Morning Reads: Obama Defiant; Will the "Free Market" Kill Keystone XL?

Good morning — and happy Friday!

On this date in 1957, a New York State trooper noticed some unusual activity at the Apalachin, New York, home of Joseph Barbara, Sr. He had stumbled upon a conference of Mafia bosses from across the US, Canada and Italy. Dozens of the mobsters fled through the woods when they got word that police were setting up a roadblock outside the estate — area residents reportedly found scattered $100 bills for months afterwards. But 58 Mafia leaders were detained and questioned, and dozens of federal and local investigations followed. The FBI had long denied the existence of an organized Mafia, but when the Apalachin meeting hit the news, the agency was forced to change its tune.

Accountability –> Don Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy, was indicted on Thursday for multiple counts of conspiracy stemming from the 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, West Virginia. AP’s John Raby and Allen G. Breed have the story.

Surveillance state –> The Justice Department is “scooping up data from thousands of mobile phones through devices deployed on airplanes that mimic cellphone towers, a high-tech hunt for criminal suspects that is snagging a large number of innocent Americans,” according to Devlin Barrett at the WSJ.

Will the “free market” kill Keystone? –> The House will vote today on a bill that would force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, and the Senate soon may do so as well. The administration has hinted that it would veto such a measure, but Tim Mullaney reports for CNBC that the whole controversy may be moot as the cost of crude “has [recently] declined by 28 percent, pushing the price that oil from new wells in Canada may command below what the expected cost will be to produce it.”

Gruber-gate –> Conservatives are making a scandal out of several videos featuring Romneycare architect Jonathan Gruber, a health care economist at MIT, making ill-advised comments about the legislative sausage-making that went into the Affordable Care Act. Vox’s Sarah Kliff explains what it’s all about.

“One of the worst sexual abuse scandals” in sports –> Rachel Sturtz has a heartbreaking #longread in Outside Magazine detailing how dozens of swimming coaches have allegedly molested young female athletes with impunity as “the adults and organizations that are supposed to protect children in club sports…failed them at every level.”

“No one seems to have told Mr. Obama” –> Peter Baker and Julie Hirschfeld Davis report for the NYT that despite midterm losses and Barack Obama entering the lame duck stage of his presidency, he “has flexed his muscles on immigration, climate change and the Internet, demonstrating that he still aspires to enact sweeping policies that could help define his legacy.”

Related –> The White House is reportedly finalizing an executive order that would provide relief from deportation for up to five million undocumented immigrants — many of them parents of children who are US citizens or permanent residents. Paul Lewis and Dan Martin report for The Guardian that 116 House Democrats sent a letter to the White House on Thursday insisting that their Republican colleagues are not going to reform the system and urging the administration to move forward. BUT: According to HuffPo’s Sabrina Siddiqui and Elise Foley, Harry Reid worries that moving ahead with the order before December could create a standoff that might lead to a government shutdown, and wants the president to wait. ALSO: John Boehner “is considering expanding a proposed federal lawsuit over President Obama’s executive orders to include action on immigration,” according to WaPo’s Robert Costa and Ed O’Keefe.

Wacky –> Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski will head the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress. She thinks global warming is a result of volcanic activity, but Alex Park reports for MoJo that serious scientists find that claim to be almost laughably wrong.

Related –> Here, via Reuters, are a bunch of Aussies sticking their head in the sand to protest the climate stance of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who has launched what his opponents call a “full-frontal attack” on renewable energy.