Legalizing Discrimination In Kansas

There's no other way to put this, other than Kansas Republican bigots are trying to enshrine the right to discriminate against LGBTQ, taxpaying Kansans using the excuse that "it's offending my religious freedoms."

Denying services to same-sex couples may soon become legal in Kansas.

House Bill 2453 explicitly protects religious individuals, groups and businesses that refuse services to same-sex couples, particularly those looking to tie the knot.

It passed the state's Republican-dominated House on Wednesdaywith a vote of 72-49, and has gone to the Senate for a vote.

Such a law may seem unnecessary in a state where same-sex marriage is banned, but some Kansas lawmakers think different.

They want to prevent religious individuals and organizations from getting sued, or otherwise punished, for not providing goods or services to gay couples -- or for not recognizing their marriages or committed relationship as valid.

This includes employees of the state.

Here's a hint, guys.  If your religion tells you that you have the right to treat your fellow humans as second-class citizens, you're missing the point of faith entirely.

On the other hand, these guys are clearly willing to see this go through the federal court system for 4-5 years because they figure by the time this gets to SCOTUS, a Republican president in 2018 will have replaced Ginsburg with another Alito, and they'll win. And even if that doesn't happen, all it takes is Anthony Kennedy deciding that religious freedom is more important than who you love.

That will motivate many, many such state bills enshrining bigotry into law and saying "We're ending discrimination by protecting the religious beliefs of Christians."

It's a pretty good bet, and you'll see more and more Republicans taking these odds. makes it more likely there will be a sweeping 5-4 SCOTUS ruling in their favor because they'll just have to act "for the good of the nation".

Love And Marriage

How appropriate that on Valentine's Day, I get to write about love.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Gov. Jay Nixon said Thursday that he supports ending Missouri’s same-sex marriage ban and thinks voters should have a chance to repeal an amendment to the state constitution that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

In 2004, Missouri became the first state to enact a constitutional prohibition on gay weddings after the Massachusetts high court permitted gay marriage there. The measure was approved by 70 percent of the state’s voters.

This was a stupid and unnecessary thing, and it's time to fix it.  It was an overreaction.  The reality is, the state has no place in the personal lives of its citizens.  Citizens have no place in the personal lives of other citizens.  This was a gross overstep of government, and it's time to allow adults to enter a legal union with whomever they choose.  Our government's job is to serve the citizens, not pass moral judgments about which people deserve the service.  Period.

Jay Nixon and I don't always see eye to eye, but on this issue we agree.  This may come right after the ACLU applies some pressure, but Nixon has been clear about his views and has gone on record.  At times his delivery was a little lackluster, but he eventually got around to the right side of things.  Scoring major points from me, he admits he has revisited the issue and has adapted to fit what he knew was right.  His actions mirror his words.  The man is telling the truth.  It's important to take victories however they may come, and this is a major one.  This entire business was a cheap shot when it went in, and there is no legal justification for it whatsoever.  Jay Nixon surely sees a great chance to score points in the face of inevitable change, but I also give credit that he has actually done something while plenty of others stand by and remain silent.  He is upgraded from a C to a B in my book, and when it comes to Missouri and LGBT issues that's as good as it gets.

Someday, same sex marriage will be legal everywhere.  In the end our grandchildren will likely never know that it was probably because of the IRS that same sex marriage got the push it needed to become recognized in all states.  I find that hilarious.  It is by no means the only factor but it deserves an honorable mention in the collapse of stupidity.

Jay Nixon thinks the voters deserve another crack at doing the right thing.  I hope it works, and despite the fact that it won't matter in the long run I hope my home state can get on the right side of history.  This change is inevitable, and oh so rightfully it will come.  People can do the right thing here and usher in the change or they can make it as painful as possible.  Here's hoping for the former and bracing for the latter.

StupidiNews!

• A federal judge has declared Virginia's 2006 ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, although a stay has been issued pending appeal.
• A Tennessee man has been charged with sending an explosive package to his in-laws house, which detonated and killed both of his wife's parents.
• The World Bank plans to boost lending to developing countries by $100 billion over the next ten years to finance infrastructure and fight poverty.
• Asia's biggest casino gaming company is eying its first casino resort in Macau, modeled on the famed French Palace of Versailles.
• Silk Road's latest web incarnation has once again been hacked as thieves made off with $2.6 million plus in Bitcoins.

