A Look at the News — 2017.01.11

RJ – Raiders owner Mark Davis set to meet with NFL’s relocation, stadium committees – Mark Davis, owner of the NFL’s iconic silver-and-black Oakland Raiders, will have a golden opportunity Wednesday in New York to demonstrate to fellow owners that it’s in the best interests of pro football’s most exclusive club to permit him to move his team to Las Vegas. Davis will appear before the stadium and finance committees in daylong meetings that involve other related league matters. More than half of the NFL’s ownership group will be in New York. Several of the NFL’s most powerful owners, or their representatives, will listen to Davis update his efforts to move the Raiders out of Oakland for a second time in the past 38 years. Among those owners is Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots, who, along with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, has said Las Vegas is a favorable relocation destination. LINK

RJ – Heller introduces bill to repeal Obamacare’s ‘Cadillac tax’ – As Congress prepares for the political brawl over the dismantling of Obamacare, U.S. Sen. Dean Heller rolled out a bipartisan bill Tuesday to repeal a tax on high-end insurance plans. Heller, R-Nev., introduced legislation with U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., that would prevent the so-called “Cadillac tax” from being implemented in 2020. “We are going to rein it in,” Heller said at a news conference with Heinrich. The 40 percent tax, part of the Affordable Care Act, would be levied on employer-sponsored health care plans, including those offered to government employees, service industry workers, small-business owners and retirees. Heller said 1.3 million people in Nevada would feel the pinch of the tax if it were allowed to become law. LINK

RJ – Nevada to receive a $2M, 3-year grant to improve career and technical education – Nevada is one of 10 states that will receive a $2 million, three-year grant from a J.P. Morgan Chase initiative that aims to improve career and technical education. The New Skills for Youth program, done in partnership with the Council of Chief State School Officers, Advance CTE and Education Strategy Group, awarded the money to states that are making strides in building a strong career pathway for high school students. “These 10 states are doing something new,” said Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers. “They will transform education in their state to create career pathways for every child in every school, so all kids have the ability to pursue a high-skilled, good-paying career pathway.” The program aims to address what J.P. Morgan Chase calls a “youth unemployment crisis,” and the skills workforce gap that Minnich said has existed across the country. LINK

RJ – Save Red Rock group wants Clark County lawsuit dismissed – A local environmental nonprofit is invoking Nevada’s anti-SLAPP law in an attempt to dismiss a lawsuit filed last month by Clark County, according to a court motion filed Monday. Save Red Rock attorney Justin Jones said the lawsuit, filed in Clark County District Court, could bar the nonprofit from testifying at County Commission meetings against a plan to build about 5,000 homes atop Blue Diamond Hill, located near the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. “To take legal action to stop a citizens organization from participating in the public process is precisely the opposite of what the county should be doing,” Jones said. SLAPP stands for “strategic lawsuit against public participation.” The state’s anti-SLAPP law is a special method to dismiss lawsuits filed to chill a defendant’s claim of First Amendment protection. Both Save Red Rock and Gypsum Resources, the mining company that wants to develop Blue Diamond Hill, are named as defendants in the county’s lawsuit. LINK

RJ – Construction of $20M Legacy charter school to begin in North Las Vegas – Legacy Traditional School will begin construction Jan. 25 on a $20 million campus in North Las Vegas that’s scheduled to open for the 2017-18 school year. When completed, the 80,717-square-foot, L-shaped building will be equipped with 41 classrooms, offices, a gym, playgrounds, cafeteria, athletic fields and more than 90 parking spaces, Aaron Hale, executive director and co-founder of Legacy Traditional Schools, said in a release issued Monday. LINK

RJ – 2 Nevada lawmakers back bill to make English the state’s official language – Two Republican state lawmakers are reviving an attempt to make English the official language in Nevada. State Sen. Don Gustavson of Sparks and Assemblyman Richard McArthur of Las Vegas are co-sponsors of the bill draft request that would require all official state business to be conducted in English, with limited exceptions. Exact wording has not been drafted, but both Gustavson and McArthur have previously backed similar legislation, though those bills failed to get out of committees. Gustavson was a primary sponsor of bills to make English Nevada’s official language in 1997 and 2013. LINK

