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Today's POLITICO Playbook presented by DaVita

By ANNA PALMER (anna@politico.com; @apalmerdc), JAKE SHERMAN (sherman@politico.com; @JakeSherman) and DANIEL LIPPMAN (daniel@politico.com; @dlippman)

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Driving the Day
TOE IN THE WATER ... TERRY MCAULIFFE talks to JAKE TAPPER on CNN'S "STATE OF THE UNION": TAPPER: "Are you going to challenge him in 2020?" MCAULIFFE: "What I'm going to do this year -- 36 governors are going to take a big lead. I'm doing a project on redistricting. ... That will be my focus on '18 and we'll see what happens after that. But can you imagine, hypothetically, if that ever happens? You'd have to sell tickets to that debate."

PRESIDENT TRUMP is at his golf course in Florida.

TWO BITES FROM TRUMP'S SCHEDULE NEXT WEEK -- TUESDAY: TRUMP will meet with the president of Kazakhstan. WEDNESDAY: Trump will attend the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony honoring Bob Dole.

Good Sunday morning. THE WHITE HOUSE is disputing that PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP told the Wall Street Journal that he has a good relationship with Kim Jong Un of North Korea. The White House says Trump said "I'd have" a good relationship with Un. WELL, if you thought, "Hey, there might be a recording of this," you'd be right. The Journal released it, and it sure seems like Trump said he has a good relationship with the North Korean leader. But it's far from clear. The Journal write up http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b40bc44afb37647616730dc4059169802a34902f4934429c9e34dd57e59f51aa584a6633b1a10ea8240e948fde654422 ... The recording http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b40bc44afb376476978d623a768e284fe714c429c5f3ec64a7230031aa4f19f9819a4a8b361b7cac948491764fb32a74

IN THE INTERVIEW, The Journal followed up by asking: "Just to be clear, you haven't spoken to the North Korean leader, I mean when you say a relationship with Korea-" TRUMP REPLIED: "I don't want to comment on it-I don't want to comment, I'm not saying I have or I haven't. But I just don't-" THAT WOULD SEEM TO LEAD ONE TO BELIEVE he said "I have" -- but, again, it's far from clear.

FROM MAR-A-LAGO -- @realDonaldTrump at 7:58 a.m.: "The Wall Street Journal stated falsely that I said to them 'I have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un' (of N. Korea). Obviously I didn't say that. I said 'I'd have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un,' a big difference. Fortunately we now record conversations with reporters..." ... at 8:01 a.m.: "...and they knew exactly what I said and meant. They just wanted a story. FAKE NEWS!"

SO ... LOTS OF QUESTIONS: Is the president of the United States secretly talking to the leader of North Korea? Why did the White House dispute this quote days after the transcript posted? And why is the White House only now starting to record on-the-record interviews with journalists?

DEPT. OF NO RECOLLECTION, on "Fox News Sunday": WALLACE: "You were in the meeting in the Oval Office. Did the president say that?" DHS SECRETARY KIRSTJEN NIELSEN: "I don't recall him saying that exact phrase."

-- WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE ... SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY.) to CHUCK TODD on NBC'S "MEET THE PRESS": TODD: "[L]et me ask you something, though. You seemed to say that Democrats have to stop calling the president names. Doesn't the president though owe an apology for some of this? Because, you know, look, Mia Love, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, she wants an apology. And he hasn't issued one."

PAUL: "Yeah, but I'll tell you, there are two different standards here. In 2013, Lindsey Graham said the exact same thing the president did, but he used the hellhole. 'We can't have everybody coming from every hellhole on the planet here.' And now everybody thinks Lindsey Graham's a great statesman because he's put out this thing about American ideals, and stuff, which was a good statement, but he said almost the identical thing to the president in 2013."

FIVE DAYS FROM A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN -- THE PRESIDENT on Twitter at 8:01 a.m.: "DACA is probably dead because the Democrats don't really want it, they just want to talk and take desperately needed money away from our Military." ... at 8:19 a.m.: "I, as President, want people coming into our Country who are going to help us become strong and great again, people coming in through a system based on MERIT. No more Lotteries! #AMERICA FIRST". ...