Last Call For The Battle Of New Orleans

Former New Orleans Democratic Mayor Ray Nagin has been convicted on 20 of 21 corruption and bribery counts stemming from taking money during the Katrina rebuilding effort, and most likely he's going to be spending a very, very long time in prison.

Prosecutors argued the 57-year-old Nagin was at the center of a kickback scheme in which he received checks, cash, wire transfers, personal services and free travel from businessmen seeking contracts and favorable treatment from the city. He faces up to 20 years in prison, but Fanning said a 14- to 17-year term was more likely.

A January 2013 indictment detailed more than $200,000 in bribes to the mayor, and his family members allegedly received a vacation in Hawaii; first-class airfare to Jamaica; private jet travel and a limousine for New York City; and cellular phone service. In exchange, businesses that coughed up for Nagin and his family won more than $5 million in city contracts, according to the January 2013 indictment.

During the two-week trial, prosecutors brought to the stand a string of businessmen who had already pleaded guilty to bribing Nagin. His defense did little to challenge their stories, Fanning said.

"It was too painful actually to watch. They just swamped him," he said. And when Nagin took the stand in his own defense, "He did a belly flop," often answering questions on cross-examination by saying he couldn't recall who paid for a trip or perk.

"He just looked terrible," Fanning said.

Some of the charges however were from before Katrina, meaning that Nagin probably would have ended up crooked Katrina or not.

It's sad to see Nagin go down like this, but the guy is clearly a crook as was for years.  New Orleans deserved better.

More Chattanooga Hardball

Looks like Republican interference and threats in the Volkswagen plant unionization vote in Tennessee this week has now reached massive, perhaps illegal levels.

U.S. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said on Wednesday he has been “assured” that if workers at the Volkswagen AG plant in his hometown of Chattanooga reject United Auto Worker representation, the company will reward the plant with a new product to build.

Corker’s bombshell, which runs counter to public statements by Volkswagen, was dropped on the first of a three-day secret ballot election of blue-collar workers at the Chattanooga plant whether to allow the UAW to represent them.

Corker has long been an opponent of the union which he says hurts economic and job growth in Tennessee, a charge that UAW officials say is untrue.

“I’ve had conversations today and based on those am assured that should the workers vote against the UAW, Volkswagen will announce in the coming weeks that it will manufacture its new mid-size SUV here in Chattanooga,” said Corker, without saying with whom he had the conversations.

Volkswagen has said mulitple times that the unionization vote wouldn't affect future product assembly line choices, but Corker is basically saying that Volkswagen is not only lying to workers, but saying that the company will be the one punishing the choice to unionize, not the Tennessee GOP.

Needless to say, Corker's allegations are borderline illegal.

National Labor Relations Board expert Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, who is professor of labor at the University of Indiana-Bloomington, said Corker was trying to intimidate workers into voting against the union.

“I’m really kind of shocked at Corker’s statement,” said Dau-Schmidt. “It’s so inconsistent with what VW has been saying and VW’s labor relations policy in general.”

The Indiana professor also said Corker’s comments “would be grounds to set the election aside and have to run it all over again at a later date” because it could be ruled to be interfering to the point that it is against federal labor law.

Which is the point.  There will be no end to intimidation and bullying by the GOP against workers who try to exercise collective bargaining rights.  This is a party that wants to eliminate overtime pay, eliminate minimum wage guarantees, eliminate sick days and paid leave, and eliminate labor safety laws.

Of course they are going to go after workers like this.

Enforcing Conformi-TV

This?  This is going to suck for people.

Comcast will announce a deal to acquire Time Warner Cable in an all-stock deal worth more than $45 billion that will unite the biggest and second largest cable television operators in the country, according to people briefed on the matter. 

The surprise merger — expected to be announced on Thursday — is likely to bring to an end a protracted takeover battle that a smaller cable rival, Charter Communications, has been waging for Time Warner Cable, and will be the second major deal for Comcast in recent years to radically reshape the American media landscape. 

Time Warner Cable shareholders will receive 2.875 shares of newly issued Comcast common stock for each of their shares. Based on Comcast’s closing price of $55.24 on Wednesday, that values each Time Warner Cable share at about $158.82 each. 

The combination of the two is certain to attract antitrust scrutiny by regulators.

Gosh, you think?  Comcast is the country's biggest cable company with about 24 million subscribers, Time Warner is number 2 with 13 million or so.  This deal would give them close to half the total market and make them dwarf everyone else (#3 is Verizon FiOS with about 5 million).  They would have no competitors.

I'm really hoping the FCC will destroy this deal.  If they don't, they'll be able to effectively control the net as well as cable.

And yes, I'm one of the people affected by this deal.  It's awful.  What if Comcast/TWC decides "Hey, you have Netflix?  Well, we own Hulu Plus, so if you want to use Netflix, we're going to charge you an extra $10 a month.  You don't like it?  Too bad."  With net neutrality dead and now this deal, it's going to be a reaming for customers.

When you're getting what, $150, $200 a month from people and there's zero competition, why should you do anything other than drastically jack up rates?

Also, how many jobs will this cost?  How many customer service and field techs are going to be laid off?

But the biggest problem is the hideous customer service records for both companies, or as the New Yorker's Nick Thompson reminds us:

Breaking: the 4th most disliked company in America just bought the 6th most disliked. http://t.co/ABzO4MkY8T
— Nicholas Thompson (@nxthompson) February 13, 2014

Naah, this needs to burn.

StupidiNews!

• As expected, the Senate has passed a debt limit "suspension" that will increase the government's borrowing capacity to roughly $17.2 trillion.
• Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Lab have made a big step towards fusion power by coming up with a process that produces more energy than it takes to make the fuel for.
• A bomb targeting a bus full of Pakistani police officers has killed 11 and injured more than 30 in Karachi.
• Secretary of State John Kerry arrives in South Korea today for an Asian diplomatic tour to calm the waters between South Korea, China, and Japan.
• OSHA has sent letters to mobile carriers asking them to review safety procedures for cell tower workers after noting four falling deaths have already occurred in 2014.

Last Call For Equality, Even In Kentucky

The string of federal judges who have declared the Supreme Court's ruling on DOMA to mean that states must recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states as legal grew by one yesterday...and that state was, of all places, right here in Kentucky.

In Wednesday’s ruling, U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II was not asked to decide whether Kentucky itself must issue marriage licenses to gay couples. But he said “there is no doubt that Windsor and this court’s analysis suggest a possible result to that question.” 

Heyburn was asked by four same-sex couples — married in either Canada or U.S. states that allow such unions — to make Kentucky recognize their marriages. 

“It is clear that Kentucky’s laws treat gay and lesbian persons differently in a way that demeans them,” Heyburn wrote. 

Striking them down, he said, will “make real the promise of equal protection under the law. It will profoundly affect validly married same-sex couples’ experience of living in the commonwealth and elevate their marriage to an equal status in the eyes of state law.”

Since Judge Heyburn was appointed by Poppy Bush on the recommendation of a Senator at the time by the name of Mitch McConnell, Turtle Boy's primary opponent, Matt Bevin, is blaming him for this JUDICIAL OVERREACH WITH LOTS OF EXCLAMATION POINTS.

“It is no surprise that Judge Heyburn was Mitch McConnell's general counsel, and McConnell recommended him for the federal bench. Kentucky deserves better,” Bevin said in a statement. 

The Madison Project, a conservative group backing Bevin also sent out a press release headlined, “A McConnell crony forces gay marriage on Kentucky.”

McConnell trashed the ruling too.

On Wednesday, McConnell said in a statement that the courts should not stepped in and the 2004 state constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage should stand. 

“I am a traditionalist and support that position, but regardless of one’s personal view on the issue, we should be able to agree that only the people of Kentucky, through the legislative process, should have the authority to change the law, not the courts,” McConnell said in a statement.

Alison Grimes's camp released a very...careful...statement.

Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes issued an oblique statement appearing to support gay marriage but saying the courts shouldn’t have stepped in. 

“Alison has been married for seven years and has stated publicly that she wouldn’t want to deny other couples the opportunity to make that same commitment,” spokeswoman Charly Norton said in statement. “She’s also made clear that while the Supreme Court has ruled that state sovereignty applies, churches should not be forced to recognize anything inconsistent with their teachings,” 

When asked to clarify, Norton said, the statement “means that that’s where she personally stands, but that state sovereignty should be respected.”

Take that as you will.  It's Kentucky, folks.  Grimes can't exactly come out and say "Hooray for same-sex marriage!" even if she is a Democrat in this state.  Well, she could, but she won't.

Chattanooga Hardball

Next time you hear someone complain about how Obama "targets his political enemies" point them to this example of Republicans openly threatening to pass legislation to hurt those who don't agree with them politically by punishing hundreds of working Americans in Tennessee.

The crusade by anti-union forces in Tennessee, including the state’s governor and senior senator, is as much a fight with Volkswagen management as with the UAW. 

Not only are Republican legislators accusing Volkswagen of backing the UAW, some of their leaders on Monday threatened to withhold tax incentives for future expansion of the three-year-old assembly plant in Chattanooga if workers vote this week to join the UAW. 

About 1,500 workers will vote from Wednesday through Friday in an election that the National Labor Relations Board will conduct. 

The company plans to expand in Chattanooga or at a Mexican plant to produce a midsize SUV. Overall, Volkswagen intends to invest about $7 billion in North America over the next five years to achieve a goal of selling more than 1 million Volkswagen and Audi vehicles in the U.S. by 2018. 

“It has been widely reported that Volkswagen has promoted a campaign that has been unfair, unbalanced and, quite frankly, un-American in the traditions of American labor campaigns,” State Sen. Bo Watson, R-Chattanooga, said in a statement sent to the Free Press. “Should the workers choose to be represented by the United Auto Workers, then I believe additional incentives for expansion will have a very tough time passing the Tennessee Senate.”

This is an open, bald threat made by bullying Republicans.  They are apparently threatening to hurt Volkswagen to the point of making them take the 1500 Tennessee jobs and move them to Mexico rather than have them vote to be represented by the UAW as auto workers.

This is what Republicans do with power.  Just like Chris Christie, just like Scott Walker, just like this.  They punish those who they don't agree with every chance they get.  Because if they vote to be represented by a union, which is something Volkswagen is okay with, being a German company that has trade unions and recognizes their benefits, then the workers at the Chattanooga plant must be destroyed, their jobs destroyed, their livelihood destroyed.

They are the party of fear and hatred, period.  Republicans destroy.

Cruz-in' For A Bruisin'

That clean debt celing hike the House passed isn't signed into law yet, folks.  It still has to get past the Senate, and GOP Sen. Ted "Government Shutdown" Cruz of Texas says he'll filibuster and force Sen. Harry Reid and the Democrats to come up with 60 votes.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) will push a 60-vote threshold, meaning he's threatening to filibuster, on a clean debt ceiling increase extension.

Cruz's office confirmed the Texas senator's plans to TPM on Tuesday afternoon.

Cruz's move means lawmakers will need to rally 60 votes in the chamber to pass the bill, and Democrats only control 55 votes.

The announcement came the same day that House Republicans dropped a previous debt ceiling increase proposal and embraced a clean hike instead.

Oh, what's your big plan, Ted?

“Historically, the debt ceiling has proven the most effective leverage for reining in spending; 28 times, Congress has attached meaningful conditions to debt ceiling increases. We should do so again to address the real problem. I intend to object to any effort to raise the debt ceiling on a 50-vote threshold. I will insist instead on a 60-vote threshold, and if Republicans stand together we can demand meaningful spending restraint to help pull our Nation back from the fiscal and economic cliff.”

Sure, just like they stood together on the government shutdown.   Somehow I'm betting Harry Reid will get at least 5 Republicans, and this will pass.

Of course, if it doesn't, Ted Cruz and the GOP will get the blame.

A recent CNN/ORC International poll found that 54% of respondents would blame congressional Republicans for a failure to raise the debt ceiling, while 29% would blame Obama and 12% would blame both.

A majority would blame the GOP solely, and two-thirds would assign at least some blame to the Republicans.  Sure, Ted.  This seems like another winning strategy.  But please, take Obamacare off the front pages and replace them with shutdown talk.  The Dems will thank you for it. 

StupidiNews!

