The chairman of The Hill, Jimmy Finkelstein, announced on Twitter that the website and associated enterprises have been sold to Nexstar Media Group, a Texas-based company that owns nearly 200 television stations across the country.

“Today, The Hill has been sold to Nexstar Media Group, which is America’s largest television company,” Finkelstein wrote with The Hill’s characteristic inability to get facts clarified.  (Nexstar operates television stations; it doesn’t manufacture televisions.)  “We have done this with mixed feelings.  First, I realize with a heavy heart that it is time for me to move on to new ventures.  Those will be known in the next several months.  Yet at the same time I recognize with great pride all that we accomplished together and are about to produce.”

Finkelstein’s statement, while reflecting the needs of The Hill for editors, also fail to mention the various scandals fostered by the right-wing website.  The Hill was home to John Solomon, whose posts on the Ukraine scandal failed to mention his involvement in planning a Hunter Biden-based distraction to Donald Trump’s first impeachment.

The Capitol Police’s Office of Personal Responsibility exonerated the unnamed officer who shot domestic terrorist Ashli Babbitt during the January 6th insurrection attempt at the Capitol, saying no further action should be taken in the incident, NBC News reports.

The Capitol Police report comes after the Department of Justice ruled that there was no evidence to support charging the officer, saying there was ample evidence that he was acting “in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber.”

The officer shot Babbitt as she attempted to climb through the broken window of a barricade set of doors that lead into the Speaker’s Lobby outside the House chamber.  The officer had shouted warnings to the crowd to stay back as member of Congress exited the doors and went down the hall behind him.

“The City of Orlando is asking residents to reduce water consumption due to COVID-19. On Friday, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and the Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) held a news conference and said the liquid oxygen used to treat water is being diverted to hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients. Officials said they believe if water consumption doesn’t change, water treatment could hit a critical point in a week” – Fox 35 Orlando.

Yeah, this is real. Yeah, it’s probably tongue-in-cheek as it’s not going to be sold on the same scale of Pumpkin Spice Oreos and coffee and what not. That still doesn’t make it right.

North Carolina MAGA terrorist Floyd Ray Roseberry appeared in federal court Friday, the day after he was arrested at the end of an hours long standoff in front of the library of Congress, NBC Washington’s Scott MacFarlane reports. Roseberry was charged with threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction and use or attempted use of explosive device.

Roseberry, who was assigned a public defender, told the judge he hadn’t taken his ‘mind medicine’ or blood pressure medication for days before the standoff, adding his wife has power of attorney over his medications. The judge ordered Roseberry held pending trial.

CNN: “A judge has ordered that Larry Nassar’s prison funds be turned over to the government and put toward victim restitution, according to court documents filed Thursday. US District Judge Janet T. Neff granted a motion by prosecutors to have Nassar’s funds, which totaled $2,041.57 as of last month, applied to his outstanding restitution debts. Prosecutors said that at one point, Nassar’s prison account had a balance of $12,825, including stimulus checks for $600 and $1400, respectively issued in January and March of this year, the order states.”

“It’s unclear where the additional money of more than $10,000 went. CNN has previously reported that despite having money in his account, Nassar has only paid $300 toward the more than $62,000 he was ordered to pay in restitution, according to a motion filed last month by prosecutors. He was ordered to pay $57,488.52 in restitution to five victims in a child pornography case, along with an extra $5,000 for an assessment fee pursuant to the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015, the motion read. ‘The funds in Defendant’s inmate trust account do not constitute property that is exempt from collection in a criminal case,’ Neff wrote. ‘IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Bureau of Prisons shall turn over funds, in an amount up to $62,488.52, held in Defendant’s inmate trust account at the date and time the Bureau of Prisons receives this Order … for application against Defendant’s outstanding restitution in this case.'”

Toplines from the from the Movement for Black Lives’ report titled “Struggle for Power: The Ongoing Persecution of Black Movement By The US Government“, published Wednesday:

“Much of the drive to use federal charges against protesters stemmed from top-down directives from former President Donald J. Trump and Attorney General William Barr. These directives, meant to disrupt the movement, were the primary reason for the unprecedented federalization of protest-related prosecutions seen in 2020. The government rhetoric in these directives and U.S. Department of Justice press releases regarding the protests in support of the movement to defend Black lives painted an image of protesters as ‘violent radicals.’ Additionally, the government justified the expanded use of its authority and deployment of federal enforcement due to what it claimed was local and state leaders’ ‘abdication of their law enforcement responsibilities in deference to this violent assault.’… The government most frequently claimed federal jurisdiction based on alleged conduct either occurring on federal property or affecting property which receives federal funding, including state and local government property. This is followed closely by cases where the government bent over backwards to assert federal jurisdiction through an extremely attenuated nexus with interstate commerce.”

