Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Doctor RJ, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) wader, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
DNAInfo/Chicago: 'Why ICE?': Neighbors, Family Baffled After Dad Shot During Raid by Kelly Bauer and Alex Nitkin
DOWNTOWN — The family of a man shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents earlier this week is disputing the agency's claim that the man aimed a gun at the agents.
At 6:20 a.m. Monday, agents from ICE went to the 6100 block of West Grand Avenue to arrest someone, according to the agency. A man who was there during the arrest pointed a gun at agents, and an ICE agent shot and wounded the man, according to ICE.
The man, identified by family members as Felix Torres, was hit in his left arm and taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was in serious condition, police said. ICE said the wounded man was not the person they came to arrest.
Torres and others who live in the home "insist he did not have a gun," said Thomas Hallock, Torres' attorney. Hallock said he spoke to Torres, who was heavily medicated, at the hospital after the shooting, and Torres said he'd heard a loud noise, opened the door to hear what was going on and was shot.
The family told Hallock that Torres and his wife are lawful, permanent residents and that their children were born in the United States and are citizens.
Chicago Tribune (AP): Former congressman's lawyers say informant in Aaron Schock case broke law by Sadie Gurman
A staffer working for former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock secretly provided the government with a trove of emails, credit card receipts and other documents that violated the now-indicted congressman's constitutional right against unreasonable search and seizure, his lawyers argue in new court filings.
It's unclear exactly how information from the staffer-turned-informant shaped prosecutors' corruption allegations against Schock, whose high-flying travel and curious office expenses made news two years ago and drew the attention of the Justice Department. Schock was indicted in 2016 after resigning from Congress the year before.
But in court documents filed late Tuesday, Schock's attorneys say the government went too far when it transformed the staffer into an informant and required him to wear a wire to secretly record conversations — in addition to providing more than 10,000 pages of legislative emails, staff rosters, employee records and confidential documents from Schock's district office the defense considers to be stolen property. The informant rummaged through the desk of Schock's chief of staff and taped conversations with other staffers, the attorneys said.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office for the Central District of Illinois declined to comment.
Chicago Sun-Times: Kennedy: Shakes from inherited disorder — ‘not that big a deal’ by Tina Sfondeles
Calling it “more of a nuisance than a disability,” Chris Kennedy on Tuesday acknowledged that he suffers from a hereditary disorder that causes tremors — a day after the Sun-Times reported that the gubernatorial candidate’s hands were shaking during a meet-and-greet with Cook County Democratic leaders.
“I wanted to set the record straight. The shaking is a condition I’ve lived with my whole life called familial [tremors.] It runs in the family. Doctors don’t know what causes it other than it is hereditary and does not cause impairment — more of a nuisance than a disability. In fact, many of my family members live with it. It doesn’t limit any of us in any way,” Kennedy wrote in a statement on Facebook.
“I don’t talk much about it, not because I’m ashamed of it, but because having dealt with it my whole life, it’s just not that big a deal to me.The fact is millions of people live their lives with far, far great challenges than an occasional handshake.
“The fact is improving the health of this state is a whole more important to me than talking about a minor condition. Once in a while, my hand will shake whether I like it or not. But regardless, most of the time, the kind of handshakes you’ll see from me will be on the campaign trail, earning the votes of the people of Illinois who believe in our quest to restore the promise of our state,” he wrote.
Detroit News: Detroit kangaroo ID'd after video goes viral by Candice Williams
A kangaroo in a video clip that went viral after it was spotted hopping down a Detroit street has been identified.
The exotic animal is named Darwin, according to his handler, Javon Stacks of Exotic Zoo. He’s a 2-year-old red kangaroo.
The Snapchat video posted on Twitter had drawn nearly 10,000 retweets by Tuesday afternoon. In the video, a man, apparently Stacks, is seen running down Birchcrest Drive with a 4-foot-tall kangaroo on a leash. A small crowd can be seen watching.
Stacks said he was in the neighborhood for a birthday party.
“The kangaroo is too big to be in the house,” Stacks said. “The birthday kid and all their friends wanted to see him hop around. Someone was driving by and took that video.”
As of Monday afternoon, Detroit Animal Control said they were investigating the kangaroo’s appearance in Detroit.
VICE: Is Philadelphia the Most Corrupt City in America? by Aaron Case
The only surprising thing about the recent indictment of Philadelphia district attorney Seth Williams was how careless he was about selling his office. The prosecutor, who pleaded not guilty to 23 federal counts related to influence peddling, was allegedly so brazen and comfortable in his scheming that he conducted business over text message. "I am merely a thankful beggar and don't want to overstep my bounds in asking," he wrote to an associate in regards to a lavish Caribbean getaway.
"In the future always give me at least a week to help a friend...I have no problem looking into anything," he messaged one donor seeking a favor. "I never want to feel like a drag on your wallet," he wrote another crony, "but we are ALWAYS ready for an adventure."
Williams, accused of providing official favors in exchange for vacations, meals, a watch, cash, a car, a couch, and a tie (he's a very cheap bribe), is only the most recent Philadelphia public official facing charges in the city's notorious politics-to-prison pipeline. We may soon add him to a raft of judges, state representatives, and a congressman convicted of disgracing their offices in the last few years alone. To enumerate every local leader beset with investigation or indictment would be an Infinite Jest–length read. Move over, Chicago. Back of the line, Detroit. Be easy, Big Easy. This is Philly: machine politics, pay to play, and blatant nepotism are the norm in this jawn.
LOL, Ex-CUSE me, Mr. Case, Chicago’s corruption takes a back seat to no one’s, lol.
...and while we’re laughing…
The Grio: GOP senators want to heal racism by having Sunday dinners
Sens. Tim Scott of South Carolina and James Lankford of Oklahoma are starting a new initiative called “Solution Sundays” in an attempt to heal race relations.
The idea is simple enough: on Sundays, invite someone of a different race over for dinner.
“For me, it’s hard to hate what you know,” Scott said. “And it’s just so simple. It’s hard to hate what you know.”
The two senators therefore asked their constituents and others to set aside Sunday for a little healing.
“Sunday is a significant day for most families in America — still, in whatever way with their families, or faith or whatever it may be,” Lankford said. “And we said, ‘If you want to be part of the solution for race in America, set aside lunch or dinner and just invite a family over of another race, and just sit down and have a meal together.”
According to Scott, the initiative has already had a positive influence on people who participated.
OK, this isn’t THAT bad of an idea, actually and I like the fact that Senators Scott and Lankford urged their constituents to do it...personally, I would like to see it take place on a little bit of larger level (say, entire churches matching up families).
Seattle Times: Amazon tries to bag a big chunk of grocery market with Seattle pickup locations by Angel Gonzalez
Amazon.com’s latest experiment is a clear indication of where it’s seeking a big chunk of its future bread and butter: the massive world of grocery retail.
On Tuesday the e-commerce giant unveiled two grocery pickup spots in Seattle’s Sodo and Ballard neighborhoods, under the AmazonFresh brand.
That’s the same outfit that launched a decade ago to deliver groceries to customers’ doorsteps in Seattle. It has since expanded to more than 20 metropolitan areas, from Los Angeles to London, but has failed to make a major dent against established supermarket chains, including archrival Wal-Mart.
Groceries — a $600 billion U.S. market — are a critical nut for Amazon to crack if it’s to unseat Wal-Mart as the world’s largest retailer. Analysts with Cowen & Co. on Tuesday called the U.S. grocery sector Amazon’s “biggest potential source of revenue upside.”
Dubbed AmazonFresh Pickup, the two locations are designed for shoppers who make their purchases online and then select a time to pick them up. An Amazon employee at the pickup site will bring the bags directly to the shopper’s car.
In These Times: Baltimore’s Democratic Mayor Breaks Promise, Vetoes $15 Minimum Wage Bill by Bruce Vail
BALTIMORE – Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh dealt a shattering blow to the Fight for $15 campaign, vetoing a new minimum wage law passed overwhelmingly by the City Council just last week.
The effect was amplified as it quickly became clear that Pugh, a Democrat, had succeeded in lining up the votes necessary to prevent a threatened council override of her veto. Despite the fact that the minimum wage bill passed the council with the support of 12 of its 15 members—enough to override a veto—the solidarity of the pro-Fight for $15 members disintegrated under pressure. According to reports, several supporters of the higher minimum wage switched sides and are now pledging to sustain the mayor’s veto.
