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| TOP STORIES |
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| Drone incident at White House highlights long-studied, still-unsolved security gap |
| The intrusion by a recreational drone early Monday onto the White House lawn exposed a security gap at the compound that the Secret Service has spent years studying but has so far been unable to fix, according to several officials familiar with the concern. Read full article » |
| Oil-rich Saudis find new help in struggle to delay action on climate change: Cheap gas |
| As the ruler of a country that sits atop 300 billion barrels of oil, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah was no fan of proposals to limit the burning of fossil fuels. During most of his reign, the king’s chief envoy to climate talks was a global-warming skeptic who boasted of his success at scuttling climate treaties. Read full article » |
| At Auschwitz, a nightmare revisited |
| OSWIECIM, Poland — Never forget? How could he. Years later, after the physical scars had healed and Johnny Pekats was a Park Avenue barber taking a little off the top the likes of Mario Cuomo and Adlai Stevenson, he would still wake up in cold sweats, haunted by that moment. He hung up his golden sheers. Retired to Florida. “Got out of the cold.” But still, the nightmares came, and he would see them, again, for the last time. Read full article » |
| Koch-backed network aims to spend nearly $1 billion on 2016 elections |
| RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — A network of conservative advocacy groups backed by Charles and David Koch aims to spend a staggering $889 million in advance of the next White House election, part of an expansive strategy to build on its 2014 victories that may involve jumping into the Republican primaries. Read full article » |
| Obama lays out sweeping vision for US-India relations, emphasizes human rights |
| NEW DELHI — President Obama laid out a sweeping vision for the future of U.S.-India relations here Tuesday, pushing India on human rights issues while asserting that the relationship between the two countries could become one of the “defining partnerships” of the 21st Century. Read full article » |
| USAID suspends IRD, its largest nonprofit contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan |
| The U.S. Agency for International Development announced Monday that it has suspended one of its largest nonprofit contractors from federal work after investigators found “serious misconduct” in the nonprofit’s performance and management of taxpayer money. Read full article » |
| Police: Two bodies and a car found in missing Craigslist couple case in Georgia |
| Investigators have discovered the unidentified bodies of a man and a woman as well as a vehicle owned by a couple who went missing in Georgia last week, according to police.“It’s not the outcome we had hoped for, but obviously it’s one we have to deal with,” Telfair County Sheriff Chris Steverson told reporters during a press conference on Monday afternoon. Read full article » |
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| POLITICS |
| Senate blocks measure to build Keystone XL pipeline; discussions will continue |
| Senate Democrats stalled the Republican-led push to construct the Keystone XL pipeline on Monday, dealing the first significant blow to the new GOP majority less than three weeks after it was sworn in. Read full article » |
| Obama’s approval hits 50 percent — just a couple months too late for Democrats (again) |
| President Obama's approval rating in Gallup's tracking poll hit 50 percent on Monday for the first time since May 2013. This comes on the heels of a Washington Post-ABC News poll last week that showed the exact same thing -- approval at 50 percent, first time since May 2013. Read full article » |
| Senators challenge White House on why there’s no nominee for TSA chief |
| A bi-partisan group of Senators is questioning why the White House has not nominated a new Transportation Security Administration head more than three months after the agency’s previous leader announced he was stepping down, saying that TSA should be a greater priority at a time of heightened concern about terrorist threats to the homeland. Read full article » |
| RNC names Katie Walsh new chief of staff |
| Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus will announce today that Katie Walsh, who led the party committee's fundraising efforts in the 2014 election, will serve as chief of staff in the 2016 cycle. Read full article » |
| OPINIONS |
| Netanyahu’s contempt for President Obama |
