As we continue our effort to keep you up-to-date on how money corrupts American government and politics, as well as other news of the day, we’re pleased to publish this daily digest compiled by BillMoyers.com’s John Light.
Ryan’s in –> Paul Ryan announced last night that he will step up to the plate as speaker of the House — but only if all Republicans agree to unify behind him. That might prove a tall order. Jake Sherman, John Bresnahan and Lauren French at Politico: “Ryan, the Ways and Means Committee chairman, wants to know by Friday if the 247 members of the House Republican Conference support him. If not, he is ‘happy’ to continue as chairman of the powerful tax-writing panel, the 45-year-old lawmaker said.” The right wing of the party is ambivalent. “All things are possible,” Freedom Caucus co-founder Matt Salmon told Politico. “I think the issue of process reforms are going to have to be addressed one way or another before the Freedom Caucus wholesale jumps in bed with him.”
Webb’s out –> Jim Webb is ending his run for president as a Democrat. Jose DelReal and David Weigel at WaPo: “Webb said he has yet to decide if he will remain a registered Democrat. Acknowledging the tall odds facing an independent presidential bid, he said he and his team would explore whether there is an opening for him to launch such a candidacy.”
Fast food takes another tiny step forward –> Chris Fuhrmeister at Eater: “Facing pressure from environmental groups, Subway plans to eliminate antibiotics from its menu. The sandwich giant announced Tuesday it will transition to antibiotic-free meats at all 27,000-plus of its United States locations, beginning early next year.”
Hot gift idea –> The Department of Transportation is scrambling to draw up regulations for all the drones Americans will purchase this holiday season. Nick Wingfield reports for the NYT.
Wisconsin on the auction block –> There’s some nasty legislation coming up for a vote in the Badger State. Wisconsin Public Radio: “In addition to ending Wisconsin’s nonpartisan Government Accountability Board, the bill up for a vote this week would end independent funding for investigations of the state’s ethics and election laws. At the same time, Republicans will rewrite Wisconsin’s campaign finance laws to clear the way for unlimited donations to state political parties and coordination with third party groups that keep their donors secret. … In addition, another GOP bill up for debate this week would take away the power of district attorneys to use Wisconsin’s John Doe laws to investigate potential misconduct in office.” The bills don’t make much sense to Wisconsinites, writes The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s editorial board, “except for those who see everything through a partisan lens.”
The fight to vote –> Alex Altman and Maya Rhodan at Time: “Since 2010, 21 state legislatures have enacted new laws to curtail ballot access, while 23 others plus the District of Columbia have passed laws to expand it over the past three years. The seesaw struggle reflects efforts by partisan state legislatures to reshape the makeup of the electorate. In most cases, blue states have pushed to expand voting rights, while many of the new restrictions have come in red states.”
Investigate Exxon! –> Bernie Sanders, and a number of other Democratic legislators, think the federal government should. As recent reports by InsideClimate News and The LA Times have demonstrated, Exxon’s executives were well aware decades ago that burning fossil fuels would have disastrous effects. Bill McKibben at The Nation: “ExxonMobil, the world’s largest and most powerful oil company, knew everything there was to know about climate change by the mid-1980s, and then spent the next few decades systematically funding climate denial.”
New leader, same stance –> Canada’s newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expressed concern about climate change, but, like his predecessor Stephen Harper, he’s also a fan of pipelines. WaPo’s Steven Mufson: “The new Canadian prime minister, Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau, has supported the construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline as well as TransCanada’s proposed $12 billion Energy East pipeline, both of which would carry bitumen from Alberta’s vast oil sands to ports and world markets.” Don’t worry about it, says Kerry — Trudeau won’t change the outcome of the State Department’s (very, very) long-awaited review of the project. “The decision on Keystone is being based on the merits and countervailing balance of all the input that has come from a very exhaustive agency review.”
What would you do with $73 million? –> By now, most people are aware of the massive 300-to-1 CEO-worker pay gap in America. Over at Demos’s Policy Shop blog, Maya Gold wonders what would happen if the top 10 CEOs were to make only one million a year and redistribute the rest of their salaries to the workers at their companies.
Ouch –> David Sanger at the NYT: “For John O. Brennan, the director of the C.I.A., perhaps the worst part of the attack on his private email account was the revelation that until very recently, he used an AOL account.”
Cautionary tale –> Seth Masket at The Mischiefs of Faction blog: “The Star Wars Galactic Senate needed a minority party.”
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