Nevada
RJ – Northern Nevada braces for worst flooding in a decade – Flooding in Reno forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 homes, closed streets and highway stretches and prompted Gov. Brian Sandoval to tell nonessential state workers to stay home Monday. As of Sunday night, more than 1,000 homes had been evacuated in Reno as much of the Sierra’s eastern front braced for the worst flooding in a decade. Emergency officials said residents voluntarily evacuated 1,300 homes in a south Reno neighborhood Sunday as the Truckee River began rising above its banks and drainage ditches started overflowing south of Interstate 80. LINK
Also Published In:
RGJ – Flood Updates: Truckee leveling off in Reno, will crest in Sparks by noon Monday
Nevada Appeal – Flooding in Carson City, northern Nevada: Live coverage
The Record-Courier – High water forces mobile home park evacuation
Sierra Sun – Live Coverage: Flooding around Lake Tahoe, Northern Nevada
KUNR – Contaminants Lurking In Flood Waters Could Pose Health Risks
KUNR – “What Really Hurt Us Is Tributaries, Irrigation ditches” Says Reno Fire
RJ – Obama not creating Grand Canyon monument, congressman says – President Barack Obama has decided against creating a national monument covering areas of public land around Grand Canyon National Park, an Arizona congressman said Friday. Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva said White House Council on Environmental Quality officials told him of the decision during a meeting earlier this week. The White House, given an opportunity to dispute Grijalva’s statement that he’d been informed Obama wouldn’t approve the monument, declined to comment Friday. LINK
NPR – This Could Be The Busiest And Most Consequential Week Before Trump Takes Office – The week before Donald Trump takes the oath of office will set the stage for his entry into the Oval Office. Not only will at least nine of his Cabinet nominees begin their Senate confirmation hearings, but the president-elect himself will face reporters at a long-awaited press conference, where he may address how he plans to separate his business interests from his presidency. On top of that, President Obama steps into the spotlight one last time, on Tuesday evening in Chicago, for a farewell address in which he’s likely to frame his legacy. In addition to the busy schedule, Trump has demonstrated in recent days his ability to upend what’s happening in Washington or move the financial markets with a tweet — whether he’s going off on intelligence agencies, deflecting claims against Russia, or taking aim at companies that could move the financial markets. LINK
NPR – Las Vegas Housing Sales, Prices Increase In 2016 – The Las Vegas housing market ended 2016 with more sales and higher prices than in the previous year. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that according to a new report from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, buyers purchased 2,715 homes in December, up 4.6 percent from November and 1.3 percent from December 2015. The median sales price for those homes was $235,000, down 2.1 percent from November but up 8.3 percent from a year earlier. In all, 10,244 single-family homes were listed for sale in Las Vegas at the end of the year, down 13.4 percent from November and 13.6 percent from December 2015. LINK
Hispanic Media
Univisión Noticias – US Intelligence Chief Assures He Will Reveal Motives behind Putin’s Electoral Intervention
Univisión Noticias – Trump Threatens Toyota for Building Plant in Mexico
National
Leading the News
NYT – Jeff Sessions, a Lifelong Outsider, Finds the Inside Track – Mr. Sessions is in many ways Mr. Trump’s antithesis: reedy-voiced, diminutive and mild-mannered, a devout Methodist and an Eagle Scout who will soon celebrate a golden wedding anniversary with his college sweetheart. His father ran a country store in the Deep South. And he is widely regarded as rigidly honest and inflexible on issues he considers matters of principle. Mr. Trump has meandered across the political spectrum; Mr. Sessions has been a deeply conservative Republican his entire life. But besides their age — both are 70 — Mr. Sessions shared one trait with Mr. Trump: He was an outsider, dismissed by much of the Republican Party as a fringe player on all but his signature issue, immigration. The two men unexpectedly bonded over their willingness to buck the establishment and the unlikely hope that lower-middle- and working-class voters would carry a billionaire to the White House. bFor Mr. Sessions, that alliance has paid off in a fashion that few ever imagined. Rejected for a federal judgeship, passed over for a crucial Senate committee chairmanship and long considered too far right to attain a cabinet post, he has defied the odds. LINK
