Kung Hei Fat Choi: Year of the Horse; NFL and Drugs; Law and Disorder; Cops, Shots; Prison; Parking, Road Rage, Cycling, On the Road; Uplifting

Kung Hei Fat Choi: Year of the Horse

NFL and Drugs

• The NFL's Secret Drug Problem—"Pain pills are the only thing keeping many football players on the field week after week. What happens when their careers are over – but their addictions aren't?"
• Synthetic or not, Kellen Winslow's drug arrest could lead to suspension
• Carroll weighs in on medicinal pot

Law and Disorder

• Nightclub bashing victim dies—"Kim Pham, a 23-year-old university graduate who was beaten by five people outside a nightclub after she apparently 'photobombed' them, has died after being taken off life support."
• Details of Deadly Cabell Shootings Released in Court Documents—Man shoots and kills two brothers whom he thought were in his property.
• Man spends four decades in mental hospital for stealing $20 necklace

Cops

• Purdue Cops Throw Student Journalist To Ground, Seize His Camera And Detain Him For Three Hours
• One Of Six Omaha Cops Fired For Excessive Force, Illegal Search And Seizure Is Already Back In Uniform
• 25-year-old dies after pepper spray, struggle with security at Northland Mall

Shots

• Video contradicts Pinal sheriff's statements—The video shows the suspect raising his hands before getting shot and killed by police.
• Grand Jury Declines to Indict Fort Worth Cop Who Killed 72-Year-Old Grandfather
• 2nd grand jury indicts officer in shooting of ex-FAMU football player

Prison

• Prison Inc.—"Between 1990 and 2010, the number of privately operated prisons in the US increased 1600%... it seems crime does pay, but for whom is the question?"
• Half of U.S. prison sex crimes involve staff toward inmates: fed study
• Inmate made several calls to 911 before his death
• Sheriff Joe Arpaio: 38 Arizona inmates who defaced flag to eat only bread, water
• Prison in Brazil: Welcome to the Middle Ages—"Brazil's hellish penal system is overcrowded, violent and brutalising."

Parking

• In Los Angeles, walking illegally is more than twice as expensive as parking illegally
• Recently launched app, Fixed, will contest parking tickets with minimal effort from the offender.
• Falls Church police chief rips up parking tickets written on snowy Tuesday WaPo

Road Rage

• Driver responds to lawsuit over Menlo Park crash that injured 6-year-old twins
• Oregon teen who killed 2 in fatal leaf pile hit-run found guilty—Hitting them was accidental; covering it up wasn't.
• OfficeMax Sends Letter to "Daughter Killed in Car Crash"
• Motorist called 911 several times before he died in road-rage shooting
• Flipside: Traffic cop sets record for number of complaints

Cycling

• New York bikers attack SUV: Man intends to sue New York over attack
• Cyclist stuck in windshield: 'Hi, I'm the guy you hit'
• Iowa driver who struck, killed cyclist but thought she'd hit deer pleads guilty to traffic violation
• Japanese cyclist to pay 47m yen ($459,000) over fatal crash
• The bike ride that won't end

On the Road

• Frisco man faces trial for warning drivers of nearby speed trap
• Secret audit found city speed cameras had high error rates—"The city issued roughly 700,000 speed camera tickets at $40 each in fiscal year 2012. If 10 percent were wrong, 70,000 would have wrongly been charged $2.8 million."
• Red light cam company in bribery scandal
• What to Do If the Cops Pull You Over
• Blast from the Past: Academic turns city into a social experiment

Uplifting

• New York boy who died rescuing relatives gets firefighter funeral
• Brain Surgeon Walks 6 Miles Through Storm To Save Patient
• 'I finally got to thank the man who saved my life'—"After his "Find Mike" campaign, Jonny Benjamin is reunited with the man who talked him down off Waterloo Bridge six years ago."

Zero Tolerance, "That's Un-Possible!", Educamation, Think of the Children, Parenting; NSA Spying, Snowden, Surveillance and Privacy, Google

Zero Tolerance

• Ease Up On 'No Tolerance' Policies, U.S. Agencies Tell Schools—"Saying that 'zero tolerance' discipline policies at U.S. schools are unfairly applied 'all too often,' Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is urging officials to rethink that approach."
• Oklahoma lawmaker files bill to protect students creating imaginary weapons
• Minority kids disproportionately impacted by zero-tolerance laws
• Flipside: School ditches rules and loses bullies

"That's Un-Possible!"

• CNN Analysis: Some college athletes play like adults, read like fifth-graders—They'd rather shoot the messenger than tackle this issue.
• University of North Carolina Apologizes for Fake Classes, Promises Real Change
• Columbus has 17 charter school failures in one year
• Trend-starting Texas drops algebra II mandate

Educamation

• NC Teachers Fight Over Loss Of Tenure, New Contracts
• Six former Atlanta school employees plead guilty in cheating scandal, avoiding May trial
• Cafeteria worker accused of stealing up to $1M arrested
• Yale censored a student's course selection website. So I made an unblockable replacement—The school dean "apologizes".

Think of the Children

• N-word use lands Poulsbo Elementary principal on leave
• Mom sues Broward school district over service dog
• Reading this can damage your health
• Lunches seized from kids in debt at Salt Lake City elementary—"Up to 40 kids at Uintah Elementary in Salt Lake City picked up their lunches Tuesday, then watched as the meals were taken and thrown away because of outstanding balances on their accounts — a move that shocked and angered parents."

