Subject: Daily News Clips 2/25/14
From: "Sam Losow" <[email-masked]>
To: "undisclosed-recipients:"
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2014 10:24:15 -0500

*National News:*

*Gov. Brewer urged to veto Arizona anti-gay bill*
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) is under mounting pressure, some of it from
within her own party, to veto a bill that would give businesses the right
to deny service to gay and lesbian
customers<http://theweek.com/article/index/256810/how-should-public-schools-teach-the-gay-marriage-movement>,
as long as they say they're doing it because of their religious beliefs.
Brewer promised to "do the right thing," and said she would announce her
decision later this week.
[CNN<http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/24/politics/arizona-brewer-anti-gay-bill/?hpt=po_c1>
]
..........................................................................................

*Bipartisan governors' meeting ends with partisan yelling*
An annual meeting of the nation's governors with President Obama -- intended
to foster bipartisanship -- ended with a sharp clash between
Louisiana<http://theweek.com/bullpen/column/245871/why-bobby-jindal-has-to-play-dumb>
Gov.
Bobby Jindal, a Republican, and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat,
over Obama's push to hike the minimum wage. Jindal said Obama was building
"a minimum-wage economy." Malloy called the remark "the most insane
statement I've ever heard." [*The Wall Street
Journal*<http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-464281/>
]
..........................................................................................

*Samsung introduces its latest Galaxy smartphone*
Samsung on Monday unveiled its Galaxy S5 smartphone, the South Korean tech
firm's latest rival for Apple's
iPhone<http://theweek.com/article/index/255026/is-2014-the-year-apple-becomes-a-luxury-brand>.
The S5 lacks the dazzling new features some fans hoped for. It has a bigger
screen, an improved, 16-megapixel camera (up from 13 megapixels), and
matches the iPhone's fingerprint reader. The water-resistant S5 goes on
sale April 11. [*Bloomberg
News*<http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Galaxy-S5-matches-iPhone-with-a-fingerprint-reader-5263636.php>
]
..........................................................................................

*Ukrainian leader says the country needs a foreign bailout*
The new speaker of Ukraine's parliament, Oleksandr Turchynov, said Tuesday
that a new government would be established Thursday, two days later than
expected. He also said the country needs a huge international economic
bailout as politicians rebuild an administration left in ruins after former
president Viktor Yanukovych fled.
Russia<http://theweek.com/article/index/256822/will-putin-let-ukraine-go>
suspended
$15 billion in loans and cheap gas after Yanukovych fell. [*The New York
Times* <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/world/europe/ukraine.html>]
..........................................................................................

*Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox goes offline after theft*
The website of Mt. Gox, a major bitcoin exchange, went offline Tuesday
following reports of the theft of $350 million worth of the virtual
currency. The site's disappearance came two days after Mt. Gox CEO Mark
Karpeles resigned from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, a group touting
thevirtual currency<http://theweek.com/article/index/242564/whats-a-bitcoin-watch-this-video-explanation>.
Mt. Gox's crisis threatened to deal a devastating blow to bitcoin's
legitimacy<http://theweek.com/article/index/253004/the-us-government-is-surprisingly-cool-with-bitcoin>.
[*The Associated
Press*<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/website-of-bitcoin-exchange-mt-gox-offline/2014/02/25/5df10d2e-9de8-11e3-878c-65222df220eb_story.html?hpid=z4>
]
..........................................................................................
Holder Sees Way Around Gay Marriage
Bans<http://politicalwire.com/archives/2014/02/25/holder_sees_way_around_gay_marriage_bans.html>

Attorney General Eric Holder "injected the Obama administration into the
emotional and politicized debate over the future of state same-sex marriage
bans, declaring in an interview that state attorneys general are not
obligated to defend laws that they believe are discriminatory," the New
York Times reports.

