1/20: New NBC/WSJ poll shows lift for Obama, Previewing tonight's STOTU, ISIS holds Japanese hostages & more

January 20, 2015 POLITICAL NEWS NBC/WSJ Poll: Economy Gives Obama Slight Lift Ahead Of Sixth State Of The Union More Americans are satisfied with the economy than at any point in the past 10 years, helping to increase President Barack Obama's key job ratings, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released before his annual State of the Union address Tuesday night. The president's overall job-approval number now stands at 46 percent, which is his highest rating since October 2013 during the government shutdown. (His approval rating was stuck around 40 percent for much of last year.) What's more, 49 percent of Americans approve of his handling of the economy - the most since his first year in office. Still, nearly six-in-10 respondents believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction, and a plurality think the country is in a state of decline. Read more.. Washington Post/ABC News Poll: President Obama Is Back At 50% Approval President Obama's approval rating just hit 50 percent for the first time since the spring of 2013. That's the biggest -- and most surprising -- takeaway from a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The last time he hit the half-century mark was in May 2013, when WaPo-ABC and a few other pollsters showed him there just a few months into his second term. But while other pollsters have shown Obama's approval rating getting slightly better, none have shown him recovering to the extent that this survey does. In fact, the new poll represents Obama's biggest approval bump since the mission that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011. His approval rating has risen nine percentage points in the past month alone, while his disapproval has dropped by 10 points. Read more.. Gallup Poll: Confidence In Economy Improved Since Last State Of The Union Economic confidence has improved significantly since just before President Obama’s 2014 State of the Union Address, according to a Gallup poll released Monday. Forty-one percent of people said they’re satisfied with the economy now, up 13 percentage points from last year. Before Obama's address a year ago, 28 percent said they were satisfied with the economy. More than 80 percent are satisfied with their overall quality of life now, compared to 74 percent last year. Read more.. WSJ: Obama Tax Plan Likely to Stir Up Long-Simmering Debate A White House tax plan released over the weekend promises to rekindle a long-simmering debate over how to use the tax code to close income gaps between the wealthy and the middle class. At a minimum, the plan represents President Barack Obama ’s opening bid to congressional Republicans in a potential negotiation over a comprehensive rewrite of the tax code, including the rules for individual taxpayers. Sharply negative reactions from GOP lawmakers suggested it is unlikely that many of Mr. Obama’s ideas would become law in the current GOP-run Congress. In political terms, the plan appeared aimed at helping Mr. Obama cement a legacy as an economic populist, and could even help Democratic candidates stir middle-class support in the 2016 election. Read more.. The Hill: Obama Predicts 'Relaxed, Better' SOTU Headed into his sixth State of the Union address, President Obama is feeling more confident than in past years. "After the sixth time, I suspect I'm a little more relaxed and a little better at it than I was the first time out," Obama said in a new video preview published to the White House's website and social media channels. Obama says he's still taken aback by the "pageantry" that surrounds the speech — and that he hopes members of Congress are as well. "We get these positions for a finite amount of time," Obama said, adding that he hoped lawmakers would feel an urgency to act. Read more.. USA Today: White House Announces State Of The Union Guests Former Cuba prisoner Alan Gross and astronaut Scott Kelly will be among first lady Michelle Obama's guests at Tuesday night's State of the Union Address, the White House announced Monday. The 22 guests also include students and educators, health care officials and recipients, government officials, and a wounded veteran who fought in Afghanistan. Some of the guests wrote letters to Obama about various issues. The invitees symbolize some of the themes of Obama's speech, such as his recent decision to normalize relations with Cuba following Gross' release. Read more.. NBC/WSJ Poll: No Bump for Romney, Jeb Bush After '16 Hints [B]oth candidates have lost ground since pollsters last measured Americans' feelings towards them - including a dip in approval from members of their own party. - Just 27 percent of Americans now offer a positive rating for Romney, the Republican party's nominee in 2012, compared to 40 percent who give him negative marks. And just over half of Republicans - 52 percent - give him a thumbs up, while 15 percent disagree. In September of last year, when Romney was widely expected NOT to seek the