“Highlighting the government’s aggressive assertion of federal jurisdiction and its naked attempts at disrupting the movement to defend Black lives, in 92.6% of the cases there were equivalent state level charges that could have been brought against defendants. Among those cases where comparable state level charges could have been brought, 88% of the federal criminal charges carried more severe potential sentences than the equivalent state criminal charges for the same or similar conduct. The possibility of harsher outcomes in the federal criminal punishment system – and the anticipated disruptive effect of that possibility on the movement – seems to have driven the government’s aggressive assertion of federal jurisdiction over conduct that typically would have been prosecuted by state authorities, if at all.”

“The National Hurricane Center has issued a rare hurricane watch for parts of New England, warning that Tropical Storm Henri will likely develop into a hurricane before making landfall on the northeastern U.S. coast this weekend. ‘If Henri strikes southeast New England as a hurricane this weekend, it will be the first direct hurricane landfall since Bob in 1991,’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokesman Chris Vaccaro told NPR. The hurricane watch was issued early Friday, covering a large portion of Long Island and areas from New Haven, Conn., to Sagamore Beach, Mass., the National Hurricane Center said. Resort islands such as Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket are also in the watch zone” NPR reports.

“In addition to strong winds and heavy rain, forecasters are warning of a storm surge that could inundate land with 3 to 5 feet of water. ‘Confidence is high that the event will occur Sunday into Monday,’ the National Weather Service office in Boston said in a briefing early Friday. It added that damaging winds were especially possible east of Henri’s track, while rains could cause flooding to the west. A hurricane watch means that hurricane conditions are possible within the watch area; forecasters normally issue the alerts roughly 48 hours before they expect the first tropical storm-force winds to arrive. The first tropical storm winds from Henri could reach the shore late Saturday.”

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: “Minnesota Republican leaders forced Jennifer Carnahan out as head of the state party on Thursday, turning a page on a scandal that threatened to consume GOP politics ahead of a pivotal election year. Carnahan leaves as chair of the party amid allegations that she created a toxic workplace environment, one that blurred personal and professional lines, ignored concerns about sexual harassment and retaliated against employees who didn’t fall in line.”

“The party’s 15-member executive board voted 8-7 to give Carnahan a severance of three months salary, roughly $38,000, to leave her role. Carnahan, who attended the meeting virtually, was the deciding vote to give herself severance on the way out. The board also approved investigations into the party’s finances and human resources protocols. ‘It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as chairwoman for the Republican Party of Minnesota,’ Carnahan said in a statement after the vote. ‘However, I signed up for this party to help us elect Republicans and I want to ensure that we can continue to do that.’ The drumbeat for Carnahan to step down began a week ago over her close relationship with GOP donor Anton ‘Tony’ Lazzaro, who was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges. But allegations against her quickly expanded, prompting nearly 20 legislators and three Republican gubernatorial candidates to call for investigations and her immediate resignation.”

“Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran says the state will withhold state funds from Broward and Alachua public schools, targeting school officials compensation, as a result of them violating Gov. Ron DeSantis’ mask orders” reports the Miami Herald’s Ana Ceballos.

DES MOINES, Iowa — “A white Iowa woman who said she drove her SUV into two children in 2019 to try to kill them because of their race was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison on federal hate crimes charges,” reports Chicago ABCNews7.

“Nicole Poole Franklin had already been sentenced to up to 25 years, including a mandatory minimum of 17 1/2, on state attempted murder charges in the Dec. 9, 2019, attacks in Des Moines.”

“President Biden will not travel home to Wilmington today as was planned. The White House says he will remain in Washington tonight” reports NBC News White House correspondent Geoff Bennet.

The US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland announced Friday that eighteen midshipmen have been expelled from the university for cheating on a physics exam in December, the Baltimore Sun reports.

Additionally, 82 other students who took the exam were disciplined for using outside sources during the exam, which was done online during the coronavirus epidemic.  An investigation of the exam was ordered by USNA Superintendent Vice Adm. Sean Buck after the December exam.  In total, 105 of the 653 students in the class were investigated.  One student’s case is still being adjudicated by the Academy’s Honor Board, and four were exonerated.

“Character development is an ongoing process and midshipmen must make the choice to live honorably each day and earn the trust that comes with a commission in the Navy or Marine Corps,” Buck said in a statement. “This incident demonstrates that we must place an increased focus on character and integrity within the entire brigade.”

Named a co-host of the “Jeopardy!” game show franchise just nine days ago, Mike Richards announced Friday that he will not take the position of host amid controversy regarding disparaging statements about women, Jews, poor people and Haiti, NBC News reports.

Comments made by Richards when he was the executive producer of “The Price Is Right” and as host of the “The Randumb Show” podcast resurfaced after he was rumored to be a leading candidate to take over the game show’s podium and blue cards.

“I was deeply honored to be asked to host the syndicated show and was thrilled by the opportunity to expand my role. However, over the last several days it has become clear that moving forward as host would be too much of a distraction for our fans and not the right move for the show,” Richards said in a statement.  “As such, I will be stepping down as host effective immediately. As a result, we will be canceling production today.”

“Court hearing scheduled for 1pm in US District court for Floyd Roseberry, arrested yesterday for bomb threat on Capitol Hill. He’ll face judge immediately after series of Jan 6 defendants in same (virtual) courtroom today” reports NBC Washington’s Scott MacFaralane.