RJ – Lawsuit accuses Las Vegas lawyer, veterans group leader of defamation – A lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses Las Vegas lawyer Louis Schneider and Steve Sanson, who runs Veterans in Politics International, of colluding to influence court cases and making “false and defamatory” statements about another attorney. That lawyer, Jennifer Abrams, claims that Schneider provided at least one video of a closed Family Court hearing to Sanson, who posted it online late last year under the headline “Nevada Attorney attacks a Clark County Family Court Judge in Open Court,” along with an article that included statements about Abrams that were “highly offensive and inflammatory.” Abrams called Sanson and Schneider a “criminal syndicate” and said they conspired in “smear campaigns” in an attempt to influence the outcome of ongoing court cases. The suit also claims that Schneider paid Sanson. Schneider called that allegation “absurd.” LINK

RJ – Las Vegas area ranks 21st among worst for pedestrian safety – The Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise metropolitan area was ranked the 21st worst for pedestrian safety, while Nevada was listed as the 12th deadliest state for walkers, according to a national study released Tuesday. The National Complete Streets Coalition, made up of Washington D.C.-based Smart Growth America and other groups, examined 104 major metropolitan regions through a “pedestrian danger index” that compares the number of pedestrian deaths to the number of people who walk to work in each area. LINK

RJ – Contract approved for body cameras for Nevada Highway Patrol troopers – Nevada Highway Patrol troopers soon will wear body cameras to record their interactions with the public with the approval Tuesday of a $1.25 million five-year contract to purchase and operate the devices for its uniformed officers. The Board of Examiners, including Gov. Brian Sandoval, approved the contract between the state Department of Public Safety and TASER International. The cameras cost $1,414 each. LINK

Pahrump Valley Times – Nye County Sheriff’s Office faces two lawsuits alleging hostile work environment – The Nye County Sheriff’s Office faces two separate federal lawsuits from current and former deputies that allege a pattern of a hostile work environment with years of sexual harassment that was tolerated by superior officers who turned a blind eye to reported problems. In both cases, the alleged discrimination and harassment stretched back years, and lawsuits were filed only after the deputies unsuccessfully sought a resolution from Nye County’s human resources department and their superiors. Nye County Sheriff Sharon Wehrly, who took office in January 2015, said it was inappropriate “to comment on a pending court case.” LINK

KNPR – Fearing Trump Supporters, Now Liberals Are Buying Guns – Just before November’s election, gun sales in America shot through the roof. This was the storyline: Gun owners feared Hillary Clinton would, somehow, take away their guns. Then the shocker: Donald Trump got elected. But a funny thing happened. Gun sales around the country skyrocketed. The FBI reported more gun background checks on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, than ever before. We’re going to talk about reasons for that, which include fear by liberals. LINK

KNPR – Trump Team’s Meeting With Latino Leaders Gets Mixed Reviews – It was billed as a “listening session,” a chance for Latino leaders from across the country to sit down with members of president-elect Donald Trump’s transition team and talk about the issues important to them and to their constituents. The invitation alone was notable, given the notoriously rocky relationship Trump has had with Latinos since the start of his campaign. Leaders of some of the largest Latino civil rights organizations have tried without success for more than a year to gain an audience with Trump or his team. They finally got their wish on Tuesday. It was a breakthrough, but not everyone experienced it the same way. LINK

KNPR – Trump D.C. Hotel Contractors Say They’re Owed Millions – In late October, just weeks ahead of the election, President-elect Donald Trump made a quick detour to Washington for the official opening of his new five-star hotel, just a few blocks from the White House. During a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Trump told the crowd that the two-year, roughly $200 million renovation project at the historic Old Post Office Building was done ahead of schedule and under budget, thanks to what he called an incredible team of people — “including hundreds of construction workers, electricians, maintenance workers and so many others who helped make this project a reality. They’re really the important ones.” Now some of those companies would like final payment for their work. Documents obtained by NPR show three Washington-area companies have filed liens against Trump International Hotel totaling more than $5 million. LINK

