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MILLERSVILLE, Md. (AP) — An electrical fire that spread to a 15-foot Christmas tree prompted a blaze that reduced a 16,000 square-foot riverfront mansion near Maryland’s capital to ruins, killing a couple and four of their young grandchildren, investigators said Wednesday.
The fire ignited combustible material and tore through the massive, castlelike structure in the early morning hours of Jan. 19. Anne Arundel County Fire Chief Allan Graves said in a statement Wednesday that the tree had been cut more than 60 days before the blaze and was in a “great room” of the house with 19-foot ceilings.
“The involvement of the Christmas tree explains the heavy fire conditions found by the first arriving fire crews,” Graves said.
Investigators on Wednesday identified the victims as Don and Sandra Pyle and their grandchildren: Charlotte Boone, 8; Wes Boone, 6; Lexi Boone, 8, and Katie Boone, 7. Don Pyle, 56, was chief operating officer of ScienceLogic in Reston, Virginia.
The fire was reported about 3:30 a.m. Jan. 19 by an alarm-monitoring company, reporting smoke had been detected inside, and a neighbor who spotted flames. Officials said it is unclear whether an alarm sounded inside the 16,000-square-foot home, which could have alerted anyone inside. Some 85 firefighters from several jurisdictions fought the four-alarm fire, which burned for three hours before it could be contained. Because there was no hydrant in the area, firefighters shuttled tankers to the site and stationed a fire boat at a pier nearby.
Investigators brought in dogs to search for bodies and evidence, such as accelerants, and conducted more than 50 interviews.
A spokeswoman for the children’s parents said that the day before the fire, the doting grandparents bought the children costumes before taking them to dinner at a medieval-themed restaurant.
Charlotte and Wes Boone were sister and brother. Lexi and Katie were sisters; they had a newborn brother who was home with his parents, Randy and Stacey Boone, the night of the fire. The cousins’ fathers, Randy and Clint Boone, were the sons of Sandra Pyle, 63. The four children were students at the Severn School in Severna Park.
The Boone family said in a statement Tuesday, following the discovery Monday of the sixth body at the house that they were “relieved that our loved ones have all been recovered.”
“Though we are grieving deeply, this has brought us some small sense of closure,” the statement read. “We take comfort in that they are now together, and we can begin to mend our hearts.”
The Pyles built the home in 2005, four years before the county began requiring sprinkler systems in new homes.
The $6 million property once boasted turrets, spiral staircases, lion statues, a sprawling lawn and forested land. All that remains resembles a colonial ruin: a brick wall with windows missing and a mountain of burned debris.
As investigators from the fire department; the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the state fire marshal’s office probed the scene, members of the community brought notes and teddy bears for a small memorial just outside the property. On brick columns that flanked an iron gate, Christmas decorations were still displayed.
About three and a half years ago, I stepped into my current role managing hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue across seven countries in Northern Europe. It’s been a wild ride. Recently, I took the time to reflect on this period and wrote down my key takeaways. One of my mentors, who happens to be my current boss, taught me to always present things in “threes”… so here goes:
The Things I Knew:
• Surround yourself with the best people: You can only be successful if the teams behind you are the very best. I’ve changed my team several times in the last few years and will continue to hire the best we can. With the best talent, our success has proliferated.
• Expect excellence: The executive I worked for 10 years ago taught me the most and shaped who I am today. He always told me, “Stephie, never drop your expectations of excellence.”
• Give back and promote talented women in the workplace: Being a founder of the AT&T EMEA Women’s Network and supporting GirlUp.org are among my greatest accomplishments. The founding CEO of the EMEA Women’s Network, a woman I helped to hire into the company almost 15 years ago, has recently joined my leadership team. In the six months following her appointment, she’s made an enormous difference to the quality and output in our region.
