The CIA admits that it actually did spy on Congress, hacking Senate Intelligence Committee files and filing a bogus report to the Justice Department. CIA Director John Brennan had called the charges “beyond reason,” but has now apologized to the committee leaders. But that is not enough for some members of Congress, notably Mark Udall, a committee member. In a statement from Udall, he said, “After being briefed on the CIA Inspector General report today, I have no choice but to call for the resignation of CIA Director John Brennan.” Via Fox 31 Denver.
The Atlantic notes that Udall is calling for the White House to do a full investigation.
Ted Cruz’s move to stop the House from voting on the border crisis bill shows why he’s still the most hated man in Congress. Via the New Republic.
In case you weren’t already worried enough and wanted to just kick back and enjoy your weekend, Vox posts seven things you should know about the Ebola outbreak.
Ben Casselman crunches the numbers and says it’s way too soon to see any good news about long-term unemployment. Via fivethirtyeight.com
Tensions rising between Israel and the United Nations. Relations have rarely been good, but they may have never been this tense. Via New York Times.
On the Jon Lester trade: The risks and rewards of the baseball rental. Via the New Yorker.
The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) — the union that represents most state employees — is wading into Colorado’s tight U.S. Senate race with a new internet ad. It’s no surprise that the ad takes aim at Republican challenger Cory Gardner, who won his seat to Congress on a Tea Party platform in 2010 and who has notched one of the most conservative voting records in today’s conservative House of Representatives. The ad underlines Gardner’s ties to the oil-billionaire Koch brothers, mainly to point out the congressman’s support for policies embraced on the right concerning taxes and corporate and finance regulation that have seen fortunes expand dramatically for a narrow elite while middle class opportunities and wages have stagnated or fallen.
The Colorado Public Utility Commission is weighing a controversial proposal put forward by Xcel Energy seeking to end credits it has provided for years to rooftop solar customers who send power back to its electricity grid. The proposal has galvanized the solar community in the state and underlined the shifting landscape of power generation and control in the renewable-energy era. Thursday, the Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC) launched a new web ad criticizing Xcel for shifting its position on rooftop solar, suggesting the utility encouraged distributed individually generated power before it became a threat to the utility business model and has now reversed its position as it seeks to capture the solar energy market by building or making arrangements with solar farms.
[Image of doorway at the International Spy Museum by Tony Fischer via Flickr/Creative Commons.]
