Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 1105
March 31, 2013
Texas District Attorney's Death Could Be Part of Larger Plot
Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife Cynthia Woodward McLelland were found slain in their Texas home Saturday evening and some are connecting their deaths to the January killing of McLelland's assistant district attorney.
The murder of McLelland and his wife shook the Texas law enforcement community Saturday evening. The couple was found slain in their home by a family friend who went over to check on them. Someone broke into the McLelland home and shot the couple multiple times before leaving without removing anything from the home. "It appears this was not a random act," Darren Rovell, the mayor of Forney, told the Associated Press. McLelland's lead attorney, 57-year-old Mark Hasse, was shot on the way into the courthouse in January.
The investigation into McLelland's death is now being handled by the Texas Rangers and the FBI, and it appears they should have some early leads. "Sources said early Sunday that surveillance cameras at the home offered authorities hope that video footage might help reveal who killed the McLellands," reports The Dallas Morning News' Tanya Eiserer and Tasha Tsiaperas.
There were initial reports the door of McLelland's house was kicked in when the bodies were found Saturday evening, but that's since been refuted. Cynthia McLelland was found shot in the house's front room. Mike McLelland was found shot in the hall way after apparently trying to get away. "Late Saturday night, sources said a .223-caliber assault rifle, similar to an AR-15, was used in the murders, with approximately 14 rounds being fired," WFAA reports. "There are shell casings everywhere," a law enforcement official told The Dallas Morning News. "This is unprecedented. This is unbelievable. This is huge."
After his lead investigator Hasse was killed in January, McLelland promised to find the people who killed him and bring them to justice. "I hope that the people that did this are watching, because we’re very confident that we’re going to find you, we’re going to pull you out of whatever hole you’re in, we’re going to bring you back and let the people of Kaufman County prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law," McLelland told reporters at the time.
Investigators are now looking into whether or not McLelland's death is connected to the murder of Colorado's prison boss Tom Clements last week. The lead suspect in that case, Evan Spencer Ebel, was a 28-year-old member of a white supremacist prison gang. Investigators are also looking for for possible connections to McLelland's work bringing down the Aryan Brotherhood gang in Texas. The New York Times explains why the gang might retaliate against McLelland:
In November, a federal grand jury in Houston indicted more than 30 senior leaders and other members of the whites-only gang on racketeering charges. The indictments stemmed from an investigation led by a multiagency task force that included Kaufman County prosecutors and three other district attorney’s offices.
For now, it's all speculation.






Cat Marnell's Book Deal Could Buy a Lot of Drugs
The Internet's favorite wanton waif and drug user Cat Marnell is writing a book, and apparently that book got picked up by Simon & Schuster. Marnell got a pretty hefty sum for the deal.
According to the New York Post's Page 6, Simon & Schuster paid Marnell $500,000 for the rights to publish her memoir, How to Murder Your Life, later this year. S&S wouldn't confirm the amount. [Update 12:23 p.m.: "I can't confirm anything except that I am very excited and the book will be worth every penny," Marnell tells us.]
In the book, Page 6 says, Marnell chronicles her sexual conquests and rampant drug use, including but not limited to tales of being "choked out by a Park Avenue millionaire kid in a pine grove by the reservoir at 4 a.m." and "sex in vacant lots in Bushwick with white rappers." It would be an understatement to say she's lived an interesting life.
In case you don't remember, Marnell was something of an Internet thing last summer. We wrote about her life, her addiction, and the Internet's fascination with her and the dangers it wrought fairly extensively. Marnell quit her job as the beauty editor at XOJane after the company tried to send her to rehab multiple times. "Look, I couldn’t spend another summer meeting deadlines behind a computer at night when I could be on the rooftop of Le Bain looking for shooting stars and smoking angel dust with my friends and writing a book, which is what I’m doing next," Marnell told Page 6 last summer.
Coincidentally enough, Pratt was asked about her experience editing Marnell during a recent MediaBistro interview. This is what she had to say:
I was definitely doing everything I could to get her into rehab, which she did do, and encouraging her to get better for herself. But I don't think that her writing about it is what made her do it. I think it's a lot deeper than that, and writing about it was cathartic for her and helpful to other women who were going through that. Men have written about it before, their own drug abuse while they're still abusing the drug. But for women, it was always something they could only write about only after they were no longer using. I felt like it was important to tell that story; she wanted to do that. But there was a lot behind the scenes that people don't know about, and that's why she's not at xoJane anymore. But I hope she'll get cleaned up and be able to do stuff with us again.
Well, now that book is almost here, and it's good enough to warrant a half a million bucks from a major publishing house. We're near certain this news will generate a million more blog posts, the same way everything Marnell did last summer generated a million blog posts, closer to when the book is actually released. As Jen Doll wrote last year, her life is fascinating and terrifying in equal measure. It's hard to look away:
Watching all this happen is something like watching Lindsay Lohan cycle through highs and lows, denying but clearly struggling with her own addiction demons. We watch and wait and it's cringe-worthy and awful, but it's the proverbial car crash we can't look away from. We know it's going to end someday, and it's probably going to end badly. But it's not "personal": These people we watch on the Internet seem more like characters than real people. So when Marnell announces that she'd rather smoke angel dust on the rooftop of Le Bain than work in a dreary office job, a lot of people come forth to, sort of, Internet high-five her. Why should any of us live dreary existences, have to pander to the man, slog our lives away in tedium? What's wrong with drugs? Drugs are cool! And to be so honest and upfront about it, well, let's accolade her for that, too.
For now, we have to wait until the book is actually released to judge its contents. Maybe it's good enough to warrant such a high price tag. Until then, though, we wait. We couldn't even find a release date yet.






