A LOOK AT TODAY’S NEWS — 2017.1.19

Las Vegas Review-Journal Las Vegas, Nev. USA

Las Vegas Sun Las Vegas, Nev. USA

Reno Gazette-Journal Reno, Nev. USA

RJ – Cortez Masto will oppose Trump’s pick for Education secretary – U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said Wednesday she will oppose President-elect Donald Trump’s designee to head the Department of Education because of a lack of experience. Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos “has no background in public education.” “In fact, her only experience for this job is her decades of fighting to divert money away from public education to support charter schools and vouchers for private, religious schools,” Cortez Masto said in statement. DeVos testified earlier this week before the Senate committee on health and education. “While Republicans are hoping to ram through her confirmation with as little public scrutiny as possible, yesterday’s hearing made abundantly clear to me that Betsy DeVos is not equipped to lead the Department of Education,” Cortez Masto said. LINK

TNI – The Independent Poll: Yucca, stadium taxes unpopular with voters – Nevada voters oppose renewed efforts to reopen the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site and don’t favor the recently approved hikes in hotel room taxes to help finance a possible NFL stadium in Las Vegas. Both policies are opposed by large majorities of Nevada voters in the new Independent Poll, which was conducted by the Mellman Group between Jan. 12 and 15. Thirty-three percent of likely voters said they favored storing nuclear waste at Yucca to 58 percent opposed, and a similar 38 percent of voters favored increasing hotel room taxes to pay for an NFL stadium that could potentially house the Oakland Raiders with 55 percent opposed. LINK

TNI – Indy Primer: Long road for minimum wage increase in Nevada – Democrats control both houses of the Nevada Legislature, but that may not be enough for progressives hoping to see a large minimum wage increase pass during the upcoming session might not want to get their hopes up. Despite a consensus among Nevada Democrats to try to raise current minimum wage — a tiered system of $7.25 or $8.25 an hour based on employer-offered health care  — lawmakers have yet to agree on how high to raise the wage as well as any specific legislative path forward. LINK

TNI – School district’s CFO announces departure after just months on the job – The Clark County School District’s top financial officer has resigned after less than three months on the job. Nikki Thorn, who began serving as the chief financial officer in early November, will part ways with the district on Jan. 27, school district officials confirmed this afternoon. She started working for the district in June 2014 and previously served as deputy CFO. “The Operational Services Unit is working on finding an interim Chief Financial Officer and/or possibly a consultant to assist in the Business and Finance Division,” district officials wrote in a statement. “We wish Ms. Thorn luck and thank her for her service with the Clark County School District.” LINK

TNI – Planned Parenthood brings campaign to fight defunding to Las Vegas – With Planned Parenthood funding in limbo under President-elect Donald Trump, the organization’s leader has a message for U.S. Sen. Dean Heller:  Listen to your constituents. The health care provider, which has been frequently criticized by the socially conservative wing of the Republican party, knows a money battle is imminent. Earlier this month, House Speaker Paul Ryan announced that the GOP would end the flow of federal dollars to Planned Parenthood as part of the its effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. And Heller, a Republican from northern Nevada, has favored stripping funding to Planned Parenthood in the past. The organization has been reaching out to his staff in hopes that “he will really think this through,” said Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. LINK

TNI – Tesla announces expansion of operations at gigafactory – Gov. Brian Sandoval announced Tuesday during his State of the State that the Tesla gigafactory in Storey County will soon add production of gearboxes and electric motors for the Model 3. After the speech, Sandoval’s chief of staff, Mike Willden, talked about the development. LINK

TNI – No Nevada Democrats will boycott Trump inauguration – No Democrats in Nevada’s congressional delegation plan to skip Friday’s inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. Staffers for Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Reps. Jacky Rosen, Dina Titus and Ruben Kihuen confirmed that they will attend the inauguration, as many of their fellow Democrats plan to skip or boycott the event. More than 50 House Democrats have publicly confirmed that they will boycott the inauguration, including Georgia Rep. John Lewis and Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison. No Democratic senators have publicly said they would boycott or skip the event. Kihuen, who defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Cresent Hardy in the 2016 election, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that despite his serious concerns about Trump, he planned to attend nonetheless. “This is out of respect to the office of the president,” Kihuen told the paper. LINK

