— Compiled by Jesús Espinoza, Deputy Press Secretary, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto
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Las Vegas Sun – Inside the 58th presidential inauguration – On Jan. 20, Donald Trump and Mike Pence will lose the hyphens from their titles. The next president and vice president will take their oaths and do plenty of smiling and waving. While Trump has promised a “great show,” Inauguration Day is really about the peaceful transfer of power. It goes back to George Washington, who delivered the shortest address in history — 135 words — during his second inauguration. How to obtain tickets to the inauguration: Contact your U.S. senator and representatives, as they have some tickets to distribute. Nevada’s senators are Dean Heller and Catherine Cortez Masto, and representatives include Jacky Rosen, Dina Titus, Mark Amodei and Ruben Kihuen. LINK Nevada Appeal – Anti-Yucca dump site legislation introduced – Five of Nevada’s six-member congressional delegation teamed this week to introduce legislation designed to prevent the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump from being resurrected. U.S. Senators Dean Heller and Catherine Cortez Masto were joined by House members Dina Titus, Ruben Kihuen and Jacky Rosen in introducing the Nuclear Waste Informed Consent Act. That bill would allow the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to authorize the Yucca projection to go forward only if the Secretary of Energy gets written consent from the governor of Nevada. The law would apply not only to Nevada but any other state the federal government considers for the waste dump. LINK KLAS – Plans to fight Yucca Mountain’s development back in forefront – With a new incoming administration, Nevada’s Congressional Delegation is raising an issue with the possibility that Yucca Mountain development could resume. It would be the country’s first nuclear waste dump for spent fuel from nuclear power plants. However, there are efforts to keep the facility from opening. “We don’t want nuclear waste in our backyards, period,” said Annette Magnus, executive director of Battle Born Progress. “I’ve done the tour, I’ve seen it, and I can tell you that in my opinion, it is safe,” said Alan Stock, KXNT Radio Host. This week, Congresswoman Dina Titus, along with Senators Dean Heller and Catherine Cortez Masto introduced companion bills to the current law. LINK RJ – Immigrant rights resource fair slated Saturday in North Las Vegas – As many as 300 people are expected to show up Saturday at Pearson Community Center in North Las Vegas to participate in an immigrant rights resource fair slated to coincide with similar National Day of Action events in dozens of cities around the country. The Las Vegas resource fair will start at 2 p.m. with a press conference featuring U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Rep. Ruben Kihuen, D-Nev., immigration attorney Jocelyn Cortez, and DREAMer Mariana Sarmiento, an undocumented immigrant who has a temporary reprieve from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. LINK RJ – ‘Day of Action’ event in Las Vegas celebrates cultural contributions of immigrants to US – More than a dozen organizations including the Culinary union and Nevada Advocates for Planned Parenthood Affiliates collaborated to put on the “Day of Action” event outside of the Dr. William U. Pearson Community Center. Speakers including U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Rep. Ruben Kihuen, both freshmen Democrats from Nevada, rallied the crowd by promising they would fight for immigration reform under the administration of President-elect Donald Trump. “Our country’s diversity is what makes us great, what makes our communities better and our economy stronger,” Cortez Masto said. LINK KSNV – Freshman Congressman Kihuen says he will attend Trump inauguration – Freshman U.S. Rep. Ruben Kihuen, appearing Saturday at the Community Resource Fair in North Las Vegas, discussed his plans for the inauguration next week of President-elect Donald Trump. Kihuen, who participated in a news conference to mark the end of National Migration Week at an event that also included U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, said he had no plans to boycott. LINK KOH-AM – Cortez Masto Pleased with DHS Grant – Senator Catherine Cortez Masto is pleased with the Department of Homeland Security’s announcement that Project Helping Reno and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department have been awarded grants to strengthen ongoing efforts to counter violent extremism. Reno’s project help nevada will get $150,000to build on their efforts. LINK KOH-AM – Cortez Masto Fundraising – It was interesting that before Catherine Cortez Masto was sworn in she informed her PAC. [Elected officials] are so worried about the next election not the next generation. LINK KOH-AM – Cortez Masto v. Conaway – The nation’s first Latina senator calls a GOP congressman’s claims that Mexican influence on the US elections to be “pathetic and immature.” Catherine Cortez Masto dismissed Rep. Michael Conaway’s comparison of Mexican entertainers who campaigned for democratic candidates as for influence similar to the e-mail hacking intelligence agencies say was guided by the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin. LINK KOH-AM – RGJ on Lessons for Reid – Host complains about Harry Reid, calling him “dictatorial,” and La Nación – In More Than 50 U.S. Cities, Immigrants Marched against Donald Trump’s Policies La Oferta – U.S. Immigrants “on the Brink of War” against Trump’s Immigration Policy Also Published In: El Mostrador – U.S. Immigrants “on the Brink of War” against Trump’s