So, It's Easter: Is Hillary Clinton Running for President Yet?
The New York Times decided it was time for their bi-monthly check-in with Clinton aides to see how close the former Secretary of State is to running for the nation's highest office. Come on, shouldn't she know by now?
It is pretty rude for her to keep us waiting for so long. It hasn't even been six months since the November election and we still don't know what her plans are for 2016. People are always saying she's totally going to run for President, OK? But people are also always saying she's totally not going to run for President, OK? (And of those two posts, which do you think got more traffic? Exactly.) But Hillary is also supporting gay marriage and her former staff set up a Super PAC in her name, which some think lends some credence to at least asking the question.
And, everyone, guess what?! She still doesn't know! Her aides seem pretty sick of having to answer this question. When it's for the Times' Jim Rutenberg they can let their hair down a little and say how tired they are of answering the question, though. Take a cue from one of Clinton's closest confidantes, Phillip Raines:
“There’s this kind of, ‘I’m telling you a secret that she told me secretly,’ but there’s no secret to tell,” said Mrs. Clinton’s longtime communications aide, Philippe Reines. “Everyone’s gotten way ahead of themselves, and most importantly, they have gotten way ahead of her.”
Venting the frustration of all veterans of Clinton politics and the intrigue that constantly surrounds them, he added, “What’s that acronym, WYSIWYG? What you see is what you get.”
So did we all catch that? Hillary still doesn't know and we should all probably stop asking or tea leaf reading until she tells us, because she'll tell us, when she knows for sure. Until then everyone should probably cool their jets a little. This is all a little ludicrous. As Rutenberg points out, the Iowa caucuses are 33 months away. That's more than two and a half years, to put it more plainly. People are driving the Hillary 2016 mobile in fourth or fifth gear when it should be in second or first gear. Shift down, y'all.
But if Hillary does enter the race, she will have more money than she could possibly imagine, according to one of her former campaign advisers. "I’ve talked to a number of donors who are willing to write whatever they’re permitted to write to a presidential campaign, and certainly to write very big money to any sort of 'super PAC' that would be supportive of her," Harold M. Ickes, a former Clinton campaign adviser and Obama Super Pac moneyman, told Rutenberg. "They’re just saying to me, 'Whenever she’s ready, we’re ready.'"






March 30, 2013
Venezuela's Acting President Campaigns by Relating His Opponents to Hitler
The guy chosen to be Hugo Chavez's heir in Venezuela isn't letting a double digit lead in the polls stop him from attacking his opponents where it really hurts ahead of the country's election. He said his opponent is related, albeit distantly, to Adolf Hitler.
Interim President Nicolas Maduro was speaking at a campaign rally Saturday ahead of the April 14 democratic elections in Venezuela, the first since longtime leader Hugo Chavez passed away March 5. Maduro said Henrique Capriles, his opponent in the election, was a descendant of the Führer:
"The campaign against Cuba is just like the campaign against the Jews in Hitler's Germany," Maduro said during a rally in Chavez's home state of Barinas. "The heirs of Hitler are leading a campaign in Venezuela against the people of Cuba."
Reuters reports his remarks were a response to opposition accusations that Maduro is receiving direct guidance from Cuban leader Raul Castro. The Cuban country began sending doctors to Venezuela ten years ago under Chavez to provide free health care in poor areas. The opposition seems to be implying the leader of the communist country is a threat to Venezuela's democracy.
It should be noted that Chavez once compared George W. Bush to Hitler. "The imperialist, genocidal, fascist attitude of the US president has no limits. I think Hitler would be like a suckling baby next to George W Bush," he once said.
And it's not like this is the first time Maduro has said something so outlandish. Let's not forget that on the day Chavez died he accused a U.S. official of giving Chavez cancer and kicked out of the country. But why he needs to stoop so low as to compare the equally as crazy Caprilles to Hitler is unclear. He was groomed to succeed Chavez, and he's leading in the pools with two weeks out left before the election. But, hey, you can apparently never be too cautious.