KSNV – As clean-up efforts continue, Reno region braces for more rains, flooding – After the first deluge this past weekend, the Reno region already battling the aftermath of flooding is preparing for Round 2. Another round of rain is expected to hit Reno, and several feet of snow is predicted for the Sierra. The combination is forcing people in northern Nevada to get prepared for another winter storm. Holly Mullens of Reno says that could make for a bad combination. LINK

NYT – Trump Received Unsubstantiated Report That Russia Had Damaging Information About Him – The chiefs of America’s intelligence agencies last week presented President Obama and President-elect Donald J. Trump with a summary of unsubstantiated reports that Russia had collected compromising and salacious personal information about Mr. Trump, two officials with knowledge of the briefing said. The summary is based on memos generated by political operatives seeking to derail Mr. Trump’s candidacy. Details of the reports began circulating in the fall and were widely known among journalists and politicians in Washington. The appendix summarized opposition research memos prepared mainly by a retired British intelligence operative for a Washington political and corporate research firm. The firm was paid for its work first by Mr. Trump’s Republican rivals and later by supporters of Mrs. Clinton. The Times has checked on a number of the details included in the memos but has been unable to substantiate them. The memos suggest that for many years, the Russian government of Mr. Putin has looked for ways to influence Mr. Trump, who has traveled repeatedly to Moscow to investigate real estate deals or to oversee the Miss Universe competition, which he owned for several years. Mr. Trump never completed any major deals in Russia, though he discussed them for years. LINK

WSJ – Spy Agencies Investigating Claims Trump Advisers Worked With Russian Agents – U.S. intelligence agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have spent months trying to substantiate explosive claims, compiled by a former Western intelligence official, that Russian government operatives engaged in an extensive conspiracy with advisers to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and employees of his company, people familiar with the matter said. The unverified allegations—including a claim Russia has material that could be used to blackmail Mr. Trump—were deemed sufficiently significant by senior intelligence officials to summarize them in a two-page addendum to the classified briefing President-elect Trump received last Friday about Russian efforts to influence the U.S. presidential campaign, the people said. “FAKE NEWS – A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!” Mr. Trump tweeted after the allegations surfaced publicly Tuesday evening. U.S. officials confirmed that a summary of the information had been given to Mr. Trump. They said sharing of such unverified information was taken out of an abundance of caution that the incoming president should be aware of allegations being made against him that could become public—a decision intelligence experts backed. President Barack Obama received the same information, officials said. LINK

WaPo – Intelligence chiefs briefed Trump and Obama on unconfirmed claims Russia has compromising information on president-elect – A classified report delivered to President Obama and President-elect Donald Trump last week included a section summarizing allegations that Russian intelligence services have compromising material and information on Trump’s personal life and finances, U.S. officials said. The officials said that U.S. intelligence agencies have not corroborated those allegations but believed that the sources involved in the reporting were credible enough to warrant inclusion of their claims in the highly classified report on Russian interference in the presidential campaign. Trump, however, replied Tuesday night with a tweet declaring: “FAKE NEWS – A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!” A senior U.S. official with access to the document said that the allegations were presented at least in part to underscore that Russia appeared to have collected embarrassing information on both major candidates but released only material that might harm Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton — a reflection of Russian motivation that bolstered U.S. spy agencies’ conclusion that Moscow sought to help Trump win. LINK