Immigration Policy MarinIJ – Marin Voice: Give equal footing to Mexican-American politicians – Last summer, when most Americans were confident that Friday’s 2017 presidential inauguration would feature our first female president, I had a vision, too, one in which the first Mexican-American would be in the White House. That moment came during a family road trip vacation in July, when I found myself in a rural Texas motel watching U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra speak on a conservative talk show. Becerra’s appearance seemed to be a tryout for the vice-presidential sweepstakes, and seeing a Mexican-American politician on a national news show reignited the dream. That does not mean my family’s dream has been extinguished. Becerra is a first Mexican-American, just not with a capital. And though Sanchez lost her race, Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto did not, and is the first female Mexican-American U.S. senator, and a new spark for an old dream. LINK Greenwire – Industry preps ‘wish list’ as reformers brace for rollbacks – Election Day fundamentally shifted the ground beneath mining companies and their critics, likely stymieing a decades-old push for tougher standards and making way for the approval of contentious projects. Before Nov. 8, the stage appeared set for a direct assault on the General Mining Act. Since 1872, mining has largely taken precedence over all other uses of public land. In 2016, conservationists saw a chance to implement change beyond the tweaks of recent decades. Reid, who was born in a desert mining town, was not always in sync with the mining industry, but companies knew they at least had his ear. “The industry has got to find a Western [Democratic] supporter of hardrock in the Senate,” Skaer said, “and it’s probably going to be the new senator from Nevada.” Reid’s replacement, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), has kept a low profile on mining issues, raising some hope for conservationists. LINK Care2 – The ‘Defund Planned Parenthood’ Backlash Has Only Begun – Republicans promised their voters that if they won the 2016 elections, they would work to immediately defund reproductive healthcare provider Planned Parenthood by eliminating their Medicaid reimbursements and blocking any other government funding. Unlike so many other campaign promises, this one they appear ready to keep. The question is, will voters really let them do it? “A newly released poll funded by Planned Parenthood found that nearly half of likely voters would be less likely to support Sens. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) in 2018 if they voted to defund the women’s health organization,” reports The Hill, going on to say that Heller the most vulnerable on this topic. “Heller will be defending his seat in a state that was carried by Hillary Clinton and Democratic Senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto and will be Democrats’ best chance at flipping a seat during a tough cycle.” LINK The Hill – WHIP LIST: How many Dems will back Sessions? – The question isn’t whether Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) will win confirmation. It’s how many Democratic votes will he win. Barring a surprise, Sessions is going to be the nation’s next attorney general, as no Republicans are expected to oppose him. GOP lawmakers are confident that he will be able to easily clear the upper chamber after undergoing a grilling from his colleagues during a hearing that spanned more than 10 hours. How many votes come from his Democratic colleagues is a bigger question. Here’s a look at the key senators who are worth watching. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.): The Senate’s first Latina senator said that she is “troubled by the controversial and racially insensitive rhetoric Senator Sessions has used in the past, as well as his far-right positions.” LINK. Ebony – First Black President? Why Stop at Just One? – There are plenty women of color capable of becoming Commander in Chief. Barack didn’t wait his turn, so why should Ilhan Omar, Catherine Cortez Masto or my favorite, Kamala Harris. You don’t know Kamala Harris? Google her, then get on her bandwagon quick, I’m driving, and seats are going to go fast. LINK Next City – Ben Carson on 5 Big Issues Facing U.S. Cities – Ben Carson basically got a warm congressional hug on Thursday, as the group of U.S. senators charged with vetting and approving President-elect Donald Trump’s selection for HUD Secretary took less than three hours to question the nominee. Regarding a lack of affordable housing and the rent-burdened — Americans using more than 30 percent of their income to pay the rent — Carson said more than once that the key is both decreasing housing costs and increasing wages. He also affirmed he’s against raising the minimum wage. He called HUD’s rental assistance program “essential,” though Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, who’s a Democrat, noted later that in a conversation the two had in her office, Carson said there are “limits” to assistance. Cortez Masto asked what he’d do for a person who works 80-plus hours each week to keep their home, and Carson replied, “There’s a much bigger-picture issue here, and that is fixing our economy, and working very hard to create the right kind of atmosphere. When that happens, people have a lot more options in terms of their jobs, and people have to raise their salaries.” LINK CNet – Russian hackers are like Mexican singers at Clinton rally, says GOP lawmaker – The nation’s first Latina senator, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, took to Twitter on Thursday to offer Conaway this tune: “This is a pathetic and offensive attempt