violent anarchists disrupting both parties' upcoming national conventions, possibly with the help of some IEDs, according to an intelligence bulletin obtained by CNN.
It's unclear exactly how concerned federal authorities really are, though, largely because the FBI routinely issues intelligence bulletins ahead of major events. The report mentions one specific threat—from a group of individuals who had been plotting to try to close all area bridges next week—but leaves it unclear if those plans relied on explosives, or other less-violent tactics.
"THE BAIN FILES": Gawker has published a trove of Mitt Romney's financial documents online, encouraging readers to sift through nearly a thousand pages of dense docs to unearth any buried treasure. The early returns suggest there may not be a lot there, however, and at least one financial journalist is calling it a page-view grab.
ON THE OTHER HAND: Given the remarkably small center of a journalist-accountant Venn diagram, it is of course still possible that by turning over the docs to the public, someone with a little more financial expertise may yet uncover something those who had already seen the docs missed.
Happy Thursday and welcome to the Slatest PM, where if we squint we can see the weekend from here, and it looks glorious. Follow your host on Twitter at @JoshVoorhees and the rest of the team at @slatest.
DANGEROUS COCKTAIL: Rodney King accidentally drowned in his pool in June, but drugs and alcohol appear to have played a role, local authorities announced today. Among those found in his system: cocaine, marijuana and PCP. The Los Angeles Times: "The findings released Thursday clarify the mystery of why the avid swimmer was found at the bottom of his swimming pool the morning of June 17."
WE'RE NOT QUITE SURE WHAT ELSE THEY COULD SAY: Reuters: "Despite claims by Julian Assange that Washington is plotting to extradite and execute him, U.S. and European government sources say the United States has issued no criminal charges against the WikiLeaks founder and has launched no attempt to extradite him."
AKIN'S CLANDESTINE TRIP TO TAMPA: Politico reports that Republicans' least favorite Republican traveled to Tampa last night to meet with members of a "secretive coalition" of powerful conservative and Evangelical leaders, a group that goes by the remarkably boring-sounding Council for National Policy.
MORE ON THE CNP: From a 2004 NYT article: "Three times a year for 23 years, a little-known club of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country have met behind closed doors at undisclosed locations for a confidential conference, the Council for National Policy, to strategize about how to turn the country to the right. Details are closely guarded."
DADDY ISSUES: Paul Ryan’s dad died at a young age. He is in good company. Political leaders often have absent, alcoholic, neglectful fathers, or fathers who died too young. Barron YoungSmith investigates.
EXPLAINER: A woman who stole $206 worth of hotel-room paraphernalia told Buffalo, N.Y. police that her twin sister was the real culprit. As it turns out, the woman was not a twin, but does that trick ever work for real identical twins? Absolutely, explains Brian Palmer.
NYT: "Gen. John R. Allen, the senior commander in Afghanistan, said that the Taliban played a part in up to one-quarter of the attacks by Afghan security forces on Americans."
WSJ: "The Dow industrials fell the most in more than a month amid mounting doubts about more stimulus from the Fed and concerns about the sustainability of the summer's gains."
WaPo: "Democratic campaign workers outnumber GOP nearly three to one, a Post analysis of spending reports found."
IRRESISTIBLE HEADLINE OF THE DAY: "He was naked, on crack and in alligator's mouth."
STARRING BILL CLINTON: The former president takes center stage in Team Obama's latest TV ad that will run in New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada.
THE SHRINKING MIDDLE CLASS: The Pew Research Center brings us a snapshot of America's middle class. In short, the percentage of middle-tier households—defined as having incomes between two-thirds and double the nation's median—has shrunk considerably over the past several decades, falling from 61 percent in 1971 to 51 percent in 2011.
VIRGINIA MAY SOON HAVE AN NBA TEAM? It's not as crazy as it sounds, explains Matthew Yglesias.
FROM THE (front of the) SLATE VAULT: The Conversion: How, when, and why Mitt Romney changed his mind on abortion.
See you back here tomorrow, but in the meantime tell your friends to subscribe here.
No comments:
Post a Comment