Pugh’s action represents a reversal from a promise she made during last year’s mayoral campaign to sign a $15 minimum wage bill if passed by the council. That reversal is engendering bitterness from some minimum wage proponents.
“Catherine Pugh not only went back on this promise, but it tells us that everything she said (during the campaign) is in question,” says Charly Carter, executive director of the pro-labor Maryland Working Families.
Supporters of a higher minimum wage are now left floundering for a new strategy. There does not appear to be a practical path forward legislatively, either at the city, state or federal level, Carter says. The best approach may be to concentrate on making progressive gains in the 2018 statewide elections and to renew the fight at the state level in 2019.
Related: Baltimore Sun: Pugh vetoes bill that would raise Baltimore minimum wage (3.24.17)
Mother Jones: This Is Trump's Plan to Stop the Opioid Epidemic. It's...Underwhelming. by Julia Lurie
While President Donald Trump promised to "spend the money" to end the scourge of opiate addiction on the campaign trail, he's been quiet on the issue since he began his tenure—even as health care has taken center stage.
But later this week, the president plans to announce a new drug commission to combat the opioid epidemic chaired by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, according to the Washington Post's Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker. The team will be part of a new office, led by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, that will have "sweeping authority to overhaul the federal bureaucracy and fulfill key campaign promises." Christie has been "working informally on the issue for several weeks with Kushner, despite reported tension between the two," reports the Post. (Christie was the federal prosecutor who helped put Kushner's father, the real estate mogul Charles Kushner, behind bars.)
According to sources familiar with the draft executive order calling for the creation of the commission, the primary goal of the President's Commission on Combating Opioid Abuse, Addiction, and Overdose would be to compile a report on the state of the opioid epidemic—along with recommendations for responding to it—by October. Members of the commission will include Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin, and Secretary of Defense James Mattis. The members would not be paid, but funding for the commission costs would be paid for by the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
NBC News: Manafort-Linked Accounts on Cyprus Raised Red Flag by Aggelos Petropoulous and Richard Engel
LIMASSOL, Cyprus — A bank in Cyprus investigated accounts associated with President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, for possible money-laundering, two banking sources with direct knowledge of his businesses here told NBC News.
Manafort — whose ties to a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin are under scrutiny — was associated with at least 15 bank accounts and 10 companies on Cyprus, dating back to 2007, the sources said. At least one of those companies was used to receive millions of dollars from a billionaire Putin ally, according to court documents.
Banking sources said some transactions on Manafort-associated accounts raised sufficient concern to trigger an internal investigation at a Cypriot bank into potential money laundering activities. After questions were raised, Manafort closed the accounts, the banking sources said.
Offshore banking in Cyprus is not illegal, and the island has long been known as a hub for moving money in and out of Russia. Several U.S. lawmakers have raised questions about Manafort's business dealings in Cyprus.
USA Today: Trump's business network reached alleged Russian mobsters by Oren Dorrell
To expand his real estate developments over the years, Donald Trump, his company and partners repeatedly turned to wealthy Russians and oligarchs from former Soviet republics — several allegedly connected to organized crime, according to a USA TODAY review of court cases, government and legal documents and an interview with a former federal prosecutor.
The president and his companies have been linked to at least 10 wealthy former Soviet businessmen with alleged ties to criminal organizations or money laundering.
Among them:
• A partner in the firm that developed the Trump SoHo Hotel in New York is a twice-convicted felon who spent a year in prison for stabbing a man and later scouted for Trump investments in Russia.
• An investor in the SoHo project was accused by Belgian authorities in 2011 in a $55 million money-laundering scheme.
• Three owners of Trump condos in Florida and Manhattan were accused in federal indictments of belonging to a Russian-American organized crime group and working for a major international crime boss based in Russia.
• A former mayor from Kazakhstan was accused in a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles in 2014 of hiding millions of dollars looted from his city, some of which was spent on three Trump SoHo units.
I’m going to excerpt one more small piece from the USA Today article followed by a small commentary.
Yet in 2013, after Trump addressed potential investors in Moscow, he bragged to Real Estate Weekly about his access to Russia's rich and powerful. “I have a great relationship with many Russians, and almost all of the oligarchs were in the room,” Trump said, referring to Russians who made fortunes when former Soviet state enterprises were sold to private investors.
