Extra, Extra
Borderliner Notes: “As midnight nears, the lights of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, fill the sky on the silent banks of the Rio Grande. A few months ago, hundreds of asylum-seeking families, including crying toddlers, waited for an opening to crawl through razor wire from Juarez into El Paso. No one is waiting there now. Nearly 500 miles away, in the border city of Eagle Pass, large groups of migrants that were once commonplace are rarely seen on the riverbanks these days.” AP: One day along the Texas-Mexico border shows that realities shift more rapidly than rhetoric.
+ Proxy War: “Israel’s army chief says the military is preparing for a possible ground incursion into Lebanon. His remarks come as the IDF announced it is calling up two reserve brigades ‘for operational missions in the northern sector.’ A Hezbollah missile intercepted near Israel’s economic center Tel Aviv is the first fired by the militant group to reach close to the city, the Israeli military said. Hezbollah said it had targeted the headquarters of Israel’s intelligence service Mossad.” Here’s the latest on the escalation from CNN. What do Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis all have in common? They’re all backed by Iran. That’s why this battle has global implications. And it doesn’t just involve those doing the fighting. Iran brokering Russia-Houthi talks on arming group with anti-ship missiles.
+ Divided Nations: Sometimes a headline tells the whole story. And this story has a sad and disturbing ending. Missouri executes Marcellus Williams despite prosecutors and the victim’s family asking that he be spared.
+ Swiped: “We allege that Visa has unlawfully amassed the power to extract fees that far exceed what it could charge in a competitive market … Merchants and banks pass along those costs to consumers, either by raising prices or reducing quality or service. As a result, Visa’s unlawful conduct affects not just the price of one thing – but the price of nearly everything.” Department of Justice sues Visa, alleges the card issuer monopolizes debit card markets.
+ FT Ex: “Ellison, 29, pleaded guilty to seven felony counts of fraud and conspiracy and testified as a prosecution witness in the trial of Bankman-Fried, who was convicted of fraud and other charges last year and is serving a 25-year prison sentence arising from FTX’s 2022 collapse.” Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend Ellison gets two-year sentence over crypto fraud.
+ Attacking the Truth: “The reporting described how, with then-Gov. Phil Bryant in office, Favre and a handful of others scored millions of dollars that were supposed to go to welfare families but were instead used on projects that included a college volleyball facility and a concussion drug company … It was against that backdrop last spring, a month shy of her 29th birthday, that Wolfe won the Pulitzer and celebrated with family, friends and colleagues at Hal & Mal’s, a Jackson institution. It was a moment that should have capped the journey on a story Wolfe had been chasing for five years. Instead, not long after the Pulitzers were announced, the former governor sued Mississippi Today for defamation, setting off a battle that not only soured Wolfe’s and Mississippi Today’s moment but, more troubling to Wolfe, turned the focus away from the scandal itself.” Mark Fainaru-Wada (who knows a whole lot about breaking news about sports scandals) in ESPN: Threatened with jail over a scandal headlined by Brett Favre.
+ Serve Notice: “Silicon Valley has the reputation of being the birthplace of our hyper-connected Internet age, the hub of companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook. However, a pioneering company here in central Ohio is responsible for developing and popularizing many of the technologies we take for granted today.” 45 years ago CompuServe connected the world before the World Wide Web. (About an hour later, I started sending newsletters.) “The company started in 1969 as a subsidiary of Golden United Life Insurance. It was initially a computer time-sharing service. It offered data processing power to businesses that didn’t have their own mainframe computers.”