Parenting

• Stop Trying to Make Your Kid Happy (and Other Radical Insights)
• Don't bring your baby to a fancy restaurant Salon
• California court upholds mother's right to spank daughter
• Study shows shopping cart injuries rise after US safety standards set

NSA Spying

• Angry Birds firm calls for industry to respond to NSA spying revelations—Quiet until the bottom line is threatened.
• Snowden Docs: U.S. Spied on Negotiators At 2009 Climate Summit
• Merkel rebukes US and UK over spying—"Merkel said that Western powers sacrificing freedom in the quest for security were sending the wrong signal to 'billions of people living in undemocratic states.'"
• In Germany, memories of repressive national spying inflamed by U.S. surveillance
• Obama Stays Silent on Reform of NSA's Crypto Subversion
• Terror Defendant Challenges Evidence Gathered by NSA Spying
• It Only Took the NSA 61 Years to Hire Its First Privacy and Civil Liberties Officer

Snowden

• Clapper: Snowden and media "accomplices" should return our documents—Clapper wasn't using the term lightly.
• US whistleblower laws offer no protection—"The White House says that Edward Snowden should have reported his concerns within the NSA, instead of revealing surveillance programs to the press. But who exactly do US whistleblower laws protect?"
• Norwegian lawmakers nominate Edward Snowden for Nobel Peace Prize

Surveillance and Privacy

• Limits on surveillance: A global right to privacy
• AP-GfK poll: Americans value privacy over security
• British government reportedly tracking YouTube and Facebook data without permission
• Huge swath of GCHQ mass surveillance is illegal, says top lawyer—"Legal advice given to MPs warns that British spy agency is 'using gaps in regulation to commit serious crime with impunity.'"
• Dont't be scared of phone tapping during Sochi-2014, it's for your own safety - experts

Google

• Google Plus among leaky apps with greatest privacy perils: report
• South Korea: Google Fined for Illegally Collecting Personal Data
• Google broke Canada's privacy laws with targeted health ads, watchdog says
• New Google patent suggests automatically sending your videos and photos to law enforcement
• How much am I willing to let Google stalk me?

Ukraine; State of the Union, Vox Populi, GOP, Class War

Ukraine

• Parliament abolishes anti-protest law
• Ukraine's PM Azarov and government resign
• Ukraine protesters refuse to go, demand president quit
• Ex-president warns Ukraine 'on brink of civil war
• A Quick Guide: What's Happening in Ukraine WSJ

State of the Union

• Obama Outlines Economic Steps on His Authority—"President Obama is using his address to outline a list of economic actions he will take without legislative approval." NYT
• Barack Obama State of the Union proposals: The president's ideas feel too modest for the task at hand
• The right’s agenda is reviled: The lesson from Obama’s confident State of the Union—"Intentional or not, the president's speech was a reminder to Democrats that their goals are the ones Americans back." While the Republicans have mixed messages.Salon
• Most Americans Are Unaware Of [Insert Issue Here]
• Reich: Why There's No Outcry—"People ask me all the time why we don't have a revolution in America, or at least a major wave of reform similar to that of the Progressive Era or the New Deal or the Great Society."

Vox Populi

• A new low: Just 46 percent say their member of Congress deserves reelection WaPo
• 80 Percent of Americans Don't Have Confidence in Republicans in Congress
• Poll: Republicans seen as more extreme, Democrats as more bipartisan WaPo

GOP

• Mitch McConnell: It Would Be 'Irresponsible' To Pass A Clean Debt Ceiling Increase
• The Tyranny of Barack Obama—"Republicans act appalled that the president would issue an executive order on almost anything at all."
• Arizona GOP Censures McCain For 'Liberal' Record
• Iowa GOP Posts 'Is Someone A Racist?' Flowchart Then Deletes It
• Georgia Republican Congressman Surprised Middle Eastern Man Wasn't Given Pat Down At Airport
• Report: Rep. Grimm Threatens Journalist After SOTU—"Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) 'physically' threatened a reporter for NY1 News after the reporter began to question the congressman about a federal investigation into his campaign contributions, according to the station." And he's not sorry about it.
• What The Huck? A Brief History Of GOPers Saying Crazy Things About Women
• Fox News analyst tells Tea Party group he can lead a military coup against Obama
• Release the Noe report—"The office of Ohio's inspector general — the supposed watchdog of state government — committed itself two years ago to producing an investigative report on the antics of Tom Noe, the former chairman of the Lucas County Republican Party who was convicted of stealing $13 million from the state Bureau of Workers' Compensation in the late 1990s and early 2000s. There still is no report."
• After years of being a Republican activist, I'm done with the GOP—"The cultural disconnect among Republican leaders is so severe that I just don't think that the party can be saved."

