Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Interceptor7, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Besame. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) 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.
Chicago Sun-Times: Strait of the unions: No solidarity for labor in crowded mayoral race by Fran Spielman
Organized labor almost never walks in political lockstep. But it’s truly marching to the beat of different drummers in the crowded race to replace Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
The Chicago Federation of Labor, the Fraternal Order of Police, the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 have all taken a pass on the mayor’s race.
“We have unions who’ve come out for different candidates, for one. But, also because there [is] more than one candidate [who] has a solid reputation with labor,” said Robert Reiter, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor.
“It didn’t seem like now is the time to pick sides with this many people in the race. Anything could literally happen.”
The Chicago Teachers Union, Service Employees International Union Locals 1 and 73 and SEIU Health Care have lined up behind Toni Preckwinkle. So has the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 881.
The SEIU endorsements alone have translated into roughly $2 million in cash and in-kind contributions to Preckwinkle, nearly two dozen full-time campaign workers and upwards of 500 part-time volunteers.
Chicago Tribune: Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs law raising Illinois' minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 by Dan Petrella
Low-wage workers across Illinois will ring in 2020 with a $1-per-hour raise after Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday signed a bill that sets the state’s minimum wage on a path to reach $15 per hour by 2025.
Pritzker signed the bill into law Tuesday morning during a ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion in Springfield, making Illinois among the first states to approve a minimum wage of $15 per hour, a goal set by the labor-backed Fight for $15 movement. California will hit that level in 2022, Massachusetts in 2023 and New Jersey in 2024. New York’s minimum wage eventually will reach $15 per hour statewide through a series of increases tied to inflation.
Illinois last increased its minimum wage, to $8.25 per hour, in 2010.
“For nine long years, there were many forces that were arrayed against giving a raise to the people who work so hard to provide home care for seniors, child care for toddlers, who wash dishes at the diner, and who farm our fields,” Pritzker said before signing the measure. “Today is a victory for the cause of economic justice.”
MLive: Flint sues drug companies, says it’s owed for fallout of opioid crisis by Ron Fonger
FLINT, MI -- The city has joined other Michigan municipalities suing big pharmaceutical companies for creating a hazard to public health through the production and spread of opioids.
“We’re done. Enough is enough. We’re taking back the city,” Mayor Karen Weaver said Tuesday, Feb. 19, at a news conference to announce the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court.
The 111-page complaint against 21 drug companies claim they used false, deceptive and unfair marketing to promote drugs such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone in order to boost profits while looking “the other way -- or worse -- as the (opioid) epidemic unfolded.”
Flint is represented in the lawsuit by two law firms -- Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles P.C. of Montgomery, Ala., and The CK Hoffler Firm of Atlanta.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Delta flight headed to Atlanta struck by lightning, forced to land in Chattanooga by Zachary Hansen
A Delta flight on its way to Atlanta was stuck by lightning and forced to make an emergency landing in Tennessee on Tuesday afternoon, the FAA said.
The flight took off from Milwaukee and landed safely at the Chattanooga Airport around 4 p.m., an airport spokesperson told Channel 2 Action News. None of the 164 people aboard the plane were hurt during the incident.
Channel 2 reported the plane will be inspected to determine where exactly the lightning hit and what damage was caused.
New York Daily News: De Blasio says some progressives missed the point on Amazon by Jillian Jorgensen
Mayor de Blasio said there’s plenty that unites him with his fellow progressives — but that on Amazon, some of them missed the forest for the trees.
“I have very strong progressive values, but I think the best progressive values are the ones that come into action and help people’s everyday lives, and change them,” de Blasio said Tuesday at a Brooklyn press conference about Vision Zero, one of his signature policies.
Hizzoner continued to walk a fine line of defending New York’s ill-fated bid to host Amazon’s second headquarters and criticizing the company for its decision to ditch the city.
The deal to bring Amazon to town — which came with $3 billion in incentives — was touted by de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo, but it was panned by progressive stars such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and some local pols in Queens, who pushed back on the subsidies and raised fears it could force out tenants.
Before the deal fell apart, de Blasio had given Amazon more credit than some of his colleagues — saying the company would bring jobs and opportunity to everyone from city college students to nearby public housing residents.
The Oregonian: Police union blasts Mayor Ted Wheeler’s criticism of cop for friendly exchanges with right-wing group leader by Maxine Bernstein
The Portland police commanding officers union that represents Lt. Jeffrey Niiya filed a grievance Tuesday against the city, citing a contract provision that says any reprimand of a police supervisor should be done in a way “least likely to embarrass" the officer in public.
The grievance stems from statements Wheeler, as police commissioner, and City Commissioners Jo Ann Hardesty and Chloe Eudaly issued last week after the release of hundreds of text messages between Niiya and Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson in 2017 and 2018. Niiya and Gibson exchanged the messages as Gibson’s right-wing group ventured into Portland to stage rallies that drew counter-protesters and often resulted in bloody assaults.
The Portland Police Commanding Officers Association also filed a workplace harassment complaint against the mayor, Hardesty and Eudaly, writing that their comments last week were "derogatory and hostile and damaged Lieutenant Niiya’s professional work environment.''
Niiya’s texts and emails with Gibson show him sometimes telling Gibson about the movements of counter-protesters, telling Gibson if officers would be on foot or bike at protests and alerting Gibson to have one of his followers Tusitala John “Tiny” Toese, also a member of the far-right Proud Boys, take care of his outstanding arrest warrant before he showed up downtown. Niiya told Gibson that officers could arrest Toese if he acted out but it wasn’t likely to occur, though Toese ended up being arrested on a warrant and additional charges.
The Atlantic: The Furor in Virginia Has Quieted by Andrew Kragie
The bonfire of scandals in Virginia politics has seemingly burned down to embers as top Democrats have come to accept that their tainted leaders will not be leaving office, at least not anytime soon. While most party elites have not withdrawn their calls for resignation, a week of détente and two television appearances on Sunday suggest that the furor has quieted.
Governor Ralph Northam faced near-universal demands to step down over a picture on his medical-school yearbook page that showed a man in blackface and another in Ku Klux Klan garb; he initially admitted to appearing in the photo, then reversed himself and said he was not either of the people in costume, though he recalled a separate incident when he wore blackface for a Michael Jackson impersonation. Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax drew someresignation calls and an impeachment threat after two allegations of sexual assault in the early 2000s, both of which he denied. Attorney General Mark Herring stepped up and confessed that he, too, once wore blackface to a party as a 19-year-old, though he has largely avoided calls to step down.
Buzzfeed: A Tax Preparer Refused To Serve A Lesbian Couple Because They Were Married by Briana Sacks
Bailey Brazzel has been getting her taxes done at the same firm in the small town of Russiaville, Indiana, for the past four years. But last Tuesday, when she told the owner she and her new wife were filing together for the first time, she was turned away.
In the past, the 25-year-old had filed as "single" and said that she had never had a problem with Nancy Fivecoate, who owns Carter Tax Service. Last year, Brazzel even brought her then-girlfriend, Samantha Wilson, in to meet Fivecoate. But after finding out the women had married in July and were submitting their taxes jointly, Fivecoate refused to serve them.
"We just sat there shocked for a minute and then we got up and walked out," Samantha Brazzel, Bailey's wife, told BuzzFeed News. "It was so out of the blue."
Fivecoate, 66, cited her religious beliefs in justifying her decision.
“I am a Christian and I believe marriage is between one man and one woman. I was very respectful to them. I told them where I thought she might be able to get her taxes prepared," she said in a statement.
New York Times: House Democrats Prepare to Scrutinize DeVos’s Education Department by Erica L. Green
WASHINGTON — The last face-to-face meeting between Representative Robert C. Scott and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos ended in an awkward cliffhanger.
At a hearing last May of the House Education Committee, Mr. Scott, Democrat of Virginia, challenged the secretary’s assertion that she was holding states accountable for achievement gaps between white and minority students as required by a new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act. Mr. Scott, unconvinced, asked more pointedly: How can you assure us that you are following the law if you do not even make states calculate the performance of the different student groups we want to measure?
Ms. DeVos dodged the question.
Mr. Scott is now the chairman of the committee, and he is not taking silence or evasion for an answer. With control of the House and Senate divided, and President Trump in charge of the executive branch, the prospects for the House Democrats’ legislative agenda for education may be limited, but their appetite for oversight of the Education Department appears limitless.
Reuters: North Carolina poll workers admit improperly running early results by Marti Maguire
RALEIGH, N.C. (Reuters) - North Carolina poll workers told election officials on Tuesday they illegally viewed early election results last year, the latest evidence in a probe of voting irregularities in a still unsettled congressional race.
