I’m excited to announce that TPM has hired Amanda Hale as our newest ad seller. Amanda comes to us from The Nation and will be joining us next month working out of our New York office. Personally, I couldn’t be happier that Amanda is joining our team. She’s got an amazing grasp of what’s happening today in the digital news and ad economy – the potential and the challenges – and the critical importance of constant innovation.

Those of you in the business side of publishing will understand why we’re so pumped about this hire. For those of you who come to TPM everyday for the news, you won’t see her byline. But along with the rest of our business and publishing staff, she’ll be helping us bring you the news everyday.

Snowden reveals more detailed information about alleged US cyber-spying targeted at Hong Kong and mainland China. Read More

New poll: Markey over Gomez by 10. I blame Charlie Cook et al for ever pretending this was a close race.

Hong Kong to U.S.: Sorry, your man Snowden has left the country … now tell us more about this hacking you’ve been doing here.

Read the text of the statement from the Hong Kong government.

For Prime Members, Sen. Angus King is going to join us at 3:15 PM eastern today to answer your questions on anything and everything. NSA, student loans, filibusters and quite possibly whatever the Supreme Court sends our way this morning. Get your questions in now and join us at 3:15.

5 year old girl fatally shoots herself in the head with gun she found in home while parent was out running errands.

For those of you who imagined that key foreign relations and national security decisions like the Snowden case don’t get made in Beijing, good luck with that.

And in fairness to the players involved here. It has always been understood, de facto and de jure, that Hong Kong is part of China on matters of national security and foreign relations.

We’re still waiting to find out the significance of the fact that Edward Snowden was not on the Russia to Cuba flight that he was booked on today and that many journalists (now on a pretty long flight to Cuba) thought he was going to be on. But one thing this should do is bring down to earth, to some degree, how much of the “national security/surveillance state” is a good deal more mundane, rule based and bureaucratic than you might think if your point of reference is one of the Matrix movies or an episode of 24.

SCOTUS sends Texas affirmative action case back to lower court for a do-over.

Asked if there’s any irony to Snowden’s seeking refuge with autocratic state’s known for weak civil liberties and poor human rights records, Julian Assange replied, “I simply do not see the irony. Mr. Snowden has revealed info about mass, unlawful spying which has affected every single one of us. The U.S. administration has issued a series of bellicose, unilateral threats against him and against others who are attempting to support his rights. That is a very serious situtation and any country that has assisted in upholding his rights must be applauded for doing so.”