... at 8:50 a.m.: "'President Trump is not getting the credit he deserves for the economy. Tax Cut bonuses to more than 2,000,000 workers. Most explosive Stock Market rally that we've seen in modern times. 18,000 to 26,000 from Election, and grounded in profitability and growth. All Trump, not 0..." ... at 8:59 a.m.: "...big unnecessary regulation cuts made it all possible" (among many other things). 'President Trump reversed the policies of President Obama, and reversed our economic decline.' Thank you Stuart Varney. @foxandfriends".

SEUNG MIN KIM (@seungminkim): "DACA ....
-was killed off by Trump in September
-could come alive permanently if Dems, Rs and White House can sign off on a deal
-is temporarily alive now due to a court order (USCIS taking apps again)".

-- FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: The EVANGELICAL IMMIGRATION TABLE is releasing a letter: "The Scriptures teach us that each human person- regardless of their country of origin-is made in the image of God, with inherent and infinite dignity. ... These biblical values inform our national values as well. The United States was founded upon the conviction that all people are created equal-though, as Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded our country, we have not always lived up to that truth.

"Our president reportedly made statements recently that stand in opposition to these core biblical and American values. The President has now denied some of the reported language. We would hope that nothing approaching what was reported would ever be said by an American leader." The letter http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b40bc44afb376476b6429573c16695ba00b84aa32076b4293d0453ed3183e543f861df7dded3a0a7a3233a3aa5ce58df

GERALDO! -- @GeraldoRivera: "@realDonaldTrump last week I told you on phone that I love you like a brother. In that spirit I ask you to apologize for your unfortunate remarks. I'm in hospital getting back surgery My skilled compassionate nurse is from #Kenya She told me how you'd hurt her family's feelings."

LATEST ON DACA -- "Feds resume accepting renewals from Dreamers," by Josh Gerstein: "The Trump administration announced Saturday that it is complying with a federal court order by again allowing so-called 'Dreamers' to renew their quasi-legal status and work permits they enjoyed under a program that started in 2012. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, posted an update on its website Saturday evening saying that the renewal process for recipients of Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals will resume effective immediately, despite the administration's announcement in September that it was winding down the Obama-era initiative. ... On
Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup issued a preliminary injunction effectively blocking the decision to end the program." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b40bc44afb376476e61881ed08225f5de021e751dbb8b67ded46aa9ac39f91023be886bcbba795e662e8506c4c045906

-- CALIFORNIA A.G. XAVIER BECERRA to CHRIS WALLACE on "FOX NEWS SUNDAY": "I will tell my Democratic friends the following. DACA is actually now alive and the Homeland Security Department is now accepting renewal applications, so it's nowhere near dead. I would hope they would not agree to any bad deals on immigration, taking really bad stuff that has nothing to do with helping our borders in order to get a DACA deal. That DACA deal should stand on its own, it should be clean."

-- LAYING DOWN A MARKER ... REP. JOHN LEWIS (D-GA.) to GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS on ABC'S "THIS WEEK": "I, for one, will not vote on government funding until we get a deal for DACA."


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TRUMP'S WHITE HOUSE -- "The 'genius' of Trump: What the president means when he touts his smarts," by WaPo's Marc Fisher: "The genius in the White House has always believed that what makes him special is his ability to get things done without going through the steps others must take. In school, he bragged that he'd do well without cracking a book. As a young real estate developer, his junior executives recalled, he skipped the studying and winged his way through meetings with politicians, bankers and union bosses.

"And as a novice politician, he scoffed at the notion that he might suffer from any lack of experience or knowledge. So when President Trump tweeted last weekend that he 'would qualify as not smart, but genius. ... and a very stable genius at that!' it was consistent with a pattern of asserting that he will do this his way, without bending to expectations about what constitutes proper presidential behavior." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b40bc44afb376476401265cb24558c78038212b6b0b1696d426268b17f663332f20344d0af76cd0068a08a4bb8b509b7

NYT'S JONATHAN MARTIN in SALT LAKE CITY: "'I'm Running,' Romney Says Privately, but as a Trump Friend or Foe?": "A few days after Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah announced that he would conclude his tenure after serving 42 years in office, the state's governor, Gary Herbert, was growing anxious about whether Mitt Romney would run for the seat.