The Things I Learned:
• Network religiously, inside and outside your organization: There’s more opportunity to network inside your organization. But making the time for networking outside your organization requires more thought, especially as most of us have such busy lives. I have recently been very lucky to attend a prestigious conference featuring the next generation of future women leaders. One of the speakers, a prominent executive businesswoman on Wall Street, drove the point home on how risky it is to rely solely on your internal network and the extreme importance of networking outside of your company. In listening to her, I was thankful to have practiced that very kind of networking in the tenure of this role. (I think my professional contacts have doubled to 1K+ on LinkedIn in this period.)
• Reflect before jumping to react: I have a reputation of being tough, extremely fast, and brutally honest. These are good qualities, but they are also flaws. I now sit back on potentially explosive topics before jumping in. As my mom taught me, you catch more bees with honey.
• Skill and competence don’t replace experience: My skills and competencies helped me land this role, but taking on an executive-level position required a huge learning curve. You need to be patient and remind yourself that practice makes perfect.
The Things I Changed:
• Moderate your leadership style when needed: I have been warned by my team that, at times, I get ahead of the process. So, I need to slow down. But slowing down does not mean that I compromise my demand for excellence. Rather, it avoids the isolation caused from unrealistic results and it ensures that I am in step with the team’s progress.
• Don’t doubt your own capabilities: One of the few people who didn’t believe in my abilities to succeed in this role was me. Self-confidence is essential.
• Warning – never work to exhaustion on things that can’t change: This has been my most painful, personal lesson to learn thus far. Markets change; customers don’t buy as quickly, expense controls get put in place. These factors result in enormous pressure on a sales organization as growth objectives stay high. External factors can be managed but not always overcome. I tried to take on gaps personally, and fill holes that were not going to be radically changed to my own detriment. It was a painful lesson, but one that strengthened me as a leader.
There is not a day that passes without me trying to apply at least one of the above to the challenges that come along — be it personal or professional. It’s “My Little Guide” to keeping my head above water while trying to push forward. Another very influential mentor, former boss and great friend always told his teams to “be confident, but stay humble.” I believe the tips above helps me to achieve that balance.
Two Pennsylvania parents face charges after their pet ferrets ate part of their baby’s face.
The 1-month-old child was left unattended in a car seat downstairs in the family’s Darby home last Thursday when three ferrets viciously attacked the child.
NBC Philadelphia reports that the baby girl’s nose, upper lip, and cheek were all eaten by the animals.
The parents, 42-year-old Burnie Fraim and his fiancee, 24-year-old Jessica Benales, have both been charged with five counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
In an interview with CBS Philly, Fraim attempted to deflect some the blame .
“It’s not our fault. We didn’t do it, the animals did it,” Fraim told the station. “This little mistake happened. I wish it never did happen, but it happened.”
In a press conference, Darby Borough Police Chief Robert Smythe expressed his disgust at the incident.
“This is the most horrific thing I have seen happen to a child in 45 years in this town,” Smythe said.
The chief said conditions in the home were deplorable, lacking food and infested with insects. Fraim said he has five children total, all special needs.
Fraim said he was sleeping at the time of the attack.
“The baby looked like, um, like it didn’t have a face,” the father told CBS Philly.
The child is in stable condition, according to the Associated Press.
The three ferrets tested positive for rabies and were euthanized.
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One of the first global financial literacy tests administered to 15-year-olds identified a critical element among top performers: students persevered and showed openness toward problem solving and schools had the freedom to customize lessons.
That is one of the striking conclusions of the inaugural financial literacy portion of the Program of International Student Assessment (PISA) test, which evaluated the skills and knowledge of 29,000 15-year-olds in 18 countries and economies in 2012. Final results of this important study were released in September, and PISA officials announced that the assessment of financial literacy will be offered as an optional component in the 2015 testing.
PISA was launched in 2000 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which promotes policies that support economic and social well-being around the world.
The financial literacy portion of the test was developed in response to the global financial crisis that began with the 2008 market crash in the United States and has persisted around the world. “With high levels of youth unemployment, rising inequality, a significant gender gap, and an urgent need to boost growth in many countries, we have no time to lose,” said the report.
U.S. students earned an average score of 492 out of a possible 700, which ranks those teens between eighth and twelfth place among all 18 participating countries and economies, according to the PISA study. Other findings from the U.S. results:
In the United States, there’s a clear opportunity for more states to require personal finance training as part of a high school degree. The Council for Economic Education reported that as of 2014, 17 states required students to take a high school course in personal finance or that personal finance be included in an economics or civics course as a graduation requirement. That’s compared to 13 states in 2011. However, only six states (Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Missouri, Michigan and Texas) required testing of that material. Meanwhile, the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy reported that only four states (Missouri, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia) required at least a one-semester course devoted to personal finance.
The PISA report recognized what it calls a “limited and uneven provision of financial education in schools,” even though more countries are introducing such education, “often as part of a national strategy for financial education across the whole population with a view to advancing financial literacy among young generations.”
But the report found that even in countries where some form of financial education is offered, “the content, and even the definition, varies, with some countries and schools offering economics or business studies rather than teaching students how to manage their personal finances.”
It also noted that many countries trying to teach only personal finance often don’t have enough standardized teaching materials and suggests that both schools and individual classroom teachers may have too much flexibility in deciding exactly what to teach.
Indeed, the test seemed to show that the success of top-scoring countries/economies stems from a nationwide, mandatory personal finance curriculum.
The top scorer, Shanghai-China, has a history of placing financial education topics in its national curriculum that dates back to the 1970s, according to the report. It added that beginning in 2009, the Shanghai-China system has introduced “regular training on finance” throughout its “primary and lower secondary schools.”
In the Czech Republic, a working group for the nation’s ministry of finance developed financial literacy standards in 2007, defining lesson content and outcomes for education in topics ranging from “money and household budget management to financial products and consumer rights.”
Furthermore, in Australia, the nation’s education authorities “have endorsed three iterations” of the country’s National Consumer and Financial Literacy Framework since 2005. According to the PISA report, Australia’s framework helps structure consumer and financial education throughout the country’s educational system and the program has worked with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission to create MoneySmart Teaching, a resource portal for K-12 educators.
No matter what personal finance curriculum emerges in the future in U.S. schools, experts still stress that the earliest personal finance lessons should begin at home. Parents looking for ideas on how to start the discussion can consult the Practical Money Skills for Life website. The “For Educators” tab, offers free materials including lesson plans and classroom exercises that can be modified into lessons at home as a child matures.
Bottom line: Despite midrange results for U.S. high school students in PISA’s first-ever global financial literacy test, best practices from other nations can provide a strong path for U.S. students to learn and master these skills. To improve students’ financial literacy skills, educators can leverage financial literacy tools available on the National Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy and the Practical Money Skills websites.
Jason Alderman directs Visa’s financial education programs. To follow Practical Money Skills on Twitter, visit www.twitter.com/PracticalMoney.
Born in Montreal in 1974, David Altmejd is a sculptor based in New York City. Rather than the substantial materials and rigid forms of traditional sculpture, he usually combines malleable, volatile organic substances — polystyrene, expandable foam, synthetic hair, coconut, epoxy gel, gold, plywood, latex paints — into heavily worked forms and characters.
Justin Quirk, January 26, 2015
The materials frequently seem to be punching through each other to create new substances, reveal more detail in the work or subvert the lifelike figures that he has created. His sculptures range from realistically proportioned but gently mutated humanoids in eye-catching color schemes (“Untitled 1 (The Watchers)”), to abstract, organic shapes in a single shade (“Cave (Blue)”). His first French retrospective entitled, “Flux” at MAM Paris includes unshown and older pieces from throughout Altmejd’s career alongside his 2014 work, “The Flux and the Puddle.”
Altmejd’s work strongly bears the influence of cinema’s outer limits: the most obvious visual references are the monster-filled dreamworlds of David Cronenberg and David Lynch. Huge, semi-flayed totemic men, prowling bird-headed businessmen, the fragile white Giacometti-like human figures of his “Bodybuilders” series and the geometric mirror-and-wood industrial structure of his 2004 piece, “The University” are all highlights.
However, most eye-catching of all — and perhaps most illustrative of the scope of Altmejd’s talents — is his 2014 monumental sculpture, “The Flux and The Puddle.” Something close to a complete, imagined ecosystem under plexiglass, this vast, room-filling piece arranges everything from aqua resin and burlap to coffee grounds, metal wire and acrylic paint under fluorescent lights. Each different viewing angle reveals new detail and new scenes. The end result is something like a futuristic modeling of Hieronymus Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights,”or a three-dimensional creation of the more fantastical panels from an Alan Moore comic. For an artist to move beyond and away from an established, successful style is always brave; for them to do it in such extravagant style is truly remarkable.
David Altmejd “Flux” is on view at MAM Paris through February 1st, 2015. After that, the exhibition will travel to MUDAM in Luxembourg (March 7th — May 31st) and then MACM in Montreal (June 18th — September 13th.)
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Justin Quirk is contributor to ARTPHAIRE. He is a journalist and editor based in London, England. He is editorial director of House, the Soho House Group’s quarterly culture journal, and also of Victor, Hasselblad’s photographic biannual. He writes features for The Guardian and Sunday Times newspapers, Wallpaper* magazine and Phaidon’s Agenda site. When not working he mentors young creatives at The Cut, he writes graphic novels and curates exhibitions for the Canadian artist Nathan James.
The policeman was respectful. He knew something was very wrong, just not what he was led to believe. I stayed on the line with the 911 dispatcher, sickened and shaking. Emergency services took very seriously a psychiatrist who felt that a patient was in the midst of a suicide attempt. After the police entered the patient’s apartment, I was patched into their radio communications.
“Doc, I don’t know what to tell ya. The guy’s in a suit havin’ a cup ‘a coffee. He says he’s gettin’ ready for a job interview.” They gave the patient the radio. His rage was in full force. I imagine the NYPD stood there, embarrassed as they listened to him unleashing his profane invective.
“What the f*ck do you think you’re doing!!? You’re a f*cking asshole, you know that!? I can’t believe you called the f*cking police, you f*cking stupid f*ck…”
The pounding of my heart in my ears now became complicated by an additional phenomenon: disorientation. I was getting an acute, intense, bewildering barrage of auditory information, the visualization of which created a Kafkaesque scene. Somehow, probably because the whole thing was playing out over the phone, I never lost my cool, even though I’m sure I looked dazed. Finally, mercifully, the cop took the radio back.
“Whaddya want us to do, Doc?” He sounded like he felt sorry for me. I instructed them to take him to the hospital. The patient exploded in anger anew. is screaming faded as they led him away: “You’re fired! You’re f*cking fired! Do you hear me asshole? You’re fired!…” The adrenaline took a long time to subside. No matter. I now felt like an idiot.
This strange case unfolded over a few short weeks. The initial call came from the director of HR of a large, well-known company. They had an employee who made a suicidal statement to his supervisor. He was placed on medical leave and needed an evaluation. I was early in my career and took it as a stroke of good fortune that my name came to this HR director. She worked for a high profile company that could be the source of further referrals. I needed to do a good job on this case.
Four days after the call from HR I met the patient. He was a slight, bookish man in his late 20s. Casually dressed for the consultation, his meticulous grooming and crisp polo and khakis suggested a man who took his appearance seriously. I started things off by explaining that I had two goals: to help him get treatment to feel better, and to help his company determine when he could return to work.
He began, “Monday afternoon I said I had enough with stuff in my life. I wanted to put a gun to my head.” I twitched, then squinted. “In a manner of speaking,” he added, after a pause.
