Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, JML9999 and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) 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 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
From the Boston Globe: Jurors view footage of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev making obscene gesture
Jurors in the death penalty trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Wednesday were shown video of him making an obscene gesture as well as holding his fingers in the shape of “V” to a surveillance camera in a courthouse holding cell three months after he was arrested in the terror attack.
A prosecutor had shown a picture of Tsarnaev making the obscene gesture to the jury in US District Court in Boston at the end of her opening statement in the penalty phase of the trial on Tuesday, underlining her argument that he was “unconcerned, unrepentant, and unchanged” after the attack.
On Wednesday, video of the incident, which happened on July 10, 2013, was shown to jurors at the request of Tsarnaev’s defense team.
Tsarnaev was being held in a cell prior to his arraignment in court on the charges for which he was convicted earlier this month.
From the
Los Angeles Times:
Bill removing California vaccine exemptions approved by key Senate panel
A bill that would require more California children to be vaccinated before they enter school was approved Wednesday by the Senate Education Committee, a week after it stalled when members of the panel voiced concerns that it would deprive many young people of an education.
The bill next goes to the Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration of its legal ramifications.
The measure by Democratic Sens. Richard Pan of Sacramento and Ben Allen of Santa Monica would eliminate the option of parents to exempt their children from vaccinations based on a “personal belief,” meaning the only waiver available would be for medical reasons.
“While this bill won’t reach everyone, it will increase everyone’s safety against preventable diseases," Allen told the committee Wednesday. "We think we've struck a fair balance here that provides more options to parents who are concerned about not vaccinating their children."
Sen. Connie Leyva (D-Chino) voted against the bill, which was approved by a vote of 7-2. "I just still have a concern it will not go far enough to help a two-income family who can't home-school their child or a single, working parent."
From the
Washington Post:
Facing threat in Congress, Pentagon races to resettle Guantanamo inmates
Facing a potential showdown with Congress, the Pentagon is racing to move dozens of detainees out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in coming months before lawmakers can block future transfers and derail President Obama’s plan to shutter the U.S. military prison.
As a first step, officials plan to send up to 10 prisoners overseas, possibly in June. In all, the Pentagon hopes that 57 inmates who are approved for transfer will be resettled by the end of 2015. That would require “large muscle movements” by at least two countries, which officials hope will each agree to take in 10 to 20 Yemeni detainees, who cannot be repatriated because of security conditions in their war-torn homeland.
“I am aware of the clock ticking,” a defense official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning. “It’s going to take high-level leadership, and it’s going to take some big asks to some countries.”
From
The Guardian:
EU borders chief says saving migrants' lives 'shouldn't be priority' for patrols
The head of the EU border agency has said that saving migrants’ lives in the Mediterranean should not be the priority for the maritime patrols he is in charge of, despite the clamour for a more humane response from Europe following the deaths of an estimated 800 people at sea at the weekend.
On the eve of an emergency EU summit on the immigration crisis, Fabrice Leggeri, the head of Frontex, flatly dismissed turning the Triton border patrol mission off the coast of Italy into a search and rescue operation.
He also voiced strong doubts about new EU pledges to tackle human traffickers and their vessels in Libya.
“Triton cannot be a search-and-rescue operation. I mean, in our operational plan, we cannot have provisions for proactive search-and-rescue action. This is not in Frontex’s mandate, and this is in my understanding not in the mandate of the European Union,” Leggeri told the Guardian.
From
BBC News:
Auschwitz trial: Oskar Groening recalls 'queue of trains'
A former Nazi SS guard has said so many trains full of Jews used to arrive at Auschwitz that often two would have to wait with closed doors while people from the first were "processed".
Most of those who disembarked were gassed to death almost immediately.
Oskar Groening, 93, was speaking on the second day of his trial for being an accessory to the murder of at least 300,000 Jews at the death camp.
He has said he is "morally" guilty but had no direct role in the genocide.
The charges against the former guard relate to a period between May and July 1944 when about 425,000 Jews from Hungary were taken to the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex in Poland.
From
Ars Technica:
Google’s wireless service, “Project Fi,” is official, but invite only
Google has just launched the site for "Project Fi," its heavily rumored MVNO service. The service combines Sprint and T-Mobile along with Wi-Fi and will seamlessly switch between the networks. Google has an interactive coverage map here.
