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Today's POLITICO Playbook presented by Morgan Stanley

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

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Driving the Day
THE PRESIDENT'S WEEK AHEAD -- TUESDAY: Trump will have lunch with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. He will also host a public safety "Medal of Valor" awards ceremony. WEDNESDAY: The president is hosting high school students and teachers for a "listening session." THURSDAY: He will meet with state and local officials on school safety. FRIDAY: Trump is delivering remarks at CPAC. He will also meet with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Good Sunday morning. So much for a quiet holiday weekend...

WHAT IS ON PRESIDENT TRUMP'S MIND THIS A.M. -- @realDonaldTrump at 8:11 a.m.: "If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!" ... at 7:43 a.m.: "Now that Adam Schiff is starting to blame President Obama for Russian meddling in the election, he is probably doing so as yet another excuse that the Democrats, lead by their fearless leader, Crooked Hillary Clinton, lost the 2016 election. But wasn't I a great candidate?"

... at 7:33 a.m.: "I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said "it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer." The Russian "hoax" was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia - it never did!" ... at 7:22 a.m.: "Finally, Liddle' Adam Schiff, the leakin' monster of no control, is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election. He is finally right about something. Obama was President, knew of the threat, and did nothing. Thank you Adam!"

-- AND FROM LAST NIGHT -- @realDonaldTrump at 11:22 p.m.: "General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems. Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!"

NYT'S PETER BAKER: "In 13 months in office, Mr. Trump has made little if any public effort to rally the nation to confront Moscow for its intrusion or to defend democratic institutions against continued disruption. His administration has at times called out Russia or taken action, and even Mr. Trump's national security adviser, speaking in Germany on Saturday, called evidence of Russian meddling 'incontrovertible.' But the administration has been left to respond without the president's leadership.

"'It is astonishing to me that a president of the United States would take this so lightly or see it purely through the prism of domestic partisanship,' said Daniel Fried, a career diplomat under presidents of both parties who is now at the Atlantic Council. He said it invariably raised questions about whether Mr. Trump had something to hide. 'I have no evidence that he's deliberately pulling his punches because he has to, but I can't dismiss it. No president has raised those kinds of questions.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea1109c60f75b5758ea7c8f937b3a6c4fbb62b34497fb8f4e59624d4d8f7ff6657cf1b02797f76d7ce62d

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CALIF.) talking about the Russia indictment with DANA BASH on CNN'S "STATE OF THE UNION" via Cristiano Lima: "It ought to put to rest for anyone, including the president who continues to call this a witch hunt, that the evidence is now overwhelming and unequivocal and we need to move to protect ourselves from Russian interference in elections that are coming up,' Schiff said."

-- ON RUSSIA SANCTIONS: "'It is inexplicable that the president of the United States continues to sit on sanctions that Congress passed, that Congress wants enforce against Russia over this interference,' Schiff said. 'They can't point the finger back when they're sitting on sanctions that the Congress on a very bipartisan basis said need to be imposed." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea11056aa850d55a4d61143af1e113da55b652acfc680519664fc095301e9b5f62648366b741eb30a3595

NEXT UP -- THE PRESIDENT is scheduled to meet with SPEAKER PAUL RYAN at Mar-a-Lago today to discuss the Republican legislative agenda. GOP sources tell us that there's little proactive strategizing happening in the West Wing and at the agencies to drive any legislative push before the midterm elections. While Trump has been publicly pushing his infrastructure plan, GOP and Democratic insiders don't expect that to go anywhere. And talk of some kind of overhaul to the country's welfare system is privately met with nervous laughter and unease. GOP political operatives would like their congressional counterparts to focus on one thing -- selling tax reform.

THE SENATE'S FAILURE to pass immigration legislation last week should not go unnoticed. It's the one issue that both Republicans and Democrats say they want to fix -- and something both parties expect will be a major issue at the ballot box this fall. But the road to finding a solution to so-called Dreamers just got more complicated as it's now up to the House to try and resolve it in a highly partisan environment. IN THE HOUSE, It's hard to see Democrats agree to anything House Republicans put on the floor -- especially given where the debate has been focused in recent days. THE TRUMP EFFECT is real here. Congressional Republicans want to pass something that could actually get signed into
law. It's still unclear exactly what deal Trump would take.

