April 9, 2026

Melanie Speaks! Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: “Melania Trump summoned reporters to the White House Thursday afternoon to give a surprising statement about Jeffrey Epstein. She said she had no relationship with him, was not a victim of his and had no knowledge of his crimes. She said she wanted to clear 'my good name' and address rumors about the origin story of how she met her husband, the president of the United States.... She talked about numerous fake images and statements about Epstein and me that have been percolating for years now.' It was not clear why she chose to speak out now, or to what reports she was referring. A spokesperson for Mrs. Trump said that the president was aware that his wife was going to make the statement. The first lady ended her appearance by calling on Congress to give a hearing to the victims.” ~~~

     ~~~ You can listen to her remarks on this YouTube video. MB: Speculation is that Melania made these remarks to get ahead of a big, negative story, but that's just a guess. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, said on MS NOW that his committee is not aware of any as-yet unreleased documents or other info regarding Melania. As to the White House claim that Donald Trump "was aware that his wife was going to make the statement," Donald himself refutes that. He told Jackie Alemany of MS NOW after Melania's remarks that he had no prior knowledge of the topic Melania would be raising in her statement. 

SO MUCH WINNING! 

Soldiers Accuse Hegseth of Lying about Preparedness. Jonah Kaplan & Michael Kaplan of CBS News: "Survivors of the deadliest Iranian attack on U.S. forces since the war began have disputed the Pentagon's description of events and said their unit in Kuwait was left dangerously exposed when six service members were killed and more than 20 wounded. Speaking publicly for the first time, members of the targeted unit offered CBS News a detailed account of the attack and its harrowing aftermath from the perspective of those on the ground. The members CBS News spoke to disputed the description of events from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who described the drone as a 'squirter' — in that it squirted through the defenses of a fortified unit inside Kuwait. 'Painting a picture that "one squeaked through" is a falsehood,' one of the injured soldiers told CBS News. 'I want people to know the unit … was unprepared to provide any defense for itself. It was not a fortified position.' That service member, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of rigid media restrictions within the military, said that in spite of the carnage that ensued, those inside the charred and splintered compound responded with swiftness, ingenuity and valor that saved lives."

Scott Wong, et al., of NBC News: “House Democrats unsuccessfully attempted to pass a resolution to halt Donald Trump’s war with Iran on Thursday — a response to the president’s shocking threat two days earlier to annihilate 'a whole civilization.' House and Senate lawmakers are at the tail end of a two-week spring recess, but Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., and other Democrats returned to Washington for a routine 'pro forma' session to try to pass the resolution by unanimous consent. However, the Republican lawmaker presiding over the session, Chris Smith of New Jersey, gaveled out of the brief session without calling on Ivey. Democrats howled in protest, with some shouting 'Shame!' Outside the Capitol, the Democrats slammed Trump for vowing to strike civilian infrastructure targets and blast Iran back to the 'Stone Age' unless its leaders agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the critical shipping lane connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. And Democrats beseeched Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to cut short the recess and call the House back into session to take up a war powers vote. Johnson has ignored Democrats' pleas.” 

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The New York Times is liveblogging developments in the Iran war. From the pinned item at 4:00 am ET: “The cease-fire between the United States and Iran entered its second day on Thursday despite confusion over the status of the Strait of Hormuz..., and over Lebanon, where Israel continued attacks against the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah. On Wednesday, Iran said Lebanon was included in the cease-fire and accused the United States of not upholding its end of the deal. Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said Washington had to choose between a cease-fire or continued war via Israel. Pakistan, which mediated the truce, said the deal covered Lebanon, a claim disputed by the White House. Israel, which said that the cease-fire did not extend to Lebanon, attacked more than 100 targets there on Wednesday, and Lebanese officials said 180 people were killed and 900 were injured. Hezbollah said on Thursday that it had targeted Israel with a rocket salvo in retaliation, and that it planned to continue attacking until Israeli aggression against Lebanon ceased. 

“Late Wednesday..., [Donald] Trump wrote on social media that the U.S. military ships, aircraft and personnel would stay near Iran until a 'REAL AGREEMENT' is reached between the two countries. If not, he said, fighting would resume 'bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has seen before.' Peace talks hosted by Pakistan were scheduled to begin in Islamabad on Saturday morning, and Vice President JD Vance was expected to travel there with a group that includes Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law.”

