The FCC’s decision is a significant blow for Sinclair, which has been a frequent target for Democrats and liberal groups.

By Margaret Harding McGill @ Politico.com, July 16

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced Monday he has "serious concerns" about Sinclair Broadcast Group's acquisition of Tribune Media, saying he would send the transaction through a lengthy administrative process often viewed as a deal-killer.

As originally proposed in May 2017, the $3.9 billion deal would see conservative-leaning Sinclair, already the largest U.S. TV station owner, gobble up 42 Tribune stations in key markets like New York and Chicago, adding to its existing footprint of more than 170 stations and giving the company access to nearly three-quarters of U.S. households [....]

Love him or hate him, this is a really good piece.

By Jordan Fabian @ TheHill.com, July 16, 12:12 pm

[....] In an extraordinary scene broadcast live to a worldwide audience, Trump refused when asked to condemn Russia’s meddling in the election and complained instead that the allegations have created doubts about the legitimacy of his win over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“He just said it’s not Russia,” repeating Putin’s denials of involvement in the U.S. election. “I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

Trump emphasized there had been no evidence of collusion and complained the FBI had not examined servers belonging to the Clinton campaign and brought up emails belonging to Clinton [....]

By Masha Gessen @ NewYorker.com, July 15, 4:45 pm

On Sunday, in the fifty-second minute of the final game of the World Cup, four women dressed in Russian-police uniforms charged the field, briefly disrupting the match. They were members of the Russian protest-art group Pussy Riot.

Pussy Riot is often misidentified as a punk group, which is, in fact, only one of its many guises. The group, which was founded in 2011, is an open-membership collective that stages actions, documents them on video, and provides textual statements intended as clear and accessible explanations of their intentions and demands. [....]

Pussy Riot released a statement, on Twitter, that claimed responsibility for the World Cup action. It also cited the Russian poet, artist, and performer Dmitri Aleksandrovich Prigov. Tomorrow will mark eleven years since his death. One of Prigov’s iconic creations, present in his poetry and performances, was the image of an ideal policeman, a just and ultimate authority that Pussy Riot’s statement dubbed the Heavenly Policeman. In contrast to the Heavenly Policeman, the statement suggested, stands the earthly policeman. “The Heavenly Policeman will protect a baby in her sleep, while the earthly policeman persecutes political prisoners and jails people for sharing and liking posts on social media.” (I am providing my own translation from the Russian original.) 

The message is not intended to be subtle. In Putin’s Russia, dozens of people are behind bars for political crimes—which do in fact include social-media behavior such as “liking” and “sharing.” Unlike the 2014 Olympics, in Sochi, where Pussy Riot also protested, the World Cup has occasioned little criticism or reflection from Western politicians or media. It has proceeded undisturbed [....]

Sorry for this trip down memory lane, but I thought it illuminating as I Googled around both because Hayden's a helluva writer with a helluva past, and he sets up some understanding of the current movement in California.
De Leon was a Hillary supporter - but he also symbolizes some of the multicultural movements and yearnings. Feinstein is largely an old-schooler, and certainly not pleasing to the typical liberal Californian on her security stands (though CA's huge defense industry undoubtedly has her back).

This isn't quite New York's version of Ocasio - it's a much more careful shift, even if the vast majority came out for Kevin de Leon in the endorsement (and as Hayden noted, Bernie had few endorsements, which made his movement hard to seriously consider once in office).

The fracking biz also indicates a fault line - the "uncivil" left will also pick an unwinnable nonsensical point-of-view to push, and punish those in disagreement unmercifully. Fracking was one of them, the push to full Medicare-for-all another. But De Leon undoubtedly isn't falling into that minefield. Despite some blunders, his positions seem to be (in my quick scanning of positions and background) firmly rooted in opportunity, and it's hard to see a downside to that.

My first reaction was to go with the tough old broad who'd fought Dem battles for so many years, but Feinstein's not a Pelosi. De Leon's endorsement of Hillary helps me transition -  he's not a "burn the boats" guy. (And I'm fine with Ocasio's mini-revolution in the Bronx - the House has a different function than the Senate, and is more a long-term, many-voices pressure that I welcome).

So while I'm sure Feinstein won't take this sitting down, I'm guessing this endorsement is a positive step for California to figure out its next generation leaders and position itself for both the demographic/economic changes as well as the stark political realities in both Sacramento and Washington.

This weekend, Trump will visit a property that offers a tantalizing and maddeningly incomplete glimpse into the ways that our President makes and spends money

By Adams Davidson @ NewYorker.com, July 13, first weekly column from a series entitled "Swamp Chronicles"

[....] This is the first edition of a weekly column in which I hope to expose, explore, and analyze the financial activity of our President and his associates—including his family, his political appointees, and business partners—and make the case for greater transparency. We know, of course, that the Trump Organization has worked with some truly questionable business associates, that it has run afoul of anti-money-laundering laws, and that its most high-profile business expansion—a line of three- and four-star hotels—has all but collapsed. But, for all the coverage of Trump’s finances, there is so much we just don’t know. And Trump Turnberry offers a tantalizing and maddeningly incomplete glimpse into the ways in which our President makes and spends money [....]

By Patricia Cohen @ NYTimes.com, July 13

Corporate profits have rarely swept up a bigger share of the nation’s wealth, and workers have rarely shared a smaller one.

The lopsided split is especially pronounced given how low the official unemployment rate has sunk. Throughout the recession and much of its aftermath, when many Americans were grateful to receive a paycheck instead of a pink slip, jobs and raises were in short supply. Now, complaints of labor shortages are as common as tweets. For the first time in a long while, workers have some leverage to push for more.

Yet many are far from making up all the lost ground. Hourly earnings have moved forward at a crawl, with higher prices giving workers less buying power than they had last summer. Last-minute scheduling, no-poaching and noncompete clauses, and the use of independent contractors are popular tactics that put workers at a disadvantage. Threats to move operations overseas, where labor is cheaper, continue to loom.

And in the background, the nation’s central bankers stand poised to raise interest rates and deliberately rein in growth if wages climb too rapidly [....]

By Marisa Fernandez @ Axios.com, July 13

Amazon’s e-commerce sales are expected to top $258 billion this year, up 30% from one year ago with projections for 2018 even more staggering in each Amazon category, according to a survey by eMarketer.

Why it matters: The survey shows the reality of Amazon’s untouchable advantage against other retail companies. E-commerce giant eBay, is second to Amazon and only has 6.6% of the market share. The projections of each category on Amazon are more staggering, as each one is expected to grow in 2018 by massive margins [....]