Also Published In:

RJ – Nevada lawmakers won’t join growing inauguration boycott by House Democrats

RJ – Department of Justice issues report praising Metro – The Metropolitan Police Department has made “notable and sustained efforts” to reduce its number of police shootings and increase its transparency and engagement with the community, a federal report released Wednesday concluded. The 50-page report, conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services office, was almost entirely positive. It analyzed whether a series of reforms the office recommended to Metro between 2012 and 2014 had continued or tapered off. The conclusion? The reforms had continued and in many areas, improved. LINK

Also Published In:

Las Vegas Sun – Feds praise Metro on use-of-force reforms as police shootings plummet

RJ – ESA law likely faces rocky road despite governor’s $60M funding proposal – Supporters of the state’s Education Savings Account program were buoyed by Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposal to fund the controversial law with $60 million for the next two years. But the next step might prove difficult as lawmakers seek a compromise on a new funding mechanism when the Legislature convenes Feb. 6, according to state Sen. Scott Hammond, R-Las Vegas, who authored the 2015 bill. LINK

RJ – High-demand occupations in Nevada identified in new report – A new report by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development’s Office of Workforce Innovation outlines 93 high-demand occupations in key growth industries for Nevada. Leading up to the report, Lamarre arranged meetings with representatives from eight industry sectors that GOED identified as key to building and diversifying the state’s economy: manufacturing logistics; mining materials; tourism, gaming, entertainment; natural resources; healthcare and medical services; information technology; aerospace and defense; and construction. LINK

RJ – Political newcomer joins field for Las Vegas City Council seat –  Political newcomer Allen Jordan is joining the race to represent Ward 6 on the Las Vegas City Council, widening the field of announced candidates to four. Jordan announced in a news release Wednesday his candidacy for the seat term-limited Councilman Steve Ross will be leaving. Also in the field are former Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, Clark County School District Trustee Chris Garvey and Kelli Ross, who is hoping to succeed her husband Steve. “I think I’m willing to put in the hard work,” Jordan said. “I don’t have the piggy bank of everyone else, but they’re going to have to outwork me.” Jordan, who has never run for public office, said he was inspired in part by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “grassroots campaign” for president, and identified public safety as the top issue he’s running on. Jordan has 35 years of experience in information technology, and he’s a self-employed management consultant. He and his wife moved to Las Vegas from the East Coast a little over three years ago, after doing a nationwide search to decide where they wanted to live. LINK

RJ – Henderson council proposes marijuana moratorium ordinance – The Henderson City Council has moved a step closer to passage of an almost yearlong moratorium on all retail activity related to recreational marijuana. The council proposed the ordinance at its Tuesday meeting to give officials time to plan comprehensive zoning, land-use and public safety regulatory plans. LINK

RJ – Nevada legislative audit details problems with Las Vegas foster care agency – A review of a privately operated foster care agency in Las Vegas released to state lawmakers on Wednesday found that the business needs to make “substantial improvements” to ensure the safety of children in its care. The review of ART Homes by legislative auditors identified concerns with its administration of medications, treatment plans and personnel records, among other issues. The report was reviewed by the Legislative Commission’s Audit Subcommittee. LINK

Las Vegas Sun – Gun sales expected to drop with Trump in charge, dealers at L.V. show say – On the heels of a record year of firearm sales in the United States, gun dealers at this week’s Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade show in Las Vegas credited a combined fear of gun restrictions by President Barack Obama and growing public participation in shooting for sport as reason for the sales explosion. Exhibitors at this week’s annual SHOT Show also said a conservative, pro-Second Amendment Donald Trump administration would level off handgun sales as fewer Americans rush into stores fearing they won’t be able to purchase them in the future. “2016 was huge, eclipsing even 2013 for sales,” said Mike Bazinet, the SHOT Show’s public affairs director. “There’s no question political concerns on the part on gun owners and their access to the product might be limited. But our retailers also have noticed heavy media coverage of local crime and heavy participation in shooting sports is a part of that growth.” LINK

Nevada NewsMakers – Leading lobbyist sees successful compromise for Education Savings Accounts; Top poly sci prof disagrees – A veteran political scientist pushed back when a leading lobbyist at the Nevada Legislature suggested that implementing Education Savings Accounts — which is part of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s $8.1 proposed biennium budget — could become a reality through compromise at the 2017 Nevada Legislature. “The ESA proposal will be the partisan topic this session,” said Fred Lokken, a political science professor at Truckee Meadows Community College. “I think it is dead on arrival with the democratically controlled Senate and Assembly.” Sandoval has proposed that $60 million should go to the program that would allow Nevada parents to receive up to $5,100 annually to send their child to private or parochial schools. The ESA bill became law through the 2015 Legislature but its funding mechanism was struck down by the Nevada Supreme Court, thus forcing a new bill to be considered in 2017. LINK

KSNV – Local Democrats push to scrub the McCarran namesake – A growing group of lawmakers are pushing to rename McCarran International Airport and remove a statue of its namesake from Capitol Hill because of the lawmaker’s controversial history.

More than 40 million passengers pass through McCarran International Airport each year. It was named after Patrick McCarran – who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1932 and represented Nevada for more than two decades. Sen. McCarran was a strong-willed lawmaker with a history of controversy. “He was an incredibly powerful figure,” said UNLV History Professor Michael Green. “He was able to legislate some of his biases, specifically against Jews.” LINK

KRNV – Nevada treasurer: $60 million not even enough to fund existing ESA accounts – Nevada state treasurer Dan Schwartz said the $60 million Governor Sandoval proposed Tuesday night to fund the controversial Education Saving Account program wouldn’t even fund existing accounts, let alone new ones, if included in the biennial budget. Schwartz said $25 million would be spent in the first year of the budget and $35 million would be spent in the second year under Sandoval’s proposal. “I certainly appreciate that the governor has remembered the ESAs,” Schwartz said. “Truthfully, he should have remembered it back in November with the special session (for the Raiders).” Democratic lawmakers have been opposed to ESAs since they were initially proposed. LINK

Telemundo Las Vegas – Obama Defends DREAMers at Press Conference

La Opinión – Garcetti: “We’re Ready to Fight if Necessary” for DREAMers

La Opinión – Getting Ready for Anti-Trump March in Los Angeles This Friday

NYT – In Farewell, Obama Sets Red Lines That Would Pull Him Back Into Fray – When President Obama arrived in office eight years ago, the departing President George W. Bush essentially withdrew from public life, declaring that his successor “deserves my silence.” It was an approach that Mr. Obama greatly appreciated but does not intend to follow. At the final news conference of his presidency, Mr. Obama made clear on Wednesday that he finds some ideas advanced by President-elect Donald J. Trump so alarming that he laid out markers that would draw him back into the fray. “There’s a difference between that normal functioning of politics and certain issues or certain moments where I think our core values may be at stake,” Mr. Obama told reporters in the White House briefing room. LINK

NYT – Justices Appear Willing to Protect Offensive Trademarks – The Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared deeply skeptical about the constitutionality of a federal law that denies protection to disparaging trademarks. Almost every member of the court indicated that the law was hard to reconcile with the First Amendment. The court’s decision in the case, concerning an Asian-American dance-rock band called the Slants, will probably also effectively resolve a separate one in favor of the Washington Redskins football team. LINK

NYT – Supreme Court Weighs Whether Bush Officials Can Be Sued Over Post-9/11 Abuse – The federal government’s frantic response to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, sparked renewed debate Wednesday at the Supreme Court, as justices considered whether top officials in the George W. Bush administration could be held responsible for abuses against Muslim immigrants and others rounded up after the attacks. Conservatives on the court, citing the extraordinary peril of that time, appeared willing to give the officials legal protection from lawsuits arising from the detention policies they approved after the attacks. But some of the more liberal justices did not appear so forgiving. LINK

NYT – Senate’s Closer Look at Steven Mnuchin Reveals Much More – At first blush, Mr. Mnuchin was a busy enough man, with his investment business and his Hollywood endeavors listed on a Dec. 19 questionnaire for the Senate Finance Committee that he swore was “true, accurate and complete.” But when pushed by committee aides, Mr. Mnuchin conceded there was more. In a revised questionnaire to the committee this month, he disclosed that he was also the director of Dune Capital International Ltd., an investment fund incorporated in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven. He also revealed his management posts in seven other investment funds, which he said he “inadvertently missed,” according to Finance Committee documents obtained by The New York Times. According to those documents: In his revised questionnaire, Mr. Mnuchin disclosed several additional financial assets, including $95 million worth of real estate — a co-op in New York City; a residence in Southampton, New York; a residence in Los Angeles, California; and $15 million in real estate holdings in Mexico. Mr. Mnuchin has claimed these omissions were due to a misunderstanding of the questionnaire — he does not consider these assets to be “investment assets” and thus did not disclose them, even though the Committee directs the nominee to list all real estate assets. He also forgot to disclose the $906,556 worth of artwork held by his children. LINK

NYT – What to Watch: Rick Perry Gets Another Chance – As a presidential candidate, Mr. Perry was not always the smoothest operator on the campaign trail, fizzling and dropping out early during both runs. On Thursday, he will make his case to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on why he should be the United States’ next energy secretary. While Mr. Perry has some experience in this realm from his time as the governor of oil-rich Texas, his selection for the cabinet position prompted skepticism. Critics point to his lack of expertise in areas such as nuclear science, given that the department oversees the nation’s nuclear arsenal. He will also face questions about his assertion in 2011 that he wanted to shutter the department. LINK

NYT – Nominee Betsy DeVos’s Knowledge of Education Basics Is Open to Criticism – Until Tuesday, the fight over Betsy DeVos’s nomination to be secretary of education revolved mostly around her support of contentious school choice programs. But her confirmation hearing that night opened her up to new criticism: that her long battle for school choice, controversial as it has been, is the sum total of her experience and understanding of education policy. In questioning by senators, she seemed either unaware or unsupportive of the longstanding policies and functions of the department she is in line to lead, from special education rules to the policing of for-profit universities. LINK

NYT – At Dinner Honoring Mike Pence, Donald Trump Touches Many Bases – President-elect Donald J. Trump, in a free-flowing speech Wednesday night at a dinner honoring his running mate, Mike Pence, jabbed at his new Republican allies and his critics alike, questioned the ethics of “super PACs” and talked about creating a “merit-based” immigration system. Mr. Trump credited Mr. Pence with helping to bring critics around to the ticket. “They all liked Mike. They were a little bit, you know, a little concerned with me,” the president-elect said, drawing laughter from the crowd of about 500 people, which included donors, cabinet appointees and other supporters. Mr. Trump said that his aides told him that he was not required to be at the dinner, but that he thought he had to be there to honor a man whose role on the ticket he described as one of his best decisions. LINK

NYT – As Trump Heads to White House, His Face Recedes From Other Properties – The photo of Donald J. Trump has disappeared from the website of Trump Tower Philippines, as has the link to Ivanka Trump’s jewelry line. The same is true of the photo of members of the Trump family — including Ms. Trump in the back of a limousine — that was once featured on the website of Trump Towers Pune, a city outside Mumbai, India. And on the website of Trump International Realty, the biographies and photos of Mr. Trump and his daughter also have, in recent days, been taken down. These and other moves reflect a series of changes to how the Trump Organization intends to promote the most famous members of the Trump family, as the company and the president-elect take further steps to avoid potential conflicts of interest before Mr. Trump moves into the White House on Friday. LINK

WaPo – Republicans look to avoid YouTube moments in fight over Obamacare repeal – Seven years after unruly Democratic town halls helped stoke public outrage over the Affordable Care Act, Republicans now appear keen to avoid the kind of dustups capable of racking up millions of views on YouTube and ending up in a 2018 campaign commercial. One week after the Republican Congress kicked off the process of repealing the landmark health-care legislation, only a handful of GOP lawmakers have held or are currently planning to host in-person town hall meetings open to all comers — the sort of large-scale events that helped feed the original Obamacare backlash in the summer of 2009. According to Legistorm, which tracks lawmakers’ events, ten GOP lawmakers have held in-person town hall meetings since Jan. 1. As of Thursday, only Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) had scheduled any upcoming such events. That may be because such freewheeling events — especially with a hot topic like the ACA on the table — can devolve into chaos, with made-for-social-media moments brought to you by anyone with a smartphone in the audience. LINK

WaPo – House Democrats to Donald Trump: ‘The women of America are watching’ – One day before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, the vast majority of House Democrats are warning him to think twice before supporting and signing Republican laws that they say would undermine women’s health care. A letter set to be delivered to Trump on Thursday urges the soon-to-be president to oppose GOP plans in Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act — which includes measures to prohibit discriminatory insurer practices and expand access to breast-cancer screenings and birth control — and to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding. It is signed by 173 of 194 House Democrats. “We urge you to give more thought to how defunding Planned Parenthood and repealing the ACA would harm women in every district in every state,” the letter reads. “Taking these steps would leave all women worse off. As President, you will have the power to prevent this looming disaster. You, more than anyone else, will have to answer to those whose benefits, coverage, and access to care is abruptly ripped away. LINK

Politico – How Mnuchin flipped the ultimate fixer-upper — his bank – Senate Democrats have invited aggrieved borrowers to the Capitol to tell their stories about Mnuchin’s bank while protesters march outside his $26 million Bel Air home. Progressive groups are targeting Republicans with TV ads labeling Mnuchin the “foreclosure king,” a Wall Street insider who made millions off of homeowners dragged under by the crisis. The political onslaught obscures a crucial point: Mnuchin and investors like him bought bad banks when no one else would, preventing catastrophic losses at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-  and performing triage on the housing market when the government and economy were in dire need of help. Executives and former bank regulators defend him as a hero. LINK

Politico – Obamacare attack dog to lead GOP effort to replace it – Rep. Greg Walden spent four years capitalizing on Americans’ unease with Obamacare to usher in the largest House Republican majority in 90 years. Now, he has to help figure out how to replace it. Walden (R-Ore.) just seized the gavel of the powerful House panel that oversees health care policy, the Energy and Commerce Committee. He he won the job in part because of his success getting Republicans elected to Congress when he ran the National Republican Congressional Committee in the 2014 and 2016 election cycles. The new role puts Walden in the unfamiliar role steering House Republican efforts to replace the health law he skewered for years. He sounded like he intends to employ a soft touch. LINK

Politico – Republicans blow past Trump Cabinet controversies – Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks have been battered by revelations of questionable stock trades and potentially undocumented employees. They’ve undergone rocky confirmation hearings and faced criticism from Democrats that they’re unfit to lead a major federal agency. Consider Republicans unmoved. From the top tiers of GOP leadership to rank-and-file committee members, Republicans are fanning out en masse to defend Trump’s Cabinet selections. They’ve got the back of Health and Human Services nominee Tom Price, who’s come under fire from Democrats about his investments in health care companies that may have benefited from legislation he supported. And they’re standing by Betsy DeVos, the education secretary hopeful who stumbled during her confirmation hearing earlier this week, and Commerce pick Wilbur Ross, who told senators that he recently fired a household employee who could not show proof of legal immigration status. LINK