Class War

• Venture Capitalist Says "War" on the Rich Is Like Nazi Germany's War on the Jews
• The 1 percent's frothing paranoia: Why Tom Perkins is merely a symptom Salon
• The Super Rich are mad as hell - and doing great
• The Brittle Grip, Part 2—"Let me state the phenomenon as clearly as possible: The extremely wealthy are objectively far wealthier, far more politically powerful and find a far more indulgent political class than at any time in almost a century - at least. And yet at the same time they palpably feel more isolated, abused and powerless than at any time over the same period and sense some genuine peril to the whole mix of privileges, power and wealth they hold."
• It's Startling To Hear Rich Executives And Investors Talk About Inequality... As If There's Nothing They Can Do About It

LEGO Day, LEGO-lution, LEGO Movies, LEGO Builds, LEGO Tech; Data Privacy Day, NSA Spying

LEGO Day

• Beautiful Lego
• Lego advert in 1981
• A LEGO a Day
• Challenge accepted
• Showcase of PH tourism spots in Lego map
• Picture This: Lego That Purse

LEGO-lution

• What Happened with LEGO
• Lego, you are dead to me—"Give Lego credit for innovating after losing patent protection on its bricks. It's now a $4 billion company built on brilliant licensing deals and increasingly expensive, specialized sets. Which is exactly why I'm starting to hate it so, so much."
• Legos Are Getting Angrier And That's Not Funny, Study Says
• Girls' Legos Are A Hit, But Why Do Girls Need Special Legos?
• Lego building expert says he's sad for the children after helicopter destroyed at Cairns Central
• Lego thief pleads guilty—"Prosecutors say 67-year-old John Strang shoplifted as much as $600,000 worth of goods since 2007." Salon

LEGO Movies

• This LEGO Hogwarts includes everything from Snape's classroom to the Chamber of Secrets
• James Bond LEGO concept sets
• Lego Serenity
• Lego Casino Royale

LEGO Builds

• Behold an amazing 200,000-piece Lego alien city—"Artist Mike Doyle has created an absolutely jaw-dropping extraterrestrial Lego city called K'al Yne."
• A New Eiffel Tower Building Set for Paris-Loving LEGO Fanatics
• Lego tower measuring 11 stories claims Guinness record
• A Lego Set for Budding Architects, With No Instructions

LEGO Tech

• LEGO Mindstorms EV3
• Lego machine removes DRM from Kindle e-books—"Lego Mindstorms, a Kindle, and a laptop combine into an art project that is an automated system for scanning e-books and creating DRM-free versions."
• The 7 Most Ridiculously Advanced Machines Built Out of LEGOs
• LEGO Hot Rod: 500,000-Piece Working Replica Runs on Air
• Apple Engineer Creates Elaborate Drawing Machine, Using Legos
• Lego prosthetic leg

Data Privacy Day

• If You Used This Secure Webmail Site, the FBI Has Your Inbox—"While investigating a hosting company known for sheltering child porn last year the FBI incidentally seized the entire e-mail database of a popular anonymous webmail service called TorMail."
• Spy Agencies Probe Angry Birds and Other Apps for Personal Data—Plug those leaks.
• Tech Giants, Telcos Get OK to Release Stats on NSA Spying—Ploy to have their lawsuits dropped?
• Here's Why Obama's Surveillance Transparency Deal With Tech Companies Doesn't Matter
• British Judge Rules Google Can Be Sued In UK Over Privacy Case
• Apple's Tim Cook: 'There is no backdoor. The government doesn't have access to our servers'
• Joy of Tech: Google buys Nest

NSA Spying

• German TV: Edward Snowden says NSA is involved in industrial sabotage
• Wanted dead by US officials, Snowden tells German TV
• The NSA's Losing Argument
• On Children's Website, N.S.A. Puts a Furry, Smiley Face on Its Mission NYT
• Democrat Dianne Feinstein proves an obstacle to Obama’s push for changes at spy agencies WaPo
• Republicans Blast Their Own—"Bush era Republicans are making their anger known after the RNC passed a resolution denouncing the NSA's blanket surveillance.'"
• Andrea Mitchell Had To Interrupt An NSA Discussion With Breaking Bieber News—Mainstream media eats up all-too convenient distraction.

TPP, Copyfight, Piracy, DRM, Patents; Gaming, Tilt, Nintendon't; Chrome Malware, Haxx0red

TPP

• Congress introduces Obama fast-track authority on global trade pacts like TPP
• Constituents Opposing TPP Fast Track Locked Out of Congressman Becerra's Office
• Sen. Bernie Sanders lambastes Democrats and Republicans over Trans-Pacific Partnership
• TPP holds out a kind of Potemkin democracy
• Tokyo, Washington agree to stay course on sealing TPP

Copyfight

• In Response To Growing Protests, EU Pulls Corporate Sovereignty Chapter From TAFTA/TTIP To Allow For Public Consultation
• EU Offers Public a Chance to Fix Copyright Law
• Internet Censors Came For TorrentFreak & Now I'm Really Mad
• The End of Ownership: Why You Need to Fight America's Copyright Laws
• The awkward copyright collision of Fair Use and Creative Commons
• It's the 30th Anniversary of the Supreme Court's Monumental Decision About Betamax

Piracy

• IP address does not prove online piracy, US judge says in landmark ruling
• Three Strikes Law Does Nothing to Curb Piracy, Research Finds
• City Of London Police Cannot Seize Domains Just Because Hollywood Says The Websites Are Infringers
• Prince Targets Facebook Users in $22m Live Concert Piracy Lawsuit
• This Google Glass user went to the movies. Then he got interrogated for about four hours.—Department of Homeland Security, in particular the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, doing the bidding of the MPAA.
• Here We Go Again: Canadian Recording Industry Calls on Government To Regulate the Internet