BREAKING -- "Commercial plane crashes in southern Iran, killing 66 people," by AP's Nasser Karimi in Tehran and Jon Gambrell: "An Iranian commercial plane crashed on Sunday in a foggy, mountainous region of southern Iran, killing all 66 people on board, state media reported.

"An Aseman Airlines ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flying, went down near its destination of the southern Iranian city of Yasuj, some 780 kilometers (485 miles) south of the Iranian capital, Tehran. Aseman Airlines spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV that all on Flight No. EP3704 were killed." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea110b415c7d77cdf9c491597830c3e602c45666f45741f308d791590feac017c7ad13c7781852c6fd733

MORE ON THE FLORIDA SHOOTING -- "Florida social services investigated alleged school shooter Nikolas Cruz before rampage, knew he wanted to buy gun," by WaPo's Mark Berman: "Florida's state social services agency investigated Nikolas Cruz's home life more than a year before police say he killed 17 people at his former high school, closing the inquiry after determining that his 'final level of risk is low,' despite learning that the teenager had behavioral struggles and was planning to buy a gun, according to an investigative report.

"The investigation detailed several unnerving behaviors from Cruz, including that he had cut his arms on Snapchat, had a Nazi symbol and a racial epithet on his backpack and intended to purchase a gun for unknown reasons." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea11012c0cfcb699a1558044ae691a0d7e0715fc6a69937b33bba55a503917c7e6d80099695b5d4e3aaba

-- "After school shooting, anger and grief dominate anti-gun rally," by Miami Herald's Rene Rodriguez: "They showed up bearing homemade signs and placards that honored the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. They chanted and cheered and spoke of surviving a massacre that claimed 17 of their friends, teachers and loved ones. Mostly, though, the crowd of more than 1,000 parents, children, grandparents, students, teachers and politicians who gathered at the Broward County Federal Courthouse at 1 p.m. Saturday for a rally focused on one thing: a desperate need for stricter gun laws." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea110597c710d3d72f18056bd756e54a481f0479489649f08b952ee17fb5528801b037983ce10f6db9e69

THIS ISN'T GOING AWAY -- Florida teens tell Martha Raddatz on "This Week" that they will hold a "March for our Lives" rally in Washington on March 24. There are also calls for a national school walk out April 20, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting.

SUNDAY BEST -- CHUCK TODD talks with OKLAHOMA REPUBLICAN SEN. JAMES LANKFORD on NBC'S "MEET THE PRESS": TODD: "Is this a hunting rifle in your opinion?" LANKFORD: "Some actually do hunt with an AR-15 as well." TODD: "Ok, but should it be?" LANKFORD: "I think it's up to the individual. The problem is not owning an AR-15, is the person that owns it. Again, you not go back to the how of what particular weapon is chosen, it's the why. I have individuals in my neighborhood that own an AR-15. That doesn't make it a dangerous neighborhood or them dangerous individuals. It's the individual themself becomes the issue, not the weapon that they're holding."

TODD: "Well, I understand. But it seems as if the gap here is that it is still too easy to purchase one. Should it be much harder to purchase an AR-15?" LANKFORD: "I actually don't think it should be. I think what should be is difficult for any person with any kind of criminal background history, domestic violence, mental instability, all of those things, regardless. I don't care whether they're buying a 22 pistol or an AR-15."

-- A BREAK ON THE NRA'S HOLD ON CONGRESS? -- FLORIDA REPUBLICAN REP. CARLOS CURBELO tells MARTHA RADDATZ on ABC'S "THIS WEEK": "What we need is congressional leaders, specifically in my party, to allow some of these bills to come to the floor for debate. There are a lot of Republicans who are prepared to support reasonable, common-sense gun safety laws, new laws, stronger laws that protect rights for responsible citizens, people who are responsible gun owners, but will prevent those who want to do harm to innocent people from obtaining these weapons."

-- OHIO GOV. JOHN KASICH talks with DANA BASH on CNN'S "STATE OF THE UNION" via Cristiano Lima: "'I think Congress is totally dysfunctional. I've never seen anything like this' Kasich [said], also citing failures on immigration and cutting the federal deficit. 'They just can't seem to get anything done.' Kasich bemoaned Republican lawmakers' unwillingness to consider beefing up gun regulations, stressing that there were 'reasonable' steps that could be taken to prevent further shootings. 'Common sense guns laws make sense,' Kasich said.

"The Ohio governor cited efforts to expand background checks on gun sales and to curtail the sale of assault weapons like the AR-15 used in Wednesday's fatal shooting as remedies that legislators ought to consider. But Kasich, a former Republican presidential candidate, said he had little confidence in lawmakers' ability to strike a deal to curb gun violence. 'They can't agree to anything down there,' he said. 'Wake up.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea11032f0d741d0ccfbce3691a84f707330cf260ba5f38ebd2fdaa5ab9fea112a12eab605edb53e8c3215

RUSH LIMBAUGH'S SOLUTION -- Limbaugh talking with CHRIS WALLACE on FOX'S "FOX NEWS SUNDAY": LIMBAUGH: "The solution to me -- and I know this is going to cause all kinds of angst -- but the solution is we need concealed carry in the schools. If we are really serious about protecting the kids, we need a mechanism to be defensive when this kind of things -- if we're not going to take action, to stop it, we better have mechanisms in these schools to stop it when it breaks out. If we don't do that, then all the rest of this is nothing more than political posturing for the 2018 midterms and the 2020 election."

CLICKER -- WSJ graphic: "20 Years of School Shootings": http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea110037316f7acafbbb239829a24383ce65b58485e85f7ce7226ed3161650eda9503f8a9c9def1029523

2018 WATCH -- SOMETHING TO WATCH -- GABE DEBENEDETTI: "Republicans race to reverse midterm recruitment failures": "For months, Republican leaders watched in horror as hordes of their most sought-after midterm recruits passed on running, spooked by what increasingly looked like an electoral beatdown in the making. But leading GOP officials in recent weeks have seen their fortunes brighten -- if only slightly -- and the party is now scrambling to take advantage by luring otherwise reluctant candidates back into targeted races across the country. ...

"Their task could not be more urgent. In at least seven of 10 ten races where Democratic senators are defending states won by Donald Trump in 2016, and roughly half a dozen gubernatorial contests, the long-expected GOP front-runners decided not to run in recent months. There's still time to turn things around, but with the filing deadline in many states creeping up, Republicans' window to field top-flight candidates is closing.

"Party officials have feared that pattern -- matched with the historic number of GOP retirements in the House -- was attributable to a growing Democratic backlash against Trump. So the recent good news, they believe, provides a rare opening." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea110f4d6384f83538d5e27738665e270d36c8cd3ee1f1a957773c0bbb3d4660a52c01705e34de1b3522e

-- ABOUT THOSE RETIREMENTS ... REP. ED ROYCE (R-CALIF.) and SEN. JEFF FLAKE (R-ARIZ.) talk with NANCY CORDES on CBS' "FACE THE NATION": CORDES: "Two dozen are retiring from the House and Senate, plus five are leaving to run for higher office. Why so many? Well, that's the question we put to four of them - including Ed Royce, who is one of 10 committee chairmen who have announced they're hanging it up. ... That's a lot of experience out the door." ROYCE: "It is. And there's-- there's a debate. You know, I-- I think we should look at maybe the length of our chairmanships. But at the same -- same time, I think these term limits are probably good from the standpoint of bringing in new blood,
new ideas. And so that's -- that's one of the things we weigh on the Republican side."

CORDES: "Senator, when you left your House colleagues and went to the other side of the Capitol, I'm sure you intended to serve more than one term in the Senate." FLAKE: "I always thought probably two terms. But -- I'm kind of out of step with my party. And -- it makes it very difficult to -- have the positions that I have and -- and -- you know, win reelection in a Republican primary." CORDES: "So have you changed or has the party changed?" FLAKE: "I -- I don't think I've changed that much -- but I do think the party has changed considerably."

MCCONNELL SPEAKS -- "Trump Should Get Behind Romney's Candidacy, McConnell Says," by NYT's Jonathan Martin: "Senator Mitch McConnell said in an interview on Friday afternoon that President Trump should rally behind the Senate candidacy of Mitt Romney despite his blistering criticism in 2016, arguing that Mr. Romney's potent bid was an illustration of the Republican Party's improving fortunes entering a challenging midterm campaign.