Politico – EPA nominee Pruitt survives Democrat assault – Democrats barraged Scott Pruitt on Wednesday, hitting the Environmental Protection Agency nominee on climate change and his ties to the oil and gas industry, but they landed few hits and appear to have little chance of slowing his march to confirmation. That’s because Pruitt — the Oklahoma attorney general who has sued the Obama EPA several times, including over its marquee climate regulations — can lose at least two GOP votes and still win Senate approval. His measured support for federal biofuels policy during his Wednesday confirmation hearing, as well as his sterling reputation among conservatives who see him as a champion to rein in EPA’s powers, are helping smooth his path to approval despite Democratic attempts to undercut him as a tool of fossil-fuel producers. LINK

Politico – Rick Perry on the issues – Rick Perry will face a hodgepodge of bureaucratic and national security challenges if he is confirmed to run the Energy Department. The 66-year-old former Texas governor will be in charge of an aging nuclear weapons arsenal, basic science and decades-old Cold War era cleanup programs that will test his management skills. And it remains to be seen how he will carry out President-elect Donald Trump’s undefined approach to nonproliferation — having previously tweeted about how the U.S. should “expand its nuclear capability” — his desire to renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal and general resistance to the Obama administration’s climate change programs. LINK

AP – Trump’s Treasury pick facing criticism over foreclosures – Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Treasury Department, Stephen Mnuchin, built his reputation and his fortune as a savvy Wall Street investor. But one of those investments has put him in the crosshairs of Democrats as he heads into his confirmation hearing Thursday: sub-prime mortgage lender IndyMac bank. Mnuchin, who served as Trump’s finance chairman during the campaign, has defended his role in the purchase of the failed bank, whose collapse in 2008 was the second biggest bank failure of the financial crisis. Mnuchin, who assembled a group to buy the bank from the government, renamed it OneWest and turned it around, selling it for a handsome profit to CIT Group Inc. in 2014. But critics have cited the bank’s foreclosure policies under Mnuchin as a prime example of the kind of Wall Street greed that Trump, the candidate, campaigned against. They planned to question Mnuchin about the foreclosures during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. LINK

AP – In Texas, Perry was ‘all of the above’ on energy production – Rick Perry was for “all of the above” on energy production before President Barack Obama embraced the strategy. Years before the Democratic president endorsed all types of energy production — from oil and gas to renewable sources like wind and solar power — Perry was putting the policy into practice in Texas. During Perry’s record 14-year tenure as governor, Texas maintained its traditional role as a top driller for oil and natural gas, while also emerging as the leading producer of wind power in the United States and a top 10 provider of solar power. On Thursday, the Republican enters his confirmation hearing to become energy secretary as more than the punchline who famously forgot the department was the agency he pledged to eliminate as a presidential candidate in 2011. LINK

NYT – Under Trump, Approach to Civil Rights Law Is Likely to Change Definitively – Few areas of federal policy are likely to change so definitively. President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, opposes not only the Justice Department’s specific policies on civil rights but its entire approach. While liberal Democrats have criticized Mr. Sessions’s views on specific issues like gay marriage and voting, the larger difference is how differently the Trump administration will view the government’s role in those areas. LINK

NYT – A Passport Stamp Gives Dreamers Hope as the Trump Era Looms – Ms. Guzman came from Mexico to New York at age 4, arriving by night hidden in a van. Now 21 and a sophomore at Hunter College, she had joined 66 others covered by DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, on a six-day trip to her homeland organized by the City University of New York. The 2012 federal program allows young, undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States temporarily and work legally. It also enables them to apply to travel abroad for humanitarian, educational or employment reasons, and then re-enter the United States, a benefit known as “advance parole.” The stamp in her passport is proof that Ms. Guzman has entered the country legally, which she and others like her are hoping could one day be inoculation against whatever actions Donald J. Trump takes against undocumented immigrants after his inauguration on Friday. He has vowed to end the DACA program. LINK