to try to diminish the consensus that Russia meddled in the 2016 election to boost Donald Trump.” LINK Daily Kos – Latino musicians and Russian hackers are basically the same thing, says House Republican – Forget Russian efforts to influence the 2016 elections. According to one Republican member of Congress, the real scandal is that Mexican-American and Mexican entertainers publicly supported Democrats. Newly elected Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, America’s first Latina senator, was not having it: “There is literally no basis for any comparison between Latino entertainers hitting the campaign trail in Nevada and Vladimir Putin directing cyberwarfare to undermine American democracy,” she said in a statement. “Congressman Conaway’s offensive and immature comments are an insult to so many people in Nevada and across the country who value their Mexican heritage and culture. This is a pathetic attempt to try to diminish the intelligence community’s consensus that Russia meddled in the 2016 election to boost Donald Trump. Congressman Conaway’s comments are unacceptable.” LINK Electric, Light & Power – Moniz: Bid to revive Nevada nuclear waste dump doomed – Any effort to revive the long-dormant nuclear waste dump at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain is doomed to fail because the project lacks support from elected officials in the state, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Wednesday. President Barack Obama dropped the Yucca plan early in his tenure under intense pressure from Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who made opposition to Yucca Mountain a central part of his political identity. Reid’s successor in the Senate, Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, also opposes Yucca, as do Republican Sen. Dean Heller and Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval. LINK AFL-CIO Now – At this Time of Challenge and Controversy, We Need Solidarity – We’re coming off of an election that reminded us we still have considerable work ahead in the struggle for freedom and civil rights, and on Martin Luther King Jr. remembrance day, Dr. King’s quote is deeply relevant. Even though times are uncertain, there actually is reason to be hopeful about the future. The progressive movement in this country doesn’t need to run scared, we have muscle. Just look at Arizona, where labor and the community came together to defeat the anti-immigrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Or Nevada, where members of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, many of them immigrant women, went to work on an impressive ground campaign to elect the country’s first Latina U.S. senator, Catherine Cortez Masto. LINK RJ – Laxalt hauls in nearly $1.2M in campaign bid, but no decision on run for governor – Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt reported raising nearly $1.2 million in 2016, a record-setting figure for a Republican to attract two years out from a general election. Laxalt filed his campaign finance report for 2016 on Monday, reporting large campaign fundraising numbers that could be used for a governor’s race. Laxalt, in his first term as attorney general, is widely viewed as a potential Republican contender for governor in 2018. LINK Also Published In: Las Vegas Sun – Laxalt has $1.5M in campaign chest for possible run for governor Nevada Appeal – Laxalt has $1.5M in campaign cash for possible governor bid KLAS – Laxalt has $1.5M in campaign chest for possible run for governor KTNV – AG Laxalt has $1.5M in campaign chest for possible run for governor RJ – Clark County priority for 2017 Nevada Legislature: Change property tax cap – What goes up must come down. Local government officials learned that the hard way last year, when a Nevada law enacted in 2005 to protect residents from ballooning property taxes crippled county, city and school district revenue streams across the state. The effect is lingering fallout from the Great Recession, which reversed the trend of soaring property values that had necessitated the tax increase caps in the first place. Now, Clark County Manager Yolanda King wants her top lobbyists to persuade state lawmakers to modify the property tax cap law during the 2017 Nevada Legislature session that begins Feb. 6. LINK RJ – Sandoval will determine fate of ESAs – Nevada’s ESA program, signed into law by Sandoval in 2015, allows parents to withdraw a child from public school and receive a portion of the money Nevada would have spent on a student’s enrollment. Parents can spend that money on things like private school tuition, online learning or home-based education. Last year the Nevada Supreme Court ruled the funding source for ESAs wasn’t constitutional but upheld the rest of the program, leaving the door open for lawmakers to approve a new funding source this year. Senate Majority Leader Aaron Ford, D-Las Vegas, has said that his caucus has “no intention” of funding ESAs. ESA funding would have to pass the Democrat-controlled Assembly and Senate to make it to Sandoval’s desk. But if Sandoval wants ESAs, they’ll be in the state’s final budget this summer. LINK RJ – Immigrant rights resource fair slated Saturday in North Las Vegas – As many as 300 people are expected to show up Saturday at Pearson Community Center in North Las Vegas to participate in an immigrant rights resource fair slated to coincide with similar National Day of Action events in dozens of cities around the country. While each event will vary in size and scope, organizers said, all aim to raise awareness about the immigrant experience and building resistance to mass deportations and other campaign promises made by President-elect Donald Trump. LINK RJ – Gov. Sandoval to Congress: States need say in future of health care – Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval on Friday said overtures by Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives seeking input from states on the Affordable Care Act was a “positive consultation process” that he hopes continues as Congress considers repealing the law. Sandoval was the first Republican governor in the nation to expand Medicaid eligibility as allowed under President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. With Republican President-elect Donald Trump about to take the reins of the nation and Republicans in control of both the Senate and House, GOP members in Congress have made it a priority to repeal the law, creating angst for many who have received health coverage under its provisions given the uncertainty of what will replace it. LINK Desert Valley Times – Don’t Jeopardize Rural Health Care – Plans are being laid in Washington to repeal the Affordable Care Act as soon as Donald Trump takes the presidential oath of office. Hidden inside the law is a littleknown provision unrelated to the health insurance expansion that helps rural hospitals across America stay open. It’s called the 340B drug discount program. The ACA made 1,100 rural hospitals eligible and it requires drug companies to supply these remote providers with discounted medications. These discounts can be passed along to patients unable to afford expensive medications or the savings can help fund essential medical services for their communities such as emergency rooms and labor and delivery. Rural hospitals across the country face daunting economic challenges. Eighty have closed since 2010 and 673 — fully one third of rural hospitals — operate at a loss and are at risk of closure. These are often the only medical facilities for hundreds of miles in any direction. LINK KNPR – U.S. Abortion Rate Falls To Lowest Level Since Roe v. Wade – The abortion rate in the United States fell to its lowest level since the historic Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalized abortion nationwide, a new report finds. The report by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports legalized abortion, puts the rate at 14.6 abortions per 1,000 women of childbearing age (ages 15-44) in 2014. That’s the lowest recorded rate since the Roe decision in 1973. The abortion rate has been declining for decades – down from a peak of 29.3 in 1980 and 1981. LINK KNPR – Drugs For Rare Diseases Have Become Uncommonly Rich Monopolies – More than 30 years ago, Congress overwhelmingly passed a landmark health bill aimed at motivating pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs for people whose rare diseases had been ignored. By the drugmakers’ calculations, the markets for such diseases weren’t big enough to bother with. But lucrative financial incentives created by the Orphan Drug Act signed into law by President Reagan in 1983 succeeded far beyond anyone’s expectations. More than 200 companies have brought almost 450 so-called orphan drugs to market since the law took effect. LINK NYT – As Trump Era Arrives, a Sense of Uncertainty Grips the World – The Germans are angry. The Chinese are downright furious. Leaders of NATO are nervous, while their counterparts at the European Union are alarmed. Just days before he is sworn into office, President-elect Donald J. Trump has again focused his penchant for unpredictable disruption on the rest of the world. His remarks in a string of discursive and sometimes contradictory interviews have escalated tensions with China while also infuriating allies and institutions critical to America’s traditional leadership of the West. No one knows where exactly he is headed — except that the one country he is not criticizing is Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin. For now. And that he is an enthusiastic cheerleader of Brexit and an unaffiliated Britain. For now. LINK WSJ – CIA Director John Brennan Rejects Donald Trump’s Criticism – Outgoing Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan on Monday rejected Donald Trump’s suggestions that he may have leaked an unsubstantiated dossier on the president-elect while defending the U.S. intelligence community more broadly from Mr. Trump’s recent attacks on its credibility and integrity. Mr. Brennan said he had no way to assess the allegations contained in the dossier of political opposition research, which included inflammatory personal information and suggestions of contacts between Mr. Trump and the Russian government. The dossier was published last week, days after U.S. officials had informed Mr. Trump of its existence. “I think it’s the right and indeed the responsibility of the president of the United States to challenge the conclusions of the intelligence community,” Mr. Brennan said. “We don’t expect our information and our assessments to be swallowed whole. “It’s when there are allegations made about leaking or about dishonesty or a lack of integrity, that’s where I think the line is crossed,” he continued, taking particular umbrage at Mr. Trump’s comments last week that leaking intelligence on political figures was something that Nazi Germany “would have done and did do.” LINK WaPo – European leaders shocked as Trump slams NATO and E.U., raising fears of transatlantic split – European leaders grappled with the jolting reality of President-elect Donald Trump’s skepticism of the European Union on Monday, saying they might have to stand without the United States at their side during the Trump presidency. The possibility of an unprecedented breach in transatlantic relations came after Trump — who embraced anti-E.U. insurgents during his campaign and following