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| TOP STORIES |
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| In Iowa, Republican field wide open as moderates stake their caucus claims |
| DES MOINES — Less than a year before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, it appears that every Republican contender is making a serious play to win the state, setting up what is likely to be one of the most active, competitive campaigns here in recent memory. Read full article » |
| U.S.-backed Iraqi forces face risky urban warfare in battle against Islamic State |
| The Obama administration has touted the modest successes in recent months of Iraqi forces and paramilitary fighters, backed by U.S. air power, as they have fought to wrest towns, villages and parts of Iraq’s rugged countryside from the Islamic State. Read full article » |
| NBC’s Brian Williams told varying versions of rocket fire in Israel-Hezbollah war |
| NBC News anchor Brian Williams certainly has placed himself in dangerous situations in covering wars and natural disasters over the years. But how much danger? With Williams, the answer varies.In addition to statements about his reporting from Iraq and New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina that are under review by NBC, Williams has given varying accounts of the risks he faced in reporting on Israel’s war with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in 2006. Read full article » |
| Senator: Your futuristic car is putting your privacy and security at risk |
| Cars these days have more in common with smart phones than the Model-T. But a new report from Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) warns that the increasing technical complexity of vehicles is leaving drivers' security and privacy at risk. Read full article » |
| An appreciation of Dean Smith’s life |
| Words will come pouring forth in the next few days from those who played for Dean Smith, those who coached for and against him and from the president of the United States, who awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom a little more than a year ago. Read full article » |
| Behind the ebb and flow of baby names |
| Two to three decades ago, parents couldn't get enough of the names “Jessica” and “Jennifer” for their little newborn girls. They had been mainstays on the Social Security Administration's top 10 most popular female baby names for roughly 25 years. Read full article » |
| ‘Downton Abbey’ recap: Edith makes her move and Mary is so, so cold |
| After a dully-dull Downton last week, the show returned Sunday night with its best episode in ages, filled with intrigue, nasty sniping and a number of critical plot revelations.Where to begin? Well, Mr. Bates almost certainly didn’t kill Mr. Green. Edith is officially a pre-marital widow. Lord and Lady Grantham are back to sharing the same bed. Horse races don’t always end with the death of a rider even when you think they will. And Lady Mary has all the sympathy of a mongoose. Not bad for a 50-minute episode. Read full article » |
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| POLITICS |
| Cruz looking at 2016 ‘very seriously’ |
| Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) reiterated Sunday that he is looking at the possibility of a presidential campaign "very, very seriously" but declined to hit back against criticism lobbed at him by a fellow Texas Republican. Read full article » |
| Is Hillary Clinton ‘likable enough’? And does it even matter? |
| A new poll of the 2016 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary shows pretty much what every other poll has shown: Hillary Rodham Clinton leads by a very wide margin.The University of New Hampshire survey shows the former secretary of state taking 58 percent of the vote. It also shows about six in 10 likely Democratic primary voters consider her the strongest leader (58 percent) and about two-thirds say she would have the best odds of winning in the general election (66 percent) and has the most experience to be president (68 percent). Read full article » |
| Kerry to appoint gay diplomat for overseas LGBT advocacy |
| Secretary of State John Kerry this month will appoint a special diplomatic envoy to promote gay rights abroad, according to the State Department.The decision, first reported in a Boston Globe article last week, mirrors legislation that Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) introduced in their respective chambers of Congress within the past month. Markey sponsored a similar bill last year, but the measure died. Read full article » |
| Why did Obama’s budget proposal cut federal immunization funding? |
| “We can take away funding for that program because … the Affordable Care Act actually guarantees that every citizen in this country has access to free preventative care, including the measles vaccine. So we no longer need to provide additional government funding to ensure that those vaccines can be administered.” Read full article » |
| OPINIONS |
| Science that is hard to swallow |