DRM

• DRM Circumvention May Be Legal, European Union Court Rules—"... under some circumstance."
• Latest Twist On DRM Of Physical Products: Machines Locked Down By Geolocation
• You can't download your .mobi files from Amazon anymore, even if they're DRM free
• All library audiobooks going to DRM-free MP3s
• Xbox One Disc-Based DRM Issues Are Due To Suspended Play, Says Xbox Support

Patents

• Supreme Court upends top patent court's "burden of proof" rule
• Google wins jury verdict against patent troll that sued its customers
• Samsung And Google Bury The Apple Hatchet, Sign 10-Year Patent Agreement

Gaming

• Master of His Virtual Domain—"George Yao, an ordinary guy, spent $250 a week conquering the online game Clash of Clans, at one point bringing five iPads into the shower with him so that none of his accounts would go inactive." NYT
• How online gamers are solving science's biggest problems—"A new generation of online games don't just provide entertainment – they help scientists solve puzzles involving genes, conservation and the universe."
• Tech Demo for Pillow Castle's First Person Puzzler—In the words of Immortal Keanu: "Whoa."
• IGN's 2013 Game of Year—Would love to watch a full movie—CG or live action—based on the story.
• Robot Odyssey: The Hardest Computer Game of All Time

Tilt

• Microsoft And Machinima Defend YouTube Promotion Deal—At first anyway, but Microsoft scuttled the XBOX deal and Machinima's opting for full disclosure.
• King has trademarked the word CANDY (and you're probably infringing)—And apparently "saga" as well. These guys are out of control and probably hypocritical.
• Judge reverses huge jury award over Madden video games

Nintendon't

• Nintendo Confirms Wii U Has Flopped, Slashes Sales Forecast By ~70%
• Nintendo Stock Drops Off a Cliff After Forecasts Lowered
• Nintendo 'studying' mobile devices in wake of bleak hardware sales forecast

Chrome Malware

• Adware vendors buy Chrome Extensions to send ad- and malware-filled updates
• Google bans Chrome extensions purchased to deliver adware
• Warning: Your Browser Extensions Are Spying On You

Haxx0red

• Target, Neiman Marcus Breach Caused By Code Written By Russian Teen
• As Target breach unfolds, information vanishes from Web
• Craft store Michaels may be latest mega-retailer to get hacked
• Cyber attack that sent 750k malicious emails traced to hacked refrigerator, TVs and home routers
• Millions of passwords and email details stolen in Germany
• Massive data theft hits 40% of South Koreans
• For 2013, '123456' unseats 'password' as worst password

Marriage Equality, Sochi, Africa, Conversion, LGBT, Religion

Marriage Equality

• Virginia to fight same-sex marriage ban—"Mark Herring will announce that ban is unconstitutional, join in asking federal court to strike it down." This is why your vote matters. WaPo
• Newlywed Mayor Parker to GOP critics: 'Get over it'
• ACLU Sues Utah For Not Recognizing Gay Marriages
• Indiana Pulling Out All the Stops to Block Gay Marriage—One rep plans to block all marriage in the state.
• British pol's claim that gay marriage causes floods prompts hilarious weather forecast Salon
• Evangelicals Are Winning the Gay Marriage Fight--in Africa and Russia
• Are gay marriage advocates ignoring some LGBT people's fight to survive?

Sochi

• Twitter storm in Russia over Sochi Olympics twin toilet—Homophobes are so gay-obssessed.
• Video: #CheersToSochi Coca-Cola ad for #LGBT Russians—Supporting the hatred.
• Gay protester arrested for waving rainbow flag during Olympic torch relay in Russia
• Navratilova fires warning over Sochi protests
• Dutch band may play 'YMCA' in Sochi in support of gay rights
• German Olympians will wear rainbow-colored uniforms in Sochi
• Cosmetics chain Lush stands up for gay rights in run up to Sochi Winter Olympics
• SNL Cold Open Features Team USA’s Sochi Olympics Plan B: Heterosexual Figure Skating Team

Africa

• It was homophobia, not homosexuality, that was introduced to Uganda by Europeans
• Gays in Africa face rise in state-sponsored homophobia
• Nigeria: Thousands of protesters throw stones into court urging executions of gay men
• The Nigerians who dare to speak of love as a tide of anti-gay hatred rises
• Writer Tells Africa What He Couldn’t Tell 'Mum' NYT

Conversion

• The Lies and Dangers of Efforts to Change Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity
• Washington Lawmakers Consider Ban On Gay Conversion Therapy
• Minnesota legislators introduce bill to ban ex-gay therapy for minors
• Maryland senators pushing to ban 'gay cure' therapies for minors and trans discrimination
• Christian counsellors ban therapy aimed at 'converting' gay patients

LGBT

• "We made an indefensible mistake": Grantland editor apologizes for story outing trans woman—"After a suicide and an outcry, editor in chief Bill Simmons explains." Salon
• Esquire's astoundingly homophobic "Looking" review expects gay men to be "mincing"—"How did this get published? A straight critic slags gay men for not being stereotypes." Salon
• Sexual Orientation Is No Basis for Jury Exclusion, a Federal Appeals Court Rules NYT
• Watch an All-Star Broadway Cast in Russian Broadway Shut Down Parody
• Coke social media tool bans word "gay," but not "straight"
• Six Muslim Siblings Jailed For Attempted Kidnap Of Sarah Harrison For Having Relationship With Sister
• Hong Kong Billioniare doubles his offer from £40M to £80m to any man who can turn his lesbian daughter straight