• A series of avalanches in the western US this week have killed six across Utah, Colorado, and Oregon.
• Washington State police say a man caught on a grocery store security tape trying to fondle an 11-year old girl is also a wanted fugitive who bombed several abortion clinics decades ago.
• Virtual currency Bitcoin is under attack from hackers who are disrupting transactions and exchange operations with "mutating" code.
• Two Hong Kong trading firms have agreed to $11 million in SEC fines for improperly trading news of a Chinese venture capital group buying a Canadian energy company.
• The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for reports of people using high-intensity laser pointers at commercial aircraft as incidents have increased tenfold since 2005.

Last Call For The War Of The Oranges

And John Boehner and the House GOP lose yet another debt ceiling battle, this time with a complete victory for the White House.

The House passed a yearlong suspension of the Treasury’s debt limit Tuesday in a vote that left Republicans once again ceding control to Democrats, following a collapse in support for an earlier proposal advanced by GOP leaders.

In a narrow vote, 221-201, 28 Republicans voted with 193 Democrats to approve a “clean” extension of the federal government’s borrowing authority — one without strings attached — sending the legislation to the Senate for a posssible final vote later this week. Two Democrats and 199 Republicans voted no.

The vote came two weeks before the Feb. 27 debt-limit deadline set by Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, and once again underscored the House leadership’s inability to corral Republicans behind a debt-ceiling plan. “The natural reluctance is obvious,” said Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), the chief deputy whip. 

The Tea Party is not happy about this, you know, complete and utter defeat thing.

Conservative advocacy groups reacted negatively to Boehner’s plan to bring the clean bill to a vote, with spokesmen for Heritage Action for America and the Club for Growth urging members to vote “no” and including the vote on their scorecards, which serve as guides for their supporters. “When we heard that House leadership was scheduling a clean debt-ceiling increase, we thought it was a joke,” said Barney Keller, a Club for Growth adviser. “But it’s not. Something is very wrong with House leadership, or with the Republican Party.”

The Senate Conservatives Fund, an outspoken tea-party group, blasted Boehner for his eleventh-hour decision in an e-mail, saying “Boehner must be replaced.” They also launched a petition seeking to encourage at least 15 House Republicans to refuse to support Boehner for speaker -- a move that would deprive him of a majority of the House.

Robert Costa, now at the Washington Post, recounts Boehner telling the Tea Party to go to hell:

The scene happened Tuesday morning at the Capitol Hill Club, where House Republicans had gathered for a private breakfast.

After listening to a handful of colleagues flatly discuss fundraising strategy for 30 minutes, Boehner stood up, walked past dozens of sleepy, coffee-sipping Republicans and tersely woke up the room with an update.

“Listen – we’re going to move forward,” Boehner said. Instead of bringing up the leadership’s plan, which would link a restoration of recently cut military benefits to a debt-ceiling extension, he would push a “clean” bill, averting default more than two weeks before the Treasury Department’s debt-limit deadline.

“We’re going to get this done,” Boehner continued, according to several people present for his remarks. No strings attached, he added. He said he was going stop reaching for votes on the plan, an effort that had stalled on Monday. And he wasn’t going to even think of floating another proposal. He was going to do what he thought was best for the GOP, in spite of the widespread angst.

So now we're at the point where the Tea Party either must replace Boehner, or admit they have no power.  Make your move, boys.  I'll bring the popcorn.

The GOP internal civil war is now truly on.

My Frenemy Claire

Missouri Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill isn't beating around the bush when asked if she would be seen with President Obama this year if she had to run in this election cycle:  her answer is of course, "Probably not."

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said Tuesday that she wouldn't roll out the welcome mat for President Obama if she were seeking re-election in Missouri this year.

McCaskill was asked during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" if she would campaign alongside Obama if she were running in red states like Louisiana, North Carolina or Arkansas.

"Probably not," McCaskill said. "I mean, I try to be really candid and honest on this show. The President's numbers are not strong in my state or in Arkansas or Louisiana or North Carolina. He did not win those states when he ran for re-election in 2012."

But McCaskill said the Democratic incumbents running for re-election in the aforementioned states — Mark Pryor (AR), Mary Landrieu (LA) and Kay Hagan (NC) — can still win, and she dismissed the notion that avoiding Obama on the campaign trail matters to voters.

