Attorneys for Christine Blasey Ford, the 51-year-old research psychologist and professor who accused Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers in the 1980s, say their client is not interested in murmurings that Democrats may seek to impeach Kavanaugh if they reclaim the House of Representatives in the November midterm elections.

“Professor Ford has not asked for anything of the sort,” attorney Debra Katz said to CNN. “What she did was to come forward and testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee and agree to cooperate with any investigation by the FBI and that’s what she sought to do here.”

Some Democratic lawmakers, who are poised to gain a number of congressional seats heading into the midterms, have floated the possibility of investigating Kavanaugh after he is confirmed to the Supreme Court.

“We would have to investigate any credible allegations of perjury and other things that haven’t been properly looked into before,” Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said, referring to allegations that Kavanaugh committed perjury during his testimony.

Ford agreed to testify in a high-profile hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 27. Ford said she was “terrified” by the process, but said she felt like it was her “civic duty” to come forward.

Lisa Banks, another attorney for Ford, said her client merely wanted to tell her story so that lawmakers could “make the best decision possible.”

“I don’t think she has any regrets,” Banks said. “I think she feels like she did the right thing. This was what she wanted to do.”

Ford’s lawyers have prodded the FBI to interview their client for its supplemental background investigation on Kavanaugh. They said that despite conveying their willingness to discuss the allegation with law enforcement, they have heard nothing.

The FBI submitted its report to lawmakers on Thursday, which paved the way for a procedural vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court the next day.

Based on the initial votes, Kavanaugh is expected to be confirmed for the lifetime appointment after final votes are cast on Saturday.

Clayton Kershaw laid to rest any doubts about his postseason fortunes. 

After Dodgers manager Dave Roberts opted to go with Hyun-jin Ryu in Game 1 of the National League Division Series, Kershaw cruised through eight scoreless innings as Los Angeles won 3-0 against the Atlanta Braves to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

Kershaw was in complete control, quieting a Braves offense known for its aggressive style. After Braves left fielder Ronald Acuna Jr. doubled in the first inning, Kershaw retired the next 14 batters before an infield hit by Ender Inciarte in the fifth inning.

In 19 previous postseason starts, Kershaw had never gone deeper than seven innings. It was only a question of whether he would come out for the ninth inning after throwing just 85 pitches. He did – but after a pinch hitter was announced, closer Kenley Jansen was called.

For the second consecutive game, the Braves offense has been shut out.

Dodgers shortstop Manny Machado provided the offense with a two-run blast in the first inning off Anibal Sanchez. Yasmani Grandal added a solo shot in the fifth inning to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead.  

Turning point

The Dodgers struck first again in the first inning, this time off the bat of Machado, who connected on a 88 mph cutter for a two-run home run off starter Sanchez. Machado has owned Sanchez, going 8-for-17 with four homers during his career. For Machado, it’s his second career postseason homer, first as a Dodger. His other came in Game 3 of the ALDS against the New York Yankees in 2012 as a member of the Baltimore Orioles.

Man of the moment

Kershaw. It’s only one game, but Kershaw said he didn’t need to prove himself to anyone, and he did just that. His line: 8 innings, two hits, three strikeouts, 0 runs on 85 pitches. Heading into Game 2, his 4.45 playoff ERA as a starter is more than two runs worse than his ERA as a regular-season starter. It’s the worst differential of any pitcher with 15+ playoff starts, according to ESPN. 

State of the Dodgers

The Dodgers take a commanding lead in the series, with Game 3 on Sunday (8:07 p.m. ET, Fox Sports 1). Last October, the Dodgers were 2-2 in elimination games. They will hand the ball to rookie Walker Buehler (8-5. 2.62 ERA), who became a solid No. 2 behind Kershaw. The Dodgers also will have a fresh bullpen heading into Game 3. Ryu went seven innings in Game 1 and Kershaw went eight.   

State of the Braves

The series shifts to Atlanta, which will host a playoff game for the first time since 2013. Kevin Gausman, who joined the Braves from the Orioles at the trade deadline, will start. He was 5-3 with a 2.87 ERA in 10 starts for the Braves. Gausman has never started a postseason game, but has three relief appearances with the Orioles out of the bullpen (1.13 ERA) in the 2014 playoffs.

Follow Boeck on Twitter @scott_boeck

 

 

 

Supreme Court justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan gave remarks about their experiences on the nation’s highest court, and talked specifically about the idea of political bias on the bench.

“There are structures within the court — not the least of which is our modern understanding among what are now eight justices — that we have to rise above partisanship in our personal relationships,” Justice Sotomayor said at Princeton University on Friday.