I continue to be stunned by the sheer volume of information about Trump’s business dealings that, while available through published sources, seems to have been untouched by the MSM until recently. The MSM really, truly, seriously (and hopefully not fatally for the American Republic) fell down on the job w/r/t vetting Trump because...her e-mails, I suppose.
Washington Post: Asia analyst forced to withdraw from position heading Pentagon-funded think tank for earlier Trump criticism by Greg Jaffe
Patrick Cronin, a widely respected Asia analyst who had been selected to run a Pentagon-funded think tank, turned down the position under pressure because he had signed a letter last year opposing President Trump’s candidacy, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter.
Cronin was chosen to oversee the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu on Jan. 17, three days before Trump assumed the presidency. His forced withdrawal is unusual because the position is not a political appointment.
Cronin was selected to run the Asia-Pacific Center by a three-member panel that consisted of representatives from the U.S. military and the Pentagon’s civilian leadership.
Senior Pentagon officials had come to see the center as an expensive and underutilized asset that offered non-accredited graduate-level classes but produced little research.
Cronin’s mandate was to overhaul the institution and turn it into “a real thought center” that would produce valuable research that could help drive policy decisions in Washington, said a U.S. official involved in the planned overhaul.
BBC: Anger as US internet privacy law scrapped by Dave Lee
US internet service providers will soon no longer need consent from users to share browsing history with marketers and other third parties.
On Tuesday the House of Representatives voted to repeal an Obama-era law that demanded ISPs have permission to share personal information - including location data.
Supporters of the move said it would increase competition, but critics said it would have a “chilling effect” on online privacy.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign the order soon.
The repeal was strongly backed by major providers such as Verizon, AT&T and Comcast, who argued that ISPs were being subject to stricter privacy laws than companies like Google or Facebook.
The law, passed last October days before President Trump was elected, and due to take effect by the end of this year, would have forced ISPs to get clear permission from users to share personal data such as "precise geo-location, financial information, health information, children’s information, social security numbers, web browsing history, app usage history and the content of communications”.
Furthermore, ISPs would have been ordered to allow their customers the ability to opt out of the sharing of less sensitive information, like an email address.
Guardian: Scottish parliament votes for second independence referendum by Severin Carrell
Nicola Sturgeon has won a key Holyrood vote on her plans for a second independence referendum, triggering accusations from UK ministers that her demands are premature.
Sturgeon won by a 10-vote majority after the Scottish Greens backed her proposals to formally request from the UK government the powers to stage a fresh independence vote at around the time Britain leaves the EU, in spring 2019.
She is due to write to Theresa May later this week, asking for Westminster to hand Holyrood the temporary powers to stage the referendum under a section 30 order. She said she would avoid writing until the prime minister had invoked article 50 to trigger the Brexit process, which she is expected to do on Wednesday.
“It is not my intention to do so confrontationally, instead I only seek sensible discussion,” Sturgeon told MSPs.
The vote, which split the Scottish parliament cleanly between pro- and anti-independence parties, deepened the dispute between the two governments over both the need for and the timing of the vote.
DW: Syrian Archive finds 'overwhelming' Russian atrocities in Aleppo by Ben Knight
The Syrian Archive, a Berlin-based data collection project, published a new report on Tuesday that showed that the unlawful attacks on civilians in Aleppo in the second half of 2016 had mainly been perpetrated by Russian and Syrian forces.
Sifting through over 50,000 videos from the devastated city, the team of six - three of whom are Berlin-based volunteers working on top of day jobs - were able to verify some 1,748 videos of human rights violations in Aleppo and its surroundings.
"While attacks and violations have been committed by all parties, including the international coalition, Turkish forces, and rebel groups, the visual evidence analyzed in this report shows that overwhelmingly, Syrian and Russian forces were responsible for the largest amount of human rights violations in Aleppo city and suburbs during this period," said Hadi al Khatib, the project's founder, presenting the report in Berlin.
This is a bolder statement than the one made by the United Nations' Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) - in its report published on March 14.
The OHCHR report, which was based on interviews rather than video evidence, did not mention Russia specifically, preferring instead to say that "all parties to the Syrian conflict" continued to perpetrate "violations and abuses which resulted in civilian casualties or otherwise impacted the civilian population." Though the OHCHR did admit that the Syrian Air Force and "pro-government forces" were deliberately targeting schools and hospitals with airstrikes.