Religion

• 'Gays can be cured': Pope's new cardinal—"The pope's new Spanish cardinal told a Spanish newspaper on Sunday that homosexuality was a physical 'defect' like high blood pressure and that many gays could be cured with 'proper treatment.'" Certainly got a reaction.
• Swiss Guard veteran claims existence of 'gay network' at the Vatican—"Former commandant Elmar Mäder says there is a 'secret society of homosexuals' at Holy See, and that it imperils pope's security." The Vatican is asking him to come out.
• Flipside: Evangelical campaign says everyone — even gays — reflect God's image WaPo

Workers and Wage Slaves, Tech Sector; Banks and Wall Street, Rich, Inequality; Vote Machinations, GOP, Abortion and Birth Control, Medicaid, NSA Spying

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Enjoy Your Weekend? You Won't If Republicans Get Their Way
• An ugly experiment in North Carolina
• Jobless benefits don't cause unemployment
• San Francisco's Higher Minimum Wage Hasn't Hurt the Economy
• Portland mayor: Raise city's minimum wage
• 11 jobs where an honest day’s work will leave you in poverty Salon
• CNN Global Wage Calculator

Tech Sector

• The Techtopus: How Silicon Valley's most celebrated CEOs conspired to drive down 100,000 tech engineers' wages
• US tech firms make eleventh-hour attempt to halt tax avoidance reforms—"Lobbyists representing leading US technology companies urge thinktank advising G20 not to close international tax loopholes."
• Technology and jobs: Coming to an office near you—"The effect of today’s technology on tomorrow's jobs will be immense—and no country is ready for it."
• The Rich and Their Robots Are About to Make Half the World's Jobs Disappear
• US Army Studying Replacing Thousands of Grunts with Robots

Banks and Wall Street

• A Congress Of the Wealthy, By the Wealthy, and For the Wealthy—"Lawmakers’ favorite investments are 'too big to fail institutions' like Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase. Is it any wonder that these institutions haven’t been broken up?"
• JP Morgan's Frauds are Epic,Unprecedented in World History – William Black—He's the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One: How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the S&L Industry.
• Fined Billions, JPMorgan Chase Will Give Dimon a Raise—"In a series of contentious meetings, JPMorgan Chase’s board voted to give Jamie Dimon a new pay package after his pay was cut in half last year, to $11.5 million."
• HSBC imposes restrictions on large cash withdrawals—"Some HSBC customers have been prevented from withdrawing large amounts of cash because they could not provide evidence of why they wanted it, the BBC has learnt." Update: HSBC backtracks.
• Vatican cleric Scarano charged with money-laundering
• Banker Says Letting Banks Fail Is Essential to Rebuilding Public Trust NYT
• T-Mobile's 'Mobile Money' blends prepaid Visa cards and no-fee checking features
• I Stopped Using Regular Banks for Two Weeks, and I'm Never Going Back

Rich

• Why the Rich Don't Think They're Rich. And Why It Matters
• Krugman: The Undeserving Rich—"Why you can't lump the plutocrats in with the upper middle class." NYT
• Republican Party to vote for repeal of U.S. anti-tax dodging law
• For the Love of Money—"We are letting money addiction drive too much of our society." NYT
• Eric Schmidt Just Revealed A Key Truth About The Economy That Very Few Rich Investors And Executives Want To Admit ...
• Meet the Man Who Got His Dead Mom's Social Security Benefits for 23 Years
• Pope to global elite: Do more for poor

Inequality

• Oxfam: 85 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of the world—Money ain't trickling down.
• Robert Reich: David Brooks is full of it—"The former secretary of labor dismantles the Times columnist's ideas about the 'social problems of the poor.'" Salon
• Kevin O'Leary says 3.5 billion people living in poverty is 'fantastic news'—Hard to say if he's trolling.
• New poll: 2 in 3 Americans affirm that rich-poor gap is wider—"Most Democrats say government should do more to close the income gap between rich and poor, while nearly half of Republicans say it should do very little. But most Americans say government should ease poverty."
• A surprising map of where it's hardest to escape poverty in America WaPo
• Inequality: Why aren’t the poor storming the barricades?
• Income inequality is not a concern of Wall Street's money addicts
• What Happens When the Poor Receive a Stipend?—"A study of what happened with a Native American tribe shows a big effect on children." NYT
• Brazil's poor are protesting income inequality in an awesome way

Vote Machinations

• Koch World 2014
• We May Finally Find Out Who Is Funding One Of The Nation’s Shadiest Dark Money Groups
• Conservative Author Dinesh D'Souza Charged With Campaign Finance Fraud
• Fake Obama photo meant to "smear" a rival envelops Houston congressman in cloud of controversy
• Is Obama Running Away From a Voter Registration Fight With the GOP?—"Obamacare should lead to millions of new registered voters, but the administration may be selling that effort short."
• Repairing the Voting Rights Act—"A creative new bill in Congress could overcome objections raised by the Supreme Court last year."

GOP

• 2014 Could Be A Bad Year For Tea Party Senate Candidates
• House Republicans Kick Off 2014 By Ignoring Everything the American People Want
• Democrats should exploit fissure in Tea Party: senator
• Gohmert: Gov't Tries To 'Lure' Single Moms Into 'Servitude' With Welfare
• On average, 20 to 25 cents of every $1 spent on four government assistance programs is lost to fraud, Sen. Ron Johnson says—Make that fabricates, as Politifact points out.

