Good morning! Today is Human Rights Day — marking the UN’s 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — and it’s also International Animal Rights Day.
Stat of the day: 21 — According to Mother Jones, there have been 21 fatal school shootings since the Sandy Hook massacre, or one every five weeks on average.
Charged –> The FBI has filed criminal charges against Gary Southern, the former head of Freedom Industries — which contaminated the drinking water of 300,000 West Virginians last year — for lying about his involvement in the company in order to shield his fortune from lawsuits. Mike Gaworecki has the details at DeSmogBlog.
Torture –> We rounded up a fast summary of the key points from the Senate report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program. AND: At the Council on Foreign Relations, Micah Zenko argues that the most revealing aspect of the story was actually in the CIA’s response, where the agency acknowledged that “it was simply incapable of evaluating the effectiveness of its covert activities.” Zenko writes that this admission “should cast doubt upon all previous responses from Intelligence Community officials that defended and justified the program. If they had, by the CIA’s own admission, the wrong structure, expertise, and methodologies to evaluate the program, then what was the basis upon which they claimed it was needed and successful?” ALSO: Michael Hirsh reports for Politico that former CIA director Michael Hayden is unapologetic about what his agency did. ALSO, TOO: David Ferguson reports for The Raw Story that a Fox News panel “melted down” over news of the report, and started screaming about how “awesome” the US is.
Deal –> Congressional negotiators have reached agreement on a $1.1 trillion spending package that will keep the government funded through next September. Funding for the Homeland Security Agency was only extended through February 27, as Republicans aim to block Obama’s executive action on immigration once they gain control of the Senate. Reuters’ David Lawder has the details.
“Entirely undemocratic” –> Aaron C. Davis and Ed O’Keefe report for WaPo that the spending bill will block, at least for now, DC’s effort to legalize marijuana, which was approved by the city’s voters by a 2-1 margin.
Warren takes on Wall St. Dems–> At TNR, David Dayen writes that in a Tuesday speech, Elizabeth Warren “crafted a direct challenge to three decades of bipartisan collusion between government and Wall Street, in a highly unusual manner for any politician, let alone one recently drafted into the Senate Democratic leadership.”
Plutocrats international –> At The Nation, MJ Rosenberg writes that two big conservative donors — Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban — are backing a new organization of Israeli expats in the US that they hope will one day compete with and surpass AIPAC as the premiere lobbying group for the Israeli government.
GRUBERED! –> MIT healthcare economist Jonathan Gruber testified before Darrell Issa’s House Oversight Committee about his controversial remarks about the passage of the Affordable Care Act. WaPo’s Dana Milbank says it went about how you might have expected it to go.
“An insurance policy for climate change” –> Richard Schiffman writes at Yes! Magazine about how seed-banks are safeguarding the future of our food supply.
Nerdland –> At Bloomberg View, economist Barry Ritholtz writes that there’s a big difference between criticizing how statistics are gathered and reported and weaving conspiracies about government agencies “cooking the books” for political purposes.
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