"It is highly unusual for the United States attorney general to advise his
state counterparts on how and when to refuse to defend state laws. But Mr.
Holder said when laws touch on core constitutional issues like equal
protection, an attorney general should apply the highest level of scrutiny
before reaching a decision on whether to defend it. He said the decision
should never be political or based on policy objections."
..........................................................................................
*2016 Presidential News:*

*Jeb Bush says his name would be a 2016 "issue"*
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said on Monday that being part of the Bush
political dynasty might hurt him if he runs for the 2016 Republican
presidential nomination. "It's an issue for sure," he said. Jeb Bush, the
brother and son of former presidents, isn't the only one with doubts. His
mother, Barbara, said not long ago that there had been enough "Kennedys,
Clintons, Bushes"<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/barbara-bush-family-presidents-102286.html>
in
the White House.
[CNN<http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/02/24/jeb-on-bush-family-name-its-an-issue/>
, *Politico*<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/jeb-bush-name-2016-elections-103867.html>
]
..........................................................................................

*Biden News:*

Biden jokes about 2016 with
Meyers<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/joe-biden-seth-meyers-show-2016-election-103905.html?hp=l12>Someone
announced their 2016 run for president during Seth Meyer's debut show
Monday night, and it wasn't guest Vice President Joe Biden.

"I'm going to run for president," former "Saturday Night Live" cast member
Amy Poehler revealed on NBC's "Late Night" Monday.

Biden joked that he was less ready to share his plans.

"I was planning on making a major announcement tonight, but I decided
tonight's your night," Biden said. "So I hope you'll invite me back."

But Biden did explain the story behind a moment during this year's State of
the Union address when cameras caught him pointing and smiling at someone
on the House floor.

On the walk over to the House from the Senate, "A senior senator said,
"Well look Joe, I know you and Barack are friends but don't stand up on
every damn thing he says,'" the Vice President recounted. "Then I counted
17 times this particular senator stood up in front of the president. So I
went like this to point to him. Talk about a suck up."

"I mean this guy was out there, you know, telling me, 'Don't stand up.'
Boom, first guy up."

..........................................................................................

Biden to keynote March HRC
dinner<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/joe-biden-human-rights-campaign-dinner-103874.html?hp=r14>
Vice President Joe Biden will keynote the Human Rights Campaign's dinner in
Los Angeles next month, the pro-LGBT organization announced Monday.

Biden, who will be joined by his wife, Jill, will speak at the gala March
22.

The White House has been active in recent years promoting gay rights,
including President Barack Obama coming out in favor of gay marriage --
something he was prompted to do by Biden doing so first."Vice President
Biden has been a champion of civil rights for his entire career, from his
leadership on the Violence Against Women Act to his strong support for
marriage equality," HRC President Chad Griffin said in a statement. "As
senator and vice president, his work to advance LGBT equality is just one
chapter in a remarkable lifetime of service."

Tickets to the benefit cost from $125 to $400 and there will also be
auctions throughout the night to raise money for the organization.

..........................................................................................

*Biden at center of US diplomacy with Ukraine*
WASHINGTON -- Two days before he fled Ukraine's capital, President Viktor
Yanukovych huddled on the phone for more than an hour with Vice President
Joe Biden, his primary conduit with the U.S. government throughout the
political crisis consuming the former Soviet republic.

The window for a resolution to the crisis was closing quickly -- and may
already have closed, Biden warned Yanukovych, according to a senior
administration official familiar with the conversation. Yanukovych was
initially defiant, the official said, and accused the protesters in the
streets of Kiev of being terrorists. Though Yanukovych became less
resistant to Biden's appeals as the call continued, the vice president hung
up the phone uncertain of the embattled leader's next move.

What followed was a rapid series of developments that left Yanukovych's
fate -- and the broader political situation in Ukraine -- highly uncertain.
On Friday, Yanukovych agreed to form a new government and hold an early
election. Ukraine's parliament slashed the president's powers and voted to
free his rival, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, from prison. And on
Saturday, Yanukovych fled Kiev, reportedly holing up in Crimea, a
pro-Russian area of Ukraine.

