The Cheat Sheet

Frontpage: Monday, July 23rd

1. Iraq Bombings Kill 93: Monday marked Iraq’s bloodiest day so far this year, as 93 people died from bombings and shootings. Just a few days prior, the leader of the country’s al Qaeda faction declared a new offensive in an attempt to take advantage of the disorganized Baghdad government U.S. troops are leaving behind. Monday’s violence suggests al Qaeda is much more powerful than U.S. and Iraqi officials admit. 
2. Holmes Dazed in Court: James Holmes, the sole suspect in the Colorado movie-theater shooting, sat silent and seemingly dazed in his first court appearance Monday. Investigators say Holmes is not cooperating with them, and when they searched his apartment Sunday, they found several Batman-related items, including a poster for the movie and a Batman mask. 
3. Penn State Fined $60M: Penn State will be fined $60 million—one year’s worth of revenue from the football team—which will go towards foundations to help victims and the prevention of sexual abuse, the NCAA announced today. Its football team will also be banned from bowl games and any other postseason games for the next four years and the number of scholarships provided for Penn State athletes will be reduced from 25 to 15 for the next four years.
4. Arab League Offers Assad ‘Safe Exit’: In an effort to end the violence that has raged across Syria for over a year, the Arab League’s secretary-general offered Bashar al-Assad, the country’s president, a “safe exit” if he steps down. The organization also offered $100 million for Syrian refugees who’ve had to flee to other countries. This isn’t the first such offer the despotic president has received. 
5. Euro Drops to 11-Year Low: The euro reached its lowest level since 2000 Monday, making it 1 percent against the yen. The slip seems motivated by fear of an impending bailout for Spain. 

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Photo of the Day: July 22, 2012

Penn State employees covered the Joe Paterno statue outside Beaver Stadium before removing it on Sunday.

Photo: Christopher Weddle, Centre Daily Times / Getty Images

PHOTO OF THE DAY ARCHIVE

Frontpage: Wednesday, July 11th

1. Spain Unleashes New Austerity Measures: The Spanish government is celebrating being granted a big bank bailout by the U.N. with a brand-new plan for austerity. Spain plans to tighten its belt even further through a new hike in sales tax on such things as cigarettes, cars, clothing, and telephone services, as well as public transportation, processed foods, and hotel and bar services. They’re also adding several more spending cuts in the hope of taking $79.85 billion off its total budget over the next two and a half years.
2. Parliament: Diamond Misled Us: Bob Diamond may have resigned and agreed to testify in front of British Parliament when an interest-rate-fixing scandal within Barclays Bank, of which he was CEO, came to light. But now British lawmakers think Diamond misled Parliament during its inquiry into the Barclays scandal. 
3. GOP: Stop Health Care Law, Stop Tax: House Republicans are on a mission to repeal President Obama’s health-care overhaul, and they’re latching onto the wording of the Supreme Court’s recent decision two weeks ago. The House of Representatives has voted at least 30 times to get rid of Obamacare in some way and will do so yet again on Wednesday, this time making the argument that by doing so, they’d be saving about 20 million Americans from paying an unnecessary tax. 
4. Hillary Clinton Visits Laos: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a stop in Laos Wednesday while traveling through Asia, and was faced with several reminders of the Vietnam War. Her visit was the first by an American secretary of state in 57 years.
5. Holder: Texas ID Law a Poll Tax: Embattled Attorney General Eric Holder spoke at the NAACP’s annual convention on Tuesday just after federal judges in Washington began hearing a lawsuit over Texas’s voter-identification law. “We will not allow political pretext to disenfranchise American citizens of their most precious right,” Holder declared before the crowd of 600 in Houston. The U.S. Justice Department, led by Holder, has opposed Texas’s photo-ID requirement for voters, finding it more harmful to minorities than helpful.

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Photo of The Day: July 10, 2012

Housecall
President Barack Obama discusses middle class tax cuts with Jason and Ali McLaughlin at their home in Iowa.