That Eiffel Tower Bomb Threat Didn't Amount to Much
The Eiffel Tower was evacuated Saturday evening after local police received a bomb threat from an anonymous caller, L'Express reports. The call said the attack would occur around 9:30 p.m. local time, which was about 20 minutes ago. As of this posting, the Eiffel Tower was still standing.
Some 1,500 people, including shopkeepers and tower security, were forced down from the monument and into the Champs-de-Mars as Paris police ascended with teams of bomb-sniffing dogs. Paris' anti-terrorism squad are on the scene investigating, too. The source of the call is currently unknown, but according to Le Parisien it originated from a phone booth in a Paris suburb.
It's not often police take threats like this seriously enough to shut the whole tourist attraction down, removing visitors and tower staff and security to investigate. The Associated Press points out it does happen occasionally, though: once in 2012 and twice in 2011. So for whatever reason Paris police took this threat very seriously. Whether or not it has something to with France's current conflicts with terrorist organizations in northern Africa is unknown. The monument could remain closed for several hours while police search teams secure 1,063ft of the structure.
So, yeah, everyone can calm down for now. This isn't going to happen:
[Lead image via @Newsbreaker/@stefandevries]






So, The Senate's Bipartisan Immigration Bill Is Back on Track
The bipartisan Senate immigration reform bill was being held up by a dispute over how low-skilled workers would be incorporated into the all-encompassing agreement, but it appears that wrinkle's been smoothed over and the bill could be unveiled in a little more than a week.
Buzzfeed's Hunter Schwarz reports a deal was struck late Friday evening between AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and U.S. Chamber of Commerce chief Tom Donohue. Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, one of eight Senators working to construct the deal, mediated the agreement. NBC News' Kristen Welker and Carrie Dann confirm Buzzfeed's report. The two sides couldn't agree on the exact number of Visas to be distributed to low-skilled workers per year, or how that number would be determined. These are the details of the agreement, per Schwarz:
The program would be capped at 200,000 a year, but the number of visas would fluctuate, depending on unemployment rates, job openings, employer demand and data collected by a new federal bureau pushed by the labor movement as an objective monitor of the market.
NBC News has more on why the new deal appeases both sides:
The labor unions are happy because they think the system won't have a net drag on the salaries of American workers, and the Chamber doesn't feel as as though they will be overpaying for entry level jobs.
The dispute over the low-skill worker program was threatening to derail this whole thing, apparently, but thanks to last night's late night deal making the bill is back on track. This was in no way the final hurdle to beat before the Senate's bill will be considered ready, but it was a big one. Schumer still has to clear the agreement with the seven other Senators working on the bill, but they're expected to sign off on it. The Senate bill will include a path to citizenship for some 11 million undocumented workers currently in the U.S. and measures for future immigrants arriving on U.S. shores. We'll finally get to see the fruits of Schumer's labor on April 8, when the group of eight Senators are expected to unveil the bill to the public for the first time.






Why Apple Doesn't Own the iPad Mini Trademark
Apple is usually very protective of their intellectual property, so they're probably pretty pissed that a trademark officer rejected their application to own the phrase "iPad Mini." They wield patents like lightsabers and are not afraid to chop off the hands of people they feel are infringing on their intellectual empire. But the United States Patent and Trademark Office's reviewing attorney didn't think Apple made enough of a case to own the "mini" name.
Patently Apple discovered Apple's rejection letter was just released over the last few days, even though Apple was informed of the denial on January 24, 2013. There's no reason provided for the delay releasing the letter, but we do know why Apple was denied the trademark: "the applied-for mark merely describes a feature or characteristic of applicant’s goods," the reviewer writes. The USPTO attorney makes the case that the iPad mini doesn't have a "a unitary mark with a unique, incongruous, or otherwise nondescriptive meaning in relation to the goods and/or services." It's just small, he says.
Additionally, Apple usually forwards their product website address instead of providing "a specimen," in this case a real life iPad Mini, with their application. But this reviewer didn't appreciate that and said as much in his rejection letter.
So, this seems to be a funny little formality more than anything. Apple can still earn the trademark if they can better explain how the iPad mini is different and unique from the larger, normal-sized iPad, besides the size deficiency, which shouldn't be a problem for Apple's team of stormtroopers lawyers. This seems like the case of one stickler trying to stick it to an evil empire over some details more than anything. Maybe the lawyers who wrote the initial application got lazy. Maybe the reviewer is a diehard Samsung fan.
Here's the decision, via TechCrunch:
USPTO Refuses Apple's iPad mini Trademark Application






Nelson Mandela Is Feeling Better
The 94-year-old former president of South Africa is on the mend after being admitted to the hospital for the third time in fourth months earlier this week after a recurrence of a lung infection that hospitalized the Nobel prize winning in December. "After the revered 94-year-old statesman and former South African president spent a third night in hospital, the presidency said doctors had drained excess fluid from his lungs to tackle the infection," Reuters reports.
The South African Presidency released a statement Saturday saying Mandela was treated for pneumonia and had a build up of fluids, known as a pleural effusion, drained from his chest. He's now able to "breathe without difficulty," the statement said, which is reassuring. "He continues to respond to treatment and is comfortable," the statement added.
People were worried when Mandela was admitted to the hospital earlier this week. Obviously, people should worry any time a 94-year-old is hospitalized, but Mandela is regarded as a hero and a symbol of racial equality in his home country. Back in December, Mandela spent 18 days in the hospital because of a recurrence of a previous lung infection. The former South African leader has suffered from lung problems that originated during his time working in a prison quarry.
It's unclear right now if or when Mandela could be discharged from the hospital, but some are taking this latest news as a sign for optimism. "They have appeared to indicate that the recurrence of the lung infection afflicting Mandela is being successfully treated," Reuters writes.






Justin Bieber Lost His Pet Monkey in Germany
The tiny Canadian pixie known as Justin Bieber tried to take one of his animal pals into Germany with him late Friday evening, but German health officials weren't as keen on the idea: they took Bieber's pet monkey and put it in quarantine. What's that? You had no idea Justin Bieber had a pet monkey, either? Join the club!
The U.K. Sun reported Bieber and his new pal, Mally, a pet capuchin monkey given to him by producer Mally Mall earlier this week, had to be separated by customs officials when Bieber landed in Germany for a new leg of shows in Europe. A German official confirmed the story with the Associated Press.
Bieber didn't have the appropriate paperwork to fly a freaking monkey into a European country, and so he was detained for a while and the monkey was confiscated. Bieber now faces a $15,000 fine and he'll have to pay Germany for whatever costs come with taking care of a monkey. He'll get his new friend back as soon as he pays the fine and files some appropriate paperwork.
So, yeah, Bieber had a pet monkey for a week before losing it because he didn't consider the consequences for bringing a monkey into Europe. As TMZ points out, the Biebs doesn't have a great history with pets. But he's apparently very attached to this chimp, even drawing comparisons to Michael Jackson's relationship with a monkey named Bubbles.
Oh, Justin. You spit on a neighbor earlier this week and then some nice Canadian woman called you a douche and now you have (er, had) a pet monkey. What's next with you? We won't be surprised, whatever it is. It's almost time Bieber be inducted into "The Tyson Zone."






How Seriously Should We Take North Korea's Latest Threat?
Administration officials don't seem to be sweating North Korea's boldest, blustering statement that came out Friday evening announcing something about entering a "state of war" with South Korea. "Time when words could work has passed," North Korea's statement, distributed by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, said. "Time has come to stage a do-or-die final battle." North Korea will, "achieve a final victory of the great war for national reunification true to the important decision made by Kim Jong Un... They should clearly know that in the era of Marshal Kim Jong Un, the greatest-ever commander, all things are different from what they used to be in the past."
Despite the strong promises of turning North America into a smouldering pile of dust, not very many people are worried Saturday morning. American officials seem to be taking the latest display from the North in stride. "Putting on a show is not the same as taking action," an administration official told The Washington Post. "Describing the situation as akin to war is not to be remotely confused with wanting a war, let alone going to war." It's not that officials aren't taking the threats or Kim's seriously, but this all seems like more chest-thumping than real promises of conflict. "We’re convinced this is about Kim solidifying his place with his own people and his own military, who still don’t know him," one senior official told The New York Times. "We’re worried about what he’s going to do next, but we’re not worried about what he seems to be threatening to do next."
Pretty much everyone believes this is merely rhetoric from North Korea: an effort to either make Kim Jong Un look strong at home, or to lure Western powers to the bargaining table to negotiate sanctions on the country. Many were quick to point out the two countries have technically been in a "state of war" since the 1953 armistice agreement, so nothing has really changed despite what North Korea wants you to believe.
The U.S. already reminded Kim what would happen if he does step out of line, either on American or South Korean soil. The U.S. flew two nuclear-capable B-2 Spirit bombers over the Korean peninsula on Thursday as part of the military exercises with South Korea. The trip sent two separate, but equally important messages. First, to North Korea: this is what will happen if you trying anything. And second, to South Korea: we've got your back. The bombers were, "very much a message to South Korea that you don't need to get too excited; we're with you," a senior military officer told the L.A. Times.
Remember: South Korean and American officials don't believe North Korea has the arms technology to deliver on its promises of sending a nuclear warhead to American shores. While an attack on South Korea is possible, and the administration is watching that carefully, everyone at home is relatively safe. The U.S. already moved a bunch of missile defense systems into place just in case something does happen. But, most importantly, the North's efforts to launch a long range missile could be described as calamitous, at best.






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