memeorandum: The White House is relaxing the employer mandate again (Sarah Kliff/Wonkblog)

9:25 AM ET, February 11, 2014

Top Items:

Another day, another lawless exemption, once again for business. — 'ObamaCare" is useful shorthand for the Affordable Care Act not least because the law increasingly means whatever President Obama says it does on any given day. His latest lawless rewrite arrived on Monday as the White House decided …

Discussion: Betsy's Page, americanthinker.com, National Review and NewsBusters

Washington Post:

White House delays health insurance mandate for medium-sized employers until 2016 — The Obama administration announced Monday it would give medium-sized employers an extra year, until 2016, before they must offer health insurance to their full-time workers.

Discussion: National Review, New York Times, The Week, americanthinker.com, msnbc.com, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, Ed Driscoll, The Reaction, Clayton Cramer and The Gateway Pundit

Sarah Kliff / Wonkblog:

The White House is relaxing the employer mandate again — The Treasury Department on Monday rolled out more tweaks to the health-care law's requirement that all large employers—those with 50 or more workers—provide insurance coverage to their workers. This is the part of Obamacare …

Discussion: Hit & Run, NewsBusters, Power Line, Daily Kos and The Moderate Voice

Ben Goad / The Hill:

ObamaCare's employer mandate pushed back for the second time — The Obama administration on Monday announced it is delaying the employer mandate in ObamaCare until 2016 for some businesses. — This delay in the mandate — the second so far — would only apply to businesses with between 50 …

Humberto Sanchez / Roll Call:
Cruz Does Boehner No Favors

Discussion: New York Times

Fox News:
Administration announces another delay in ObamaCare employer mandate

Discussion: CNSNews, Independent Journal Review, Sister Toldjah and National Review

Bloomberg:
Small Businesses Get Further Delay for Obamacare Coverage

Discussion: Hot Air, National Republican … and Washington Free Beacon

Ian Swanson / The Hill:

Team Clinton started talks on 2016 White House run night of Obama's victory — Members of Team Clinton started talking about a 2016 presidential bid months before the former first lady left the State Department. — The night President Obama won his second term, Allida Black and Adam Parkhomenko …

Discussion: CNN and Talking Points Memo

Deirdre Walsh / CNN:

Hoyer predicts Democrats positioned to win back the House in 2014 — Washington (CNN) - The second ranking House Democrat predicted his party was in good position to retake control of the House of Representatives in the 2014 midterm election. — House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer pointed …

Discussion: National Republican …

Tal Kopan / Politico:

Reince Priebus: ‘Truckload’ against Hillary Clinton — Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Monday that when it comes to Hillary Clinton, Republicans will have a “truckload” of material to use against her, and it's all fair game. — Priebus said recent …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Hullabaloo, No More Mister Nice Blog, Daily Kos, GOP.com, The Week and Balloon Juice

CNN:
CNN's GUT CHECK for February 10, 2014

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, Fox News and Politico

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Obama: ‘I Can Do Whatever I Want’ — President Obama “quipped” today during a visit to Monticello with the French president, “That's the good thing about being president, I can do whatever I want.” — Via the pool report: … The comment came around the time the White House announced …

Discussion: Right Wing News, Associated Press, The Gateway Pundit and Mediaite

Dodai Stewart / Jezebel:
French Media Convinced Beyoncé and President Obama Are Having Affair

Discussion: Politico, BBC, PoliticusUSA, Poynter, ThinkProgress and Mediaite

Alex Pappas / The Daily Caller:

Joe Scarborough believed to be taking idea of 2016 presidential bid seriously — Sources close to MSNBC host Joe Scarborough think he is seriously considering the prospect of leaving morning television to run for president in 2016. — Last week, Scarborough was all smiles …

Discussion: Twitchy, Hot Air, Hinterland Gazette, Booman Tribune and Conservatives4Palin

Tal Kopan / Politico:
Joe Scarborough: Chris Christie ‘distraction’ for RGA

Discussion: CNN, Mediaite, Hot Air, Firedoglake, Taylor Marsh and The Daily Caller

New York Post:
Bridgegate probe to check Christie chopper rides

Discussion: ABC News and Talking Points Memo

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

HealthCare.gov to be out of service — HealthCare.gov will be out of service for two and a half days beginning on Feb. 15 — the last day people can sign up to obtain coverage that begins on March 1. — The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services announced in a blog post on Monday …

Discussion: Independent Journal Review

Aljean Harmetz / New York Times:

Shirley Temple Black, Screen Darling, Dies at 85 — Shirley Temple Black, who as a dimpled, precocious and determined little girl in the 1930s sang and tap-danced her way to a height of Hollywood stardom and worldwide fame that no other child has reached, died on Monday night at her home in Woodside, Calif. She was 85.

Discussion: Liberaland and Althouse

Adam Goldman / Washington Post:

Video shows U.S. abduction of accused al-Qaeda terrorist on trial for embassy bombings — After dawn prayers Oct. 5, Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, a wanted al-Qaeda terrorism suspect, returned to his family's home in Tripoli, Libya. — He stopped his car in front of the house …

Discussion: I Acknowledge, The Verge, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and Gawker

CNN:

Zoo official on Marius the giraffe: Conservation isn't always clean — (CNN) — Outrage over the recent killing of a healthy giraffe at a Danish zoo misses a crucial point, an official argued. — “Conservation is not always simple. It's not always clean,” said Lesley Dickie …

Discussion: Mediaite and AMERICAblog News

The Atlantic Online:

Why Democrats Will Win on Unemployment Insurance — For the fifth time this year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid brought an unemployment-insurance extension to the floor last week, even though several members of his party admitted that they didn't have the votes to pass it. — They came close.

John Hawkins / Right Wing News:

Correction: Scott Walker Didn't Say He Voted For Reagan — Last month, I did an interview with Scott Walker. Here's an excerpt from that interview which seemed insignificant at the time that has gotten a lot of attention from liberal blogs today. I remember, I was a teenager …