He launched into the problems. He’d had headaches, fevers, seizures and “partial paralysis” for months. A CAT scan, initially read as brain cancer, terrified him. A follow-up MRI was clean. Despite extensive testing that showed no pathology, he continued to have seizures, headaches and fevers.
His wife left him nine months ago, while he was sick with fever. They had been married about a year. He began to suspect infidelity because of her “inconsistent responses.” He gave her an ultimatum: “take care of me or leave.” She left the next day.
He had fathered two children by another woman in his late teens. That woman was currently using drugs. The children were in the temporary custody of his mother. His father, to whom he was not close, had died three years earlier.
This man was losing control: of his body, his marriage, his family. He acknowledged being depressed, but also that he detaches from his feelings. Indeed, the interview was remarkable for his controlled, dispassionate explication of the narrative. It was what we called having an affect incongruous to content. This attribute did not inspire confidence in my ability to read his state of mind.
Although not entirely surprising, it did not help to discover he had virtually no social supports. Not one to “let people get close,” he cited his estranged wife as his only support. He weakly added his company as a source of support- an awkward reference to his supervisor and HR I supposed.
My concern for his condition was tempered by a specific feature of the account. His seizures and paralysis did not adhere to episodes governed by the rules of neuroanatomy. They sounded more like ataques de nervios, fits of spastic writhing seen among certain Latino populations, and thought to be a response to stress. At least he didn’t have the misfortune of serious neurologic disease on top of all the rest.
I was very concerned for his safety nevertheless. He was a socially isolated male, separated from his main perceived support, experiencing debilitating physical symptoms without known cause, depressed, and removed from his work. He carried numerous risk factors for suicide, although thankfully he denied feeling suicidal at the moment. We spoke about starting an antidepressant. He agreed to stay out of work for a week, live with an aunt, and allow me to contact his other doctors for information. We were to speak by phone daily and meet again in three days.
Communication proved problematic. The patient had disconnected his phone and his aunt had changed her number, so there was no phone check-in. One doctor couldn’t locate the records and the other didn’t remember the patient, so there was no medical clarification. The patient did show up for his appointment. Nothing had changed. He had had no seizures and no suicidal thoughts. I asked him if he had any thoughts about our initial visit. He responded with the single word, “Indifference.” He wanted to return to work next week and I thought the distraction would do him good. I discussed starting Prozac and he agreed. We were to meet again after the weekend.
Things did not go according to plan. The patient did not fill the prescription. Instead, he abruptly left for the funeral of a family friend in North Carolina. There and back in under four days. Cause of death unknown. What can you say?
We got to talking about trusting people. He related a remarkable story about how he lived on the street for 4-5 months while attending college. He had arranged to live with a maternal aunt who resided near his college. When he told his mother of the plan she became enraged and told him to get out of her sister’s house. He completed the semester as a homeless person. The story seemed fantastic but his deadpan delivery disarmed me and precluded any overt questioning. I asked him to start the Prozac.
I met the patient three days later, the morning of his return to work. He was sharply dressed, but otherwise emotionally flat and unreadable. He told me the first dose of Prozac had produced a nausea so complete that he spent the entire day in bed unable to function. When I asked why he didn’t call me, he replied, “What’s the point?” The subsequent doses produced no problems. He again endorsed no changes in clinical status, denied feeling suicidal, and was ready to return to work. We set up two meetings for the following week.
He was a no-show for both visits. His home phone was still disconnected and he wasn’t answering his cellular. Before I could reach him at work I got a call from the HR director. She had been contacted by a psychologist who, unbeknownst to me, had seen the patient prior to my initial evaluation. Apparently, the patient had also not shown for follow-ups with this psychologist. When she finally saw him for a second visit he described worsening suicidal thoughts. The psychologist called HR and recommended the patient be hospitalized.
My call to the psychologist was quite illuminating. The patient had given us very different stories about his history, and had kept us secret from each other. His diagnosis, always puzzling, became simultaneously more clear and complicated as a result of his now undeniable personality disorder.
