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Trump Expected to Name Fast-Food Executive Andy Puzder as Labor Secretary — Mr. Puzder, chief executive of CKE Restaurants, likely to peel back regulations — President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name fast-food executive Andy Puzder as labor secretary, according to people familiar with the decision.
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Trump's Labor Pick, Andrew Puzder, Is Critic of Minimum Wage Increases — President-elect Donald J. Trump on Thursday named Andrew F. Puzder, chief executive of the company that operates the fast food outlets Hardee's and Carl's Jr. and an outspoken critic of the worker protections enacted …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Vox, Mother Jones, The Daily Signal, Common Dreams, Daily Kos, twitchy.com and rubber hose

Trump's labor secretary pick really likes his company's sexist burger ads — He will soon enforce discrimination laws and oversee the Women's Bureau. — On Thursday, Trump announced that he would be nominating CKE Restaurants CEO Andy Puzder to serve as his labor secretary.
Discussion:
New York Magazine, Washington Times and twitchy.com


Andrew Puzder, Trump's Pick for Labor Department, Was Accused of Abusing Wife
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and New York Magazine

Trump's pick for Labor Secretary is a big ‘screw you’ to the Fight for $15
Discussion:
New York Magazine, Hit & Run, Common Dreams and alan.com

Trump to name fast-food CEO as labor secretary: report
Discussion:
Morning Consult, TheStreet.com, TheBlaze, ABC News, RedState and alan.com

Trump Said to Pick Fast-Food CEO Puzder as Labor Secretary
Discussion:
Politicus USA

Puzder is likely pick for labor secretary
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, New York Magazine, The Last Refuge, Washington Monthly, NBC News, The Federalist and Mother Jones


John Glenn, American hero, aviation icon and former U.S. senator, dies at 95 — His legend is other-worldly and now, in his 95th year, that's where John Glenn has gone. — An authentic hero and genuine American icon, Glenn died this afternoon surrounded by family at the Ohio State University …
Discussion:
Fox News, Zanesville Times Recorder, KFOR-TV, Political Wire, CNBC, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, KRQE-TV, The Gateway Pundit, Outside the Beltway, WKRN-TV, Common Dreams, WNEP-TV, Washington Free Beacon, Independent Journal Review, Mashable, Mediaite, Boing Boing, fox8.com, Fox News Insider, New Urban Legends, CBS Los Angeles, Patterico's Pontifications, The Verge, The Week and CNN
RELATED:

John Glenn, First American To Orbit The Earth, Dies At 95
Discussion:
alan.com and Balloon Juice


Trump's Transition Team ‘Is Like Game of Thrones’ — As the least experienced, least ideological, and therefore perhaps most malleable president-elect in history prepares to take office, all eyes are on who is influencing his decisions. And so far, Donald Trump's administration is shaping …
Discussion:
The Week

Donald Trump just insulted a union leader on Twitter. Then the phone started to ring. — Chuck Jones uses a flip phone, so he didn't see the tweet. His friend of 36 years called him Wednesday night and said: The president-elect is smearing you on Twitter.
Discussion:
The Atlantic, Politico, New York Times, Business Insider, Morning Consult, CNNMoney, CNBC, AOL, The Week, TheBlaze, Common Dreams, CBS 4, Daily Kos, NPR, Hot Air, LifeZette, Raw Story, BizPac Review, RedState, ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, CBS New York, Towleroad, Talking Points Memo, Deadline, NBC News, Politicus USA, Indianapolis Star, New York Magazine, aflcio.org, Occupy Democrats, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Mediaite, The Resurgent, The Daily Caller and Fox 59
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I'm the union leader Donald Trump attacked. I'm tired of being lied to about our jobs. — Trump swore he'd save our jobs. He didn't. — I'm a union leader in Indianapolis. I represent the Carrier workers whose jobs Donald Trump has pledged to save. And I'm tired of being lied to.


On Campus, Trump Fans Say They Need ‘Safe Spaces’ — ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Amanda Delekta, a sophomore at the University of Michigan and political director of the College Republicans, was ecstatic when her candidate, Donald J. Trump, won the presidential election.
Discussion:
Vox, Gothamist, twitchy.com, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Hot Air and Althouse

Ryan Plays the DC Press Corps Like a Fiddle — Millions of people's lives and livelihoods are on the line. So it's not funny. But if there weren't such dire real world consequences, Paul Ryan's current flimflam would be straight up hilarious. Repealing Obamacare has immediate real world consequences.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
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Ryan Won't Say How Long GOPers Will Take To Replace Obamacare After Repeal
Discussion:
ACASignups.net


Did Putin elect Trump? — As The Hill, CNN and other news organizations reported last week, Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee are calling on President Obama to declassify information about covert Russian attempts to influence the American elections that the Obama administration continues …
Discussion:
NO QUARTER USA NET and Common Dreams

Reid predicts death of filibuster — Senate Democrats are about to get rolled on Donald Trump's Cabinet picks. They could spend years in the minority. And instead of the GOP collapse that many expected on Nov. 8, it's now Democrats soul-searching about what went wrong.
Discussion:
Townhall.com, Vox, Mediaite, neo-neocon, Hot Air, The Week and Political Wire
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U.S. life expectancy declines for the first time since 1993 — For the first time in more than two decades, life expectancy for Americans declined last year — a troubling development linked to a panoply of worsening health problems in the United States. — Rising fatalities from heart disease …
Discussion:
US News, USA Today, Hit & Run, The Week, Liberty Unyielding and ThinkProgress
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Life Expectancy In U.S. Drops For First Time In Decades, Report Finds
Discussion:
RedState, Centers for Disease Control, AOL, The Daily Caller, Mother Jones, New York's PIX11 and The Atlantic


Kellyanne Conway Suggests That Women With Kids Shouldn't Take Jobs in the White House — Donald Trump's former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said that mothers should not accept high-powered career opportunities—a standard that does not apply to fathers, in Conway's opinion.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Politico, Townhall.com, BizPac Review, RedState, Independent Journal Review, TheBlaze and ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES


How Donald Trump's Web of LLCs Obscures His Business Interests — The opacity of his holdings makes it impossible to gauge the full extent of potential conflicts he may face as president — President-elect Donald Trump owns a helicopter in Scotland. — To be more precise …
Discussion:
Washington Post and Daily Kos


Exclusive: Judge to Trump: No getting out of Jupiter golf club lawsuit — President-Elect Donald J. Trump at Mar-A-Lago on Palm Beach — U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Marra on Wednesday refused yet another request by Donald Trump to toss a 2013 lawsuit filed against his Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Law News and Political Wire


African-Americans claim discrimination in class-action lawsuit against CNN, Turner — Two African-American employees have filed a class-action lawsuit against CNN, Turner Broadcasting and its parent company, Time Warner, alleging racial discrimination. — The two plaintiffs in the lawsuit …
Discussion:
RedState


Navy admiral's Pearl Harbor speech trolls Colin Kaepernick — A decorated US Navy admiral took the time to troll Colin Kaepernick during the 75th Anniversary Pearl Harbor Day Commemoration ceremony on Wednesday — saying those who died on that fateful day “never took a knee and never failed to stand” during the national anthem.
Discussion:
twitchy.com, BizPac Review, Washington Free Beacon and The American Mirror


Quite Possibly the Funniest Thing That Brian Williams Has Ever Said — For years I've wondering if former NBC news anchor Brian Williams is an aspiring stand-up comic. What he said last night on The 11th Hour sealed it — this guy can make people laugh, albeit not always intentionally.
Discussion:
Scared Monkeys


Biden: I'm ‘embarrassed’ by the campaign — (CNN)This year's presidential contest was a substance-free spectacle, Vice President Joe Biden lamented on Thursday. — “This has been a very tough election. It's been ugly, it's been divisive, it's been coarse, it's been dispiriting.
Discussion:
Political Wire and Business Insider


House approves funding bill, but fate in Senate unclear — House lawmakers on Thursday approved a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running through April, but the bill faces an unclear path in the Senate with a Saturday deadline looming. — Lawmakers are bolting for the exits …
Discussion:
Daily Kos

The populist revolt to ‘The System Worked’ — Some intellectual cleanup in Bret Stephens' aisle — There's been a lot of talk about “peak trade” and the collapse in cross-border capital flows in recent years. I seriously doubt that Donald Trump or any of the other recently elected populists …
Discussion:
Crooked Timber and Bloomberg


Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds Earn More Than Their Parents — As wages stagnate in the middle class, it becomes hard to reverse this trend — Barely half of 30-year-olds earn more than their parents did at a similar age, a research team found, an enormous decline from the early 1970s …
Discussion:
FiveThirtyEight, Mashable, Washington Post, Equitable Growth and The Week


Low Approval of Trump's Transition but Outlook for His Presidency Improves — Growing numbers see ‘strong’ partisan and racial conflicts — Nearly a month after Donald Trump's election as president, the public views his transition to the White House less positively than those of past presidents-elect.
Discussion:
Washington Post and Vox

The Washington Post honors David Fahrenthold with inaugural Ben Bradlee Prize — Fahrenthold recognized for his body of work during the 2016 presidential campaign — The Washington Post today awarded David Fahrenthold the first annual Ben Bradlee Prize for his penetrating coverage during the 2016 presidential campaign.