Obama's heavy lift on Cuba  —  The White House strategy to defeat the anti-Castro bloc in Congress involves a coordinated push to sell President Barack Obama's new Cuba policy to big business, human rights groups, lawmakers and Cubans themselves.  —  Obama and senior officials across multiple agencies …

Paramount Bans Showing ‘Team America’  —  Three movie theaters say Paramount Pictures has ordered them not to show Team America: World Police one day after Sony Pictures surrendered to cyberterrorists and pulled The Interview.  The famous Alamo Drafthouse in Texas, Capitol Theater in Cleveland …

AP: China arrests U.S. aid worker in North Korean border town  —  BEIJING — A Korean-American aid worker working in a Chinese city near North Korea has been arrested on charges of embezzlement and possession of fake invoices, his lawyer said Friday, in a sign that authorities are increasingly sensitive …

GOP goes on K Street hiring spree  —  Lobbyists can come home again.  —  As Republicans take control of Congress, they are bringing in veteran influence peddlers to help them run the show.  Nearly a dozen veteran K Streeters have been named as top staffers to GOP leaders or on key committees …

U.S. airstrikes kill 3 top ISIS leaders  —  Washington (CNN) — U.S. airstrikes have killed two top-level and one mid-level ISIS leader, a senior U.S. military official tells CNN.  —  Haji Mutazz was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's deputy in Iraq; Abd al Basit was his military emir in Iraq; and Radwan Talib was his Mosul emir.

Sexist Comment by Austin Police Officer: Isolated Incident or Part of Broader Culture?  —  Update (2:19 p.m.): Officer Andrew Petrowski officially retired from the Austin Police Department on Friday, Dec. 12 after learning KUT would air his comments this week.

The Unidentified Queen of Torture  —  For the past eight months, there has been a furious battle raging behind closed doors at the White House, the C.I.A., and in Congress.  The question has been whether the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence would be allowed to use pseudonyms as a means …

Clinically dead pregnant woman being kept alive by hospital  —  Life support machine being used to protect unborn baby  —  A PREGNANT woman who is clinically brain-dead is being kept on a life support machine in hospital to keep her baby alive, the Irish Independent can reveal.  — Google

‘Governor, This Is Barack Obama, Formerly Of Somerville.’ … For the past eight years, Deval Patrick has joined Jim Braude and Margery Eagan on the radio each month to field calls from listeners.  On Thursday, he joined the hosts of Boston Public Radio for the final time as governor of Massachusetts.

Democrats to Colbert: Thanks For Your Help!  —  I have never seen Stephen Colbert's show on Comedy Central, but I take it that it consists of an endless series of anti-Republican “jokes.”  If asked, would Colbert admit to being a loyal Democratic Party foot soldier, or would he claim …

Should the government rate our colleges?  —  Should the federal government be in the business of rating colleges?  And can it do them right?  —  That's been a question ever since the summer of 2013, when President Obama announced the Department of Education's new plan to score American colleges …

Uber Strikes Deal With Portland to Suspend Service for Three Months  —  Uber reached an agreement with Portland to suspend operations in the city for three months while regulators work to revise rules around taxis that currently prohibit ridesharing apps.  —  The city agreed to let Uber …