     ~~~ Marie: I've always pegged Jared as not-too-bright, but if he thought up this one himself, he is at least occasionally insightful. Jared told Bob Woodward that the way to understand Donald Trump's SOP is to heed the words of the Cheshire Cat in Alice and Wonderland: "If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there." (I'm paraphrasing Woodward -- who appeared on Jen Psaki's show last night -- and Woodward [or Kushner] is paraphrasing Carroll.)  

Julian Borger, et al., of the Guardian: “The fate of the two-week ceasefire in the Iran conflict looked in peril on Wednesday as both sides gave divergent versions of what had been agreed, Israel intensified its bombing campaign in Lebanon and Iran halted the passage of oil tankers because of an alleged Israeli ceasefire breach. Iran and Pakistan, which brokered the 11th-hour truce, both asserted that the ceasefire included Lebanon. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, disagreed and Israeli forces unleashed their heaviest attack of the war so far on more than 100 targets, killing at least 254 people. Donald Trump, after initially remaining silent, said Lebanon was 'a separate skirmish' and not part of the deal. The scale of Israel’s attacks on Wednesday were condemned as 'horrific' by UN rights chief Volker Turk.”

David McHugh & John Leicester of the AP: “To end the war with the United States and Israel, Iran is demanding the right to collect tolls in the Strait of Hormuz as a precondition for reopening the waterway vital to world oil supplies. Yet collecting tolls in the strait would violate a basic and enduring principle of international maritime trade: freedom of peaceful navigation. It’s an ancient idea that was codified by the United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea, which took effect in 1994. Opening the strait would save the global economy from supply constraints that have pushed energy and fertilizer prices sharply higher since the war began on Feb. 28. But agreeing to Iranian toll-collecting would cement the Islamic Republic’s control over the strait ... — and enrich the country against whom the war was launched.”

Look Who Knows We Lost. Ben Lefebvre & Phelim Kine of Politico: “Oil company executives are reaching out to the White House, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance to protest allowing Iran to charge tolls through the strategic Strait of Hormuz as a condition of peace talks.... Oil industry representatives met with senior administration staff in the State Department on Wednesday morning to raise concerns.... Among their points: Conceding to Iran’s request would add $2.5 million to each shipment in tolls and higher insurance rates, a cost that would be passed on to consumers. Giving Iran control of Hormuz could set precedent for countries like Singapore and Turkey to charge tolls on important trade routes on the Strait of Malacca and Bosporus. And paying the toll could put companies in legal jeopardy for violating sanctions on Iranian officials. Companies were also expressing their concerns directly with Trump, but more gently.... Trump, far from arguing against Iran collecting tolls, has publicly mused that the U.S. could form a 'joint venture' on the operation.”

Tyler Pager, et al., of the New York Times describe “36 Hours of Chaos: The Scramble for a Cease-Fire in Iran.” The funny thing is almost every day in the Trump White House can be described as “24 Hours of Chaos.” Kushner, Ibid.

Now What? Sammy Westfall, et al., of the Washington Post: “A two-week agreement to halt U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran was under threat from multiple directions on Wednesday. Iran accused the United States of violating the ceasefire. Israel carried out widespread strikes in Lebanon. Iran conducted retaliatory attacks in the Persian Gulf region. And traffic in the Strait of Hormuz remained at a standstill.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Erika Solomon of the New York Times: “Iran publicly released on Wednesday what it said was the 10-point framework for talks that ... [Donald] Trump described as 'a workable basis on which to negotiate' an end to the war. Much of it consisted of maximalist demands that look difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile with U.S. aims. A White House official said the points do not match what Mr. Trump was referring to.... Here are the 10 points of Iran’s proposal, according to Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, and where these demands might conflict with Washington’s aims[.]” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Admittedly, we are dealing with two sets of notoriously unreliable narrators here. But it does seem likely that the TACO King was lying when he claimed to have in hand "a workable basis to negotiate." A 10-point document that might as well be titled "You Lose, Sucka!" does not seem to me like "a workable basis to negotiate." Rather, it's a phony excuse to back down from a foolish, empty terrorist threat to completely annihilate the people of a sovereign nation. One obvious tell: we don't get to see the version Trump claims to have.

Erum Salam of MS NOW: “When ... Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran shortly before his own deadline for Tehran to comply with U.S. demands or be wiped off the Earth, he didn’t simply say hostilities had halted. He said the United States had favorably received a 10-point proposal from Iran and billed the two weeks not as a temporary end to fighting, but a chance to simply formalize a deal the countries had been negotiating since before the U.S. and Israel attacked at the end of February. 'Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran,' Trump said in a Truth Social post Tuesday night. Since then, the two sides seem to have agreed on very little, including whether the war has actually been paused.... That 10-point plan — the one Trump called 'a workable basis on which to negotiate' Tuesday night — was dismissed Wednesday by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt as 'fundamentally unserious, unacceptable and completely discarded,' saying the president literally threw it in the garbage.”

Paul McLeary & Jack Detsch of Politico: “The Trump administration declared victory in its military campaign against Iran almost exactly 24 hours after the U.S. and Tehran announced a ceasefire. But it doesn’t look that way on a strategic level.... The hardliners who have ruled Tehran for the past 47 years are still in charge. Iran still possesses its stockpile of highly enriched uranium — one of ... Donald Trump’s key reasons for starting the war. And it can claim a newfound dominance over the Strait of Hormuz.... The war has reaffirmed Iran’s regional significance, including its ability to strike its neighbors with missiles and drones — and inflict economic and political pain on its adversaries.... Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pitched the total success narrative on Wednesday, offering a litany of U.S. accomplishments as a 'historic and overwhelming victory' that achieved 'every single objective.' But he also vowed to keep U.S. forces in the region..., a move that could also leave American forces exposed to further attacks.... 'Declaring victory by saying he will attack Iran some more seems like losing,' said an Asian diplomat....” 

Phillips O'Brien: "This is no run of the mill TACO. This is complete US strategic failure." MB: This is a stark assessment from somebody who knows whereof he speaks. The fake author of The Art of the Deal is the worst stratergerist imaginable. The whole world -- except maybe Trump himself and some of the malevolent crackpots running Iran -- is paying for it. For eons of trying, humans have not figured out a way to pick honorable, benevolent leaders. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

So if you’re keeping score at home, the ceasefire includes Lebanon but also doesn’t include Lebanon, America has agreed to all of Iran’s demands and Iran has agreed to all of America’s demands, America will recognize Iran’s right to enrichment and also insist on zero enrichment, Hormuz is completely open but also Hormuz is subject to unclear limitations. -- Gregg Carlstrom of the Economist 

~~~ “Trump Surrenders.” Bill Kristol of the Bulwark: “What we know mocks Trump’s claim in an interview with AFP last night that the United States 'won a total and complete victory. One hundred percent. No question about it.'... A ceasefire is better than war crimes. A deal to stop the fighting will be better than more death and destruction and economic damage. But the whole episode is a defeat for the United States, and for Donald Trump.... Recovering from this defeat will be a long-term challenge.... But the warning is this: thirty-three more months of an increasingly reckless and unhinged Trump in control of the executive branch of the United States poses too great a risk. ” ~~~

An Economist Weighs In. Paul Krugman: "So the world’s greatest military power went to war with a poor, medievalist theocracy. It was an incredibly uneven match. Here’s are the GDPs of Iran and the United States in 2024:

"Yet Iran won.... The U.S. has emerged far weaker, having demonstrated the limitations of its military technology, its strategic ineptitude and, when push comes to shove, its cowardice. We’ve also destroyed our moral credibility: Trump may have TACOed at the last minute, but he threatened to commit gigantic war crimes — and for all practical purposes our political and civil institutions gave him permission to do so."

Iran continues its trolling

[image or embed]

— Olga Nesterova (@onestpress.onestnetwork.com) April 8, 2026 at 8:29 AM

     ~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link.

The President’s threat that ‘a whole civilization will die tonight’ cannot be excused away as an attempt to gain leverage in negotiations with Iran. This type of rhetoric is an affront to the ideals our nation has sought to uphold and promote around the world for nearly 250 years. It undermines our long-standing role as a global beacon of freedom and directly endangers Americans both abroad and at home. --Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). in a statement ~~~ 

~~~ Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: “In a twist on Richard M. Nixon’s 'madman theory,' Trump has made shocking threats he believes adversaries cannot afford to dismiss; as president, he threatened to pull out of NATO in 2018, raise tariffs in 2025, and take over Greenland earlier this year. Trump put the tactic to the riskiest test yet with Tuesday’s ultimatum that 'a whole civilization will die tonight,' which yielded a two-week ceasefire in Iran....  His post set off nuclear panic and drew condemnation across the political spectrum and fueled open debate about his credibility, morality and sanity. 

Both Jen Psaki of MS NOW & Evan Hurst of Wonkette call out "Two Weeks Trump." (Also linked yesterday.)

