Good morning — and a happy 54th birthday to Julia Louis-Dreyfus!
Defiant –> Charlie Hebdo’s first cover following the Paris terror attacks last week features a depiction of Muhammad with the phrase, “Je Suis Charlie.” Via: BBC. AND: A record 25,000 Germans attended an anti-Islam protest in Dresden, but Agence France-Presse reports that a counterprotest drew a larger crowd. Last week, the AP’s Frank Jordans reported that the attacks had given a boost to far-right anti-immigrant groups across the continent. ALSO: The White House acknowledged that it was remiss in not sending high-level officials to Sunday’s “Unity Rally” in Paris, according to Justin Sink at The Hill. BUT: Asher Schechter reports for Ha’aretz that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appearance at the march turned into “a PR disaster.”
For real? –> Like other outlets, we’ve taken reports of a third Romney run for the White House with a big grain of salt, but the WaPo’s Robert Costa, Philip Rucker and Karen Tumulty report that Mitt “is moving quickly to reassemble his national political network, calling former aides, donors and other supporters over the weekend and on Monday in a concerted push to signal his seriousness about possibly launching a 2016 presidential campaign.” AND: California Attorney General Kamala Harris is expected to announce her candidacy to replace Barbara Boxer in the US Senate today, according to the LAT’s Seema Mehta. It’s likely that Harris, who is seen as a rising star in the party, will become a leading choice among Golden State progressives.
Reassuring –> Several of the US Central Command’s social media accounts were hacked by Islamic State sympathizers, who posted pro-ISIS messages to the military’s official Twitter feed and YouTube channel. Paul D. Shinkman
Wall Street fueling drought –> MoJo’s Tom Philpott reports that “massive financial interests—banks, pension funds, investment arms of insurance companies—are moving rapidly” into California’s lucrative almond market, resulting in a production boom. The problem: It requires an entire gallon of water to get a single almond out of the state’s parched soil.
Paying off? –> Radley Balko reports for WaPo that the Dallas police have won praise for their “community-oriented approach to policing, openness and transparency about excessive force, its rejection of law enforcement as a revenue generator, and its First Amendment-friendly approach to protest.” Now they’re seeing a possible result: the lowest crime rate in generations.
“Scapegoating a midwife” –> At EcoWatch, Anastasia Pantsios tells the story of an oil boomtown in Utah “demonizing” a young midwife for raising questions about potential connections between an apparent spike in infant mortality and the industry.
The substance –> At The Atlantic, Richard Kahlenberg writes that while there has been a lot of talk about the politics of Barack Obama’s proposal to make two years of community college free, more attention should be paid “to the truly revolutionary possibility that it would make two-year institutions more economically and racially integrated.”
“A climate change denier to oversee NASA” –> Slate’s Phil Plait says that the selection of Sen. Ted Cruz to chair the Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness “is not a good thing. Just how bad it is will be determined.” AND: Daniel Malloy reports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that “Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Price intends to tackle big-ticket entitlement programs as the new chairman of the House Budget Committee — including Social Security.”
Big victory for Liz –> Obama’s nominee for Undersecretary of Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department, Antonio Weiss, withdrew over the weekend. Bloomberg’s Dave Weigel reports that “it was a major coup for the Senate Democrats who had opposed the nomination, led by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.” Weigel adds that voters increasingly see Warren as anti-Wall Street rather than simply a champion of the left.
“A uniquely Scottish dinosaur” –> Scientists keep identifying new species of dinosaurs from the Jurassic period. The latest is a fossil of Dearcmhara shawcrossi, a creature described as a 14-foot-long cross between a dolphin and a crocodile that scientists discovered on the Isle of Skye off of Scotland’s west coast. Stephen Moss has more at The Guardian.
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