Fri: What's the Best Way to Get Kids to Hate You?

The Incredible Shrinking Rally



"Let's talk about the guy who is going to win, which is Donald Trump," Lemire added. "As you say, he's not been much of a presence in South Carolina. He hasn't needed to be. How does -- when you talk to his aides, how do they feel the campaign is going, not just because they're going to beat Nikki Haley, but going forward? Some red alarms are starting to flash here about some fundraising issues the former president is having, at least to this point. He is not the draw of the small-dollar donors that he was in previous campaigns."

National affairs analyst John Heilemann, who's reporting from Charleston, agreed that Trump was not generating the same grassroots enthusiasm he did in his two previous races, and his staggering legal bills were cutting into his campaign funds.

"Yeah, that's a concern," Heilemann said. "He's not the draw he once was, and he's got a new kind of draw on the funds that he hadn't had before. Donald Trump has various precarious finances for some time, but these legal challenges, both in terms of having to pay the attorneys and in terms of what he is getting hit with in some case, in terms of the damages he has to pay is really extraordinary. It's another way in which Trump is an unprecedented candidate. Look, I mean, you know, the weird thing about this race down here, and we've seen this in other states, but it's really evident here, right?"

"You know, that down here, that perfectly captures the attitude, which is people like Nikki Haley [but] people love Donald Trump," Heilemann added. "The love for Donald Trump, though, which we're used to seeing in state after state, which is, he comes into town and he has a giant rally and there's 30,000 people, 40,000 people, they're all out here. You know, the Trump event, not only has he not been here very much this week. He has a couple events [Friday], but the rest of the week, other than the Fox town hall, he hasn't been here. When he's been around, and I made this point up in New Hampshire and some people on the Trump-loving right got mad, but he was not filling up arenas with the kind of energy like the events we remember from 2016, where 50,000 people were in the heat in Georgia and would show up for him. The enthusiasm for him is real, but it's diminished."

That's What He Gets for Listening to His Wife

The husband of a BP employee has been charged with insider trading in the US following claims he overheard details of calls made by his wife while working from home.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission alleged Tyler Loudon made $1.76m (£1.39m) in illegal profits.

The regulator claimed Mr Loudon heard several of his wife's conversations about BP's takeover of TravelCenters of America and bought shares in the firm.

BP has declined to comment.

The SEC said: "We allege that Mr Loudon took advantage of his remote working conditions and his wife's trust to profit from information he knew was confidential."

His wife - a mergers and acquisitions manager at BP - worked on the oil giant's takeover of TravelCenters. The SEC said Mr Loudon purchased 46,450 shares of TravelCenters stock, without his wife's knowledge, before the deal was made public in February last year.

Following the announcement, TravelCenters share price rose nearly 71% and Mr Loudon allegedly immediately sold all of his newly-bought shares for a profit, the SEC said.

In a complaint by the regulator, during deal negotiations between TravelCenters and BP in 2022, Mr Loudon, of Houston, Texas, and his wife worked in home offices within 20 feet of each other.

"As a result, they frequently overheard and witnessed each other's work-related conversations and video conferences." She also worked on the deal when the couple stayed in a "small Airbnb" in Rome, said the complaint.

Mr Loudon confessed to his wife about buying the TravelCenters shares after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority began asking questions about the BP deal and who was "in the know".

According to the filing, he said he bought the stock because "he wanted to make enough money so that she did not have to work long hours anymore".

His wife - who was "stunned by this revelation" - reported the trading to her supervisor at BP.  
Her email and texts were reviewed by BP and it found no evidence that she knowingly leaked the information about the deal to her husband or knew he had bought the shares.

But "BP nonetheless terminated her employment," said the filing. (No good deed goes unpunished.)
According to the regulator's complaint, Mr Loudon's wife moved out of the house and ceased all contact with him. In June, she initiated divorce proceedings.

We're Melting!  We're Melting!

A wave of intense rainstorms has accelerated landslides and contributed to damaging coastal erosion in California, leaving multimillion-dollar homes on cliffs’ edge, sending hundred-foot palm trees toppling into the surf and forcing the closure of a historic chapel.

The state is now drying out, but impacts from a second season of extreme rainfall could be felt for years to come. Climate change, which is intensifying rates of rainfall, spurring sea level rise and making droughts more severe, is contributing to some of the forces reshaping the California landscape.

This season’s storms have offered Californians a dramatic reveal and a preview of the consequences of a warming world, as slow-moving processes that scientists have warned about accelerate in plain view. Mike Phipps, a geologist with the geotechnical engineering firm Cotton, Shires and Associates, said landslide risk and sea level rise are combining to reshape the California coastline.

“The coastline is at a lot of risk,” he said. “As those cliffs are trying to retreat, the buildings are going to be threatened and there are situations up and down California where buildings have been razed and where buildings are falling into the ocean.”

MAGAs See California as the Wicked Witch of the West

Weasels Can't Deal with Measles

As a Florida elementary school tries to contain a growing measles outbreak, the state’s top health official is giving advice that runs counter to science and may leave unvaccinated children at risk of contracting one of the most contagious pathogens on Earth, clinicians and public health experts said.

Florida surgeon general Joseph A. Ladapo failed to urge parents to vaccinate their children or keep unvaccinated students home from school as a precaution in a letter to parents at the Fort Lauderdale-area school this week following six confirmed measles cases.

Instead of following what he acknowledged was the “normal” recommendation that parents keep unvaccinated children home for up to 21 days — the incubation period for measles — Ladapo said the state health department “is deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance.”

The controversial move by Ladapo follows a pattern of bucking public health norms, particularly when it comes to vaccines. Last month, he called for halting the use of mRNA coronavirus vaccines, in a move decried by the public health community.

Ben Hoffman, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said Florida’s guidance flies in the face of long-standing and widely accepted public health guidance for measles, which can result in severe complications, including death.