Sotomayor spoke broadly about how Supreme Court justices need to always rise above the political fray for the sake of the court’s integrity, and said that effort begins with how justices treat each other.

“We have to treat each other with respect and dignity, and with a sense of amicability that the rest of the world doesn’t often share,” Sotomayor said.

That conversation is happening in the backdrop of what has been a tumultuous vetting process for their likely future colleague, Brett Kavanaugh, who is expected to be confirmed to the court this weekend.

Kavanaugh’s confirmation comes after weeks of sexual-misconduct allegations that culminated in a hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 27.

During that hearing, Kavanaugh publicly denied a claim from Christine Blasey Ford, a California professor who said Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her. He also launched into an attack on Democrats.

In his remarks, Kavanaugh accused Democratic senators on the Judiciary Committee of seeking revenge “on behalf of the Clintons,” and acting out of “pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election.”

Kavanaugh sought to walk back some of that emotion in a Wall Street Journal opinion column he published on Thursday.

Boy Meets World was not based on a comic book, and it certainly didn’t involve any superheroes. Nevertheless, when cast members Ben Savage, Danielle Fishel, and Will Friedle took the stage at New York Comic Con on Friday to celebrate the show’s 25th anniversary, they were met with the kind of rapturous applause usually reserved for those involved with The Walking Dead. The old co-stars reminisced about their experience on the show, shared inside jokes with audience members, and basked in the unexpected legacy of Boy Meets World.

“When we were on the air we weren’t that popular,” Friedle noted at the start of the panel. “Sabrina the Teenage Witch and other shows had all this press; they were the popular shows and we were the show that just kept going. It wasn’t until the second or third runs that people started to talk about us. We could leave the set during the sixth or seventh season and we wouldn’t be recognized anywhere.”

“We had the feeling we were doing the show for our grandparents,” Fishel added. “I know some people watched it, but it’s pretty crazy because then when social media became huge we realized, ‘Oh, a lot of people are still watching the show and were watching then, we just didn’t know.’ I’m actually thankful we didn’t know that too many people were watching, because it made us more thoughtful. If I had known how many people were watching, I would’ve been more self-conscious about things, and instead we got to be very natural and explore our characters.”

RELATED: Reunited Boy Meets World stars adorably recreate cast photo 25 years after show’s premiere

Here are five other things we learned from the convention’s Boy Meets World anniversary panel.

The actors had a tough time finding their next step

Savage, Fishel, and Friedle spent seven formative years on Boy Meets World, which meant that finding a next step was pretty tricky. Fishel talked about being burnt out and how hard it was to find an equally-satisfying project, which inspired her to go to college and get a psychology degree before eventually returning to Topanga for Girl Meets World.

“After Boy Meets World ended, I just didn’t have any interest in the things that were coming my way,” Fishel said. “After finishing a show like that, you’re burnt out. We were sad, those tears in the finale were real, but when we woke up the next day it was like, ‘I’m so glad that’s over now.’ Then it’s a rocky few years, because it’s like, can anything feel as good as what you had just done? A lot of times, the answer is no, and you go through one of those career lulls. I got into hosting, I hosted a show called The Dish for a few years, that was really fun, and then I went to school and got my psychology degree. I was going to get my master’s degree and then Girl Meets World came along. It can be hard.”

GALLERY: See all the stars at New York Comic Con 2018

It was harder for Friedle than most. After one audience member declared they were a huge fan of his and wondered why he did more voice-over work (such as voicing Terry McGinnis on Batman Beyond) than on-camera work Friedle explained that he suffered from debilitating anxiety for years after the show ended.

“What brought me to voice-over was anxiety,” Friedle explained. “I was planning to do more on-camera work, but then I got hit with these anxiety attacks that prevented me from doing that. I was so thankful I had voice-over because I could still perform and act. Lately I’ve pulled out of that because of Girl Meets World. [Creator] Michael [Jacobs] was like, ‘Come back if you want to come back.’ So I’ve been slowly starting that again, and it’s been fun. Voice-over is great. To train for it, Kevin Conroy, who was Batman, was kind of my mentor and showed me the ropes and what to do. Now we’re getting back on track. Danielle and I are maybe doing something in the future. We’ve got cool stuff coming down the line.”

“We developed an on-camera show that we are shopping currently,” Fishel added.

Girl Meets World allowed the stars to teach the next generation too

Boy Meets World ended in 2000, but that certainly wasn’t the last time fans got to see Cory or Topanga. The two characters returned for Girl Meets World in 2014, and Friedle also reprised his role as Eric over the course of the series. One audience member, a young girl who grew up with Girl Meets World the way many other audience members grew up with its predecessor, asked the stars about the main differences between their experiences on the two shows.