NYT – Republicans, Facing Pressure, Delay Hearings for 4 Trump Cabinet Nominees – Senate Republicans, under increasing pressure to ensure that President-elect Donald J. Trump’s nominees are fully vetted by federal authorities, have delayed the hearings of four potential cabinet members, three of whom have not been cleared by the agency charged with unraveling potential conflicts of interest. As frustrations over confirmations grow, a group that supports Republicans accused the ethics office and its leader — in a highly unusual attack on the nonpartisan agency — of politicizing a process long viewed by both parties as arduous but essential for anyone serving in government. Hearings for Betsy DeVos, Mr. Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Education; Andrew Puzder, his labor secretary nominee; and Representative Mike Pompeo, Republican of Kansas, Mr. Trump’s pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, have all been pushed back as Democrats clamor for more time to collect and review the standard background checks that nominees traditionally undergo before their hearings commence. Wilbur Ross, Mr. Trump’s pick for secretary of commerce, will also be delayed several days because his ethics agreement is not complete, according to the chairman and ranking Democrat of the commerce committee. LINK

NYT – Jeff Sessions Says He Would Be Independent and Stand Up to Trump – Senator Jeff Sessions, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s nominee for attorney general, pledged on Tuesday to “say no” to Mr. Trump if he tries to go beyond the law, and he spoke out against torture, a ban on Muslim immigration and other ideas that had been floated by Mr. Trump. LINK

NYT – Russian Hackers Gained ‘Limited’ Access to R.N.C., Comey Says – The director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, told lawmakers at a Senate hearing on Tuesday that Russian hackers had penetrated the Republican National Committee’s computer records, but he called it a “limited penetration of old R.N.C.” computer systems that were “no longer in use.” Mr. Comey’s statement was significant because the committee said weeks ago that it did not lose data to the Russians because of its strong cybersecurity. President-elect Donald J. Trump has repeated that assertion and has also said weaknesses in Democratic National Committee systems had opened the way for their systems to be hacked. LINK

WaPo – Trump, Hill GOP fret about fallout from repealing Obamacare so quickly – After years of promising to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a growing number of Republicans are balking at the prospect of doing so quickly without a firm plan to replace it. As the Senate begins voting Wednesday on a path to eliminate the landmark health-care bill, some Republicans are worried about the political fallout and uncertainty of starting to roll back Obamacare without knowing how the process will end. President-elect Donald J. Trump was among the Republicans expressing concern Tuesday. “I feel that repeal and replace have to be together, for very simply, I think that the Democrats should want to fix Obamacare,” Trump said in an interview with The New York Times. “They cannot live with it, and they have to go together.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) insisted Tuesday that they have no intention of moving ahead with repeal without a consensus replacement plan. But some Republicans remained concerned about taking a single vote — on a budget measure that sets certain ground rules for what is to follow — before they get through what is likely to be an extremely difficult process of producing an alternative. LINK

Politico – How the GOP plans to repeal Obamacare – The Republican Party’s quest to kill Obamacare is about to get real. Here’s a step-by-step guide to how it will go down in the coming days and weeks — assuming they don’t manage to mess it up or get cold feet. In the wee hours of Wednesday night or Thursday morning, Republicans plan to pass a Senate budget that sets in motion what’s known in congressional parlance as reconciliation. If that sounds like a snooze, think again: It’s one of the most powerful weapons in the majority’s procedural arsenal. Under reconciliation, bills are protected from the 60-vote filibuster so they can be rammed through the Senate and House by a simple majority. Democrats used it to finish passing Obamacare seven years ago. Now Republicans intend to return the favor to dismantle the law. Once the budget is adopted in the Senate, the House is expected to quickly follow suit, passing it as early as Friday. The budget doesn’t become law, but it’s the only way to set reconciliation — in other words, Obamacare repeal — in motion. LINK

NYT – Ben Carson, Shaped by Poverty, Is Likely to Bring Tough Love to HUD – Mr. Carson has no experience running a large federal bureaucracy, and aside from a failed run for the presidency, has no background in government. But if confirmed by the Senate, he would enter public service with a background like few other cabinet officials in history, shaped profoundly by a childhood when public assistance meant survival and public housing was all around him. Rather than embrace the programs that once sustained his family and the families around him, he has resolutely rejected them, adopting standard Republican beliefs that welfare fosters dependency. “The government should build and maintain infrastructure that supports population growth, business and self-improvement endeavors,” he wrote in his book, “A More Perfect Union.” “It should not, however, meddle in the affairs of all the citizens or control every aspect of their lives, as is done in many communist and socialist countries.” LINK

