July 28, 2017

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Entertainment July 28, 2017

The Week in Movie News: Here's What You Need to Know

Need a quick recap on the past week in movie news? Here are the highlights:

BIG NEWS

James Bond 25 frontrunners: In two years, we’ll be getting another James Bond movie, supposedly with Daniel Craig returning as 007. This week, we also heard about three filmmakers in the running to direct the movie. Read more here and here.

SURPRISING NEWS

James Cameron wants even more Terminator: Rather than just doing one more Terminator movie as previously announced, James Cameron reveals he wants to do a trilogy reinventing the property. Read more here.

AWARDS BUZZ

Wonder Woman for Best Picture?: Reportedly Warner Bros. is going to pushing hard for Oscar consideration for Wonder Woman, which is currently the year’s second highest-grossing movie in the US. Read more here.

EXCLUSIVE COMIC-CON COVERAGE

Comic-Con Buzz and Trailers: We survived another Comic-Con, and along the way we brought coverage on the MCU, DCEU, Ready Player One, Spawn and more. Read and see everything here and here and here and here.

MUST-WATCH TRAILERS

Suburbicon shows Clooney doing Coens: You’d never guess Suburbicon isn’t a total Coen Brothers effort. The duo did write the movie, which was actually directed by George Clooney. Watch the first trailer here:

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LBJ reveals a barely recognizable star: Can you tell who that is playing President Lyndon B. Johnson? Check out the trailer to find out here:

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It doubles down on dread and horror: A new trailer for Stephen King’s It has arrived and it looks pretty darn scary. Watch it below.

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Business July 28, 2017

Former Ethics Director Says Trump Is Causing A 'Crisis;' Calls For Reforms

Former Office of Government Ethics director Walter Shaub wants to see reforms to strengthen the office.

Claire Harbage/NPR

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Claire Harbage/NPR

President Trump’s White House has been operating so far outside of this country’s traditional ethical “norms” that it’s been “a shock to the system,” Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics, said Friday.

“We are truly in an ethics crisis, and something needs to be done about it,” he said at a news conference at the National Press Club.

Shaub, who resigned from the government earlier this month, proposed a series of legislative reforms that he says could ensure the agency can remain effective — even during the Trump administration, with which it has had a combative relationship.

He says the administration is hiring staffers who “are pushing back on literally everything” suggested by OGE to minimize conflicts of interest, although all have ultimately complied.

The White House nominees are not merely quibbling about details of the law, but are challenging “even some of the basic assumptions of the ethical norms,” said Shaub, who now works for the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit group.

And the president himself sets a bad example, Shaub said. “You see the president flying around giving free advertisement to his properties, and foreign governments, businesses and charities and even political officials holding events at his properties,” he said. “It is just inextricable — the conflicts of interest.”

Trump has refused to release his tax returns, and has failed to fully divest from his business empire.

To raise ethical standards, Shaub is urging Congress to pass legislation that would, among other reforms, create a central inspector general for the executive branch. Then instead of merely providing guidance to the White House on ethical matters, the OGE could refer cases to an inspector for investigation.

In addition, OGE should be able to initiate civil penalties in court and talk directly to Congress without going through the Office of Management and Budget first. And, he wants to crack down on “revolving doors” in government, where senior officials currently are allowed to leave government and after one year become lobbyists for clients trying to influence their old agencies.

Shaub also wants to amend the Ethics in Government Act to prohibit officials from receiving compensation for the use of their names and their family names while in office — a matter particularly relevant to the Trumps, who hold extensive trademarks and make money from placing their name on properties, such as hotels.

Shaub said the changes he proposes transcend partisan politics.

“Both major political parties have always been incredibly supportive of the government ethics program and neither can claim sole credit for having built it,” Shaub said.

He has already found support for his efforts from Republicans, including Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina.

If OGE is not strengthened, Shaub said, Americans risk long-standing ethical norms changing, for the worse.

“Norms are the glue that hold society together,” he said.

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Sports July 28, 2017

Body Camera Video Shows Officer Telling Venus Williams She's At Fault In Car Crash

A still from a police body camera video shows tennis star Venus Williams listening to Palm Beach Gardens Police Officer David Dowling following a June 9 car crash in Florida that fatally injured an elderly man.

AP

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In body camera footage released by police in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., an officer tells tennis star Venus Williams that she is at fault in a car crash, but that he is not going to cite her. “You just got stuck in a bad situation there,” he says.

The Palm Beach Postpublished the video Thursday. The footage reflects what police originally said: that Williams was at fault in the June 9 crash that led to the death of a passenger in the other vehicle.

Police later rescinded their statement, after reviewing footage from a nearby security camera.

The body camera footage shows police interviewing witnesses after the crash.

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Clips from Palm Beach Gardens police body camera footage following a crash involving Venus Williams.

Palm Beach PostYouTube

In a chilling scene, an officer talks to the couple in the car Williams collided with. Linda and Jerome Barson sit amid deployed air bags in their Hyundai Accent, bleeding.

“They ran the red light,” Linda Barson, 68, tells the officer. “My husband’s on blood thinners and he’s bleeding,” she says, visibly shaken.

“Okay, we got fire and rescue coming,” the officer says.

Jerome Barson, 78, died two weeks later. His wife is now suing Williams for wrongful death, seeking unspecified damages, according to the Associated Press.

The end of the video shows an officer, whom the AP identifies as lead investigator David Dowling, interviewing Williams in her vehicle, a Toyota Sequoia SUV. Dowling sounds almost apologetic to Williams.

“Everybody’s telling me the same thing: that you came out of the Steeplechase, and you kind of got stuck,” he says. “You got stuck in the middle.”

“I think you lost your right of way, but you were stuck in the intersection. So my report will probably say that. I’ll explain exactly what happened,” he says. “So I will say that you’re at fault in this crash, but I’m not citing you for the crash, because I think you got stuck in the middle of the intersection. It’s just one of those situations where you had the right of way, but you kind of lost the right of way.”

“So in a situation like that, what do you do?” Williams asks. “Because you can’t back up, because there’s another person…”

“Exactly,” Dowling says. “You just got stuck in a bad situation there. So I’d just let the insurance companies work it out.”

“I’m not giving you a citation, I don’t feel comfortable writing a citation when I’m not a hundred percent sure, and I’m not a hundred percent sure in this case,” he says.

The Post reports that police did not publicly acknowledge the incident until after the website TMZ broke the story on June 29, nearly three weeks after the crash. The incident remains under investigation, the AP reports; police say no fault has been assigned.

“I am devasted [sic] and heartbroken by this accident,” Williams posted to Facebook on June 30. “My heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of Jerome Barson and I continue to keep them in my thoughts and prayers.”

Williams went on to compete at Wimbledon, where she lost in in the finals on July 15.

In a July 3 press conference, Williams struggled to answer a reporter’s question about the crash. “There are really no words to describe how devastating, and yeah. I’m just completely speechless.” She trailed off and began to cry. “Maybe I should go,” she said.

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