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s threat on Tuesday to wipe out Iran’s entire civilization escalated days of bellicose rhetoric in which he has made what appear to be self-incriminating statements about an intent to commit war crimes if the Iranian government does not submit to his demands. 'A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again...,' Mr. Trump wrote on social media.... Even as Mr. Trump dialed back his threat late Tuesday by announcing a two-week cease-fire, he has for days vowed to order the U.S. military to systematically destroy every bridge and power plant in Iran if its government did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers. The laws of war forbid the deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure as a means of coercing a government. While it can sometimes be lawful to attack a specific civilian object if it offered a military advantage, an order to indiscriminately destroy all of a country’s bridges and power plants would be illegal and place military commanders in an untenable position, said Geoffrey S. Corn, who was the Army’s senior legal adviser on law-of-war issues and now teaches at Texas Tech Law School.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is of course completely consistent with Trump's history of boasting about his crimes. Like the time he told the Russians he got rid of Jim Comey to cover up their cooperation in throwing the 2016 election to him. Or when he bragged about that "perfect call" in which he urged Volodymyr Zelensky to make up some dirt on the Bidens or else he would withhold $400MM in military aid to Ukraine, which Congress had obligated him to send. Or the hundreds of times he has embraced his many co-conspirators in all the criminal activities undertaken to overturn the 2020 election. He's still at this last one; the news today is that he's going after Cassidy Hutchinson for testifying as to some of his bad behavior and possible crimes. ~~~

~~~ Daniel Hampton of the Raw Story: "Pete Hegseth went out Wednesday to sell America on Donald Trump's Iran triumph — and ended up accidentally dismantling it, according to a new analysis. The Defense Secretary insisted that Trump's threat to erase Iranian civilization is what brought Tehran back to the negotiating table.... But [Greg Sargent of the New Republic] noted Iran was already negotiating with Trump before the war started. According to Sargent, citing a New York Times investigation, Trump sabotaged those pre-war talks himself — convinced by Benjamin Netanyahu that the war would be quick and glorious, and by his own team that nothing short of regime change would do. Iran had been prepared to make real concessions on nuclear development, and Trump walked away anyway. 'Trump’s approach to the talks made success impossible — deliberately,' Sargent declared." 

God deserves all the glory. Tens of thousands of sorties ... carried out under the protection of divine providence. A massive effort with miraculous protection. -- Iran's Minister of War Pete Hegseth 

Well, theocrats gonna theocrat. -- Paul Krugman  

When the rhetoric from Iranian theocrats and the Pentagon is effectively indistinguishable, the Defense Department is probably on the wrong track. -- Steve Benen of MS NOW  

He must stand in front of the mirror
every morning & make mean faces.

Robert Jimison of the New York Times: “As ... [Donald] Trump swung this week from threatening to annihilate Iran to announcing a cease-fire whose terms and durability remain murky, Congress — the branch of government vested with the power to declare war and regulate trade — remained in recess and largely in the dark. And its Republican leaders had little to say even as Democrats ratcheted up their criticism, clamoring anew for a vote on military operations in Iran and even calling for the president’s removal after his warnings about wiping out Iranian civilization. It was the latest instance of congressional Republicans, who have deferred to Mr. Trump on matters large and small since he began his second term, ceding their prerogatives and much of their power to the White House. In this case, their relative silence also helped them avoid wading into what has become a messy intraparty debate over the war....”

TACO Wednesday Follows TACO Tuesday. Michael Birnbaum & Ellen Francis of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump appeared to hold back on Wednesday from taking dramatic action to reshape the U.S. relationship with NATO after a high-stakes meeting with its top leader, postponing for now the reckoning he has promised over Europe’s cautious approach to his war on Iran. The White House said in advance of the meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that Trump was planning to discuss the possibility of the United States exiting the alliance, a threat to the organization that for generations has been at the core of how the U.S. protects itself and its partners. But a Trump post on social media hours after the meeting made no mention of a pullout and simply repeated the president’s complaints about the alliance. 'NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!' Trump wrote.” ~~~

~~~ Graig Graziosi of the Independent: “... Donald Trump is furious with his NATO partners, accusing them of failing to aid the U.S. in Iran while reportedly considering punishing those allies he feels did not contribute enough to the war.... On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump is considering a plan that would punish NATO members who did not contribute to the war to his liking. That punishment, according to the report, would involve Trump moving U.S. troops away from bases in countries he is unhappy with and stationing them in member countries that assisted him in the war. The U.S. has approximately 84,000 troops stationed across Europe, according to The WSJ's report.”