It was early afternoon on Friday. The three players in the patient’s treatment: myself, the psychologist and the HR director, had just realized they were being played. But to what end? I decided the best course of action was to meet with the patient and the HR director that afternoon. We would confront the patient about his deception and manipulation, and hopefully uncover his motives. The HR director would inform the patient about this mandatory meeting and bring him to my office, with security.
I opened the waiting room door at 5 p.m. to discover the HR director and her security staff person. The patient, once again demonstrating who was in charge, had fled his office after getting wind of this appointment. We had our meeting anyway. It was agreed that the patient would eventually show up at work and we would eventually have our three-way consultation. His behavior called into question all of the “facts” of his story. What was clear was the process: he mobilized alarm and action in us, perhaps as the end itself. By focusing on his process we found ourselves less alarmed by his content, and certainly less interested in initiating action. In this way we convinced ourselves that he was not likely to be a real suicide risk and we could just wait for next week.
Another thing became clear in this meeting, namely the company’s metrics for the patient’s work performance. I found it quite ironic that after my effort to go the extra mile on this VIP case, with a patient who turned me from psychiatrist to detective, in the end the company’s main focus for this patient’s fitness for work was addressing his lateness and personal phone calls at the office. In that moment the whole affair became a kind of farce: the stoic patient discovered to be an untreatable manipulator, the caring employer discovered to be clueless and banal, the ardent psychiatrist discovered to be hapless and duped.
I was glad to have the weekend off from this case. I took it as an intermission. The performance would resume sometime next week. I was in the habit of checking my voicemail periodically during weekends, with the final one on Sunday evening before I went to sleep. For some reason, that Sunday, I forgot. I called in for messages Monday morning, upset with myself for having forgotten to do it the night before. That’s when I got it. He left it Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
“By the time you hear this, I should be dead.”
Lindsey Graham asked Loretta Lynch about the possibility of gay marriage leading to polygamy, but no one asked Lynch about the even more alarming possibility of confirmation hearings leading to Lindsey Graham. Washington types lauded Michelle Obama for what she wore during a visit to Saudi Arabia, because whether home or abroad, Washington media can’t stop fixating on female leaders’ goddamned clothes. And 2 Chainz might run for mayor of College Park, Georgia. Whether he’ll be listed on the ballot as Tauheed Epps, 2 Chainz or “Tity Boi” is unclear. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Wednesday, January 28th, 2015:
LINDSEY GRAHAM –> AG: MM? MMF? 🙁 MF! – HuffPost Hill doesn’t have emoji support so that will have to do. Igor Bobic: “During Loretta Lynch’s confirmation hearing Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) tried to take the attorney general nominee down the slippery-slope argument often made against the marriage equality movement by inquiring what the legal difference is between marriage of same-sex couples and that of three or more people. ‘What is the legal difference between a state — a ban on same-sex marriage being unconstitutional but a ban on polygamy being constitutional?’ he inquired at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. ‘Could you try to articulate how one could be banned under the Constitution and the other not?’ Lynch, who is the current U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, didn’t take the bait. She cited her inexperience in dealing with cases of precedent on the matter, and promised to “look forward to continuing the discussions with you.'” [<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/28/lindsey-graham-loretta-lynch-gay-marriage_n_6564272.html?1422469852
” target=”_hplink”>HuffPost]
@hillhulse: Sen Cornyn asks Ms. Lynch: “You are not Eric Holder, are you?” She says no
LYNCH DEFENDED OBAMA IMMIGRATION ACTION – Elise Foley: “Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a strident opponent of the policies, says the actions are unconstitutional and will hurt American workers because employers might hire undocumented immigrants rather than U.S. citizens. He brought up comments made in 2013 by Holder, who said that creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants is ‘essential’ and said immigration was ‘a matter of civil and human rights.’ Sessions asked Lynch if she agreed. She said she hadn’t studied the issue enough to come to a legal conclusion, adding that she thinks ‘that people who come to this country in a variety of ways can rehabilitate themselves and apply, but that would have to be something that would be decided on a case-by-case basis.’ Pressed further, she said she did not know of any civil right to citizenship for undocumented immigrants recognized by jurisprudence. ‘I think that citizenship is a privilege,” she said. “Certainly, it’s a right for those of us born here. I think it’s a privilege that has to be earned.'” [HuffPost]
FYI: “Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James, in coordination with the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall, has determined the Boeing 747-8 will serve as the next presidential aircraft, commonly known as Air Force One.” [Secretary of the Air Force Office Public Affairs]
HuffPost’s Jason Cherkis has spent the past year writing an epic story on the heroin epidemic and the ways we don’t help addicts get better.