| It would not surprise me if, at the next Republican National Convention, Benjamin Netanyahu took a seat in the delegates-from-abroad section. The Israeli leader has both allied and associated himself with congressional Republicans who differ with President Obama over whether to impose additional sanctions on Iran and who also — let’s not beat around the bush — hate his guts. Their foreign policy is actually a domestic one: to destroy the president. Read full article » |
| Hillary stands alone |
| And now for a look at the Democratic presidential field for 2016 — hey, hold on, where’d everybody go? All right, at the moment there’s little suspense. Make that no suspense. If Hillary Clinton wants the nomination — and there’s no indication to the contrary — she can have it. Winning the general election is another story, but the Republican Party seems willing to be more of an aid than an impediment. Read full article » |
| The dark side of ‘sharing economy’ jobs |
| Flexible hours. Being your own boss. The glories and self-bootstrapping pride of entrepreneurship.These are among the virtues of “sharing-economy” gigs, as touted in a recent Uber-commissioned survey of its drivers. Other companies offering peer-to-peer platforms, such as Airbnb, TaskRabbit and Homejoy, have made similar pitches: They’re giving workers — particularly those who are unable to land traditional jobs or unfulfilled by 9-to-5 Organization Man duties — the freedom to take their breadwinning fates into their own hands. Read full article » |
| More aid to Ukraine would invest in a stronger Europe |
| Some have argued that little has changed in Ukraine since the Maidan “Revolution of Dignity” last year except for the faces of those who make up Ukraine’s political establishment. But the opposite is true: In stark contrast to life before Maidan, Ukraine’s leaders are now working hard for the good of our country. Read full article » |
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| LOCAL |
| D.C. firefighters’ $47 million overtime bill roils city budget |
| The District government may soon have to issue hundreds of four- and five-digit checks to firefighters totaling almost $47 million because it has exhausted nearly all of its legal options in a 14-year dispute regarding overtime pay, officials said Monday. Read full article » |
| Updates: Nor’easter brings heavy snow, blizzard conditions to New England, Long Island |
| As much as 18 inches has fallen on Long Island, though after unimpressive overnight snow, New York City itself will likely see totals on the low end of their forecasts. Read full article » |
| Earlier delays on Metro’s Green Line |
| Updated at 6:35 a.m.Metro said normal service has resumed at West Hyattsville stop.Original post at 6:23 a.m.Metro said riders on the Green Line should expect residual delays Tuesday morning. Read full article » |
| SPORTS |
| Tired of Patriots locker room attendants and ‘DeflateGate’? Blame the NFL. |
| The longer the so-called “DeflateGate” hullabaloo reigns as the dominant Super Bowl topic, the more blame the NFL deserves, and the more the league’s motivations should be questioned. The NFL, with a glacial investigation and dearth of public comment, has shown no signs it wants the story to burn out. And it may have allowed the uproar to live in the first place. Read full article » |
| Barry Trotz has a new mission: Save Foley, a tiger at the Columbus Zoo |
| Barry Trotz was in Columbus, Ohio, over the weekend, as so many NHL figures were, to take in the All-Star Game. Maybe it was just the complete lack of defense exhibited in the 17-12 laugher, but the Capitals coach came away from his visit determined to play some of his own. Read full article » |
| Top football recruit says he’s choosing between the University of Phoenix and ITT Tech |
| Being a top high school football player, especially one from Texas, can be very exciting time, but it can also be exhausting and stressful, at least when it comes to being pursued relentlessly by NCAA programs. However, Soso Jamabo, a senior running back out of Plano, showed recently that he has developed a sense of humor about the college recruiting process. Read full article » |
| TV and radio listings: Jan. 27 |
| NBA7:30 p.m. Cleveland at Detroit » NBA TV 10:30 p.m. Chicago at Golden State » NBA TV 10:30 p.m. Washington at Los Angeles Lakers » Comcast SportsNet, WNEW (99.1 FM), WFED (1500 AM) NHL Read full article » |
| FEDERAL GOVERNMENT |
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| Twisted view of CIA’s Operation Merlin |
| The conviction Monday of former CIA case officer Jeffrey A. Sterling for leaking classified information to a reporter requires a review of the CIA’s once-covert operation to slow down Iran’s nuclear program. Read full article » |
| Feinstein laments lack of Mideast policy ESP |
| Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), former head of the Senate Intelligence Committee and now the panel’s ranking Democrat, said Sunday that she agreed, in part, with Sen. John McCain’s call for more “boots on the ground in the Middle East.” Read full article » |
| NATIONAL |
| I’m an atheist psychiatrist. Should I see patients who believe in God? |
| My religious friend once asked me point-blank, “if you don’t believe in God, how can you see someone who does as anything but delusional? As a mental health professional, how do you counsel such a person?” Read full article » |
| The dark underbelly of the Davos ‘well-being’ agenda |
| Last week, the 0.1 percent met at the World Economic Forum annual gathering in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos. While the official excuse to go there is to discuss and shape the global agenda — the theme dominating this year being inequality — we know that it is more about networking, socializing, fine dining and, new for this year, a chance to improve your well-being. Read full article » |
| The only red meat GOP foreign policy speech you’ll need for the next six months |
| The Washington Examiner’s Byron York offered up his observations about the state of the GOP 2016 race in Iowa before the weekend’s Freedom Summit. The foreign policy portions stood out:Foreign policy has become as important as social issues, and that means people will listen to John Bolton. One simple sentence explains the new prominence of foreign policy in the race: It’s a dangerous world. With the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the Paris attacks, the troubling resilience of terror networks, worrisome developments in Russia, the challenge of China — when all of those are combined with the sense that the Obama administration either doesn’t know what is doing or is badly misguided, or even worse, Iowa conservatives have become deeply concerned about foreign policy…. Read full article » |
| WORLD |
| Kurds drive Islamic State fighters from strategic town of Kobane |
| The key Syrian border town of Kobane, the main focus of U.S. airstrikes in Syria for the past four months, has been retaken from the Islamic State by Kurdish forces, according to the U.S. Central Command and Kurdish activists. Read full article » |
| The first time a U.S. president met a Saudi King |
| On Tuesday, President Obama will travel to Riyadh to pay his respects to the late King Abdullah and meet the new Saudi king, Salman bin Abdulaziz. Obama's decision to cut short his trip to India is a good signal of how important the trip is: Thanks to geopolitics and oil, the United States and Saudi Arabia have had an important, if sometimes strained, alliance for decades. Read full article » |
| This beautiful language tree shows how India is as linguistically diverse as Europe |
| An intricate chart drawn by Finnish-Swedish graphic artist Minna Sundberg traces the common roots of the tongues spoken by a vast swathe of humanity. The myriad "Indo-European" languages all share a common ancestor, though historians debate who that is. Some say the language group emerged from the steppes north of the Black Sea 4,000 years ago with the migrations of chariot-driving nomads; others argue it dates further back -- some 9,000 years -- to early farmers living in what's now Turkey. Read full article » |
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| BUSINESS |
| Stop paying so much for tax help |
| If there is ever a year in which you might be tempted to hire a tax pro, this could be it.The Internal Revenue Service is warning it will probably answer fewer than half of the phone calls it receives. Many people may struggle with calculating their health insurance subsidy or figuring out if they need to pay a penalty. Read full article » |
| The winners and losers of a strong dollar |
| It’s a really good time to own wads of crisp, green American cash.As President Obama boasted during his State of the Union address last week, the U.S. economy is back. The job market is growing at a pace unseen in 15 years. The unemployment rate is lower than it was before the financial crisis hit. The Federal Reserve could — at last — raise interest rates from rock-bottom levels this year or the next. As the man said: “This is good news, people.” Read full article » |
| Obama’s visit spurs hope that obstacles to U.S.-India relations can be overcome |
| For decades, the reality of U.S. relations with India has fallen short of the much-ballyhooed potential.Nearly nine years ago, for example, President George W. Bush signed controversial legislation clearing the way for U.S. sales to India’s civilian nuclear energy sector, brushing aside restrictions that had been in effect since 1974 when India tested its first nuclear bomb. Read full article » |
| TECHNOLOGY |
| How the cable industry is trying to reshape the economics of the Internet |
