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7:15 AM ET, December 18, 2014

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
New York Times:
U.S. Said to Find North Korea Ordered Cyberattack on Sony  —  WASHINGTON — American officials have concluded that North Korea ordered the attacks on Sony Pictures's computers, a determination reached as the studio decided Wednesday to cancel the release of a movie comedy about the assassination …
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Kim Zetter / Wired:
The Evidence That North Korea Hacked Sony Is Flimsy  —  A poster for the movie “The Interview” is taken down by a worker after being pulled from a display case at a Carmike Cinemas movie theater, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, in Atlanta.  Georgia-based Carmike Cinemas has decided to cancel …
Mike Fleming / Deadline:
North Korea-Based Thriller With Gore Verbinski And Steve Carell Canceled  —  EXCLUSIVE: The chilling effect of the Sony Pictures hack and terrorist threats against The Interview are reverberating.  New Regency has scrapped another project that was to be set in North Korea.
Gregg Kilday / Hollywood Reporter:
Top Five Theater Circuits Drop ‘The Interview’ After Sony Hack  — The country's largest chains won't be showing the movie  —  The country's top five theater circuits have decided not to play Sony's The Interview, a knowledgeable source tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Brent Lang / Variety:
Sony Cancels Theatrical Release for ‘The Interview’ on Christmas  —  With theater chains defecting en masse, Sony Pictures Entertainment has pulled the planned Christmas Day release of “The Interview.”  —  In announcing the decision to cancel the holiday debut, Sony hit back at the hackers …
Dennis Romero / LA Weekly:
Killing The Interview Opens Studios to Terrorist Manipulation  —  It's a cliche, but when it comes to today's cancellation of the Sony comedy The Interview, maybe the terrorists did win.  The studio caved after hackers, reportedly linked to North Korea, threatened theater violence if the Seth Rogen movie saw the light of day.
Ted Bridis / Associated Press:
Sony emails show a studio ripe for hacking  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — In the weeks before hackers broke into Sony Pictures Entertainment, the studio suffered significant technology outages it blamed on software flaws and incompetent technical staffers who weren't paying attention …
Associated Press:
AP source: North Korea linked to Sony hacking  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal investigators have now connected the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. to North Korea, a U.S. official said Wednesday, though it remained unclear how the federal government would respond to a break …
Reuters:
Sony cancels North Korea movie in apparent win for Pyongyang hackers
Discussion: TalkLeft and The Great Debate
David Auerbach / Slate:
The Sony Hackers Are Terrorists
Discussion: Tech Times, Mashable and The Verge
Erin Dooley / ABC News:
Obama: Sony Hack Proves U.S. Needs to Do ‘A Lot More’ to Protect Against Cyber Threats
Politico:
The Democrats' risky Cuba bet  —  Will Florida's changing demographics offset a backlash among older Cuban-Americans?  —  Barack Obama, who won the swing state of Florida in the 2012 election by 50.01 percent to 49.13 percent, knows just how many presidential candidacies have gotten bogged …
RELATED:
Facebook:
STATEMENT: Governor Jeb Bush on President Obama's Cuba Policy Announcement  —  The Obama Administration's decision to restore diplomatic ties with Cuba is the latest foreign policy misstep by this President, and another dramatic overreach of his executive authority.
Rich Lowry / Politico:
The Castros finally hit the jackpot  —  Even if you oppose the isolation of Cuba, this is not a good trade.  —  Candidate Barack Obama said that, as president, he would talk to anti-American dictators without precondition.  He didn't mention that he would also given them historic policy concessions without precondition.
Politico:
Republicans livid over Cuba talks, call it appeasement
Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:   Jeb Bush Paid By Bank That Violated Cuba Sanctions
Peter Baker / New York Times:
U.S. to Restore Full Relations With Cuba, Erasing a Last Trace of Cold War Hostility
Sarah Wheaton / Politico:
Vermont bails on single-payer health care  —  Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin on Wednesday dropped his plan to enact a single-payer health care system in his state — a plan that had won praise from liberals but never really got much past the framework stage.  —  “This is not the right time” …
Discussion: Viking Pundit
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Did Ted Cruz really bungle the lame-duck session for Republicans?  —  There's no doubt that many Republican senators, and plenty of conservative commentators, were angry at GOP Sen. Ted Cruz for raising a time-consuming objection to passage of the “Cromnibus” spending bill in an effort …
RELATED:
Chris Davis / KCEN-TV:
Words Exchanged Before KCEN Employee Shot in Station Parking Lot  —  (KCEN) - Law enforcement officials have taken a man who was hold up inside of a house into custody.  They are calling him a person of interest in the shooting of Patrick Crawford.  But they are not saying whether or not he is the shooter.
Nick Anderson / Washington Post:
Johns Hopkins mistakenly says ‘yes’ to hundreds of rejected applicants  —  Sam Stephenson was steeling himself for another round of college applications after his first choice, Johns Hopkins University, turned him down.  Then the 17-year-old from Culpeper County in Virginia received an e-mail …
Joe Arnold / WHAS-TV:
Grimes pledges legal challenge if Paul attempts simultaneous races  —  Alison Lundergan Grimes says she will challenge Senator Rand Paul if he tries to get on the ballot for both Senate re-election and president  —  FRANKFORT, Ky. (WHAS11) — Six weeks after she lost her own bid for the U-S Senate …
Discussion: Politico
Mark Sherman / Associated Press:
Executions, new death sentences continue to fall  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Executions and new death sentences dropped to their lowest numbers in decades in 2014, an anti-death penalty group said in a new report.  —  The Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that opposes executions …
Thomas Kaplan / New York Times:
Citing Health Risks, Cuomo Bans Fracking in New York State  —  Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's administration announced on Wednesday that it would ban hydraulic fracturing in New York State because of concerns over health risks, ending years of debate over a method of extracting natural gas.
Daily Mail:
Time to lay off the doughnuts!  Study reveals cops are the most obese workers in America  —  Their job is to protect and serve - but it seems some police officers interpret this as an excuse to enjoy too many extra servings at the lunch table.  —  A study has revealed US cops have the highest rates …
Jim Tankersley / Washington Post:
A black hole for our best and brightest  —  Wall Street is expanding, and the economy is worse off for it.  —  NEW YORK — The thing Deborah Jackson remembers from her first interviews at Goldman Sachs is the slogan.  It was stamped on the glass doors of the offices in the investment bank's headquarters …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Tina Nguyen / Mediaite:
RNC Now Offering Donors an Official Dick Cheney Cowboy Hat
Discussion: National Review and OnPolitics
Josh Lederman / Associated Press:
Obama on Hanukkah says small acts can make miracles
Hadas Gold / Politico:
DCCC list-builds off Stephen Colbert
Paul Handley / Agence France-Presse:
US Federal Reserve says can be ‘patient’ on rate rise
Discussion: Slantpoint
Anne Bayefsky / Jerusalem Post:
UN: Turning back the clock to pre-1948 is the real endgame
Discussion: The Gateway Pundit
 Earlier Items: 
Lawrence Hurley / Reuters:
U.S. top court blocks Arizona from denying driver's licenses to immigrants
Mushtaq Yusufzai / NBC News:
A Dad's Hell: NBC Reporter's Kids Were Inside Attack
Discussion: The Huffington Post and Mediaite
Molly Redden / Mother Jones:
This GOP Lawmaker Wants a Woman to Get Permission From the Father Before Having an Abortion
 

 
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Jibin Joseph / PCMag:
UK mobile operator Virgin Media O2 creates Daisy, an AI-generated “scambaiter” tool that mimics the voice of an elderly woman to waste scammers' time

Mia Sato / The Verge:
Facebook makes Views its primary metric for content, bringing it in line with Instagram; each time a piece of content appears on a screen, it counts as a View
 
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