Thursday Scoop: Spill it, Michael

Welcome to the Morning Scoop for Thursday, August 23, 2018. The Michael Cohen story continues to spiral, and we’re grabbing our popcorn buckets and bracing for a blowout. Let’s hope he can tell investigators something juicy, for the sake of interesting news. 

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Michael Cohen Subpoenaed in Trump Foundation Investigation 

Late yesterday, New York investigators issued a subpoena to Michael Cohen, former personal attorney for Donald Trump. According to CBS, the move is a part of a state investigation of the Trump Foundation.

The Trump Foundation is being probed for using charitable funds on business-related and personal expenses, among which a portrait of the president himself, displayed at the Trump National Doral in Miami. Investigators also have reason to believe that money from the Trump Foundation was used to pay off the president’s legal obligations.

Cohen turned himself in to authorities on Tuesday for campaign finance violations, including sending “hush money” to two women on behalf of President Trump. Though this is a separate case from the Trump Foundation probe, investigators believe that Cohen will be able to offer insight on whether the charity broke the law.

Category Four Hurricane to Hit Hawaii

Hawaii Gov. David Ige encouraged residents Wednesday to prepare a weeks’ worth of supplies as Hurricane Lane, a category four cyclone, makes its way to the islands.

CNN reports, “The storm’s dangerous center could make landfall as it moves past the islands from Thursday through Saturday. But even if the eye doesn’t cross land, it should draw close enough to the islands that it brings destructive winds and rain accumulations over 20 inches in some locations, forecasters said.”

Forecasters say the storm is moving to the west-northwest at the moment but is expected to make a hard turn towards the northwest.

Viewpoint: Colts Announcer Lamey’s Retirement Didn’t Solve Much

Long-time Indianapolis Colts announcer Bob Lamey retired from the team Tuesday morning after news broke he repeated a racial slur during an off air conversation. Lamey acknowledged his use of the unspecified slur, explaining how he was retelling a story to a friend. An employee at the radio station leaked the conversation after Lamey asked him if the microphones were off before telling his story.

The employee who reported the incident stated that Lamey “asked if the mics were off and I said, ‘Yeah, I turned everything off. You’re fine.” When those actions were taken by both parties, this became a localized incident. Lamey did not seek to preach hate to his listeners, and he did not carelessly express negative views while unknowingly on the air. Lamey attempted to have a private conversation about a topic of his own right and choosing and in doing so lost his job of 44 years at the age of 80.

Read Tom Cruz-Spurling’s take on the issue here. 

Today in a Tweet

Actor Ben Affleck has entered rehabilitation for alcoholism for the third time, and Twitter is behind him 100%. 

Last But Not Least: California to Erase Thousands of Marijuana Criminal Convictions

Since legalizing the recreational use of marijuana in 2016, the State of California has also eliminated a majority of pot-related crimes. Policymakers in California have taken a strong stance in assisting those convicted of these crimes, most recently by passing a bill in the California Senate to erase marijuana misdemeanors from records, and reduce marijuana felony sentences. The Department of Justice estimates that 220,000 cases will be affected by the new law, pending Governor Jerry Brown’s signature.

This pre-pre-weekend Morning Scoop was made possible by Tom Cruz-Spurling, Natalia Kolenko, and the CMN Staff. We’d like to think we can get work done at home, but then we take a day to go out and do our work, and we’re a thousand times more productive. It adds new meaning to the phrase, “working hard, or hardly working?”