memeorandum: Google Adds to Its Menagerie of Robots (John Markoff/New York Times)

12:45 PM ET, December 14, 2013

Top Items:

ARAPAHOE HIGH GUNMAN HELD STRONG POLITICAL BELIEFS, CLASSMATES SAID — The teenage gunman who entered Arapahoe High School on Friday afternoon and shot two fellow students with a shotgun was outspoken about politics, was a gifted debater and might have been bullied for his beliefs, according to students who knew him.

Discussion: NEWS.com.au, NBCNews, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, Scared Monkeys, The PJ Tatler, U.S. News, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and Weasel Zippers

EndPlay / TheDenverChannel.com:

Karl Pierson identified as Arapahoe High School gunman who shot student while targeting librarian — Karl Halverson Pierson as pictured in the 2012-2013 Arapahoe High School yearbook. — None — Regular Photo Size — Last Updated: 12 minutes ago — HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. …

Discussion: NBCNews, The Latest Word, The Raw Story and KDVR.com

Denver Post:
Shooting at Arapahoe High School, 1 reported in critical condition, suspected gunman dead

Discussion: The Daily Banter, Red Alert Politics and TheDenverChannel.com

USA Today:
Sheriff: Colo. school shooting suspect is dead

Discussion: Denver Post and Hit & Run

Associated Press:

Ryan's Budget Plan: A Bridge Over the Divide? — Rep. Paul Ryan likened his 2-year budget agreement with Democrats to taking a few steps in the right direction. — But the bipartisan deal also carries potential value for Republicans and Ryan himself at a time when the party lacks a clear leader ahead of the 2014 election.

The Hill:

Tea Party: Boehner ‘declared war’ — Tea Party Patriots said Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has “declared war on the Tea Party” with his “smug and pretentious rant” against certain right-wing organizations. — The group made the charge in a fundraising email to supporters, seeking to win donations over the public feuding.

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, CNN, The Atlantic Online, Outside the Beltway, Politico and Booman Tribune

Russell Berman / The Hill:

Ryan: Boehner ‘got his Irish up’ — Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) “just kind of got his Irish up” when he lashed out at conservative activist groups this week, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said. — “He was frustrated that these groups came out in opposition to our budget agreement before we reached …

Discussion: New York Times and The PJ Tatler

Politico:
Senate poised to pass budget

Discussion: NationalJournal.com, Hot Air and National Review

Mario Trujillo / The Hill:
Heritage Action: Boehner picks fight to clear way for immigration

Discussion: CNN and Guardian

New York Times:
Bipartisan Budget Deal Forged in House Faces Opposition in Senate

Discussion: Politico

John Markoff / New York Times:

Google Adds to Its Menagerie of Robots — SAN FRANCISCO — BigDog, Cheetah, WildCat and Atlas have joined Google's growing robot menagerie. — Google confirmed on Friday that it had completed the acquisition of Boston Dynamics, an engineering company that has designed mobile research robots for the Pentagon.

Discussion: The Switch, TechCrunch, BuzzFeed, The Verge, Business Insider and Gigaom

JONATHAN TURLEY:

Federal Court Strikes Down Criminalization of Polygamy In Utah — It is with a great pleasure this evening to announce that decision of United States District Court judge Clarke Waddoups striking down key portions of the Utah polygamy law as unconstitutional.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Hot Air, The Volokh Conspiracy, Outside the Beltway, Talking Points Memo, National Review and ProfessorBainbridge.com

Sarah Kliff / Wonkblog:

Exclusive: Thousands of HealthCare.gov sign-ups didn't make it to insurers — Enrollment records for close to 15,000 HealthCare.gov shoppers were not initially transmitted to the insurance plans they selected, according to a preliminary federal estimate to be released Saturday.

Discussion: Red Alert Politics and The Daily Caller

James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:

The site once vouched for its “lie of the year.” — PolitiFact.com, the Tampa Bay Times's “fact checking” operation, is out with its “Lie of the Year,” and it's a doozy of dishonesty: “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.' ” — Just to show how fast the news can move …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, The Other McCain, The Volokh Conspiracy, Mediaite and Patterico's Pontifications

Wall Street Journal:

Backdating ObamaCare — A last-minute HHS rule orders insurers to pay for the law's blunders. — The White House says that ObamaCare is all fixed, but its conduct suggests otherwise. As it has realized that the government-created chaos is exposing patients to nasty and even deadly surprises …

Discussion: Power Line and HHS.gov

Jill Colvin / Politicker:

Bill de Blasio Walks Away From White House Meeting With Sweeping National Hopes — Bill de Blasio and the other newly-elected mayors. — WASHINGTON — Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio went down to Washington, D.C. today to meet with President Barack Obama, emerging emboldened that a “progressive movement” was sweeping the nation.

Discussion: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, The PJ Tatler, Weasel Zippers and Ed Driscoll

Wichita Eagle:

Terry Lee Loewen charged in planned suicide bombing at Wichita airport — For months, authorities allege, a 58-year-old avionics technician named Terry Lee Loewen - driven by radical ideas and prepared to die in a suicide attack - moved forward with a plot to detonate explosives at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport.

Discussion: Associated Press, Topeka Capital-Journal, Scared Monkeys, Jihad Watch and The Gateway Pundit

Pete Williams / Investigations:
Feds say they disrupted suicide bomb plot by worker at Wichita airport

Discussion: The Jawa Report, U.S. News and Jihad Watch

Washington Post:

By cracking cellphone code, NSA has capacity for decoding private conversations — The cellphone encryption technology used most widely across the world can be easily defeated by the National Security Agency, an internal document shows, giving the agency the means to decode most of the billions …

Discussion: NBCNews, Prairie Weather and Mashable

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

Who Funds the Far Left? You'll Be Surprised — The Center for American Progress is a left-wing organization that is closely associated with the Obama administration. Its principal product is a web site called Think Progress. Think Progress is part of the internet cesspool that modern liberalism has become.

Discussion: Politico, New York Times and Post Politics