Good morning — and happy MLK Day! While the nation remembers Dr. King, Texas is also celebrating Confederate Heroes Day, and Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi are honoring Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s birthday.
Stat of the day: 51 percent — the share of American K-12 students who lived in low-income households in 2013, according to an analysis of federal data. It’s the first time in at least 50 years that the figure has exceeded 50 percent.
A long road –> Reuters reports that, “54 years after nine young black men became the first U.S. civil rights protesters to serve jail time for sitting at an all-white lunch counter, surviving members of the group will return to a South Carolina courtroom this month to be exonerated of their crimes.”
Decades after Selma –> In NYT’s “Room for Debate,” four voices — educators and activists — look at where the fight for equality stands today.
Where the money is –> In tomorrow’s State of the Union address, Barack Obama is expected to ask Congress to close tax loopholes for financial firms and wealthy individuals in order to finance a steep tax cut for the middle class. MSNBC’s Kristen Welker and Chris Jansing have more details.
Paris –> Said Kouachi, one of the gunmen responsible for the Charlie Hebdo attacks, was buried in an unmarked grave this weekend, according to the BBC. AND: AFP reports that Greek security services arrested four people allegedly linked to the foiled plot to kill Belgian police. ALSO: At Al Jazeera, French sociologist Ali Saad writes that while Europe is focused on bolstering its security infrastructure, far too little attention is being paid to “the role of the socioeconomic policies practiced by successive French governments – in addressing the woes of the socially marginalized and disenfranchised zones from which the Kouachi brothers sprang.”
The hard wall of reality –> Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback promised that cutting taxes on corporations and the wealthy would unleash an economic miracle. Instead, Kansans got an economic meltdown and repeated credit downgrades. Now, Bryan Lowry reports for The Wichita Eagle that Brownback wants to keep some cuts from going into effect while dramatically increasing “sin taxes” on things like alcohol and tobacco. These are considered among the most regressive taxes in a state’s arsenal.
Meh –> Ben Adler writes at Grist that climate hawks aren’t impressed with the final component of the White House’s “Climate Action Plan” — a limit on methane gas.
New worries –> Vox’s Timothy Lee considers what might happen if hackers start targeting automobiles, which he says are rapidly becoming “computer networks on wheels.”
Unpublished –> Life magazine’s first full-time African-American employee, the legendary Gordon Parks, created a photo essay on what everyday life in America was like for blacks in 1950. It was never published, but now you can check it out at Slate.
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