Washington Post: Panic spreads in Iraq, Syria as record numbers of civilians are reported killed in U.S. strikes by Loveday Morris and Liz Sly
MOSUL, Iraq — A sharp rise in the number of civilians reported killed in U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria is spreading panic, deepening mistrust and triggering accusations that the United States and its partners may be acting without sufficient regard for lives of noncombatants.
The increase comes as local ground forces backed by air support from a U.S.-led coalition close in on the Islamic State’s two main urban bastions — Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.
In front-line neighborhoods in western Mosul, families described cowering in basements for weeks as bombs rained down around them and the Islamic State battled from their rooftops. Across the border in Raqqa, residents desperately trying to flee before an offensive begins are being blocked by the militants, who frequently use civilians as human shields.
Throughout his election campaign, President Trump pledged to target Islamic State militants more aggressively, criticizing the U.S. air campaign for being too “gentle” and asking for a reassessment of battlefield rules. The United States has denied there has been any shift and defended the conduct of its campaign.
AlJazeera: Tropical Cyclone Debbie batters eastern Australia by Everton Fox
Tropical Cyclone Debbie has smashed into Australia's Queensland coast, bringing damaging winds and flooding rains. The storm has left a path of destruction in its wake, with trees and power lines down.
It is the most powerful storm to hit the region since Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi struck northern Queensland on February 3, 2011.
Cyclone Debbie is currently lying about 200km to the southeast of Townsville. It is still a very large system with the outer-bands extending around 500km in diameter.
The storm currently has sustained winds of around 140km an hour and gusts nearer 170km/hour; equivalent to a Category 1 Atlantic hurricane. But, having made landfall, Debbie is weakening quickly.
At its peak, as Debbie crossed Hamilton Island, the winds around the centre of the storm reached 263km/h. Those winds are now easing steadily as the storm moves across Queenland's rugged terrain.
Gusts will barely reach 80km/h by 1800GMT on Tuesday. However, as the system continues to track slowly inland, it is staggering along at around 9km/h, it will continue to dump vast amounts of rainfall.
Los Angeles Times: Peru's brutal season of floods leaves 94 dead, 700,000 homeless by Adriana Leon and Chris Kraul
Extreme weather has battered many parts of the world this year, but few countries have suffered more in lives, homes and crops lost than Peru, the Andean country that has been beset with torrential rains and massive flooding for much of this year.
On Tuesday, the Peruvian government raised the death toll from floods to 94 while relief agencies estimated that 700,000 persons have been left homeless in 12 of the country’s 25 regions. The cost to Peru’s economy in lost productivity has been estimated at $3.1 billion, or 1.6% of the country’s annual output of goods and services.
The price tag for fixing roads and bridges is at least $1 billion and the work will take two to three years to complete, Transportation Minister Martin Vizcarra said Tuesday.
Widespread damage to roads and highways has isolated many victims, hampering relief efforts. In Catacaos, floodwaters reaching 6 feet high have killed four people and left much of the riverside city inundated. Five hundred people there were evacuated Tuesday morning, with many others still awaiting rescue.
Reuters: Boeing airliner catches fire in Peru, no serious injuries reported Teresa Cespedes, Marco Aquino and Mitra Taj
A Boeing jet operated by Peruvian Airlines caught fire on Tuesday while landing at an airport near the Andean town of Jauja in central Peru after it swerved on the runway, but there were no serious injuries, a government minister said.
Peruvian Airlines said in a statement that the Boeing 737-300 jet drove off the runway for unspecified reasons during the scheduled landing, after swerving to the right. It said that all 141 people on board the flight, which originated in Lima, were evacuated safely.
Authorities are investigating the incident, which occurred about 4:30 p.m., involving the Boeing 737-300 jet at the high-altitude airport in an agricultural valley some 265 kilometers from Lima, the capital.
The fire likely started when the wing scraped the runway, Interior Minister Carlos Basombrio said.
Just as a side note, I do love the specificity with which Reuters attributes their bylines; reporting, writing, and editing are all indispensable parts of properly doing a story.
Don’t forget that Mr. Meteor Blades is hosting an open thread for night owls tonight.
Everyone have a great evening!