"'Let's not be coy about this,' Mr. Herbert said he told a close Romney friend and prominent business leader, Kem Gardner. 'If he's going to run, let's go. If not, we need to find somebody else to run, and there's people that have been trying to queue up for the opportunity.'

"Last Saturday, Mr. Gardner called the governor and read from a text that Mr. Romney had offered: 'I'm running.' The political resurrection of Mr. Romney appears unstoppable in a state where he was not raised and where he has not lived for most of his adult life. Mr. Romney, a Michigan-reared former Massachusetts governor, who was successfully treated for prostate cancer last summer, is beloved here as the savior of the Salt Lake Winter Olympics and Mormon royalty. But if Mr. Romney's Senate candidacy is inevitable, how exactly he would run and serve is less clear." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b40bc44afb3764760aa4209b0964a6793316565e9b7828526af50100d615bc9185c394c542879ec3c9e4f0bab8572ef9

HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER FRONT PAGE: "OOPS!" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b40bc44afb3764769518afbc67c81b0223c573212c82d485afc40d216259bb86a70513c6e45f6b10d863d793e38a78ab

HMM -- "White House scrambles after false missile warning in Hawaii," by Eliana Johnson: "A false warning of a missile threat in Hawaii sent White House aides scrambling Saturday, frantically phoning agencies to determine a response and triggering worries about their preparedness almost a year into the Trump administration. President Donald Trump's cabinet has yet to test formal plans for how to respond to a domestic missile attack, according to a senior administration official. John Kelly, while serving as Secretary of Homeland Security through last July, planned to conduct the exercise. But he left his post to become White House chief of staff before it was conducted, and acting secretary
Elaine Duke never carried it out.

"The administration ran the exercise on Dec. 19 at the deputies' level, at the behest of Kelly and newly sworn in Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen. But as of Saturday, when Hawaii residents were taking cover, the federal government had yet to play out the same scenario with cabinet secretaries at what is known as the principals level." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b40bc44afb376476f5faeac8c5789129fceadfc6c56086b38ae52eb69999402ca325e7e5ef9593c45902181cf842a3f4

-- "What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived," by Charles Bethea in NewYorker.com: "Brook Conner, a forty-nine-year-old cyber-security expert, moved to Hawaii from New York in September with his wife and their three-year-old daughter. ... Two hours after the alert was rescinded, with his heart rate still elevated, Conner described the roughly half hour that he and his family spent thinking that nuclear Armageddon was upon them. ... 'After about five minutes, we were visibly upset. My wife was crying, and George, our daughter, wanted to know why. We asked her to come over for a family hug. We explained that we'd heard very bad news that something very, very bad
was happening and it had us really, really upset.

"I don't think she really understands nuclear Armageddon or ballistic missiles, but she certainly understands that Mommy and Daddy are really upset. 'We continued to fill every container we could find with water for maybe another fifteen or twenty minutes. We tried calling people. My wife tried her father in Chicago three times, got a busy signal. I texted my mother and my twenty-one-year-old daughter. We texted the rest of my wife's family to say there's a ballistic missile coming towards Hawaii and it's not a drill.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b40bc44afb376476121fb8c63ab4e834c1f6bd71575816bc29c7811aa590e22860f88d92dbd714ba5dade425922ca7eb ... NBC News' Jacob Soboroff inside the Hawaii command center http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b40bc44afb376476be22b323f6547d389d803f3d7e8fb9927ba420ff510db666d2544f20afa03dc97122aec22c89957b

TOP TWEETS -- @DanLamothe: "Feds across board blaming @Hawaii_EMA for false warning. Which is true. They appear to have sent it. But U.S. government -- military, DHS, etc. -- also could have corrected record more quickly. Instead, silence on all levels for 38 minutes. A discussion for later, to be sure." ... John Haltiwanger (@jchaltiwanger): "Just got this text from a friend re: Hawaii: 'My friends are in a "fall out shelter" in Hawaii due to the missile threat and hanging with Magic Johnson.' Get a false nuclear holocaust alarm, hang with a legend. Only in 2018..." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b40bc44afb376476589226848c71dc373a7a9a6aa21d936fed3d4ac65ac3e8c3a9f298cce2de85ea246e30908a99d8f7

... @SangerNYT: "Hawaii false alert should be an early warning sign of what happens when the nuclear age collides with the digital age. Panic precedes confirmation; decision-times shrink. In Cold War we had more than a few false alarms, but they were detected before someone hit the panic button." ... @AjitPaiFCC: "The @FCC is launching a full investigation into the false emergency alert that was sent to residents of Hawaii."

THE INVESTIGATION ... -- "Congress tries to cool partisan fever on Russia," by Elana Schor and Kyle Cheney: "Top Russia investigators in Congress are straining to salvage some bipartisan cooperation amid acrimony that has come to threaten the credibility of their probes. Partisan anger has unsettled Russia inquiries by the Senate Judiciary Committee and House Intelligence Committee, but senior members of those panels say they hope to restore a sense of trust within their ranks. And Senate intelligence committee leaders are stressing their relative political unity in an increasingly hostile environment.

"But despite hopeful signals hopeful signals from lawmakers and aides of both parties about a return to cooperation, any bipartisan hopes will be sorely tested in the coming weeks - particularly as Democrats raise the volume on concerns that Congress has not taken action to prevent new Russian meddling in the 2018 midterm elections. Some senior Democrats are also insisting that key Trump associates be called to give more testimony before Republicans wind down the probes." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b40bc44afb376476a94f4387455c43ed520b88b62909d7dbafc6b8d938bbe0aafd42cdfe0bf06616da3d6d4f42ca22da

2018 WATCH -- "Chelsea Manning files for U.S. Senate run," by Brent D. Griffiths: "Chelsea Manning, a transgender woman who was convicted in 2013 of leaking thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, has filed paperwork to run for the U.S. Senate in Maryland. Manning, whose 35-year prison sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama during his final days in office, has remained an outspoken activist on intelligence and transgender-rights issues. ...

"Manning would be a primary challenger to Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who is currently the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Cardin has served two terms in the Senate and two decades in the House. He won reelection in 2012 by just over 30 points. President Donald Trump has called Manning an 'ungrateful traitor.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b40bc44afb3764761e3c77fc6406588f88eaa980a07b5521427ff5029259a68af3c6275322021c46307d185f42b8c593

SNL LAST NIGHT - "Morning Joe Michael Wolff Cold Open": "Mika Brzezinski (Kate McKinnon) and Joe Scarborough interview 'Fire and Fury' author Michael Wolff (Fred Armisen), Steve Bannon (Bill Murray) and Oprah Winfrey (Leslie Jones)." 8-min. video http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14f20b2d961754aac05f504eb1d0ce519506b3a0eaa6da2ce1246c3c5ddeb43323ecc34dad1de9a704


Playbook Reads


PHOTO DU JOUR: Vern Miyagi, Administrator of Hawaii's Emergency Management Agency (left) and the state's Gov. David Ige addressed the media at the agency's headquarters in Honolulu on Jan. 13 following the false alarm issued of a missile launch on Hawaii. | George F. Lee /The Star-Advertiser via AP

REMEMBERING THE SHOOTING -- "Resisting the Label of Victim, but Forever Scarred by a Mass Shooting," by NYT's Noah Weiland: "Exactly a month after Matt Mika was shot while practicing for a baseball game, he drove with his father to the field here where he once lay dying, his face yellowing, then graying, his eyes lifeless. A lobbyist and longtime coach of the Republican congressional baseball team, Mr. Mika was one of four people shot outside the nation's capital on a sunny morning in June. ... The plainest reminders of Mr. Mika's past life take on outsize meaning, like when he returned to the Potbelly sandwich shop near his office late in the summer and the staff remembered his usual
order: salami, roast beef, turkey and ham. He sees physical therapists in downtown Washington for hours at a time, his gunshot wounds in plain view of other patients nursing back and shoulder injuries.