PHOTO OF THE DAY ARCHIVE

Frontpage: Tuesday, July 10th

1. Annan: Iran Part of Syrian Solution: Following talks with the Iranian foreign minister, U.N. envoy to Syria Kofi Annan argued, in a press conference Tuesday, that Iran should be “part of the solution” to Syrian turmoil. “My presence here [in Tehran] proves that I believe Iran can play a positive role,” he said. 
2. Not All Dems Stand With Obama: Yesterday President Obama called on Congress to renew Bush-era tax cuts for just one year for Americans making under $250,000. He was expecting trouble from Republicans eager to keep the tax cuts for wealthiest Americans around forever, but he’s also getting some push-back from his own party. Embattled members of both the House and Senate, such as Sen. Claire McCaskill from Missouri, Senate hopeful Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, and Rep. Shelley Berkley of Nevada, say they’d either prefer to raise taxes on people making over $1 million per year, or permanently extend the Bush-era cuts for anyone making less than that. 
3. Diamond Gives Up $31M in Bonuses: Former-CEO Robert Diamond is giving up $31 million in deferred bonuses. New insight into the Barclays Libor scandal reveals that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York may have known that the British bank was manipulating global interest rates as early as August of 2007. In 2008 the Fed even offered up some suggestions to British authorities on how to fix the system. 
4. Ex-Israeli P.M. Cleared of Corruption: After three years as prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert resigned in 2008 amid a high-profile corruption scandal. Now Olmert has been cleared on two charges of corruption. He was convicted on a third, less drastic charge—of breach of trust—which he’s expected to appeal. 
5. Egyptian Parliament Meets in Cairo: Legislators gathered in Cairo Tuesday for a meeting of Egypt’s now-dissolved Parliament, despite opposition from the senior military generals and high-court judges. During the short meeting, lawmakers approved a proposal by the speaker—a member of the Muslim Brotherhood—to appeal an earlier ruling that reviving the defunct Parliament went outside the law. 

Photo via picturedept:

Photo of the Day: July 9, 2012

Potocari, Bosnia and Herzegovina. A Bosnian Muslim man prays near coffins prepared for a mass burial at the Memorial Centeron July 9, 2012. The bodies of 520 recently identified victims of the Srebrenica massacre will be buried on July 11, the anniversary of the massacre when Bosnian Serb forces commanded by Ratko Mladic slaughtered 8,000 Muslim men and boys and buried them in mass graves, in Europe’s worst massacre since World War Two.

photo: Dada Ruvic, Reuters / Landov

PHOTO OF THE DAY ARCHIVE

Frontpage: Friday, June 29th

1. Zimmerman Seeks Bail Again: George Zimmerman is back in court Friday in Florida to ask a judge to release him on bail in the trial of the shooting of Trayvon Martin. Circuit court judge Kenneth Lester revoked Zimmerman’s $150,000 bond earlier this month when prosecutors told him that Zimmerman and his wife misled the court about how much money they had saved up during an April bond hearing.
2. Legal Dispute Ahead in Holder Fight: A legal battle looms if the GOP would like to see documents in an investigation into the Fast and Furious gun-trafficking controversy that’s hit the Justice Department. House Republicans won a historic political fight Thursday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, but they are likely a long way from obtaining the documents.  
3. Euro Leaders Make ‘Breakthrough’: With the eurozone rolling toward the crack of doom, leaders from the 17-nation common currency said they reached a “breakthrough” on Friday to aid ailing European banks. The deal, which is expected to go into effect by July 9, would lead to the creation of a single supervisory body to oversee the allocation of rescue funds to member nations. 
4. Weak Consumer Spending in May: Chances are if you bought a brand-new car in May, you’re the only one on the block who did. May was the weakest month for consumer spending in six months, with virtually no gains in spending, said the Commerce Department on Friday. 
5. One Dead in Colorado Wildfire: Police reported the first confirmed death on Friday in the wildfire sweeping across Colorado. The body was found in a home in Colorado Springs, where authorities say that close to 350 homes have been consumed by flames in what is now being called the most destructive fire in the history of the Centennial State.

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Photo via newsweek:

This is genius.