The investigation into the disputed Nov. 6 election for the state’s 9th Congressional District seat also uncovered an unlawful absentee ballot scheme by an operative for Republican candidate Mark Harris, according to testimony at the hearing that could prompt a new vote.
The seat has remained vacant since state officials refused to certify Harris’ apparent victory over Democratic rival Dan McCready by 905 votes out of 282,717 ballots cast.
Poll worker Agnes Willis told the five-member State Board of Elections in Raleigh on Tuesday that she and other poll workers viewed early results in the Bladen County sheriff’s race before the general election.
Washington Post: Roberts again sides with liberal Supreme Court justices in disagreeing with lower court interpretations by Robert Barnes
For the second time in as many weeks, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has sided with liberal Supreme Court justices to disagree with how lower courts have interpreted Supreme Court precedent.
On Tuesday, Roberts was pointed in saying the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has “misapplied” a 2017 ruling that instructed that court to reconsider its analysis of whether death-row inmate Bobby James Moore was intellectually disabled, and thus ineligible for execution.
Less than two weeks ago, Roberts joined the liberals in stopping a Louisiana abortion law that was nearly identical to a Texas law the court had struck down in 2016.
It was a busy day Tuesday, as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg rejoined her colleagues for a public hearing for the first time since she underwent lung surgery in December:
Roll Call: Trump makes Space Force official. There’s already a Netflix parody by Chris Cioffi
President Donald Trump on Tuesday made Space Force official, but that might have been hard to tell at first from Tuesday in the Oval Office, as the chief executive held court on several satellite issues.
“During my administration, we’re doing so much in space. We need it,” Trump said, surrounded by military brass as he signed a directive establishing Space Force within the Air Force.
But before the president even got to the reason for Tuesday’s event, he uttered nearly 400 words describing a constellation of diplomatic successes with North Korea and its dictator, Kim Jong Un.
“I had a great conversation this morning with President Moon of South Korea,” Trump said of South Korean leader Moon Jae-in. “And we obviously discussed the upcoming trip next week, where we’re going Hanoi, in Vietnam. And I look forward to be with Chairman Kim, and I think a lot of things will come out of it,” he continued.
It wasn’t just Trump who drifted off topic.
BBC: LGBT group severs links with Navratilova over transgender comments
A US-based organisation that campaigns for LGBT sportspeople has cut its links with tennis legend Martina Navratilova over comments she made about male-to-female transgender athletes.
The 18-times Grand Slam winner wrote it was "cheating" to allow transgender women to compete in women's sport as they had unfair physical advantages.
Athlete Ally said the remarks were transphobic and perpetuated myths.
It said it had sacked the star from its advisory board and as an ambassador.
In an article for the British newspaper The Sunday Times, Navratilova wrote: "A man can decide to be female, take hormones if required by whatever sporting organisation is concerned, win everything in sight and perhaps earn a small fortune, and then reverse his decision and go back to making babies if he so desires."
She added: "It's insane and it's cheating. I am happy to address a transgender woman in whatever form she prefers, but I would not be happy to compete against her. It would not be fair."
Spiegel Online International: The Cult-Like Group Fighting Iran by Luisa Hommerich
On a country road in northwestern Albania, a rather odd collection of men and women living together in a camp are busy preparing themselves to topple the Iranian regime. Three times per week, many of them apparently practice slitting throats, breaking hands, jabbing out eyeballs with fingers and performing the so-called Glasgow Smile, which involves cutting cheeks from the corner of the mouth up toward the ear. That, at least, is the story told by a former member of the group.
The camp, roughly the size of 50 football fields and surrounded by high fences, is located just a 35-minute drive from the lively bars of downtown Tirana, but the people inside live in something of a time capsule. Former members of the group report that most of the 2,000 camp residents aren't allowed to possess mobile phones, watches or calendars, though members of the organization that operates the camp deny those claims.
"My daughter is living somewhere in there," says Mostafa Mohammadi, a 61-year-old Iranian man with a high forehead and deep eye sockets. Her name is Somayeh, a woman of 38. Her father, who lives in Canada, claims that she is being held in the camp against her will, which is why he spent several months in Albania last year. During a meeting there, he said: "I don't have anything to do with politics. Please, I just want to see my daughter.
AlJazeera: Khashoggi's fiancee asks EU to put human rights before economy by Ylenia Gostoli
Brussels, Belgium - Slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi's fiancee has urged the European Union(EU) to "transcend economic interests" and exert pressure on Saudi Arabia to ensure justice in the sensational killing.