"He talks to a therapist and consults his girlfriend's preacher. ... This peaceful pocket of suburban Washington still bears the scars of June's shooting. Bullet holes pockmark the fencing and storage units that ring the field, and the first-base dugout where members of Congress ducked for cover. New grass has grown over the stretch of the outfield where Mr. Scalise staggered. Mr. Mika visits once a month, hoping to make sense of what happened to him. He stands on the patch of dirt where he collapsed. He calls these trips his best therapy." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c148924abb88bea35f6c34f0bc8a17f85335501ccc746c56ce21013f398ad6efed07da6f1d0f18b8941

WOW -- "Meet the 24-year-old Trump campaign worker appointed to help lead the government's drug policy office," by WaPo's Robert O'Harrow Jr.: "In May 2016, Taylor Weyeneth was an undergraduate at St. John's University in New York, a legal studies student and fraternity member who organized a golf tournament and other events to raise money for veterans and their families. Less than a year later, at 23, Weyeneth, was a political appointee and rising star at the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the White House office responsible for coordinating the federal government's multibillion dollar anti-drug initiatives and supporting President Trump's efforts to curb the opioid epidemic.
Weyeneth would soon become deputy chief of staff. His brief biography offers few clues that he would so quickly assume a leading role in the drug policy office, a job recently occupied by a lawyer and a veteran government official.

"Weyeneth's only professional experience after college and before becoming an appointee was working on Trump's presidential campaign. Weyeneth's ascent from a low-level post to deputy chief of staff is the result, in large part, of staff turnover and vacancies. ... After being contacted by The Post about Weyeneth's qualifications, and about inconsistencies on his résumés, an administration official said Weyeneth will return to the position he initially held in the agency, as a White House liaison for ONDCP, a job that typically involves working with outside interest groups." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14fd6dc331ca1d4e26c544bd5632033d3461b0cb0d1998f40af2ec4beccc820845f0f2e5e8b6853061

BRET STEPHENS in the NYT, "Proud to Live in a Nation of Holers": "As tourist destinations go, the Republic of Moldova - tucked between Ukraine and Romania - probably isn't on anyone's bucket list. ... I mention Moldova because it's where my paternal grandfather was born in 1901. An anti-Semitic rampage in his hometown, Kishinev, soon forced his family to leave for New York, where my great-grandfather labored as a carpenter in the Brooklyn Navy Yard for eight dollars a week. Low skills, low wages, minimal English, lots of children and probably not the best hygiene - that's half of my pedigree. The other half consisted of refugees.

"I'm not alone. America is a nation of holers. It is an improbable yet wildly successful experiment in the transformation - by means of hope, opportunity and ambition - of holers into doers, makers, thinkers and givers. Are you of Irish descent? Italian? Polish? Scottish? Chinese? Chances are, your ancestors did not get on a boat because life in the old country was placid and prosperous and grandpa owned a bank. With few exceptions, Americans are the dregs of the wine, the chaff of the wheat. If you don't know this by now, it makes you the wax in the ear." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c141c0e0b8c62155991a82bac134ecf40d8dcba8676a960e33bdd0f11d4a92b2b128194c1e2732504c4

FOR YOUR RADAR -- "Saudi Prince Alwaleed in settlement talks with government: sources," by Reuters' Rania El Gamal in Dubai and Stephen Kalin in Jeddah: "Saudi Arabia's billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, detained for over two months in an anti-corruption crackdown, is negotiating a possible settlement with authorities but so far has not agreed on terms, a senior Saudi official said. ... 'He offered a certain figure but it doesn't meet the figure required from him, and until today the attorney-general hasn't approved it,' the official said on condition of anonymity under government briefing rules. A second source familiar with Prince Alwaleed's case told Reuters on Saturday that the
price had offered to make a 'donation' to the Saudi government, which would avoid any admission of wrongdoing, and to do so from assets of his own choosing. The government refused those terms." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c147952ee5792de62eb67b5b5d6347e4bf92fc0e73b7a3e0711fdeaff2fb8e71097c7bf19b5924e625f

