Last-minute ads so in demand, campaigns being told shows are overbooked
Last-minute ads so in demand, campaigns being told shows are overbooked
MANCHESTER, N.H. — A Democratic super PAC wanted to run a 30-second ad during a Friday evening newscast on New Hampshire’s one network station — and was even willing to shell out the $10,000 that the station demanded.
Hours before it was set to run, however, WMUR-TV had to revise its contract with Senate Majority PAC and credit the group’s account. The reason: “Oversold inventory.”
Such is the life of even a deep-pocketed political action committee at this late stage of the 2014 campaign. Many of these groups want to keep spending in a final push before next Tuesday’s elections, as Democrats defend their Senate majority and Republicans drive for the six seats required to command it.
But often there’s simply no ad time left.
“Campaigns and third-party groups are finding it difficult to even find spots to purchase,” said Isaac Baker, who was a top official on the advertising team for President Barack Obama’s re-election bid and now advises some of the Democrats’ heaviest spenders. “And they’re seeing rates climb from where they were last year or even earlier this year.”
Israel closes Jerusalem holy site after shooting, drawing Palestinian condemnation
JERUSALEM — Israel closed all access to Jerusalem’s most sensitive religious site on Thursday, a rare move that ratcheted up already heightened tensions following the attempted assassination of a prominent Jewish religious activist and the killing of his suspected Palestinian assailant by police.
The Palestinians accused Israel of a “declaration of war,” deepening a crisis fueled by failed peace efforts, continued Israeli settlement construction and months of simmering violence in the holy city. While Israel said it would reopen the site on Friday, the increasingly religious nature of the unrest risked igniting further violence.
Both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders blamed each other for the tensions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has called for banning Jews from the hilltop holy site, of inciting the violence.
“The international community must stop its hypocrisy and act against the inciters,” Netanyahu said.
Abbas, meanwhile, said Jerusalem is a “red line that must not be touched.” The decision to close access to the Al Aqsa Mosque compound was “a declaration of war” that “will lead to further escalation and instability,” his spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, said. Abbas made no mention of the attempted killing of the Jewish activist.
Headless Ranger mystery surrounds unmarked Colonial cemetery
FORT EDWARD, N.Y. — Sleepy Hollow has the legend of the Headless Horseman. Does a community 150 miles farther up the Hudson River have a Headless Ranger buried in an unmarked cemetery from the 18th century?
In the middle of the Hudson sits Rogers Island, site of a 34-acre parcel considered the birthplace of today’s U.S. Army Rangers. The town and village of Fort Edward had long sought purchase of the land and with its completion also gained control of an unmarked Colonial-era cemetery that could hold the remains of hundreds of people, including some of the famous frontier fighters known as Rogers’ Rangers.
In 2006, a local couple who served as caretakers for the then-privately owned property uncovered seven human skeletons buried at the site, including one that was missing its skull. State archaeologist later determined the burials were likely part of a cemetery dating back to the French and Indian War (1754-63), when Fort Edward was Britain’s largest fortification in North America. The skeletons were reburied where they were found, and no excavations have been conducted at the site since.
But six weeks after closing on the decade-long effort to purchase the island property, local officials are starting to think about what’s needed to turn the overgrown, undeveloped parcel into a public park that will draw tourists to this economically struggling riverside community 45 miles north of Albany.
The immediate plans will include trails and signage detailing Fort Edward’s key role in the war that set the stage for the American Revolution. So far there have been no discussions on whether to leave the burial site alone or allow archaeologists to return and search for more graves.
By wire sources