Police outside cop funeral turn backs on NY mayor  —  Associated Press 16 mins ago  —  NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of officers outside the church where a funeral was held for a policeman killed along with his partner in an ambush shooting turned their backs on the mayor as he spoke during Saturday's service.

Why Airlines Want to Make You Suffer  —  This fall, JetBlue airline finally threw in the towel.  For years, the company was among the last holdouts in the face of an industry trend toward smaller seats, higher fees, and other forms of unpleasantness.  JetBlue distinguished itself by providing decent …

Jesse Jackson Admits Affair, Illegitimate Child  —  Moving to pre-empt a tabloid newspaper report, the Rev. Jesse Jackson this morning released a statement admitting he had an extramarital affair that resulted in a daughter who is now 20 months old.  —  “This is no time for evasions …

Pakistani officials furious over ‘Homeland’  —  Mandy Patinkin plays former CIA honcho Saul Berenson during a tight spot of season four of “Homeland.”  —  Claire Danes is lucky no Emmy voters live in Islamabad.  —  Pakistani officials are furious with Showtime after watching the fourth season …

The immigration strike team  —  Democrats are already plotting ways to boost Hispanic voter turnout in 2016.  —  After a midterm election in which declining Hispanic turnout cost Democrats dearly in close races, causing some leaders to question whether President Barack Obama made a mistake …

FDR seizes control of Montgomery Ward … On this day in 1944, as World War II dragged on, President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders his secretary of war to seize properties belonging to the Montgomery Ward company because the company refused to comply with a labor agreement.

Follow-Up to the Fed's Dirty Little Secret  —  My last post made the argument that monetary base injections at the zero lower bound (ZLB) can be effective if they are permanent.  I also noted that this understanding is a standard view in macroeconomics and that it implies the Fed's QE programs …

Polls: Obama ending the year with improving approval ratings  —  President Barack Obama is ending the year, and his sixth year in office, on a high note — even performing better than his predecessor.  —  A recent Gallup poll shows Obama with a 43 percent December approval rating at the end of his sixth year in office.

Dear GOP: Show, Don't Tell  —  Hey, Jeb, Ted, Rand, Marco, Bobby, Chris and the dozen or more others I'm forgetting, here's something to write on your bathroom mirror in 2015 and beyond: The “P” in POTUS stands for “President,” not “Pundit.”  —  I understand that the Seinfeldian faux-holiday Festivus …