memeorandum: CMS: Health spending to hit $5.2T within 10 years (Elise Viebeck/The Hill)

12:25 PM ET, September 4, 2014

Top Items:

Alexandra Jaffe / The Hill:

Legal questions complicate Dem's exit from Kansas Senate race — Despite filing papers with the Kansas secretary of State withdrawing from the Senate race late Wednesday, Democrat Chad Taylor may be stuck on the ballot this fall. — Two election law statutes have raised questions …

Discussion: Hot Air, Washington Post, RedState, Daily Kos and Wall Street Journal

Bryan Lowryeagle Topeka / Wichita Eagle:

Democrat Chad Taylor drops out of U.S. Senate race against Pat Roberts, Greg Orman — › — ‹ — The Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate has decided to drop out of the race, opening room for an independent to draw a broader base of support.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Roll Call, CANNONFIRE, Fox News, The Week, Outside the Beltway, Booman Tribune, Talking Points Memo, OnPolitics and The Daily Caller

Manu Raju / Politico:
Dem's withdrawal poses threat to Roberts

Discussion: Capitol Report and The Moderate Voice

Kansas City Star:
Democrat Chad Taylor's exit shakes up U.S. Senate race in Kansas

Discussion: The Hill, Power Line, FiveThirtyEight, Washington Post, Wichita Eagle and Weekly Standard

Sean Sullivan / Washington Post:
Democratic nominee Chad Taylor drops out of Kansas Senate race

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Associated Press, Hot Air and Prairie Weather

Brian Dulle / Kansas First News:
Taylor withdraws from US Senate race

Discussion: Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality

Jesse Byrnes / The Hill:

Warren: Destroying ISIS should be ‘No. 1 priority’ — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Wednesday said that the Obama administration should make defeating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) its top priority. — “ISIS is growing in strength. It has money, it has organization, it has the capacity to inflict real damage.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, The Anchoress and Althouse

Rich Lowry / Politico:

The Collapse of Obama's Foreign Policy — What this means, he hasn't spelled out in great specificity. Presumably fewer beheadings. A slower pace of Western recruiting. Fewer genocidal threats against embattled minorities. A downgrading of the caliphate to a mini-state, or merely a large swath of territory in Syria and Iraq.

Andrew Romano / Yahoo! News:

Sen. Warren Criticizes Washington-Wall Street ‘Revolving Door’ — Katie Couric — In an exclusive interview Wednesday with Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren slammed former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for accepting a multimillion-dollar job …

Discussion: naked capitalism, The Raw Story and Talking Points Memo

David E. Sanger / New York Times:
The Three-Headed Monster Challenging Obama's Foreign Policy

Discussion: JustOneMinute

Washington Post:
There are big holes in Obama Mideast strategy

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Mediaite, Bloomberg View, Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs, The PJ Tatler, RedState and The White House

Jonathan Alter / The Daily Beast:

This Really Is Obama's Moment of Truth — In a presidency of many ‘critical junctures,’ this time his foreign policy legacy is truly on the line—and if he can lead now on ISIS and Putin, we'll soon forget his recent history. — We read so many stories about this “critical juncture” …

Peter / Reuters:
U.S., allies to stage exercises in West Ukraine as battles rage in East

Discussion: Firedoglake, New York Times, The Atlantic Online and The Dish

Richard A. Epstein / Hoover Institution:
Rand Paul's Fatal Pacifism

Discussion: ABC News, Washington Post, Chicago Boyz, BuzzFeed, Power Line, BREITBART.COM, msnbc.com, The Federalist and RedState

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

Brit Hume: Obama told a friend of mine before he was elected, “Wouldn't it be great for the world if I were president?” — Saw this last night on Fox and had such a good laugh, I feel obliged to pass it along today. There's no way to prove he said it, but as Megyn Kelly's quick to show with archived audio …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and The Hill

Nell Gluckman / Bangor Daily News:

LePage says cost of energy keeps wages low, drives business from Maine — ORONO, Maine — A week after L.L. Bean announced it will close its Bangor call center and on the same day that Verizon Wireless said it would add 90 customer service employees to its local facility …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo and Taegan Goddard's …

Michael Hirsh / Politico:

Has Greenwald, Inc. peaked? — Thanks to Ed Snowden, Glenn Greenwald went from blogging to the big time. But his stock may be dropping fast. — For about a year, the global enterprise you might call Glenn Greenwald, Inc. has been taking off like a red-hot app.

Discussion: Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Washington Post:

Justice Dept. to probe Ferguson police force — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. this week will launch a broad civil rights investigation into the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department, according to two federal law enforcement officials. — The investigation, which could be announced as early …

Discussion: Daily Kos, NBC News, BillMoyers.com, New York Times, Gawker, Talking Points Memo, The Mahablog, Fox News, National Review, Mediaite, Prairie Weather and John Hawkins' Right Wing News

New York Times:
Justice Dept. Inquiry to Focus on Practices of Police in Ferguson

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Fox News and Gawker

Tim Devaney / The Hill:

Fast food workers take to streets to demand $15 minimum wage — Thousands of fast food workers are expected to stage protests Thursday outside of restaurants such as McDonald's, Burger King and Domino's in a coordinated push for higher pay. — Backed by the Service Employees International Union …

Discussion: Daily Signal and TheBlaze.com

Andrew Ross Sorkin / New York Times:

Michael Bloomberg to Return to Lead Company He Founded — Michael R. Bloomberg will reassume the leadership of his business empire only eight months after ending his final term as mayor of New York. — Late Wednesday, Mr. Bloomberg told close confidants and senior executives of Bloomberg L.P. …

Discussion: Washington Post, Capital New York, Business Insider, The Huffington Post, Politico and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »

Bloomberg:
DANIEL L. DOCTOROFF STEPPING ASIDE AS CEO OF BLOOMBERG LP AT END OF 2014

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Gawker

WEWS-TV:

Bath Twp. Police: Former Navy SEAL Chris Heben lied about getting shot at West Market Plaza — BATH TWP., Ohio - Bath Township detectives believe they have “overwhelming evidence” to prove a former Navy SEAL lied when he claimed he was shot during an altercation with three black men outside of a popular shopping center.

Discussion: Liberaland, Heavy.com and The Raw Story

The Times:

We will not be cowed by barbaric killers — David Cameron and Barack Obama — As Russia holds a gun to Ukraine and Islamic extremists commit despicable murder, Nato must strengthen its alliance — When Nato last met in Britain in 1990 the Cold War was ending.

Discussion: New York Times, Telegraph, Fox News, Guardian and Business Insider

Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:

BREAKING: Federal Appeals Court Withdraws Decision Defunding Obamacare — In July, two Republican judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit handed down a decision defunding much of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This effort to implement Sen. Ted Cruz's …

Discussion: Hit & Run, Hot Air and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

FiveThirtyEight's Senate Model Is Back And It Gives Republicans The Edge — The FiveThirtyEight Senate model is launching Wednesday. We'll be rolling it out in stages, with additional features, functionality and further methodological detail. We'll also be unveiling our new set …

Discussion: Bloomberg View