Trump SOP: Grifting & Grafting, Shifty & Shafting. Ana Swanson & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has championed the U.S. steel industry, promising to strengthen it and to impose stiff tariffs on foreign metals to shield manufacturers from overseas competitors. Yet the White House has secured tens of millions of dollars worth of donated foreign steel for Mr. Trump’s $400 million ballroom project, according to two people.... ArcelorMittal, a Luxembourg-based firm that is the world’s second-largest steel maker, is providing steel for the structure of the ballroom project, the people said. They said the steel was produced in Europe, where the bulk of ArcelorMittal’s production is concentrated.... Mr. Trump said last October that he had been offered a donation of steel for the ballroom valued at $37 million. The president’s comments came just days before the White House made adjustments to its tariffs that could benefit ArcelorMittal, by cutting in half the tariffs applied to exports of automotive steel from its Canadian plant.” Update: the link has been changed to one that appears to be a gift link. Read on.

Blondie Snubs Congress. Stephen Groves of the AP: “The Department of Justice has indicated that former Attorney General Pam Bondi will not appear for a scheduled deposition next week before a House committee investigating how the government handled its investigations into Jeffrey Epstein.... [A] spokeswoman for the House Oversight Committee said Wednesday the department signaled that Bondi ... will not appear for the deposition April 14 'since she is no longer attorney general and was subpoenaed in her capacity as attorney general.' The committee will contact Bondi’s personal counsel to discuss the next steps about scheduling the interview, she said.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Hailey Fuchs of Politico: “House Republicans indicated Wednesday they will continue to seek sworn testimony from Pam Bondi on the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, even after her ousting as attorney general.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Darryl Coote of UPI: "Federal authorities have arrested and charged an Army veteran with top secret clearance on accusations of sharing classified national defense information with a journalist, who is accusing the Trump administration of retaliating against a whistleblower. Courtney Williams, 40, of Wagram, N.C., was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday, a day after she was arrested by the FBI, the Justice Department said in a statement. She has been charged under the Espionage Act with one count of willful transmission of national defense information.... Williams is a named source in Seth Harp's The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces, an investigative nonfiction book about a string of unsolved murders at the special operations base that was published in August. In a book excerpt published by Politico, Williams alleges sexual harassment and discrimination within Delta Force at the North Carolina base."

Ellen Mitchell of the Hill: “Eligible men will automatically be registered into the military draft pool by December as part of an effort to streamline the previous process of self-registration and save money. The Selective Service System (SSS) — the government agency that maintains a database of men to be called up to serve in the case of a national emergency — submitted a proposed rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on March 30, according to the office’s website.... The proposed rule is currently under review by the regulatory affairs office and awaiting finalization.... Most men between the ages of 18 and 25 are already required to register with the Selective Service, but automatic registration was mandated in December 2025 as part of the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act.... The U.S. has not had a draft since the Vietnam War, with military service being voluntary since 1973. ” 

Pentagon Gave Pope What-For. Christopher Hale of Letters from Leo: "In January, behind closed doors at the Pentagon, Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre — Pope Leo XIV’s then-ambassador to the United States — and delivered a lecture. America, Colby and his colleagues told the cardinal, has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side. As tempers rose, one U.S. official reached for a fourteenth-century weapon and invoked the Avignon Papacy, the period when the French Crown used military force to bend the bishop of Rome to its will. That scene, broken this week by Mattia Ferraresi in an extraordinary piece of journalism for The Free Press, may be the most remarkable moment in the long and knotted history of the American republic’s relationship with the Catholic Church.... The reporting also confirms — with fresh sources and new color — what I first reported in February: that the Vatican declined the Trump-Vance White House’s invitation to host Pope Leo XIV for America’s 250th anniversary in 2026." 

Lena Sun of the Washington Post: “The acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has delayed publication of a CDC report showing the covid-19 vaccine cut the likelihood of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for healthy adults last winter by about half, according to two scientists familiar with the decision.... The move has raised concerns among current and former officials that information about the vaccine’s benefits are being downplayed because they conflict with the views of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been an outspoken critic of the shots.” Update: the link has been changed to a gift link.

Zack Colman & Jean Chemnick of Politico: “EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin embraced a community of climate change contrarians Wednesday in a speech that underscored how scientific outliers have made inroads with the Trump administration. Zeldin acknowledged in his opening statements to the Heartland Institute’s conference in Washington that he was the first EPA chief to attend the annual gathering, which has long been shunned by Democratic and Republican administrations alike for advancing a fringe view that greenhouse gas emissions are beneficial.... The overwhelming body of science shows that the negative consequences of climate pollution far outweigh the possible benefits, researchers say.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post: “The sharply conservative Supreme Court that ... Donald Trump’s three appointees remade is the first since at least the 1950s to reject civil rights claims in a majority of cases involving women and minorities, according to a detailed analysis conducted for The Washington Post. The shift brings to an end a streak of successive courts expanding such protections that began with the dawn of the civil rights era.... The analysis shows that in addition to civil rights, the court powered by Trump’s picks — Justices Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — has pushed to the right of any modern court on religious rights and voting issues. The court has also entered a new era of extreme partisanship. None over the past seven decades has been as starkly polarized.” Update: the link has been changed to a gift link.

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Arizona. Reis Thebault of the New York Times: “A slate of liberal candidates won control of the board of Arizona’s largest public utility this week, according to preliminary results posted on Wednesday, emerging from a surprisingly contentious race that attracted national attention. The winning candidates, who campaigned as the Clean Energy Team, drew support from the Sierra Club and the actress Jane Fonda as they ran against a rival slate backed by state business leaders and Turning Point USA, the conservative group Charlie Kirk founded. The utility, the Salt River Project, delivers power and water to millions of customers across metropolitan Phoenix, and its board determines how much households will pay for those precious services in one of America’s hottest and driest cities. Two of the Turning Point-endorsed candidates also prevailed, winning their races for board president and vice president, who act as conduits between the elected officials and the utility’s management. Still, members of the power district board aligned with the Clean Energy Team will now hold an eight-to-six majority, meaning proponents of renewable power will control the utility’s policymaking for the first time.”

California. Patrick Marley of the Washington Post: “In America’s latest battle over ballots, a citizens group [in Riverside County, California,] alleges nearly 46,000 more votes were counted than cast, prompting the [county sheriff -- Chad Bianco -- who is running for governor as a Republican -- to seize] ... the ballots. Election officials and experts say the claims are based on a misreading of preliminary data and there’s no reason to doubt the results. The California Supreme Court halted the sheriff’s investigation Wednesday as it weighs a legal challenge from the state’s Democratic attorney general.”

New York. From the pinned item in a New York Times liveblog: “Rex Heuermann, the man accused of murdering at least seven women on Long Island in what became known as the Gilgo Beach killings, pleaded guilty on Wednesday, bringing a sudden end to a case that took investigators more than a decade to solve. Mr. Heuermann, 62, pleaded guilty to all seven murders, plus an eighth that he had not yet been charged with. He appeared in Suffolk County court at what had been scheduled as a routine hearing before a trial set to start in the fall.... Mr. Heuermann told Judge Timothy P. Mazzei that he was entering his plea willingly and waiving both his right to appeal and to testify on his own behalf.... 

“The Suffolk County district attorney, Raymond A. Tierney, named the victims one by one and asked Mr. Heuermann how he had caused their deaths. 'Strangulation,' Mr. Heuermann said, again and again. He said he had hired women as escorts, killed them, bound them in burlap and left them along Ocean Parkway. As he admitted to the murders, Mr. Heuermann maintained a normal demeanor, as if having a morning chat. The extraordinary proceeding, before a packed courtroom, was over in 20 minutes.” An AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~ Ed Shanahan of the New York Times: “When Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty on Wednesday to murdering eight women, he did more than admit that he was the Gilgo Beach killer. He also took a step that could help investigators hunt down others with similarly violent minds. Raymond A. Tierney, the Suffolk County district attorney, said at a news conference that the plea agreement called for Mr. Heuermann to be interviewed by the F.B.I.’s Behavioral Analysis Units about 'his motivation, his background.' 'It’s sort of an academic exercise,” Mr. Tierney said, describing the interviews as clinical rather than investigative in nature. Referring to the F.B.I. analysts in comments to several reporters after the news conference, he added, 'They’re going to hopefully gain insight into the things that created him, that drove him, what causes this.'... That Mr. Heuermann agreed to be interviewed by F.B.I. analysts as part of the plea is 'a bit unusual,' said Gregg O. McCrary, a retired special supervisory agent with the bureau....”