memeorandum: From The Editor | Ban Antics In New York (Mark Chesnut/FIRST FREEDOM)

7:25 PM ET, January 5, 2016

Top Items:

CNN:

Emotional Obama calls for ‘sense of urgency’ to fight gun violence — Watch “Guns in America,” CNN's townhall meeting with President Obama on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET — (CNN)President Barack Obama grew emotional Tuesday as he made a passionate call for a national “sense of urgency” to limit gun violence.

Discussion: Politico, Yahoo Politics, WTVR-TV, Washington Post, FiveThirtyEight, CNNMoney, TheBlaze.com, The Hill, Mediaite, Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times, Bearing Arms, KFOR-TV, Occupy Democrats, Breitbart, Vox, addictinginfo.org, Right Wing Watch and The Daily Banter

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 White House, The Hill, Bloomberg Business, Hot Air and Mother Jones

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

Discussion: Business Insider, Florida Politics and Bloomberg.com news

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

Discussion: Politico and The Daily Signal

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

Discussion: New York Times, Reuters and Washington Post

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

Discussion: The Free Thought Project, American Spectator and Washington Free Beacon

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

Discussion: Guardian and Lawyers, Guns & Money

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: US News, Washington Monthly and Shakesville

Robert Costa / Washington Post:

Trump says Cruz's Canadian birth could be ‘very precarious’ for GOP — LOWELL, Mass. — Donald Trump said in an interview that rival Ted Cruz's Canadian birthplace was a “very precarious” issue that could make the Texas senator vulnerable if he became the Republican presidential nominee.

Discussion: RedState, Business Insider and ballot-access.org

David Siders / Sacramento Bee:
Poll: Ted Cruz surges in California, catches Trump

Discussion: RedState and Political Wire

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:
Ted Cruz: Trump Will Let Deported Immigrants Back In, I Won't

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

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: Slate, Spiegel Online, New York Times, Slantpoint, Mediaite, Patterico's Pontifications, Washington Free Beacon, The Local, American Spectator, Hot Air, Oath Keepers and The Daily Caller

Melissa Eddy / New York Times:

Reports of Attacks on Women in Germany Heighten Tension Over Migrants — BERLIN — The tensions simmering beneath Germany's willingness to take in one million migrants blew into the open on Tuesday after reports that scores of young women in Cologne had been groped and robbed on New Year's Eve …

Discussion: Power Line, Telegraph, Bloomberg Business, The Local, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, National Review, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES and Althouse

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

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

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: The Huffington Post, BostonGlobe.com, Mashable, Rush Limbaugh, The Moderate Voice, AMERICAN DIGEST, Boing Boing and The Daily Caller

David Granger / Esquire:
A Few Words About Esquire's February Cover Star, Donald Trump

Discussion: Daily Mail, Politico, Washington Post, FishbowlNY and New York Times

Jon Palmer / CBS Boston:
Donald Trump-Tom Brady T-Shirt: Trump Approves

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, BizPac Review and The Daily Caller

Ben Quinn / Guardian:
MPs to debate banning Donald Trump from UK

Discussion: Vox, BuzzFeed, Business Insider, Mediaite, Mashable, Political Wire and NBC News

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

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

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

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: Business Insider, Guardian, USA Today, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Gizmodo, all, WATE-TV, Mashable, SlashGear, The Verge, Engadget, VentureBeat and Scripting News, more at Mediagazer »

Federal Trade Commission:

Lumosity to Pay $2 Million to Settle FTC Deceptive Advertising Charges for Its “Brain Training” Program — Company Claimed Program Would Sharpen Performance in Everyday Life and Protect Against Cognitive Decline — The creators and marketers of the Lumosity “brain training” …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Gizmodo, Mashable, The Verge, Washington Post, STAT and CBS Boston

Mark Chesnut / FIRST FREEDOM:

From The Editor | Ban Antics In New York — What's an anti-gun state legislator to do when the state in which he or she lives already has some of the most restrictive gun-control laws in the nation? Realistically, short of banning all guns and ammunition magazines, what's left to do in the state of New York?

Discussion: Guardian, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, New York Daily News, CBS New York and addictinginfo.org

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, Washington Post, MSNBC, Politico, Vox, Towleroad, The Last Refuge, Daily Mail, Shakesville and Booman Tribune

Hilary Sargent / Boston Globe:

Meet the chef who decides what Tom Brady eats—and what he definitely doesn't — Allen Campbell talks about why our quarterback rarely eats tomatoes, where he shops for groceries, and why he doesn't serve mushrooms. Ever. — Allen Campbell has never been anything but a chef.

Discussion: Daily Mail, all, USA Today and The Daily Caller

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

Christie hits back: Rubio can't ‘slime his way to the White House’ — MANCHESTER, N.H. — As Chris Christie's establishment rivals seize on his blue-state governing record, the New Jersey governor punched back here Tuesday with the kind of bluntness that had been his trademark …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Politico and Naked Politics

David Edwards / Raw Story:

Fox host: President Obama put a ‘raw onion’ in his podium so he could cry fake tears for kids killed by guns — DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY! — Fox News host Andrea Tantaros suggested on Tuesday President Barack Obama had used a “raw onion” to produce fake tears for shooting victims during …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and LiberalAmerica.org

Ben Gittleson / ABC News:

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

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

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).

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

Trump: It Would Be Interesting To Ask Bill Clinton The Difference Between Him And Cosby — Trump added that he respects women and that he would protect them. — Hello, it's me. — David Duprey / ASSOCIATED PRESS — w.soundcloud.com — Donald Trump says it would be “very interesting” …

Discussion: Politico

David M. Schwartz / Newsday:

Steve Israel says he won't seek re-election to Congress … Filler: Steve Israel skewers LI, D.C. (and gets it right) — Janison: LI pol packs a punchline — More national politics … Politics — Rep. Steve Israel … TV — Rep. Israel's book may become TV series

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos