memeorandum: Obama administration asks U.S. top court to reject Texas abortion law (Joan Biskupic/Reuters)

4:10 PM ET, January 5, 2016

Top Items:

FACT SHEET: New Executive Actions to Reduce Gun Violence and Make Our Communities — Gun violence has taken a heartbreaking toll on too many communities across the country. Over the past decade in America, more than 100,000 people have been killed as a result of gun violence …

Nick Gass / Politico:

Obama wipes away tears as he calls for new gun measures — President Barack Obama wept openly Tuesday as he delivered a forceful defense of new executive actions on gun violence, a set of modest proposals to tighten loopholes that likely face quick legal challenges and could be vulnerable to reversal by a Republican White House.

Discussion: The Hill, Mother Jones, Hot Air and Bloomberg Business

Ali Weinberg / ABC News:

Tearful Obama on Gun Control: Excuses ‘No Longer Suffice’

Discussion: Speaker.gov, National Review and abc13.com

Jeb Bush / The Gazette:

Barack Obama's executive orders trample on the Second Amendment — Barack Obama has proved again why he will go down as one of the most liberal and divisive presidents in the history of our nation. Obama's declaration that he will impose his gun control agenda by executive order shows …

Discussion: Bloomberg.com news and Florida Politics

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Obama, Dems all in on gun control in 2016

Discussion: Politico and The Daily Signal

CNN:
Emotional Obama calls for ‘sense of urgency’ to fight gun violence

Discussion: CNNMoney, Washington Post, Occupy Democrats, Bearing Arms, Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times, KFOR-TV, The Hill, Vox and Politico

Reuters:
Obama, wiping tears, makes new push to tighten gun rules

Discussion: American Spectator and Washington Free Beacon

Alan Pyke / ThinkProgress:
Ghoulish Wall Street Speculators Pour Money Into Gun Companies

Discussion: New York Times, Reuters and Washington Post

Marina Koren / The Atlantic:
Obama's Emotional Speech on Gun Control

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Guardian:

Authorities plan to cut off power to militia at occupied Oregon refuge — Armed militants will begin their third day at the wildlife refuge and have vowed to remain for months in protest at over the treatment of two local cattle ranchers — Federal authorities are planning to cut off …

Discussion: addictinginfo.org, Raw Story, alan.com, Talking Points Memo, Occupy Democrats, Mediaite, Shakesville, The Mahablog, Balloon Juice, AlterNet and Los Angeles Times

Des Moines Register:

Last Slide — Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, said while campaigning in Iowa on Monday that he had no knowledge about a standoff in eastern Oregon where armed anti-government protesters have taken over a federal wildlife refuge.

Discussion: New York Times, RedState, DownWithTyranny!, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post and Trail Blazers Blog

Jamelle Bouie / Slate:

Is the Oregon Standoff Evidence of a Racial Double Standard? — Not really. And we are in danger of drawing the wrong lessons from the fact that these armed militiamen are white. — In April 2014, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy made headlines when he (and his armed allies) …

Discussion: Oregonian, No More Mister Nice Blog, Vox, Guardian, Power Line, Freedom Outpost, AOL, Fox News and Fox News Insider

Lydia O'Connor / The Huffington Post:
Oregon Militants Say They're Getting Worse Treatment Than Black Lives Matter Movement

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Salon, ThinkProgress, Lawyers, Guns & Money, CNN, New York Times, Oregonian, JustOneMinute, Breitbart, Esquire, Daily Kos and Business Insider

Scott McKay / American Spectator:
We Need a Conservative Alinsky

Discussion: FOX News Radio, The Federalist, The Hayride and The Last Refuge

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:

Trump and Cruz send shivers down GOP spines — With only weeks before GOP primary voters first cast their ballots, the level of alarm among establishment Republicans about the enduring dominance of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz is reaching new heights. — In private conversations with several former aides …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Shakesville

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

Ted Cruz: Trump Will Let Deported Immigrants Back In, I Won't — “He's advocated allowing folks to come back in and become citizens. I oppose that.” — youtube.com — Ted Cruz said during an appearance in Iowa on Monday that there's a difference between him and Donald Trump on immigration.

