By Lauren Weber
Monday March 23rd, 2015
TOP STORIES
PRESIDENT OBAMA: 'I WON'T SIGN A BILL THAT CONTINUES SEQUESTRATION' "President Barack Obama on Friday drew a sharp line in the sand before the next big battle over funding the government, pledging his opposition to any bill that does not alleviate the spending cuts scheduled to become law this fall." The president sat down with HuffPost's Sam Stein for a wide-ranging interview, focusing on his disappointment with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his frustration over the hold-up of the confirmation of Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch and how much he sleeps. Watch HuffPost's full interview with the president or read the transcript. [Sam Stein, HuffPost]
TED CRUZ RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT The senator from Texas shared the news via Twitter and is expected to make a more formal announcement today at Liberty University in Virginia. As a reminder, it's 596 days before election day. [Samantha Lachman, HuffPost]
A LOOK AT HILLARY'S BENGHAZI EMAILS "The roughly 300 emails from Mrs. Clinton’s private account that were turned over last month to a House committee investigating the attack showed the secretary and her aides closely monitoring the fallout from the tragedy, which threatened to damage her image and reflect poorly on the State Department." [NYT]
POLICE TO RELEASE FINDINGS IN UVA GANG RAPE INVESTIGATION The Charlottesville police will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. today to discuss their findings in the gang rape investigation inspired by a now disputed Rolling Stones article. [USA Today]
YEMEN EVACUATION ENDANGERS COUNTERTERRORISM EFFORTS "The evacuation of 125 United States Special Operations advisers from Yemen in the past two days is the latest blow to the Obama administration’s counterterrorism campaign, which is already struggling with significant setbacks in Syria, Libya and elsewhere in the volatile region, American officials said Sunday. The loss of Yemen as a base for American counterterrorism training, advising and intelligence-gathering carries major implications not just there, but throughout a region that officials say poses the most grievous threat to United States global interests and to the country itself." [NYT]
FBI BRINGS IN BAU FOR MISSISSIPPI HANGING CASE The Behavioral Analysis Unit dramatized in the television show "Criminal Minds" has been brought into the case of the hanging death of Mississippi man Otis Byrd. [USA Today]
TRAIL TO THE CHIEF: A PRIMER ON THE EARLY 2016 PRIMARIES "There's nothing that turns us into augurs quite so quickly as a candidate-to-be making a trip to one of the early primary states. We're talking, of course, about Iowa (first caucus in the nation!), New Hampshire (first primary in the nation!), South Carolina (first in the South!), Nevada (first in the West!) and Florida (first in another part of the South, with retired people and alligators!)." [Howard Fineman, Jason Linkins and Lauren Weber, HuffPost]
WHAT’S BREWING
SWEET SIXTEEN BEGINS While we're still recovering from that Georgetown loss, here's who to look out for in the next round of March Madness. Check out how they all got to the sweet 16. [AP]
ONE YEAR AFTER THE EBOLA EPIDEMIC A look at what the international health community learned. [NYT]
SNOOP DOGG IS MAKING AN HBO SHOW About a crazy LA family in the 80s. [The Verge]
TAYLOR SWIFT BOUGHT A PORN DOMAIN SITE Named after her, so no creeps would. [HuffPost]
13 MOVIES TO WATCH FROM SXSW Never too early for Oscar speculation. [Variety]
'INSURGENT' TAKES THE BOX OFFICE WITH $54 MILLION Not going to make a surge pun. No really, not going to do it. [AP]
THE ALGORITHM BEHIND GOOGLE MAPS The one that gets you to work on-time (most days). [Motherboard]
BEHIND THE DEA'S DRUG PATCHES "It looks like the type of scene you might see on a college dorm room poster celebrating drugs and the counterculture. But in fact, it's an embroidered uniform patch made for members of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Dangerous Drugs Intelligence Unit, a group that monitors major drug trafficking organizations. And it's just one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of colorful and sometimes bizarre patches manufactured for various DEA divisions and task forces over the years." [WaPo]
WHAT'S WORKING
BRINGING CLEAN WATER WORLDWIDE "About 89 percent of the globe had access to improved sources of drinking water in 2012 -- up significantly from 76 percent in 1990, according to a report released last year by the World Health Organization (WHO). Although there's still significant progress to be had (roughly 748 million people still lack access, the United Nations notes), inventive thinking is in part to credit for helping more communities connect to the crucial resource." [HuffPost]
ON THE BLOG
THE LEGACY OF LEE KUAN YEW "[Singapore's founding Prime Minister] died on Monday at the age of 91. And with his demise, modern Asia has lost all of its postwar political wizards, men and women who carved entire countries from the clangor of colonial rule or from disputes with neighbors." [HuffPost]
BEFORE YOU GO
~ Brainstorming job options for Prince Harry...
~ You can now watch Monica Lewinsky's full TED talk.
~ They're still making "Mission Impossible" movies.
~ That time Rob Kardashian compared Kim to Amy from "Gone Girl."
~ Pope Francis is being credited with a "half-miracle."
~ What's in your junk drawer?
~ What a Swiss Army Knife would have looked like 500,000 years ago.
~ The Netflix hacks you're missing in your life.
~ Adidas is trying to become "cool" again.
~ Brian Williams made his first public appearance since being suspended from "Nightly News."
~ James Corden takes over the "Late, Late Show" tonight.
~ The Chicago Cubs shaved their heads to support kids with cancer, which makes them slightly less hateable to this Cardinals fan.
~ Starbucks has stopped its brief foray into race conversations on people's coffee.
~ The hell that is using a 56k modem for a week.
~ Break out your 1920s hankies -- the sixth season of "Downton Abbey" will be its last.
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