Good morning! Today is Tell a Fairy Tale Day, but we’ll stick to nonfiction in this morning’s reads…
Stat of the day: 43 percent — the dramatic decline in the obesity rate of young children over the past decade.
How the 1 percent cheat –> Credit Suisse used “cloak-and-dagger schemes that belong in a spy novel” to help thousands of Americans avoid paying taxes on billions of dollars, according to Sens. Carl Levin and John McCain. Dominic Rushe reports for The Guardian.
Now Georgia –> Dana Liebelson reports for MoJo that a religious-liberty-to-discriminate bill much like Arizona’s is moving swiftly through the Georgia legislature. ALSO: The Daily Beast’s Ben Jacobs reports that Arizona could lose the Superbowl if Gov. Jan Brewer signs the gay Jim Crow bill that’s sitting on her desk.
Heckuva job –> The Congressional Budget Office scored a proposed GOP “fix” to Obamacare, projecting that it will cause a million workers to lose their existing employer-provided coverage and add $74 billion to the deficit over the next decade. Sahil Kapur reports for TPM. ALSO: WaPo’s Greg Sargent looks at more Obamacare “horror stories” falling apart on closer examination.
Welfare queens –> David Cay Johnston offers some shocking numbers on corporate subsidies at Al Jazeera America.
Youth indoctrination –> Salon’s Josh Eidelson has quite a story about a Wal-Mart-backed campus “leadership group” that one professor claims to be marked by a “cultlike character, institutional corruption and corporate conservative ideology.”
Shoot-first –> Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick says “Stand Your Ground” laws are changing our culture in truly dangerous ways.
Trashed –> Alec Luhn reports for The Nation on the devastation left in the wake of the Sochi Olympic games despite repeated promises that these would be “Zero Waste Games.”
Didn’t get the memo that the Cold War ended –> Robert Shrum argues in The Daily Beast that the continuing embargo on Cuba is “America’s stupidest foreign policy.”
Disinvited –> Organizers of the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference changed their minds and decided not to allow an atheist group to have a table, according to Dan Merica at CNN.
A matter of perception –> With six very wealthy Republican businessmen vying for Senate seats, The Hill’s Cameron Joseph says much will ride on whether voters see them as successful problem-solvers who know about creating jobs or out-of-touch rich guys trying to buy power.
Reefer madness –> A Maryland police chief testifying against a proposal to de-criminalize marijuana cited a satirical website’s hoax story about 37 people dying of marijuana overdoses on the first day of legal weed sales in Colorado. HuffPo’s Hunter Stuart with the story.