 NYT – Trump States His Case Against a Compromising Dossier: ‘Fake News’ – From the moment the unsubstantiated but explosive intelligence report hit the internet, the questions arose: When and what would Mr. Trump tweet?v Shortly after 8:15 p.m. on Tuesday, the world had its answer. Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump FAKE NEWS – A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT! Mr. Trump’s longtime lawyer and sometimes spokesman, Michael Cohen, followed with his own defense, a possibly ill-advised reference to Page 18 of the dossier, which alleges a secret meeting between Mr. Cohen and Russian intelligence agents in Prague — not something the Trump team wants attention on. LINK

NYT – Rex Tillerson, Required to Shed Exxon Shares, Wants to Defer the Taxes – As he prepares for a confirmation hearing on becoming secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, Exxon Mobil’s former chief executive, wants to hold on to a big benefit: deferring income taxes on company shares worth around $174 million. But tax experts say the plan devised by Exxon Mobil to let him do that could run into trouble with the Internal Revenue Service. Questions about Mr. Tillerson’s compensation may come up on Wednesday at his hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is one of several top business executives Mr. Trump has nominated to cabinet positions, setting up a continuing focus on how they will deal with the assets they must shed to comply with government ethics rules. LINK

NYT – Trump Tells Congress to Repeal and Replace Health Care Law ‘Very Quickly’ – President-elect Donald J. Trump demanded on Tuesday that Congress immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act and pass another health law quickly. His remarks put Republicans in the nearly impossible position of having only weeks to replace a health law that took nearly two years to pass. “We have to get to business,” Mr. Trump told The New York Times in a telephone interview. “Obamacare has been a catastrophic event.” Mr. Trump appeared to be unclear both about the timing of already scheduled votes in Congress and about the difficulty of his demand — a repeal vote “probably some time next week” and a replacement “very quickly or simultaneously, very shortly thereafter.” LINK

 NBC – Moscow Rejects Report on Donald Trump Ties as ‘Total Hoax’ – The Russian government denied unverified reports Wednesday that it has compromising information about Donald Trump, dismissing the claims as a “total hoax.” Two U.S. officials told NBC News that briefing materials prepared for Trump included damaging allegations, which have not been verified by American intelligence agencies, about his dealings with Russians. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected these allegations out of hand. “The Kremlin does not have compromising information about Trump,” he said, according to Russian state-run news agency TASS. “It’s a total hoax, absolute fabrication and utter nonsense. The Kremlin does not collect compromising information.” Peskov also called the reports “pulp fiction.” LINK

Politico – Chao on transportation largely a blank page – Elaine Chao, the Transportation Secretary-designate, is a seasoned administrator and political operative with deep personal ties to swaths of the Beltway’s elite, especially members of Congress. But Chao, who is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has let slip very little about her opinions on the most pressing transportation issues. So the transportation industry will be parsing her words at the confirmation hearing on Wednesday very closely, looking for clues about not only what kind of issues she will prioritize, but which topics may be at the top of President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda. LINK

Politico – Ex-wife of Labor nominee leveled abuse claims on ‘Oprah’ – The ex-wife of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be labor secretary, Andrew Puzder, appeared in disguise on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” as a victim of domestic violence, after having accused him multiple times of physically assaulting her in the 1980s, according to two friends of hers and a spokesman for the former couple. Additionally, a 1988 petition obtained by POLITICO from the Circuit Court of St. Louis County provides previously unreported details of the alleged abuse: Puzder’s ex-wife, Lisa Fierstein, accused him of having “assaulted and battered [her] by striking her violently about the face, chest, back, shoulders, and neck, without provocation or cause,” and that as a consequence she “suffered severe and permanent injuries.” Fierstein’s accusations first surfaced in local news reports around the time of their divorce. She has retracted the allegations in the weeks leading up to Puzder’s confirmation hearing, suggesting she made them up to bolster her divorce settlement. Puzder has always denied that he abused her. But women’s groups are using the charges as ammunition in their fight to oppose his nomination. And Fierstein’s appearance on “Oprah,” when she was known as Lisa Henning, raises new questions, showing that she went beyond divorce-settlement tactics to portray herself on national television as an anonymous victim of domestic violence. LINK