The up-front pricing seems pretty standard. It requires a "Fi Basics" plan, which is $20 a month for unlimited talk and texting, plus taxes. Data is an additional $10 per gigabyte a month. So a $20 basics plan plus 3GB a month would be $50, $5 more than Straight Talk charges for the same thing—but that's only if you actually use the data. The unique aspect of the billing is that you "never pay for unused data." Your account gets credited, in money, for data you don't use. The example shows an unused 0.6GB of data gets you $6 back, so credits aren't limited to 1GB increments; overages work the same way, with no extra fees. Google also allows Wi-Fi tethering.
The data works in "120+ countries," and it still costs the same $10 per gigabyte that it does in the US. The catch is that you're limited to 256Kbps, or about 3G speeds. International texts are unlimited, and international calls cost 20 cents per minute.
The big downside is that the service only works with the Nexus 6. The site says, "The Nexus 6 works with our unique SIM that lets you access multiple networks and has a state-of-the-art cellular radio tuned to work with different network types." Google is the only MVNO with control of the hardware, software, and network, which it has used to create "seamless" switching between networks. Google says calls can even move from cellular to Wi-Fi without dropping.
From the
New York Times:
Opponents of Gay Marriage Ponder Strategy as Issue Reaches Supreme Court
John G. Kallam Jr., a 67-year-old veteran, carries a worn black Bible and another copy on his iPad, and believes Scripture is unequivocal.
“Sodom and Gomorrah, that story alone tells you what God thinks of same-sex marriage,” he said. “God said that homosexual behavior is a sin and that marriage is between a man and a woman.”
Like three-quarters of the voters in rural Rockingham County, he checked “yes” in the 2012 plebiscite when North Carolina joined some 30 other states in adopting constitutional bans on same-sex marriage. “I breathed a sigh of relief,” he recalled. “I thought that was the end of it.”
But last October, Mr. Kallam, like many other conservatives across North Carolina, was stunned when, two years after “the people spoke,” as he put it, a federal judge overturned the ban. An appointed county magistrate, Mr. Kallam was obligated to perform civil marriages whether they were same-sex or not. So he resigned, one of six in the state who stepped down to avoid violating their faith.
From
NBC News:
Obama Makes Climate Case in Florida's Everglades
President Obama made an Earth Day trip to the Everglades on Wednesday as he rolled out a set of new environmental initiatives, several of them focusing on the role national parks play in protecting the planet.
The threat posed by climate change "can no longer be denied or ignored," the administration said in an outline of the new projects, which include a $26 million allocation from the National Park Service toward restoration projects across the country.
"Protecting the one planet we've got is what we have to do for the next generation," Obama said on Wednesday.
About two-thirds of Americans think that the globe is warming, according to a national survey conducted in March by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. Fifty-two percent think that global warming is caused by human actions, according to the survey.
Obama chose to make his Earth Day appearance in a state where climate change is a contentious issue. The state is home to two potential Republican presidential candidates, Senator Marco Rubio (who has declared his candidacy) and former state Governor Jeb Bush (who has not), both of whom have expressed skepticism about human-driven climate change.
From the
Associated Press:
With bird flu spreading, USDA starts on potential vaccine
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is working on a vaccine to counter a deadly strain of bird flu, as losses to poultry producers mount.
A pure "seed strain" would target the H5N2 virus — which has already cost Midwest turkey and chicken producers over 7 million birds since early March — as well as some other highly pathogenic viruses in the H5 family that have been detected in other parts of North America. If the USDA decides the vaccine is necessary to stop avian influenza, it will provide that seed strain to drug manufacturers.
The process, though, is fraught with questions about which birds would get the vaccine, how it might affect exports and whether it would be effective against the rapidly spreading strain.
From
PoliticsUSA:
Hillary Clinton Obliterates The Latest Republican Benghazi Stunt With A Single Letter
In a letter, former Sec. Clinton’s attorney David Kendall took all the air out the Republican hopes to drag the Benghazi Committee into the 2016 election, and destroyed their latest conspiracy before it got going.
Kendall wrote to Benghazi Select Committee Chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-OK) that Clinton wants to testify before the committee without delay:
In November, I informed your staff of Secretary Clinton’s willingness to testify before the Select Committee on Benghazi. In the succeeding months, she has reiterated her willingness, and I do so again on her behalf. There is no reason to delay her appearance, or have her testify in a private interview.
….
While Secretary Clinton has testified before committees in both the House and the Senate about the tragic events in Benghazi, she has made clear that she will voluntarily testify publicly again before the Select Committee and, at that time, is happy to continue to answer any questions the Select Committee may have about her email use.
Earlier in the day, Speaker of the House John Boehner claimed that the Benghazi investigation was going to stretch into 2016 because Hillary Clinton and President Obama are refusing to turn over “the facts.”
The truth is that House Republicans are trying to delay Clinton’s testimony in order to use it as an issue during the 2016 presidential election.
From
The Independent:
Saudi Arabia's air war resumes - despite having no decisive impact on the opposing Houthi militias
Yemenis are wondering if the 28-day Saudi bombing campaign is really over or whether the war has simply entered a new phase. Air strikes were still taking place in Aden, Taiz and other Yemeni cities hours after they were supposed to have ceased.
And nobody in Yemen supposes that the war the Saudis escalated when they started bombing on 26 March can be concluded just because the bombs have stopped falling.
The Houthis, the Shia militia whom the Saudis are supposedly trying to displace from power, overran an armoured brigade headquarters in Taiz after heavy fighting as the air war ended. Whatever else Saudi bombing has done, it has not broken the Houthi’s grip on power.
The course of the air war has been very similar to successive Israeli bombardments of Lebanon and Gaza over the past 20 years. First, there are bloodcurdling claims how the enemy will be defeated by airpower alone. Then, it becomes clear that air strikes are doing a lot of damage to civilians – 944 Yemenis have been killed and 3,487 wounded so far, according to the World Health Organisation – but are not having a decisive impact on opposing military forces. Finally, there are mounting demands that air war ends from foreign countries, notably from the US, which has aided the Saudi airforce with intelligence and logistics.
From
The Tennesseean:
Tennessee lawmakers pass abortion restrictions
Two abortion measures are now headed to the governor's desk after the Tennessee House voted 79-18 in favor of requiring a 48-hour waiting period for women seeking an abortion after in-person counseling by a physician and 79-17 for new regulations of abortion clinics.
A spokesman for Gov. Bill Haslam said he anticipates the governor will sign both abortion bills into law.
"Like he does with all legislation that comes to him, he'll review the bills in their final form before taking any action, but I anticipate he'll sign them," spokesman Dave Smith said.
On the floor of the House, efforts to amend or challenge the bills by Democrats — who at times argued passionately for a woman's right to choose and detailed the impact of adding hurdles to accessing an abortion for poor or minority women — were handily defeated, with the Republican majority voting down an amendment that would have allowed women to receive counseling over the phone or by a non-physician and an amendment to exempt victims of rape or incest from waiting period requirements.
From
Salon:
The celebrated author of "Into the Wild" investigates rapes in a football-worshiping college town
Jon Krakauer’s “Missoula” is a tale of two trials, a football-worshiping college town, a politicking DA and a handful of courageous and determined young women. Its subject — rape, particularly rape on campus — marks a departure for a writer famed for such books as “Into the Wild” and “Into Thin Air,” stories of human beings testing their limits against the natural world. The main characters in “Missoula” battle some equally daunting, if considerably less majestic, forces: Indifferent institutions, a cultish civic devotion to star athletes, and discredited but tenacious beliefs about rape, its perpetrators and its victims.
The book is an account of the events surrounding a 2012 Department of Justice investigation of how sexual assault accusations were handled by the Missoula Police Department, the County Attorney’s Office, and the University of Montana. (Krakauer praises the steps taken by the MPD and UM to improve. The prosecutors are another matter.) “Missoula” looks at a handful of cases of women who reported being raped — most by members of UM’s Division I football team, the Grizzlies — and examines two in great detail. The book was hastened to print in the aftermath of Rolling Stone magazine’s notorious 2014 article, “A Rape on Campus,” centered on a woman who claimed to have been gang raped at a University of Virginia fraternity. The magazine later retracted the piece.
“Missoula” is a counterexample to “A Rape on Campus:” scrupulously reported, with accusers who took their charges to the police and who all agreed to let Krakauer use their real names. The depth of his reporting on the trials of two Grizzly football players accused of raping female friends illustrates just how difficult it can be for victims to get justice.