NYT – For Inauguration Day, Plans for Heavy Security and Big Protests – Law enforcement officials are in the final stages of sealing off a heavily fortified security zone encompassing the Capitol and the historic National Mall here as they prepare for the inauguration on Friday and the substantial protests it is expected to attract. In addition to the usual range of threats, officials from federal, state and local agencies are preparing this year for what they say could be large-scale protests aimed at disrupting the ceremony and registering disapproval of Donald J. Trump’s presidency at the moment the world is watching his ascension to office. A march planned for Saturday could attract as many as half a million people, one official said, putting additional stress on law enforcement. LINK

WaPo – For the first time since Ronald Reagan, the president’s Cabinet won’t include a Latino – President-elect Donald Trump is set to nominate Sonny Perdue, the former Republican governor of Georgia, to serve as the next agriculture secretary, filling the final vacancy in his Cabinet. Perdue’s selection, expected for weeks amid reports that he was the pick, means that Trump’s Cabinet won’t have a Democrat, just three women, one African American man — and no Latino. That ends a nearly three-decade streak of Latino secretaries, top ambassadors and administrators. LINK

Politico – Trump’s nuclear wake-up call – By the time he is sworn in tomorrow, Donald Trump will have undergone a haunting rite of passage: the classified briefing given to every incoming president that explains how he can order a nuclear attack. While neither U.S. nor Trump officials would confirm the exact time or location of Trump’s briefing, several past presidents have been briefed on the nuclear codes at the historic Blair House, on Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House, hours before their inauguration. “It’s a sobering moment. It defines the ultimate obligation that you might have,” said Andrew Card, who served as chief of staff to George W. Bush and was with Bush just before and after his first nuclear briefing in January 2001. It is also likely a sobering for millions of the Americans who heard a series of Trump rivals warn last year that the New York mogul must never gain access to America’s massive nuclear arsenal. LINK

Politico – Distrust and empty desks could stunt Trump’s government – Just days before he ascends to the presidency, there are lingering questions about whether President-elect Donald Trump’s team is fully prepared to take over the sprawling federal government, according to more than two dozen interviews with Trump and Obama administration officials, lobbyists, experts and others close to the process. A deep distrust has taken hold between Trump’s transition officials and Obama’s political appointees at a number of federal agencies, slowing down the handover of agency responsibilities on everything from meat inspections to drug pricing. There’s confusion over policy on several major agenda items, as Trump gives conflicting signals and often disagrees with his Cabinet nominees. And a number of federal agencies are far from having the staff they need to run on Day One, people close to the transition say. LINK

AP – Day before inauguration, State Department lacks interim boss – It’s a little more than a day before Donald Trump becomes president and he still has no one ready to run American diplomacy until his nominee is confirmed. And with Russian-sponsored Syrian peace talks scheduled on Trump’s first full business day in office, the State Department doesn’t know who, if anyone, to send. Succession and continuity in leadership has been settled at the National Security Council, whose boss doesn’t require confirmation, and appears on track for the Pentagon and CIA with Senate votes expected shortly after Trump’s inauguration at noon on Friday. But Rex Tillerson’s fate isn’t likely to be resolved until next week at the earliest, and officials in Foggy Bottom are unsure about some of their most immediate plans. Trump’s transition team didn’t respond to inquiries from The Associated Press. LINK

Bloomberg – Trump’s K Street Office Is Open for Business – Lewandowski, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, is standing in his corner office at Avenue Strategies, a lobbying firm he’s founded with Barry Bennett, the former campaign manager for Ben Carson who later worked for Trump. The geographic proximity to the White House is important, because it amplifies Lewandowski’s personal proximity to Trump—and that’s the basis for his new business. “We’re not here to compete with guys who are lobbying Capitol Hill,” Bennett says. “We’re here to lobby the administration.” To advertise their support, they’re taking the highly unusual step for a lobbying firm of creating a pro-Trump super PAC (the Great American Agenda PAC) that they’ll fund with their own money. The PAC’s purpose, Bennett says, will be to “build grass-roots energy and support for the Trump agenda, the cabinet nominees, and the Supreme Court pick.” While the PAC won’t be especially large (it will probably raise less than $1 million), Bennett says he hopes it will “build a list of a million people who we can count on raising their voices to Congress—we’ll help them every day with something they can do to push the agenda forward.” LINK

