memeorandum: Steve Scalise spoke to civic association meeting, not white nationalist conference, David Duke adviser Kenny Knight says (Steve Scalise/New Orleans Times-Picayune)

5:45 PM ET, January 1, 2015

Top Items:

Steve Scalise / New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Steve Scalise spoke to civic association meeting, not white nationalist conference, David Duke adviser Kenny Knight says — Reports that Rep. Steve Scalise, the third-ranking Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, gave a speech to a white nationalist conference connected with David Duke …

Discussion: Power Line, BREITBART.COM, NOLA River, The PJ Tatler and Fox News

Ben Kamisar / The Hill:

Dems take cautious approach with Scalise — Democrats are taking a strikingly cautious approach to the controversy surrounding House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and his speech to a white supremacist group in 2002. — The vast majority of Democrats are not calling for Scalise to resign, or for leadership to drop him.

Discussion: USA Today, ThinkProgress, msnbc.com and Chicago Tribune

Jeremy Alford / New York Times:
Much of David Duke's '91 Campaign Is Now in Louisiana Mainstream

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Prairie Weather

Washington Post:

Jeb Bush severs ties to most firms with eye on 2016 — Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, moving closer to a possible presidential run, has stepped down as a paid adviser to a for-profit education company that sells online courses to public university students in exchange for a share of their tuition payments.

Discussion: Guardian, LiberalAmerica.org, Reuters, Gawker, Bloomberg Politics, Politico, The Moderate Voice, Liberaland, CNN and ABC News

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Bush won't attend Steve King summit

Discussion: Washington Post and Prairie Weather

Steve Peoples / Associated Press: Bush resigns from remaining board memberships

Krishnadev Calamur / NPR:
Sen. Rubio Says He Could Run For President Even If Jeb Bush Does

Discussion: BuzzFeed

Nahal Toosi / Politico:
Jeb Bush quits all private-sector, nonprofit boards

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Mediaite

Annie Karni / NY Daily News:

EXCLUSIVE: Bill de Blasio's tense relationship with the NYPD casting shadow over DNC bid — Party officials are concerned the bad blood might still be an issue when the convention is held in 2016, stealing the spotlight from the party's presidential nominee, a top Democrat told the Daily News.

Discussion: Mediaite and National Review

New York Post:

De Blasio reappoints judge who freed men who threatened cops — Mayor Bill de Blasio has reappointed Judge Laura Johnson to the bench. Johnson sparked controversy after she released Devon Coley without bail after he made death threats against the NYPD on Facebook.

Discussion: NY Daily News and Scared Monkeys

Adam Gopnik / New Yorker:

The Newtown Lawsuit and the Moral Work of Gun Control — The news that the parents of the children massacred two years ago in Sandy Hook, near Newtown, Connecticut, by a young man with a Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle, were undertaking a lawsuit against the gun manufacturer was at once encouraging and terribly discouraging.

Discussion: National Review

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

Liberals Can't Argue, They Can Only Bully — No one expects sensible commentary on firearms from the New Yorker, but this gun control rant is worth noting because it is so typical of modern liberalism. Facts? Who needs facts? Bullying is all that the left aspires to.

Discussion: neo-neocon

David Edwards / Raw Story:

‘Listen up ladies’: Fox News kicks off New Year with absurdly sexist advice for ‘catering to your man’ — DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY! — The hosts of Fox & Friends started the New Year on Thursday by telling women that they should “cater” to their man by stroking his ego, cooking him meals, and massaging his feet.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Slantpoint and Daily Mail

Agence France-Presse:

Economist Thomas Piketty refuses France's highest honour — Paris (AFP) - France's influential economist Thomas Piketty, author of “Capital in the 21st Century”, on Thursday refused to accept the country's highest award, the Legion d'honneur, to criticise the Socialist government in power.

Discussion: Reuters, Mediaite and Slantpoint

Charles Babington / Associated Press:

GOP legislators thwart bids to expand Medicaid — Associated Press 4 hrs ago — WASHINGTON (AP) — Governors across the political spectrum are hitting a roadblock in their bids to expand Medicaid with federal funds: Republican legislators who adamantly oppose “Obamacare.”

Discussion: Liberal Values and Slantpoint

WXIA-TV:

Peachtree City police chief shoots wife — PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. — The wife of Peachtree City Police Chief William E. McCollum is in critical condition after being shot by her husband Thursday morning. — Police responded to the couple's home in the 100 block of Autumn Leaf shortly after 4:15 a.m. …

Discussion: Liberaland, WGCL-TV and Raw Story

Abigail Frymann Rouch / The Tablet:

Publisher HarperCollins omits Israel from school atlas ‘to meet local preferences’ — The Bishops' Conference of England and Wales has accused the publisher HarperCollins of harming peace efforts in the Middle East through its production of atlases that omit Israel from their maps.

Discussion: Daily Mail, The Times of Israel, The Moderate Voice, RT, Raw Story and Power Line