Politico – Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump backfire – Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office. They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found. A Ukrainian-American operative who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation. The Ukrainian efforts had an impact in the race, helping to force Manafort’s resignation and advancing the narrative that Trump’s campaign was deeply connected to Ukraine’s foe to the east, Russia. But they were far less concerted or centrally directed than Russia’s alleged hacking and dissemination of Democratic emails. Poroshenko is scrambling to alter that dynamic, recently signing a $50,000-a-month contract with a well-connected GOP-linked Washington lobbying firm to set up meetings with U.S. government officials “to strengthen U.S.-Ukrainian relations.” LINK

Politico – Trump to square off with press after Russia bombshell – Donald Trump on Wednesday will step out from the relative safety of his Android Twitter keyboard to spar with the “dishonest media” he so often relishes disparaging. The long-awaited first news conference since Trump became president-elect took on added consequence Tuesday evening amid explosive new reports that U.S. officials are looking into allegations that Russia may have gathered compromising material on Trump. LINK

Politico – Comey won’t say if FBI is investigating contacts between Moscow, Trump campaign – FBI Director James Comey declined Tuesday to say whether there was contact between the Trump campaign and the Russian government during the presidential race, or whether the FBI was investigating the issue. Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Comey said he could not comment publicly on the possibility of open investigations — a comment that raised some eyebrows among Democrats and led to a biting response from Sen. Angus King (I-Maine): “The irony of your making that statement here, I cannot avoid, but I’ll move on.” LINK

Bloomberg – Tillerson’s Exxon-Ethics Plan Has a $72 Million Tax Advantage – The exit package Exxon Mobil Corp. has agreed to pay Rex Tillerson if he’s confirmed as secretary of state is structured to preserve roughly $180 million in deferred compensation for him — and might let him avoid an immediate federal income tax bill of as much as $72 million, according to tax specialists who have reviewed the plan. The arrangement was designed to sever Tillerson’s ties to the global oil company he led since 2006 and allow him to comply with federal ethics law. Under the plan, Exxon would make a cash payment into an independent trust managed by Northern Trust Corp. for Tillerson. In exchange, Tillerson, 64, would give up his rights to more than 2 million restricted shares and restricted stock units that haven’t vested yet. LINK

NYT – Obama Races to Overhaul Police in Baltimore and Chicago Before Trump Era – With just days until Donald J. Trump is sworn in as president, the Obama administration is making a last-minute push for police overhauls in two of the nation’s most violent cities, Baltimore and Chicago, where officers have been accused of routinely mistreating African-Americans. In Chicago, where a city task force appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel concluded that “the police have no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color,” the Justice Department is rushing to wrap up a sweeping investigation into police patterns and practices, prompted by the release of a chilling video that showed a white officer shooting a black teenager. The findings are expected to be released before Jan. 20, Inauguration Day. Such an investigation is typically the first step toward a consent decree in which a police department is required to make significant changes under court supervision. But in Chicago, President Obama’s Justice Department is running out of time to pursue such an order, and activists fear that the Trump administration will abandon the effort. LINK

NYT – Obama’s Work to Limit Mergers May Stop With Trump Administration – A nascent effort by the Obama administration to limit corporate consolidation, begun after officials concluded that a lack of competition was hurting the American economy, appears to be coming to an abrupt end as the Trump administration takes charge. President-elect Donald J. Trump railed against media company mergers on the campaign trail, promising to block the proposed combination of AT&T and Time Warner, but conservatives and liberals alike say they see no evidence Mr. Trump will be worried about the continuing rise of megacompanies in other parts of the economy once he takes office. LINK

