Cut back
Edward Snowden wins. A huge bipartisan majority in the House voted to curtail NSA surveillance, which should reverse the NSA’s ability to gather every American’s phone records. Via Vox.
Off track
Positive train control – the technology that experts say might have prevented the Amtrak accident — was not in place where the track sharply turned outside Philadelphia and where Train No. 188, traveling at twice the allowable speed, derailed. Via The New York Times.
Yesterday’s news
Remember when the Warren populists shot down Obama’s trade agreement? That was so yesterday. Via The National Journal.
Big raise
Los Angeles takes a major step toward raising the minimum wage in the city to $15 by 2020. Via The Los Angeles Times.
Cruel and unusual
The story of the botched execution of Clayton Lockett and how tragedy turned into the surreal and then back again into tragedy. Via The Atlantic.
Burning Bush
Jeb Bush stumbles on Iraq, and now his hawkish GOP rivals are letting him know they wouldn’t have started that war, at least. Via The Washington Post.
Better numbers
Another Nate Silver corrective: There is no “Blue Wall,” it is way too soon to be paying attention to the Electoral College, and, in any case, Democrats haven’t been winning presidential elections because of the Electoral College but because they’ve been getting the votes needed for an Electoral College victory. Via fivethirtyeight.com.
False lead?
In the last two national polls on the GOP primary – one by Fox News, one by PPP – Ben Carson has polled slightly ahead of Jeb Bush. What does that mean? That’s right. It’s far too early to be concerned with national presidential polls. Via Real Clear Politics.
Photo credit: Electronic Frontier Foundation photos, Creative Commons, Flickr.
