Mon: Did the NYT Get Previous Guy Elected?

These Refs Screwed Up So Badly, They Reported It on BBC. They Weren't Even Pac-12 Refs.

Match referees admitted making a "gut-wrenching" error after being accused of cheating by the Los Angeles Lakers in their defeat by the Boston Celtics.

Lakers star LeBron James was challenged by Jayson Tatum as he missed what could have been a game-winning shot.

But referees did not call a foul and the game went to overtime, with the Celtics eventually winning 125-121.

"There was contact, we missed the play," admitted the game's officiating crew chief Eric Lewis.

The National Basketball Referees Association wrote on Twitter: "Like everyone else, referees make mistakes.

"We made one at the end of last night's game and that is gut-wrenching for us.

"This play will weigh heavily and cause sleepless nights as we strive to be the best referees we can be."

The non-call had James hopping up and down in frustration, while team-mate Patrick Beverley ran on court with a camera seeking to show an official photographic evidence of the foul.

Beverley received a technical foul for his protests and the Celtics converted that free throw at the start of overtime.

Lakers player Anthony Davis said after the game that his side were "cheated" and suggested referees should be fined for missed calls.

"It's unacceptable and I guarantee nothing is going to happen to the refs," said Davis, who suggested that Tatum had committed a "blatant foul" on James.

"We got cheated. To miss a call that blatant, the ref is sitting right there on the baseline, it's tough. It's not fair. I guarantee if the refs started getting fined for missed calls, it would be a lot better. But nothing's going to be done."

James added: "We don't have room for error.

"This is one of the best games we've played all year, and for this to fall on somebody else's judgment or non-judgment is ridiculous. It's ridiculous."

Why is the Redneck Richneck Principal Still Employed?

The principal of the Richneck Elementary School in Virginia, where a 6-year-old boy shot his first-grade teacher, has been removed from her post as children return to classes Monday for the first time since the shooting with new security protocols.

Briana Foster Newton, who was principal at the time of the Jan. 6 shooting, is no longer serving in that role, but is still employed by the Newport News Public Schools, district spokesperson Michelle Price said Monday. It's not clear what her new role is.

Her exit marks the latest in a sweep of departures in the wake of the shooting that saw first grade teacher Abigail Zwerner, 25, seriously wounded in a hand and her chest and hospitalized.

Assistant Principal Dr. Ebony Parker resigned, Price said Friday. The school system’s superintendent, George Parker III, was ousted from his job on Wednesday in a 5-1 vote at a school board meeting, effective Feb. 1.

Biden Understands the First Rule of Governing

Biden’s frustration with Obama was that he didn’t sufficiently consider the marketing potential of the stimulus. Obama frankly admitted that he took “perverse pride” in how his technocratic administration constructed policy without regard for political considerations. The 2009 Recovery Act included tax cuts, but intentionally didn’t advertise them. The government quietly withheld less money from paychecks, a dividend that almost nobody noticed. This furtive tax cut was theoretically effective, because consumers were less likely to save money that they didn’t know they possessed. But it was also a political nonfact.

This humility of sorts transgressed a core Biden maxim: Good policy is useless without good politics. The health of the government (not to mention the health of the Democratic Party) depends almost entirely on public appreciation of the government’s deeds.

Did the New York Times Get Previous Guy Elected?

The NYT should tell readers whether it helped crooked FBI agents get Trump elected in 2016

It was arguably the most consequential “October Surprise” in the history of American presidential elections. In the waning days of the 2016 race, with polls showing Hillary Clinton clinging to a lead over Donald Trump, two last-minute stories broke that rekindled on-the-fence voters’ ethical doubts about Democrat Clinton and quashed a budding scandal around her GOP rival.

Except the “October Surprise” was no surprise to one key player: Rudolph Giuliani, the ex-New York mayor and Trump insider who later became the 45th president’s attorney. Late that month, Giuliani told Fox News that the trailing Republican nominee had “a surprise or two that you’re going to hear about in the next few days. I mean, I’m talking about some pretty big surprises.”

Just two days later, then-FBI director James Comey revealed the bureau had reopened its probe into Clinton’s emails, based on the possible discovery of new communications on a laptop belonging to disgraced New York politico Anthony Weiner. The news jolted the campaign with a particularly strong boost from the New York Times, which devoted two-thirds of its front page to the story — and the notion it was a major blow to Clinton’s prospects.

It was later reported that Comey was motivated to make the unusual announcement about the laptop because he feared leaks from the FBI’s New York field office, which, according to Reuters, had “a faction of investigators based in the office known to be hostile to Hillary Clinton.” Indeed, Giuliani bragged immediately after that he had sources in the FBI, including current agents.

WHO's On COVID

The coronavirus remains a global health emergency, the World Health Organization chief said Monday after a key advisory panel found the pandemic may be nearing an “inflexion point” where higher levels of immunity can lower virus-related deaths.

Speaking at the opening of WHO’s annual executive board meeting, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “there is no doubt that we’re in a far better situation now” than a year ago — when the highly transmissible Omicron variant was at its peak.

But Tedros warned that in the last eight weeks, at least 170,000 people have died around the world in connection with the coronavirus. He called for at-risk groups to be fully vaccinated, an increase in testing and early use of antivirals, an expansion of lab networks, and a fight against “misinformation” about the pandemic.

My next car will be an EV.  Just not a Tesla.