memeorandum: Alexandria cops bust 10-year-old for bringing toy gun to school (Naomi Jagoda/Washington Examiner)

11:35 AM ET, February 6, 2013

Top Items:

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:

Postal Service to halt Saturday mail delivery — The U.S. Postal Service announced on Wednesday that it would discontinue mail delivery on Saturday but still continue to deliver packages six days per week, according to the Associated Press. — Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla), hailed the decision …

Discussion: Politico, Balloon Juice, CNN, americanthinker.com and Gawker

Reuters:

Postal Service to Cut Saturday Mail — ABC OTUS News - US Postal Service to End Saturday Mail Delivery (ABC News) — Apparently trying an end-run around an unaccommodating Congress, the financially struggling U.S. Postal Service says it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to disburse packages six days a week.

Discussion: American Prospect, Weekly Standard, AMERICAN DIGEST, Outside the Beltway and Ricochet Conversations Feed

Pauline Jelinek / Associated Press:

Postal Service to Cut Saturday Mail to Trim Costs — Empty crates site next to a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) mail box in New York, U.S., Nov. 15, 2012. The U.S. Postal Service will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to deliver packages six days a week under a plan aimed at saving …

Discussion: The Raw Story, Hit & Run and The BLT

CBS News:

USPS to announce Saturday service cuts in effort to slash costs — (CBS News) Get ready for some big changes in your mail service. After losing $16 billion last year, the postmaster general will make announce Wednesday that the Postal Service intends to halt Saturday delivery of first-class mail …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Poynter and Hot Air, more at Mediagazer »

Debbi Wilgoren / Federal Eye:
Postal Service plans to end Saturday mail delivery by August

Discussion: alan.com and Mashable!

USA Today:
Postal Service to stop delivering mail on Saturdays

Discussion: The Week and iOwnTheWorld.com

New York Times:

With Brennan Pick, a Light on Drone Strikes' Hazards — SANA, Yemen — Late last August, a 40-year-old cleric named Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber stood up to deliver a speech denouncing Al Qaeda in a village mosque in far eastern Yemen. — It was a brave gesture by a father of seven …

Discussion: Telegraph, BBC, Shakesville, Guardian, DAWN.COM, Washington Examiner, Hit & Run, IHT Rendezvous, The Hill and The PJ Tatler

Washington Post:

Brennan nomination exposes criticism on targeted killings and secret Saudi base — President Obama's plan to install his counterterrorism adviser as director of the CIA has opened the administration to new scrutiny over the targeted-killing policies it has fought to keep hidden from the public …

Discussion: Pew Research Center, Booman Tribune, The Atlantic Online, Guardian and AEIdeas

Sheldon Alberts / The Hill: White House, Congress square off over Justice Dept. rules for drone strikes

Ken Dilanian / Los Angeles Times:
Memo gives U.S. broad powers to kill Al Qaeda targets

Discussion: American Prospect and emptywheel

Andrew Rafferty / NBCNews.com:
American drone deaths highlight controversy

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Moe Lane, Mother Jones and NewsBusters blogs

Politico:

Obama to nominate REI chief Sally Jewell for Interior Secretary — President Barack Obama on Wednesday will nominate Sally Jewell, president and CEO of the outdoor and recreational retailer REI, to replace outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a White House official confirmed to POLITICO.

Discussion: Federal Eye, Hot Air, msnbc.com and Post Politics

Meghashyam Mali / The Hill:
Obama to nominate REI chief executive Jewell for Interior secretary

Discussion: CNN

Juliet Eilperin / Washington Post:
Obama to nominate CEO of outdoor equipment giant REI to become interior secretary

Discussion: Althouse

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

Eric Cantor's empty happy talk — Republicans have happened upon a felicitous new strategy for reviving their party from its depressed state: They need only think happy thoughts. — At a retreat for Republican leaders last month, former House speaker Newt Gingrich told them to …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, AEIdeas, Althouse, Wonkblog, msnbc.com, FIRST DRAFT and The Heritage Foundation

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:
Republicans try a softer focus — on life issues