NYT – Biden’s Next Move: Train to Delaware and Burgers With Family – After 44 years as a senator and a vice president, Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Friday will take the train here from Washington for what his office has trumpeted as a “welcome home event.” The only problem with such a celebration is that Mr. Biden never really left home. As a senator, he tried to return to Delaware every night. For the past eight years, he and his wife, Jill Biden, were in Washington or traveling during the week and at their lakeside house in Greenville, a Wilmington suburb, on weekends. LINK

Politico – Obama aides, full of emotion, get ready to turn out the lights – They always knew the end was coming. But that doesn’t make it feel any less abrupt for the dedicated staff who will suddenly no longer have every waking moment consumed by one man and one mission. They’ll no longer be on guard for how any development, anywhere in the world, might require Obama’s and therefore their own response. LINK

CNN – Obama administration drops last-minute Education Department rule change – The Obama administration is dropping a last-minute effort to force hundreds of school districts to shift nearly $1 billion in spending from well-financed elementary and secondary schools to their schools with large numbers of low-income students. The Education Department said Wednesday it is withdrawing a proposed policy that would have dramatically increased federal control over school-district budgets, because it “did not have time to publish a strong final regulation.” LINK

Politico – Democrats in the Wilderness – As Trump takes over the GOP and starts remaking its new identity as a nationalist, populist party, creating a new political pole in American politics for the first time in generations, all eyes are on the Democrats. How will they confront a suddenly awakened, and galvanized, white majority? What’s to stop Trump from doing whatever he wants? Who’s going to pull a coherent new vision together? Worried liberals are watching with trepidation, fearful that Trump is just the beginning of worse to come, desperate for a comeback strategy that can work.What’s clear from interviews with several dozen top Democratic politicians and operatives at all levels, however, is that there is no comeback strategy—just a collection of half-formed ideas, all of them challenged by reality. LINK

NYT – Student Loan Collector Cheated Millions, Lawsuits Say – Navient, the nation’s largest servicer of student loans, has for years misled borrowers and made serious mistakes at nearly every step of the collections process, illegally driving up loan repayment costs for millions of borrowers, according to lawsuits filed on Wednesday by a federal regulator and two state attorneys general. Navient handles $300 billion in private and federal loans for some 12 million people — touching about one in four student loan borrowers. Every customer may have been affected by Navient’s misdeeds, said Lisa Madigan, the attorney general of Illinois, announcing her own lawsuit with the one filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. LINK

NYT – California Strikes a Bold Pose as Vanguard of the Resistance – In the months since the election of Donald J. Trump, California has turned into a laboratory of resistance — championing legal, legislative and political strategies to counter Republican policies while pressing the kind of new Democratic policies that presumably will not be coming out of Washington anytime soon. The state lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom, who is running for governor, said California could use its stringent environmental protection law to block Mr. Trump from building a wall along the Mexican border. In Sacramento, Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers are pressing bills to expand environmental protections, provide legal assistance for immigrants facing deportation and raise gasoline taxes to pay for highway construction. LINK

NYT – Jewish Centers Across U.S. Face New Wave of Bomb Threats – There were as many as 27 bomb threats on Wednesday at Jewish centers in 17 states, according to the J.C.C. Association of North America. Last week, 16 Jewish facilities received bomb threats. No injuries were reported, but nerves were rattled and routines disrupted. LINK

NYT – Iraqi Forces Take Eastern Mosul From Islamic State – Iraq’s government forces said on Wednesday that they had gained control of the eastern half of Mosul, three months after they began an assault to retake the northern city from Islamic State militants. LINK