MEDIAWATCH -- "Here's The Audio Recording Of John Humphrys And Jon Sopel's 'Jokey Exchange' About Equal Pay," by BuzzFeed's Mark Di Stefano: "Listen to the conversation between two of the BBC's highest paid journalists apparently joking about their colleague Carrie Gracie's resignation over the gender pay gap at the BBC." 80-second audio http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14c0c53ab0cd7ad425657e331580797e19d6a62b9bf2ccc23eb5e955100293027ec9fec319249b0720

-- PEOPLE: "Katie Couric Opens Up About Matt Lauer's Firing from the Today Show": "'The whole thing has been very painful for me' ... The accounts I've read and heard have been disturbing, distressing and disorienting and it's completely unacceptable that any woman at the Today show experienced this kind of treatment. ...

"'I had no idea this was going on during my tenure or after I left ... I think I speak for many of my former colleagues when I say this was not the Matt we knew. Matt was a kind and generous colleague who treated me with respect. In fact, a joke I once made on late-night television was just that, because it was completely contrary to our brother-sister relationship. It's still very upsetting. I really admire the way Savannah [Guthrie] and Hoda [Kotb] and the entire Today show staff have handled a very difficult situation." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14e9df7077d1dcbc8a51a745a35f2bd3f1df6228734872190f78bdc2bea4954e63ffadb881ea7545d4


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BONUS GREAT HOLIDAY WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman, filing from Palm Beach, Florida:

-- "'Oh My God, This is So F---ed Up': Inside Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Dark Side," by Emily Chang in February's Vanity Fair in an adaption of her new book "Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys' Club of Silicon Valley": "Some of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley are regulars at exclusive, drug-fueled, sex-laced parties-gatherings they describe not as scandalous, or even secret, but as a bold, unconventional lifestyle choice. Yet, while the guys get laid, the women get screwed. In an adaptation from her new book, 'Brotopia,' Emily Chang exposes the tired and toxic dynamic at play." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14e9ae82c7630156a598300b0526a8420b36f0a7b047637f64e14e788f8080b0fa16b1221550f46d15 ... $28 on Amazon
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14be40805bf28b147eb508ad9ceff0383991007cce77bfb7cd7cefa2abbeb5b00cd5ca14eabf7386cc

-- "Why Are Our Most Important Teachers Paid the Least?" by Jeneen Interlandi in the NYT Magazine: "Many preschool teachers live on the edge of financial ruin. Would improving their training - and their pay - improve outcomes for their students?" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14331b240200d42c4476cb163525409041c921aca3b5ae0d524d5f707885497213f0f8ed70bcdcf97c

-- "The Book That Ate Washington," by Matt Labash on the cover of the Weekly Standard: "Here's what happens when you let a Wolff loose in the West Wing." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c143f1e56d57f36dddf73b65329481914704047f52ee7630b3a81529d8231cdb0e379ce6b266cb32532

-- "Losing Conner's Mind," by Amitha Kalaichandran in the Atavist - per TheBrowser.com's description: "Dementia afflicts children too. A genetic condition called Batten disease prevents brain cells from disposing of their waste. The waste clogs the brain. Affected children lose speech and mobility; then they die, usually between the ages of eight and twelve. A new therapy can arrest Batten's disease, even reverse some of the symptoms. But is it a cure? The desperate parents of a five-year-old boy in Maryland will soon find out." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c1493dc11770af2e6a15607e1294198964cb74a9b03ed1b46da356f5093ac9c19d10fbe2c359841888f

-- "'Who's Going To Believe Us?' Native Americans Say They're Targets Of Shootings And Jailhouse Rapes By White Law Enforcement," by BuzzFeed's John Stanton: "I went to Wisconsin's Bad River Reservation to find out why 14-year-old Jason Pero was shot dead by a sheriff's deputy. But tribal members didn't only want to talk about the shooting: 'You've heard about the women, right?'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14a8e177dd3ea8ae72a5ecbb986cb2a6451dc503f18373a22ca4016c1ca66da716d2988ad31b01d073

-- "A Baby Girl, Ready to Go Home, Is Still in the Hospital 400 Days Later," by Bloomberg's Caroline Chen: "Hospitals are far more expensive than home nursing, but the U.S. has no comprehensive system to finance it. Parents can go bankrupt trying to take their kids home." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14d8f0d03785e441e8a36d8f26d388326a8a680d62e16b8eef72b427044ef12bae537712bf7960137f

