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Burning Issues: The U.S. Plan For New Nuclear Weapons
Lawrence Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, discusses what the United States should do to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons around the world, in this Burning Issues segment.
Bernie Pockets Wisconsin
How Bernie won Wisconsin. Mother Jones' Patrick Caldwell: "Last July, Sanders stopped here in Madison, Wisconsin, and packed an arena with 10,000 ecstatic supporters ... Driving around Madison over the past week, I've seen Sanders yard signs on nearly every other block, and walking around campus on Tuesday I ran into numerous Sanders volunteers instructing students confused by the state's strict photo ID law. Meanwhile, I haven't run across a single Clinton sign in town."
Still faces big delegate deficit. NBC: "By 1:15 a.m. ET, NBC News said Sanders had won 46 delegates to Clinton's 36 in in Wisconsin ... Early Wednesday, NBC's total delegate count [with superdelegates] had Clinton with 1,728 and Sanders with 1,058."
Clinton heads to NY. Bloomberg: "As the last ballots were cast in Wisconsin, Clinton was meeting with 60 donors at a campaign fundraiser in New York. Her campaign is hosting a news conference in the Bronx on Wednesday morning with Democratic borough officials and Latino leaders who support her. Even the New York tabloids played a starring role Tuesday, as Clinton's campaign berated Sanders for sounding ill-informed in a New York Daily News interview about how to break up Wall Street banks."
Sanders elaborates on how he would break up banks. W. Post: "Within the first 100 days of his administration, Sanders is pledging that he would require the Treasury Secretary to establish a 'too-big-to-fail' list of commercial banks, shadow banks and insurance companies whose failure would pose 'a catastrophic risk to the United States economy without a taxpayer bailout.' Within a year, the campaign said, 'the Sanders administration will work with the Federal Reserve and financial regulators to break these institutions up using the authority of Section 121 of the Dodd-Frank Act,'..."
Sanders campaign touts opposition to Panama trade agreement in wake of Panama Papers scandal. The Hill: "Sanders' campaign on Monday posted a video to Facebook of a floor speech he gave in 2011 opposing the U.S.-Panama free trade agreement ... 'Bernie opposed the 2011 Panama Free Trade Agreement because he was worried it would increasingly allow wealthy Americans and large corporations to evade U.S. taxes by stashing their cash in offshore tax havens,' the text of the post below the video said. 'Now with the release of the Panama Papers it appears he was right...'"
Cruz Trumps Trump
Cruz landslide complicates Trump's delegate path. NYT: "Those gains [with moderates in Wisconsin] put Mr. Cruz very near the point where he could prevent Mr. Trump from earning a majority of delegates — close enough where merely splitting the remainder of Mr. Rubio’s vote would be enough.
But Cruz math difficult too. Bloomberg: "...Cruz wakes up to a discomfiting reality Wednesday: he needs about four-fifths of remaining delegates to win the Republican presidential nomination ..."
Trump holds Long Island rally tonight. NY: "The kickoff rally will be Bethpage, where more than 30 of the state’s 62 county chairmen are expected to announce support for Mr. Trump. Some veteran New York political figures have signed in with the campaign, such as the former Representative John Sweeney..."
Trump plans policy speeches. W. Post: "Among the topics he will address are how to strengthen the nation's military, specific education reforms and the criteria by which a President Trump would select Supreme Court justices."
Rep. Pete King is #NeverCruz. The Hill: "Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) on Tuesday shied away from throwing his support behind either Donald Trump or John Kasich ... 'I can tell you one thing: I would never vote for Ted Cruz,' King, a former backer of Marco Rubio, said during an appearance Tuesday afternoon on CNN."
"There's Still Time for a Serious Third-Party Presidential Run" says The Atlantic's Russell Berman: "[Ballot access expert Richard] Winger is fond of reminding reporters that in 1980, John Anderson didn’t declare his independent run until April 24. 'He got on the ballot in all 51 jurisdictions. And the laws are better now than they were then,' Winger said."
Inversion Rules Throttle Merger
Pfizer abandons merger after new inversion rules. Bloomberg: "Pfizer Inc. and Allergan Plc agreed to end their $160 billion merger, terminating the largest-ever health-care acquisition as officials in Washington crack down on corporate inversions. The decision was driven by the actions announced by the U.S. Treasury Department on Monday, the companies said Wednesday in a statement. New York-based Pfizer will pay Allergan $150 million in reimbursement for expenses associated with the transaction."
President Obama calls for additional tax reform after issuing inversion rule. The Hill: "President Obama on Tuesday called for the Republican-controlled Congress to close corporate tax loopholes such as those that allow U.S. companies to reincorporate overseas to lower their taxes ... Americans should be able to know that 'big corporations aren’t playing by a different set of rules,' Obama said."
Sharing economy vexes tax collectors. Bloomberg: "In the five years since these businesses began their spiraling growth, some cities and states around the globe have fought hard to make them play by the same rules as traditional hotels or taxis and collect various local taxes—often as not, they’ve lost ... the battle is likely to shift to the national level, where billions of dollars a year in corporate taxes could be at risk."
"White House locks in new rules for financial advisers" reports The Hill: "The Obama administration on Wednesday unveiled new rules for retirement investment advisers, turning aside pressure from industry groups to abandon the proposal. The regulations, which were issued by the Labor Department, establish requirements that the White House says will save Americans billions of dollars by combating bad behavior on Wall Street."
Renewable On a Roll
"Wind and Solar Are Crushing Fossil Fuels" reports Bloomberg: "Clean energy investment broke new records in 2015 and is now seeing twice as much global funding as fossil fuels ... renewable energy is becoming ever cheaper to produce ... Government subsidies have helped wind and solar get a foothold in global power markets, but economies of scale are the true driver of falling prices ... The reason solar-power generation will increasingly dominate: It’s a technology, not a fuel."
Dems try to add renewable energy tax breaks to FAA bill. NYT: "Democrats say some tax breaks to support investments in geothermal, small wind power and other renewable energy forces were last year inadvertently left out of a tax package that extended credits for wind and solar power ... However, scores of conservative groups oppose the move..."
Breakfast Sides
San Francisco enacts major family leave law. NYT: "San Francisco on Tuesday became the first city in the United States to approve six weeks of fully paid leave for new parents — mothers and fathers, including same-sex couples, who either bear or adopt a child."
Mother Jones warns of lead in school drinking water: " ... roughly 90 percent of the nation's schools aren't required to test their water ... The Environmental Protection Agency requires schools to be connected to a water source that is regularly tested for lead, but those schools needn't test for on-site contamination."
