Washington
Cartoonist quits after Washington Post rejects sketch of Bezos bowing to Trump
A cartoonist has decided to quit her job at the Washington Post after an editor rejected her sketch of the newspaper’s owner and other media executives bowing before President-elect Donald Trump.
Ann Telnaes posted a message Friday on the online platform Substack saying that she drew a cartoon showing a group of media executives bowing before Trump while offering him bags of money, including Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Telnaes wrote that the cartoon was intended to criticize “billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump.” Several executives, Bezos among them, have been spotted at Trump’s Florida club Mar-a-Lago. She accused them of having lucrative government contracts and working to eliminate regulations.
Telnaes said that she’s never before had a cartoon rejected because of its inherent messaging and that such a move is dangerous for a free press.
“As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable,” Telnaes wrote. “For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the Post. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say ‘Democracy dies in darkness.’”
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists issued a statement Saturday accusing the Post of “political cowardice” and asking other cartoonists to post Telnaes’ sketch with the hashtag #StandWithAnn in a show of solidarity.
“Tyranny ends at pen point,” the association said. “It thrives in the dark, and the Washington Post simply closed its eyes and gave in like a punch-drunk boxer.”
The Post’s communications director, Liza Pluto, provided The Associated Press on Saturday with a statement from David Shipley, the newspaper’s editorial page editor. Shipley said in the statement that he disagrees with Telnaes’ “interpretation of events.”
He said he decided to nix the cartoon because the paper had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and was set to publish another.
“Not every editorial judgement is a reflection of a malign force. ... The only bias was against repetition,” Shipley said.
California
New LA district attorney meets with Menendez brothers’ family as he continues to review case
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The new Los Angeles County District Attorney met with the Menendez brothers’ family as he continues to review their bid for freedom 35 years after they were convicted of killing their parents.
Nathan Hochman, who took office in December, said Friday that he had a “productive session” with the family members, who shared their thoughts with him on whether the brothers should be released. The meeting lasted about three hours.
Brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez were found guilty of murdering Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Now in their 50s, they began their bid for freedom in recent years after new evidence of their father’s sexual abuse emerged in their case.
Their lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition — a request for a court to examine whether someone is being lawfully detained — in May 2023, asking a judge to consider the evidence.
The brothers have the support of most of their extended family, who have said they deserve to be free after decades behind bars. Several family members have said that in today’s world — which is more aware of the impact of sexual abuse — the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life.
In October 2024, then-District Attorney George Gascon recommended the brothers be resentenced to 50 years to life, which would make them immediately eligible for parole. Hochman, who was running against Gascon, called it a “desperate political move.”
“By releasing it now, Gascon has cast a cloud over the fairness and impartiality of his decision,” he said at the time.
A judge delayed the brothers’ resentencing hearing, originally set for early December, to the end of January. Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic said he needed time to review extensive evidence and give Hochman time to weigh in on the case.
Hochman said Friday he was still reviewing thousands of pages of prison records to “analyze the rehabilitation aspect of resentencing.”
Evidence of rehabilitation could include not engaging in illegal activity while in prison, starting organizations that helped other prisoners, and using that time to improve oneself, he said.
At the brothers’ original trials, their defense attorneys argued that they had been sexually abused by their father. Prosecutors denied that and accused them of killing their parents for money. In the years that followed, they repeatedly appealed their convictions without success.
The brothers are being held at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.
New York
Woman charged with murder in postal worker’s death in deli
NEW YORK (AP) — A woman accused of stabbing a postal worker to death in a New York City deli was charged Friday with murder. Witnesses said the killing followed a quarrel over whose turn it was to order.
Jaia Cruz, 24, was being held without bail after her arraignment in the killing of letter carrier Ray Hodge. A message seeking comment was left for Cruz’s lawyer.
Hodge, 36, was stabbed in the chest, neck and arms Thursday afternoon at a Harlem deli, according to a court complaint. Police found him wounded on the floor in his postal uniform.
Another customer, Janet Rich, told the Daily News that Hodge and Cruz argued at the sandwich counter over who was next. Rich said she and another person tried unsuccessfully to intervene.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service said Hodge was a letter carrier assigned to Manhattan.
Neighbors created a memorial outside his Bronx home Friday, placing candles around his postal hat.
A resident on his postal route, Alejandro Alarcon, told the New York Post the letter carrier extended himself to assist customers. Alarcon said Hodge helped him check on a package shortly before the postal employee’s death.
Cartoonist quits after Washington Post rejects sketch of Bezos bowing to Trump
A cartoonist has decided to quit her job at the Washington Post after an editor rejected her sketch of the newspaper’s owner and other media executives bowing before President-elect Donald Trump.
Ann Telnaes posted a message Friday on the online platform Substack saying that she drew a cartoon showing a group of media executives bowing before Trump while offering him bags of money, including Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Telnaes wrote that the cartoon was intended to criticize “billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump.” Several executives, Bezos among them, have been spotted at Trump’s Florida club Mar-a-Lago. She accused them of having lucrative government contracts and working to eliminate regulations.
Telnaes said that she’s never before had a cartoon rejected because of its inherent messaging and that such a move is dangerous for a free press.
“As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable,” Telnaes wrote. “For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the Post. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say ‘Democracy dies in darkness.’”
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists issued a statement Saturday accusing the Post of “political cowardice” and asking other cartoonists to post Telnaes’ sketch with the hashtag #StandWithAnn in a show of solidarity.
“Tyranny ends at pen point,” the association said. “It thrives in the dark, and the Washington Post simply closed its eyes and gave in like a punch-drunk boxer.”
The Post’s communications director, Liza Pluto, provided The Associated Press on Saturday with a statement from David Shipley, the newspaper’s editorial page editor. Shipley said in the statement that he disagrees with Telnaes’ “interpretation of events.”
He said he decided to nix the cartoon because the paper had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and was set to publish another.
“Not every editorial judgement is a reflection of a malign force. ... The only bias was against repetition,” Shipley said.
California
New LA district attorney meets with Menendez brothers’ family as he continues to review case
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The new Los Angeles County District Attorney met with the Menendez brothers’ family as he continues to review their bid for freedom 35 years after they were convicted of killing their parents.
Nathan Hochman, who took office in December, said Friday that he had a “productive session” with the family members, who shared their thoughts with him on whether the brothers should be released. The meeting lasted about three hours.
Brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez were found guilty of murdering Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Now in their 50s, they began their bid for freedom in recent years after new evidence of their father’s sexual abuse emerged in their case.
Their lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition — a request for a court to examine whether someone is being lawfully detained — in May 2023, asking a judge to consider the evidence.
The brothers have the support of most of their extended family, who have said they deserve to be free after decades behind bars. Several family members have said that in today’s world — which is more aware of the impact of sexual abuse — the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life.
In October 2024, then-District Attorney George Gascon recommended the brothers be resentenced to 50 years to life, which would make them immediately eligible for parole. Hochman, who was running against Gascon, called it a “desperate political move.”
“By releasing it now, Gascon has cast a cloud over the fairness and impartiality of his decision,” he said at the time.
A judge delayed the brothers’ resentencing hearing, originally set for early December, to the end of January. Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic said he needed time to review extensive evidence and give Hochman time to weigh in on the case.
Hochman said Friday he was still reviewing thousands of pages of prison records to “analyze the rehabilitation aspect of resentencing.”
Evidence of rehabilitation could include not engaging in illegal activity while in prison, starting organizations that helped other prisoners, and using that time to improve oneself, he said.
At the brothers’ original trials, their defense attorneys argued that they had been sexually abused by their father. Prosecutors denied that and accused them of killing their parents for money. In the years that followed, they repeatedly appealed their convictions without success.
The brothers are being held at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.
New York
Woman charged with murder in postal worker’s death in deli
NEW YORK (AP) — A woman accused of stabbing a postal worker to death in a New York City deli was charged Friday with murder. Witnesses said the killing followed a quarrel over whose turn it was to order.
Jaia Cruz, 24, was being held without bail after her arraignment in the killing of letter carrier Ray Hodge. A message seeking comment was left for Cruz’s lawyer.
Hodge, 36, was stabbed in the chest, neck and arms Thursday afternoon at a Harlem deli, according to a court complaint. Police found him wounded on the floor in his postal uniform.
Another customer, Janet Rich, told the Daily News that Hodge and Cruz argued at the sandwich counter over who was next. Rich said she and another person tried unsuccessfully to intervene.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service said Hodge was a letter carrier assigned to Manhattan.
Neighbors created a memorial outside his Bronx home Friday, placing candles around his postal hat.
A resident on his postal route, Alejandro Alarcon, told the New York Post the letter carrier extended himself to assist customers. Alarcon said Hodge helped him check on a package shortly before the postal employee’s death.
