Good morning — and happy Friday!
Stat of the day: 11.3 percent — America’s rate of uninsured, which the White House Council for Economic Advisers says is currently “at or near the lowest levels ever recorded across the 50 years for which we have data.”
‘Tis the season –> HuffPo’s Zach Carter reports that the Federal Reserve gave Wall Street yet another holiday gift on Thursday, delaying a key provision of the Dodd-Frank reforms for a year. Carter adds that the delay “gives financial lobbyists more time to kill the new regulation before it goes into effect.”
Cuba libre –> Simon Romero and William Neuman report for the NYT that Obama’s move to normalize relations with Cuba is being hailed by Latin American leaders who had been critical of the US, and appears to be “restoring some of Washington’s influence in a region where rivals like China have long chipped away at America’s primacy.” AND: Karen DeYoung and Carol Morello report for WaPo that American businesses are eager to position themselves for new opportunities that should arrive with the thaw, but their options are limited until Congress acts to lift the embargo. ALSO: You already heard from Obama, and you can also check out Raul Castro’s remarks about re-establishing relations with the US.
“It could have been a lot worse” –> The “CRomnibus” spending bill that Congress passed last week contained multiple anti-abortion provisions. At MoJo, Erika Eichelberger explains why Planned Parenthood supported it anyway.
Judicial targeting –> Eric Lipton reports for the NYT that private litigators are earning hefty fees by pushing state attorneys general to hire their firms to help sue companies that weren’t otherwise on the government’s radar. “Much as big industries have found natural allies in Republican attorneys general to combat federal regulations,” writes Lipton, “plaintiffs’ lawyers working on a contingency-fee basis have teamed up mostly with Democratic state attorneys general to file hundreds of lawsuits against businesses.”
Big deal for the trans community –> Attorney General Eric Holder issued a significant memo on Thursday, directing his agency to “take the position in litigation that the protection of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 extends to claims of discrimination based on an individual’s gender identity, including transgender status.”
NYPD revolt? –> Capital NY’s Azi Paybarah obtained recordings from a private meeting in which NYPD police union leader Pat Lynch lashed out at Mayor Bill de Blasio, and appeared to be urging cops to undertake a work slowdown to protest the mayor’s apparent sympathy for Eric Garner protesters. The union denies that interpretation of his remarks. Warning: There is some unedited adult language in Lynch’s quoted statements.
Polarization on steroids –> Kenyan lawmakers passed a new law that “gives authorities sweeping powers to crack down on terror suspects and curtail press freedoms in a country that has suffered a string of attacks,” according to AFP. Tensions over the bill ran so high that Thursday’s debate “triggered heated exchanges between lawmakers that culminated in a brawl, forcing the vote to be repeatedly delayed.”
Speaking of outrage –> Slate reviews “the year in outrage” with a day-by-day account of what we were mad about according to social media data.
The end of an era –> Sonia Saraiya writes about Stephen Colbert’s “pitch-perfect” finale for Salon.
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