-- "How to Fix Facebook-Before It Fixes Us," by Roger McNamee in Washingtonian: "An early investor explains why the social media platform's business model is such a threat-and what to do about it." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14a70c394a4522ce6726311d6b5098fee4d79212887e32192bff580e9ae019450f24cc0edf5c8ff19c

-- "The Blood Feud That Launched the War on Drugs," by Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis in POLITICO Magazine in an adaption of "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Timothy Leary, Richard Nixon and the Hunt for the Fugitive King of LSD": "The bizarre partnership between Nixon and TV host Art Linkletter, and the shared enemy that brought them together." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14c9ad2ff8b1eff922c983fc3f51d4235ede5a9507982498dd387a96c941e7feab13c74fae25bb9cc6 ... $30 on Amazon http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14e92178b1aec266a0ba3a20f05b208505851e71c4d9e27db66fa7b95f2ff2dc1027f4fa4f3aac9c07

-- "Cory Gardner Has Donald Trump's Ear on North Korea," by the Weekly Standard's Jenna Lifhits: "'My neighbors probably think I'm nuts,' says Cory Gardner. The fresh-faced senator is from tiny Yuma in northeastern Colorado, a 3,500-person town with 'horrible cell service' to the point where he doesn't get reception inside his house. So when the secretary of state calls, Gardner does what the rest of us would: He goes outside into the cold. 'I was on the phone for half an hour with Secretary Tillerson, wandering around my backyard talking about North Korea,' he says with his habitual smile." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c143a2f4d774561936146760c7c49b86b4d2fbe900d2364fc6ecbca6a21e1ca9fb4486af6de618c353f

-- "A Life Worth Ending," by Michael Wolff in NYMag in May 2012: "The era of medical miracles has created a new phase of aging, as far from living as it is from dying. A son's plea to let his mother go." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14eb159e6177a62222c464b487cb11afd04b85e053b565fba1fa42b43d17143ceac8030ac50280e706

-- "The Case Against Eating Fish," by Laura McDonnell in the Walrus - per Longreads.com's description: "That fish you're eating at the restaurant? There's a good chance it isn't the fish the restaurant claims it is. Mislabeling is rampant. You're also eating plastic." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14447945c88f8f457ca7ca3c24d012ecdf61704e0b95fed1ab777fa1dbfeebda281a765b27a336449d

-- "Under Trump, a Hard Test for Howard University," by Jelani Cobb in the New Yorker: "A historically black institution confronts a new era in politics." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14227c8f28723f45230e51aa77b6fc76a9ce2697b702306ed109ccb5b4fe63b533824f4dfce34e5641

-- "Inside One of America's Last Pencil Factories" - photos by Christopher Payne with text by Sam Anderson in the NYT: "A photographer captures a colorful world of craft and complexity." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c1404d51a0836979fee4e43498e3d5c5ef391e4cf1932b53fd63fc45f37d93e61e04b6324358fe229d5

-- "Tesla Model 3: The First Serious Review," by Alex Roy in The Drive: "I just drove 2,860 miles cross-country in a Tesla Model 3, setting a new electric Cannonball Run record of 50 hours and 16 minutes. This wasn't a specially prepared press loaner or pre-production employee car; this was one of the first customer-owned cars delivered at the Fremont factory on December 27th, 2017. For those gambling on the 3's failure and Tesla's collapse, don't count on it. The Model 3 is delightful, odd, and brilliant - but there is one big, crackling bolt of a caveat." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14d8b978142719b31103f0031528beecc503ad939279e545c08932654b5e0f8a557814f79c11c351a9

-- "In Conversation: Terry Gross," by David Marchese in Vulture: "I always walk away from an interview - no matter how well it went - knowing that there's so much that I don't know about that person." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c148a0f205fcba76556472a67a29bf69b8020b9a162848461a9ee2c39028940c041a68164f70341ddfd