| Sophisticated readers know a science denier when they see one: the libertarian irresponsibly attacking vaccine safety, the oil-state senator mocking climate theory, the southern Bible-thumper denying the fossil in front of his nose. Read full article » |
| Obama’s Christian humility |
| Maybe we should just call off the National Prayer Breakfast and stop asking presidents to offer their thoughts about faith and religion. If they go beyond making all present feel good about how religious and upright they are, presidents can get into a lot of trouble. Read full article » |
| The twisted priorities of a graying nation |
| We are gutting government. It is an extreme irony of the Obama presidency that a proud liberal — someone who believes in government’s constructive role — is presiding over the harshest squeeze on government since World War II. What’s happening is simple: Spending on the elderly and health care is slowly overwhelming the rest of the federal government. Spending on other vital activities (from defense to financial regulation) is being sacrificed to cover the growing costs of a graying nation. Read full article » |
| Anne Applebaum: The long view with Russia |
| In an ordinary year, not all that much happens at the annual Munich security conference. NATO defense ministers murmur earnest platitudes. Experts furrow their brows. But this is not an ordinary year.This year, the normally staid audience laughed out loud at the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who seemed, at one point, to question the legality of German unification. Some of the room also applauded loudly when Angela Merkel, the German chancellor — just back from an apparently fruitless peace mission to Moscow — restated her view that “there is no military solution” to the conflict in Ukraine. But when Malcolm Rifkind, the former British foreign secretary, asked her how she would stop Russia without military force, another part of the audience applauded. Even watching online, the conundrum in the room was clear: Everyone agrees that the Russians were lying, and no one believes Russian promises of a cease-fire. But nobody agrees on what to do about it. Read full article » |
| Now’s not the time to raise interest rates |
| I cannot recall a moment when the gap between what markets expect the Federal Reserve to do and what the Fed itself has forecast it will do has been as large as it is now. Markets predict that the Fed will raise interest rates only to 1.6 percent by the end of 2017; the Federal Open Market Committee’s average forecast is 3.5 percent. Read full article » |
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| LOCAL |
| Three weeks into Hogan’s governorship, promises of collaboration fade in Maryland |
| It wasn’t a good week for bipartisanship in Annapolis.In a major address, Maryland’s new Republican governor chided Democrats for the “floundering” economy. Democrats declared the governor’s proposed tax cuts dead on arrival and said his priorities were misplaced. And to underline their dismay, Democrats delayed confirmation of five Cabinet nominees. Read full article » |
| Monday Morning delays on Metro’s Green Line |
| Riders should expect delays Monday on the Green Line.Trains are sharing a track between the Naylor Road and Branch Avenue stops. There is a power problem outside the Branch Avenue stop.Metro said in an e-mail alert that there are delays in both directions. It is not immediately clear what caused the power malfunction or how long the delays will last. Read full article » |
| CEO Ryan Carson works a four-day work week. Here’s how. |
| When I asked to interview Ryan Carson about how he runs Treehouse, his burgeoning high-tech start-up in Portland, Ore. on a four-day work week — not four 10-hour days, like the federal government and other workplaces, but 32 hours, period — he said I could come to his house after 5 p.m. on Tuesday. Read full article » |
| D.C. area forecast: Showery into tonight, then a cooling trend; bitter cold late week |
| WEATHER GANG | Bitter cold is on its way later this week and is likely to stick around for a few days. Read full article » |
| SPORTS |
| Flyers handle Caps, 3-1 |
| Waffling between the desire to mine Sunday afternoon’s 3-1 clunker of a loss to the Philadelphia Flyers for teaching moments and to chuck the fresh memories into a landfill, the Washington Capitals gathered inside their locker room and quickly began the postmortem. They had wobbled through three periods of stagnant offense with a season-low 14 shots on goal. Their power play, ranked first in the Eastern Conference and deployed six times, had flat-lined. They found no shortage of descriptors for the 60-minute eyesore at Verizon Center. Read full article » |
| Julian Edelman and Malcolm Butler presented an award at the 2015 Grammys |
| To the victor belong the spoils, and so it was that a pair of Patriots — and not, you know, a pair of Seahawks — got to help announce a major award at Sunday’s Grammys. Julian Edelman and Malcolm Butler joined Josh Duhamel onstage to hand out the Best Rock Album award, which went to Beck, whose “Morning Phase” describes something Edelman probably hasn’t experienced in at least a week. Read full article » |
| Watch Kings star DeMarcus Cousins nail a buzzer-beater to topple Suns |
