A look back at the people and events that made news the past week. Week-ends is a regular weekly feature of This Just In…
HEROES OF THE WEEK
VILLAINS OF THE WEEK
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
“Special counsel Robert Mueller closed his long and contentious Russia investigation with no new charges, ending the probe that has cast a dark shadow over Donald Trump’s presidency.”
The Associated Press
“Today, Democrats are in mourning. They banked on the Mueller investigation providing all the ammunition they would need to initiate immediate impeachment proceedings in the House and emboldening enough Senate Republicans to remove the 45th president of the United States for the ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ of criminally conspiring with Russians to influence the 2016 presidential election.
“Yet, within an hour of the Mueller report being delivered to the Department of Justice (DOJ), at least one DOJ source was quoted as saying that the special counsel was not recommending any further indictments of individuals. Another report indicated that there were no unsealed indictments in hand.”
Bradley Blakeman is an adjunct professor of public policy and international affairs at Georgetown University
“So if, if as Jeffrey [Toobin] is saying, they [Trump administration] get great news, the great news is, first of all, there’s no more indictments. But if suddenly the president has to say those angry Democrats who were working with Bob Mueller were actually just part of a Justice Department doing its job after he has criticized the Justice Department, then he’s now vindicated.”
CNN political analyst Gloria Borger
“Let’s be specific. This is really good news for a lot of people around Donald Trump. Donald Trump Jr. Jared Kushner. Jerome Corsi. The writer who had a draft indictment presented to him by Mueller’s office and they decided not to go forward with this. Let’s be fair here. There has been a lot of suspicion around certain people. And a lot of negative things have been said and imputation of criminal activity. Mueller has said, ‘I am not proceeding.’ There is no better news to receive than you are not being indicted by the United States government.”
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin agreed with Borger
“The president himself has called, without qualification, for the report to be made public. There is no reason on God’s green earth why Attorney General (William) Barr should do any less.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York
“The American people will see every word, every comma, every period of this report. The president is outnumbered now in a way that he was not before. We have the subpoena power … so it’s just a matter of time.
“This is a test for our country because the rule of law has had a wrecking ball taken to it, and what we do now with this report will very much determine whether the rule of law still stands.”
Rep. Eric Swallwell, D-Calif., a member of both the House Intelligence Committee and House Judiciary Committee
“Russiagate weirdos next move is to claim ‘Russiagate is real but Mueller just couldn’t prove it!’ As crazy as that sounds watch them do it.
“To be clear:
The Robert Mueller investigation is over
There will be no more indictments
And there was no Trump-Russia collusion
Let that sink in”
Conservative pundit Jack Prosobiec
“Special Counsel Mueller appears to have concluded, after almost two years and millions of dollars spent, that there never was any illegal collusion. In other earth-shattering news, water is wet, and the sun rises in the east.”
Jenny Beth Martin is the co-founder and national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, and a columnist for The Washington Times
“George Conway, often referred to as Mr. Kellyanne Conway by those who know him, is VERY jealous of his wife’s success & angry that I, with her help, didn’t give him the job he so desperately wanted. I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell! I don’t know him. He’s a whack job, there’s no question about it.”
President Donald Trump feuded with lawyer George Conway, the spouse of Trump’s chief counselor Kellyanne Conway. Trump denied George Conway a top Justice Department job.
“You seem determined to prove my point. Good for you! #NarcissisticPersonalityDisorder. You. Are. Nuts.”
Mr. Conway tweeting at Trump
“You think he should just take that sitting down?”
Kellyanne Conway defended Trump for clobbering her own husband when she asked a reporter this question
“I studied for MONTHS for the SAT. Twice, sometimes three times a week. Tons of practice tests. Ended up taking the SAT multiple times as well. College apps were no joke… the amount of stress kids put into that to potentially lose a spot to someone unfairly is horrible.”
A tweet by John Owen Lowe, son of actor Rob Lowe
“I will appoint a new News and Information Ombudsman with the power to fine egregious corporate offenders. One of the main purposes of the Ombudsman will be to identify sources of spurious information that are associated with foreign nationals. The Ombudsman will work with social media companies to identify fraudulent accounts and disable and punish responsible parties.”
Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang says the federal government will punish media companies for the spread of misinformation if he wins in 2020
“You drive through Anonito and you used to not even have a gas station, and now it has four marijuana shops. I know in my district that’s not what they want downtown to look like, so this would help.”
New Mexico Republican Sen. Cliff Pirtle, a dairy farmer from Roswell, in a conservative political stronghold of the state, describing a Colorado town of 750 residents near the New Mexico state line. He said said state-run stores can prevent the proliferation of pot shops that some other states have witnessed, and provide retail shelf space at a low cost to fledgling marijuana producers. New Mexico would become the first U.S. state to set up its own government-operated marijuana stores and subsidize medical cannabis for the poor under a bill brokered between Republicans and Democrats, as a new wave of states weighs legislation that would legalize recreational sales and consumption.
“His sexual needs were his sexual needs, coming from whatever childhood he has or whatever DNA he has. You can say ‘molested,’ but those children, as you heard say [grown-up Wade Robson and Safechuck], they were thrilled to be there. They both married and they both have children, so it didn’t kill them.”
Barbra Streisand is under fire for comments she made about two men accusing Michael Jackson of sexually assaulting them as children
“Don’t pick a team that hasn’t been better than .500 in its last 10 games. Ahem, Marquette. A winning bracket takes a little research. The best way to avoid mishaps is to assess a team’s play in late February and early March because as much as the tournament is about matchups, a team that’s playing poorly shouldn’t be ignored. The Golden Eagles, for instance, are the best-seeded team from the Big East. But they’ve also lost five of six and do not look like they’re about to peak.”
Scott Gleeson of USA TODAY in a column offering tips on filling out an NCAA basketball tournament bracket. He wrote the column BEFORE the tournament started. Marquette lost its opener in the tourney to Murray State, 83-64.
“Certainly we didn’t play as well at the end of the season as we did for most of it. We’ve got to really examine that and figure out why. When you hit a tough patch, usually it’s not one thing. It’s a combination of things. So we’ll have to study that and figure out what happened.”
Marquette Golden Eagles head coach Steve Wojciechowski
“Are you not entertained?”
As the final seconds ticked down and Murray State became the first mid-major team to pull an upset in this year’s NCAA tournament with an 83–64 win over Marquette, Tee Morant stood proudly in his front row seat at the XL Center and yelled to everyone within earshot about his son. Ja Morant of Murray State recorded a triple double (17 points, 16 assists, 11 rebounds) in the victory. It was Morant’s third triple double this season and only the ninth in NCAA tournament history—the first since Draymond Green in 2012 at Michigan State and the first one by a guard since Dwyane Wade in 2003 at Marquette.
“It was kind of like when you have a near-death experience and your life flashes before your eyes. I thought back to my first trip up to Madison, my visit. Everything. It is still tough to know that it’s over.”
Ethan Happ of the Wisconsin Badgers, a fifth-year senior, after Wisconsin lost to Oregon Friday in the NCAA tournament, 72-54
I’d like to offer a few more proposals to speed and enliven the game many of us love, often because of its unhurried pace and multifarious strategies:
Don’t bother with actual pitches and hits. They take time and are hard to predict. Have the pitcher point to his stats on a screen, the batter point to his, then each touch a button on a home screen and have algorithms flash the results. Single! Walk! It’s outta here!
Bury gold bricks under each base. Incentivize the play! A potential payoff might encourage more base stealing.
Make managers remove one item of clothing each time the opposing team scores a run. That’ll keep managers in the dugout.
And to really speed up the game, put in antelopes as pinch runners. Antelopes can run 60 miles an hour.
NPR’s Scott Simon
OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK
MOST UNDER-REPORTED STORY OF THE WEEK
MOST OVER-HYPED STORY OF THE WEEK
March Madness, and rightfully so
MOST UNUSUAL STORY OF THE WEEK
Fence Dispute in Santa Rosa Leads to Racy Mannequin Display
The UFO community still believes
A serviceman of the Belarusian Interior Ministry’s special forces performs as he marks Internal Forces Day in Minsk, Belarus, on March 17, 2019. Photo: Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters
