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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Cheat Sheet - Crackdown on Dark Money in Politics

Today: White House: Don't Sign Up at Once , China: We Watched B-52s , Thousands of Travelers Stranded
Cheat Sheet: Morning

November 27, 2013
BETTER THAN NOTHING

Anonymous donors, disclosure reports filed late, activities shrouded in secrecy—and it's all legal. But six months after the IRS was accused of targeting Tea Party groups, the Treasury Department announced Tuesday that it will be clarifying which activities qualify a group for nonprofit status. "It would certainly be better than the current system, where nobody has any idea what political spending actually is," said Robert Maguire, the chief political nonprofits investigator for the Center for Responsive Politics. "But it's a start, not a conclusion."

OBAMACARE

Hooray, Healthcare.gov is fixed! Except, well, let's try to avoid everybody signing up all at once. The White House cautioned on Tuesday that while the site can now handle 50,000 users at the same time, it could get up to as many as 250,000 visitors on Saturday as the deadline to sign up for health insurance nears. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius insisted Tuesday that the Obama administration is "on track to have a significantly different user experience by the end of this month." But the White House also decided not to go through with a planned rollout of a health care marketing campaign, as to not overwhelm the fragile site.

EYES ON YOU

Classic case of "we were totally on top of the situation and watching you" by China? Beijing insisted Wednesday that it was in fact monitoring the U.S. bomber planes within their newly declared air-defense zone, despite having earlier threatened to take down any unidentified foreign aircraft in the region. Two American B-52s were spotted Tuesday over disputed islands that the Chinese government had insisted it would defend just last weekend. The very presence of the B-52s suggests that China may have overstated its commitment to defending the islands, but Chinese officials insisted Wednesday they were following the new rules—although they did not offer any specifics.

TURKEY DELAYS

There might be a lot of people spending Thanksgiving alone. More than 200 flights were canceled and 5,000 more delayed on Tuesday—the day before the busiest travel day of the year—as a nasty winter storm headed toward the Northeast. Charlotte Douglas International, Chicago's O'Hare International, Denver International, and Cleveland Hopkins International had the most delays and cancellations, according to Flightstat.com. But things could get messier as the storm moves even closer to the Northeast, home to the nation's busiest airports. The nasty storm is already being blamed for 11 deaths as it made its way across the country this week.

NO SURRENDER

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will attend peace talks in Geneva in January but he will not be stepping down, Syrian state-run news insisted Wednesday. The U.S., Russia, and the United Nations this week announced a "Geneva 2" conference beginning Jan. 22 to create a transitional government in Syria to end the bloody civil war that has claimed an estimated 100,000 lives in nearly three years. But Assad insisted he would not succumb to Western pressure, and said "the age of colonialism, with the installation and toppling of governments, is over. They must wake from their dreams."


HORRIFYING
Three Girls Imprisoned by Parents
Rescued Tuesday night.
CLEAR YOUR HISTORY
NSA Monitored Porn Sites
To target radical Muslims.
BE PREPARED
Stuck? The Best Airport Food
From New York to Charlotte.
STAY CLASSY
'Anchorman 2' to Come Out Early
Will hit theaters on December 18.

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