From
Slate:
Texas Is Bleeding Jobs And Could Be Headed For A Recession
With oil companies shutting down rigs left and right thanks to the low price of crude, Texas’ economy is finally showing some serious signs of strain. In March, it shed more than 25,000 jobs, by far the most among all 31 states where payrolls fell. (And adding insult to injury, the Lone Star State’s spiritual arch nemesis, California, tacked on almost 40,000 new jobs.) While the Texas Workforce Commission finds that only 2,800 of March's job losses were in “mining and logging”—the umbrella category that includes pumping oil—it’s safe to say the sector's woes led indirectly to a much greater share of the fall.
How big were last month’s losses, really? JPMorgan Chase economist Michael Feroli, who late last year suggested the oil bust could lead Texas into a regional recession, points out that “a proportional loss on the national scale would be if the U.S. lost 304,000 jobs.” That doesn’t necessarily mean Texas' total economy is shrinking—sadly we won't have data that can tell us for some while—but as the Wall Street Journal notes, the situation is certainly “recession-like.”
From
CNBC:
Nearly a third of savers have less than $1,000 for retirement
Most Americans know they should be saving more, but few of them are actually making plans to do it.
Twenty-eight percent of workers have less than $1,000 in savings that could be applied toward their retirement, according to a new Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald and Associates survey. And of the pool of respondents—1,003 workers and 1,001 retirees interviewed by phone—57 percent say they have less than $25,000 in retirement savings.
That may help explain why nearly six in 10 Americans (58 percent) believe their financial planning needs improvements and 21 percent are "not at all confident" they'll be able to reach their financial goals, according to separate data released this week from Northwestern Mutual's 2015 Planning & Progress Study.
From
CNN:
Arresting officers provide statements in Freddie Gray death
Five of the six officers suspended with pay after their parts in arresting Freddie Gray have provided statements to investigators, the Baltimore Police Department said Wednesday.
The department will not release personnel records or photos because doing so would violate the law, the police said in a statement.
"They have completely cooperated with the investigation from Day 1," Michael Davey, an attorney for the officers involved in Gray's arrest, told reporters.
Another person, who was inside the prisoner transport van carrying Gray, is a witness in a criminal investigation, so his name won't be released, police said.
"The investigation, as it stands, will be turned over to the State's Attorney's Office for review on May 1, 2015," the statement said. "As with any criminal investigation, detectives will continue to pursue the evidence wherever it leads, for as long as it takes."
From
CNN Money:
Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger in doubt: what might happen next?
In marathon meetings on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Comcast executives faced off with the skeptical government regulators who are scrutinizing the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable.
The Department of Justice went first on Wednesday. Then it was the Federal Communication Commission's turn.
None of the parties involved are commenting on what happened. But the meetings reflect the fact that the merger review is now entering a new, more advanced phase.
What could happen next? Will the $45 billion merger be blocked by the government? Could Comcast (CCV) walk away?
"There are essentially three options: OK the deal, negotiate a consent decree to impose conditions, or sue to block the deal. The first is not in play," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a longtime media lawyer who is now affiliated with the Georgetown University Law Center.
From
Al Jazeera:
Return of the Fish Wars: Hatchery pits environmentalists against tribe
The Elwha, like so many coastal Natives, are salmon people. Their history of dugout canoes and hundred-pound chinook is inseparable from the glacial river that shares their name ... In 1992, the tribe won a long battle to remove the dams and rehabilitate the entire watershed. The Lower Elwha and their federal partners — the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Geological Survey — took the lead on this vast, $325 million project. The first blast of dynamite came in 2011; last year, the Elwha River saw its best returns of fish in three decades: 4,500 adult chinook and 1,200 steelhead, the two most critical species.
But some of the restoration work is unfolding at a new hatchery on the Lower Elwha reservation. There, thousands of spawning adult fish are captured for their sperm and eggs, resulting in millions of artificially bred juveniles.
The tribal hatchery is controversial: a dark stain upon a rare, hopeful environmental story. In 2012, a few months after the dam removal began, Wild Fish Conservancy and three other nonprofits sued to stop the Elwha hatchery from releasing so many tiny fish. The tribe itself was not a defendant in the case, but its hatchery managers were, along with several federal agencies. Plaintiffs argue that a hatchery has no role in a wild, undammed river and that the release of genetically inferior, artificially bred fish will harm varieties protected by the Endangered Species Act. They further allege that the federal government failed to consider less harmful options, such as releasing fewer manufactured fish, in planning the restoration.
