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11:15 AM ET, July 17, 2014

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Tod Lindberg / The New Republic:
The 2014 Midterms Don't Mean Anything  —  Pundits and pols say the stakes couldn't be higher.  Quite the opposite.  —  The political media's handicapping of the November 4 midterm election has contributed to the impression, fostered by many partisans and commentators, that the stakes have never been higher.
Discussion: VodkaPundit
RELATED:
Kyle Kondik / Sabato's Crystal Ball:
The Hidden Barrier to a Republican Senate Majority  —  The GOP has had little recent success defeating Democratic incumbents  —  If Republicans are to win the Senate, they probably are going to have to do something they haven't done since 1980: beat more than two Democratic Senate incumbents in November.
Politico:
Cruz's next fight: Immigration  —  Texas Sen. Ted Cruz plans to take a hard-line stand that could rile up conservatives just as lawmakers — including two from his home state — are struggling to address the growing humanitarian crisis along the southern border.
New York Times:
California Death Penalty Is Unconstitutional, Federal Judge Says  —  A federal judge in Southern California ruled Wednesday that California's death penalty was unconstitutional.  —  The “dysfunctional administration of California's death penalty system,” wrote Judge Cormac J. Carney …
RELATED:
Christopher Gunness / UNRWA:
UNRWA STRONGLY CONDEMNS PLACEMENT OF ROCKETS IN SCHOOL  —  Yesterday, in the course of the regular inspection of its premises, UNRWA discovered approximately 20 rockets hidden in a vacant school in the Gaza Strip.  UNRWA strongly condemns the group or groups responsible for placing the weapons in one of its installations.
Ned Resnikoff / msnbc.com:
Hobby Lobby: A new tool for crushing workplace unionization?  —  A little-known religious exemption to United States labor law may have just become extremely important, thanks to the Supreme Court's ruling in Hobby Lobby.  —  By declaring that “closely held” corporations may hold religious beliefs …
RELATED:
Sarah Chacko / Roll Call:
Birth Control Legislation Stalls in Senate
Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …
Associated Press:   Democrats fail in attempt to reverse Hobby Lobby contraceptive ruling
Ed O'Keefe / Washington Post:
More Democrats oppose weakening legal protections of kids crossing the border  —  A growing number of congressional Democrats are opposed to weakening legal protections for young children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border from Central America, making it less likely that Congress can agree …
Discussion: Hot Air
RELATED:
Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
Partisanship Infuses Hearings on Health Law and Executive Power
Discussion: ThinkProgress, Politico and Mediaite
Quinnipiac News + Events:
Release Detail  —  July 17, 2014 - Udall, Gardner Tied In See-Saw Colorado Senate Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Democrat's Job Approval Hits All-Time Low  —  The closely-watched U.S. Senate race is tied with 44 percent for U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, the Republican challenger …
Discussion: The Spot
Lanny J. Davis / The Hill:
Lessons from LeBron — How the GOP can use crisis management  —  LeBron James's surprise announcement last Friday that he planned to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers from the Miami Heat offers important lessons for effective crisis management.  Indeed, the most important lesson might …
Discussion: Talking Points Memo
Katie Pavlich / Townhall.com:
EXCLUSIVE: Documents Detail Heinous Crimes Committed by Gang Members Being Housed in Nogales Processing Center  —  SHARES  —  Late last week I reported 16 MS-13 gang members exploiting the unaccompanied minor crisis were being housed at a Border Patrol processing center in Nogales, Arizona.
Ernesto Londoño / Washington Post:
Pentagon told lawmakers that it plans to move six Guantanamo detainees to Uruguay  —  The Pentagon recently notified members of Congress that it intends to transfer six low-level detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Uruguay soon, including a Syrian man who is legally challenging the manner …
Paresh Dave / Los Angeles Times:
Ex-dictator Manuel Noriega sues Activision over ‘Call of Duty’ game  —  Former Panama dictator Manuel Noriega is suing the Santa Monica video game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc. for depicting him and using his name without his permission in one of the fastest-selling video games.
Discussion: The Raw Story and The Daily Caller
RELATED:
Sally Kohn / The Daily Beast:
Chick-fil-A Is Like Gay Sex: Don't Knock It Till You Try It  —  Hats off, Chick-fil-A!  You've overtaken KFC, and you're aiming to sell healthier fare.  But pssst!  Don't you know 'skinny'='gay'?  —  Chick-fil-A is like gay sex: Don't knock it till you try it.
Discussion: NewsBusters and Mediaite
Kevin Rawlinson / BBC:
Blogger fined for restaurant review  —  The restaurant argued the negative review's prominence in Google's search results was unfairly harming business  —  A French judge has ruled against a blogger because her scathing restaurant review was too prominent in Google search results.
Politico:
Tom Steyer struggles to find big-money donors  —  Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer is falling far short on his pledge to raise $50 million in outside money to make climate change a midterm-election weapon against the GOP.  —  His super PAC, NextGen Climate Action …
Manu Raju / Politico:
Bluegrass bravado: Untested Alison Lundergan Grimes takes on Mitch McConnell  —  Then Grimes took the podium, electrifying the crowd in a 36-minute speech with a succession of zingers at McConnell and populist-tinged proposals, such as raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour and easing regulations on coal production.
Discussion: National Review
Manny Fernandez / New York Times:
Towns Fight to Avoid Taking In Migrant Minors  —  OYSTER CREEK, Tex. — A shelter for Central American children who crossed the border illegally opened behind Gregg Griffith's house here a few months ago.  The children are quiet.  No one has hopped over the fence that separates his backyard from the shelter, a once-vacant youth home.
 
 
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 More Items: 
Jemima Kiss / Guardian:
Academics: UK ‘Drip’ data law changes are ‘serious expansion of surveillance’
Discussion: Taylor Marsh
Mark Bittman / New York Times:
The True Cost of a Burger
Discussion: Althouse and Forbes
KOMO News:
Man sets house afire trying to kill spider with lighter, spray paint
Discussion: Liberaland and Mediaite
Josh Rogin / The Daily Beast:
Bowe Bergdahl Thanks Obama for ‘Saving His Life’
Discussion: Politico, New York Times and Mediaite
Jelani Cobb / Comment:
TALKING OPENLY ABOUT OBAMA AND RACE
Discussion: RedState
Chicago Tribune:
Minimum wage hike imperils Chicago job creation
Discussion: RedState
 Earlier Items: 
Brian Witte / Associated Press:
Immigration Leads to O'Malley and Obama Spat
Discussion: Politico
Associated Press:
FEC Filing: Pro-Cochran PAC Funded Black Outreach
Discussion: Politico
Politico:
Justice IRS probe also includes Lois Lerner emails
Benny Johnson / BuzzFeed:
The 7 Ugliest Government Buildings In Washington, D.C.
Washington Post:
Decriminalization arrives, and D.C. police prepare for sea change in marijuana laws
Discussion: Firedoglake, FishbowlDC and Poynter
Paul Waldman / American Prospect:
The Continuing Agonies of the Super-Rich
 

 
From Techmeme:

Financial Times:
Sources: the US FTC plans to investigate allegations that Microsoft is abusing its market power in productivity software to prevent customers from leaving Azure

Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
The EU fines Meta €797.72M for tying Facebook Marketplace to Facebook and “imposing unfair trading conditions” on other online classified ads service providers

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
OpenAI says the ChatGPT desktop app for macOS can now read code from some developer-focused apps, including VS Code, Xcode, TextEdit, Terminal, and iTerm2

 
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