presidency again, his ratings stood at 32 percent positive/ 39 percent negative. With Republicans, that split was 60 percent positive/ 13 percent negative. - While former Florida governor Jeb Bush is not quite as well-known as Romney, with 13 percent of respondents saying they don't know the name, he's also seen a drop in approval since announcing that he's "actively exploring" a 2016 run. Just 19 percent of Americans now give Bush a positive rating, while 32 percent assess him negatively. His fans include just 37 percent of Republicans, while 15 percent offer a poor assessment of him. That's compared to an overall rating last November of 26 percent positive and 33 percent negative. Among Republicans at that time, Bush's rating stood at 44 percent positive to 12 percent negative. Read more.. NBC News: Bobby Jindal Says West Allows Muslims to Set Up 'No-Go Zones' In a foreign policy speech delivered Monday in London, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said that in the West, "non-assimilationist Muslims establish enclaves and carry out as much of Sharia law as they can without regard for the laws of the democratic countries which provided them a new home." The Republican governor added that "it is startling to think that any country would allow, even unofficially, for a so-called 'no-go zone'." Jindal remarks came during an address to the Henry Jackson Society in a committee room at the U.K.'s House of Commons with several British members of parliament attending. Read more.. The Hill: Priebus: Hopefuls Must Hit ‘Thresholds’ To Join Republican Debates Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee chairman, says that potential presidential contenders will have to poll above certain levels to earn a spot in the GOP debates. In a radio interview on the "Hugh Hewitt Show" Monday, the conservative host asked Priebus how the debates would work if there were 20 candidates vying to be heard. “You can’t,” Priebus said. “You can’t do 20 people. … You have to have certain thresholds in place, so you have to be at 1 percent of the vote in Iowa, and that threshold can move like a slide rule based on the proximity to the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primaries, just like it did before.” Read more.. Washington Post: Jeb Bush Kept Key Roles In Florida Firm Amid Signs Of Trouble After attending his second meeting as a board member for InnoVida, a Miami-based company that marketed prefabricated housing materials for use in disaster zones and other places in need, Jeb Bush had some follow-up questions. “Fine board meeting,” Bush wrote in an e-mail to the chief financial officer before requesting details about the company’s liability insurance and politely nudging him that cash-flow data “would be appreciated.” Bush wouldn’t get his answers until a week after his September 2009 e-mail, and then only in part — the CFO provided him with an “unaudited” financial spreadsheet and said no insurance details were immediately available. If Bush was troubled by the response, it didn’t prompt him to pull away from InnoVida. He remained on the board for an additional year, leaving after a fellow board member started to unravel the widespread fraud that eventually led to the firm’s demise and the criminal convictions of two top executives. Previously unreported court documents suggest that Bush was more involved with the company than has been publicly known — and that he deepened his role even as others associated with Inno­Vida grew concerned about its financial practices. Read more.. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Scott Walker Likely To Lead Trade Mission To Israel Gov. Scott Walker said Monday he would likely take a trade mission this year to Israel, a move that could spur interest from key constituencies and donors as the Republican governor considers a run for president. "I haven't got a date yet, but I've had multiple requests to go so we'll probably try to find a way," Walker told reporters after a Capitol ceremony celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. "Previously, in the last four years the consul general's office from Israel asked me a number of times to come and talk about water technology, other trade missions, so we'll probably try to figure out some way to do that."Read more.. Chicago Tribune: Duckworth Says She's Considering Senate Bid Against Kirk Rep. Tammy Duckworth ended a political guessing game Monday by making it official that she is exploring a challenge to Sen. Mark Kirk in 2016. Duckworth, a Democrat from Hoffman Estates, told the Tribune she is considering a bid against the Highland Park Republican, raising the potential of a high-dollar campaign between two military veterans known for their comebacks. Kirk recovered from a major stroke in 2012. Duckworth came back from losing her legs in the Iraq War in 2004 when the Black Hawk helicopter she was piloting was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. Defeated in her first try for Congress in 2006, she captured a House seat in 2012. Read more.. NBC/WSJ Poll: 60% Of