| A week from Sunday, DeMarcus Cousins will play in his first all-star game, and the Sacramento Kings’ wildly talented big man got a head start on the festivities by drilling a game-winning jumper to beat the Phoenix Suns, 85-83. Read full article » |
| Chris Paul cops an attitude, and Kevin Durant has the perfect verbal smackdown |
| This hasn’t been the smoothest stretch for Chris Paul, what with his Clippers losing four straight while all-star forward Blake Griffin is in need of staph-infection surgery that will keep him out for several weeks. However, there is no doubt that some of Paul’s issues have been self-inflicted. Read full article » |
| FEDERAL GOVERNMENT |
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| Rep. Schock's former senior aide featured in film about 'saving' Jews |
| It turns out that the Facebook comments that led to congressional staffer Benjamin Cole’s resignation Thursday weren’t the only series of eyebrow-raising remarks from his past floating around online. Read full article » |
| Postal Service reports $754 million loss for first quarter |
| Record-high volume in holiday package deliveries wasn’t enough for the U.S. Postal Service to overcome its financial troubles last quarter, as the agency more than doubled its net loss from the same period in 2014. Read full article » |
| NATIONAL |
| I’m addicted to Facebook. And I’m okay with that. |
| This article originally appeared on Role Reboot.We are obsessed with Facebook, and obsessed with why we’re so obsessed with it. “There is something undeniably totalitarian about the combination of mass media, Web, and social media,” that great social networking grouch Jonathan Franzen once (or 20 times) intoned ominously. Read full article » |
| Islamic poets wrote their own crude irreverent satire, centuries before Charlie Hebdo |
| In the weeks since the Charlie Hebdo attacks, friends keep asking me why Muslims are so easily offended. They aren’t referring to the people who commit violence in the name of Islam, but rather figures like Tariq Ramadan, an Egyptian-born academic who condemns violence, but also the publication of inciting images. What it is about Islam, they wonder, that leaves people unable to take a joke? Read full article » |
| Scott Walker thinks my university has fat to trim. Yet my department is barely scraping by. |
| You might think that one of the nation’s leading academic communication programs would be a good place to make a long-distance phone call.Yet there I was on a cold January morning, the interview I needed to get less than 15 minutes away, panic mounting as each attempt to dial out on my department-issued speakerphone produced an electronic wail rather than a ring tone. I’m writing my dissertation on how Web sites owned by sports teams and leagues challenge our society’s most deeply held values about journalism. I collect my data by talking to the people who work for these sites. I need a working phone. My cell was acting as my voice recorder, so I couldn’t use it to make calls — not that the reception in my office is good enough to be trusted. Read full article » |
| WORLD |
| Jordan says its airstrikes are targeting Islamic State leadership |
| AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan’s air force has carried out 56 airstrikes against Islamic State weapons depots and training camps in Syria and Iraq in the days since the extremist group revealed it had burned a Jordanian pilot to death, Jordanian military officials said Sunday. Read full article » |
| The facts — and a few myths — about Saudi Arabia and human rights |
| For almost 70 years, Saudi Arabia has been a vital U.S. ally in the Middle East. The relationship, which famously opened in a meeting on the Suez Canal between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the first Saudi king, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, is based around shared concerns about regional security and crude oil supplies. It has proved remarkably durable, despite a rapidly changing world. Read full article » |
| U.S. military to participate in major exercise in Thailand despite coup |
| The Pentagon is sending 3,600 troops to Thailand this week to participate in a major military exercise, U.S. officials said, even though the country remains under the control of Thai generals who ousted a democratically elected government last year. Read full article » |
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| BUSINESS |
| Forget the chocolate and roses. They strip down for charity. |
| Around 1,500 half-dressed merrymakers in running shoes and undies are set to parade for a mile around the U.S. Capitol this Sunday. Around 1,500 half-dressed merrymakers in running shoes and undies are set to parade for a mile around the U.S. Capitol this Sunday? Read full article » |
| How big food brands are boosting profits by targeting the poor |
| Just because something is cheap doesn't mean it's a good deal.Several of America's largest food manufacturers have been shifting their retail strategy, selling less of their packaged foods in traditional grocery stores and more of those foods in dollar and discount stores, according to a recent Reuters story. Kraft, which sells Veveeta sauce, has turned its attention to the cheaper retailers. So too have General Mills and Campbell's Soup. Read full article » |