“When we were doing Girl Meets World, it’s such a different world than the one our generation was growing up in,” Savage said. “So the stories were different. The girls who were on the show [Rowan Blanchard and Sabrina Carpenter], there’s so much pressure on them. We grew up without social media, so we just could be kids and grow up while we were doing the show. Now with this modern world, there’s so much tremendous pressure on girls—they not only have to do well on screen but they have to live perfect lives too. Being a kid is about making mistakes! It seemed like there was enormous pressure on them.”

As a result of this added pressure, Fishel said she took her role as a mentor very seriously.

“I took that role very seriously. I told them, if there was anything they wanted to talk to me about, my door was always open, and they could come to me,” Fishel said. “They took me up on it! They would come into my dressing room and tell me what was going on with them, and I would help them handle it. We put those lessons we had learned into effect. A lot of times you learn something but never get the chance to help someone else with that information. We were given that opportunity to help them.”

A good episode for Friedle meant Savage was busy

While discussing the many social issues discussed by Boys Meets World, Friedle pointed out that many of them revolved around Shawn (Rider Strong). As he put it, it sometimes seemed like show creator Michael Jacobs was just continually asking, “okay, how are we going to make Shawn angst-ridden this week?”

Very few plots revolved around Friedle’s character, Eric Matthews. And apparently, whenever they did — such as when Eric took in an orphan boy named Tommy (J.B. Gaynor) — it meant Savage was too busy for a Cory-centric episode.

“Occasionally there was a touching thing with Eric,” Friedle said. “But if you saw a touching episode with Eric, it meant that was the week Ben had his SATs. Like, sometimes people tell me they love the episode with Tommy. Yeah, Ben was taking a test.”

Savage’s diet changed by the time of Girl Meets World

Fans’ passion for Boy Meets World was evident in the extremely well-thought-out questions that many audience members had for the cast. Sometimes these questions were so smart they even went over Savage’s head, and he would need Fishel to explain them for him. When one such audience member asked if they ever disagreed with something their characters had done, Savage said this question felt like a final exam. “Great, so Eric gets an episode!” Friedle cracked.

“Look, I’m just an actor, there are plenty of people making decisions before I even get involved,” Savage said in response to the question. “I just read the lines and try to make people laugh. But I like craft services! On Girl Meets World I was trying to be healthy so I would eat a lot of Fiber One from craft services.”

Fishel added, “He would walk around set with a giant bowl and just say, ‘Mmm, Fiber One!’”

The Fiber One story then became a running joke for the rest of the panel. For her own response to the question, Fishel said, “I’m Topanga. I’m never wrong.”

The series finale still makes Savage emotional

Like most TV shows, almost every scene on Boy Meets World required four or more takes to get it right — “or eight takes if I forgot my lines,” Savage joked. But that wasn’t true of the show’s iconic closing scene, in which longtime teacher/mentor Mr. Feeny (William Daniels) says goodbye to each main cast member before declaring “class dismissed,” turning off the lights in both his classroom and on the show itself. According to Savage, that scene was done in only one take, and the actors’ tears were real.

“When Mr. Feeny said ‘class dismissed,’ which still gets me, and then we wrapped, this huge wave of emotion went over me,” Savage said. “Like, ‘wait, wait no! One more take!’ I’ll always remember that moment. It was like someone was closing the door on our childhood — but in a good way! It definitely left an impact.”

Friedle added, “The thing I remember about that end scene is not just we only did it once, but when we left the classroom there wasn’t an actual hallway, but just this tiny little box with all of us wedged together looking at each other like ‘Well, it’s over, we’re done.’ That morning I also recorded the last episode of Batman Beyond. I finished two shows on the same Thursday. That was one hell of a Thursday!”

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WASHINGTON – Who is the real Brett Kavanaugh?

Is he the brilliant and super-industrious star of conservative legal circles who was, in President Donald Trump’s words, “born for the U.S. Supreme Court?”

Or is he the brazenly partisan apparatchik, a Bill Clinton accuser and George W. Bush acolyte who one Democratic senator called the “Forrest Gump of Republican politics?”

Is he a hero to female law clerks who he’s mentored and promoted, a devoted husband and dad of daughters who lovingly coaches girls’ basketball teams?

Or is he the grown-up version of a high school and college frat boy who spent too many nights drinking too many beers, then drunkenly mistreated girls and young women?

More: Brett Kavanaugh: Supreme Court nominee straight out of central casting

The Senate that stands on the precipice of confirming Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court Saturday is split virtually down the middle on those questions. So, too, is the nation he would serve as the high court’s 114th justice.

