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One of the most gifted and ultimately tragic talents in NBA history has died. Former Dallas Mavericks big man Roy Tarpley, a terrific scorer and rebounder whose career was derailed by drug and alcohol abuse, died in a Dallas hospital Friday at 50 years old.

Twitter users have taken to the social media site to express their gratitude and support for the reportedly now dead Charlie Hebdo terrorists, brothers Chérif and Said Kouachi:

The president of the Discovery Channel is finally speaking out about their recent special Eaten Alive. The highly hyped network event was supposed to show Paul Rosalie, a noted naturalist, as he was consumed by a giant Anaconda, something that would be made possible by a special suit he was wearing. In the end the snake never did eat Rosalie, and now, Discovery president Rich Ross is admitting that the show was misleading.

Anjem Choudary @anjemchoudary People in Europe are rejecting Democracy (note the occupy phenomenon) Communism failed, Capitalism is dying, ISLAM is the future for mankind Twitchy’s new friend, radical London cleric Anjem Choudary, thinks he knows how to save humanity … Shari’ah law!

Hacker group Anonymous have released a video and a statement via Twitter condemning the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, in which 12 people, including eight journalists, were murdered. The video description says that it is "a message for al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and other terrorists", and was uploaded to the group's Belgian account. In the clip, a figure wearing the group's symbolic Guy Fawkes mask is seated in front of a desk with the hashtag #OpCharlieHebdo - which stands for Operation Charlie Hebdo - featured on screen. The figure, whose voice is obscured says: "We are declaring war against you, the...

A top Chamber of Commerce official and a veteran Republican campaign finance lawyer who co-founded a pro-amnesty super PAC are advising former Florida governor Jeb Bush ahead of a likely 2016 presidential run. According to a Washington Post report, “Rob Engstrom, senior vice president and national political director at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is providing assistance by taking a temporary leave from his post there to help Bush for several weeks.”

The Ministry of Defence has been forced to ask the US for help as it hunts for a suspected Russian submarine believed to be lurking off the coast of Scotland. Two U.S Navy aircraft were this week drafted in to carry out patrols in the North Atlantic in a bid to bridge the 'gaping chasm' in Britain's anti-submarine capability. It comes after the RAF's £4bn fleet of 'spy-in-the-sky' Nimrod surveillance aircraft was controversially scrapped in 2010, amid warning it would weaken Britain's defences.

The Republican National Committee has caved. Despite widespread criticism of the Ames Straw Poll, a first-in-the-nation contest in which Republican candidates vie for bragging rights associated with a victory, the GOP determined that the poll could go forward again in 2016. There were reservations. The Republican National Committee has been concerned about the straw poll’s increasing failure to reflect the ultimate preferences of Iowa’s Republican voters (which, for that matter, often fail to reflect the preferences of Republican voters nationally). In 2011, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) emerged from Ames victorious. In 2007, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney took the top...

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-01-09/bush-team-sets-bold-fundraising-goal-100-million-in-three-months

It’s Bubba to the rescue! NYPD union leaders think the rift between the rank and file and Mayor Bill de Blasio is so bad, it can only be healed by one man — ex-President Bill Clinton — and police brass are receptive to the idea, sources told The Post. The startling proposal, made during a meeting between Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and the NYPD’s five union chiefs on Wednesday, came as a shot cop got a hero’s send-off upon being released from the hospital.

For the second consecutive week, New York City police have virtually ceased writing tickets and arresting people for many nonviolent crimes, on the order of a 90 percent drop from a year earlier. After perceived slights by Mayor Bill de Blasio, civil protests against police brutality, and the murder of two officers by a deranged gunman, the New York Police Department is fighting back by not doing its job. Or rather, police appear to be using their resentment as an organizing incentive to skip certain non-essential cop duties. The police seem to be trying to teach a lesson to a...

Jameis Winston, winner of the 2013 Heisman Trophy, has opted to enter the NFL Draft. The Florida State quarterback’s father, Antonor, said his son will forgo his junior season and enter the NFL draft, according to ESPN. Antonor Winston said that his son had initially wanted to announce his plans until after the College Football Playoff National Championship game but, after praying Tuesday night, decided he would acknowledge his plans on Wednesday.

Mike Huckabee’s once-loyal conservative base may not be there for him in 2016 if he chooses to run again, and his complicated history with Common Core could prove to be the biggest reason why. A lot has changed since the former Arkansas governor last ran for president in 2008. Considered the conservative alternative to John McCain and Mitt Romney at the time, Huckabee enjoyed early success in the Republican primaries that year, winning the Iowa caucuses and a handful of primaries in his native South. He parlayed those victories into a popular weekly Fox News show, ensuring his continued public...

Two cops and 10 journalists were killed Wednesday when terrorists armed with guns and a rocket launcher stormed the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine famous for making fun of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed and Islamic leaders. The three shooters are still on the loose after they fled from the newsroom in Paris' 11th administrative district, about five miles from the Eiffel Tower.

Students here study math by calculating the benefits of government land takeovers. They practice English by reciting where late President Hugo Chavez was born and learn civics by explaining why the elderly should give him thanks. Pro-administration messages scattered through the pages of Venezuela's textbooks have become yet another point of conflict in this hyper-polarized country, where Chavez's socialist party won a bare majority in the presidential elections of 2013. Parents recently tossed books into the streets in front of some schools and burned them, acts the loyalist media compared to censorship by the Nazis in 1930s Germany. As children...

Tweeters are appalled at coverage from The Telegraph (U.K.) of today’s terror attack in Paris, and rightly so, for photos they’ve posted that blur or crop out images of the allegedly offensive Charlie Hebdo magazine covers:

Over the last year, Apple, Google and other big technology companies have faced mounting criticism by civil rights leaders about the lack of diversity in their work forces, which are populated mostly by white and Asian men. Now Intel, the giant chip maker, is taking more concrete steps to do something about it.

French media outlet Metronews reports that there's been a car explosion in front of a synagogue in Sarcelles, a city near Paris where two were two gunmen attacked the office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo just hours earlier. It is not clear whether the two events are connected. The Paris version of Metro reports that this event was an incident unrelated with the attack at the magazine.

If you took the over on 19 votes, you won! There were 25 defectors on the Speaker, a number tantalizingly close to the 29 they needed. But then, that makes sense:

In the January issue of The Atlantic, retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales slammed the United States Army’s M-4 carbine, and called for an entirely new weapon in the hands of the modern American soldier. Scales describes the 2008 Battle of Wanat—when the Taliban attacked a forward outpost defended by American troops—and his own experiences in Vietnam with faulty M-16 rifles.