Top Items:
Guardian:
Yahoo webcam images from millions of users intercepted by GCHQ — • Optic Nerve program collected Yahoo webcam images in bulk — • 1.8m users targeted by UK agency in six-month period alone — • Yahoo: ‘A whole new level of violation of our users’ privacy'
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh, The PJ Tatler, Los Angeles Times, TechCrunch, PandoDaily, The Verge, Engadget, Hit & Run, Gawker, AMERICAblog News, Gizmodo, BBC, Shakesville, BillMoyers.com, susiemadrak.com, Mashable, emptywheel, The Agonist and Eschaton
NorthJersey.com:
GWB Scandal: Release of previously redacted messages reveals new information — The private messages that linked Governor Christie's office to lane closures at the George Washington Bridge also contain jokes about causing “traffic problems” at the home of a New Jersey rabbi associated …
Discussion:
Politico, Firedoglake, New York Times, Business Insider and Daily Kos
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Tami Luhby / CNNMoney.com:
Now on your restaurant bill: Obamacare fee — Several restaurants in a Florida chain are asking customers to help foot the bill for Obamacare. — Diners at eight Gator's Dockside casual eateries are finding a 1% Affordable Care Act surcharge on their tabs, which comes to 15 cents on a typical $15 lunch tab.
Bradley A. Smith / Wall Street Journal:
Bradley A. Smith: Connecting the Dots in the IRS Scandal — The ‘smoking gun’ in the targeting of conservative groups has been hiding in plain sight. — The mainstream press has justified its lack of coverage over the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups because there's been no …
Discussion:
protein wisdom, Betsy's Page, Power Line, Center for Competitive …, Jammie Wearing Fools and Shot in the Dark
Russell Berman / The Hill:
Boehner says Republicans will lead, but backs away from votes — Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday defended the House GOP's go-slow approach on immigration, tax reform and replacing ObamaCare, saying the party wanted to avoid repeating mistakes Democrats made and had to face the “reality” of its limited power in Washington.
Discussion:
Politico and BobCesca.com
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Eugene Volokh / Washington Post:
Not safe to display American flag in American high school — Today's Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified School Dist. (9th Cir. Feb. 27, 2014) upholds a California high school's decision to forbid students from wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo. (See here and here for more on this case.)
Discussion:
National Review, Hit & Run and The PJ Tatler
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Andrew Wolfson / Courier-Journal:
Gay marriages recognized in Kentucky for now — At least for now, Kentucky must recognize same-sex marrriages performed in states where it is legal. — U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn today made final a ruling issued earlier this month in which he found that Kentucky's marriage amendment …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, GLAAD and Towleroad News #gay
RELATED:
Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:
Kentucky Ordered To Recognize Same-Sex Couples Marriages
Kentucky Ordered To Recognize Same-Sex Couples Marriages
Discussion:
Freedom to Marry Blog
Abby D. Phillip / ABC News:
An Unhappy 5th Birthday For The Tea Party … Five years after the Republican Party birthed the tea party movement, mother and child have never been more at odds. — The tension between “establishment” Republicans and tea party activists was on full display today at a 5th Anniversary event in Washington.
Discussion:
Politico
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Philiana Ng / Hollywood Reporter:
Michelle Obama to Appear on ‘Parks and Recreation’ — UPDATED: The first lady will make a cameo on the one-hour season-six finale. — Michelle Obama is heading to Pawnee. — The first lady will guest star on the season finale of Parks and Recreation, NBC announced Thursday.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, ThinkProgress and The Week
Rich Lowry / Politico:
Brewer's Foolish Veto — In addition to the federal government, 18 states have such statutes and about a dozen other states interpret their state constitutions as extending the same protections, according to the letter. The statutes, the scholars write, “say that before government can burden …
Discussion:
Hinterland Gazette, The PJ Tatler and alicublog
RELATED:
Jason LaVeris / ABC News:
Celebs, Politicians React to Veto of Controversial Arizona Bill
Celebs, Politicians React to Veto of Controversial Arizona Bill
Discussion:
Yahoo! News and ABC News
Sabrina Tavernise / New York Times:
New F.D.A. Nutrition Labels Would Make ‘Serving Sizes’ Reflect Actual Servings — WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration for the first time in two decades will propose major changes to nutrition labels on food packages, putting calorie counts in large type and adjusting portion sizes to reflect how much Americans actually eat.