More Obamacare decision memes!

Frontpage: Wednesday, June 27th

1. Obama Maintains Narrow Lead: A new Wall Street Journal poll shows that President Obama still has a narrow lead over presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, even though there has been some bad economic news lately.

2. 32,000 Flee ‘Epic’ Colorado Blaze: Wildfires in Colorado continue to rage. As of Wednesday morning, the 6,200-acre blaze had been only 5 percent contained, and 65 mph winds blew the fire through containment lines into northwest Colorado Springs on Tuesday.

3. Judge Blocks Samsung Galaxy Tab: A U.S. judged ordered Samsung to stop selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 after Apple requested an injunction on the product and called it “blatant copying.”

4. Bank’s Crafting ‘Living Wills’: Five of the nation’s largest banks are writing contingency plans to be used if they go under. The plans are one of the requirements of the Dodd-Frank financial-reform law.

5. Egypt to Appoint Woman VP: Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, plans to appoint a female vice president. His policy adviser Ahmed Deif said: “For the first time in Egyptian history—not just modern but in all Egyptian history—a woman will take that position.

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Photo by George Rose/Getty Images:

Writer, director, and producer Nora Ephron passed away Tuesday at 71. This photo is from 1978, at age 37, during a portrait session in Los Angeles. See more of Nora Ephron’s life in pictures here.

Frontpage: Tuesday, June 26th

1. Chicago Homicides Up 38 Percent: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel listed safer streets as one of his three top priorities when he became mayor, but the rate of homicides has risen 38 percent from last year. As of June 17, 240 people have been killed in the city.

2. Colo. Wildfire Burns 3,446 Acres: Four huge tankers dumped 3,000 gallons of flame-retardant material in less than five seconds on Monday in an effort to calm the massive High Park fire in Fort Collins, Colo.

3. Arizona Police Unsure of Role: Arizona police, who hoped that the Supreme Court ruling might clarify what role they should play in immigration enforcement, were left sorely disappointed on Monday.

4. Romney Makes Inroads in Silicon Valley: President Obama is finding less hope and more change in Silicon Valley this year. Though Obama is still outraising Mitt Romney in donations from tech-company employees, Romney has raised nearly $340,000 from tech companies this year, far more than the $240,000 John McCain had picked up through May 2008.

5. Turkish Forces on High Alert: The Turkish government on Tuesday condemned attacks on its military planes by Syria, with the prime minister saying Turkey’s forces are now on high alert. “The rules of engagement of the Turkish Armed Forces have changed given this new development,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

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Photo by Peter Van Agtmael via picturedept:

Quoted from his artist statement:

Reality was intersecting with my aspired ideals and I knew I had to cover the wars of my country and my generation. I first went to Iraq in the beginning of 2006 and began working in Afghanistan in 2007. I have been covering both wars since. When I returned home I showed the pictures to my friends and family. They were intrigued and troubled and sometimes moved but generally detached. I knew I could not emote my experiences how I wanted, so I began to look for intersections between home and war.

See more from the series here.

Frontpage: Monday, June 25th

1. Court Decides on Immigration Law: The Supreme Court struck down key portions of Arizona’s SB 1070 on Monday, a strict set of immigration regulations that was signed into law in 2010 by Governor Jan Brewer.

2. Mumbai ‘08 Attack ‘Planner’ Arrested: Police in India have arrested a man they say is responsible for planning the brutal 2008 attacks that left 165 dead in Mumbai.

3. Health-Care Decision Looms: The Supreme Court may hand down its ruling as soon as Monday on President Obama’s signature health-care law. The much-anticipated ruling is sure to continue to draw debate, as both Mitt Romney and Obama defined it as a key election-year issue in the lead-up to the decision.

4. Issa: No Evidence of Cover-Up: Going after the attorney general is one thing. Implicating the president, Congressman Darrell Issa said in an appearance on Fox News Sunday, is something else.

5. Tortoise Lonesome George Dies: Thought to be the last of his kind, giant tortoise Lonesome George was found dead by officials at Galápagos National Park on Sunday.