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER – It’s sad because people are poor, but it’s also happy because the government helps them buy food and nobody is starving. “The rate of children living with married parents who receive food stamps has doubled since 2007. In 2014, an estimated 16 million children, or about one in five, received food stamp assistance compared with the roughly 9 million children, or one in eight, that received this form of assistance prior to the recession.” [Census.gov]
Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It’s free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter – @HuffPostHill
TED CRUZ WEIGHS IN ON HEADSCARF-GATE – But can the First Lady be one of the most influential people on the planet, flaunt gendered social norms in highly restrictive societies AND have it all? “Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) praised Michelle Obama on Twitter Wednesday for not wearing a head covering while visiting Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. ‘Kudos to @FLOTUS for standing up for women &refusing to wear Sharia-mandated head-scarf in Saudi Arabia. Nicely done’… The Obamas traveled with the administration’s delegation to pay condolences after King Abdullah’s death. The Saudi King had been an American ally since he came to power in 2005. Neither Michelle Obama, nor any other woman who visited as part of the official delegation, appears in any pictures wearing a customary head covering. Saudi Arabian women typically wear loose robes and a headscarf that covers the entire head and face, called a niqab. But the Yahoo article tweeted by Cruz notes that ‘covering one’s head is not required for foreigners, and some Western women choose to forego the headscarf while in Saudi Arabia.'” [The Hill]
THE KOCH BROTHERS’ MONEY WILL BLOT OUT THE SUN!!! – Politico: “The Koch brothers’ conservative network is still debating whether it will spend any of its massive $889 million budget in the Republican presidential primaries, but the prospect of choosing a GOP nominee loomed over the network’s just-concluded donor conference in the California desert. In an informal straw poll of some conference donors, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida came out ahead of four other would-be GOP presidential candidates who had been invited, according to an attendee familiar with the results. The poll was conducted by Frank Luntz, a veteran GOP pollster, during a break-out session of the conference, which wrapped up Tuesday after a long weekend of presentations and discussions at the Ritz-Carlton in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul — who received the least enthusiastic response from donors during a Sunday night forum of prospective candidates that also featured Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — finished last in Luntz’s poll, the source told Politico.” [Politico]
DEMS PLOT KOCH KOUNTERATTACK – Sam Stein and Paul Blumenthal: “Various top party officials interviewed by The Huffington Post said they expected outside groups and campaign committees to further elevate their attacks on the Kochs heading into the next election. Portraying the brothers as political villains was a prominent element of the 2014 game plan. And though that election ended horribly for the party, there is little sense that Democrats should back off now that Koch entities will play an even larger role in 2016. ‘We’re going all out with the research and the communications in the 2016 cycle,’ David Brock, founder of American Bridge 21st Century and MediaMatters.org, told The Huffington Post. But in donor circles, talk has centered not just on communications strategies but on checkbooks as well. Matching the nearly $1 billion in conservative money is going to prove monumentally challenging, if not impossible, officials concede.” [HuffPost]
MoJo’s Tim Murphy outlines Ben Carson’s radical leftwing views.