-- "Living with Slenderman," by Kathleen Hale in Hazlitt: "Three little girls, an Internet boogeyman, and a stabbing in the woods on a sunny afternoon. Inside the trials of Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14ca848ae95965a1c8ef9206d94a1025d93232e06864bd20b3bf1a50b615834b303ea2c0bccb369aaa (h/t Longform.org)
Playbookers
SPOTTED -- Luke Russert yesterday at the Golden Squirrel in Oakland

SPOTTED at Walter Mondale's 90th birthday party last night at the University of Minnesota where more than 400 people heard from former President Jimmy Carter, Madeleine Albright, Gov. Mark Dayton, Minnesota Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith and former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.): Teddy and William Mondale, Jim Johnson, Mike Berman, Tom Nides, Bob Barnett and Rita Braver, Tom Oliphant and Susan Spencer, Steve Elmendorf, Bill Daley, Barbara Eagleton, Graham Allison, Brian Atwood, Peter Hart, Roy Spence, Ann Stock and Brady Williamson.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) and Giulia McHenry, chief economist at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, on Thursday welcomed Therese Anne McHenry. Instapic http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9887d6b43a5c1c14ae91f33cb2d8c4b84a9491b336eb11932d326e9210edba039ea922abf31face1841d7f9380974e49

BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Julia Tishman (hat tip: Adam Elias, who was on time)

BIRTHDAYS: Susan Glasser (h/t Theo) ... Maureen Dowd (h/t Alex Thompson) ... Shepard Smith is 53 ... Bill Plante is 8-0 ... RNC research director Michael Reed, celebrating his birthday and first wedding anniversary in Park City (h/t Colin Reed) ... LCV President Gene Karpinski is 66 ... Eric Alterman is 58 ... Doug Michelman, SVP for corporate communications at Sprint ... Erin Haber (h/ts Jon Haber) ... Toby Harnden of The Sunday Times of London, is 52 ... Brennan Moss ... Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) is 55 ... Colin Milligan, senior associate director for media relations at the American Hospital Association (h/t Mary Ryan Douglass) ... Frank Raines, executive Chairman and co-founder of
XAPPmedia and former chairman and CEO of Fannie Mae, is 69 ... Jack Torry, DC bureau chief for Columbus Dispatch ... Michael Block ... Karl Beckstein (h/t Jon Conradi) ... Andrea Seabrook, managing editor at Countable ... Margaret Chadbourn ... WaPo's Molly Gannon ... CAP's Marcella Bombardieri ... David Vyorst ... Alexandra Shapiro ... NEA's Mary Kusler ...

... Nina Totenberg, NPR legal affairs correspondent ... Marion Ein Lewin, who was a senior exec at the National Academy of Sciences and a policy adviser to former Rep. James Scheuer (D-N.Y.), is 8-0. She's celebrating in Palm Beach. (h/t son Mark) ... Michael L. Tuchin is 53 ... Ben Koltun, senior research analyst at Beacon Policy Advisors ... Christina Daigneault ... NPR's Jen Liberto ... Andrew Baris ... William Harrison Johnson ... Teddy Eynon of Dickinson Wright ... former N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue is 71 ... Duncan Currie ... Michael Moates ... Sinead Casey ... Ellen Wulfhorst, chief correspondent of the Americas at the Thomson Reuters Foundation ... Colin Milligan ... Jack Herzog ... John
Ellsworth, Gold Star Father and chairman of Military Families United ... Regina Schofield ... Jeffrey Webb ... Patty Link ... Charlotte Hudek ... Laura Pena ... Marc Schloss ... David Green ... Andy Gussert ... Megan Milligan ... Ruby Macklem ... Mary Jane Cobb (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)

****** A message from DaVita: WE HAVE AN HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE CARE FOR SOME OF OUR COUNTRY'S MOST VULNERABLE PATIENTS. The PATIENTS Act would expand access to integrated care, allowing dialysis providers, nephrologists and caregivers to better coordinate care for kidney patients. People with kidney disease are among the most critically ill populations in our country, and most of them depend on Medicare. Integrated care can help reduce hospitalizations and improve the lives of thousands of people. Congress should pass the PATIENTS Act to expand access to integrated care for kidney patients. MyKidneyCare.org ******

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