What’s clear from a look back at Kavanaugh’s 53 years is that he has spent most of his adult life in public service, choosing modestly paid government jobs rather than the lucrative career he could have pursued in private law practice.

He was a devoted servant of Republican officials, whether it be independent counsel Ken Starr’s investigation of Clinton in the late 1990s or President Bush’s administration in the early 2000s, when he was White House associate counsel and staff secretary.

But in 2006, Kavanaugh shed his partisan role for a judicial robe, joining the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a traditional steppingstone to the Supreme Court. By most accounts he has excelled as a judge, becoming widely quoted and acclaimed for the legal acumen displayed in more than 300 carefully written opinions.

Former U.S. solicitor general Theodore Olson, a giant in Washington legal circles, described Kavanaugh last month as “thoughtful, gracious, open-minded, respected by his peers, and widely praised by the lawyers who appear before him.”

And Akhil Reed Amar, a liberal law professor and constitutional scholar at Yale Law School, cited his “combination of smarts, constitutional knowledge and openness – and that’s the triple crown.”

‘Credibility’ in question

Those were not the impressions Americans got during the final three weeks of the Senate confirmation process.

By then, the case against Kavanaugh already was strong for those inclined to oppose him. He was billed as a threat to abortion rights, civil rights, gay rights, workers’ rights – everything, it seemed, but gun rights. The left was alarmed.

Then they learned he was an outspoken defender of presidential power whose efforts helped lead to Clinton’s impeachment, but who later decided that presidents should not even be questioned about criminal investigations while in office. Such a view, if endorsed by a majority on the Supreme Court, could protect Trump in the probe of Russian meddling during the 2016 election.

And while it wasn’t Kavanaugh’s doing, the successful effort by Senate Republicans to keep three years of his White House documents secret created the impression that he had something to hide. 

Then came Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that when he was 17, a drunken Kavanaugh assaulted her in a bedroom at a small private party, tried to undress her and covered her mouth with his hand to stifle her screams. Other accusations followed, and while they never were corroborated, they energized the #MeToo movement against him.

Kavanaugh’s categorical denials brought forth more accusations about his drinking and carousing at Georgetown Prep in the suburbs or Washington, D.C., and later at Yale University, virtually drowning out all discussion of his legal career. As he appeared to dissemble rather than address embarrassing questions, his veracity came into question.

“Drinking is one thing, but the concern is about truthfulness,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said during the key showdown hearing late last month. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said the central issue concerned Kavanaugh’s “credibility.”

Man of ‘highest integrity’

To Kavanaugh’s legions of supporters, the charges don’t ring true. 

His high school and college years might have been beer-infused, but by the time Kavanaugh was clerking for Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy at the Supreme Court in 1993, he “did stand out as somebody who was on his way to big things,” said Nate Forrester, a fellow clerk at the time who now works for the Justice Department.

On Starr’s staff, “he was known as pretty much the brightest guy that we had,” said Robert Bittman, who worked with Kavanaugh on the Clinton investigation. “He was uber-confident in terms of his judgment, his ability, his work ethic.”

When Bush’s 2000 election hinged on a recount in Florida, Kavanaugh was part of the would-be president’s legal team. That led to the White House, where he worked 15-hour days and met Ashley Estes, who would become his wife.

Bush named him to the appeals court, and though it took more than two years of on-again, off-again confirmation hearings, Kavanaugh was confirmed in 2006. Bush, one of his biggest cheerleaders, this summer called him “a man of the highest integrity.”

At a panel discussion sponsored by the conservative Federalist Society last month, appellate lawyer and SCOTUS blog publisher Tom Goldstein described Kavanaugh as “an extraordinary person” who “has lived a remarkably kind and generous life.”

And over his 12 years as a judge, Kavanaugh has developed a loyal following of ex-clerks. Lisa Blatt, a liberal appellate lawyer who has argued more cases before the Supreme Court than any other woman, said Kavanaugh “is remarkably committed to promoting women in the legal profession.”

When Britt Grant was sworn in as a federal appeals court judge in August, she chose her former boss to do the honors. Kavanaugh, she said, represents “the person who was for me the first and best model of what a judge should be.”

More: Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh votes one way but sees both sides

Related: Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh tiptoes through legal minefields on way to confirmation

Also: Kavanaugh protesters vow ‘rage’ in November elections as nomination inches closer

 

 

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Kris Long, a veteran Coachella Valley news anchor for CBS Local 2, has resigned after penning a 400-word Facebook post defending Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh from an accusation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted an acquaintance while in high school.