NYT – White House Urges Research on Geoengineering to Combat Global Warming – A White House road map for federally funded climate research has for the first time recommended research into geoengineering, the concept of intervening in nature to slow or reverse global warming. The document, an update of a report that lays out a plan for climate-related research at 13 federal agencies until 2021, calls for studies related to the two most-discussed approaches to geoengineering: distributing chemicals in the atmosphere to reflect more heat-producing sunlight away from the earth, and removing carbon dioxide from the air so the atmosphere traps less heat. LINK

NYT – Prosecutors Seek 2 Years in Jail for James Cartwright in Leak Case – Federal prosecutors asked a judge on Tuesday to sentence James E. Cartwright, a retired Marine Corps general and former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to two years in prison for lying to F.B.I. agents about his discussions with reporters about Iran’s nuclear program. The Justice Department’s request to Judge Richard J. Leon, of Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, was significantly harsher than what prosecutors had agreed was the normal sentencing guideline range — a year of probation to six months in prison — when General Cartwright pleaded guilty to that charge in October to settle a four-year leak investigation. LINK

WaPo – Obama’s farewell message on democracy: ‘Show up. Dive in. Stay at it.’ – Not long ago, President Obama had expected to use his farewell address to the nation to celebrate his administration’s achievements before handing them off to a Democratic successor. Instead, in the wake of Donald Trump’s stunning upset victory, a president whose political rise was propelled by his ability to inspire hope arrived in Chicago on Tuesday night facing a new reality. Tempering the disappointment of his supporters and soothing their anxiety has become, in his waning days in office, Obama’s last, unexpected campaign. “For every two steps forward,” Obama told the crowd at the McCormick Place arena, “it often feels we take one step back.” Obama took the stage amid an air of nostalgia, joined by his wife and daughter, the vice president, a gaggle of former aides and 18,000 supporters who braved frigid temperatures this week to score a ticket. Familiar campaign anthems from U2 and Bruce Springsteen played at the arena where Obama had celebrated his 2012 reelection victory. LINK

NYT – Fox News Settled Sexual Harassment Allegations Against Bill O’Reilly, Documents Show – In the weeks after Roger Ailes was ousted as the chairman of Fox News in July amid a sexual harassment scandal, company executives secretly struck an agreement with a longtime broadcast personality who had come forward with similar accusations about the network’s top host, Bill O’Reilly. The employee, Juliet Huddy, had said that Mr. O’Reilly pursued a sexual relationship with her in 2011, at a time he exerted significant influence over her career. When she rebuffed his advances, he tried to derail her career, according to a draft of a letter from her lawyers to Fox News that was obtained by The New York Times. LINK

NYT – Volkswagen Set to Plead Guilty and to Pay U.S. $4.3 Billion in Deal – Volkswagen is on the verge of pleading guilty to criminal charges and paying $4.3 billion in fines, in a deal that would resolve a federal criminal investigation into its cheating on vehicle emissions tests, the automaker said on Tuesday. The expected guilty plea and the recent arrest of a Volkswagen executive on conspiracy charges buck a pattern of companies essentially paying their way out of criminal accusations. While companies often face large fines for wrongdoing, it is far less common for them to admit to breaking the law. As a result of the deal, Volkswagen could be required to cooperate with investigations into individual company employees, accelerating the pace of those cases. LINK

NYT – Dylann Roof Is Sentenced to Death in Charleston Church Massacre – Dylann S. Roof, the unrepentant and inscrutable white supremacist who killed nine African-American churchgoers in a brazen racial rampage almost 19 months ago, an outburst of extremist violence that shocked the nation, was condemned to death by a federal jury on Tuesday. The jury of nine whites and three blacks, who last month found Mr. Roof guilty of 33 counts for the attack at this city’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, returned their unanimous verdict after about three hours of deliberations in the penalty phase of a heart-rending and often legally confounding trial. LINK