Abortion and Birth Control

• Huckabee: Gov't Shouldn't Help Women Who Can't Control Libidos—He's opted to double down on his misogynist message. Just how much sex is too much sex?
• Supreme Court Halts Birth Control Rule For 'Little Sisters' Group
• Judge orders Texas hospital to remove life support from pregnant, brain-dead woman
• High court rejects review of Arizona's 20-week abortion
• Judge Declares NC Abortion Ultrasound Law Illegal
• Judge Throws Out Oklahoma Morning-After Pill Bill
• Abortion clinic buffer zones go before the Supreme Court
• When It Comes To Abortion, Forcing Women To View Ultrasounds Is Just Unnecessarily Cruel, And It Doesn't Change Their Minds
• Antiabortion movement faces a cold reality WaPo
• Scott Lively: Right to choose robs men of their "Biblical authority"
• Anti-Abortion Republicans Are Largely Quiet As Israel Adopts Liberal Abortion Law
• Pope Says Abortion Evidence of 'Throwaway Culture'

Medicaid

• Pennsylvania Man Confronts His Governor For Refusing To Expand Medicaid: 'How Many People Have To Die?'
• 60% Of KY GOPers Buck McConnell, Support Medicaid Expansion
• Medicaid Expansion May Be a Sleeper Issue for Democrats This Year

NSA Spying

• NSA leaker Edward Snowden says U.S. return 'not possible' given current laws
• Snowden: 'Not all spying bad' but NSA program 'divorced from reason'
• Some of the biggest names in cryptography condemn NSA spying in open letter WaPo
• RNC condemns NSA spying in huge turnaround—And how about the Dems?
• White House refuses to accept that NSA phone dragnet is illegal
• Democratic rights and the defense of Edward Snowden—" Those who are guilty of treason against the US Constitution are screaming 'treason' against the man who has exposed their crimes."
• Security Check Firm Said to Have Defrauded U.S.—"The company that conducted a background investigation of Edward J. Snowden fraudulently signed off on hundreds of thousands of incomplete security checks in recent years, the Justice Department said." NYT

Law and Disorder; Death, Penalty; Brutality, Sexual Assaults; Guns; Bitches Behaving Badly, Fake Rape; Recording, 911

Law and Disorder

• Rampant Prosecutorial Misconduct—"Evidence is often withheld from the defense, and courts rarely hold prosecutors accountable." NYT
• Interview With Criminologist On The FBI: The New Untouchables
• Scotland Yard’s rotten core: Police failed to address Met's 'endemic corruption'
• Private cops being shielded from the public—"Private cops have the authority to carry guns and make arrests but can keep records secret."
• We Need to Stop Trusting the Police

Death

• Handcuffed Teen 'Shot Himself' In Police Car
• 84-year-old Canadian died in handcuffs while in U.K. immigration lockup: watchdog
• 'We called for help, and they killed my son,' North Carolina man says
• Ex-cops acquitted in beating death of homeless man in California
• Jury Decides Not To Indict Randall Kerrick, Officer Who Fatally Shot Jonathan Ferrell
• Texas executes Mexican Edgar Tamayo, despite protests

Penalty

• Controversial execution in Ohio uses new drug combination—"Ohio inmate Dennis McGuire appeared to gasp and convulse for roughly 10 minutes before he died Thursday by lethal injection using a new combination of drugs, reporters who witnessed it said."
• Doctor angry Ohio executed inmate despite 'horror' warning—"Anaesthesiologist David Waisel warned Ohio court Dennis McGuire would experience 'agony and horror' during execution."
• Ohio judge rules death row inmate is 'not entitled to a pain free execution'

Brutality

• Brooksville man injured in arrest sues deputies for more than $10 million
• Grisly Details In Two Separate Chicago Police Torture Scandals Emerge
• Cops bloody old man — for jaywalking
• HS Student Says He Suffered Serious Injuries During Arrest—"He then says during a pat down a female officer squeezed his genitals so hard-it ruptured his testicle."
• Panel reinstates Denver cops involved in 2008 "stomping" incident
• O.C. deputy who pepper-sprayed teen's pizza pleads guilty

Sexual Assaults

• Woman Says County Deputy Forced Her To Perform Sex Act After Traffic Stop
• Man to get $1.6M for humiliating 3-enema ordeal after traffic stop
• TSA Pat-Down At DIA Leads To Sex Assault Investigation

Guns

• Travis County Allows Gun Show Contract To Expire After Company Refuses To Pilot Background Checks
• Texas Man Arrested For Carrying AR-15 Around Mall Could Hurt Greg Abbott's Push For Open Carry
• Blind man who shot drinking buddy granted immunity under 'stand your ground' law
• Florida man shot dead in cinema texting row
• Police Chief Accidentally Shoots Himself At Gun Shop, Blames Fleece Jacket
• Gun flight: Smith & Wesson, Ruger quit California over stamping requirement

Bitches Behaving Badly

• Sisters 'desecrate' toddler's grave
• Puppy Meant for Girl with Leukemia Retrieved from Woman Responsible for Delivering It
• South Florida and NY psychic going to prison, must repay $2.2 million to victims

Fake Rape

• Virginia appeals court exonerates man wrongly convicted of sexual assault—After four years in prison.
• Mich. woman gets prison for false rape report
• Chaneya Kelly on Falsely Accusing Her Father of Rape—"She's regretted the lie that sent him to prison ever since."