Discussion: Sacramento Bee, ThinkProgress, Bloomberg Business, Hot Air, Washington Post, Vox, NBC News and Daily Kos

Caitlin Cruz / Talking Points Memo: Bankers Flood Across The Rio Grande In Bizarre New Ted Cruz Ad (VIDEO)

BBC:

Germany shocked by Cologne New Year gang assaults on women — The mayor of Cologne has summoned police for crisis talks after about 80 women reported sexual assaults and muggings by men on New Year's Eve. — The scale of the attacks on women at the city's central railway station has shocked Germany.

Discussion: Hot Air, Oath Keepers, American Spectator, The Local and Mediaite

Melissa Eddy / New York Times:

Coordinated Attacks on Women in Cologne Were Unprecedented, Germany Says — BERLIN — German authorities said on Tuesday that coordinated attacks in which young women were sexually harassed and robbed by hundreds of young men on New Year's Eve in the western city of Cologne were unprecedented in scale and nature.

Discussion: National Review, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Althouse

The Local:
Cover-up claim over NYE mass sexual assaults

Discussion: New York Times, The Daily Caller, Pamela Geller and RT

Kurt Wagner / Re/code:

Twitter Considering 10,000-Character Limit for Tweets — Longer tweets are coming soon to Twitter. — Twitter is building a new feature that will allow users to tweet things longer than the traditional 140-character limit, and the company is targeting a launch date toward the end of Q1 …

Discussion: Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Business Insider, USA Today, all, Mashable, SlashGear, Engadget, VentureBeat and Scripting News, more at Mediagazer »

Annie Karni / Politico:

Progressive New York mayor backs Clinton's Wall Street package — As Bernie Sanders prepared to deliver a speech on Wall Street reform, New York City's progressive mayor, Bill de Blasio, endorsed Hillary Clinton's financial proposals instead. — “Having studied all the Wall Street reform proposals …

Discussion: The Hill, Bloomberg.com and RedState

Esquire:
AMERICAN RAGE: THE ESQUIRE/NBC NEWS SURVEY

Discussion: Washington Post and New York Times

Howard Fineman / The Huffington Post:
The Impossible Could Be A Real Contender In 2016

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:

This crowd shot from Donald Trump's Massachusetts rally is absolutely mind-boggling — Donald Trump went to Lowell, Mass. — a town about five miles south of the New Hampshire border — for one of his now trademark big-arena rallies on Monday night. This is what the crowd looked like per WaPo's Jenna Johnson.

Discussion: BostonGlobe.com, Boing Boing, AMERICAN DIGEST and The Daily Caller

Ben Gittleson / ABC News:

Ben Carson Confronted at Town Hall: ‘Do You Think I Chose to Be Gay?’

Discussion: Washington Post, Raw Story, Washington Blade, Towleroad and The Daily Caller

Sarah Ferris / The Hill:

Bill gutting ObamaCare would save half-trillion over a decade, CBO finds — A GOP-led effort to repeal the biggest parts of ObamaCare would cost about $42 billion less than previously expected, saving more than a half-trillion dollars over a decade, the congressional budget scorekeeper said Monday.

Discussion: The Fiscal Times, Washington Post and Hot Air

NBC News:

Trump Has Highest Support Among White Evangelicals: Poll — With the presidential primaries in full swing, Donald Trump maintains his sizable lead over the rest of the Republican field. Among Republican or Republican-leaning registered voters, Trump has 35% support compared to 18% for Ted Cruz …

Discussion: NBC News, Politico, Vox, MSNBC, The Last Refuge, Towleroad and Daily Mail

Enoch Power / THE NEW REFORM CLUB:

An Open Letter to Mark Steyn, Simon Heffer, Milo Yiannopoulos, Breitbart (London), and His Grace, Archbishop Cranmer — We are rapidly approaching the 50th anniversary of Enoch Powell's Birmingham speech on immigration, more popularly known as the Rivers of Blood speech (April 20, 1968).