The following is a rundown of the day’s news drawn from other media sources with topics curated just for Money and Markets readers: Ethics and values, personal security and freedom, and immigration.
Ethics and values
No Shortage of Campaign Cash from the Fracking Industry
Contributions from the industry to House and Senate candidates from districts and states home to fracking activity rose by 231 percent between the 2004 and 2012 election cycles. In contrast, industry contributions to candidates from nonfracking districts rose by 131 percent.
Nelson Mandela, Anti-Apartheid Icon and Father of Modern South Africa, Dies
Freedom fighter, prisoner, moral compass and South Africa’s symbol of the struggle against racial oppression. That was Nelson Mandela, who emerged from prison after 27 years to lead his country out of decades of apartheid. He died Thursday at age 95.
Pope’s New Panel to Advise Him on Protecting Kids from Pedophile Priests
Pope Francis is assembling a panel of experts to advise him about protecting children from sexually abusive priests and about helping victims who have already been harmed.
Rush Limbaugh Misinterpreting Pope Francis’ Comments on Money?
“Contrary to what Rush Limbaugh says, the Pope isn’t promoting Marxism – only human-centered capitalism – he wants capitalism that promotes people over profits.”
Global-Warming ‘Proof’ Is Evaporating, Study Suggests
That admission came in a new paper by prominent warmists in the peer-reviewed journal Climate Dynamics. They not only conceded that average global surface temperatures stopped warming a full 15 years ago, but that this “pause” could extend into the 2030s.
Personal security and freedom
Study: Holiday Season Brings Out the Worst in Drivers
An online survey finds 64 percent of drivers experienced aggressive driving six times or more in the past three months. Forty-four percent own up to aggressive behavior themselves.
Arctic Invasion: Brutal Weather System Threatens Most of U.S. with Snow and Ice
Ice threatens to knock out power in Dallas; Denver could get almost a foot of snow; and Chicago could plunge from the mid-50s on Wednesday to the low teens by Friday night.
“Knockout Game” Hits Yale, New Haven
In response to the police department’s warning, a Yale spokesperson downplayed the attacks, claiming the email was meant to be precautionary. And New Haven Police cannot say for certain whether the wave of recent attacks is related to the “knockout game.”
Dozens Protest ‘Slave Wages’ for Fast-Food Workers in Metro Detroit
The protest was just one of many taking place nationwide to raise pay in low-wage sectors to $15 an hour. As it stands, fast-food workers say they can’t live on what they’re paid.
D.C. Police Officer Under Investigation for Sex Trafficking
The incident comes just four days after the arrest of another D.C. police officer who was accused of taking nude pictures of a runaway teenager after she returned home. Police are investigating whether the two cases are related.
Immigration
Hispanics Abandoning the President in Droves?
Obamacare aside, perhaps one reason why the president’s approval ratings are plummeting is because Americans’ distrust of the president is growing.
Obama’s Reversal:Â Now Says He Lived With His Uncle
President Obama acknowledged Thursday that he lived with his Kenyan uncle, contradicting an earlier statement that the White House had no record of the two ever meeting. Onyango Obama is the second relative of the president’s father to face deportation to Kenya since he took office.
House Democrats Urge Obama to Suspend Deportations
The lawmakers were led by Reps. Luis Gutierrez and Raul M. Grijalva and argued relief should be expanded to many immigrants who would be eligible for a path to citizenship in the Senate-passed immigration bill that Obama supports.
Young Immigration Activists Leave Cantor’s Office After Arrest Warning
“We want reform, we want it now. We are titanium. Keep our families together. We want reform right now,” the group of mostly young children and teenagers sang in his personal office.
Ros-Lehtinen: Immigration Is a ‘Woman Issue’
“Immigration is really a woman issue,” Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said at Wednesday’s Women Rule Summit in Washington, D.C. “It’s a family-centered issue, and I think we need to focus it more that way and look at how it impacts domestic violence.”
Best wishes,
The Money and Markets Team