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Photo by Seth Wenig/AP Photo

A man waves a large rainbow flag in the street during the Gay Pride Parade in New York, Sunday, June 24, 2012. See photos here from more of this weekend’s gay pride parades from around the world.

Frontpage: Thursday, June 21st

1. CIA Said to Direct Arms in Syria: As Syrian shells rained down on the battered city of Homs Thursday, a handful of American black bag operatives were helping allies direct weapons to the men and women fighting back.

2. Mitt to Florida: Hush Up on Jobs: Things are bad, no matter how good they look. That’s the message the Romney campaign sent down to Florida, sources told Bloomberg News, where Governor Rick Scott has been tooting his own job-creation horn a little too much for the Romney camp’s liking.

3. Suspected Bomb at Nuclear Site: Threat levels have been increased in Sweden after explosive material was found on a truck near a nuclear power plant.

4. European Stocks Slip: After reaching a five-week high, European stocks slipped Thursday. “The mood of market participants is still characterized by great uncertainty about future developments in Europe and the slowdown in China,” Stefan Angele, investment management head at Swiss & Global Asset Management, told reporters.

5. Egypt on Edge as Results Delayed: Tahrir Square was alive again with demonstrators overnight, and Egyptian voters continued to wait Thursday for a result in the country’s presidential election as anxieties mounted in the country.

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Photo by Alpha Press/Landov

A woman agrees to let a rescue team prevent her from falling by tying her to a building. Read more here about China’s growing concern about their suicide rate.

Frontpage: Wednesday, June 20th

1. Mubarak’s ‘Health Worsens’: Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s health reportedly continued to deteriorate on Wednesday as he was moved from prison to an Army hospital in Cairo. He is reportedly in a coma and on life support.

2. Discipline Advised in Quran Burning: A U.S. military investigation recommended discipline—but not criminal charges—for up to seven soldiers who burned the Quran in an incident that roiled Afghanistan.

3. Assange Could Face Arrest: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could face arrest in Britain for violating his bail terms, Scotland Yard said Wednesday, one day after Assange sought asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

4. Spain and Italy to Be Bailed Out: At this point, who hasn’t accepted a bailout? German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders reportedly agreed late Tuesday to allow two European rescue funds to buy back the troubled bonds in Spain and Italy in a $950 billion deal.

5. Heat Beat Thunder, 104-98: Will this be LeBron James’s chance to finally win the championship? The Miami Heat ousted the Oklahoma City Thunder 104–98 in Game 4 of the NBA finals, taking a 3–1 lead on Tuesday night.

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Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images:

The Microsoft tablet Surface is unveiled during a news conference at Milk Studios on June 18, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. Read the full story here

Frontpage: Tuesday, June 19th

1. U.N.: Justify Drone Use, U.S.: A United Nations investigator on Tuesday called on Washington to justify its policy of killing al Qaeda and Taliban suspects, rather than capturing them, at the risk of harming civilians.

2. Pakistan Court Bans P.M. From Office: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday disqualified Prime Minister Raza Gilani from holding office, two months after finding him in contempt of court.

3. G20 Urges European Solution: More ominous news out of Europe. As the G20 summit started in Mexico, leaders expressed concern over the mushrooming debt crisis in Europe—while fears over Spain’s financial health grew after the news that the country’s borrowing costs soared.

4. UK Stops Russian Shipment: President Obama and Russian president Vladimir Putin on Monday jointly called for peace in Syria, but Putin refused to support the U.S. efforts to persuade Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power.

5. Microsoft Reveals ‘Surface’ Tablet: Microsoft is finally ready to take on the iPad. The company unveiled its new Surface tablet at an event in Los Angeles on Monday.

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Photo by Platon for Newsweek

At 76, he has aged with unholy grace: the mussed carrot-top, now the cloud tint of jiffy-bag innards, has scarcely thinned; the oblong face remains a mobile mask of amused perplexity; the wiry physique, thanks to daily exercise, still exudes the vigor of the athlete he once was—a skilled-enough boxer, in his teens, to have trained for the Golden Gloves competition. Read the full story here

Frontpage: Monday, June 18th

1. Obama and Putin to Meet: World leaders talked in Mexico Sunday as a meeting of the G20 nations that will focus on the world economy got underway. President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Monday.

2. Markets Rally, Settle After Greece: Investors in Europe sighed and then got back to business after a crucial Greek vote Sunday. Markets showed an early advance Monday, but soon receded as Spanish bond yields topped 7 percent and anxiety over the future of the euro zone continued unabated.

3. Attack on Israel-Egypt Border: At least one Israeli civilian was killed in what officials say was a cross-border attack by gunmen who crossed from Egypt. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called it a “disturbing deterioration.”

4. Iran Nuke Talks Begin: There’s not much hope, officials say. World leaders will nonetheless begin two days of meetings with the government of Iran on Monday to try to break the tension surrounding the country’s nuclear program.

5. Egyptian Generals Flex After Vote: No one voted for them. But Egyptian military leaders gave themselves wide-ranging new powers Sunday after the Muslim Brotherhood claimed victory in the country’s presidential election.

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Photo by Aaron Jackson / AP Photos:

Empty shelves at the closed Borders bookstore at Penn Plaza in New York in September 2011.

Frontpage: Thursday, June 14th

1. Obama, Romney in Ohio: The Buckeye State sure is popular. President Obama and Mitt Romney will both travel to Ohio, one of the election’s key battleground states, on Thursday to give speeches touting their economic plans—although the fighting had already started on Wednesday night

2. Report: U.S. Increasing Spies in Africa: The U.S. has expanded its secret intelligence forces in Africa, with Special Operations forces establishing a network of small air bases to spy on terrorist hideouts, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

3. Nokia Slashes 10,000 Jobs: After a worse-than-expected quarter, Nokia announced on Thursday that it would be cutting 10,000 jobs—about one in every five positions. Hit hard by rivals Apple and Samsung, Nokia also cut its earnings outlook for the third quarter.

4. Air Force Osprey Crashes, 5 Injured: Five people were injured on Wednesday when an Air Force CV-22 Osprey crashed at a Florida base during a routine training exercise, a military official said.

5. Hillary and Ben Affleck Team Up: These days it takes some star power to get some good causes noticed, and both Hillary Clinton and Ben Affleck are lending some of theirs to help prevent childhood deaths.

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Photo by Brent Stirton, via picturedept:

Human Rights Watch will present a photography exhibition, “Unreported Stories,” with the award-winning photographer Brent Stirton of Reportage by Getty Images, Human Rights Watch said today. The exhibition will be from June 14 to 28, 2012 at Lincoln Center during the annual Human Rights Watch film festival. Stirton joined forces with Human Rights Watch to uncover two hidden human rights stories.

Frontpage: Wednesday, June 13th

1. Former Giffords Aid Wins Seat: It’s a fitting end to an inspirational saga: 66-year-old Ron Barber won the seat of his former boss, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Tuesday night after Giffords resigned to recover from a gunshot wound to the head.
2. Yemen Continues U.S. Attack: Yemen on Wednesday pressed ahead with a U.S.-led offensive against Islamic militants in the southern part of the country, a day after it recovered control of two strategic cities.
3. Car Bomb Kills 63 in Iraq: A wave of coordinated car-bomb attacks throughout Iraq on early Wednesday killed 63 people and injured dozens more—one of the deadliest attacks since U.S. troops withdrew from the country last year.
4. Russia Defends Syrian Arms Sale: Russia’s foreign minister on Wednesday defended his country’s alleged sale of arms to Syria, and also accused the U.S. of supplying weapons to the rebels fighting the government.
5. NASA to Launch Telescope: A powerful new X-ray telescope, dubbed the NuStar by NASA, will soon be on the prowl for supermassive black holes, the invisible remnants left when stars die.

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Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Dolores Walker leaves the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office after identifying the remains of her son, Joseph Briggs. Briggs, who recently turned 16, was shot and killed while sitting on a stoop in Chicago’s Marquette Park neighborhood. Read the full story here.