"'I can't imagine that he's not,' Mr. McConnell said when asked whether Mr. Trump was comfortable with Mr. Romney, who on Friday made official his long-expected candidacy for a Senate seat from Utah. ...

"Mr. McConnell, the majority leader, said that Mr. Romney would enter the Senate with a stature similar to what Hillary Clinton brought as a junior senator. 'The best way to think about that, and I told him this a couple of months ago, I said: "You'll be a freshman like Hillary Clinton was,"' Mr. McConnell recalled. 'He will come in here with a level of national identity and respect that will make him effective from Day 1.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea1109dc514cefa0e47d3b6da27a8fb47c1de35fab329d77c440625ec0dfeffe79825873feeff3fac3d74

KNOWING CONNOR LAMB -- "Is Conor Lamb the Next Big Democratic Upset?," by Jim Saksa in Houston, Pa., for Politico magazine: "Lamb, a square-jawed 33-year-old Marine Corps officer who resigned from his job as a federal prosecutor in Pittsburgh to run, has a chance to upend the district's politics -- as long as he can avoid being labeled a liberal without discouraging the district's not inconsiderable Democrat base from turning out.

"A devout Catholic, Lamb is pro-union and pro-gun, backs bipartisan deals for fixing Obamacare and the nation's infrastructure, wants more job training and less college debt, and says he's pro-fracking but pro-environment, too. And he's betting that this mix of economic populism and moderate social politics can win the predominantly blue collar district. (Full disclosure: Lamb and I both played rugby at the University of Pennsylvania. We overlapped his senior year, 2005-06.) http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea110fc72e8d3880250ec108bbcfba2850c5189fa18aa6326f9a30bba4197d4ffdaa8cf6ff9b981c8e4f8

A DIFFERENT TACK THAN THE TRUMP W.H. -- @ErikWemple: "Sen. Orrin Hatch has sent letters of apology to Jennie Willoughby and Colbie Holderness, ex-wives of former White House staff secretary Rob Porter."

POLITICO INVESTIGATES -- MARIANNE LEVINE: "Minimum wage largely unenforced,": "As Democrats make raising the minimum wage a centerpiece of their 2018 campaigns, and Republicans call for states to handle the issue, both are missing an important problem: Wage laws are poorly enforced, with workers often unable to recover back pay even after the government rules in their favor.

"That's the conclusion of a nine-month investigation by POLITICO, which found that workers are so lightly protected that six states have no investigators to handle minimum-wage violations, while 26 additional states have fewer than 10 investigators. Given the widespread nature of wage theft and the dearth of resources to combat it, most cases go unreported. Thus, an estimated $15 billion in desperately needed income for workers with lowest wages goes instead into the pockets of shady bosses.

"But even those workers who are able to brave the system and win - to get states to order their bosses to pay them what they're owed -- confront a further barrier: Fully 41 percent of the wages that employers are ordered to pay back to their workers aren't recovered, according to a POLITICO survey of 15 states." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea1105101bb0fbdabc8e8da04623955f4e6f72ff8bcf6fa604786408be38d38b529dc63ac15d6402eb5e4


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THE RUSSIA REPORT -- "The 21st-century Russian sleeper agent is a troll with an American accent," by WaPo's Anton Troianovski, Ros Helderman, Ellen Nakashima and Craig Timberg: "Not long after Marat Mindiyarov started working at the Internet Research Agency, the Russian troll factory indicted by the U.S. Justice Department on Friday, he began hearing about the coveted 'Facebook Department.' There, workers could earn more money and work alongside a younger, hipper crowd. But to gain entry, job candidates had to prove they could seamlessly insinuate themselves into the American political conversation. The English-language test, which Mindiyarov said he took in December 2014, included a
question about vegetarianism and another about Hillary Clinton and the prospect that the Democratic front-runner would win the U.S. presidential election.