Long’s public post ignited debate on Facebook over Kavanaugh’s confirmation, the assault claim and journalistic ethics. Long has been off the air since the Sept. 17 evening newscast.

In a written statement on Oct. 5, Gulf California Broadcast Company General Manager Jerry Upham wrote that the Palm Springs CBS affiliate had accepted Long’s resignation “effective immediately.”

“Kris Long has been an integral part of this company’s news organization and we’d like to thank him for his many years of service,” Upham wrote.

Long also commented in the same written statement.

“I want to thank those who have offered support and apologize again for any I may have offended,” Long said. “ I hope to return to the news business in the future.”

More: Palm Springs residents explain why they are protesting Kavanaugh

More: A Facebook post defending Brett Kavanaugh got this local news anchor thrown off the air for a week

More: Local TV news anchor off the air since defending Kavanaugh against assault claim in Facebook post

In September, Christine Blasey Ford, a California professor, went public with an accusation that Kavanaugh assaulted her at a high school party. Both Kavanaugh and Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September. Following the emotional hearing, the FBI concluded an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against the nominee. As of Friday afternoon, Kavanaugh was set for a vote confirming him to the Supreme Court as early as Saturday.

USA TODAY: ‘Very, very difficult vote’: The wavering senators who decided whether Brett Kavanaugh joins the Supreme Court

In an earlier interview with The Desert Sun, Long said he stood by his initial Facebook post, but would further emphasize that he condemns rape. He also said he understood why some victims of sexual assault opt not to report the crime immediately.

“I wish I hadn’t a written (the post) because it’s caused me a lot of headache,” he said.

In Long’s Facebook post, he wrote that “few things are more serious than rape,” but said the timing of Ford’s claim “stinks of political maneuvering.”

If he were nominated for the Supreme Court, Long added, “they might have to enlarge the Senate hearing room to accommodate all the young women from the mid to late 1960’s who felt that I had tried to go a bit too far!”

Long later deleted the post and replaced it with an apology.

The Society For Professional Journalists, the nation’s oldest and largest professional journalism association, calls on journalists to eschew activities that “may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility.” Other journalism associations and news organizations have adopted guidance on how to use social media specifically.

But recently, some journalists have challenged traditional ideas of objectivity, saying journalists should be transparent about their opinions rather than seek some illusory standard of impartiality.

Long’s post drew more than 160 comments in the hours after Long published. Readers have continued to comment even since he has taken down the post.

Some readers reproached CBS Local 2 for taking Long off the air in September. But others said they had lost respect for Long and called for him to retire.

In its October statement, the Gulf California Broadcast Company noted Long’s reporting history and past awards, including a local Emmy for his coverage of the Salton Sea.

Upham, the General Manager, commented in a written statement that Long “has a following and we know he will be missed by many in the area. On behalf of Kris’s colleagues here at CBS Local 2 and the Gulf California Broadcast company, we wish him the very best.”

Amy DiPierro covers business and real estate at The Desert Sun in Palm Springs. Reach her at amy.dipierro@desertsun.com or 760-218-2359.

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai paid a visit last week to the Pentagon and met with officials an attempt to “smooth over tensions,” according to a report Friday in The Washington Post.

Pichai traveled to Washington DC to meet with GOP lawmakers about a host of issues, including accusations from President Donald Trump that the company biases its search engine against politically conservative voices.

Apparently, the 46-year-old technologist took the opportunity to try and shore up the company’s ties to the military.

Google saw itself divided this year when word leaked the company was participating in Project Maven, an effort to use artificial intelligence to help the US Department of Defense analyze drone video footage. More than 4,000 Google employees signed a petition demanding managers put an end to the relationship and promise to never help build AI-enhanced weapons.

Pichai agreed to do exactly that when he released a set of principles that would govern Google’s work with AI. But when it came to working with the military on non-lethal activities, Pichai made his position clear.

“We want to be clear that while we are not developing AI for use in weapons,” Pichai wrote, “we will continue our work with governments and the military in many other areas.”

Since then, Google has signaled that it wants to maintain strong ties to the defense sector.

Last month, Google Cloud Platform hired Andrew Moore as the new chief of Google Cloud AI. Moore, the former dean of the school of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, is co-chairman of an AI task force created by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a think tank closely aligned to the US military.

Moore’s co-chair on the task force is Robert Work, a former deputy secretary of defense, who the New York Times has called “the driving force behind the creation of Project Maven,” the US military’s effort to analyze data, such as drone footage, using AI.

As has been pointed out, there’s a lot of work that Google could do for the government and defense sector that has nothing to do with weapons, such as email, data storage and other cloud services. Google is obviously very interested in vying for that kind of business.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.