The lawsuit turns on a narrow scientific dispute: whether a hatchery program will support or endanger native salmon and steelhead in the Elwha. It also raises vexing, far-reaching questions: How much human intervention is needed to nurse a watershed back to health? Do culture and tribal fishing rights undermine conservation? And in a river plugged up for 100 years, is there any “wild” thing left?
From the
Bloomberg News:
Tesla-powered Wal-Mart stores attest to Musk's energy aims
Tesla Motors is signing up big customers like Wal-Mart and Cargill, accelerating efforts to become a leader in energy storage -- a new market that's poised to boost sales and profit at the electric vehicle pioneer.
Next week, Telsa will make a deeper push beyond the car business when it unveils batteries for homes and utilities.
A review of California's Self Generation Incentive Program, or SGIP, shows Tesla has ambitions to sell batteries for a range of commercial uses, from powering its factories to reducing electric bills at schools and wineries. Tesla is on track to reap as much as $65 million in SGIP rebates, which are designed to encourage investment in alternative energy.
"Tesla has been able to install more than 100 projects, really without anyone noticing," said Andrea James, an analyst with Dougherty & Co. She said Tesla's energy storage business could be worth as much as $70 to Tesla's stock. The shares rose 5 percent to $219.88 at 10:37 a.m. New York time for the biggest intraday gain in more than two weeks.
From
NBC Los Angeles:
Embryonic Twin Discovered in Woman's Brain During Surgery in LA
An Indiana woman undergoing surgery in Los Angeles to remove a tumor experienced a twist worthy of a sci-fi plot when doctors discovered an embryonic twin in her brain.
Yamini Karanam, 26, was unaware of what was happening in her head until she underwent a procedure designed to reach deep into the brain to extract the tumor. After waking up from the surgery, Karanam was surprised to learn of the "teratoma" -- her embryonic twin, a rarity in modern medicine, complete with bone, hair and teeth.
Karanam realized last September that something wasn't registering in her mind. The Indiana University Ph.D. student was experiencing trouble comprehending things she read.
From
USA Today:
Rajon Rondo's time with the Dallas Mavericks is over
After saying that Rondo was out indefinitely with a back injury sustained before he was benched in a Game 2 loss to Houston, coach Rick Carlisle acknowledged Wednesday that Rondo will not play another game for Dallas.
The four-time All-Star sat all but 34 seconds after halftime Tuesday night in a 111-99 loss that gave the Rockets a 2-0 lead in the first-round series. Game 3 is Friday night in Dallas ... Rondo's first run-in with Rick Carlisle ended with player and coach both saying they needed to communicate better to make things work for the Mavericks ... Rondo sat for all but the first 34 seconds of the second half Tuesday night as Dallas lost 111-99 loss to Houston to end up in an 0-2 hole in the first-round series. Game 3 is Friday night in Dallas.
The four-time All-Star was pulled after fouling James Harden twice early in the third quarter, leaving him with four fouls. While Carlisle could have hidden behind foul trouble as the reason for yet another ineffective game from the player acquired in a trade with Boston to try to boost Dallas' playoff prospects, the coach changed everything by leaving Rondo on the bench for good.
The two quick fouls were puzzling, but paled compared to Rondo inexplicably getting called for an eight-second backcourt violation while walking the ball up the court in the first half. He was whistled for a technical foul later in the first half for complaining about another of his fouls on Harden.
From
Deadspin:
Chris Rock On Why Baseball Is So Un-Black And Uncool
Chris Rock is a baseball fan. He’s also black. These two things together make him something of a unicorn in today’s world, and in this video he tries to work his way through why that’s true—in typically hilarious fashion, of course.
From
Yahoo! Sports:
Deal reached, tickets for Mayweather-Pacquiao bout on sale soon
Leslie Moonves has done it again.
The president and CEO of CBS Corporation, whose involvement was credited with helping Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao reach a deal to fight each other, saved the day a second time.
A dispute between Top Rank, Mayweather Promotions and the MGM Grand was putting the fight at risk. But a late morning conference call resolved all outstanding issues, Top Rank chairman Bob Arum told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday.
he May 2 welterweight bout at the MGM Grand, which is expected to be the largest-grossing fight in history, is now officially on. There had been disputes over allocation of tickets, credentials and hotel rooms, among other things, and despite the fact that the fighters had signed to face each other in February, there hadn't been a contract between the promoters and the MGM ... There will be a small number of tickets made available to the public at a cost of $1,500, $2,500, $3,500, $5,000 and $7,500. It was not immediately clear at exactly what time the tickets will be on sale. Both Arum and duBoef said it would be mid-to-late afternoon Pacific time on Wednesday.