"Mindiyarov, 43 and a teacher by training, wrote that Clinton had a good chance of winning, and that it would be a remarkable feat, making her the country's first female president. 'You didn't pass the test,' the woman who administered the exam told him later that day, he said, although it wasn't clear if his shortcoming was imperfect English or failing to bash Clinton. Either way, Mindiyarov remained stuck with the less-glamorous job of commenting on articles posted to Russian websites and quit three months later from a job he compared to something from '1984,' the dystopian novel by George Orwell. 'Your first feeling, when you ended up there, was that you were in some kind of factory that
turned lying, telling untruths, into an industrial assembly line,' Mindiyarov said." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea11056c649c634e9afc0263f41e4c23107cc08213beb088072f441efbe3f07e025d9f8f5a8302e6f5e99

OLD SCHOOL -- "Facebook plans to use U.S. mail to verify IDs of election ad buyers," by Reuters' Dustin Volz: "Facebook Inc will start using postcards sent by U.S. mail later this year to verify the identities and location of people who want to purchase U.S. election-related advertising on its site, a senior company executive said on Saturday. ... The process of using postcards containing a specific code will be required for advertising that mentions a specific candidate running for a federal office, Katie Harbath, Facebook's global director of policy programs, said. The requirement will not apply to issue-based political ads, she said." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea11039ee3f17f7cb6060d9fbbcc4f6248ddd0b7170bc8ee466d4fecbc15aa4ec1cc5faef9655ccc128a2

2020 WATCH -- "Biden, in public and private, tiptoes toward a 2020 run," by AP's Josh Lederman: "Former Vice President Joe Biden is tiptoeing toward a potential presidential run in 2020, even broaching the possibility during a recent gathering of longtime foreign policy aides. Huddled in his newly opened office steps from the U.S. Capitol, Biden began a planning meeting for his new diplomacy center by addressing the elephant in the room. He said he was keeping his 2020 options open, considering it a real possibility. He insisted he had made no decision, and didn't need to yet, according to five people who either attended the meeting or were briefed on it by those who did.

"Biden also expressed interest in bringing those in the room onto his team if he decides to launch a campaign. At the same time, he gave them an out: There would be no hard feelings if they decided they were content in their current roles outside of government." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea110c97d2c4457d4a06633f7e60ba5bee964bdecf4365d246774bb1c4fcc213555b8b82f8694d76a6bd6


Playbook Reads


PHOTO DU JOUR: Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Cameron Kasky speaks at a rally for gun control at the Broward County Federal Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Feb. 17. On Wednesday, 17 people were killed in a shooting at the school. | Rhona Wise/AFP/Getty Images

TRUMP INC. -- "President or Luxury Towers: Either Way, Trump Is the Rage in India," by NYT's Maria Abi-Habib and Eric Lipton: "When the Trump family jet lands in India this week, the family member taking a tour of the world's largest democracy - with a Secret Service detail in tow - won't be the president on a diplomatic mission. It will be his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., on a sales trip. But Indians might be forgiven for not making much of the distinction.

"The visit by the younger Mr. Trump, intended to help sell more than $1 billion in luxury residential units being built by the Trumps and their local partners, has been promoted with newspaper advertisements that read: 'Trump has arrived. Have you?' The younger Mr. Trump's weeklong itinerary of cocktail parties, dinners and events with real estate brokers, business leaders and prospective buyers comes as President Trump is working to strengthen ties between the two countries." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea11037a91afc2d484632d67114125e736c4f38fa71e1e64e48398c09d6e09d390cb910c55643eefcdc5e

DEEP DIVE -- "'An Endless War': Why 4 U.S. Soldiers Died in a Remote African Desert," by Rukmini Callimachi, Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt, Alan Blinder and Thomas Gibbons-Neff: "More than 16 years after 9/11 spurred a broad fight against terrorism, some Americans say it's time to look at how the country is deploying its forces. Reporting from the desert of Niger to a small town in Georgia, The New York Times reconstructed how four American soldiers lost their lives - and why they were in Africa to begin with." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea110f0da5f5bdd23412c1fc8f92a8dee932fe7829d2d94238548b20954de750314eb5754ee857b8efc6c

THE ADMINISTRATION -- "Trump ambassador nominee had unsettling management style, women say," by WaPo's Robert O'Harrow Jr.: "Doug Manchester, the billionaire nominated by President Trump to be ambassador to the Bahamas, made a fortune as a real estate developer in San Diego while also earning a reputation for his philanthropy, conservative convictions and lavish lifestyle. In 2011, Manchester, then 69, decided to buy the struggling San Diego Union-Tribune. Over the next four years, he employed an unconventional, anachronistic management style that upended the newspaper's culture and made many female workers uncomfortable, according to more than a dozen current and former employees who spoke
on the condition of anonymity.

