What’s coming on Sunday Kos:
- Remember when Obama refused to work with GOP during Benghazi, Fast & Furious probes? Me neither, by Ian Reifowitz
- Can the press avoid another campaign train wreck in 2020, by Eric Boehlert
- House Democrats' 2018 victories came about in some ways that might surprise you, by David Jarman
- The American Frog is just about fully cooked, almost, by Frank Vyan Walton
- Democratic leadership needs to learn how to grandstand in the Trump era, by Egberto Willies
- Remember when Obama refused to work with GOP during Benghazi, Fast & Furious probes? Me neither, by Ian Reifowitz
- Abortion bans are only the latest offensive in long-running GOP war on women, by Sher Watts Spooner
- Hurricane season starts June 1. U.S. mainland media continues to fail Puerto Rico, by Denise Oliver Velez
• Stolen NSA tool EternalBlue wreaking havoc in Baltimore and elsewhere:
For nearly three weeks, Baltimore has struggled with a cyberattack by digital extortionists that has frozen thousands of computers, shut down email and disrupted real estate sales, water bills, health alerts and many other services.
But here is what frustrated city employees and residents do not know: A key component of the malware that cybercriminals used in the attack was developed at taxpayer expense a short drive down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway at the National Security Agency, according to security experts briefed on the case.
It’s been known since 2017 that NSA developed the tool that has been used by hackers around the world. But until now the fact that this cyberweapon has been used in attacks on U.S. cities was unknown because NSA has been unwilling to even admit that it had developed the malware tool or comment in any way about it. That’s still the case.
• EPA experts objected to Scott Pruitt’s exemption of most of southeastern Wisconsin from federal limits on smog: The decision was made just as Wisconsin’s then-Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, was trying to bring a Foxconn factory with what the company claimed would be thousands of new manufacturing jobs to a part of the state where pollution levels already surpassed federal limits.
MIDDAY TWEET
• Snapchat employees abused data to spy on users:
Several departments inside social media giant Snap have dedicated tools for accessing user data, and multiple employees have abused their privileged access to spy on Snapchat users, Motherboard has learned.
Two former employees said multiple Snap employees abused their access to Snapchat user data several years ago. Those sources, as well as an additional two former employees, a current employee, and a cache of internal company emails obtained by Motherboard, described internal tools that allowed Snap employees at the time to access user data, including in some cases location information, their own saved Snaps and personal information such as phone numbers and email addresses. Snaps are photos or videos that, if not saved, typically disappear after being received (or after 24 hours if posted to a user's Story).
• Last two women imprisoned for Philadelphia police siege have been released after 40 years.
• One of the last original Navajo code talkers, NM state Sen. John Pinto, dead at 94: He was one of the original 29 Navajo code talkers serving in World War II. Three of the nine survivor code talkers have died this year. Members of nine tribes were code talkers in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. But only the Navajo invented an actual (and invincible) code. The others just used their Native language to make it difficult for Axis translators to know what they were saying. The Japanese captured one Navajo soldier who wasn’t a code talker and tried to get him to translate the coded messages. But he only understood the Navajo words and not the terms or letters of the alphabet in English that those words represented. So he couldn't help his captors even if he had wanted to.