Daily Beast: “Two opposing internet counter-cultures defined by their unswerving allegiance to tradition, misogyny, bigotry, and homophobia have converged around an unlikely allying force: the Taliban. The alt-right and ‘akh-right’ – an alt-right inspired Islamist movement – have united around the Taliban’s ‘owning’ of America. Spread across platforms, these two movements are no longer regulated to the Chan Cultures they were birthed on but are now mainstreaming their discourse on platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, influencing debate in both political and religious circles. The rapid takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban over the past few weeks, culminating in the sacking of Kabul and a shoddy withdrawal of U.S. forces, has brought together these movements, which see eye-to-eye on the interventionist nature of the two-decade-long war in Afghanistan. While on the surface this may seem odd, it’s in many ways the culmination of years of convergence between the alt-right, the far right, incel communities, and Islamist messaging around the U.S. government, the LGBTQ+ community, liberals, and democracy.”

“What is abundantly clear is the ideological fluidity of Gen Z communities online. Even within groups such as the Groypers – alt-right white supremacists with a hard-on for Nick Fuentes – they sway between degrees of racism, but always seem to land on the central precepts of white supremacy. It is the concept of tradition that underpins both Islamist and alt-right support for the Taliban on Twitter. Like alt-Islamists who celebrate the Taliban’s ‘traditions,’ including shariah, the alt-right is also drawn to the group because of its stances on women. The support for a diminished role of women in public similarly bleeds over into Incel circles on Twitter, who then take it even further to an outright hatred of women.”

.@SpeakerPelosi you can’t lie about #Jan6 anymore. The FBI is finally telling the truth.@Liz_Cheney and @AdamKinzinger you both knew all along this was witch hunt 2.0, you sold all of your people out.

Shameful.@FBI now do all #Antifa and #BLM riots.https://t.co/40HPtRMmCH

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) August 20, 2021

“The controversial Arizona 2020 election review is almost over, but top officials in the state’s largest county and secretary of state’s office aren’t waiting for the conclusions, launching a pair of preemptive strikes against a report that could land as soon as next week. Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, released a prebuttal laying out all of her office’s criticisms of the so-called election ‘audit.’ She detailed the pre- and post-election testing election equipment underwent in Maricopa County and called the state Senate-led effort ‘secretive and disorganized’ that routinely discarded best practices of an actual audit.”

“Trump and his supporters have eagerly been awaiting the conclusion of the review in Arizona, and will likely use whatever the findings are to advance his baseless claims the election was stolen from him. During a July speech in the state, Trump said the process in the state would ultimately reveal that ‘we won by a lot,’ and ‘this is only the beginning of the irregularities the Arizona audit is uncovering.’ (There’s no legal process to transfer the state’s 11 electoral votes to his tally.) Trump has encouraged his followers to try to export the Maricopa review to other states. Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have tried to launch their own, but neither has gotten the traction of Arizona. Ben Ginsberg, a prominent Republican elections lawyer who has spoken out about the efforts to undermine faith in American democracy following the 2020 election, said he hoped the Cyber Ninjas report would land without making much noise and could quell the movement. ‘Once they can’t be backed up, then that will be an object lesson to other states, not to go down that perilous path of basically losing your credibility,’ he said at the briefing” – Politico.

Reuters: “President Joe Biden is brushing off criticism of his administration’s chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal because he and his aides believe the political fallout at home will be limited, according to White House allies and administration officials. Biden and his top aides argue they are managing an evacuation mission as well as could be expected given the faster-than-anticipated takeover of the country by the Taliban, and are seeking to draw attention back to the choice to get U.S. troops out of the country. The strategy is based on internal and public polling that shows the Afghanistan withdrawal had been by far the most popular decision Biden has made, even though the issue was not central for most voters.”

“‘The public opinion is pretty damn clear that Americans wanted out of the ongoing war and don’t want to get back in. It’s true today and it’s going to be true in six months,’ said one Biden ally. ‘It isn’t about not caring or being empathetic about what’s going on over there but worrying about what’s happening in America.’ Biden has faced criticism even from some fellow Democrats for his handling of the crisis. But White House officials believe Americans’ horror over graphic images of the chaos in Kabul and pleas from Afghans who fear they will be killed by the Taliban will morph into support for the president’s decision to pull troops from the country by Aug. 31 after a 20-year war. They expect the Afghanistan story to recede from the headlines, replaced by the resurgence in COVID-19 cases, the economic recovery and other issues, people familiar with the matter said.”

Two former police officers from Torrance, California have been charged with felony counts of vandalism and conspiracy to commit vandalism for spraypainting a 2004 Hyundai Elantra belonging to a mail theft suspect, NBC News reports.

On January 27, 2020, the officers responded to a report of three men stealing mail from an apartment complex and were led to the car, which they believed might have been used in the crime, the D.A. said.

The vehicle was taken to an impoundment facility.  When the owner came to pick it up he noticed a swastika spraypainted on the front seat and a smiley face on the back seat.