Top Items:
Ted Mann / Metropolis:
Christie, Official Who Arranged Bridge Closures Were Together During Fiasco … Gov. Chris Christie was with the official who arranged the closure of local lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 11, 2013 — the third day of the closures, and well after they had triggered outrage …
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David W. Chen / New York Times:
Aide Fired by Christie Is Called Loyal Team Player, Not Rogue Operative — Bridget Anne Kelly is devastated that Gov. Chris Christie denounced her as stupid and a liar — but she also is distraught over how much her actions have damaged him politically. — Unheard-of a week ago …
Discussion:
Politico, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller and Hot Air
Charlie Cook / NationalJournal.com:
Is Getting Christie's Last Pound of Flesh the Best Use of State Resources? — One of the (many) things wrong with politics today is that we are attempting to criminalize poor political behavior. — The course is predictable. An elected official or a staffer does something that is terribly wrong …
Discussion:
Washington Post, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Reaction and First Read
Salvador Rizzo / New Jersey Online:
Codey: Some Democrats tried to quash investigation into bridge scandal to protect Christie
Codey: Some Democrats tried to quash investigation into bridge scandal to protect Christie
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo
Julian Pecquet / The Hill:
Feinstein rejects NYT on Benghazi — The chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said that key conclusions of a recent New York Times investigation into the 2012 Benghazi attack are wrong. — Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) rejected the Times's conclusion that al Qaeda …
Discussion:
TheBlaze.com, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and Washington Free Beacon
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Fox News:
The Benghazi Transcripts: Top Defense officials briefed Obama on ‘attack,’ not video or protest — Minutes after the American consulate in Benghazi came under assault on Sept. 11, 2012, the nation's top civilian and uniformed defense officials — headed for a previously scheduled Oval Office session …
Paul Richter / Los Angeles Times:
New Iran agreement includes secret side deal, Tehran official says — (Abedin Taherkenareh / European Pressphoto Agency / February 3, 2007) … WASHINGTON - Key elements of a new nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers are contained in an informal, 30-page text not yet publicly acknowledged …
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Noah Pollak / Weekly Standard:
Yoko Ono vs. Ayatollah Khomeini — President Obama yesterday uttered words about Iran we know come from the heart: “What we want to do is give diplomacy a chance, and give peace a chance.” — The leaders of Iran didn't go to Columbia in the early 1980's and didn't dabble in the arms control movement.
Discussion:
The Tower, Michelle Malkin and Pressure Points
Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:
Lawmakers unveil massive $1.1 trillion spending bill in bipartisan compromise — Congressional negotiators late Monday unveiled a massive $1.1 trillion spending bill that would fund federal agencies through the rest of the fiscal year and end the lingering threat of another government shutdown.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Politico, Wonkblog, Hot Air, The Hugh Hewitt Show and Patterico's Pontifications
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Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Spending bill rolls back funding for controversial ObamaCare programs
Spending bill rolls back funding for controversial ObamaCare programs
Discussion:
Mediaite
Jonathan Weisman / New York Times:
House and Senate Negotiators Agree on Spending Bill
House and Senate Negotiators Agree on Spending Bill
Discussion:
OpenSecrets.org, Wonkette, ThinkProgress and WJLA-TV
TMZ.com:
Justin Bieber House Raid — Lil Za ARRESTED for COCAINE During Egg Raid [VIDEO] — Justin Bieber — Bad Egg Caused $20,000 in Damage — Justin Bieber — Sheriff's Detectives Gunning For Felony Prosecution in Egging Case — BIEBER HOUSE RAID — LIL ZA ARRESTED FOR COCAINE — [VIDEO]
Discussion:
Gawker, Mediaite, LAist, New Jersey Online, ExtraTV.com and The Daily Caller
James Oliphant / NationalJournal.com:
If You Want Obama to Rein In the NSA, You're About to Be Disappointed — The president will embrace some surveillance reforms, but he's not about to scale back the national security state. — President Obama has a rare opportunity this week to reshape the nation's counterterrorism strategy.
Discussion:
CANNONFIRE, Informed Comment, CBS DC, Hot Air and The Verge
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Adam Serwer / msnbc.com:
Supreme Court questions Obama's recess appointment power — The Supreme Court seems poised to rule Obama's 2012 appointments to the National Labor Relations Board unconstitutional, with some of the high court's conservatives sounding eager to return to a view of recess appointments not held since the horse and buggy days.
Discussion:
NewsBusters blogs and The Raw Story
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Paul Caron / TaxProf Blog:
The IRS Scandal, Day 250: FBI Says No Criminal Charges in IRS Probe — Wall Street Journal: Criminal Charges Not Expected in IRS Probe: — The Federal Bureau of Investigation doesn't plan to file criminal charges over the Internal Revenue Service's heightened scrutiny of conservative groups …
Discussion:
Jammie Wearing Fools
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Ynetnews:
Ya'alon: Kerry should win his Nobel and leave us alone — Defense Minister says in private that US security plan 'not worth the paper it's written on', insists Kerry ‘cannot teach me anything about the conflict with the Palestinians’. — Shimon Shiffer — While the United States …
Discussion:
Reuters, ABC News, New York Times, Talking Points Memo, NBCNews, National Review and CBS DC
Investor's Business Daily:
This Is What Government-Run Health Care Looks Like — Socialized Medicine: More than two-thirds of the public don't think the government can be trusted to run the nation's health care system successfully. ObamaCare is proving these skeptics right. — The public might not agree on much these days …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, americanthinker.com and Weekly Standard
J.K. Trotter / Gawker:
Howard Kurtz Lied About Business Ties To Fox News Contributor — Fox News anchor Howard Kurtz has repeatedly claimed, most famously during a live interrogation on CNN, that his relationship with Fox News contributor Lauren Ashburn amounted to a “limited venture” for which the MediaBuzz host …
Discussion:
Politico and Balloon Juice, more at Mediagazer »
Tim Murphy / Mother Jones:
Watch: North Carolina GOP Senate Candidate Claims Food Stamps Are “Slavery” — North Carolina Republican Senate candidate Greg Brannon has an interesting argument for eliminating food stamps: “slavery.” In a videotaped interview with the North Carolina Tea Party in October, Brannon …
Discussion:
Public Policy Polling, Talking Points Memo, The Raw Story, Hullabaloo and Lawyers, Guns & Money
Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Who's Getting Obamacare? These Four Charts Give Some Big Clues — The Obama Administration has released detailed information about enrollment in the Affordable Care Act—not just how many people are signing up for insurance, but also what kind of people and what plans they are choosing.
Discussion:
Forbes, Bloomberg, The Dish, Washington Monthly, Wonkblog, Politico, The Week, The Plum Line, Business Insider, Washington Examiner, NBCNews and The Daily Caller
Politico:
New York Democrat Bill Owens to retire from House — Democratic Rep. Bill Owens of New York will not run for reelection in November, he announced Tuesday — dealing another blow to the party's prospects of winning control of the House. — In the past two months, three Democrats — Owens …
PC World:
Appeals court strikes down FCC's net neutrality rules — Net neutrality is no more. — On Tuesday, a Washington appeals court ruled that the FCC's net neutrality rules are invalid in an 81-page document that included talk about cat videos on YouTube. To cut to the chase …
Discussion:
CANNONFIRE and Shakesville
Peter Hamby / CNN:
Hillary's Iowa problem — From a distance, she appears invincible once again, far outpacing her rivals in the polls and primed to redeem herself in the caucus state that has never been especially friendly to the Clintons, or to female candidates. — Iowa has not elected a female governor, senator or member of Congress.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, TIME, Liberal Values and Mediaite
Bill Hutchinson / NY Daily News:
Top New York Post columnist Fredric Dicker calls Newtown shooting ‘little convenient massacre’; Sandy Hook families demand apology — Dicker, who made the comment Monday on his WGDJ talk show, said that Gov. Cuomo was able to push anti-gun legislation after 'he had a little convenient massacre …
Discussion:
blog.timesunion.com, Capital New York, The Huffington Post, ThinkProgress, Politicker and Liberaland
DealBook:
Oyster, a Start-Up for E-Reading, Raises $14 Million — With Netflix soaring, investors are betting that a start-up based on the same business model — but for e-books — will succeed as well. — Oyster, which gives customers access to more than 100,000 books for $10 a month, has raised $14 million in a new round of financing.
Discussion:
Gigaom, TechCrunch and Capital New York, more at Mediagazer »
TIME:
Huge Surge in Obamacare Enrollment Reported — About 1.8 million people enrolled in new individual health plans in December — As federal officials predicted, the flood of Americans trying to sign up for health insurance by the end of 2013 ended in a tidal wave.
Discussion:
Yahoo Finance, Michelle Malkin, Fox News, NewsBusters blogs, HHS.gov and CNNMoney.com
Investor Relations:
Google to Acquire Nest — Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to buy Nest Labs, Inc. for $3.2 billion in cash. — Nest's mission is to reinvent unloved but important devices in the home such as thermostats and smoke alarms.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, NYT Bits, Nest, Mashable, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Quartz, ThinkProgress, Wired.co.uk, CleanTechnica, The Week, PandoDaily, Greentech Media, Wired, The Verge, Gigaom, Guardian and New York Times