Americans Approve Of Diplomatic Recognition of Cuba Six in 10 Americans say they approve of the nation's recent move to provide diplomatic recognition of Cuba by the United States, according to a new NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll. In the new survey, 60 percent approve of the decision, 30 percent disapprove and 10 percent say they aren't sure. The results mark a dramatic change in public opinion on normalized relations with Cuba over the past 40 years. When NBC News and the Associated Press asked about the possibility of diplomatic recognition of Cuba in August 1978, 54 percent said they would disapprove of such a move, while only 31 percent said they would approve. Read more.. Billionaire Tom Steyer Eyes Climate Change, Education In Potential Senate Bid Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer, who is weighing a run for the U.S. Senate seat that will be vacated by Barbara Boxer in two years, is outlining a policy agenda focused on climate change, education and tax reform and pledging to serve only one term if he cannot achieve his goals, sources close to Steyer said Sunday. Steyer is detailing his potential platform in discussions with supporters as he mulls whether to mount a bid, said the sources, who requested anonymity to talk about Steyer's decision process. He is expected to announce his intentions within days. Democratic strategist Chris Lehane, who is advising Steyer, said the climate-change activist is committed "to being held specifically accountable to voters when it comes to environmental justice, economic justice and education justice.” Read more.. Washington Post: Harry Reid Returning To Work After Exercise Injuries Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) plans to return to the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday for the first time since suffering injuries after a violent exercise accident, according to senior aides. While Reid's exact schedule is not yet set, he is not expected to attend President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night at the Capitol, said the aides, who weren't authorized to speak publicly about the plans. The Senate is scheduled to convene Tuesday morning for legislative business and formally convene around 8:30 p.m. to escort Obama to the House chamber for his annual address to Congress. Read more.. The Hill: McCain Slams Obama 'Success Story' In Yemen Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) slammed President Obama's counterterrorism strategy in Yemen on Monday, as Shiite rebels took over state media. "More problems in Pres Obama's anti-terror 'success story,'" he tweeted Monday. "Houthi rebels seize #Yemen state media, battle soldiers." On Monday, Shiite rebels known as the Houthis clashed in Sana'a, the Yemeni capital, with government security forces, according to The Associated Press. Read more.. More News January 19, 2015 1/19/15 11:18AM US plans to train Syrian rebels 1/19/15 08:15AM A vision for low-income housing 1/19/15 08:00AM TERRORISM LATEST AP: Islamic State Group Threatens To Kill Japan Hostages An online video released Tuesday purported to show the Islamic State group threatening to kill two Japanese hostages unless they receive a $200 million ransom in the next 72 hours. The video, identified as being made by the Islamic State group's al-Furqan media arm and posted on militant websites associated with the extremist group, mirrored other hostage threats it has made. The militant in it also directly addresses Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, now on a six-day visit to the Middle East with more than 100 government officials and presidents of Japanese companies. Speaking in Jerusalem, Abe vowed to save the hostages, identified by the extremists as Kenji Goto Jogo and Haruna Yukawa. He called on the Islamic State group to immediately release the hostages Read more.. Yahoo News: Canada Special Forces Exchange Fire With Islamic State In Iraq Canadian special forces exchanged gunfire with Islamic State fighters in Iraq in recent days, in the first confirmed ground battle between Western troops and IS, a senior officer said Monday. The Canadians came under mortar and machine gun fire while training Iraqi troops near front lines and shot back in what Canadian special forces commander Brigadier General Michael Rouleau described as self-defense, killing the IS fighters. Read more.. Washington Post: After Paris Attacks, E.U. Leaders Call For More Sharing Of Information, Intelligence In the wake of this month’s terrorist attacks in Paris, European leaders are calling for significant changes to what has long been a paradox of their borderless continent: Their citizens can move freely, but information about them does not. There is no European no-fly list, because there is no European data­base of air travelers. People inside a 26-nation zone can speed from the tip of Portugal to the border with Russia without once having their passports scrutinized. Many E.U. citizens enter and exit Europe without ever being checked against police