Discussion: First Read and Post Politics

Frank Newport / Gallup:
Americans Widely Support Immigration Reform Proposals

Discussion: Politico, Hot Air, jobsanger, New York Times, Daily Kos, CNN and The Hill

Ron Fournier / NationalJournal.com:
How Eric Cantor Is Trying to Soften the Republican Party

Discussion: msnbc.com, The Reaction, NBCNews.com and The PJ Tatler

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:

CNN Host Destroys Supporter Of Boy Scouts Discrimination For Equating Pedophilia With Being Gay — CNN's Soledad O'Brien challenged the conservative opposition to keeping gays scouts and leaders out of the Boy Scouts on Wednesday morning, comparing the organization's ban to past restrictions on African Americans and women.

Discussion: The Raw Story, Good As You and Daily Kos

FRC.org:
Family Research Council, 41 Allied Organizations Release Ad Urging Boy Scouts to Keep Moral Values

Discussion: Politico and CNN

Terence P. Jeffrey / CNSNews:

Karl Rove Is Not a Conservative — Karl Rove — “The Architect,” as President George W. Bush called him — crafted Bush's two presidential campaigns and served as a key player in Bush's White House. — Now, with an assist from The New York Times, Rove is presenting himself as a conservative leader.

Discussion: Hot Air, Cold Fury, The Other McCain and The Right Scoop

Steve Deace / Politico:
How to beat Karl Rove at his own game

Discussion: CNN, The Maddow Blog and americanthinker.com

International Business Times:

Women's Unclean Breasts Cause Diarrhoea, Says Egypt Prime Minister Hisham Qandil — By VASUDEVAN SRIDHARAN: Subscribe to Vasudevan's RSS feed — Egypt's prime minister, Hisham Qandil - Reuters — The inability of women in rural Egypt to clean their breasts is causing a diarrhoea epidemic …

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Weasel Zippers and This ain't Hell …

Politico:

Embattled Scott plans $100M campaign vs. Crist — Rick Scott is preparing to defend the Florida governorship with the most expensive reelection campaign in state history, drawing up plans for a battleship-sized political operation aimed at overcoming the Republican's deep personal unpopularity.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and The Hinterland Gazette

Josh Rogin / Foreign Policy:

GOP senators call for delay in Hagel committee vote — Two senior GOP members of the Senate Armed Services Committee told The Cable Tuesday that they won't consent to a committee vote on Chuck Hagel's nomination to be secretary of defense until the former Nebraska senator discloses …

Discussion: Post Politics

CNN:
Hagel approval all but certain

Discussion: Business Insider and The American Conservative

Greg Holyk / ABCNEWS:

Poll Finds a Boost for Obama on Handling Immigration — Public approval of Barack Obama's handling of immigration has jumped to a career high in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, buttressed by majority support for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and, much more broadly, endorsement of stricter border control.

Discussion: The Maddow Blog and Mother Jones

Fredreka Schouten / Associated Press:

Ex-House members spend campaign money after they depart — WASHINGTON — Former House members are spending their leftover money to pay for everything from luxury cars to foundations that bear their names, a USA TODAY review of new campaign-finance reports shows.

Shane Goldmacher / NationalJournal.com:

Bob Menendez Spent Up to 87 Percent of Wealth Paying Back Donor — When Robert Menendez arrived in the U.S. Senate in 2006, he was a relative pauper in a chamber often called a millionaires' club. The New Jersey Democrat ranked 97th out of 100 senators in terms of his personal wealth …

Discussion: The Fix

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Dick Morris out at Fox News — Fox News has decided not to renew its contract with political commentator and pollster Dick Morris, an industry official tells POLITICO's Mike Allen. — Morris, who was on contract with Fox News throughout the 2012 presidential campaign …

Discussion: Guardian, DickMorris.com, The Moderate Voice, Washington Times, Taylor Marsh and The Hinterland Gazette

Steven T. Dennis / Roll Call:

The Budget War Is Back — A familiar script: The GOP rejects Obama's demand for new tax revenue in a short-term deal to avoid automatic spending cuts — The nation's brief respite from the serial budget battles that have consumed Washington, D.C., is officially over …

Discussion: NBCNews.com