WSJ – Senate Looks to Move Fast on Trump Administration Hearings, Health Law – The Republican-controlled Senate, brushing aside concerns from Democrats and a government-ethics watchdog, is moving quickly this week to help President-elect Donald Trump staff his administration, scheduling multiple confirmation hearings on a single day on which the chamber also could vote on a step toward repealing much of the Affordable Care Act. Republicans have set at least nine confirmation hearings for the week, starting on Tuesday with one for Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), whom Mr. Trump nominated to lead the Justice Department. The lineup includes five hearings on Wednesday, the same day the Senate is expected to hold a series of rapid-fire votes in connection with a budget measure that advances the Republican effort to repeal the 2010 health law. Wednesday, Mr. Trump holds his first news conference since the election. Holding five or more confirmation hearings on a single day has precedent; it occurred for both Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. Still, Democrats say holding that many hearings at once makes it difficult to properly vet nominees. “My big concern now is to try to be in two places at one time,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the new top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. LINK
WaPo – Trump confidants serving as presidential advisers could face tangle of potential conflicts – Billionaire investor Carl Icahn will have the ear of President-elect Donald Trump as an adviser focused on cutting government regulations. But Icahn also stands to benefit if his advice is taken: It could make the energy companies and others in which he has a stake more profitable. Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who’s a major figure in her father’s business, has been present at transition meetings and is expected to continue to counsel him at the White House. So, too, is her husband, Jared Kushner, who has a web of business interests of his own that could be affected by Trump administration policy. And another Trump intimate — his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski — is making no secret of his desire to profit on his continuing closeness to Trump, setting up a new lobbying firm with an office just a block from the White House. With confirmation hearings set to start for Trump’s Cabinet, ethics experts are voicing alarm about several other confidants of the president-elect — dubbed the “shadow Cabinet” by one — who might not be subject to such scrutiny and could face a tangle of potential conflicts between their personal interests and those of the public. LINK
Supreme Court
NYT – The Hazards Justices Face by Owning Individual Stocks – Only three members of the court — Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Samuel A. Alito Jr. — appear to own individual stocks. In an era when potential executive branch conflicts are drawing intense scrutiny, those justices might consider setting a different tone for the judicial branch by selling their stocks and buying, say, index funds. LINK
Congress
NYT – Ready or Not, Republicans Say Cabinet Hearings Will Begin Tuesday – Advisers to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition team, facing complaints from Democrats that they are trying to jam nominees through confirmation hearings, said on Sunday they were confident all the appointees would be approved by the Senate, perhaps even with Democratic support. Being the minority party, the Democrats would face long odds in trying to derail any of the nominations. They are, however, seeking to delay Republicans’ plans to open hearings on Tuesday until the nominees have completed F.B.I. background checks. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, signaled on Sunday that he was unwilling to reschedule any confirmation hearings, which are set to begin with sessions for John F. Kelly, Mr. Trump’s choice to be the secretary of Homeland Security, and for Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the nominee to be attorney general. Five more hearings are scheduled for Wednesday. LINK
NYT – Ed Board: What Are You Hiding, Jeff Sessions? – This sets up the first big test of Democrats’ willingness to push back against Mr. Trump’s radical cabinet picks. Dianne Feinstein, the committee’s ranking Democrat, needs to take the lead in ensuring that Americans know as much as possible about the man who would be the nation’s top law-enforcement official. The attorney general is too important an office, and Mr. Sessions’s views are too extreme — as Republicans themselves saw 30 years ago — to allow his nomination to sail through without a fight. LINK