"During the taping of a promotional video, Manchester once pulled a reporter in for a hug so intimate that it startled onlookers in the newsroom, multiple people said. He complimented young female employees on their looks, and he and other senior managers required some of them hired for a new in-house television operation to wear short black dresses and serve as hostesses for advertisers and other guests at Union-Tribune events, current and former employees said. And he once asked an on-air program host to dye her hair platinum blond, complaining that her roots were showing." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea11019608afdda07ce8e48b45d396623f8eb54e5b0e4b00976e2c403c2cff9d551737136a92fed54ed3f

BEYOND THE BELTWAY -- "Ex-Clinton aide makes mystery bid for California governor," by California Playbookers David Siders and Carla Marinucci in Los Angeles: "Amanda Renteria, the former top Hillary Clinton campaign aide who baffled Democrats when she filed paperwork recently to run for California governor, still isn't talking. In the days since filing, Renteria made no campaign announcement and is not returning reporters' calls. She's raised no money and has no apparent political apparatus -- a bizarre campaign opening more characteristic of a fringe candidate than a political professional.

"Up and down California, Democrats spent the week scratching their heads -- or suggesting ulterior motives. 'It doesn't make any sense,' said Garry South, a longtime Democratic strategist who advised former Gov. Gray Davis. 'You don't run for governor of California in four months. The state is too big, the race for governor is far too expensive, and you particularly don't do it when you are a complete unknown, you have no money, you have no campaign kitty, and you don't even have a website or a Facebook page.' In Renteria's case, South added, 'You have no staff, you have no consultants, you have no endorsements and you don't even put out a press release.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea1103e0016e462a7ea19e5520024ccedaeea6ae1a6f2f6c066c5e09d6af2493c38e24a580ae837d996a1


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BONUS GREAT HOLIDAY WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman, filing from Stowe, Vermont:

-- "A Chinese Casino Has Conquered a Piece of America," by Matthew Campbell in Bloomberg Businessweek: "Construction workers maimed and killed. Millions paid to the governor's family. An impossibly lucrative gambling operation. And all on U.S. soil." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea1109bfc45d92969a7cd1a6dcdddf9315d0b0a4e69b1216658e45ee5e74d494c0f8f03d9b2c5c336105e (h/t Longform.org)

-- "'Reason is non-negotiable': Steven Pinker on the Enlightenment" - The Guardian: "In an extract from his new book Enlightenment Now, the Harvard psychologist extols the relevance of 18th-century thinking." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea110420e5bc5e9f47163cf70bd217f3a712ea76924bf208f0529ca35a248ff2c740003070dec4b073def

-- "The Surprising Success of America's Oldest Living Magazine," by Marin Cogan in Topic - per Longreads.com's description: "Beguiling account of the genteel rivalry between the Farmer's Almanac (founded 1818) and the Old Farmer's Almanac (founded 1792), which sell about five million copies a year between them, offering a mixture of gardening and household tips, astrology and astronomy, recipes, aphorisms and folkloric weather forecasts. But no politics." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea110122736ccd5af3afd3ebf12fdfa817e6aa4b779f44c1e08d396b94fb70c3482ca8625ae5d94c29651

-- "A Train Driver's Struggle to Return to the Tracks," by Hauke Goos in Der Spiegel: "Each year in Germany, 800 people throw themselves in front of speeding trains, transforming the drivers into involuntary killers. Stephan Kniest has run over four people so far in his career - and fears that a fifth could do him in." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea110203adfcf2312702474967a0aecd65049002be3b5291b8e4d9f6754b203732c9989f46044f92bcb3a

-- "Keep Your Hands on the Wheel and Don't Look Down," by Leath Tonino in Outside Magazine: "The most perilous road in America gets 300 inches of snow a year, features 70 named avalanche paths, and has almost no guardrails. Who would be crazy enough to keep Colorado's infamous Highway 550 clear in winter? Leath Tonino hopped into the cab of a Mack snowplow truck to find out." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea11043c21e4c75beb657fdf2c38a301cc241f25eb8e9d03db2b8b975348815dc8fa234a03e6173f0d7c9

