Sixty-eight years ago, Lee Crum got caught doing something fairly common in that time and place â making moonshine whiskey.
It s been weighing on him ever since â and it s why Tuesday s announcement that Crum was among 15 people pardoned by President Donald Trump means so much to him. I ve never been in trouble or spent a day in jail except for that, said Crum, a rural Muskogee County resident now well into his 80s. It s something I wanted to take care of before I go over the hill.
According to a White House summary of Crum s case, he was 19 when he and his wife s uncle were arrested in 1952. Oklahoma was dry at the time, and moonshining was a common side job.
AS A WILD 2020 rolls into 2021, President-elect Joe
Biden sits in a precarious position. Even as the Trump campaignâs election challenges strike out, millions of voters question Bidenâs legitimacy. He promised to unite a divided country, and now he has to find a way to deliver.
It would be best for Bidenâand for the countryâto take a cooperative rather than a combative approach. With true bipartisan leadership, there is a surprising amount that might be accomplished even with a Democrat-led House and whatâs likely to be a Republican Senate (pending the two runoff elections in Georgia).
Print
If you’re wondering when American politics hit its low point in civility, I’d nominate Aug. 6, 2020. That was the day when President Trump had this to say about his rival for the presidency, lifelong Catholic Joe Biden: “He’s against God.”
Partisan polarization has been part of American politics for decades, but in 2020 our national fault line expanded into dangerous new territory: demonization and delegitimization.
President Trump on June 1 holds up a Bible outside St. John’s Church near the White House, shortly after Black Lives Matters demonstrators were cleared from Lafayette Square for the photo-op.
(Patrick Semansky / Associated Press)
Biden Picks His Climate Team
Also this week: Wildfires destroyed ‘irreplaceable’ trees
Climate Fwd: newsletter. The New York Times climate team emails readers once a week with stories and insights about climate change.
Image
Jennifer M. Granholm, Gina McCarthy and Pete Buttigieg.Credit.J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press; Sarah Blesener for The New York Times; Patrick Semansky/Associated Press
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is expected to start announcing his energy and environment team within the next few days, and, according to people close to the Biden transition team, two important decisions have already been made.
Those people say Gina McCarthy, a former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, will be his senior adviser on climate change, and Jennifer M. Granholm, a former governor of Michigan, has been picked to lead the Department of Energy.
0 of 30
Gregory Bull/Associated Press
The offseason gives every MLB club the chance to improve its roster, oftentimes by way of external moves. A key signing or trade can sometimes swing the tide of a division.
The Los Angeles Dodgers acquisition of Mookie Betts helped fuel a championship run after years of near misses. Just one year prior, the Washington Nationals signed left-hander Patrick Corbin, who subsequently provided vital innings in relief while also starting games for a team that defied the odds to win the World Series.
But it can also be every bit as important for teams to