his victory — said in weekend remarks that the 28-nation European Union was bound for a breakup and that he was indifferent to its fate. He also said NATO’s current configuration is “obsolete,” even as he professed commitment to Europe’s defense. Trump’s attitudes have raised alarm bells across Europe, which is facing a wave of elections this year in which anti-immigrant, Euroskeptic leaders could gain power. LINK NYT – Fear Spurs Support for Health Law as Republicans Work to Repeal It – President-elect Donald J. Trump and congressional Republicans appear to have accomplished a feat that President Obama, with all the power at his disposal, could not in the past seven years: They have galvanized outspoken support for the Affordable Care Act. People who benefit from the law are flooding Congress with testimonials. Angry consumers are confronting Republican lawmakers. And Democrats who saw the law as a political liability in recent elections have suddenly found their voice, proudly defending the law now that it is in trouble. Thousands of people across the country held rallies over the weekend to save the health care law, which Republicans moved last week to repeal with a first but crucial legislative step. A widely circulated video showed Representative Mike Coffman, Republican of Colorado, eluding constituents who had wanted to meet with him to express their concerns on Saturday at a community event in Aurora, Colo. Rallies on Sunday to save the health law drew robust crowds around the country. LINK NYT -Rubio Challenged Trump’s Nominee. But Will He Defy Trump? – With that exchange and two others later in Mr. Tillerson’s rocky nine-hour confirmation hearing last week, Mr. Rubio, 45, reintroduced himself to the legislative body he had hoped, not so long ago, to leave behind for good. He has emerged as a potentially decisive vote on perhaps President-elect Donald J. Trump’s most consequential nominee, teeing up an early, public test of how adversarial he is willing to be toward a fellow Republican in the White House — albeit one who long demeaned him as “Little Marco.” For Mr. Rubio, a preternaturally gifted politician chastened by a failed White House run, the choice mirrors the broader question facing Republicans on Capitol Hill: Is the price of defying Mr. Trump — who can sink fortunes 140 Twitter characters at a time — worth paying to serve as a critical check on his expansive powers? LINK NYT – What to Watch: A Crush of Hearings, and a Transfer of Power – Last week featured challenging questions for some of Mr. Trump’s picks. Rex W. Tillerson, the Exxon Mobil chief executive chosen to be secretary of state, battled to soothe concerns about his past lobbying dictators. And Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Mr. Trump’s pick for attorney general, tried to fend off accusations of racism, among other charges. Do not expect smooth sailing this week. Members of the House may be in recess, but senators have a crowded agenda that is expected to include confirmation hearings for Betsy DeVos, for education secretary, and Scott Pruitt, for head of the Environmental Protection Agency. LINK NYT – Trump’s Health Secretary Pick in Trouble Over Insider Trading Accusations – Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, called for an investigation. “This new report makes clear that this isn’t just a couple of questionable trades, but rather a clear and troubling pattern of Congressman Price trading stock and using his office to benefit the companies in which he is investing,” he said. There may be no time for that. But Mr. Price’s Senate confirmation hearings this week before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Finance Committee, already set to be contentious, what with Medicare and the Affordable Care Act being hot topics, now promise to be scorching. LINK NYT – Ed Board: House Arms Itself for Witch Hunts – Representative Jason Chaffetz, the head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, last week showed where the investigative priorities of House Republicans lie as President-elect Donald Trump and his myriad conflicts of interest prepare to move to the White House. On Thursday, he sent a letter summoning the head of the federal Office of Government Ethics for questioning, suggesting that the agency and its budget are ripe for review. LINK WSJ – Donald Trump Warns on House Republican Tax Plan – President-elect Donald Trump criticized a cornerstone of House Republicans’ corporate-tax plan, which they had pitched as an alternative to his proposed import tariffs, creating another point of contention between the incoming president and congressional allies. The measure, known as border adjustment, would tax imports and exempt exports as part of a broader plan to encourage companies to locate jobs and production in the U.S. But Mr. Trump, in his first comments on the subject, called it “too complicated.” LINK WaPo – With Obamacare repeal looming, Spanish-language TV ad aims to help vulnerable House Republicans – A conservative group allied with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan believes that Spanish-language networks like Univision and Telemundo won’t help Republicans promote their plans to overhaul the nation’s health-care system — so they’re buying TV ad time to do so. The new ad touts GOP plans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, but it will also offer political air cover to six House Republicans whose reelections rely on growing populations of Latino voters in their districts. The American Action Network, founded by veteran GOP fundraisers to support Ryan (R-Wis.), will begin airing the new ad Tuesday. The Spanish-language campaign is in addition to a $1.4 million ad campaign launched by the group last week. LINK WaPo – Hill Republicans move full speed ahead with push to slash Obama-era rules – When Vice President-elect Mike Pence addressed House Republicans in a closed-door meeting earlier this month, he let them know just how quickly his running-mate plans to get to work. The Jan. 20 parade from the Capitol to the White House would be sped up, Pence said, so a newly inaugurated President Donald J. Trump could sit down sooner in the Oval Office and start rescinding his predecessor’s executive actions. The lawmakers cheered, two people in the room said. When it comes to unraveling President Obama’s legacy, Trump could not have found a more enthusiastic partner than the GOP Congress. After just two weeks of work, the House has already passed several sweeping bills that, if enacted, would roll back scores of Obama administration regulations and make it significantly harder for future presidents — including Trump — to write similar rules. LINK Politico – Who is Betsy DeVos? – Betsy DeVos, 59, is a Republican mega-donor, billionaire philanthropist and aggressive advocate for the expansion of charter schools and voucher programs that use taxpayer money for private schools. One of the wealthiest members of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet, DeVos and her husband, Dick, have poured millions of dollars in campaign donations to support lawmakers who embrace DeVos’ “school choice” vision. DeVos has touted charter schools and vouchers as a way to help low-income families who are stuck in “failing” neighborhood public schools. Some states have expanded their voucher programs to include middle-class families as well. LINK NYT – Trump Health Secretary Pick’s Longtime Foes: Big Government and Insurance Companies – Many who knew Mr. Price as a doctor here in Atlanta’s affluent northern suburbs praise his commitment to his patients. But his legislative record shows that over eight years in the Georgia Senate and 12 years in Congress, he has advocated at least as much for physician groups and health care companies — seeking to limit damages in malpractice cases, for instance, and voting against legislation that would have required the government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries. Mr. Price has routinely argued that patients are the driving force behind his efforts. Still, his positions have often coincided with the financial interests of groups whose donations have helped advance his political career. LINK NYT – Interior Nominee Promotes Navy SEAL Career, While Playing Down ‘Bad Judgment’ – While he has portrayed his accomplishments in the Navy in glowing terms, Mr. Zinke, a Republican and President-elect Donald J. Trump’s nominee for secretary of the interior, has acknowledged one “glitch”: that he improperly billed the government for travel to his home in Montana when he was a midlevel SEAL Team 6 officer in the late 1990s. He had to repay $211 for one of two trips, he has said, maintaining that the episode did not derail what he described as a “brilliant” career. But two retired admirals under whom Mr. Zinke served say his account understates the damage that it did. Mr. Zinke was in fact punished for abusing his travel expenses, they say, through an evaluation that prevented him from rising to senior levels in the Navy. LINK NYT (Deal Book) – What to Make of the ‘Davos Class’ in the Trump Era – The World Economic Forum — an annual gathering of global policy and business leaders, who come to debate the world’s great challenges — gets underway here Monday night as the shifting political trends toward nationalism and against a sense of globalism are raising renewed questions about the relevance of the elites known as the “Davos class.” It is this group of so-called plutocrats that largely failed to anticipate — and may have even unconsciously generated — the seeping anti-establishment movement across the globe. LINK NYT – For Trump, Three Decades of Chasing Deals in Russia – Mr. Trump repeatedly sought business in Russia as far back as 1987, when he traveled there to explore building a hotel. He applied for his trademark in the country as early as 1996. And his children and associates have appeared in Moscow over and over in search of joint ventures, meeting with developers and government officials. LINK NYT – As Inauguration Nears, Trump Keeps World Leaders on Edge – He called NATO obsolete. He said Germany’s acceptance of refugees is “utterly catastrophic.” The decades-old One China policy embraced by the United States? That’s up for discussion. Just days before Donald J. Trump’s inauguration, world leaders on three continents are on edge after comments the president-elect made in an interview on Friday with The Wall Street Journal and in a weekend interview with two European newspapers, Bild and The Times of London. LINK NYT – After Plagiarism Reports, Monica Crowley Won’t Take White House Job – Monica Crowley, who was selected just weeks ago to serve in a high-profile post on President-elect Donald J. Trump’s National Security Council, has decided against taking the position after allegations that she plagiarized key passages in a 2012 book. LINK CNN – CNN/ORC Poll: Confidence drops in Trump transition – Donald Trump will become president Friday with an approval rating of just 40%, according to a new CNN/ORC Poll, the lowest of any recent president and 44 points below that of President Barack Obama, the 44th president. LINK WSJ – Appointment of Trump’s Economic Policy Team Faces Delays – Several of President-elect Donald Trump’s top economic policy jobs may go unfilled for days or even weeks after he is sworn in Friday, potentially slowing his pursuit of an ambitious domestic policy agenda that includes an overhaul of the tax code, repeal of the Affordable Care Act, infrastructure spending and broad deregulation. Mr. Trump faces delays in the confirmation of the Treasury, commerce and labor secretaries and the budget director. The hearing for Steven Mnuchin, Mr. Trump’s intended nominee for Treasury secretary, is set for Thursday, the day before inauguration. LINK WaPo – ‘Never Trump’ national-security Republicans fear they have been blacklisted – They are some of the biggest names in the Republican national security firmament, veterans of past GOP administrations who say, if called upon by President-elect Donald Trump, they stand ready to serve their country again. But their phones aren’t ringing. Their entreaties to Trump Tower in New York have mostly gone unanswered. In Trump world, these establishment all-stars say they are “PNG” — personae non gratae. Their transgression was signing one or both of two public “Never Trump” letters during the campaign, declaring they would not vote for Trump and calling his candidacy a danger to the nation. LINK WaPo – Surprisingly, Trump inauguration shapes up to be a relatively low-key affair – President Obama’s first inaugural festivities stretched over five days. Donald Trump is spending barely three on his. Bill Clinton hit 14 official balls on the day he was sworn in. Trump plans appearances at three. And while other presidents have staged parades that lasted more than four hours, Trump’s trip down Pennsylvania Avenue is expected to clock in at 90 minutes — making it among the shortest on record. In a word, the 45th president’s inaugural activities will be “workmanlike,” said Boris Epshteyn, communications director for the Presidential Inaugural Committee, a pop-up staff of about 350 people scrambling to put together the proceedings from the second floor of a nondescript government building just south of the Mall. The notion of a relatively low-key inaugural bereft of many A-list entertainers may come as a surprise, given the president-elect’s flair for showmanship and his credentials as a reality TV star. LINK WaPo – More than 40 Democratic lawmakers now skipping Trump’s inauguration – A growing group of Democratic lawmakers will boycott President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration Friday as a protest of Trump’s worldview and his criticism of civil rights icon John Lewis, congressman of Georgia. There are now more than 40 House Democrats — 42, at last count — who have declared that they will not attend the inauguration on Capitol Hill this week. The number rose sharply after Trump tweeted Saturday that Lewis is “all talk, talk, talk” and should “finally focus on the burning and crime infested inner-cities.” LINK Politico – Ryan and Trump set for Medicare showdown – Since the election, Paul Ryan has accommodated and deferred to Donald Trump on all sorts of issues they don’t see eye-to-eye on. But when it comes to Ryan’s career-defining cause — overhauling Medicare and other entitlements — the speaker has held his ground. The clashing philosophies between the GOP’s two top pols — Trump once called Ryan’s doctrine “political suicide” — is about to come to a head. Left unresolved, it threatens to sink tax reform, a top priority for both men. Reality will set in when House Republicans roll out their 2018 budget this spring. The blueprint would unlock a fast-track procedural tool that leadership wants to use to squeeze a tax bill through Congress on party lines. But if Ryan sides with Trump and doesn’t include his proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher program in the budget, it may never pass. That’s because most House Republicans won’t vote for budget that doesn’t “balance” in 10 years — and Ryan can’t get there without taking on entitlements, including Medicare. LINK Politico – The Alt-Right Comes to Washington – This “new right” is now enjoying something of a moment. It’s not clear whether the movement helped fuel Trump’s rise or just rode its coattails. But energized by his success, this loose confederacy of meme-generating internet trolls, provocateurs and self-appointed custodians of Trumpism has begun making plans to move into Washington’s corridors of power, or at least shoulder their way into the general vicinity. When they look at Washington—a besuited city that moves to the rhythm of lobbying and legislative calendars and carefully worded statements—they see an opportunity for total disruption, the kind of overthrow the movement already takes credit for visiting on American politics. LINK NYT – How the Presidency Changed Obama – Days before, Mr. Obama — the African-American son of a Kenya-born father and a Kansas-born mother — had stood in the Oval Office, in a White House built in part by slaves, flanked by four white men who were the only others on the planet who understood the burden of the job he was about to take on. Mr. Obama began with bold strokes. He signed executive orders to close what remained of the secret Central Intelligence Agency prisons. He ordered the closing of Guantánamo Bay. He pushed through a $787 billion economic stimulus bill, and began the work to provide health coverage to 46 million Americans. To Republicans hoping to temper his agenda, Mr. Obama had a curt message. “Elections have consequences,” he told Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House Republican leader. LINK NYT – Cold War Jitters Resurface as U.S. Marines Arrive in Norway– For Norwegians, the sight of dozens of American Marines traipsing through the snow in military fatigues — the first time foreign forces have been posted to their country’s territory since World War II — may have brought a welcomed sense of security, but it also harked back to a dark era of the Cold War that many had hoped to forget. A United States military plane on Monday delivered most of the 330 Marines to a garrison in Vaernes, in central Norway, a deployment that Norwegian officials said had been carried out by the United States as part of a bilateral agreement. It was the latest effort by the United States and its European allies to buttress their defenses against a resurgent Russia, which condemned the move. LINK NYT – 10 More Detainees Are Transferred From Guantánamo Prison – With days left in the Obama administration, the United States has sent 10 more lower-level detainees from the wartime prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to Oman, and lawyers for two more who are on a list of those recommended for transfer are urgently asking a court to send them home as well. The government of Oman announced early on Monday that it had resettled the 10 men. They were from a list of those approved for transfer, many after about 15 years of detention without trial, but remained stranded because they come from unstable countries like Yemen. LINK NYT – Ed Board: Mr. Obama, Pick Up Your Pardon Pen – There is a better way. In both liberal and conservative states, from Delaware and Connecticut to Nebraska and Georgia, the pardon process is more predictable and transparent. Some states require independent boards to make pardon recommendations to the governor; others hold regularly scheduled public hearings. All take the executive’s job of granting mercy seriously, which makes those grants both more fair and more common. LINK WaPo – Obama to commute hundreds of federal drug sentences in final grants of clemency – Justice Department officials have completed their review of more than 16,000 clemency petitions filed by federal prisoners over the past two years and sent their last recommendations to President Obama, who is set to grant hundreds more commutations to nonviolent drug offenders during his final days in office. LINK Politico – Will Obama pardon Snowden? – As backers of Edward Snowden and three other accused or convicted leakers press for clemency from President Barack Obama, there is a common refrain: the hundred-year old Espionage Act is a draconian and ill-fitting tool to pursue national security secrets leaked to the press or public. All indications are the drive for leak-related pardons or commutations for Snowden faces an uphill battle during Obama’s dwindling days at the White House. The current wave of controversy over leaks about salacious and unverified intelligence on President-elect Donald Trump may have made the odds for clemency even longer, as Republicans call for investigations into the disclosures. But granting a pardon in a leak case would not, strictly speaking, be unprecedented. LINK Politico – Democratic Party rethink gets $20 million injection – Hoping to help Democrats recover from what it has dubbed the party’s “worst electoral position since the Civil War,” a centrist think tank is launching a $20 million campaign to study how the party lost its way and offer a new economic agenda for moving forward. The think tank, Third Way, on Tuesday is set to launch “New Blue,” a campaign to help Democrats reconnect with the voters who have abandoned the party. The money will be spent to conduct extensive research, reporting and polling in Rust Belt states that once formed a Blue Wall, but which voted for president-elect Donald Trump last November. LINK WSJ – Democrats’ Fissures Re-Emerge as Party Seeks New Leader – The Democratic fissures exposed in last year’s presidential primary campaign between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have roared back to life, with party officials wary the split will hamper their ability to fight President-elect Donald Trump. The divide was in full view in Phoenix, where Democratic National Committee members from western states gathered over the weekend for the first of four scheduled “future forums” for candidates running to lead the party. LINK NYT – F.B.I. Arrests Wife of Killer in Orlando Mass Shooting – The F.B.I. arrested the wife of the man who carried out a deadly terrorist attack in Orlando, Fla., and charged her with obstructing the investigation of the mass shooting, law enforcement officials said on Monday. Noor Salman, whose husband, Omar Mateen, killed 49 people and wounded dozens in an Orlando nightclub that was popular with gays, was also charged with aiding and abetting by providing material support, the officials said. LINK NYT – Suspect in Istanbul Rampage on New Year’s Is Captured, Turkey Says – The police in Turkey have arrested the man accused of carrying out a deadly attack on an Istanbul nightclub early on New Year’s Day, killing 39 people, including a police officer and 25 foreigners, according to the semiofficial Anadolu news agency as well as Turkish news reports. The news agency said that a police raid on a residence in the outlying Esenyurt district of Istanbul had resulted in the capture of Abdulgadir Masharipov, whom the authorities described as an Islamic State militant of Uzbek nationality, along with four other people. LINK CNN – Brexit: Theresa May to detail Britain’s plans in key speech – British Prime Minister Theresa May is to say that Britain will not adopt a “half in, half-out” approach to the European Union, indicating that a so-called hard Brexit is on the cards. In a much-anticipated speech on Tuesday, May will indicate her willingness to take Britain out of the single market as well as provide some insight into her main negotiating objectives. She is also expected to make clear her position on freedom of movement, the customs union and the possibility of a transitional deal with the EU. LINK