memeorandum: Amazon opens first brick-and-mortar bookstore — at U Village (Jay Greene/The Seattle Times)

9:00 AM ET, November 3, 2015

Top Items:

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Obama mocks GOP hopefuls for CNBC snit — President Obama on Monday mocked Republican presidential candidates as thin-skinned for lashing out at CNBC over the network's handling of last week's primary debate. — “They say, 'when I talk to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin …

Discussion: Political Wire, The Week, PoliticusUSA and ABC News

Robert Costa / Washington Post:

Trump's campaign says he'll negotiate directly with TV networks on debates — The format and content of upcoming Republican debates became increasingly uncertain on Monday after Donald Trump's campaign said the real estate mogul would negotiate his terms directly with television executives instead …

David A. Graham / The Atlantic:

The Republicans Debate Their Debates — The attempt by the Republican presidential candidates to wrest control of the primary debates away from news networks has, so far, mostly succeeded in highlighting internal divisions within the party. Whether it can produce debates that are more to their liking remains to be seen.

Discussion: Washington Post, TVNewser, Daily Kos, Salon, NBC News, Mediaite, The Federalist and Balloon Juice

John McCormick / Bloomberg Business: Ben Carson Is Taking Iowa One Church at a Time

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Cruz rising in Iowa; Clinton back out to dominant lead

Discussion: Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Political Wire and Naked Politics

Ed Tibbetts / Quad City Times:
Santorum targets Cruz on immigration

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Mark Murray / NBC News:

Meet Your New Republican 2016 Front-Runner: Ben Carson — Ben Carson has surged into the lead of the Republican presidential race, getting support from 29 percent of GOP primary voters, according to a brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. — That's the highest percentage any GOP candidate has obtained so far in the survey.

Discussion: The Week, No More Mister Nice Blog, Telegraph, Daily Mail, New York Times, Mediaite, Slantpoint, The Moderate Voice, Politico, Talking Points Memo, Tennessean.com and New Jersey News …

Niall Stanage / The Hill:

Ninety days until Iowa caucuses: Turmoil in the Republican race — With just 90 days left before the Iowa caucuses, the race for the Republican presidential nomination is wide open — and the party appears to be losing control of the process. — The last 48 hours have been characterized …

Janet Hook / Wall Street Journal:
Clinton's Explanations on Benghazi Attacks Winning Over Voters — WSJ/NBC Poll

Discussion: The Week

Patrick O'Connor / Wall Street Journal:
Ben Carson Vaults to Lead in Latest Journal/NBC Poll

Discussion: American Spectator, Fox News, Political Wire and Politico

Carrie Dann / NBC News:
Hillary Clinton Increases Her Lead Over Bernie Sanders

Discussion: Politico

Timothy Cama / The Hill:

TransCanada asks Obama to suspend review of Keystone XL pipeline — The company seeking to build the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline is asking the Obama administration to pause the process for reviewing its permit. — TransCanada Corp., which until recently repeatedly pressured President Obama …

Discussion: Reuters and Politico

Amy Harder / Wall Street Journal:
TransCanada Requests Suspension of U.S. Permit for Keystone XL Pipeline

Discussion: Vox, The Verge, The Week and The Moderate Voice

Gina Kolata / New York Times:

Death Rates Rising for Middle-Aged White Americans, Study Finds — Something startling is happening to middle-aged white Americans. Unlike every other age group, unlike every other racial and ethnic group, unlike their counterparts in other rich countries, death rates in this group have been rising, not falling.

Discussion: JustOneMinute

Paul Starr / American Prospect:
A Shocking Rise in White Death Rates in Midlife—and What It Says about American Society

Discussion: Tech Times, NPR and Guardian

NBC News:

Satellite Shows Heat Flash When Russian Metrojet Plane Crashed, But No Missile: U.S. Officials — While many have speculated that a missile may have struck a Russian commercial airliner that went down over Egypt's Sinai peninsula, U.S. officials are now saying satellite imagery doesn't back up that theory.

Discussion: Guardian, Al Jazeera English, Telegraph, Slantpoint and The Week

Ashley Feinberg / Gawker:

Jeb Bush Borrowed His New Slogan From England's Most Notorious Child Abuser — To most American voters (especially the younger ones), Jeb Bush's new slogan will mostly just sound uninspired, and slightly reminiscent of Bob the Builder. But for pretty much anyone even mildly aware …

Discussion: CANNONFIRE, Raw Story, Daily Kos and Balloon Juice

Ian M. Smith / The Hill:

Leaked DHS memo shows Obama might circumvent DAPA injunction — A newly leaked internal DHS memorandum produced for an off-the-record agency conclave reveals that the Obama administration is actively planning to circumvent a federal court injunction that suspended part of last November's deferral-based amnesty initiative.

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Algemeiner.com, RedState and Patterico's Pontifications

Daniel Larison / The American Conservative:

Bush's Lies About the Nuclear Deal — Jeb Bush delivered a speech today meant to relaunch his flagging campaign. Among other dubious foreign policy claims he made, this was the most remarkable for its dishonesty: … Bush's statement is just one falsehood after another.

Discussion: Progress Pond and Washington Post

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Jeb Bush's big speech: What he said, and what he meant

Discussion: Wired, Mother Jones, Hullabaloo and Slantpoint

Jay Greene / The Seattle Times:

Amazon opens first brick-and-mortar bookstore — at U Village — Two decades after it started selling books online, Amazon opens a shopping center storefront with books for sale on actual shelves. — Bookstore owners often think of Amazon.com as the enemy. — Now it's becoming one of them.

Discussion: The Week, Tech Times, New York Times and Washington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Alison Elkin / Bloomberg.com news:

Charles Koch Says He, Brother Largely Fail at Influence-Buying — “So far we're largely failures at it, as you can tell,” Republican mega-donor Charles Koch says in interview on MSNBC's “Morning Joe” when asked if he is buying political influence and if that is at odds with his desire to end so-called corporate welfare.

Discussion: Politico and Political Wire

Katie Pavlich / The Hill:

Breaking the glass ceiling is not just for liberal women — Last week the ladies of “The View” proved once again that they never left the “mean girl” stage of high school, even when it comes to discussing presidential politics. — GOP candidate Carly Fiorina “kicked off her thing saying …

Perry Chiaramonte / Fox News:

Dashcam video undermines Texas prof's claim of racial profiling, says chief — A Texas journalism professor's explosive charge that police hassled her for “walking while black,” a claim lodged in a guest column in the state's biggest newspaper, doesn't square with the videotape, according to the police chief.

Discussion: mrctv.org/videos, John Hawkins' Right Wing News and The Gateway Pundit

Mitch Smith / New York Times:

Illinois District Violated Transgender Student's Rights, U.S. Says — CHICAGO — Federal education authorities found on Monday that an Illinois school district had violated anti-discrimination laws when it did not allow a transgender student who identifies as a girl and participates in athletics …

Discussion: Hot Air and The American Conservative

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

White House rips Christie for saying Obama doesn't back police — The White House on Monday slammed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) for criticizing President Obama's record on criminal justice reform. — Press secretary Josh Earnest called Christie's claim that Obama does not support police …

Discussion: Asbury Park Press, PoliticusUSA, addictinginfo.org, Instapundit and Mediaite

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Franken gets serious about flipping Senate to Democrats — On a recent October afternoon, Democratic Sen. Al Franken mistakenly ambled toward the Mansfield Room, where the party in control — namely Republicans — meets weekly to hash out strategy. — “I keep thinking we're in the majority …

Discussion: NBC News

The Federalist:

FINALLY: Rachel Dolezal Just Admitted That She's White — Rachel Dolezal, the former professor and NAACP president who pretended for years to be black, finally admitted that she is actually a white person. — During an appearance on the daytime television show The Real …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and TMZ.com

Matt Volz / Associated Press:

Federal health officials approve Montana Medicaid waiver — HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana will become the 30th state to expand its Medicaid program after federal health officials on Monday approved provisions that include requiring beneficiaries to pay premiums that amount to 2 percent of their income.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos and ACASignups.net

Jake Sherman / Politico:

Hastert portrait vanishes from House — Something is missing from the U.S. Capitol: former Speaker Dennis Hastert's portrait. — All former speakers have a portrait hanging outside the House floor. But on Monday morning, as the House gaveled into session, Hastert's portrait was replaced with Frederick Gillett's.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Bloomberg Business

Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project:

U.S. Public Becoming Less Religious — Modest Drop in Overall Rates of Belief and Practice, but Religiously Affiliated Americans Are as Observant as Before — Is the American public becoming less religious? Yes, at least by some key measures of what it means to be a religious person.

Discussion: The Week and NPR