WSJ – Divide Over Russia Deepens in Congress – Congressional Republicans’ worries over President-elect Donald Trump’s views on Russia are deepening, with GOP hawks saying they still have questions about approving Rex Tillerson for secretary of state days before his scheduled confirmation hearing. Two key Republicans, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said in a joint interview Sunday on NBC that they are pushing forward with legislation to impose new sanctions on Russia, a move that would contradict Mr. Trump’s desire for a rapprochement with the Kremlin. Broad support for such a bill would put pressure on Mr. Trump to go along or risk appearing further isolated from his party on U.S.-Russia relations by vetoing such a measure. LINK
Politico – Conservative groups plan to pressure Dems on Trump court pick – Conservative groups are planning to spend millions on an unprecedented campaign to pressure Senate Democrats to confirm Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, according to sources familiar with the effort. Fresh off spending more than $7 million to keep the seat vacant under President Barack Obama, the deep-pocketed Judicial Crisis Network will plow at least $10 million into advertisements urging a number of moderate Senate Democrats to support Trump’s choice. The group is concentrating on Democrats up for reelection in states that Trump won last year. LINK
Politico – Obamacare repeal’s doomsday scenario – Hospital and health plan leaders talk in almost apocalyptic terms about what might lie ahead if Republicans abolish Obamacare without a blueprint for its replacement. Their doomsday scenario: Millions of people could lose their health care coverage, hospitals could hemorrhage cash and shocks to the $3 trillion-a-year health system could send ripples through the entire economy. LINK
Politico – Congress returns to second ethics fracas in 2 weeks – Donald Trump’s Cabinet parade marches to the Capitol this week, as Republican leaders are vowing to plow ahead with a slew of confirmation hearings despite a sharp warning from the government’s top ethics watchdog. Ten of Trump’s Cabinet picks are slated to come before Senate committees for vetting this week: two on Tuesday, five on Wednesday and three more on Thursday. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is encountering resistance not only from Democrats but the chief of the nonpartisan Office of Government Ethics, who said over the weekend that some of Trump’s nominees have yet to complete required financial disclosures and ethics documentation. Democrats were quick to demand that Republicans pump the brakes on the hearings, several of which were scheduled on Wednesday, the same day Trump will hold his first press conference since July. But on Sunday, McConnell dismissed the complaints as partisan griping and vowed to press ahead. LINK
AP – Trump and Schumer: Potential allies now adversaries – In the weeks after November’s election, President-elect Donald Trump and incoming Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer sounded like potential allies. Trump tweeted about their “good relationship” and Schumer’s “ability to get things done.” Schumer spoke of issues such as infrastructure and trade where Trump had embraced Democratic positions, and the New York senator cited common ground with the next president, also a New Yorker, on “a good number of economic issues.” But just days into the 115th Congress, the Trump-Schumer courtship has already turned sour, and the onetime potential allies now sound more like antagonists. Instead of praising Schumer over Twitter, Trump has taken to attacking him as Democrats’ “head clown” in their party’s defense of President Barack Obama’s health care law. Schumer goaded the president-elect by repurposing Trump’s campaign slogan into Democrats’ new rallying cry against GOP efforts to repeal the health law: “Make America Sick Again.” “For my whole life I’ve focused on the middle class and those trying to get there, and that is going to be my gyroscope for the term, and how much to work with him,” Schumer told The Associated Press. “How much does he help the middle class, or how much is he just catering to the elites. The first few weeks, he seems to be catering to the elites.” Trump’s transition team did not respond to a request for comment. LINK
AP – Trump and his cabinet picks prepare for grilling – President-elect Donald Trump and his Cabinet picks are preparing to face public questioning over their business conflicts, their approach to Russia and other issues during a crucial week that will including a slew of confirmation hearings and Trump’s first news conference in nearly three months. Trump is less than two weeks away from taking office, but has yet to lay out how he intends to disengage himself from his global business interests. Questions also remain about whether the president-elect will accept the conclusion of U.S. intelligence officials that Russia meddled in the U.S. election to help him win the White House. Aides say he’ll decide how to respond to their efforts after his inauguration. LINK