-- "The Extinction of the Early Bird," by Jaya Saxena in Eater: "Baby Boomers and the ailing middle class are killing the value meal mascot of South Florida retirement." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea110383ddede3954b4d211d1aa6af913d6d61b09ec6d406ee96a860fc89804fac4a696c6df8d95ce11fe

-- "My Inheritance Was My Father's Last Lesson To Me And I Am Still Learning It," by Alexander Chee in BuzzFeed: "After my father died, I received an inheritance at 18. As an adult, I've had to reckon with how deeply money is connected to pain in my life." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea110e8c1c65688c2b48830a9e71bf8a0e37d0aa906d427e5007b3118d65076d356889f5155d4a1f7e2a9

- "The SEC Is Falling Down on the Job," by Paul Alexander in Real Clear Markets: "In its last two quarterly reports [for the SEC], in which the company lost $955 million, Tesla made an unusually high number of confidential treatment requests, allowing the company to generate almost 3,000 redactions - some 1,300 for the quarter ending June 30 and 1,580 for the quarter ending September 30. By comparison, in the same two quarters, the quarterly reports of General Motors, Google, Boeing, and Exxon Mobil do not even contain the word 'confidential.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea1101f308ce1feada528576ac6b89d5ce7da5a9a1654509d26ee5dbdecf1381c68bab7e508f75186f0b8

-- "Slavery and the American University," by Alex Carp in the N.Y. Review of Books - per TheBrowser.com's description: "The first enslaved African in Massachusetts belonged to the schoolmaster of Harvard. Yale funded its first graduate courses and its first scholarship with the rents from a slave plantation in Rhode Island. Before she gained fame as a preacher and abolitionist, Sojourner Truth was owned by the family of Rutgers's first president." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea11006dcbbe66edd5ec98dd1df1930095955c5bd4d1f43a9bc6e4c9523927097479869f00ef0ae6d3fe0

-- "All Good Magazines Go to Heaven," by David Shaftel in the NYT: "The Hyman Archive, which now contains approximately 160,000 magazines, most of which are not digitally archived or anywhere on the internet. ... It lines more than 3,000 feet of shelving in a former cannon foundry in the 18th-century Royal Arsenal complex in Woolwich, a suburban neighborhood abutting the Thames in southeast London." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea110c7e706584452a6e2717fe4b49bb31fbe8eb4e2e0fa1966c36f3fd1feb973a9b5e33626666b274942

-- "An Iraq war movie crowd-sourced from soldiers" - TED Talk: "Filmmaker Deborah Scranton talks about and shows clips from her documentary 'The War Tapes,' which puts cameras in the hands of soldiers fighting in Iraq." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea110108128ceec596f27b98ef043365bba4d3ecbec3981ca1137a4e080175e036d80609fea41392bd342 ... Trailer http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea110c5e994e5159d7e0fdee18ce6cbb05dee16a02f1b648d1ab18428926954c7e0b8867ca6b997d4b419

-- "Welcome to Monowi, Nebraska: population 1," by Will Francome, Megan Garner & Eliot Stein on BBC: "Eighty-four-year-old Elsie Eiler pays taxes to herself, grants her own alcohol licence and is the only remaining resident in Monowi, Nebraska." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea1107ef37043d30fd87eb2c14d2294a98fc5a27600f192dd8a3e17b58a9f3c35372a01e1630edf92949f
Playbookers
SPOTTED: Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Saturday night at Tico with her husband and another couple ... Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) Saturday morning at Trader Joe's on Capitol Hill ... George Stephanopoulos, in coach, on a 7 a.m. United flight Saturday morning from Newark to Sarasota, Fla.

