News Nuggets 1272

DAYLEE PICTURE: Banff National Park in Canada.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

UP-FRONT HEALTH CARE NUGGET!!
Growing Number Of States Are Reporting Lower Than Expected Health Care Premiums from Think Progress
"The prices Marylanders will pay are lower than the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) anticipated, but do cost more than the bare-bones plans that are available today. Residents will have a choice of nine insurance carriers and three out of four people purchasing coverage through the exchange will qualify for tax credits, further reducing the cost of coverage."

UP-FRONT ECONOMIC NUGGET!!
Signs of Declining Economic Security (Hope Yen) from the Associated Press 
"Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream. Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor and loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend."

Sixty Years After the Korean War, the Cold War’s Unending Conflict Continues from Time Magazine
TIME talks with Sheila Miyoshi Jager, author of the new book Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea, on how a 20th century war continues to influence Korean geopolitics

Status and Stress (Moises Velasquez-Manoff) from the New York Times  
"The poor and powerless are at greater risk of early death."

An Online College Revolution is Coming (Danielle Allen) from the Washington Post
"Whether for good or ill, MOOCs augur a disruption of the relationships among students, colleges and trade schools, and the credentials those schools offer — a relationship that has stabilized higher education for at least a century. Yet if done right — a big if, as recent events at San Jose State and Colorado State universities have shown — they may help address the quality and cost of higher education. What’s the nature of the disruption?"

Obama Is Right to Mess With Texas (Alec MacGillis) from the New Republic 
"Pro-tip: When you win a big court case giving you the go-ahead to suppress voter turnout for your political opponents, don’t gloat about it. ... The alacrity with which Texas, North Carolina and other states have rushed to take advantage of the ruling seriously weakened the sober conservative argument, from Chief Justice John Roberts and others, that Southern states no longer needed to be singled out for special scrutiny because they had long since left their discriminatory ways behind."

Time to Mess with Texas (Eric Lewis) from the New Yorker
"This Roberts Court failed to protect the rights of minorities by ignoring the concerted voter-suppression efforts of today. Jim Crow with a smile and a request for an I.D. is still Jim Crow."

GOP Gets it Wrong on Health Law (Juan Williams) from The Hill
"That is why the Republican political strategy on ObamaCare is so wrong. First, it leaves them open to their greatest vulnerability: charges of being unproductive obstructionists and brazen partisans. Second, it is a serious misreading of the public."

States Seek to Nullify Obama Efforts from Politico
"The nullification trend in recent years has largely focused on three areas: gun control, health care and national standards for driver’s licenses. It has touched off fierce fights within the states and between the states and the feds, as well as raising questions and court battles over whether any of the activity is legal."

Anarchists of the House (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"The Republican Congress is testing a new frontier of radicalism—governmental sabotage. ... Spectacles like this have turned into a regular feature of life in the Republican House. The party
leadership draws up a bill that’s far too right-wing to ever become law, but it fails in the House because it isn’t right-wing enough."

GOP Goes Public With Long-Brewing Foreign Policy Civil War (Zeke J Miller) from Time Magazine
"The long-delayed GOP foreign policy civil war is finally here. For years the Republican Party has fractured over foreign policy, but libertarians and neoconservatives, while vehemently disagreeing on substance, tried to project an air of party cohesion. Those days are over."

Are Republicans Too Divided to Have a Civil War? (Byron York) from the Washington Examiner
"The coming battles inside the Republican party will be a series of moving fronts, with changing sides and changing tactics. It could be ugly at times, and it could be serious enough to ensure a chaotic presidential primary fight in 2015 and 2016. But all-out civil war? Probably not."

Young Republicans: GOP Must Make Substantive Changes from the Associated Press
""We don't have to lose our principles," said Angel Garcia, who leads the Young Republicans in Chicago, Obama's hometown. "But we have to have a conversation on all these issues so we don't leave Democrats to say we're just old white men and racist, bigoted homophobes.""

Romney: Doubts, then Confidence and Loss in 2012 (Dan Balz) from the Washington Post
"The 2012 Republican presidential nominee describes his path of thought in deciding to run, the doubts he harbored, and the role his family played in his campaign."

“Ridiculous Pseudo-Science Garbage”: Meet the GOP’s Environment Leaders! (Jullian Rayfield) from Salon
"How do the 8 Republicans who sit on the Senate Environment Committee feel about climate change? We break it down:..."

Cumulus Planning to Drop Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity from Politico 
"Cumulus has decided that it will not renew its contracts with either host, the source said, a move that would remove the two most highly rated conservative talk personalities from more than 40 Cumulus channels in major markets."
Boo hoo.  What a loss to civilization.

CLASSIC TV SHOWS NUGGET!!
The Show that Made it After All (Suzanne Allard Levingston) from the Washington Post
"The story of the groundbreaking “Mary Tyler Moore Show.”"

HOLLYWOOD NUGGET!!
Marilyn Monroe Circa 1944 Was A Beaming Beauty (PHOTOS) from the Huffington Post
"Marilyn Monroe is celebrated even to this day, 50 years after her passing, as an iconic beauty. But old photos reemerged recently that show the blond bombshell was gorgeous even before making it big in Hollywood."

NAKED AUTOMOTIVE ART NUGGET!!
Hot wheels! Naked models Covered in Body Paint Help Artist to Create Vision of Fiat 500 from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Body artist creates illusion of car from painted nude models for advert. Craig Tracy used paint safe for human skin to cover women from head to toe."