memeorandum: Polls: Obama ending the year with improving approval ratings (Lucy McCalmont/Politico)

9:15 PM ET, December 27, 2014

Top Items:

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.

Discussion: Balloon Juice, The Mahablog, Gothamist, CANNONFIRE, Scared Monkeys, The Other McCain and Slantpoint

Warner Todd Huston / BREITBART.COM:

Bill De Blasio 2 Hours Late to Wake for Slain Officer Rafael Ramos — On Friday evening, thousands of New Yorkers attended a memorial service for Rafael Ramos, one of the two NYPD officers assassinated a week ago by an Eric Garner protester. The service brought mourners from every corner of the city.

Discussion: New York Post, TPNN, NPR and New York Magazine

New York Post:

Cops turn backs on de Blasio at executed officer's funeral — Law enforcement officers turn their backs on a video monitor as Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks during the funeral of slain NYPD officer Rafael Ramos. — As Mayor Bill de Blasio took the podium Saturday at the funeral of P.O. Rafael Ramos …

Discussion: Washington Post and Twitchy

Karoli / Latest from Crooks and Liars:

Hundreds Of NYPD Officers Turn Backs To Bill DeBlasio At Officer's Funeral — Protesting at a funeral? What's next, the New York version of Hillsboro Baptist Church? — You remember that time that Mayor de Blasio asked the protesters standing for Eric Garner and Mike Brown to stand …

Discussion: CBS New York and Mediaite

ABC News:

Hundreds Turn Their Back on de Blasio at NYPD Officer's Funeral — Hundreds of police officers turned their backs on a screen showing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio as he spoke at the funeral of one of two officers killed last week in what has been called an “assassination.”

Discussion: Raw Story, Moe Lane and The Daily Caller

Mireya Navarro / New York Times:
Mourners From All Corners of New York City Pay Tribute to a Slain Officer

Discussion: BREITBART.COM, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, NPR, New York Magazine, Hot Air, USA Today, Washington Post and DNAinfo New York

Skschust / CBS New York:
Mourners Gather For Wake Of Fallen NYPD Officer Rafael Ramos

Discussion: Gothamist, CBS Boston, CBS Los Angeles, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, New York Times and Mashable

John Cardillo:
BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: NYPD COPS CALL OUT MAYOR BILL DeBLASIO ON HIS “INCENDIARY RHETORIC.”

Discussion: TPNN, CBS New York, Gothamist, New York's PIX11, NY Daily News, Mediaite and Gawker

Tim Wu / New Yorker:

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 …

Discussion: View from the Wing, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Outside the Beltway

Jon Palmer / Boston Globe:

Plymouth School Department Payroll Mistake Affects More Than 1,300 Employees — Instead of receiving their paychecks on Friday, Plymouth Public Schools employees who receive their salary via direct deposit found that the amount they were supposed to have been paid had been withdrawn from their bank accounts.

Discussion: Fox News Insider and Associated Press

KRGV-TV:

Son Shoots Father — The incident started when a father gave his son a Christmas present — BAYVIEW - — A dad is recovering after police said he was shot in the eye by his son. It happened after another son attacked his dad because of a Christmas gift.

Discussion: Liberaland and Raw Story

Jamie Schram / New York Post:

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 …

Discussion: RT, TMZ.com and Liberal Values

BBC:

Al-Shabab militant Zakariya Ahmed Ismail Hersi ‘surrenders’ — A top al-Shabab militant, Zakariya Ahmed Ismail Hersi, has given himself up, Somali officials say. — Mr Hersi, a leading figure in the militant group's intelligence wing, surrendered to police in the Gedo region, they add.

Discussion: Associated Press, CNN, BuzzFeed, The Long War Journal and Hinterland Gazette

History.com:

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.

Discussion: New York Times

Lucy McCalmont / Politico:

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.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Huffington Post, Addicting Info and PoliticusUSA