Recording

• Here's why cops should be required to wear a lapel camera while on duty
• Hidden Third Cameraman Proves Crucial in Nebraska Photographer-Abuse Case
• Mark Duggan death: Armed police to wear video cameras
• Spain: Child films security guards attacking parents
• Flipside: Rosenberg PD dashcam video spreading across social media

911

• Dial 9 before 911? Hotel death prompts petition
• L.A. woman gets jail time for calling 911 more than 400 times
• Las Vegas 911 dispatcher who hung up on caller keeps job, report says

Ukraine; Politics and Economy, GOP, Abortion, Obamacare, Citizens United, Vote Machinations; War on Terror, Surveillance and Privacy, MLK

Ukraine

• Ukraine protests: Opposition issues 'attack' ultimatum
• Kiev becomes a battle zone as Ukraine protests turn fatal—"Deaths of at least three demonstrators come as businesses near protest hub reportedly ordered to close."
• Ukrainian government lifts restrictions on use of water cannons in cold weather
• Injured Ukraine activists 'disappearing' from Kyiv hospitals
• Ukraine protesters declare eight-hour truce as talks with government continue

Politics and Economy

• The Infrastructure of American Democracy Is Dysfunctional
• In U.S., 65% Dissatisfied With How Gov't System Works
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren says focus in 2014 includes boosting Social Security program, making higher education more attainable and increasing medical research funding
• Everything you need to know about the Chris Christie investigations WaPo
• Here's Why Bob McDonnell Just Got Indicted—"A guide to the corruption charges facing the former Virginia governor and his wife."

GOP

• Little has changed year after GOP's planned reboot
• GOP Continues To Drop In Popularity, Especially Among Women And Minorities
• Florida House candidate Joshua Black calls for hanging of President Obama
• GOP congressman: Wives should "voluntarily submit" to their husbands Salon
• GOP Congressional Candidate: Spousal Rape Shouldn't Be a Crime
• House Republicans Are Pushing A Bill That Would Force The IRS To Audit Rape Victims
• Michigan GOPer: 'Herd All The Indians' To Detroit, Build A Fence And Throw Them Some Corn
• Illinois GOP Candidate Says God Put Autism and Dementia on Earth as Punishment for Marriage Equality and Abortion

Abortion

• Texas Family Outlawed From Removing Brain Dead Woman From Life Support Because She's Pregnant—Inhuman and inhumane to the mother and the child.
• Wis GOP Bill Would Give Mother-In-Law Power to Stop a Daughter-In-Law's Abortion
• GOP Men Debate Anti-Abortion Bill As Female Colleagues Protest In The Hallway
• The GOP's Birth-Control Trojan Horse—"The right wants to use religion as an excuse to legally discriminate against gays and unmarried women—and, ultimately, anyone who doesn’t share their Christian faith."
• The Loud Truth About Abortion Protesters—"Justice Scalia calls the demonstrators 'counselors' who are comforting women. That's not what I found at one New Jersey clinic."
• How We Got So Polarized on Abortion
• Pro-lifers think they can save the GOP

Obamacare

• Hate Obamacare, Love the Benefits From Mumble-Mumble-Care
• Thanks to the GOP, 5 Million Americans Won't Get Health Insurance
• Republicans Seek To Sabotage Obamacare With Higher Premiums
• Note to GOP: Don't Reveal Your Fiendish Plan to Destroy Obamacare Until the Last Reel
• Mitch McConnell Boasts About Supporting Government Sponsored Health Care In New Campaign Ad
• Target is dropping insurance for some because of Obamacare. That could be good news for workers. WaPo
• Oncologists call for single payer in leading cancer journal

Citizens United

• Four Years After 'Citizens United,' There Is Real Movement to Remove Big Money From Politics
• How Citizens United changed politics, in 7 charts WaPo
• Did These 68 Words Just Kill IRS Oversight of Dark Money?

Vote Machinations

• Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Struck Down
• The Uncertain Future of Voter ID Laws—"In striking down Pennsylvania's ID requirement at the polls, Judge Bernard L. McGinley has given supporters of such laws in states across the country a reason to worry."
• TN GOP Votes Down Student IDs for Voting
• Justice Department Calls In The Big Guns To Stop Voter Suppression
• Election Panel Calls For More Early Voting
• Proposed Oregon law would ban people with prior elections violations from working as signature gatherers

War on Terror

• Bush-Appointed Judge Rules that No-Fly List Makes Some Americans "Second-Class Citizens"
• Lawmakers tie Pakistani aid to release of hero doctor
• US psychology body declines to rebuke member in Guantánamo torture case
• Secret-Law Alert: Congress Tries to Hide Its Drone Policy
• Yemen's Bedouin Tribes Are Getting Sick of US Drone Strikes—"Last December, another attack killed at least 11 innocent people."
• Gen McChrystal: US drone activity causes 'tremendous resentment'
• NSA's Fake War on Terror

Surveillance and Privacy

• Watchdog Report Says N.S.A. Program Is Illegal and Should End NYT
• Fox News Poll: Most voters glad they know Snowden secrets
• Surveillance aircraft floating high above Maryland—Godwinned: Blimps are today's zeppelins. WaPo
• Verizon Transparency Report reveals 164,000 subpoenas, 1,500 wiretaps
• Microsoft Will Allow Foreign Customers To Store Data Outside The U.S.