WEEKEND WEDDINGS -- "Kaitlin Riggs, Michael Duncan" - N.Y. Times: "Mrs. Duncan, 27, is a digital and social media coordinator at Schmidt Public Affairs, a company in Alexandria, Va., that specializes in the health care industry. She graduated from Texas State University. ... Mr. Duncan, 30, is a founding partner in Cavalry, a public relations and digital advertising firm in Washington. He graduated from Indiana University. ... The couple met in fall 2015 while working for a political consulting firm in Austin. A year later, they began dating." With pic http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea1106659def8ab7b614f45a199a5dcc76f2c4acfc4527526e016b368048d2fc98841a54737004adaaedf ... Wedding Pic http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea1101848b493b48137ebf20885379bb5e6091c32f561b5e79c7525e9f029d586ce0c13f46f916637428b

-- OBAMA ALUMNI: "Stephanie Potter, James Kvaal": "The bride, 31, is the executive director of the Maryland Democratic Party, which has headquarters in Annapolis, Md. She graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul. ... The groom, 43, works in Washington as the president of the Institute for College Access & Success, an education nonprofit based in Oakland, Calif. From 2013 to 2016, he served as the deputy domestic policy adviser for the White House. He graduated from Stanford and received a law degree from Harvard. ... The couple met in 2015 through mutual friends who planned a party in Washington to introduce them." With pic http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea110e527265beb0beec66664108f3b523f91dae22809aca09077be384f9b4b498d52d1ea0bbbd495f0c0

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Marc Lampkin, managing partner of D.C. office of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. How he got his start in politics: "I got my start at age 12 when I volunteered for an African American Republican candidate named John Daluz who was running for Rhode Island state treasurer. I used to ride my bike down to the headquarters to stuff envelopes, make copies, etc. It wasn't glamorous, but was certainly fun and interesting. While the candidate didn't win, I got hooked on politics. Since then, I've been involved in virtually every election cycle." Read his Playbook Plus Q&A: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b8d8e32865ea1103bd60bc9ddbd4325d05d99940a10ca6c0e5d3dce98c60212ebd087ff0033835a23405bcf96b1233e

BIRTHDAYS: Keith Urbahn, founding partner and president at Javelin, is 34 ... Denny Jungwirth ... Ben Wofford (hat tip: Ben Schreckinger) ... former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) is 91 ... WaPo's James Hohmann ... NYT alum Michael Janofsky ... Kiara Pesante Haughton ... Politico's Connor McKay ... Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) is 71 (h/t Randy Whitestone) ... Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) is 54 ... Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) is 61 (h/t Tim Griffin) ... Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) is 54 ... Ill. Gov. Bruce Rauner is 61 ... Lisa Knapp (h/t Jon Haber) ... David Bormel of Merrill Lynch ... Stephanie Young ... Elizabeth Kanick ... John DiStaso ... Denise Dunckel, VP of public affairs at the Beer Institute
... Lucien Zeigler, research director at Saudi-U.S. Trade Group ... Parul S. Choksi ... NPR's Rachel Martin, co-host of "Morning Edition" ... Mark Sickles ...

... William Bertles, SVP and partner at DDC Advocacy ... Richard Canter, celebrating with grandkids Sam and Maya ... Matt Burgess, EVP of End Citizens United ... Danielle Borrin ... Stacey Gardner ... Meredith Brown Wills ... Rebecca Kaplan, Capitol Hill producer at CBS News (hubby tip: Adam Levy) ... Shana Marchio, director of federal affairs and comms. for Kit Bond Strategies ... DDC's Angela Chiappetta ... Abbey Blume Gibson... Adam Prather ... Carol Vanterpool ... Willem Rijksen ... Leon Mary ... Chuck Kleeschulte ... Joe Dacca ... Nick Spencer ... Rebecca Conley ... Jesse Purdon ... Linda Gass ... Al Quinlan.

****** A message from Morgan Stanley: Storage makes renewable energy available when it's needed the most. Given the U.S. electric grid's lack of storage capacity, conventional power plants, including gas-fired ones, have remained utilities' most reliable source of electricity. That could be about to change. Morgan Stanley analysts argue that the price of both solar and wind energy, as well as new storage units, have reached a point where renewable energy can finally become a dependable, rather than an unpredictable, source of energy. According to the report, the demand for storage is expected to grow from a less than $300 million a year market to as much as $4 billion in the next two to
three years. More affordable battery storage units could enable the growth of renewables or defer costly transmission and distribution projects, and also could lead to significant utility bill savings for solar customers. Read more from Morgan Stanley. ******

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