AP – State GOP wary as Republicans push repeal of health law – Congressional Republicans’ drive to repeal the 2010 health care law has financial and political repercussions for GOP leaders in the states and gives Democrats potential openings as they struggle to reclaim power lost during President Barack Obama’s tenure. Some Republican governors, in particular, are wary about what their Washington colleagues might do with Obama’s signature law, exposing a fissure in a party that has consolidated control in the nation’s capital and dozens of statehouses around the country in accompaniment with President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in November. “I think they talk a lot about repeal. I haven’t heard a lot about replace,” Ohio’s GOP Gov. John Kasich said last week in Cleveland, as he warned against making fast, sweeping changes. “The fact of the matter is we have a lot more people covered.” He asked “what happens to these people” in the event of a full repeal. LINK
Incoming Trump Admin
NYT – What to Watch For in Washington: Confirmation Hearings and Trump Meeting the Press – A blizzard of confirmation hearings. President Obama’s farewell speech. President-elect Donald J. Trump’s first news conference since July. And, yes, something called a “vote-a-rama” in Congress. In the throes of a chaotic political moment by any measure, the coming week stands out as especially — and, perhaps, strategically — overstuffed. LINK
WSJ – Auto Makers in Hot Seat as Political Pressure Rises – Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said Sunday it will invest $1 billion in two existing plants, creating what it says will be 2,000 new jobs. The decision ahead of Motown’s annual car show comes as auto makers have faced heat from the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump to manufacture more vehicles in the U.S. Some of the sector’s most powerful scions, including Ford Motor Co. Chairman Bill Ford and Toyota Motor Co. President Akio Toyoda, have in the week leading up to the auto show signaled they support seeing more Made in the U.S.A. labels in America’s driveways. LINK
WaPo – As a general, Mattis urged action against Iran. As a defense secretary, he may be a voice of caution. – The battle over how to respond to the mounting American casualties in summer 2011 reflected the deepening divide between the president and his top commander in the Middle East. In a White House worried about American overreach and the unintended consequences of military action, Mattis was the voice from the field consistently calling for a tougher response. Now Mattis will play a different role for a new commander in chief. As President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Pentagon, Mattis will oversee a force of nearly 1.3 million active-duty troops scattered across more than 150 countries. He will serve a president who has questioned the impartiality of America’s intelligence agencies and has moved in often puzzling ways to embrace longtime adversaries, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has emphasized the value of unpredictability over careful deliberation and raw power over diplomacy. Mattis’s falling out with the Obama administration, especially over Iran, offers a perspective into how the retired four-star Marine general will lead the world’s largest military and the advice he will bring to Trump during the most sensitive Situation Room debates. LINK
WaPo – Ed Board: Mexico will pay for that wall . . . eventually? – Could Mr. Trump somehow force Mexico to pay for some portion of the wall? Perhaps he could frame it that way, after compelling a renegotiated trade deal on terms he declares tilted in America’s favor, or by attempting to seize remittances sent across the border back to Mexico, as he has threatened. Neither option looks probable, easy or quick — or advisable. Washington has leverage. But it’s foolish to suppose that Mexico could not retaliate against the United States by imposing painful tariffs, fees, visa problems or impediments to the dizzying variety of bilateral and cross-border issues whose success relies on Mexican cooperation. It’s hard to fathom how embittering Mexico, by squeezing it for cash for a vastly wealthier America, would redound to the benefit of the United States. LINK
Politico – Trump to give Cabinet secretaries a long leash – President-elect Donald Trump plans to give his Cabinet secretaries and top aides significant latitude to run their federal agencies, marking a sharp departure from Barack Obama’s tightly controlled management style, according to people involved in and close to the transition. Members of Congress, transition team officials, real estate lawyers, lobbyists and executives in New York who know Trump expect him to be a chairman-of-the-board style manager in the White House. Trump, they say, doesn’t usually like getting into day-to-day minutiae or taking lengthy briefings on issues. He doesn’t have particularly strong feelings on the intricacies of some government issues and agencies, these people say, and would rather focus on high-profile issues, publicity and his brand. And he’s expected to grant his Cabinet lots of autonomy — at least until he sees something as a problem or an issue involves significant publicity or money. LINK