From the
Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Judge approves potential $1 billion plan to resolve thousands of NFL concussion lawsuits
A federal judge has approved a plan to resolve thousands of NFL concussion lawsuits that could cost the league $1 billion over 65 years.
The NFL expects 6,000 of nearly 20,000 retired players to suffer from Alzheimer's disease or moderate dementia someday. The settlement approved Wednesday by a federal judge in Philadelphia would pay them about $190,000 on average.
The awards could reach $1 million to $5 million for those diagnosed in their 30s and 40s with Parkinson's disease or Lou Gehrig's disease, or for deaths involving chronic brain trauma.
From
People:
Sandra Bullock Is PEOPLE's 2015 World's Most Beautiful Woman!
She may be PEOPLE's 2015 World's Most Beautiful Woman, but Sandra Bullock doesn't take herself too seriously when it comes to her appearance.
Despite being in "princess mode" while shooting for this year's cover story, Bullock, 50, insists she just laughed when she heard about the honor. "No, really. I just said, 'That's ridiculous,' " she tells PEOPLE. "I've told no one."
Instead the Oscar winner, who voices a supervillain in the upcoming movie Minions, has found beauty in her role as mom to her 5-year-old son, Louis, adding that their life together is a constant reminder of what's important.
From
Defamer:
Robert Downey Jr. Walked Out Of an Extremely Cringey Interview
After four minutes of questions about Tony Stark and two very tense, very awkward minutes of questions about his “dark periods,” Robert Downey, Jr. stood up and bailed on an interview with Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy. But not before telling Guru-Murthy he’s “kind of a schmuck.”
“Are we promoting a movie?” Downey asked, after Guru-Murthy tried to get the actor to elaborate on something he said to the late David Carr in a 2008 New York Times interview.
To wit:
“You can’t go from a $2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal. You can’t. I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone else, but it was very, very, very educational for me and has informed my proclivities and politics every since.”
Downey clearly didn’t want to analyze some “half-assed” thing he said last decade, and begged off by saying “I couldn’t even really tell you what a liberal is,” but Guru-Murthy haltingly tried to push the issue.
The last straw came when Murthy asked a tangled question about whether Downey thinks he’s free of drugs and alcohol, and maybe his father or something?
“Bye!”
From
The Wrap:
'Spider-Man’ Shortlist Includes ‘Paper Towns’ Star Nat Wolff, ‘Hugo’s’ Asa Butterfield
Sony Pictures and Marvel have narrowed down their list of “Spider-Man” contenders to a select group of up-and-coming actors that includes Nat Wolff, Asa Butterfield, Tom Holland, Timothee Chalamet and Liam James, among others, TheWrap has learned.
Sony is preparing to make test offers to several young stars next week, with a decision expected in the next 2-3 weeks, though a deal may take longer to hammer out. To be clear, none of the five actors above have test offers, but multiple individuals with knowledge of the situation have confirmed they are strong contenders who are definitely in the mix as of right now, and the group paints a picture of the kind of actor the studios want.
Sony and Marvel had no comment regarding the shortlist.
While the new Spider-Man is expected to have a cameo in Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War,” which starts filming very soon, the role won’t need to be filled until June, when the character will be needed on set.
From
Variety:
Pixar’s ‘Inside Out’ Debuts to Emotional Crowd
It’s been nearly two years since Pixar last had a film in theaters, but given the strong reaction that “Inside Out” enjoyed from exhibitors Wednesday at CinemaCon, the wait was worth it. The animated family comedy received enthusiastic applause — and a few tears from the crowd.
“Inside Out’s” concept is a heady one. It offers up a colorful story of the inner emotional workings of an 11-year-old girl whose family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. A running joke about the jingle for Triple-dent gum proved especially popular, while the poignancy of a little girl becoming so sad that she starts running away from home turned on the tear ducts for more than a few exhibitors.
Nearly all of the film is set within the brain of Riley Andersonn with five emotions — Joy, Anger, Disgust, Fear and Sadness — trying to lead her through life. Some audience members wondered if the film will be too high-concept to attract family crowds, but Disney has pulled off the trick before, most notably with “Wall-E,” which boasted long, dialogue-free stretches.