BEN NELSON EMERGES FROM SCROOGE MCDUCK GOLD SWIMMING POOL – And to help out Democrats. WaPo: “The challengers in the latest Supreme Court battle over the Affordable Care Act point to former Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson as evidence of their claim that Congress intended that tax credits go only to qualified recipients in states that had established their own insurance exchanges. Nelson, a Democratic holdout as Congress debated the bill, insisted that states take the lead in establishing the exchanges. And the challengers use that to support their theory that Congress was using the tax credits to induce states into establishing the exchanges, rather than having the federal government do it. But Nelson, who announced his retirement in 2011, speaks for himself in a brief filed by Democratic congressional leaders and others.” [WaPo]
Congressman Tim Ryan (D-rowning in lefty contributions) now supports abortion rights. “I have sat with women from Ohio and across the nation and heard them talk about their varying experiences: abusive relationships, financial hardship, health scares, rape and incest,” Ryan wrote in an op-ed for the Akron Beacon Journal . “These women gave me a better understanding of how complex and difficult certain situations can become. And while there are people of good conscience on both sides of this argument, one thing has become abundantly clear to me: the heavy hand of government must not make this decision for women and families.” [HuffPost’s Laura Bassett]
Today’s winner: B-roll of frustrated travelers at airports. Today’s loser: Tom Brady Schadenfreude.
SARAH PALIN IS READY FOR HILLARY – Sam Levine: “Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) has helped raise so much money for a pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC that she qualifies to co-chair the group’s national finance council. The group, Ready For Hillary, used comments about Clinton that Palin made over the weekend in Iowa to raise more than $25,000. ‘It’s going to take more than a village to beat Hillary,’ Palin said on Saturday. ‘I’m ready for Hillary. Are you coming?’ Ready For Hillary immediately seized on the comments and emailed supporters, asking them to donate. On Tuesday evening, the group emailed supporters again, announcing that the super PAC had raised more than $25,000 as a result of Palin’s comments — enough to qualify the former GOP candidate for vice president to be a co-chair of Ready for Hillary.” [HuffPost]
Because no politician or bill can find success without a swear-laden website, we present without (further) comment What The Fuck Has Hillary Done, which a reader created.
BECAUSE YOU’VE READ THIS FAR – Here are some impressive Ibexes
WE ARE READY FOR 2CHAINZ – Maybe he should aim for a stepping stone position first, like comptroller. Daily Beast: “The hip-hop musician says he wants to run for mayor of his hometown of College Park…’I am looking forward to running at the end of this year or next year,’ the rapper confirmed to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. There is only one obstacle. The rapper doesn’t live in College Park, a town of 14,000…According to voter registration records accessed by The Daily Beast, 2 Chainz currently appears to be registered to vote in the nearby town of Palmetto, and College Park’s incumbent mayor, Jack Longino, doesn’t think he meets the necessary requirements to run for office, telling The Daily Beast, ‘I truly and sincerely do not believe that he lives in College Park.’ .. The mayor also told The Daily Beast that he hadn’t heard of 2 Chainz until the rapper floated his potential candidacy. “I didn’t know who he was, but I’m not a big rapper,” Longino said. “I’m a country-western guy. I don’t listen to the rap.'” [Daily Beast]
COMFORT FOOD
– Why those slush ponds that abut sidewalk corners after snowfalls are so deep.
– On that note,Bloomberg’s 404 page wins the internet.
– A mashup of pop songs with “whoa-oo-oh” as the chorus.
– Twenty-four hour timelapse of Juno from Berlin, Massachusetts
– Ibex in the Italian alps climb a near-vertical dam to lick it.
TWITTERAMA
@dcbigjohn: i’m going to have nightmares in which loretta lynch says “senator, you touch an important point” over and over and over and over and over
@LeoShane: Pro tip: The Senate cafeteria is probably not the best place to loudly discuss your recent conversations with military leaders.
@jbendery: What drugs is the NRCC staff on, and where can I get some?
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