"Up until now, nothing has been done to those implicated in this crime," Hatice Cengiz said in the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday.
"Hasn't the moment come? I ask this question as a simple human being."
Cengiz was speaking as one of the victims of human rights abuses in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, who were invited by the European Parliament's subcommittee on human rights to give evidence.
"I'm here not only as the fiancee of Jamal, but also for the values he fought for, values he wanted for the people in his own country, the people of the Arab world," Cengiz said.
DW: Venezuela military 'on alert' as it closes borders to aid
Venezuela's military is "on alert" against any border violations as it remains loyal to acting President Nicolas Maduro, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez has said.
"The armed forces will remain deployed and on alert along the borders, as our commander in chief has ordered, to avoid any violations of territorial integrity," Padrino said in a statement on Tuesday.
He said the military "only has one president," referring to Maduro, and the armed forces are "not mercenaries who sell themselves to the highest bidder." He said the army will not accept "a puppet government" or "orders from any foreign government power."
Juan Guaido, who declared himself the interim president last month in an effort to oust Maduro from office, has tried to recruit the military to his side and let aid into Venezuela. The opposition leader has been rallying for international support for his challenge to Maduro.
But the military high command has maintained its allegiance to Maduro, a factor deemed key to keeping the acting president in power.
Guardian: Japan almost cancelled Brexit talks due to 'high-handed' letter – report by Justin McCurry
Japanese officials have reportedly accused Jeremy Hunt and Liam Fox of taking a “high-handed” approach towards a post-Brexit free trade deal, and briefly considered cancelling bilateral talks due to take place this week.
The Financial Times cited unnamed officials in Tokyo who reacted with dismay to a letter sent on 8 February in which Hunt, the foreign secretary, and Fox, the international trade secretary, insisted that “time is of the essence” in securing a trade deal with Japan, the world’s third-biggest economy.
Hunt and Fox also called for flexibility on both sides – an approach the paper said had been interpreted as criticism that Japan did not share their desire to quickly conclude a free trade agreement after Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union on 29 March.
The letter, which British officials said had employed standard diplomatic language, had briefly prompted Japanese officials to consider cancelling trade talks in Tokyo this week, the paper reported.
According to the FT, they took exception to a line in which Hunt and Fox said “we are committed to [speed and flexibility] and hope that Japan is too”, interpreting it as an intimation that the Japanese side lacked a sense of urgency.
New York magazine: Karl Lagerfeld Did the Work by Cathy Horyn
In 2005, I spent the better part of the summer and fall reporting a profile of Karl Lagerfeld for the New York Times. Any time spent in Lagerfeld’s company was a treat: no one in the fashion business was funnier or more literate or more disciplined about the work. “Lots of class,” he would frequently say about himself, with a twinkle, “but working class.” Lagerfeld was far from proletarian — he was a cultivated bourgeois German to the core, whose wealthy father ran a condensed-milk business — but his ability to handle the grind of fashion, to design multiple collections for multiple brands every season for decade after decade and make it look easy, was indeed singular.
That fall turned out to be a blockbuster for the then-62-year-old Lagerfeld. He sold his trademarks — among them, Karl Lagerfeld, Lagerfeld Gallery, KL — to Tommy Hilfiger. He staged a spectacular Chanel show with Nicole Kidman, who would soon appear in Chanel No. 5 ads. In November, as Lagerfeld was preparing a series of Chanel shows in Tokyo, 1,000 people stormed H&M on Fifth Avenue in an hour to snag pieces of a line he had created for the chain, the first of many such collaborations by H&M. And, in addition to designing his collections for Fendi and doing photo shoots for magazines, he approved plans for a major Chanel exhibit at the Met.
Lagerfeld, who died in Paris today aged 85, was a fashion legend since he captured the bohemian light-as-air sensibility of the ’70s at Chloé, but by 2005 he had become a pop-culture superstar. Even then, I knew how lucky I was to spend so much time with him, at that extraordinary moment. I saw him that August at his marvelously private, civilized home in Biarritz, just the two of us, with his butler and his cook; in Milan for Fendi; in Paris for Chanel and a party at his home in Saint Germain; in Tokyo, where a mob of Japanese teens stood in respectful awe, their camera phones raised as he did a photo shoot on the street in Shibuya.
Don’t forget that Meteor Blades is hosting an open thread for night owls tonight.
Everyone have a great evening!