It may be hard to explain, but the studio appears likely to try to sell “Inside Out” to the masses on the strength of its goofy visuals and witty banter by a voice cast that includes Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Lewis Black and Mindy Kaling. The premise worked well enough that the closing credits — consisting mostly of scenes set in other characters’ brains — generated plenty of laughs at the screening.
From
The Hollywood Reporter:
Clint Eastwood Takes Aim at Michael Moore, Reflects on 'American Sniper' Success
When he was honored at an event at CinemaCon Wednesday, Clint Eastwood shared thoughts on his acting career, his interest in directing and one of his most vocal critics: Michael Moore. The American Sniper helmer, who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter's Stephen Galloway at the annual convention, told the crowd that he had been asked many times about Moore's comments against his war drama.
“Everyone is saying I threatened to kill Michael Moore – that’s not true ... but it isn’t a bad idea,” he joked, getting a big laugh from the crowd.
“Once years ago somebody asked me what I would do if a guy like [Moore] came to my house and started filming like they did with Charlton Heston … and I thought, well if he’s on your property, I guess you can shoot him," he said.
The director, who has never met Moore, added: “Any way you look at it, it's his opinion. That’s what’s great about this country -- You can think about it any way you want.”
From
/Film:
'Star Trek 3′ Likely Titled ‘Star Trek Beyond’
Justin Lin is directing the film which will feature the core cast of the past two films, along with Idris Elba, Sofia Boutella and others.
The report admits this might just be a title to put fans off the scent of the film, but “Star Trek Beyond” was reportedly registered with the Motion Picture Association of America. So it seems likely, with a July 8, 2016 release date fast approaching, this could be the title.
Simon Pegg is co-writing the film with Doug Jung and, as evidenced by the last film, this one should take the Enterprise deep into unknown worlds. That’s another reason the “Beyond” title also makes sense. Plus, with 2016 being the 50th anniversary of the franchise, that title also has some significance as this would see the long-running series looking toward the future of the franchise.
From the
A.V. Club:
Zooey Deschanel wants people to stop calling her adorkable
Ensuring that we will never, ever stop referring to her as “adorkable,” Zooey Deschanel recently told The Huffington Post that she is not, in fact, adorkable. Classic Zooey! So adorkable. She says that she doesn’t always agree with how she’s “portrayed in certain public contexts,” so she tries to stay away “from that sort of thing.” She also claims that “adorkable” was created by Fox’s marketing department to promote the first season of New Girl, and not, as we assumed, plucked from a unicorn’s eyelash upon the day of her birth. Attempting to put the adorkable nail in the adorkable coffin, Deschanel says, “[adorkable is] a word that describes the character that I play, not me. I don’t personally have identification with that word myself.”
Apparently, Zooey Deschanel is a real person who can’t have her entire persona described with one (perfect) word. Like any real person, she sometimes has thoughts and feelings that are definitely not adorkable—such as when she’s asking Siri if it’s raining, or when she’s playing Christmas songs with her cutesy indie band. Plus, that new Death Cab For Cutie song is probably about her, and how does its chorus go? “How could something so adorkable be so cruel.” She must be pretty vicious to have hurt a sensitive boy like Ben Gibbard, right?
From
Rolling Stone:
Grateful Dead Final Shows Will Be Available on Pay-Per-View
The Grateful Dead, along with special guest Trey Anastasio, will perform together one last time this summer at their Fare Thee Well concerts in Santa Clara, California and Chicago. All five shows sold out immediately, but if you were among the tens of thousands of fans who didn't get tickets for the summer's hottest concerts, there is good news: The three Chicago gigs will be available to watch live in the comfort of your home (or participating bar, club and restaurant) thanks to a pay-per-view broadcast produced by Live Alliance. All five shows, however, will also be available via an as-yet-unannounced online streaming platform.
The band's Chicago shows, taking place July 3rd, 4th and 5th, will be available to watch on TV and in theaters (the latter courtesy of Fathom Events), while the Santa Clara gigs on June 27th and 28th can be streamed online. Starting May 1st through the 15th, Dead 50 will offer a pre-sale to purchase the webcast for all five nights for $79.95.