The tenuous political agreement was orchestrated by European diplomats,
with the U.S. and Russia playing supporting roles.

Biden, who had built a working relationship with Yanukovych since becoming
vice president, was at the forefront of the delicate diplomatic maneuvering
for the Obama administration. He spoke to Yanukovych on the phone nine
times during the three-month political crisis, an unusual level of contact
that underscored the heightened U.S. concern about stability in Ukraine, a
strategically located nation that shares a border with Russia.

The vice president also met throughout the crisis with Ukrainian religious
leaders and Ukrainian-American groups, according to the administration
official, who was not authorized to discuss the vice president's
involvement by name and insisted on anonymity.

Biden's prominent role in the diplomatic wrangling comes at a time when his
foreign policy credentials have been called into question by former Defense
Secretary Robert Gates, who wrote in a recent memoir that the vice
president has been "wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national
security issue over the past four decades." Gates' criticism, coming as
Biden contemplates a presidential run in 2016, was a sharp blow to the vice
president, for years the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
when he represented Delaware in the Senate.

Biden and Yanukovych first met in 2009 when the newly sworn-in American
vice president traveled to Ukraine. Yanukovych was an opposition political
leader with an eye on the presidency. Ukraine's conflicted loyalties
between Europe and Russia, which are at the center of the current crisis,
were already bubbling to the surface during that visit.

"We do not recognize -- and I want to reiterate it -- any sphere of
influence," Biden said during his 2009 visit to Kiev. "We do not recognize
anyone else's right to dictate to you or any other country what alliances
you will seek to belong to or what bilateral relationships you have."

Ukraine was moving to deepen its ties to Europe when Yanukovych announced
this past November that he was abandoning an agreement with the European
Union and instead was seeking closer cooperation with Moscow. Protesters
took to the streets, seizing control of Kiev City Hall and coming under
brutal attack by police. Dozens of people were killed in clashes last week.

As the protests grew, Biden warned Yanukovych that he had seen similar
situations play out before around the world. The vice president, speaking
to Yanukovych through a translator from his office in the West Wing, used
an American expression to make his point, telling the Ukrainian that
leaders are often "a day late and a dollar short" with their attempts to
appease political protesters.

Yanukovych often seemed torn between the choices before him and rarely gave
Biden a clear signal of his next move, the official said. Biden and
Yanukovych have not spoken since the Ukrainian leader fled Kiev over the
weekend.

Yanukovych's hasty retreat from the capital has left the Ukrainian
parliament speaker nominally in charge of the country, though Russian
officials say they question the legitimacy of the acting government,
raising concerns about the fragile state of the current agreement.

*Opinion:*

Genetically Modified
Babies<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/opinion/genetically-modified-babies.html?ref=opinion>
BERKELEY, Calif. -- AN advisory committee of theFood and Drug Administration
is set to begin two days of meetings tomorrow to consider radical
biological procedures that, if successful, would produce genetically
modified human beings. This is a dangerous step. These techniques would
change every cell in the bodies of children born as a result of their use,
and these alterations would be passed down to future generations.

The F.D.A. calls them mitochondrial manipulation technologies. The
procedures involve removing the nuclear material either from the egg or
embryo of a woman with inheritable mitochondrial disease and inserting it
into a healthy egg or embryo of a donor whose own nuclear material has been
discarded. Any offspring would carry genetic material from three people --
the nuclear DNA of the mother and father, and the mitochondrial DNA of the
donor.

Roughly 1,000 to 4,000 children born in the United States each year will
develop a mitochondrial disease, most by age 10, with symptoms that can
range from mild to devastating. These diseases typically prevent
mitochondria from converting food into energy and are the result of genetic
abnormalities, although some cases can be caused by exposures to toxins.
Disorders caused by mutations in the mitochondrial DNA are passed down from
the mother.

-- 
Sam Losow
*Finance Assistant*
Beau Biden, DE Attorney General
Office: (302) 295-8340
Cell: (202) 821-3399
[email-masked] <[email-masked]