"I think this issue of whether or not you have Obama come to your state is something we like to focus on in Washington, but probably is not that important when you get out to these states," McCaskill said.

Yeah, right. Somebody tell Alison Lundergan Grimes that.  Barack who?

Barriers Have To Be Broken For A Reason

Ta-Nehisi Coates argues that NFL draft hopeful and SEC Defensive Player of the Year Michael Sam of Missouri, who announced this week that he is gay, is going to have to force change upon the NFL and its culture because otherwise, they will never be "ready" for an openly gay player.

In that sense he will be challenging  a deep and discrepant mythology of who is capable of inflicting violence and who isn't. Last week, Jonathan Vilma speculated about how he might feel if a gay teammate saw him naked:

Imagine if he's the guy next to me and, you know, I get dressed, naked, taking a shower, the whole nine, and it just so happens he looks at me. How am I supposed to respond?

What undergirds this logic is a fear of being made into a woman, which is to say a fear of being regarded sexually by someone who is as strong as, or stronger than, you. Implicit to the fear is the gay player's ability to do violence. It exists right alongside a belief that the gay player is a "sissy." ("Grown men should not have female tendencies. Period," Vilma once tweeted.) The logic is kin to the old Confederate belief that Southern slaves were so loyal and cowardly yet they must never be given guns.

The mythology Jonathan Vilma endorses will not fade through vague endorsements of "tolerance," lectures on "acceptance," nor any other species of heartfelt magic. The question which we so often have been offered—is the NFL ready for a gay player?—is backwards. Powerful interests are rarely "ready" for change, so much as they are assaulted by it. We refer to barriers being "broken" for a reason. The reason is not because great powers generally like to unbar the gates and hold a picnic in the honor of the previously excluded. The NFL has no moral right to be "ready" for a gay player, which is to say it has no right to discriminate against gay men at its leisure which anyone is bound to respect.

So yes, it's as much about race as it is his sexual orientation, and this battle is going to be pretty ugly.  But Nancy Goldstein makes the argument that the biggest problem for Sam won't be players like Jonathan Vilma, but the NFL front offices and teams.

If public response thus far is any indication, Sam’s problem won’t be the other players in the NFL. It’s going to be, as former Minnesota Viking Chris Kluwe tweeted, the folks in the front office. While congratulations from Sam’s teammates, other athletes, and well-wishers flooded Twitter (his account drew 18,000 new followers less than an hour after the news broke), the eight NFL executives and coaches who spoke with Sports Illustrated on condition of anonymity were decidedly less optimistic.

"I don't think football is ready for [an openly gay player] just yet," said an NFL player personnel assistant, adding, “It'd chemically imbalance an NFL locker room and meeting room.” An NFL assistant coach called Sam's decision "not a smart move,” saying that it "legitimately affects [his] potential earnings." A former general manager alleged that his concerns were rooted in avoiding a possible media circus that might distract attention from the game: “Every Tom, Dick and Harry in the media is going to show up, from Good Housekeeping to the Today show. A general manager is going to ask, 'Why are we going to do that to ourselves?'" Every single one of them agreed that Sam’s announcement would cause him to drop in this May’s draft, and today’s news that Sam fell 70 points on CBS’s draft prospect board overnight indicate an early negative response to his announcement. 

Collectively, this is a sad prophecy. But if it comes true, it’ll be a self-fulfilling one set in motion by the homophobia of the NFL’s front office.

What this says to me is that very few people in the NFL want to be the person fired by the owner when Michael Sam "ruins" their team's season.  Anything less than a Super Bowl victory is going to be blamed on Sam and his "negative effect on the locker room".

They're cowards, of course.  But in the end, the cowards always lose.

StupidiNews!

• Shirley Temple Black, former child movie star of the 30's and US Ambassador to Ghana in the 1970's, has died at the age of 85.
• One person is dead and another injured when a package delivered to a Tennessee home in Lebanon exploded when opened, police continue to investigate.
• Relations between China and Taiwan continue to improve as the two will set up trade representative offices after historic talks earlier this year.
• Businesses with less than 100 employees won't face penalties from the Affordable Care Act this year as the Obama administration has delayed part of the employer mandate until 2015.
• Planetary scientists now believe that, like Tatooine in Star Wars, that planets orbiting binary star systems actually exist.