Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Fed stands pat: “The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that it will take no new steps to boost economic growth this year, citing mounting evidence that the American economy is chugging slowly toward good health.” It added, however, that a European meltdown “could undermine the nascent American recovery.”
* The latest Washington showdown: “The White House has formally threatened to veto a GOP-authored bill that would link the extension of a payroll tax cut that President Obama has sought to other Republican priorities. The House is scheduled to vote later Tuesday on the measure.”
* Pakistan: “A senior Pakistani official told NBC News the United States’ decision to cut aid to Pakistan would only contribute to the growing sense of anti-Americanism within the population.”
* Higgs boson: “Two teams of scientists sifting debris from high-energy proton collisions in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research outside Geneva, said today that they had recorded tantalizing hints — but only hints — of a long-sought subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson, whose existence is a key to explaining why there is mass in the universe.”
* I’m not sure this is a good idea: “Heady with their successful attempts to block trucks and curb business at busy ports up and down the West Coast, some Occupy Wall Street protesters plan to continue their blockades and keep staging similar protests.”
* Murdoch media scandal: “An e-mail chain released Tuesday by a parliamentary panel investigating the phone hacking scandal shows that Rupert Murdoch’s son James received and responded to messages in 2008 that referred to widespread phone hacking at The News of the World tabloid, the first documentation that he may have been notified of the wider problem long before he has admitted.”
* Canada’s Conservative Party government abandons the Kyoto Protocol.
* I sure am glad President Obama rescued the American auto industry.
* Should be an interesting case: “Wisconsin’s voter ID law imposes the equivalent of a poll tax on individuals with out-of-state drivers licenses and discriminates against the poor, students and the elderly, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday.”
* It’s a good thing Jon Corzine can afford good lawyers.
* So long, dollar coins.
* Daniel Luzer: “For-profit colleges apparently lobbied hard to undermine the rules recently enacted by the federal government to police for-profit colleges…. And apparently it worked.”
* And we can add Sean Hannity to the list of Republicans complaining that the Obamas are celebrating Christmas at the White House too much.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