Politico – Why Trump can’t ‘simply’ divest from his business – Donald Trump’s critics say the only way for him to keep his business interests separate from the public’s interest is to simply get out of business entirely, selling his companies and putting the proceeds into anonymous assets that someone else can manage. But there’s nothing simple about it: unloading a real estate empire as large as Trump’s is a lengthy, complicated process fraught with ethical pitfalls. And one that could end up costing Trump a significant portion of his fortune. LINK
Obama Administration
Politico – Obama retools his political operation for another run – Already, former aides are revamping Organizing for Action, the group formed out of his old campaign structure. No longer about backing up Obama’s agenda in the White House, it will be a nexus for training activists and candidate recruitment, reshaped both by Trump’s win and some of the factors that contributed to Hillary Clinton’s loss. Though OFA has been mostly quiet over the last two months and made no formal announcements, its Chicago headquarters has been filling up with new hires, including several old campaign aides, who are planning to focus on the mechanics of campaigns, from running Obama-style persuasion programs, integrating data and running paid canvassing operations. Though the first goal is designing the program for what they’ll aim to make hundreds of workshops nationwide, there’s already talk moving toward endorsing candidates. And Obama has identified a few issues that would draw him out directly: a Muslim ban, though he still considers the chances of that remote, or moves that would cut back on the protections he put in place for the children, known as “dreamers,” who were brought to the country illegally as minors and who’ve been living here since. LINK
AP – US energy boss lauds opening of nuke repository – It was the determination of workers over nearly three years and pure ingenuity that allowed the nation’s only underground repository for low-level nuclear waste to recover from a radiation release, the head of the U.S. Energy Department said. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told The Associated Press that resuming work at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southern New Mexico means the nation’s multibillion-dollar cleanup of waste from decades of bomb-making and nuclear research is one step closer to getting back on track. “We are very, very excited about getting at least a resumption of operations,” he said during an interview late Sunday. “I do want to caution we will not be at full speed yet for a few years.” Moniz, Gov. Susana Martinez, members of the state’s congressional delegation and others were gathering Monday to mark the reopening of the site. The repository was shuttered in February 2014 after a chemical reaction inside a drum of inappropriately packed waste caused the lid to burst, contaminating some of the disposal vaults, corridors and air shafts that make up the facility. LINK
AP – Obama health care legacy: Coverage, conflict, and questions – Although his signature law is in jeopardy, President Barack Obama’s work reshaping health care in America is certain to endure in the broad public support for many of its underlying principles. Notwithstanding growing pains in connection securing some of the promises of the Affordable Care Act, the belief that people with medical problems should be able to get health insurance is no longer challenged. The idea that government should help those who can’t afford their premiums has gained acceptance. And the question is how much, and for what kind of coverage. “The American people have now set new standards for access to health care based on the Affordable Care Act,” former Surgeon General David Satcher says. “I don’t believe it will ever be acceptable again to have 50 million people without access to health care.” Obama’s influence will continue in other ways, less visible and hardly divisive. LINK
Economic/Business
NYT – F.B.I. Arrests Volkswagen Executive on Conspiracy Charges in Emissions Scandal – The Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrested a Volkswagen executive who faces charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, two people with knowledge of the arrest said on Sunday, marking an escalation of the criminal investigation into the automaker’s diesel emissions cheating scandal. Oliver Schmidt, who led Volkswagen’s regulatory compliance office in the United States from 2014 to March 2015, was arrested on Saturday by investigators in Florida and is expected to be arraigned on Monday in Detroit, said the two people, a law enforcement official and someone familiar with the case. LINK