MLK

• MLK's vehement condemnations of US militarism are more relevant than ever—"His vital April 4, 1967 speech is a direct repudiation of the sophistry now used to defend US violence and aggression."
• How The FBI Invaded Martin Luther King Jr.'s Privacy -- And Tried To Blackmail Him Into Suicide
• Gov't used Surveillance of MLK in Bid to Destroy Him: Now they want us to just Trust Them

World News, Ukraine; Environment, China Air Pollution, West Virginia Spill, Fracking, Ecology; Obama, NSA Spying, Surveillance and Privacy

World News

• Thailand declares state of emergency in Bangkok
• Catalonia Pushes For Independence From Spain—235,000 signatures collected in one weekend.
• Scottish independence: Economy matters most, says social attitudes survey

Ukraine

• Ukraine protests: 'Two people' killed in Kiev clashes
• After another night of violence, Russia tells Europeans not to interfere in Ukraine
• Maybe the Most Orwellian Text Message a Government's Ever Sent

Environment

• Russia cracks down on green activism ahead of Sochi Olympics—"Russian courts sentence Evgeny Vitishko, a critic of the Sochi Olympics construction projects, to three years."
• Palm Oil Company Fined Millions for Burning Sumatran Forest
• Judge sides with company in asbestos fight, cuts liability by more than $1 billion
• Halliburton manager gets probation for destroying Deepwater Horizon evidence—"Oil company's cement technology expert deleted data uncovered by inquiry into fatal oil well blowout in April 2010."
• California official: utilities would like to "strangle" solar

China Air Pollution

• China's smog now 20 times worse than safe levels
• China's exports linked to western U.S. air pollution
• Westerners are so convinced China is a dystopian hellscape they'll share anything that confirms it—"Take, for instance, the reports about pollution being so severe in Beijing that residents now watch radiant sunrises broadcast on a huge screen in Tiananmen Square."

West Virginia Spill

• Freedom Industries files for bankruptcy, owes $2.4 million to IRS—Looks like West Virginians will be stuck paying for the clean-up.
• Chemical-Related Hospital Admissions In West Virginia Have Doubled Since Water Deemed Safe—Not so fast.
• Elk River leak included another chemical—"Federal and state investigators learned Tuesday that an additional chemical that wasn't previously identified was in the tank that leaked Jan. 9 at the Freedom Industries tank farm, just upstream from West Virginia American Water's regional drinking water intake."
• West Virginia Governor On Safety Of Water Supply: 'It's Your Decision… I'm Not A Scientist'
• West Virginia politicians consider chemical regulation after spill

Fracking

• Are you opposed to fracking? Then you might just be a terrorist—"From North America to Europe, the 'national security' apparatus is being bought off by Big Oil to rout peaceful activism."
• Livestream captures violent arrest of anti-fracking protester
• Fracking Chemicals In North Carolina Will Remain Secret, Industry-Funded Commission Rules

Ecology

• Drugs, Death, Neglect: Behind the Scenes at Animal Planet—Our exclusive investigation reveals how animals suffer on the network's top reality show."
• BBC admits filming nature scenes in 'controlled conditions' as cameraman claims small animal footage was 'faked'
• Reward offered for whooping cranes illegally shot in Western Kentucky
• Japanese fishermen begin annual slaughter of hundreds of dolphins—Anonymous gets involved.
• India's forest man—"Lauded for growing an entire forest over thirty years, Jadav Payeng shows the way forward to afforestation."

Obama

• Obama's NSA Speech Fails To Register With Americans, Poll Finds
• Five Criticisms of Obama's NSA Speech
• 'The USA knows that for us spying is a crime'—"German reaction to President Barack Obama's much-anticipated speech on Friday on the future of NSA spying has veered from skepticism to veiled threats with politicians suggesting legal action is a possibility."
• Human Rights Watch annual report 2014 criticises NSA mass surveillance—And that Obama has not gone far enough on NSA reforms.
• Stewart Skewers Obama's NSA Speech: Privacy Is Important!… Unless We Decide It Isn't!

NSA Spying

• New documents: NSA provided 2-3 daily "tips" to FBI for at least 3 years—"Secret 2007 court order mentions 'approximately three telephone identifiers.'"
• US withholding Fisa court orders on NSA bulk collection of Americans' data—"Justice Department refuses to turn over 'certain other' documents in ACLU lawsuit meant to shed light on surveillance practices."
• Legislators in 6 States Want to Pull the Plug on NSA Spying—Some Literally
• Google's Eric Schmidt denies knowledge of NSA data tapping of firm—"Executive chairman says search company has 'complained at great length' to the US government over intrusion."
• Reddit co-founder: NSA supporters offering 'false choice'
• Snowden to ask Russian police for protection after US threats – lawyer
• NSA files: Snowden says 'I acted alone' and rubbishes Russian spy claims—"Former spy agency contractor tells magazine that attempt to link him to FSB are 'absurd.'"

Surveillance and Privacy

• The Big Brother bargain: How government surveillance became easy and cheap—"It used to be that intelligence gathering was painstaking and expensive. Not anymore!" Salon
• China cracks down on web anonymity with new regulations
• Google should have been fined $1B over privacy policy, says EU justice chief
• Privacy tools used by 28% of the online world, research finds—"Concern about privacy, and frustration over censorship and content blocking is driving millions to use anonymity tools."
• Camouflage from face detection