From
Billboard:
Wiz Khalifa's 'See You Again' Tops Hot 100 for Second Week
Wiz Khalifa's Furious 7 soundtrack smash "See You Again," featuring Charlie Puth, spends a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Meanwhile, Ellie Goulding crowns the Radio Songs chart with "Love Me Like You Do" from another hit movie, Fifty Shades of Grey ... "Again," released on Atlantic Records and promoted to radio by Roadrunner Promotions, logs a third week at No. 1 on the Digital Songs chart despite a 19 percent drop to a still-hefty 375,000 downloads sold in the week ending April 19, according to Nielsen Music. The sum is the seventh-best for a song this year; its total of 464,000 the week before is the year's top weekly total, powered heavily by the April 6 premiere of the song's official video. It additionally passes 1 million downloads sold to-date.
From the
A.V. Club:
Tidal is already a huge flop
Tidal, the Jay Z-backed subscription streaming music service that first announced its intention to pay struggling artists for their work by getting a bunch of millionaires up on a stage to talk about it, is maybe not doing so great after all. After a high-profile launch punctuated with swipes at rival streaming services like Pandora and Spotify for their low payouts to participating artists, Tidal’s Swedish owner Aspiro recently got rid of CEO Andy Chen and several employees in a “streamlining move.” (Specifically, they were efficiently and swiftly moved out onto the streets of Sweden.) Fellow Scandinavian Peter Tonstad, a former consultant at the Norwegian Ministry of Environment, has been brought in to replace Chen.
[...] Of course, it’s possible that Tidal is flailing not because consumers aren’t interested in paying to stream high-definition music through their $10 earbuds, or have checked out on a service that offers no way to listen for free, but because they’re worried that it’s part of a global conspiracy to control human destiny from the shadows. Said worries were addressed recently in Papermag by high-profile Tidal backer, man of letters, and future Steve Jobs of The Gap, Kanye West. As part of a longer letter in which the Yeezus artist talked nitrous oxide, God, and living in China, he took a moment to address jokes that the Tidal press conference was “an Illuminati moment”:
If there was actually an Illuminati, it would be more like the energy companies. Not celebrities that gave their life to music and who are pinpointed as decoys for people who really run the world. I’m tired of people pinpointing musicians as the Illuminati. That’s ridiculous. We don’t run anything; we’re celebrities. We’re the face of brands. We have to compromise what we say in lyrics so we don’t lose money on a contract. Madonna is in her 50s and gave everything she had to go up on an award show and get choked by her cape. She’s judged for who she adopts. Fuck all of this sensationalism. We gave you our lives. We gave you our hearts. We gave you our opinions!
From
Cosmo:
The "Rosie the Riveter" Model Has Died
Mary Doyle Keefe, the model for Norman Rockwell's iconic Rosie the Riveter painting, died in Connecticut on Tuesday. She was 92.
According to the Associated Press, Keefe posed for Rockwell when she was a 19-year-old telephone operator living in Vermont. Twenty-four years later, after the image appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, the artist wrote Keefe, calling her the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen and apologizing for exaggerating her shoulders and arms.
The painting—not to be confused with the more stylized, "We can do it" version—became a symbol of wartime resilience and the millions of American women who worked on the home front during World War II.
From
AskMen.com:
Top 10 Male Body Parts Women Love
Every man is dying to know what male body parts turn women on the most. Well, guess what? I surveyed over 100 women and asked them that very question. Not only did their replies blow me away, but I quickly came to the realization that I need to get my sorry butt into the gym on a more permanent basis.
Sharply shaped shoulders
Of the 100 women surveyed, a vast majority had a lot to say about shoulders. They like it when a man has well-defined, broad shoulders because they're a sign of strength and masculinity.
One woman wrote, "I love when a man moves his shoulders and you're able to see the (muscle) definition." Another gal added, "Running my fingers across broad, lean ones excites me immeasurably. That's why I love giving my boyfriend massages in this area." So it's time to get to work at the gym, and as the list goes on, you'll quickly come to the same realization yourself.
Bulging biceps
Come on... you knew it was coming. Big, well-defined biceps don't just signify strength, they also reveal that you're taking good care of your body. And if there's one thing women love, it's a man who takes care of things.
As with the chest, women love when they're able to get a hint of a man's biceps either through his sweater or when he wears a T-shirt and they can see the start of the rippling muscle (their words, not mine).
It also doesn't hurt when guys are able to lift them up and maneuver their bodies effortlessly when they're engaging in crazy "slam you up against the wall" sex. So I guess that mom was just kidding all those times she told us that it's what's on the inside that counts. Real funny.