U.S. News
AP – Airport shooting suspect due for Florida court appearance –The Iraq war veteran accused of fatally shooting five people and wounding six at a crowded Florida airport baggage claim is due for his first court appearance. Esteban Santiago is scheduled to be in Fort Lauderdale federal court Monday morning. The 26-year-old from Anchorage, Alaska, faces airport violence and firearms charges that could mean the death penalty if he’s convicted. The initial hearing Monday is likely to focus on ensuring Santiago has a lawyer and setting future dates. Santiago has been held without bail since his arrest after Friday’s shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. LINK
World
NYT – Airstrikes by Russia Buttress Turkey in Battle vs. ISIS – Russian warplanes have carried out airstrikes to support Turkey’s offensive in northern Syria against the Islamic State, an important evolution in a budding Russian-Turkish partnership. The deepening ties threaten to marginalize the United States in the struggle to shape Syria’s ultimate fate. The air missions, which took place for about a week near the strategically important town of Al Bab, represent the Kremlin’s first use of its military might to help the Turks in their fight against the militant group. The Russians seized an opening to try to build a military relationship with Turkey, a NATO member, as the United States has sought to keep the emphasis on taking Raqqa, the Islamic State’s self-declared capital. LINK
NYT – Death of Iran’s Rafsanjani Removes Influential Voice Against Hard-Liners – With the death of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Sunday, Iran’s political factions knew immediately that any space by reformers to maneuver had just significantly decreased. Change had come, and it did not favor those seeking to turn Iran into a less revolutionary country with more tolerance and outreach to the West — especially the United States. Mr. Rafsanjani, a former president who helped found the Islamic republic, had been the one man too large to be sidelined by conservative hard-liners. Now he was suddenly gone, dead from what state media described as cardiac arrest — and with no one influential enough to fill his shoes. LINK
NYT – Peña Nieto Faces Unrest in Mexico as Gas Prices Climb and Trump Ascends – The unrest comes as Mexico braces for the administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has threatened to introduce far more restrictive immigration and trade policies, including canceling the North American Free Trade Agreement, increasing deportations and building a wall on the southern border of the United States. Concern in Mexico about Mr. Trump’s planned tack on trade has been so great that he has been able to move the markets on the basis of his Twitter posts. The Mexican peso hit record lows last week after he criticized General Motors on Twitter for exporting cars made in Mexico and Ford Motors announced that it would cancel plans for a $1.6 billion plant in the country. Mexico’s Central Bank was forced to intervene to bolster the peso, but the currency took another hit after Mr. Trump threatened Toyota on Thursday with a “big border tax” if it went ahead with a new factory in Mexico. LINK
NYT – 4 Die in Jerusalem Attack as Palestinian Rams Truck Into Soldiers – A Palestinian driver plowed a truck into a group of Israeli soldiers as they were getting off a bus in Jerusalem on Sunday afternoon, killing four and injuring 17 others, according to the police and witnesses. The police called the episode an act of terrorism. Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said the attacker had been shot, and the police released images showing the truck’s windshield riddled with bullet holes. The dead included three female soldiers and one male soldier, the Israeli military confirmed. Several people were hospitalized, some with critical injuries. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the scene of the attack and said the perpetrator was “by all indications a supporter of the Islamic State.” LINK
AP – Suicide truck hits Egypt security post in Sinai, killing 9 – A suicide bomber driving a garbage truck packed with explosives rammed his vehicle into an Egyptian security checkpoint outside a police building in northern Sinai on Monday, killing at least nine people and wounding 10, officials said. According to security and medical officials, the attack in the city of el-Arish in the Sinai Peninsula was followed by smaller explosions as militants wearing black masks fired rocket-propelled grenades at the troops around the checkpoint. Three floors of the police building were blown out, the officials said, adding that so far nine bodies have been retrieved from the rubble but that they feared the death toll could rise further. Ten wounded were taken to hospital. LINK