databases. ... Now, after the bloody assaults that claimed 17 victims in Paris and after dozens of suspected Islamist militants were rounded up around Europe, European leaders are pushing to fix what they say are flaws in the system. E.U. nations plan “to share information, intelligence, not only with the European Union but also with other countries around us,” E.U. foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Monday after a meeting on counterterrorism with E.U. foreign ministers and top diplomats from several Middle Eastern nations.Read more.. From Rep. John Lewis to St. Louis, here's how how America honored Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. http://nbcnews.to/1J0yZ52 @NBCNews Follow POPE FRANCIS TO VISIT NYC & OTHER STORIES FOR THIS TUESDAY MORNING New York Daily News: Pope Francis Will Visit New York City, Washington, D.C. And Philadelphia During September Visit To U.S. Pope Francis may be the hottest ticket at Madison Square Garden this year. The spiritual leader of the country's 78 million Catholics confirmed to reporters Monday he will visit New York City during a United States visit in September. "We are overjoyed" at the impending visit, New York Archdiocese spokesman Joe Zwilling told the Daily News. Zwilling was involved in prior papal visits in New York: when John Paul II visited in 1995 and Pope Benedict in 2008. Read more.. Washington Post: Officials: No Sign Of Others In Argentine Prosecutor Death Argentina’s government said Monday that a prosecutor who had accused President Cristina Fernandez of shielding Iranian suspects in the nation’s deadliest terror attack died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside his locked apartment, a declaration sure to be closely scrutinized. Alberto Nisman, who had been investigating the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people, was found in the bathroom of his apartment late Sunday, hours before he was to testify in a Congressional hearing about the case. Investigating prosecutor Viviana Fein said the preliminary autopsy found “no intervention” of others in Nisman’s death. However, Fein said she would not rule out the possibility that Nisman was “induced” to suicide, adding that the gun was not his. Read more.. MSNBC: Oxfam: Richest 1% Will Control More Wealth Than World Combined The richest 1% of people will control more wealth than the rest of the world combined by 2016, the British anti-poverty charity Oxfam predicted in a new report. The study suggests that, by next year, the gap between the world’s rich and poor will widen so much that those at the top will control more than half of total global wealth. Oxfam issued the warning ahead of political and corporate leaders converging in Switzerland for the 45th World Economic Forum this week to discuss the world’s problems. Heads of state, ministers, chief executives, central bankers, and academics were expected to gather in the Swiss Alps. Read more.. AP: Snowden Files Reveal British Spy Agency Saved Journalists' Emails: Guardian The Guardian has reported that British spy agency GCHQ saved emails from journalists at BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post and other major news organizations. The newspaper said Monday its information was based on an analysis of documents provided by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The paper said the journalists' emails were among 70,000 emails gathered in less than ten minutes in November, 2008. It said the information was gleaned from a GCHQ tap on fiber optic cables used for Internet communications. Read more.. NBC News: No Device Found After Threat On Two Flights At JFK Authorities checked and cleared two Delta planes at New York City's JFK airport late Monday after the airline received a threat for a flight number shared by the two aircraft, officials said. The flights were later cleared, the FBI said. There was no evidence to suggest that the threat was real, a law enforcement official told NBC News, but authorities followed protocol in such cases. Delta Flight 468 refers to routes from San Francisco to JFK and from JFK to Tel Aviv. Another airline received an anonymous bomb threat for the flight number, said Lindsay McDuff, a spokeswoman for Delta Airlines. The person reported that an explosive device was onboard, suggesting it might be a pipe bomb, sources told NBC News. Read more.. Bloomberg: Ukraine Says Russians Cross Border As Airport Battle Rages Two battalions of Russian soldiers crossed the border into Ukraine, the National Security Council in Kiev said, as government forces and pro-Moscow rebels battled for control of the Donetsk airport. The accusation follows months of complaints from the government in Kiev that Russian President Vladimir Putin is sending funds, weapons and fighters to support a separatist insurgency in Ukraine’s easternmost regions. Putin denies any military involvement in Ukraine, and Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Andrei Bobrun declined to immediately comment when contacted by Bloomberg on Monday in Moscow. Read more.. Telegraph: Syria Begins Delayed Destruction Of Chemical Weapons Bunkers Syria has started the long-delayed destruction of a dozen underground bunkers and hangars that were used for the production and storage of chemical weapons, according to Reuters. Damascus last year handed over 1,300 metric tonnes of toxic agents after joining the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), but it is months behind schedule in destroying the facilities used to make and store its deadly stockpile. Work at a first tunnel began on Dec. 24, but was delayed by winter storms. The site will be sealed off with cement walls by the end of January, said one diplomatic source in The Hague, where the global chemical weapons watchdog is based. Read more.. NBC New York: NYC Settles Lawsuit Over 2013 Police Chokehold for $75,000 New York City has agreed to pay a Brooklyn man $75,000 to settle a lawsuit claiming he was choked and unable to breathe during a 2013 encounter with police. A city law department spokesman says the case was evaluated and it was determined a settlement was in the city's best interests. Attorney Jeffrey Rothman said Monday that the settlement for Kevin Dennis-Palmer Sr. was "another example of a black man choked and beaten down into the ground.'' Read more.. NYT: Artificial Heart Recipient Set To Go Home A patient who received an artificial heart in August has recovered sufficiently to return home, the French company that makes the device said on Monday, signaling a milestone toward the possible commercialization of the device. The patient, 68, “is living a completely normal life now,” Dr. Alain F. Carpentier, the French surgeon who invented the device, said in an interview posted on Monday on the website of Le Parisien, a French daily newspaper. Read more.. ESPN: NFL Probing Whether Patriots Deflated Footballs The NFL is investigating whether the New England Patriots intentionally deflated footballs during their victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Sunday's rain-soaked AFC Championship Game. A league spokesman confirmed the investigation, which was first reported Sunday by television station WTHR in Indianapolis, to ESPN on Monday morning. Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Monday afternoon that the organization will "cooperate fully with whatever questions they ask us and whatever they want us to do." He added that the first time he heard about the issue was Monday morning. Read more.. AP: China's Economic Growth Slows To 7.4 Percent China's economic growth slowed to 7.4 percent in 2014, the weakest expansion in more than two decades, and is forecast to slip further over the next two years. The numbers released Tuesday are still miles ahead of growth rates in major industrialized economies, but represent a sharp decline from sizzling double digit growth in previous years. That adds to pressure on the country's communist leaders as they try to prevent a sharper slowdown in 2015 while overhauling the economy. Read more.. WSJ: Fed Officials On Track To Raise Short-Term Rates Later In The Year Federal Reserve officials are staying on track to start raising short-term interest rates later this year, even though long-term rates are going in the other direction amid new investor worries about weak global growth, falling oil prices and slowing consumer price inflation. The Fed’s stance, as it prepares for a policy meeting later this month, is striking because European Central Bank officials are poised to take the opposite approach later this week. Read more.. Gizmodo: Google's Finalizing A $1 Billion Investment In SpaceX It looks like Google is going to throw a ten-figure sum into Elon Musk's space internet dream. Both The Information and The Wall Street Journal report that the search giant is finalizing a $1 billion investment in SpaceX's recently revealed effort to offer global internet service through small satellites. It's a crazy idea that just might work. Musk recently revealed some details about his as yet unnamed space internet project to Bloomberg. A team of about 5o employees at the new SpaceX office in Seattle are working on a project that would use about 700 small satellites to provide internet access to the entire planet, with a strong focus on rural and developing areas. SpaceX declined to comment on the plans and the Google investment in an email to Gizmodo. Read more.. Reuters: Iran Says Oil Industry Could Withstand $25 Crude Iran sees no sign of a shift within OPEC toward action to support oil prices, its oil minister said, adding its oil industry could ride out a further price slump to $25 a barrel. The comments are a further sign that despite lobbying by Iran and Venezuela, there is little chance of collective action by the 12-member OPEC to prop up prices - entrenching the reluctance of individual members to curb their own supplies.In remarks posted on the Iranian oil ministry's website SHANA, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh called for increased cooperation between members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Read more..