Discussion:
Reuters, NPR, Politico, CNN, The Verge, TVNewser, Business Insider, ThinkProgress, The Daily Caller, Balloon Juice and Gizmodo
Nathaniel Rich / New York Times:
The Mammoth Cometh — The first time Ben Novak saw a passenger pigeon, he fell to his knees and remained in that position, speechless, for 20 minutes. He was 16. At 13, Novak vowed to devote his life to resurrecting extinct animals. At 14, he saw a photograph of a passenger pigeon in an Audubon Society book and “fell in love.”
Discussion:
Marginal REVOLUTION and Althouse
Carol Costello / CNN:
HotJesus: Must He be sexy? — Editor's note: Carol Costello anchors the 9 to 11 a.m. ET edition of CNN's “Newsroom” each weekday. Watch at 9:40 a.m. ET Thursday for a discussion of the new film about Jesus. — (CNN) — Clearly Jesus was sexy. — After all, He is the Son of God.
Discussion:
Business Insider, Mediaite and The Huffington Post
Michael J. Feeney / NY Daily News:
Harlem pastor makes bizarre homophobic claim about president on church sign: ‘Obama has released the homo demons on the black man’ — Pastor James David Manning's homophobic sign was unveiled Sunday in front of the ATLAH World Missionary Church near the corner of W. 123rd St and Lenox Ave.
New York Times:
Complete Results: New York Times/CBS News February Poll — The nationwide poll was conducted Feb. 19 to 23 by landline and cellphone among 1,644 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for all adults and plus or minus 6 points for Republicans, Democrats and independents.
Discussion:
National Review, The Plum Line, Mediaite, Hit & Run, American Power and New York Times
Alan I. Abramowitz / Sabato's Crystal Ball:
Generic Ballot Model Shows Senate Control at Tipping Point — Look for more partisan conflict and polarization in new Senate — Crystal Ball Senior Columnist Alan Abramowitz's discussion of his Senate elections model not only confirms how close we expect the 2014 Senate campaign will be …
Discussion:
Political Insider blog, The Plum Line, Washington Monthly and VodkaPundit
Greg Gilman / The Wrap:
Paula Deen Compares Her Struggles to ‘That Black’ Openly Gay NFL Prospect Michael Sam — The celebrity chef also expressed a newfound “empathy” for other controversial public figures such as “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson — Paula Deen's $100 million empire crumbled last year …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, People.com, E! Online, The Raw Story, The Huffington Post, Gawker, Colorlines, Hinterland Gazette, Shakesville, Mediaite, ABC News and Joe. My. God.
Ana Marie Cox / Guardian:
How to fight the war on voting rights: truth, justice and not the Biden way — Don't tell the conservative believers of the ‘voter fraud’ myth they're racist or full of hate. Tell 'em they're afraid - and wrong — Biden, and the rest of us, shouldn't make ‘white boy’ jokes.
Discussion:
NAACP LDF
Peter Suderman / Reason:
Obamacare's Failed State Exchanges — The federal government spent more than $1.2 billion on state-based online insurance portals that remain broken. — The federal government spent more on broken state-run exchanges than it did on its own troubled system.
Discussion:
Hit & Run and Washington Post
Rebecca Riffkin / Gallup:
U.S. Obesity Rate Ticks Up to 27.1% in 2013 — Percentage “morbidly obese” rose slightly to a new high of 3.8% — WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the U.S., 27.1% of adults were obese in 2013, the highest rate measured since Gallup and Healthways began tracking in 2008.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Hot Air and Real Clear Politics
Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:
Keith Olbermann Says He Hasn't Watched MSNBC Since 2009 — Former MSNBC host and current ESPN sportscaster Keith Olbermann says he hasn't tuned into his old cable news channel since 2009 — more than a year before he left the network in 2011. — TPM reached out to Olbermann on Thursday …
Discussion:
Mediaite, msnbc.com and The Huffington Post
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Republicans flip-flop on ‘judicial activism’ — There was a time not too long ago when Republicans decried “activist judges.” Now they're lamenting that judges are not being activist enough. — “Unfortunately, the courts have been reluctant to exercise their constitutionally conferred power …
Discussion:
JONATHAN TURLEY and Balloon Juice