| As it waits for the regulatory shoe of net neutrality to drop next month, the cable industry is going on the offensive.Lobbyists are taking preemptive aim at other Internet rules that might come down from the government soon. And meanwhile, Cablevision has become the first cable company to act in a wider battle over the future of phone calls. If the industry gets its way, it'll enjoy tremendous advantages when it comes to the economics of the Internet. Here's how. Read full article » |
| Only in Washington: Drone lobby throws free OK Go concert to promote responsible flying |
| In the latest OK Go video, members of the rock band ride around on robotic unicycles amid a crowd of umbrella-wielding women creating geometric patterns. A camera attached to a drone flies overhead, with each umbrella becoming a mere dot as it soars through the sky. Read full article » |
| The Switchboard: Cable industry opposes faster broadband definition |
| Published every weekday, the Switchboard is your morning helping of hand-picked stories from the Switch team.No need for speed: Cable industry opposes 25Mbps broadband definition. "The cable lobby is opposed to a Federal Communications Commission plan to define "broadband" as speeds of at least 25Mbps downstream and 3Mbps up," reports Jon Brodkin at Ars Technica. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association made the argument that most customers do not need higher speeds in an FCC filing last week. Read full article » |
| The fight for smartphone owners is netting us all some pretty good deals |
| There's a lot of poaching going on in the wireless industry right now. And that makes it a pretty fun time to be a consumer.T-Mobile has been a on a tear for the past several months, offering one maverick move after the other, from agreeing to pay the termination fees customers incur if they leave other carriers to an announcement this week that bad credit will no longer bar loyal customers from getting good smartphone deals. That program starts next month. Read full article » |
| LIFESTYLE |
| ‘American Sniper’ exemplifies a new kind of war film: The professional procedural |
| “American Sniper,” Clint Eastwood’s military drama starring Bradley Cooper as Navy SEAL and Iraq war sharpshooter Chris Kyle, solidified its standing as this season’s biggest surprise hit — and perhaps the biggest war movie of all time — over the weekend, with its domestic box office earnings surging past $200 million. The film, which is nominated for six Oscars, including best actor and best picture, has also become a bona fide cultural phenomenon, inspiring a slew of commentaries and social media sub-arguments that occasionally confound expectations. Read full article » |
| Why I breastfed my son until he was 3 |
| I didn’t set out to be a marathon breastfeeder.When I first found out I was pregnant, I was ambivalent about breastfeeding. I knew all the health benefits for mother and baby, and that it was free, and it meant that you didn’t have to do all the prep work that was involved in formula-feeding. But it was something that I couldn’t imagine myself doing. Using my breasts to feed someone else seemed so far removed from my experience that it was like science fiction; you may as well have told me that I would also build my child a nest out of clippings from my own hair, or baptize him with some exotic animal’s blood. Read full article » |
| How to make rice a nutritious (and tasty) part of your diet |
| I’ve regularly declared that I hope to send my kids into the real world knowing how to cook nourishing food that can be prepared with few kitchen tools, nominal time and a minimal budget. Well, one obvious place to begin is rice. I know it sounds boringly basic, but you’d be surprised at how many teenagers and young adults do not know how to cook rice — and how many more believe it should be avoided because it is a white food and a bad carb. Read full article » |
| Carolyn Hax: Childless, and wanting to find a way to connect with kid-centered friends |
| Adapted from a recent online discussion. Dear Carolyn:Is it normal that friends with kids, once they have kids, become harder to feel connected to? We all graduated college together, started getting jobs, married, etc. Now I’m the last of the group that doesn’t have kids — and I have a hard time feeling connected anymore to those who have kids. I don’t know how to relate to their primary focus, and it’s so much harder to find time to just get together. It’s even harder to say, “Hey, it’d be great if we could get together without your kids,” just so that we’re not being interrupted every few minutes by a needy child. I love their kids, but don’t want those to be the only get-togethers we have. Read full article » |
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