| TurboTax resumes processing state returns after fraud reports prompt halt |
| TurboTax temporarily stopped processing state tax returns after noticing an increase in suspicious filings, the tax preparation software company said Friday.The company resumed e-filing of state returns at 6 p.m. Friday after halting the transmission of returns late Thursday to investigate reports of fraudulent state tax returns being filed through its software. The firm noticed an increase in “suspicious filings” and attempts from scam artists to use stolen personal information to file fraudulent state returns, giving them the ability to steal state tax refunds. Read full article » |
| TECHNOLOGY |
| Google is serious about taking on telecom. Here’s why it’ll win. |
| First it conquered search. Then it was online video and advertising. Now Google is turning its attention toward telecom — and it’s no experiment.In recent months, Google has said it’s bringing ultra-fast Internet to at least 18 cities, including Atlanta and Nashville. It announced pilot tests of a low-cost, modular smartphone. The company’s joined an influential lobbying group for upstart telecom firms. And now Google is considering an entry into wireless service, as first reported by The Information, a technology news site founded by former Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Lessin. Read full article » |
| Docusign: Just sign here electronically |
| DocuSignSign here,and ask somebodyelse to do it, tooIt’s tax season, which probably means there are documents that need your signature. But if you don’t want to hunt down a fax machine or mess with scanners, consider adding your John Hancock via DocuSign’s mobile app. The app lets you save your signature by drawing on the touch screen or snapping a photo of your pen-and-paper signature with your phone — a process that requires you to get the lighting just so. You can also save a version of your initials, and request signatures from other people. (You need an account to use it.) Plus you can add your signature to documents saved in a Dropbox, Google Drive or Box account. Read full article » |
| Outlook: An update for smarter e-mail |
| OutlookMake that e-mailwork harderand smarterMicrosoft has updated its Outlook app for iOS and Android devices, adding many productivity features that can improve the way you use e-mail on your phone , especially your work e-mail. It adds a lot of features you can find elsewhere such as a priority inbox, the ability to set e-mails to come back to your inbox later and calendar integration. It draws all of those features together in a clean, seamless way and also supports multiple types of accounts. Read full article » |
| Why cable stocks surged after the FCC’s net neutrality proposal |
| It's the mystery of the morning.When Tom Wheeler, head of the Federal Communications Commission, announced his proposal Wednesday to regulate Internet providers, such as phone companies, shares of cable companies unexpectedly surged. Here's what happened to the stock prices of Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter and Cablevision minutes after the news dropped. Read full article » |
| LIFESTYLE |
| Iggy Azalea did not win the Grammy for best rap album. But Eminem did. |
| After the entire Internet offered think pieces about what it would mean if the white, Australian rapper Iggy Azalea took home the award for best rap album for last year’s “The New Classic,” she quietly lost the honor while other stars were still preening on the red carpet. Read full article » |
| Lonnae O’Neal: The (painful) birth of a basketball dad |
| I had an epiphany sitting in the bleachers, watching my 12-year-old son and his teammates practice their crossover dribbles and floating jump shots. I’m way invested, cringing at missed layups and willing free throws into the net. Read full article » |
| Zombie Christmas! “The Walking Dead” returns! |
| Welcome back to the land of the dead, kids! Great news! WE’RE GETTING OUT OF GEORGIA!!! (Slight possible spoilers ahead.)Yes, I know we’re all still torn up about Beth. You’ll recall that she was the longshot in our Irresponsible Betting Guide to who would get wasted in the mid-season finale, going off at 22-1. And yet there she was in Evil Cop Dawn’s Hospital from hell, just about to walk out with Rick & The Gang, when she turned around and stabbed Dawn. Dawn then shot her through the head and dear old Beth was dead as disco. As was Dawn, about 2.2 seconds later, dispatched by Daryl. Read full article » |
| Carolyn Hax: Standing up to a bullying sister |
| Adapted from a recent online discussion. Dear Carolyn:My sister is very aggressive and (of course) has all the answers, especially about how I should raise my now-adult children. Every day there is either an angry e-mail or phone call: Have you done THIS? How can you let them do THAT? You must make them . . . whatever. Read full article » |
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