Trey Radel to resign House seat  —  Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) will resign from Congress on Monday, according to multiple sources.  —  Radel, 37, was caught buying cocaine in November from an undercover federal agent in Washington and spent nearly a month in a rehabilitation facility.

Time for Obama to punch hard  —  As President Obama goes to Capitol Hill for his State of the Union address he is telling the world he is fed up with Congress — the paralysis and the GOP obstruction — but his anger is secondary to signs that he is a demoralized lame duck.

NSA and GCHQ target ‘leaky’ phone apps like Angry Birds to scoop user data  —  GCHQ documents use Angry Birds - reportedly downloaded more than 1.7bn times - as a case study for app data collection.  —  The National Security Agency and its UK counterpart GCHQ have been developing capabilities …

Sochi 2014: No gay people in city, says mayor  —  The mayor of Sochi, host of the Winter Olympics, has said there are no gay people in the city.  —  Anatoly Pakhomov said homosexuals were welcome at the Games - as long as they “respect Russian law” and “don't impose their habits on others”.

Deficit Reduction Declines as Policy Priority  —  Just Half of Democrats Rate Deficit as ‘Top Priority’  —  For the first time since Barack Obama took office in 2009, deficit reduction has slipped as a policy priority among the public.  Overall, 63% say reducing the budget deficit …

Timothy P. Carney on Chuck Schumer: Voice of the little man, courtier of plutocrats  —  TEA PARTY CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS LOBBYING CHUCK SCHUMER REVOLVING DOOR  —  The favorite senator of Wall Street and K Street explained to a liberal D.C. audience last week how to defang the Tea Party …

Vox is our next  —  Early last year, Melissa Bell, Matt Yglesias and I began wrestling with a question that had bugged all of us for a long time: why hadn't the Internet made the news better at delivering crucial context alongside new information?  —  This year, we're founding a new publication …

D'Souza Producer: ‘I Never Feared My Govt Until Now’  —  More ways to share...  Stumbled  —  LinkedIn  —  Vine  —  Newstrust  —  Tell my politician  —  Technocrati  —  Get Short Link  —  Gerald Molen, the producer of Dinesh D'Souza's documentary film “2016: Obama's America,” …

Gary woman admits selling baby for sex  —  HAMMOND, Ind. (Sun-Times Media Wire) -  —  A Gary, Ind. woman admitted this week that she sold a baby eight times to a Gary man for sex and was in the room for all the meetings except for the last one.  —  Natisha Hillard, 25 …

Paranoia of the Plutocrats  —  Rising inequality has obvious economic costs: stagnant wages despite rising productivity, rising debt that makes us more vulnerable to financial crisis.  It also has big social and human costs.  There is, for example, strong evidence that high inequality leads to worse health and higher mortality.

Ted Cruz's Father Blames Hackers For ‘Pornographic’ Facebook Post  —  Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) father, Rafael Cruz, issued an apology Sunday evening for what he described as a “pornographic picture” that was posted on his personal Facebook page.  The elder Cruz, a pastor and popular conservative speaker, blamed the incident on hackers.

Sheriffs cheer pot shot, say DEA chief ripped Obama remarks  —  Photo by:  —  WE'RE ‘FRUSTRATED’: Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson, above, lauded DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart after she criticized President Obama for comparing smoking marijuana to drinking alcohol.  —  By:

How Scott Walker and the conservatives saved Wisconsin.  America, take note  —  There was a time when Wisconsin was headline news.  You must remember the story?  Wisconsinites elected some caveman called Scott Walker as their governor on a platform of drowning government in the bath.

Clinton Supporters Want Iowa To Want Her  —  “You guys want a list.  Iowans want a sense of engagement and conversation and dialogue like they got on the Obama campaign.”  The super PAC takes the first of what they say will be many trips to the early caucus state.  —  Justin Hayworth / Associated Press